Altar Paperback – April 8, 2016

This was masterfully written–it involves something freaky happening at a public pool with a lot of middle and high school-age kids, and he painted very vivid portraits of all the young main characters as well as their parents, which is impressive in a relatively short story. He also does a good job of creating a mounting sense of dread via non-supernatural means. The end, though…your mileage may vary. I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but like with so many other horror stories, the sorts of which I’ve mentioned many times in my reviews, the real horror is not described in detail. Again, as I say equally often, that’s a mark of good horror, but some folks might find this one to be too abstract. Aside from the aforementioned sense of impending dread and doom, there’s no foreshadowing that the pool will…turn out in the particular way it does in any of the previous pages, except a kid noticing a strange crack in the bottom of the pool. So while some might savor the surprise, others might have no idea what’s going on at the end. Me, though? I liked it.

There are sharks in the ocean but something darker lurks beneath the local municipal pool in Philip Fracassi's new tale of terror, "Altar." A simple outing to the local pool quickly goes wrong and descends into a twisted nightmare. With the verbal dexterity of early King, Fracassi transforms the mundane into the monstrous. Really looking forward to seeing what comes next from this emerging master.

What begins as a family trip to the local pool on a warm day quickly turns dark on levels both personal and cosmic, and it’s the juxtaposition of these two elements that Fracassi is so damn good at. The social ecosystem of the public pool and the mundane idiosyncrasies of each characters’ headspace make a fantastic set-piece for the action and horror that unfolds with Fracassi’s elegant rhythm. He manages to fit so much into the space of such a short work, but it never feels overfed. Every scene is precisely measured and delivers the right amount of impact-versus-anticipation before switching to a different character or scenario. The tension builds to breathless, almost painful heights as the story reaches its bleak and fragile peak. This is an absolute sucker-punch of a novella that easily ranks among this year’s best pieces of fiction.

Ostensibly a simple bizarre-occurrence piece with a maybe-spider-beastie or a demon creating a sinkhole at the bottom of a public pool, Altar has as much depth as the Mariana Trench. The character portraits are spot-on, the evocation of summer life with its possibly-slightly-sinister activities drawn with delicacy and accuracy, and the hole in the middle can mean damn near anything you want it to.Is it adulthood? Is it death? Is it an entrance to Hades? Is there any difference? That isn't spelled out. Hugely evocative and very skillfully-done novelette.

Philip Fracassi has all the goods, and ALTAR puts them all on display: exciting, well paced plotting, brilliantly realized and complex characterizations, and then there's his prose. Oh, that prose:"The underworld of the pool was beautiful. It was cloudy and blue, filled with hips and legs of kids jumping, spinning, walking and kicking, all of it in a dreamy slow-motion. When the water overlapped his ears the sounds of the surrounding children became muffled and far away and he felt alone, like an angel floating around heaven looking at the saved ones fighting their way up, up through the clouds. He smiled under the water and kicked his legs. As he swam out of the shallow end, he spread his buoyed arms wide to either side and watched gracefully as the coarse white concrete bottom of the pool dropped further and further away from the surface, giving him the delicious impression he was spreading his angel wings and flying higher and higher into the sky toward God."Not many authors can produce prose that evokes such nostalgia, pathos and unforgettable imagery. ALTAR shows off Fracassi's considerable horror chops, but--even more importantly--the writing of the tale reveals him as a literary force to be reckoned with.

For a short little novella, even as far as novella's go. This is a pretty good story. It certainly has a wonderful lead up with all characters involved and one hell of a finish.The only caveat I have is the price for such a small story, I understand the author needs to make some money, but, not so good in my opinion as to warrant 9 bucks that I paid for it.

With ALTAR Philip Fracassi has found a perfect metaphor for suburban despair and family fragmentation. Set at a public pool, the story evokes dread through a series of potentially violent, escalating conflicts between children and young adults. Taken to this place where they're meant to entertain themselves (and allow their unhappy and/or divorced parents respite for an afternoon), the children are caught up in the confusion of adult life and the joyless pursuit of happiness.It's tricky portraying lonely or broken characters, and this is where the central metaphor comes in. With stunning clarity the author summons up a kind of cosmic horror existing both outside and inside characters whose fate is inevitable yet deeply disturbing. I expect the imagery of ALTAR will stay with me for a long time, and I look forward to reading more fiction by Philip Fracassi.

Boy, this guy can write. The story was recommended to me by a customer who said if I liked having the pants scared off me I might enjoy this. He was right.

I read this novella in one sitting and can honestly say that this story gripped me throughout leading to its terrifying conclusion. One started I really did not want to put it down as the story became more darker and darker. Setting the story in such an ordinary place as a public swimming pool gave it a realism which made the unfolding horror somehow more believable. The prose was descriptive and the characters believable. As to the ending it was certainly something I did not see coming.If you like horror then I think this is well worth a read.

Terrific short from Philip Fracassi. Great characterisation and the sense of dread, that something bad is going to happen, builds wonderfully right from the start. A throwback to the great horror fiction of the 80s- check it out.

Short but sweet. Brilliant

I recently read Fracassi’s ‘The Rejects,’ a fantastic short story about a secret hidden deep below the moon’s surface. It was when I was done reading it that my Kindle reminded me I had ‘Altar’ from him as well.So, I jumped on it a soon as I could.The story itself is pretty straight forward and simple. We get to see a group of random people who head to a community pool on a hot day. Kids and adults mingle and the normal interactions in that scenario occur. It isn’t until the end of the story that things take a drastic turn.What I liked: I enjoyed seeing the mundane happenings of the characters. Fracassi lets them breathe a bit, lets them become real characters to the reader. I really enjoyed the ending, but in order to keep it spoiler-free, I can’t really comment too much on that. I also enjoyed the feeling of knowing ‘something’ was going to happen. You just knew it from the beginning and Fracassi created a really sneaky sense of tension as the story went on.What I didn’t like: I found that while I did enjoy the creeping tension and the feeling that something was coming, I felt like it took far too long for the faeces to hit the fan, if you will. The ending came and went and it was over and done with. I would’ve loved the final moments of the story to have taken up more pages, but that’s my take.Why you should buy this: As I said before – Fracassi is such a great storyteller. This one sits and steams on the kitchen stove as this goes along. You know that the story is going to eventually come to a boil and when it does, wow does it deliver some devastation!This is a quick read, single sitting and I think it would make a great entry point for people who’ve never read any of his work.

Philip Fracassi's ALTAR brought back some memories of childhood, best buried to forgotten memory. Cosmic horror pours into reality, recalling the feelings, emotions of life at that age. Our perception of reality is fragile and when Mr. Fracassi turns the paragraph ( Liken to Ramsey Campbell) you will find yourself faced personally with the abyss and fear of what is going to stare back. This unnerving story made me read it a second time immediately after finishing. The brevity of the novella form is perfect for horror, the characters reminded me of friends and enemies of childhood. Mr Fracassi’s prose provides a clear vision without unnecessary padding and pacing made me race to the end. My favorite novella of 2016 and on my top 10 list. Looking forward to his up and coming work.