Good Dogs by Brian Asman

 

Good Dogs by Brian Asman

302 pages, Paperback

Published October, 2024 by Blackstone Publishing, Inc.

 

Podcast interview coming...

San Diego HWA Represent!!!!

 

It is hard for me to think of this as being the first novel for Brian Asman. I suppose you could say this is the first proper novel, published with an established publisher, but Asman has been publishing for a few years, but those have been novellas published in a DIY punk style have even produced a viral book release.  I mean with a title like “Man, Fuck this House.” Asman already has a signature release. The novellas range from funny to weird and the last Our Black Hearts Beat as One could be argued is a short novel, or would have been considered a novel in the past.  Truth is I think of it as a novel. Neat novel.

 

All that stuff aside I think of Brian as someone more of a vet than a normal debut author. He has done an amazing job marketing himself and his books long before this “debut” novel. Good Dogs is a modern novel that fits into the traditional werewolf genre, it has some humor Asman has built a rep for but it is a more straightforward horror novel than I was expecting. Maybe that has something to do with the elevator pitch which sounds funny on the surface. Sure there are funny moments but most serious novels still have a laugh or two.

 

Before I get into the story and the really good elements, let's just say that Good Dogs is about found family, identity, and the things that make us who we are. It has a high-concept horror story but mixed in a charming character study. Brian Asman is a one-of-a-kind blend of punk upbringing, MFA training, and a lifetime of genre books and movie consumption that makes a novel that is one of a kind. The best thing about this novel is that it is the unique product of a one-of-a-kind author.

 

There is a full cast of characters but the bulk of the story is focused on Delia a middle-aged werewolf living in San Diego. She has become an unofficial den mother to a found family of lycanthropes. They have a system for dealing with ‘the change’ the period of the full moon when they lose control and become wolves. They believe they are doing it safely until the sun comes up after a night of change and a severed leg is sitting in their yard.

 

“Question after question buzz through Delia's head. Where did the leg come from? Who did that leg come from? Where is the rest of them?

Did I do that?”

 

Hirsh from their crew has a solution, he has been thinking about this and bought Talbot a ghost town closer to central California up in the mountains. The idea spend the full moon up there wolfing out. The problem is once they get there they are the ones in danger. 

 

Before I break it down, here are my non-spoiler feelings-- that this is a special book and a great example of Brian Asman bringing a unique voice to horror. I think it is his best work and I think monster and slasher fans will enjoy this. A must-read for modern horror fans looking for a unique voice. Also I think San Diego horror readers should read local. 

 

Spoilers...

 

I know Brian pitches this as a slasher but the deep spoiler is that this slasher has supernatural reasons for existing and hunting wolves. I mean there are supernatural slashers for sure, but I wondered after I read the cool twist if this is more of two monsters facing off.  It also made me think of The Howling - the excellent movie and not the thin barely novel, that really is terrible. The movie has an excellent Serial killer played by future Star Trek Actor Robert Picardo. The film is about a news anchor played by Dee Wallace who, following a brutal encounter with a serial killer has the bad luck of going to a resort inhabited by werewolves.  Good Dogs feels like Brian watched that film and said, almost a cool story I can take a seed and grow a very different plant from it. That is how I Am Legend started, when Matheson watched Dracula and said to himself "if one is scary..."

 

There are cool moments and werewolf details throughout...

 

“Delia sniffed the air, turning in a wide circle. The mountains looked familiar, maybe she'd seen them from the road, but they weren't much use in orienting herself. The Vegas end of her night- self’s urine lingered in the air, however just enough of the wolf stayed with her during the days of the change that she had nose enough to follow the scent. Doing so was odd, like a musician fumbling through a song they'd heard once but couldn't quite recall, but it was her only option.”

 

Some of my favorite moments were when Delia and the crew were just experiencing the change. Asman creates some fun unique twists on werewolf lore.

 

There is also plenty of excellent prose that helps build the creepy vibe. “The sound was in the dream and the shadow was real. Or the shadow was real and the sound was in the dream, or both belonged in the sleeping world or The Walking one or sprung into being in both simultaneously as unrelated echoes. Either way, Amelia woke in a panic, every nerve on edge, heart beating out of her chest, even though for once her dreams hadn't been about bonds clenched tight around her wrist while the curtains over her bedroom windows caught flame. She sat up straight looking around for what troubled her.”

 

So when the final reveal happens we learn that the slasher is a supernatural creature named Mama Bear. The reveal grew on me over time as I sat with it. I love some of the details about Mama Bear.

 

“If she had a mind capable of nuance, she might have noticed that the whole 4 only the slightest scent of the creatures Esther had encountered the night before, and she smelt a good deal more of man but the nuance was lost on Mamma bear, as it likely would have been lost on Esther, had she been present,

What she sought was here, perhaps miles away from McKauver claim in the town of Talbot itself, a filthy readout chosen for his proximity to a mountain stream and its distance from civilization.

Mama bear dropped to all fours and crawled into the hole.”

 

Mama Bear is a force of nature slasher, driven by a chemical-level need to hunt wolves as revenge, this story is set up with excellent flashbacks that I suspect some readers will complain about. They are wrong, they add a richness and lore that expands the scope of the novel. Slasher hunting Werewolves is an elevator pitch but Mama Bear deepens the novel in ways that are surprising and welcome for this reader.

 

Good Dogs is a great debut or sophomore. I think it is fun and a fun entry to the growing catalog of San Diego horror writers' novels. This is a deeper and more exciting horror novel than I was expecting and I was looking forward to it. Well done my man.