Review: The Big Crush by David J. Schow

The Big Crush by David J. Schow
Subterranean Press (February 28, 2019)
125 pages; $40 limited edition hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

David Vollmand is like a lot of people: he has a job that confines him to a chair and a screen every day; he has a good friend to tip a beer with after work; he has a loyal dog waiting for him at home; and he has an unrequited love from many years ago. Like many people, he finally gives in to temptation and hops on the Internet to see where “the one that got away” got away to.

Unlike many people, reconnecting with an old flame could cost him his
life.Continue Reading

Review: The Same Deep Water As You by Chad Lutzke

The Same Deep Water As You by Chad Lutzke
Static Age Books (January 2019)

120 pages; $6.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie Hartmann

In 1990-1993 I was a skater girl groupie. I wore high-top Converse sneakers, ripped jeans, a flannel shirt tied around my waist and garage band tees. After school and on the weekends, the boys would skate and a few other girls and I would watch. They let us sit on their old boards and we would smoke weed or cigarettes and laugh when the boys ate it and cheer when they landed something.

We listened to The Dead Kennedys, NOFX, the Sex Pistols and the Pixies (theme song: “Where is My Mind”). So when I say that I could immediately relate to Chad Lutzke’s coming-of-age novella, The Same Deep Water As You, it is because I lived that lifestyle and in that same era.Continue Reading

Review: The Sorrows by Jonathan Janz

The Sorrows by Jonathan Janz
Flame Tree Press (December 2018)
288 pages; $16.48 hardcover; $10.37 paperback; $6.29 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I was a bit late to the party when it came to discovering the work of Jonathan Janz. As a result, I totally missed The Sorrows when it was originally published by Samhain Publishing in 2012. When Samhain ceased operations in 2017, many great works went out of print, including this debut from one of the most popular horror writers working today.Continue Reading

Review: Splatterpunk Forever edited by Jack Bantry

Splatterpunk Forever edited by Jack Bantry
Splatterpunk Zine (November 2018)
158 pages; $8.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Damon Smith

Two years ago saw the release of Splatterpunk is Not Dead. Now Jack Bantry is back editing a new collection of Splatterpunk stories with Splatterpunk Forever. Does this second inning hit it out of the park? Read on to find out.Continue Reading

Review: Savage Species by Jonathan Janz

Savage Species by Jonathan Janz
Flame Tree Press (January 2019)

304 pages; $16.48 hardcover; $13.86 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie Hartmann

Last year I read my first Jonathan Janz story titled Children of the Dark. I absolutely loved it. Janz expertly fused together a gruesome horror story and a nostalgic coming-of-age tale. The monsters in that book—the lithe, tall, insatiably hungry Wendigos—were a formidable enemy that I enjoyed reading about as they went on a blood-soaked rampage.Continue Reading

Review: The Nightmare Girl by Jonathan Janz

The Nightmare Girl by Jonathan Janz
Flame Tree Press (February 7, 2019)
256 pages; $16.48 hardcover; $10.37 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Chad Lutzke

Jonathan Janz’s name is everywhere lately. With Flame Tree Press sneaking up out of nowhere and snatching his back catalog, and his most recent effort The Siren and Specter making the rounds of Twitter feeds and Instagram posts alike, he’s hard to ignore. It was only a matter of time before I broke down and read my first Janz. The Nightmare Girl was the book that deflowered this Janz virgin. Continue Reading

Review: Night Shift by Robin Triggs

Night Shift by Robin Triggs
Flame Tree Press (November 2018)
240 pages; $22.46 hardcover; $13.09 paperback; $6.29 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Let me start by saying I wanted Night Shift to be something other than what it turned out to be. Let’s face it—a mining base in the Antarctic at the start of a six-month-long night shift, doesn’t your mind immediately turn to The Thing?  So, I’m expecting a monster. Oh, I got one, it just happened to be of the human variety.Continue Reading

Review: Everything is Horrible Now by Edward Lorn

Everything is Horrible Now by Edward Lorn
Lornographic Material (February 5, 2019)
372 pages; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Chad Lutzke

Right up front, allow me to get past the part of the review where I’m forced to write something cliché—a statement proclaimed in reviews since the beginning of time. Well, since the beginning of Goodreads and Amazon at least:  

