Bookshots: 'Behold the Void' by Philip Fracassi

Bookshots: 'Behold the Void' by Philip Fracassi

Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review


Title:

Behold the Void

Who wrote it?

Have you ever desired the experience of reading a book so strange and insane that not only did you lose sleep, but you also lost moments of consciousness?

Philip Fracassi, screenwriter of perhaps the greatest cosmic horror film ever created—Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups

Plot in a box:

A collection of cosmic horror, supernatural, and plain ol’ terrifying stories. Things get ugly. Things get bloody. Things get SPOOKY.

Invent a new title for this book:

A Manifestation of Tumors

Read this if you like(d):

Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan

Meet the book’s lead(s):

Just your average Joes. Americans who aren’t too special, probably just like you or me. Except some major shit is suddenly going down, and they’re forced to deal with it. How would you react if thrown into similar circumstances?

Said lead(s) would be portrayed in a movie by:

I’m expecting to see a lot of Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Setting: Would you want to live there?

Who isn’t already living in the void?

What was your favorite sentence?

My home had become a candy-covered hut from a fairy tale, where underneath the gingerbread facade and sticky gumdrops huddled a fat cannibalistic witch, waiting to rip apart the flesh of children between her sharp teeth, devour them in large gnashing bites, not even taking time to heat the proverbial oven.

The Verdict:

Who the hell is Philip Fracassi?

Let me tell you: Philip Fracassi is the next big horror writer to blow your mind. He’s had a couple novelettes published here and there, but until now, nothing of substantial length. Not until this debut collection, Behold the Void. Now nobody has any reason not to have read him.

If you’re a fan of the horror genre at all, then this guy is a must-read. The stories found in this collection are surreal and suspenseful and sometimes terrifying. Simple concepts unfold into complex mind-fucks. Have you ever desired the experience of reading a book so strange and insane that not only did you lose sleep, but you also lost moments of consciousness? Of course you have. Who hasn’t?

If I had to pick one word to describe this collection, it’d be “creepy.” If I had to pick three words, they’d be “creepy as fuck.”

If you like your fiction weird and horrific, I can’t think of a better book to pick up right now. I’m not even going to spoil any of the stories. Go into this thing naked. Offer it your bare flesh. Sacrifice spilled blood. Give it everything, because that is what it deserves.

Behold!

THE VOID.

Get Behold the Void at Bookshop or Amazon

Max Booth III

Review by Max Booth III

Max Booth III is the CEO of Ghoulish Books, the host of the GHOULISH and Dog Ears podcasts, the co-founder of the Ghoulish Book Festival, and the author of several spooky books, including Abnormal Statistics, Maggots Screaming!, Touch the Night, and others. He wrote both the novella and film versions of We Need to Do Something, which was released by IFC Midnight in 2021 and can currently be streamed on Hulu. He was raised in Northwest Indiana and now lives in San Antonio.

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