Review: Bestial Mouths by Brenda S. Tolian

cover of Bestial MouthsBestial Mouths by Brenda S. Tolian
Raw Dog Screaming Press (November 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Dr. Brenda S. Tolian, DA, MFA, lives and writes New Orleans and is the author of Blood Mountain, published by Raw Dog Screaming Press. As an active member of the Horror Writers Association and the Angela Carter Society, Brenda’s work blends haunting narratives with deep literary insights. Her newest collection of poetry is Bestial Mouths.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Brenda Tolian

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

photo of Brenda Tolian
Brenda Tolian

Night Time Logic is the part or parts of a story that are felt but not consciously processed. Those that operate below the conscious surface. Those that are processed somewhere, somehow, and in some way other than… overtly and consciously. The deep-down scares. The scares that find their way to our core and unsettle us in ways we rarely see coming…

Hello and welcome. My name is Daniel Braum, I am an author of strange tales, a term I use for stories written in the spirit of Robert Aickman, stories which explore the tension between the psychological and supernatural. These stories are often but not always of the quiet or literary kind. In this column, which shares a name with my New York based reading series, I explore the phenomenon of Night Time Logic and other notions of what makes horror and good fiction by looking at the stories of my favorite authors along with the work of new voices. 

My previous column with author Venita Coehlo explored ghosts and folklore specific to India. Brenda Tolian’s stories are also setting specific all of them intersect with a place called Blood Mountain which you will learn about in our conversation. Continue Reading