Tag: Reviews

Review: And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe by Gwendolyn Kiste

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And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe by Gwendolyn Kiste
JournalStone (April 2017)
267 pages; $15.93 paperback; $3.95 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

And Her Smile With Untether the Universe is an amazing collection of speculative fiction by Gwendoyn Kiste which touches on surreal fantasy but never loses its grip on an all too tangible—sometimes painfully so—sense of reality. This is important for me, because I often find that happens with surreal stories of the fantastic. While I admire the world created and the surreal experience rendered, I sometimes feel distant from the characters and their experiences, and the stories fail to really impact me on an emotional level.Continue Reading

Review: Hunger Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff

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Hunger Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff
Thomas & Mercer (October 2017)
380 pages; $8.50 paperback
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Alexandra Sokoloff has never strayed away from the controversial in her work, whether it be in her Stoker-nominated horror titles or in her Huntress stories. Plenty has been written about this, the fifth in that series, and it will be pretty easy to figure out why once the final page is turned.Continue Reading

Review: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

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Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Orbit Books (November 2017)
448 pages; $18.57 hardcover; $15.99 paperback; $13.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Mermaids? Scary? Nope, this isn’t a joke, and if you’re familiar with Mira “Seanan McGuire” Grant, queen of the Feed series, you know she’s capable of some horrific storytelling. Imagine if Michael Crichton and Stephen King mind-melded with someone brave enough to tackle a creature that most readers would not take seriously. The result would be a novel that’s scientifically based, utterly plausible, and with enough rich characters to make you cringe every time a dark corner is turned. Add to that the sheer lyricism of Grant/McGuire’s prose and Into the Drowning Deep is born, a horror novel that’s as frightening as Aliens and mind-bending as Jurassic Park (the concepts, not the dinos themselves).Continue Reading

Review: Hellraiser: The Toll by Mark Alan Miller

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Hellraiser: The Toll by Mark Alan Miller
Subterranean Press (February 28, 2018)
96 pages; $40 hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Over the years, the Hellraiser mythology has become something of a hash, combining elements of Clive Barker’s original novella The Hellbound Heart with bits from the Hellraiser movies (mainly the first two in the franchise: Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II). Nowhere is this more evident than in The Scarlet Gospels. In Barker’s 2015 novel, the cenobite known as Pinhead (but not to his face; no, never to his face) was a sometimes confusing mix of the elegant sadist from Hellbound Heart and a bloodthirsty, Hollywood-style slasher.Continue Reading

Review: The Warblers by Amber Fallon

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The Warblers by Amber Fallon
Eraserhead Press (September 2017)
86 pages; $10.95 paperback; $5.95 e-book
Reviewed by Chad Lutzke

I stood on our rickety old porch, looking out towards the peeling paint on the back shed as the sunset drained like a stuck pig, bleeding out red all over.

In this first-person, coming-of-age novella, a warbler is a winged creature that isn’t welcome. And after young Dell and his family try to ignore the pack of them, it turns out they’re rather dangerous, too–-–even tearing apart poor Dell’s dog. So Dell and his father set out to rid their back shed of the beasts, but the means to which they do so could prove even worse a predicament than what they’re already up against. Not just for their family, but maybe for the whole town.Continue Reading

Review: Breathe, Breathe by Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi

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Breathe, Breathe by Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi
Unnerving (October 2017)
176 pages, $13 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi  is an author, writer, journalist, editor, marketer, public relations professional, and photographer. Her first collection, Breathe, Breathe, published by Unnerving Magazine, was released to wide acclaim. This collection of short stories and poetry reached #2 on the Amazon paid Hot New Release Bestseller list, right behind New York Times Bestseller Rupi Kaur’s second book that came out at around the same time. It is a very accessible collection, though it often fails to deliver in terms of craft.Continue Reading

Review: Apart in the Dark by Ania Ahlborn

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Apart in the Dark by Ania Ahlborn
Gallery Books (January 2018)
384 pages; $8.49 paperback
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Quiet horror is, to me, the most effective style of horror, especially when it comes to written horror. Shocks, gore, jump scares—when done right, those things work in the moment. But quiet horror, when done right, lingers. Stays with you. Comes back to you at the worst (i.e., the best) possible times, like when you’re just about to drift off to sleep and you hear a soft thump behind the closet door, or when you catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye that disappears when you look straight at it. Shock hits you and then wears off a second later and you’re laughing, shaking your head, saying “They got me again.” Quiet horror hangs around, and when it comes back to you, nobody is laughing.Continue Reading

