So I was sent The Final Gate by Wesley Southard and Lucas Mangum. Rather than reading the book and reviewing it after, I decided to post consistent updates of my review as I read the book. Enjoy! And always support indie authors!

Also, spoiler alerts will be here. Before reading this review, make sure you buy The Final Gate before reading my take, especially if you want to read an occult horror book.

Seas of Darkness, Gates to Hell – Page 32

My boyfriend and I have been busy for the past couple of days. We were preparing to stay overnight at a chalet, so I didn’t read as much as I wanted. But I got a little reading time in before we left.

The book starts with “Seas of Darkness, Gates to Hell” which is an ode to iconic Italian director Lucio Fulci. Southard and Mangum highlight Fulci’s best films and his overall status as the Godfather of Gore.

It’s crazy watching a movie versus reading a book. It could be me, but gory scenes are more intense when reading them versus watching them. Sure, I remember the eye impalement scene in Zombi, the woman’s face melted by acid in The Beyond, the brutal beating in Don’t Torture a Duckling, and so on. But reading these scenes in the detail that Southard and Mangum conveyed sent shivers down my spine. And it’s also making me want to watch some Fulci films.

The classic Italian horror films are some of my favorites, and Fulci is arguably one of the best directors. Both his giallo and crazy gore films are genius. That’s why I’m excited to see Southard and Mangum are taking a Fulci-inspired route to writing horror. While the introductory is an essential read, it’s still pretty brief. I usually get bored of introductory parts like this one, but reading this made me even more excited about what was to come.

Now let’s get to the actual story — The Final Gate. Southard and Mangum cut right to the chase, describing a terrifying scene of zombies invading a foster home. I can definitely see some of these zombies in a Fulci film. Sallow skin, covered in blood, vomiting up goo. Ah, you gotta love horror.

But this section is more than blood, guts, and scares. You see a glimpse of some of the kids in this foster home, reading about the heartbreaking reality of living without parents. The first character we meet is Bryce, one of the boys living in the foster home. He is first telling us about his friend Jake who was adopted. While all kids in this situation want to be adopted, Bryce saw Jake as his brother and his adoption hurt him. We will meet Bryce’s real brother shortly in the book, though.

This is a smart move as a writer, introducing enough about a character to where you know about them but Southard and Mangum don’t go into too much detail. Only enough to where we feel bad when the characters actually die. Especially someone as young as Bryce. Like I said, spoiler alerts. You also have to think of this scene from Bryce’s perspective. He’s a young kid, pretty much alone in this world. And now he’s forced to fight for his life. Pretty sad.

Next we meet Robert. He’s the handyman for the foster home, but we discover he grew up in a foster home, too. Otherwise, Robert is still a bit of a mystery. Nonetheless, the reader quickly sympathizes with Robert, but it doesn’t take long to put the pieces together on why he’s there and what will come next. While he’s outside, he hears Bryce screaming, and makes his way inside the house.

Southard and Mangum shift to the perspectives from a child to an adult effortlessly. When reading from Bryce’s POV, we see this scenario played out from the eyes of a scared little boy crying for his mommy. I was wondering if what was going on was even real or from the imagination of a little boy. But with Robert, it was all too real. While Southard and Mangum use the perfect amount of detail to convey Robert’s feelings, he’s still brave enough to enter the home and attempt to rescue as many people as he can. Robert puts on a brave face, since he loves the kids and knows what it’s like to be one of them. And any adult with a big enough heart would do the same. Unfortunately, Robert dies, too, and isn’t able to save anyone.

Next we meet Brandon and his girlfriend Jillian. Brandon is an ex-con who discovers his brother, Bryce, was recently adopted. We first meet him as he’s drinking. Even though he’s a recovering alcoholic, he’s upset that he can’t be the one to care for his brother (his past prison history is the reason why). His girlfriend, Jillian, is a soft and caring person. You can’t help but wonder why she’s with him. I have a feeling we’ll be learning more about the two of them as we go farther into the book.

Jillian suggests calling her ex, who’s a private detective. He’s a very unprofessional, surfer-type douche who clearly still has the hots for Jillian.

At this point, I’m thinking I put the pieces together. Bryce’s friend Jake was adopted, and turned into a zombie. Now that Bryce is adopted, he dies. To me, it seems like something sketchy is happening at this foster home.

This is where I left off, so I will update this when I get a chance to read! I will try and do some more reading in the next couple of days.

Page 32 – Page 78

Now, I’m starting to meet more characters. We get to know the private investigator, Dan, a little better. We meet other workers at the foster home, such as Kurt. And we meet two more kids: Donnie and Annie. We also meet Annie’s family.

Characterization is not an easy tactic for writers, but Southard and Mangum identify all key characters flawlessly. Brandon, the recovering alcoholic who’s trying to better his life for the sake of his brother. His girlfriend, Jillian, who has a heart of gold. Dan, the douchebag PI. Kurt, the asshole who manages the foster home. Donnie, the poor boy bullied for his IBS. And Annie, the little girl who comes from a broken home, yet is way too smart for her age.

Dan poses as an agent from child services to go through files at the foster home, looking for Bryce’s file. What he finds is weird — a Necronomicon-like book that starts making Dan go crazy. Hmm, that’s not sketchy at all.

