What they're saying about my STOKER-NOMINATED novel PHANTOM FEAST:

...what should I write about first, the author or the story? I can sum both up in one word:

Brilliant.

As the person behind the writing, Diana’s worn a coat of many colors, is the white and dark meat of a Thanksgiving feast of creativity, talent, and imagination. By no means has she gone as far as she’d like in the field of literature, but she’s on her way like a rocketship from a sling shot at the speed of light towards that destination, having already made a name for herself and climbing that horror literature ladder. Her background has all the makings of a stellar author in the field, her life experience fertile ground for creating the same sort of story-weaving magic and energy as she’d put into, say, clothing design, for which she’d once owned an exclusive boutique and factory, or her magnificent art and illustrations. Her efforts have made her a personality and a voice worthy of paying strict attention to.

So let’s get on with the business at hand, Phantom Feast.

“It’s a jungle out there” is a cliché often attached to large cities, or when one is about to sojourn into one, but in the small town of Hester in the state of New York, on one particular darkly psychedelic day, all one had to do was step out of his house, and it literally was a jungle, like a wormhole into darkest Africa, and he could get swallowed by an awaiting python. In this book, likely, he will.

The jungle reality is unleashed through a dark magic of sorts surrounding a woman whose weight increases at a rapid rate who killed her parents and inherited their house that shares its property with a haunted circus wagon in the backyard that’s turned into somewhat of a guest house. It’s really a house haunted by the spirits of turn-of-the-century poorly-treated circus animals who died in a long-ago fire, and they come to life again through their framed paintings exhibited on the walls inside the house.

The more the animals in the paintings come to life, the more capable they become of bringing their painted environments out into the world of the living with them, until the entire town becomes a very deadly surreal jungle. As it turns out, it’s not merely the animals ghosts which are to blame for their escapades, but the dark will of Erin, the girl who killed her parents who’s gained so much weight she can’t move, who dreams herself a lioness and becomes so much at one with the animal spirits she joins them in spirit as a lioness and becomes capable of prowling about with a pride from one of the paintings and killing people throughout the town when the paintings come to life.

What’s more, Diana involves the characters of three dwarves, who separately come together to reside under Erin’s wing, who take care of her and live nice and comfy lives as roommates in her home. Mickey and Isolde become a touching romantic sub-plot, and they as well as the cavalcade of minor characters shine vividly and blend well with the driving story which, as you could hopefully tell in this review, is refreshingly original and reads like the work of a writer who expertly crafts us stories that don’t sound like a reinvention of something else, for a change.

Downwarden.com - Nick Reads and Reviews - Nick Grabowski

 

It's very rare when a book that's received positive word-of-mouth lives up to the praise. Diana Barron's first novel, however, meets and exceeds expectations.

The first thing that I immediately like about this book is that none of the cast are cookie-cutter characters. For example, Erin is a grossly overweight phone sex operator who has gotten so fat that she can't leave the house. Attending to her needs are a crew of dwarfs. Mickey is her right hand man. Isolde, Mickey's girlfriend, does all the cooking. Beau handles the dirty work. Then there are the twins, Patrick and Sarah who live in a circus wagon behind Erin's house.

The 2nd thing I like about this book is the premise: the ghosts of circus animals who died in a fire aren't content to rest in peace. Innumerable authors have tackled the subject of human ghosts, yet the spirits of deceased animals is a fresh concept. The animals come to life through paintings done by Sarah. The way Barron describes the paintings as they hang on the walls of the circus wagon as well as the way they change from time to time as the animals held within grow restless reminds me of Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Veldt." This is not to say that there is any borrowing of themes here as the scenarios are vastly different although equally as intriguing.

In addition to the substance of the novel, it's immediately evident from reading this book that Diana Barron is no novice. Her writing is sharp and concise yet elegant and poetic when the situation calls for it. The action was suspenseful in all the right places, and the narrative flowed at a steady pace. She also realizes the strength in her own premise as she doesn't use just lions and pythons and bears as the sole dangers for her cast of characters. She also uses bees, hippos, hyenas, monkeys, and other animals that normally wouldn't be considered deadly to reinforce the threat that the larger predators present. In other words, you never really know what's coming until it jumps out of nowhere.

All in all it isn't hard to see why there is such a buzz about this novel. Definitely pick this one up. Be advised though - this probably isn't the kind of book you would want to read before a trip to the zoo.

Jason Brannon, SPECFICWORLD.COM reviewer

 

First novels are difficult to pull off...I know, I'm knee-deep in my own...mostly because we can see the big picture of the story, but the fit of the individual pieces is not as clear-cut. 

I'm happy to report that Diana Barron's first novel, though hampered a bit by rough spots, manages a difficult trick: PHANTOM FEAST is an imaginative blend of horror, adventure, and magic realism, and the author's enthusiasm is in large part responsible for pulling the reader into its slightly skewed world.

The key to this fairly straightforward plot is Erin, a woman whose past has shaped her into what she is today...a grotesquely fat mother-hen; Snow not-so-White to a houseful of little people both related and not related to her.  How she got this way is best left to the book, but suffice to say, there are dark secrets waiting to be spilled.

Having provided a safe haven for a menagerie of little people whose own lives need rescuing, plus her reclusive set of twin siblings, Erin has also discovered that what she can't have in this world is available to her in another.  An unexplained phenomenon has given a circus wagon the power to bring paintings to life, and a set of these paintings features African animals roaming the veldt and savannah...until the animals start to step out of the paintings and into our world.

Erin, Mickey and Isolde, Beau and the twins, all have different reasons for allowing the events to escalate -- and each has a different response to those events.