This is my first by this author, and it won’t be my last. Continue Reading

Review: Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant

Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant
Subterranean Press (December 2018)
125 pages; $40 limited edition hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Lisa Morris certainly isn’t the first eight-year-old child to fib about her health so her parents won’t cancel a much-anticipated trip to a giant theme park. She is, however, the first child whose fib led to approximately 10 million deaths and a dramatic shift in the way the human immune system works.Continue Reading

Review: A Breath After Drowning by Alice Blanchard

A Breath After Drowning by Alice Blanchard
Titan Books (April 2018)
448 pages; $10.37 paperback; $7.49 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

There are psychological thrillers and then there are books that dive deep into the psychology of the characters; into trauma, and the deep pits that therapy and grief can dig.  Alice Blanchard drags the readers into the pit with A Breath After Drowning, a thriller that—while not terribly original—is as close to perfect as it can get in this genre.Continue Reading

Review: It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life edited by Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson

It’s Alive: Bringing Your Nightmares to Life edited by Eugene Johnson
Crystal Lake Publishing (December 14, 2018)
280 pages; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

There are books on writing that inspire, ones that feed the muse, ones that teach, but rarely has there been one that encompasses all three aspects that result in a must-read, must-have companion for the writer’s lair. Continue Reading

Review: The Crate: A Story of War, a Murder, and Justice by Deborah Vadas Levison

The Crate: A Story of War, a Murder, and Justice by Deborah Vadas Levison
WildBlue Press (June 2018)
358 pages; $12.99 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

There are true crime stories and then there are books that delve so much deeper that they embed themselves under the skin and burrow into the psyche. The Crate is the latter — and beyond.Continue Reading

Review: Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias

Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias
Broken River Books (October 2018)
212 pages; $15.99 paperback; $7.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Coyote Songs opens with a father-and-son fishing trip. Don Pedro and his son, Pedrito, have their lines in the water, and have entered that peculiar lull familiar to everyone who’s ever been fishing—that time when relaxation and anticipation are jockeying for attention. As author Gabino Iglesias writes:

When fishing, nothingness was full of possibility, quietness was a timeless inhalation before a scream, and inaction was just a fuse of indeterminate length before an explosion.

It doesn’t take long to get to the explosion, which arrives in the form of a devastating act of violence that is the novel’s true beginning. From there, Coyote Songs splinters into many stories. In this excellent Book Riot interview, Iglesias noted that he needed “a plethora of shoulders on which to place the weight of something as big as pain, migration, suffering, justice, bilingualism, multiculturalism, and syncretism.” So we follow Pedrito on his quest for revenge; a coyote who initially helps children cross the border, but is soon led to his true, sacred mission; a young man, fresh out of jail, who almost immediately finds himself back on the run; an artist looking for new, impactful ways to channel her vision; and a pregnant woman who lives in fear of the thing growing inside her.

Some of these stories come together while others follow separate paths, but they are all united by the author’s raw eloquence. There are moments of pure beauty here, punctuated with jarring scenes of uncomfortable violence. There are scenes that would be at home in any contemporary crime blockbuster, and there are moments that would highlight any midnight creature feature.

It’s entertainment, yes, but it’s far from mindless. Coyote Songs bristles with the anger, disappointment and frustration that so many feel in their day-to-day lives, and Iglesias does not hesitate to point fingers at the source of those emotions. This may put some people off, and that’s a shame. His is a voice among those that are shouting to be heard—a voice we cannot afford to ignore, even though the truths he tells are often ugly and uncomfortable to hear.

Review: Ten Thousand Thunders by Brian Trent

Ten Thousand Thunders by Brian Trent
Flame Tree Press (October 2018)
288 pages; $16.48 hardcover; $10.37 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

There was a time when I immersed myself in sci-fi, long before I discovered horror and it took over my reading experience. Every now and again, it’s nice to go back and visit those days, and that’s just what I did with this epic, hard sci-fi novel by Brian Trent.Continue Reading

Review: Kosmos by Adrian Laing

Kosmos by Adrian Laing
Flame Tree Press (December 2018)
288 pages; $16.48 hardcover; $10.37 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Kosmos is one of the most entertaining original works I’ve read in all of 2018.  Considering I’ve read seventy-seven books this year that’s saying a lot.Continue Reading