Perched atop the throne of modern horror lit, contemporary authors serve as custodians of the morose and macabre, guiding their readers through the crumbling hallways of the pathologically unwell mind. Not an easy feat for writers at any stage of their career, but a fish-to-water fit for James M. Watjen and his debut work, 2024’s The Vermin Sleep (Nightmare Press), which smashed its way into genre fiction with a hammer as unrelenting as its protagonist’s. His follow-up, THE RESTLESS FEW (June 13th, Anuci Press), treads into the sacred ground of religious horror with a tale of a faith leader whose secular cloth is as torn as the flesh of his victims.
From the press release:
THE RESTLESS FEW follows Father Thomas Abner through his trauma-filled upbringing and into his present religious fervor. Haunted by beings demanding tribute, Father Abner’s mental condition quickly deteriorates and pushes him into a fanatical killing spree that serves to satisfy his goal of eternal salvation.
For religious types, meeting the devil at the crossroads of mental instability and divine duty likely exists more often than most are aware — and THE RESTLESS FEW descends into what happens when faith-based forces begin to overreach their metaphysical bounds.
“I wanted to put the focus on how the divide between religious fanaticism and unstable mental health can be blurred when the underlying conditions are not treated properly,” says Watjen. “The reality that religion is sometimes used as a holistic treatment for a deep-seated illness is all too common. The narrative of Father Thomas Abner’s decent into madness is a reminder that mental health conditions go beyond the boundaries of societal labels and beliefs.”
THE RESTLESS FEW is available for pre-order through Anuci Press and other online retailers.
