Winter is Coming

Ah, yes, that time of year. When the wind gets teeth, the nights get long, and all a soul wants is a roaring fire, and a book that grabs your collar and yanks you straight through the page. Lucky for me, J.J Alo decided to lob a signed copy of Misery Plaza onto my doorstep like some literary Molotov cocktail. And friends, I’m hooked.

The book opens with a foreword so damn funny I had to put it down, wipe my eyes, and reread it. Southern New England horror vibes radiating off it like fog off a midnight pier.

Prologue

Then comes the prologue. It’s a claustrophobic, sweat-slicked little coffin of a scene that slaps you directly into the pilot’s chair. No runway, no seatbelt, no peanuts. Alo just hits the throttle and grins while you white-knuckle the armrests.
Are we in the past? Are we in the future?

Hell, if I know yet. Alo plays it coy, like a card sharp on a riverboat. Every line is a breadcrumb, but the damn trail leads in two directions at once. I’ll keep reading just to see which century tries to kill me first.

The Anti-hero

Then there’s Joseph Griffin, our wandering, world-worn center of gravity. The man stalks through the chapter with that unmistakable Eastwood energy. The Man With No Name aura. A little grit, a little myth, a little “don’t ask what’s in the bag, kid.” You just feel the history on him, like dust on an old revolver.

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Alo paints the world around Joseph Griffin with the precision of a crime-scene photographer and the mood of someone who’s spent too many nights listening to strange creaks in an old New England house. Every description drops you right into the horror-tinted snow-globe he’s building. Streets, shadows, whispers, all of it vibrating with fantastical menace.

Early Impressions

If this is just chapter one, then Misery Plaza might be the exact kind of winter ride I was craving: part mystery, part nightmare, part fever dream, and all voice.
I’m settling in with this one. Fire crackling. Book signed. Whiskey poured.
Stay tuned for my review of chapter 2.

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