5 Day Festival, a vampire novella by Simon E Bond, is a story that centres around a group of youngsters at a rock festival. Now I've been to Glastonbury, Knebworth and other places. My concerns were things like 'What if the M5 is shut' or 'will we even be able to see anything from where we stand?' You know...things like that.
This horror story has made me rethink my next trip to Glastonbury! Vampires on the prowl and music do not make for a good mix, unless you are the vampires in question.
What makes 5 Day Festival work so well is its very strong narrative. Some of the dialogue has swearing in it - perhaps understandably given the context, but after a while I felt it took away from the undeniably strong storyline which I totally enjoyed.
The ending with Vernard is satisfyingly brutal, but in a good way.
As the patrons start to end up dead - or undead, our core group of characters have survival on their minds, but surviving the fanged ones won't be easy, and to be fair, I didn't know if they would. Novellas tend to spring surprises and 5 Day Festival was choc full of them.
I also enjoyed the fact that this is set in England and I would read more stories of this ilk from the author.
"Vampires - we have to get out of here," he replied
"How many drugs have you been taking today? Too many, by the sound of it," said Doug.
Oh Doug, you really do need to look up from your bowl of sushi sometimes! Vampires on stage...surveying how many people they could kill, is a scene that is terrifyingly executed.
Simon E Bond is an author to watch. His other work, Weekend At Stanley's looks suitably clever and smacks of Inside No9 / The League of Gentlemen for its wicked macabre yet comic delivery.
Recommended.
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