Final Women

Horror poetry. It's an aspect of the genre that does not get enough attention, and I admit to being largely ignorant of it myself. Sure, everyone knows Poe. He is at least as famous for his poetry as for his prose; "The Raven" is perhaps his most popular work, and I studied "Annabel Lee" at least twice in school. Lovecraft also wrote poetry, although not nearly (in my opinion) as well as Poe. Still, I'm ashamed to admit that I've been pretty oblivious to modern horror poetry, but then The Apocalyptic Mannequin by Stephanie M. Wytovich came along and changed all that. This collection has made me thirst for more, not just by this author, who has several more collections, but for horror poetry itself. Wytovich hooked me from the first lines or her opening poem, In the event of cigarettes lit by nuclear explosions, I will stand naked in my burning... Those two lines capture the raw beauty of all the poems to follow. These poems don't shy aw...

Happy New Year! For my first post of 2020, I want to review Jeffrey Ford's The Twilight Pariah . I've been wanting to check Ford out for a while and finally go around to picking Pariah up from the library a couple of weeks ago. I must say, this is a terrific book, and I can't wait to check out his other work. The story starts with high school friends Maggie, Russell, and Henry meeting up at the beginning of the summer before their senior year of college. Maggie has recently switched her major to archeology and gets the bright idea that they should excavate some ruins of a local abandoned mansion for practice. When they find the skeleton of a baby in the remains of the mansion's old outhouse, things take a turn for the sinister. Because this isn't any normal baby skeleton. This baby has horns, a ridged spine, and a tail. Soon, the friends find that something is stalking them, and people close to them begin to die in gruesome ways. It's all somehow connected to...

The stories in this particular collection are all prefaced by Masterton's descriptions of the locations in which they take place and of how those places inspired him. The locations are important to the stories, and in many of them, the location is almost a character itself. You often feel, reading these tales, that the stories are actually dependent on their settings. Masterton could not have set a single one of them anywhere else without drastically changing the tale. Many of the stories in this volume share another common theme, however, and that is loneliness. Masterton's characters are frequently faced with isolation and despair. The protagonists in "Heart of Stone" and "Beijing Craps" are adrift in the world after the death of loved ones, while hard times have forced the heroes of "The Woman in the Wall" and "5a Bedford Row" into starting over in new towns where they don't know anyone, and they find themselves facing mounting h...

I'm going to make this review brief as I have recently come down with a terrible cold and desperately need a good night's sleep. X's For Eyes by Laird Barron is a wonderful little book, brief but packed to the brim with action and adventure. The two main characters, wealthy young brothers Dred and Mac Tooms,  are essentially morally corrupt and vaguely sociopathic versions of the Hardy Boys, here solving "The Mystery of the Eldritch God." Since this book really does have it all (science fiction, cosmic horror, old fashioned skullduggery, etc.), my only complaint is that I want more. I'd love to read more adventures of the two brothers, or about any of the members of their extended family for that matter (I found their Errol Flynn-like Uncle Nestor and Egyptian mother, Theoris, particularly intriguing). I highly recommend this book for any fans of Laird Barron, and it's also a good jumping off point for those unfamiliar with his work who are looking to see...

I just finished reading a collection of Shirley Jackson stories, Dark Tales . I have always been a fan of Shirley Jackson, ever since I first discovered  The Haunting of Hill House  years ago, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of the most gleefully haunting and disturbing books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Needless to say, I was very excited when I discovered this recently compiled collection of some of her most macabre works. I can also say with certainty that I was not disappointed. Highlights include: "Paranoia" This story is slightly but delightfully mad, concerning a man on his way home from work who is slowly coming to the realization that he is being followed by someone with ill intentions and that there just might be a greater conspiracy at work, with multiple people out to do him harm. This story ratchets up the protagonist's paranoia, and reminds me of that saying, "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're n...

This is maybe a bit of an odd choice for my first book review, since Kelly Link's collection, Stranger Things Happen is not exactly straight-up horror. It's a mix of fantasy, horror, and the simply very, very weird. However many of the stories are infused with an uneasy dread. Several are eerie. A few are downright spooky. Two particular standouts include: The Specialist's Hat This is the third story in the collection, and the first one that really solidified my opinion that I did right by purchasing this book. While the stories that proceed it are wonderfully strange and haunting in their own way, this one really stuck with me. A spooky story of two identical twin girls spending a summer in a not-so-typical haunted house, this one is disturbing in a way that I can't quite put my finger on. I would definitely add this to the list of my favorite short stories. Survivor's Ball, or, The Donner Party Although the title of the story gives an indication of where ...