I have to state before I begin that I have recently developed an aversion to obsessions with all things dark. This happened in July when some paranormal investigators came down my driveway with the intention of broadcasting some kind of séance from the room where my much beloved Dad died. This caused me to have a heart attack. A literal heart attack. 18 days in hospital, stent fitting, the works. I came to view paranormal investigators, and those with an interest in the occult generally, as really quite immature.

While I was in hospital, Ozzy Osbourne, known as the Pince of Darkness, died. This led to me watching some episodes of Jack Osbourne’s podcast. He asked the question which David Tocher seems to ask at the end of his short novel Spider Seeds: can encountering the dark lead you to the light? Jack Osbourne postulated that having unnerving supernatural experiences might in essence lead to faith in God. The ending of Spider Seeds has an equally unexpected point for the reader.

I suppose I went into reading the novel not sure what to expect. If you’re a crashing literature snob, it would be easy to associate horror writing as ‘non literary’ although Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare and the  Brontës all did it very well. It’s easy to think it’s all about blood and gore and things that go bump in the night, or cat eating spiders as in the case of Tocher’s novel. I think afficionados of the genre would be disappointed not to have those things, but like every other type of story, charcterisation and plot are what reel in the reader. Tocher’s protagonist, Madison Perth, is relatable although she is reclusive. The victim of a cruel prank, she eventually becomes isolated but is put in a posiiton where she must trust others, even though they have a bit of an unnerving story.

If you hear shades of Little Shop of Horrors, there definitely are some but the plants in question are defintiely not Audrey 2! And Madison is no Seymour.

It’s hard to discuss the plot without creating spoilers, but I will say that if, like myself, you are not usually a horror reader, this 124 page novel is very accessible. The ending is completely unpredicatable. Check it out on Goodreads.