Previous SFF Author: Manly Wade Wellman
(1977- )
Dan Wells is an American horror fiction author. A Utah native, he currently resides in Orem, Utah. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University, with a bachelor degree in English with a writing and editing emphasis. He is the author of I Am Not A Serial Killer, a horror novel published in the United States by Tor Books. It has been released in the United Kingdom and will soon be published in Germany and Taiwan.
Click here for more stories by Dan Wells.
This week Dan Wells, author of The Devil’s Only Friend, the first novel in the second JOHN CLEAVER trilogy, stops by to answer some questions about demons, mortuary science, and writing for young adults — or, as he calls it, writing. It’s a terrific book (as were all three entries in the first trilogy, here are my reviews), and Dan has some interesting things to say about it. We’ll be giving away a copy of The Devil’s Only Friend to one random commenter with a U.S.
I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells
First novels by new authors are like surprise packages that come in the mail: you don’t know what you’ll find inside, not really, even if there was advance hype. Sometimes you find something so unappealing you wonder that anyone could have thought it was for you. Other times you get a teenaged sociopath who’s fighting hard not to become a serial killer despite his deep-seated wish to create dead bodies, and then you know you’ve got Dan Wells’s I Am Not A Serial Killer.
Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Dan Wells | Horror | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
John Wayne Cleaver’s journey started in I Am Not a Serial Killer, but his problems get more severe in the second book in Dan Wells’s trilogy, Mr. Monster. The teenage sociopath is very determined not to become the serial killer he longs to be in his heart of hearts, but it’s a challenge. His dark side — Mr. Monster, he calls it — wants out, and it especially wants to kill Brooke, the beautiful girl he drives to school every day.
Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Dan Wells | Horror | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
I Don’t Want to Kill You by Dan Wells
I Don’t Want to Kill You is the final book in Dan Wells’s JOHN CLEAVER trilogy. It’s a powerful conclusion, sad, brutal, humorous and loving all at the same time. Wells has done a fine job of writing three books that can stand each stand on their own, but which together make a powerful coming-of-age story.
John Cleaver is 16 or 17, and in some ways a typical teenager; he eats huge bowls of cereal,
Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Dan Wells | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“I died again last night.” It’s a compelling first sentence to a novella told from the point of view of Elijah Sexton, a demon, and it promises a different and exciting new start to Dan Wells’s JOHN CLEAVER series.
Sexton drinks memories. For a time, he killed people himself, “topping off” his memory as he pleases. Soon, though, imbued with a hundred thousand lives, he could no longer bear to kill. Instead, he works in a morgue and drinks the memories of the newly dead.
Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Dan Wells | Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Devil’s Only Friend by Dan Wells
This review contains spoilers for the first JOHN WAYNE CLEAVER trilogy.
John Wayne Cleaver is a seventeen-year-old boy who wants very, very much to kill people. Lots of them, one right after the other, in terrible, bloody ways. Paradoxically, because he longs to do that, he has been taking extraordinary lengths to avoid becoming a serial killer. His struggles were related in a trilogy consisting of I Am Not A Serial Killer (reviewed here),
Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Dan Wells | Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Love it or hate it, The Hollow City is a fast, whirlwind read that will completely devour your time.
Having not read any other of Wells’ books, I can’t say if having an untraditional lead character is normal for him, but following a protagonist who has been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic is not normal for me. This divergence from the norm was incredibly welcome. Michael’s diagnosis brings another level of depth and confusion to the plot and helps push The Hollow City from interesting to fascinating as Wells seamlessly blends fantasy (Michael’s hallucinations) with reality.
Sarah Chorn | Dan Wells | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Manly Wade Wellman
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…