Before long, the world of tranquil Hester, New York, is overlaid with a rougher world, one in which danger lurks behind every tree.

A select group of citizens from Hester tells the story, their point of view keeping the reader informed as to what's happened to the lovely little town.  Suddenly no horror is too farfetched, as the good guys -- cops, bikers, regular folks, and a dog -- learn the hard way.

Their quest to return to their own world, and return the city to their world, makes up the bulk of the novel.

The author lends the narrative a pleasant, oral storytelling quality.  Diana Barron's small town and its citizens are well imagined and depicted, if a bit one-sided (especially when about to be eaten, stomped, squished, or otherwise destroyed by herds of wild animals bent on revenge) and simplistic.

Some rough spots include rather cinematic and overly enthusiastic ends for innocent people caught up in this orgy of animalistic violence, as well as spotty editing and proofing (not the author's fault!).

But the resulting novel will keep you reading thanks to the enthusiasm of the story's telling, and the vivid imagination which makes cannibalism and other less than desirable practices fun and light hearted.

Barron is an author to watch if Phantom Feast is any indication.

CEMETERY DANCE Magazine Book Review, by William D. Gagliani

 

PHANTOM FEAST is a gruesome and original tale.  Diana Barron glorifies in horrible, grizzily details.  If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be crushed to death by a boa constrictor, trampled by rampaging elephants, or eaten alive by lions and tigers, look no further.  Barron brings all these things and more to horrible life.  Literally.

In her novel, PHANTOM FEAST, Barron tells the story of the small town of Hester, which is overtaken by spirits.  Though these are no mere garden variety of ghost.  They are like nothing you have ever seen before.  A number of circus animals have burned to death in a fire nearly a century before, and it is their souls that haunt the town, and seek vengeance on its inhabitants.  This is a most original spin on the ghostly tale, as that most stories in that sub-genre focus on human hauntings, not animal.  Rounding out her novel with a carnival of characters that includes a fat lady, midgets and dwarfs, motorcycle hoodlums, and police officers who struggle to come to terms with the madness that overtakes them, PHANTOM FEAST is noting if not unique.

That is not to say, however, that it does not have its flaws.  Barron has such a large cast of characters, and introduces so many of them throughout the course of the novel, half only to be killed off pages later, that I had a little bit of difficulty identifying who the true protagonists were.  Though this added to the sense of dread that anything could happen to any one of them at any time, it also made it a little difficult to get into. 

One of the dwarves, Mickey, and his girlfriend Isolde, prove to be central characters later on in the story, and I was able to settle into their lives and hopes and dreams eventually, but there were so many secondary characters swirling around them, I wasn't entirely sure who I was supposed to be rooting for.  A few minor characters seem to step up into a larger role toward the end, particularly the police officer Jesse, who gains our sympathy because his wife and unborn baby are horribly killed.

Diana Barron does well to provide an exciting escalation of the terror as she builds toward the climax, but I found the ending to be a little bit ambiguous and disappointing.  One of the characters is able to figure out what is going on and solve the puzzle, even though it is not evident just how he was able to so easily come up with the right answers.  I had to wonder if they were given to him by the mystical hand of the storyteller.  For my money, I also wanted a more concrete conclusion.  The novel seems to have a such great potential, that I felt a little dissatisfied that it did not end with a bigger bang.

Those few things aside, however, PHANTOM FEAST is a great first novel.

It is rare to find something as unique and original as this.  One of the most difficult aspects of being a writer of horror fiction is coming up with ideas and concepts that have not been done before.  Diana Barron has succeeded in the hard part.  Despite the fact that there are so many of them, Barron also excels at her characterization.  Each one truly seemed to live and breathe.  Even the ones that do not last very long are given the same depth and loving attention as the others.  This, again, is an aspect that many writers struggle to accomplish, with variable success.  and there is no doubt that Barron also knows how to horrify.  Just look at any of the death scenes for an example. 

Each one is positively gruesome, with plenty of blood and guts everywhere.  Perhaps PHANTOM FEAST could have used a bit of fine tuning, but the ahard parts are accomplished with grace and ease, and well make up for the weaker moments.  I have no doubt that Diana Barron with go on to have much success and a long career in this genre.  Despite its few flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and look forward to her next one.  For originality and attention to all the horrible little gruesome details, I give PHANTOM FEAST three bookwyrms.

Christopher Treagus, FEOAMANTE.COM

 

The most effective and well-written novels introduce us to new people…not characters, but rather folks that walk up, shake your hand and smile, or scare the shit out of you. Either way, Diana Barron does this ridiculously well in her first novel, Phantom Feast. This is a supernatural tale of first order as Barron blends psychological edges with more than a few bucketfuls of gore.

A small New York town is the setting, although that's not quite right as along the way we're transported into realms that don't really fit on a glove compartment map. You'd have a hard time plotting the coordinates on a regular map when you're talking about a haunted circus wagon, a psychopathic dwarf, and a town turning into primeval forest.

Although after saying the people are the heart of the novel, this cast may sound a bit off-the-edge when I say we meet dwarves, midgets, motorcycle gang members, a heavy…really heavy shapeshifter that makes a living as a phone sex goddess. Don't let the eccentricities fool you, they're all fully realized and live with you for a while after you've put the book down.

This one's really hard to synopsize and I wouldn't do it justice even if I gave it a go. Just know it made the final Bram Stoker ballot and that wasn't a surprise. The surprise would be if we didn't see Diana Barron's work there again.

Review by Valarie Thorpe at ReallyScary.com