It’s around this time that we yet again see the complexity of Brandon’s character. He’s determined to discover what’s going on with his brother. He broke the law before, and he will break the law again to find that information. But he struggles with a battle within himself. How will he tell Jillian? He doesn’t want to lie to her. This shows that even though he went through a few rough patches in life, that he’s a good person.

We also learn more about Kurt. Annie’s grandparents visit the foster home, and he’s a total dick to them about wanting to adopt Annie. This is a very skilled tactic: at first, you feel bad for the grandparents and assume that Annie will be better off with family. Then you learn about the crap that Annie endured at the hands of her father, you start to think differently. That and her grandparents pretty much enable her druggie dad, so her grandparents probably have a few screws unloose, too.

While all of these details seem like fluff, they give us a better-rounded view of the characters. Annie has some smarts to her to understand that she comes from a bad family. And her smarts will benefit her when she discovers her friend also disappears.

I’m interested to see how Donnie turns up in this story. Because of his IBS, he’s often bullied. I can tell his character is very sensitive. I was bullied when I was a kid and I understand how it affects your mental state. But I have a feeling he’s going to be the brave one.

While there isn’t much spookiness in this part of the book, there are some good scenes. The foster home staff only gets sketchier. Brandon’s experience at the foster home is surely nightmarish. Some over-hanging mysteries leave us reading , such as Annie discovering her friend’s burned toy. It was difficult for me to put down the book and update this review. But overall, we’re learning about these characters and how they all interact with this gruesome story.

Page 78 – Page 125

Now, this is where things start getting good! Donnie goes into the basement (where the children are forbidden to enter), Annie’s family follows through with their plan, and Brandon also follows through with his plan. Things get delightfully creepy and gory. These guys definitely don’t skimp on the details. Chewing on a thumb until it turns into pink mush, for example? Some of these scenes were enough to make me want to gag.

Not only that, but their deaths are all very unique. Getting eaten alive by a pig and a sheep, for example? Ew. You can only get eaten by zombies so many times before the death scenes become redundant, but Southard and Mangum definitely inject plenty of creativity in this book while still keeping up the gore.

With all of the deaths that have been occurring, it seems like no character in this book is safe. A part of you feels bad, but then again, this is horror.

Even with the gory details, Southard and Mangum still add many details that make their individual characters come to life. For example, Donnie pranks the bullies by mixing pig poop in with their granola. Before their plan, we see how much of an asshole Edgar really is when he hits his mom. As much as I love violence and gore in horror, a good horror story has to have a good STORY, with complex characters and an engaging plot. Southard and Mangum definitely pull this off.

We also start to make a little sense of everything, such as the Satanic stuff going on in the foster home. While there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered (what do the foster home workers have to do with this? What exactly do people turn into after they’re killed? Who exactly is the man in the basement?), things in the story make a little more sense.

This is especially true when Jillian drives to the foster home when Brandon doesn’t return. She meets an old Italian man named Claudio. He just so happens to be wearing a Necrophagia shirt, and I can’t help but appreciate the reference. He explains the gates to Hell, and how the foster home is one of them. Things are coming together, but Southard and Mangum haven’t fully answered my questions yet.

There are some areas that confused me. For example, why was the foster home left unlocked at night? Seems a little too convenient for Kay. And why were there animals in the house? Maybe we’ll find out later, but that scene also made me scratch my head.

Overall, the foster home is definitely a hellhole that will apparently take everyone with it. I plan on finishing the book in the next day or so. My final update will be my full review.

Page 125 – La Fine (The End)

Man, what a trip this book was. We finally figure out who’s at the bottom of the Satanic crap happening at the foster home. Even though I explained there are spoiler alerts, I don’t want to give too much of the ending away, so I’ll keep this as brief as possible.

Plenty of action, creepy stuff, and endless amounts of gore stained these pages like blood. One aspect I love about Southard and Mangum is how vivid their gory descriptions are. They go down to the mere details of even bone and muscle, giving the reader a grisly image in their head. All of this violence and chaos was everything I expected and more.

The heroes here were very unlikely: Jillian, Claudio, Annie, and Kurt (that one really shocked me). As a writer, I can appreciate all of these surprises. You never want books to be too predictable.

We especially see how much of a badass Jillian is and how grown-up Annie is for her age. Even then, Southard and Mangum never sacrifice their personalities — Jillian is still a sweetheart and Annie is still a stubborn little child. But these two worked together beautifully to save the world. And with all of the crap that Annie went through in her life, you can’t help but feel happy that she found an adult who truly cares.

My only complaint is the dog. While the dog, Smoke, comes back in the best way possible, I hate how the dog ran away and the humans ditched him. I’m one of the stereotypical horror fans where I could care less if humans die but my day is ruined if an animal dies.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to all horror fans: splatterpunk crazies, Italian horror aficionadoes, the zombie-obsessed, and anyone who loves the gory side of horror. While there’s plenty of gross stuff in here, the story is what really hooks you in. Southard and Mangum did an amazing job at taking us into this depraved world and you can definitely see all of the Fulci influences. The gore was intense and there were plenty of eye-gouging scenes here, too. Definitely support indie authors and indie horror!