Review: The Ghost Club: Newly Found Tales of Victorian Terror by William Meikle

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The Ghost Club: Newly Found Tales of Victorian Terror by William Meikle
Crystal Lake Publishing (December 2017)
189 pages; $11.44 paperback, $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I love everything about this wonderful collection from Willie Meikle. Take the concept of Willie’s Carnacki collections and replace the dinner guests with the literary greats of the Victorian era, each sharing a ghost story, and there you have the basic premise for this new work from William Meikle.Continue Reading

Review: Diary of a Sorceress by Ashley Dioses

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Diary of a Sorceress by Ashley Dioses
Hippocampus Press (October 2017)
170 pages, $15 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Ashley Dioses has established herself as one of the leading voices in contemporary weird poetry. Known for her meticulous use of rhyme and meter and her melding of the strange and the romantic, Dioses has gathered some of her recent poetry into her first collection—a scintillating assemblage of nearly 100 poems short and long, published and unpublished. Titled Diary of a Sorceress, it is a really exciting collection of weird and dark fantasy poetry sure to appeal to any reader.Continue Reading

Review: Spungunion by John Boden

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Spungunion by John Boden
Dynatox Ministries (2017)
123 pages; $12.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Chad Lutzke

The reality is this:  Life is just a balloon floating dangerously in a roomful of lit cigarettes.

A lonely truck driver sets out on a desperate course to find the one who killed his wife. A path that leads to mingling with the oddball, the grotesque, and the surreal in this weird fiction trucker tale by an author who is certainly no stranger to offering heartbreaking stories, of which Spungunion is above par.Continue Reading

Review: Wicked Haunted: An Anthology of the New England Horror Writers

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Wicked Haunted: An Anthology of the New England Horror Writers edited by Scott T. Goudsward, Daniel G. Keohane and David Price
NEHW Press (October 2017)
274 pages; $14.99 paperback, $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I am happy to report there isn’t a bad story in this entire anthology. Sure, some are better than others, but each original story has its own unique twist to the ghost story trope. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a good ghost story and this collection has filled that void nicely.Continue Reading

Review: It’s a Weird Winter Wonderland edited by Robert Bose and Axel Howerton

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It’s a Weird Winter Wonderland edited by Robert Bose and Axel Howerton
Coffin Hop Press (October 2017)
276 pages, $14.95 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Call me a grinch, or whatever. I’m cool with it. I’m just not that into Christmas themed stuff. The fluff and crass commercialism bugs me. At the same time, I love weird stories and I’ve been on a crime kick lately, so I was still drawn to this one.Continue Reading

Review: Weekend Getaway by Tom Deady

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Weekend Getaway by Tom Deady
Grinning Skull Press (October 2017)
142 pages; $10.95 paperback, $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Weekend Getaway is the new novella by the author of Haven, the 2016 Bram Stoker winner for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. This new work is decidedly different in tone from his debut work, which was a lovely coming of age story. Weekend Getaway has more in common with some of Jack Ketchum’s more graphic works, and it’s every bit as good.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Cry Your Way Home’ by Damien Angelica Walters

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Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters
Apex Publications (January 2, 2018)
240 pages, $14.95 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

I’m hoping by now that you already know who the esteemed Ms. Walters is. The queen of deft, delightfully flowing, yet quietly unobtrusive words, and the wielder of one hell of a wicked blade aimed right at your weak spots, is back with another handful of slender needles to poke holes in the red lump of knotted muscle. It doesn’t disappoint.Continue Reading

Review: Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever: Completely Ridiculous Edition by Tom Neely

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Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever: Completely Ridiculous Edition by Tom Neely
Microcosm Publishing (September 2017)
288 pages, $17.,64 hardcover; $11.99 paperback; $5.39 e-book
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

It seems like a silly idea at best. At worst, a bro-heavy homophobic mess masquerading as satire. You take the two loudest, virulently masculine icons of the early Hardcore movement, Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig, and make a series of comics about them in a relationship. Heck, the standard Odd Couple tripe pretty much takes care of itself. Who would have thought it would turn into something much more over the decade-plus long run collected here?Continue Reading