‘Jake’s Wake’ – John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow

Back in August, Leisure Fiction sent me an email about this new book by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow called ‘Jake’s Wake’. Not only did the blurb sound right up my street but someone had also produced a short video ‘trailer’ that whetted my appetite still further. A link can be found in the post I made Here.
There have been so many good books to read just recently (and some not so good ones...) that I completely forgot about ‘Jake’s Wake’ until it came through the door a couple of days ago. It won’t be in the shops until January next year but I’ve got this Halloween thing going on so I thought I’d give it a go now. I have to say that I’m very glad I did, ‘Jake’s Wake’ could well be my ‘horror read of the year’...

Pastor Jake uses his status as a small town televangelist to pretty much do whatever (and whoever) he wants right up until the point he takes a knife in the back from an extremely disgruntled boyfriend. The wake is a strange affair with various people there either to mourn or celebrate his passing. If the resulting confrontations weren’t bad enough things are about to get even worse when Jake climbs out of his coffin to pick up where he left off...
It’s going to be a long night for the mourners at Jake’s wake and who knows what will be left of them by the time morning comes round...

Before reading ‘Jake’s Wake’ I’d never read anything by either John Skipp or Cody Goodfellow but had heard plenty of praise for them both. Having read ‘Jake’s Wake’ I can feel pretty safe in saying that the praise is justified. After the explosive opening I knew this was a book that I just had to finish.

Skipp and Goodfellow combine to create a book where I had trouble telling that it had been written by two authors, the writing is seamless in this respect and is a great platform for what is to come.
I knew what was coming (it said what was going to happen on the blurb!) but Skipp and Goodfellow do a great job of reining things back, after what happens in the first chapter, and starting from square one; building the tension up until Jake makes his entrance. This is where the real fun begins as Jake works his way around the guests and has his way...

Jake himself is a cartoonish character, whose relative invincibility and excessive wisecracks prevent any kind of empathy on the part of the reader (apart from one flashback to a scene with his mother) so it’s with the other characters where Skipp and Goodfellow shine and drive the story forwards.
A great effort is made to get inside the heads of the mourners, and other ‘wake crashers’, establishing who they are and their connection to Jake. This approach really paid off for me as I’d got to know the characters so well that it really hurt when Jake...

This is another area where Skipp and Goodfellow excel; they don’t pull any punches at all when Jake indulges in torture, rape and generally being thoroughly evil. Apparently John Skipp helped kick-start the ‘splatter punk’ genre and if ‘Jake’s Wake’ is anything to go by then I can totally believe it! Not only was I freaked out by Jake’s relentless menace but I was left feeling a little nauseous by what he was capable of doing. This is another book that those who are squeamish might want to steer clear of!

If all this wasn’t good enough then the ending has to be seen to be believed. One incident literally turns everything on its head; shedding new light on everyone’s actions and leaving things deliciously open ended...

‘Jake’s Wake’ is a book that you really need to pick up if you have any interest in horror fiction that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and shakes you until you can barely breathe. I can see myself finding more of Skipp and Goodfellow’s work if this is anything to go by...

Nine and a Half out of Ten