Title: Necronado

Author: RJ Roles

Release date: February 16th, 2024

Since I first really began my writing journey, RJ has been a constant companion. When we connected, he has always been nothing but kind and supportive and throughout this time, its been great to see his own journey from reader, to drabbler to short story writer to long fiction. His devotion to horror is well known, as the creator of the Books of Horror Facebook page and one of the current Admins and he’s even formed a small press and released a number of anthologies. Safe to say, RJ loves horror and whenever you read any of this stories, that love shines on every page.

When he announced his newest novel, ‘Necronado,’ I was stoked. Hot on the heels of reading Chris Sorensen’s ‘Bee Tornado,’ I was excited to see what type of crazy 80’s pulp Roles was going to deliver. Would we get a tornado of dead folks whipping through the town? Would we get demon wind? What would it be? Who would survive?

I dove in smiling as wide as a loon.

What I liked: The story takes place in a small town, something Roles always has a mastery of. Every character and place he sets his stories in feels alive, as though we’re walking with him through the dusty streets and saying hello to every neighbor. In this case, a goofy guy decides he wants to see what happens when a specific ritual is completed. So, him and his girlfriend head to the cemetery where they complete it and, as is ALWAYS the friggin’ case – all hell breaks loose.

From there, we arrive at a writer struggling to meet a deadline, with a wife and son. Unbeknownst to him, his wife has been sleeping with the guy who cuts the lawn. After a storm whips through, the secrets are revealed and he takes off. RJ sets things up really nicely, in preparation to knock everything back down. That storm brings with it the undead. And from that point on we get a really solid zombie novel, filled with plenty of gore, shredded skin and survival at all cost. The characters that RJ introduced us too are so well formed that you root for all of them, even that asshole neighbor that you initially want to see chomped.

Throughout, RJ weaves a well-created tale of characters banding together, the undead marching along without any thought but ‘kill,’ and it all leads to the finale where, like a match struck in the dark, Roles unleashes bloody chaos. It was a fitting ending and one that really closed off this cinematic narrative.

What I didn’t like: The epilogue. 100%. While I really enjoyed everything up to that point, even the volume of characters introduced, I felt everything that made this book feel like a familiar zombie movie you might’ve watched and loved fifty or twenty years ago was undone by the epilogue. I won’t say anything else about it, as I don’t want to spoil it, but it just didn’t work for me.

Why you should buy this: If you ever used to have a spinning magazine rack of books where you grew up, this book would be sitting on that rack and you would NEED to buy it because of that phenomenal cover. Then you’d read it and think ‘HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AMAZING!’ and tell all your buddies at school the next day. This novel is a true throwback to the 80’s horror that we all read or watched as kids. Roles nailed every aspect of this one and I think readers are gonna be raving about this one for years.

4/5