Reviews

"I Dream of Mirrors" by Chris Kelso

February 12th, 2019

Photo courtesy of Chris Kelso Comparisons to famous authors have always struck as one of those occasional evil necessities of reviewing. On one hand, they are too easy to come up with and somewhat reduce the voice of an author. On the other, they are a very easy way to tell readers a writer's style will appeal to them if they are fans of another author. In the case of Chris Kelso's I Dream of Mirrors, the writer who constantly came to mind for me was William Burroughs.

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"A People's Future Of The United States" edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams

February 6th, 2019

As is evident by the title of this fantastic (in at least two senses of the word) anthology, this collection of twenty-five new stories took its inspiration from Howard Zinn's seminal "outsider" tome, A People's History of the United States, which tells "America's story from the point of view of—and in the words of—America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers," according to the book's jacket cover.

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Blood's a Rover (and a book! and a movie! and a calendar!)

August 29th, 2018

Ever since Harlan Ellison won the 1969 Nebula award for “A Boy and His Dog,” his fast-talking, fast-moving, surprisingly emotional and hugely influential post-apocalyptic ode to his real-life best friend Abu, fans have been desperate for the “whole” story. For decades, various teasers would pop up promising “Blood’s a Rover, coming soon!” The last mention I came across was in the Richard Corben illustrated collection Vic and Blood, which contained two new short stories to bookend the award-winning classic.

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"Convenience Store Woman": The Working-Class Novel American Audiences Need to Read

August 14th, 2018

I was recently on my honeymoon (which involved numerous literary events), and our first stop was London, England.

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Hereditary: Unconventional Horror Reigns King

July 25th, 2018

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW This is an excellent horror movie that picks up the flavor of past A24 Films, such as The Witch. If you liked that film, go see this one on the big screen ASAP. Do not watch the trailers, do not read other reviews. Go in with as little visual knowledge as is humanly possible.

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I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsession

July 5th, 2018

Already a new classic in a genre that needs new classics, Michelle McNamara's excellent but fractured I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a truly unique true-crime experience that engages on several levels.

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'The Cabin at the End of the World' by Paul Tremblay

June 26th, 2018

“The girl with the dark hair walks down the wooded front stairs and lowers herself into the yellowing lagoon of ankle-high grass.”

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In "Blood Standard" Laird Barron Breaks Your Jaw and Makes You Ask for More

June 7th, 2018

Isaiah Coleridge is a familiar face. Consumers of crime fiction will recognize him like an old friend passing on the street. Resemblances to hardboiled legends like Travis McGee and Jack Reacher are not only on the money, but also intentional. Laird Barron has been writing professionally for nearly twenty years at this point, (barely) surviving on the strength of his short horror stories, but Blood Standard marks his first real stab at commercial fiction. Please don’t grimace at the term “commercial fiction”, either.

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"Corpsepaint" by David Peak

May 2nd, 2018

Metal and horror have a longstanding, healthy relationship. Both explore dark themes of death, destruction, and the macabre, and sport diehard fanbases composed of society's misunderstood, moody misfits. (That there is a kind of proto-metal horror punk band by the same name is more a coincidence than anything, but it is no less fitting).

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"Unbury Carol" by Josh Malerman

April 10th, 2018

Josh Malerman became famous for his 2014 debut novel Bird Box, and while ostensibly speaking his subsequent publications haven't received the same level of critical praise (numerous reviews and even the publisher's promotional blurbs for Bird Box routinely compared Malerman to Stephen King), he has no less proven himself to be a lasting voice in horror literature.

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