One of my Christmas scores was a signed, sold-out limited edition of W.H. Chizmar’s (son of Richard) debut novel, Them. Not a story about 1950s Atomic-era giant ants, but in the neighborhood. Not an evil ghost-witch concept album by King Diamond. It initially felt like The Last of Us and A Quiet Place post apocalypse story which about-faces its dramatic and occasionally amusing and sentimental quest for survival into a bombastic War of the Worlds epic. Existentialism is under fire between human and our alien usurpers Chizmar calls “Scorpions,” with a long unnamed protagonist leading us through turf where you sometimes question which side you are rooting for.

Billy Chizmar has written a first-time novel that sucks your oxygen from his detailed, tumbling prose that rings of a long-standing pro writer. Them is so damn good you won’t believe this is a relatively new voice to horror fiction. In the couple of short interactions I’ve had with Billy, I found his confident smile and glowing support of his dad in the public to be indicative of a writer who already knows his future. After reading Them and Billy’s novella, Mr. Purple, this dude has the chops. Welcome to the fold, young man.

–Ray Van Horn, Jr.