1. Summary

2. Background

3. Release

4. Reception

5. Accolades

6. References

Our Lady of the Inferno is a novel by horror journalist and author Preston Fassel and the first officially licensed novel published by Fangoria magazine under their Fangoria Presents imprint. It was originally published by Fear Front, an independent press, in 2016, and was only briefly in print before the company closed in early 2017. In May 2018, Fangoria magazine announced that it had acquired the book and would be printing it as "Fangoria Presents #1," the inaugural entry in an imprint of branded horror novels.^[1] It received a generally positive reception, with Bloody Disgusting naming the Fangoria reissue one of the 10 best horror books of 2018.^[2] Reviews tended to praise its complex treatment of female characters within the horror genre, particularly its female villain, Nicolette Aster, who received favorable comparisons to Patrick Bateman. Reviews also tended to focus positively on the book's attention to period detail, especially in evoking the 42nd Street vice district of the early 1980s.

A film adaptation is in development as of February 2018.

Summary

The book takes place over the course of nine days in the Spring of 1983 and alternates between the viewpoints of two characters: The first, Ginny Kurva, is a twenty-one year old, alcoholic prostitute working Times Square in order to care for her paraplegic younger sister, Tricia. The second, Nicolette Aster, is a middle-aged waste management executive at Fresh Kills Landfill who moonlights as a cannibalistic serial killer, and who has begun stalking Ginny. As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Ginny—revealed to be a polymath and skilled martial artist—is far more dangerous than she initially appears, and that she poses just as much a threat to Nicolette as the killer does to her.

Background

Our Lady of the Inferno is Fassel's first novel; it began life in 2007 as a book about the employees of a Times Square grindhouse in the 1970s that he stopped working on after six years because "it was really terrible" and, despite being 250,000 words, "nothing had happened in it yet."^[3] He then began developing the Nicolette character, but couldn't come up with an idea for a final girl to serve as her foil; he credits the invention of Ginny to a meeting with the Soska Sisters during his time writing for Rue Morgue magazine, during which Jen Soska told him that her favorite swear word is "kurva," meaning "whore." The idea of a woman whose last name was "Kurva" served as the impetus for creating the Ginny character.^[4]

Fassel wrote the book over the course of six months in 2014 while working full-time as an optician in Houston, Texas, writing for two hours every night after coming home from work.^[5] Although he used certain ideas, settings, and research he'd conducted for "the theater story," he wrote Our Lady in homage to 1980s horror movies as opposed to grindhouse films, drawing particular influence from Night of the Comet,^[6] and said he wanted the book to evoke the feeling of renting a movie on Friday night as a teenager.^[7] He compared the clash between Ginny and Nicolette to the dichotomy between the optimism of 1980s cinema and the nihilism of grindhouse movies,^[8] and also said that it was his intent to create iconic female characters for female horror fans to embrace.^[9]

Release

The book was originally published by Fear Front, an independent press, in December 2016. It was only in print for a period of months and, per Fassel, sold "like twenty copies" before the company went out of business;^[10] in the interim, the book came to the attention of Cinestate, the new parent company of Fangoria, who acquired the publishing and film rights. In May 2018, it was announced that Fangoria would be reissuing the book in September 2018, and that a film adaptation is in development.^[11][12]

Reception

The book has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, particularly for its treatment of female characters, its attention to historical detail as regards 1980s era 42nd street, and its portrayal of a female villain.

Former Fangoria writer Amy Seidman, writing for the website Fear Forever, similarly praised the book and its approach to its female characters, saying "Fassel has created some really well-developed and interesting female characters who aren’t following in the usual steps of women in horror films―especially when compared to the 1980’s, when misogyny was at its peak. He’s a master at crafting and painting a scene so thoroughly that it leapt off the pages." Seidman further favorably compared Nicolette to a "female Patrick Bateman" and praised the book's vivid descriptions of settings around 42nd Street.^[15] Jennifer Bonges, writing for pophorror.com, similarly praised the book's setting and Nicolette's characterization, calling her "one of the most disturbing villains ever".^[16] Rue Morgue magazine's Monica S. Kuebler also gave the book a positive review, saying "...the final showdown is a fitting knockdown, drag-out battle between two of the toughest broads in the Big Apple. If you've ever felt the '80s needed more chicks that kicked ass, Inferno has them in spades."^[17] Cemetery Dance praised the book's period detail while also expressing surprise that, in contrast to simply being a standard slasher, it was instead "a delicious piece of grindhouse literature stocked with strong characters, a vivid sense of place, and real, raw emotion."^[18]

The book received similar praise from outside the horror realm, with Summer of 42 author Herman Raucher saying "Fassel's writing, quite simply, is spectacular... like a fiery lighthouse beam pinning me to the page."^[21] Australian novelist Isobel Blackthorn likewise praised the book, saying ""Written with grace, restraint and poise, the prose is evocative, at times almost poetic; edgy when it needs to be, sometimes suggestive...And when the horror does take place, its detail is measured and carefully crafted." ^[22]

Other reviews were more mixed. The Daily Grindhouse called it a "very good first novel" and praised the characterization of Ginny and Tricia's relationship, but called the book "fifty pages too long" and Ginny's dialogue "overwhelming," and questioned whether the story could have been more effective if Nicolette were a more sympathetic character.^[23] Katie Rife, writing for The A.V. Club, similarly praised the book's characterization and slow burn approach while also criticizing the novel's stylized dialogue.^[24] Leigh Monson, writing for birth.movies.death, called the book "an enjoyable read, dripping in 1980s nostalgia" and "a great character study," with particular praise for the book's treatment of Ginny, but questioned whether she and Nicolette's stories should have been the focus of their own separate novels.^[25]

Accolades

References

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