I’ve read enough indie horror that when I see a new book from Ghoulish Press with a cover by Betty Rocksteady, I know its gonna be good. Familiar by Jeremy C. Shipp did not disappoint!
Two sisters hunt down killers and collect body parts, all the while complicating their lives with volatile magics, bizarre visions, and a mysterious mouth in the wall that may or may not be altogether trustworthy.
Familiar by Jeremy C. Shipp is what would have happened if David Cronenberg wrote Sense and Sensibility instead of Jane Austen. Its Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman if Hoffman did acid and knew magic was much messier and more brutal than roses and margaritas.
I loved this story so much. The way it caused my mind to call back to old school magic practices and folklore that used hands of glory and pants made of skin was better than any fairy tale retelling. The peek into the sisters’ lives felt vulnerable and messy and, because of that, real. The grit of the story, the inability to explain it all from their perspective, made the most out of this world strangeness almost plausible. I loved it.
Then there was the body horror and the “good for her” revenge porn vibes of it. Both can easily come off as hokey and half-baked in horror but Shipp does a masterful job at both. The descriptions felt warm and wet and uncomfortable but I was unable to look away. The men who were partially devoured and fucked up deserved it in this strange morality play. It was like seeing bad guys in every woman’s sexual harassments story and in every pseudo-snuff film get their comeuppance and that is always satisfying.
Lastly, the color. I don’t really know how to explain this. I’m a visual reader. When I read, I barely register the words on paper. What happens somewhere in my brain is those symbols are transmuted into images and books become dreamscape movies. Familiar was an excellent book for this style of reading and processing. Something about Shipp’s descriptions made each scene feel like it was in technicolor but also with a wash of bisexual rave lighting. It was like watching Mandy with Nic Cage – strobes of pink and purple with Giallo reds and blue and yellow. Magical stuff.
My one and only complaint about Familiar? I want more. I want to know what happens next. I want to chew my way into the lives of these sisters and Gordon and be the very hungry spider on the wall, devouring scenes of their strange lives until I am gorged and pop. Familiar was so good and I can’t find anything else like to to slake the thirst for body horror magic it created.
