YOU WILL NEVER WANT TO BE HUGGED AGAIN...
HUG: A Cosmic Horror Comedy
You are entering the world of Hug, where a perfectly normal day is transformed into a bizarre nightmare of hilarious events.
Hug: A Cosmic Horror Comedy is available on Amazon.com (click cover art)
A cosmic horror comedy that will wrap its arms right around you...New York City - 1985An outbreak of random hugging turns the five boroughs into an apocalyptic nightmare.Only violence and a true will to survive can help get seventeen-year-old Tim Flanders and his crew of misfits from Brooklyn to the Bronx, where a psychic premonition will lead them to their salvation.A bizarre and disturbing odyssey through the city is the only path they can take, as reality breaks apart like a shattered window, revealing things that can shatter the mind as well.To be hugged by the infected is to become one of them.The virus quickly spreads, turning the population into mindless beings with a desperate desire to reach out and touch someone.You can run and you can hide.You can even fight your way through them.Whatever you do, don't let them put their arms around you...Unless you want a comforting embrace from Hell.
The Characters
Tim Flanders, the arrogant and sarcastic metalhead protagonist of Hug.
Matt, Tim's nerdy, Star Wars obsessed best friend and fearless battle companion.
The Punk Girl. Always ready for an adventure, even if it might kill her.
Doopy Dingleberry, the neighborhood idiot, whose secret past is the catalyst for the gang's quest.
Horny the Clown, the degenerate porno theater owner in Times Square, who has a fondness for huggers.
Reverend JimmyJack Funkytown, the preacher who became a pimp.
Barney Baxter, the local trigger-happy lunatic who pretends he was in Vietnam, joins the gang in Hug.
Vinny Parmasano, AKA Vinny the Vampire, the Mafia hitman who has no time for all this hugging bullshit.
Paco Martinez, the blind psychic pot dealer, who sets the gang off on a journey through a city of huggers.
Elliot, Tim's little brother, is dragged out of his safe space at home, into the city's nightmare.
Leader of The Hell's Kitchen Chefs, who seem to think they rule the streets (or at least the butcher shops) of the rough and notorious neighborhood.
Big Daddy Boing-Boing, the Harlem crackhead who has much bigger problems than infected huggers.
Monsters. Ghouls. Zombies. Slithery things.Why such concepts are found so attractive to some is sort of a mystery. But there is no denying the thrill of the sudden scare, and the fascination of the bizarre and the grotesque.Since my earliest memories I have been drawn to anything creepy or surreal. Always wanted to see that horrifying new movie, or delve into a chilling book or game. And that love of the genre of horror has kept me interested and entertained for many decades. And I am grateful.Then there is my writing, which has also always been with me. Short stories, novellas and screenplays I have completed sit in my desk drawers, abandoned but not forgotten. Finished but not fully realized. And when I got the idea for a book, a novel-length work of fiction, it consumed my mind until, almost three years later, it was done.That book is Hug, and I hope that I created a story and characters that will enthrall you, creep you out, and also make you laugh a bit.So open your mind and enter a world where many are, with extreme malice, opening their arms...Anthony F. Cosentino
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