Johann Thorsson
What a read! British horror-writer Adam Nevill's Last Days doorstopper is part found footage, has a true crime-vibe (figuratively only, there is nothing true here) and part old-school horror. Last Days tells the story of down-to-his-last-penny filmmaker Kyle, who is offered a lucrative job by a strange benefactor who wants Kyle to make a documentary… Continue reading Book Review – Adam Nevill’s LAST DAYS
The time is upon us! The stars have aligned and the altar is ready. Place upon it your copy of Chuck Wendig's THE BOOK OF ACCIDENTS and together we shall collapse this wretched existence into the darkness from whence it came! Ahem. The Book of Accidents is a tome. It is at once the future… Continue reading Book Review – THE BOOK OF ACCIDENTS by Chuck Wendig
I finally got myself a copy of Brian Evenson's LAST DAYS, a book that had been out of print for a while. While reading it I was struck by how much it reads like a surrealist play. The dialogue is quick and witty, reminiscent of plays much more than dialogue. Add to that Evenson's style… Continue reading Is Evenson’s LAST DAYS a horror version of Waiting for Godot?
Some short stories you just remember. Maybe it's an image you remember, maybe an emotion or maybe the entire story. When it comes to Calcutta, Lord of Nerves, it's a passage for me. A single passage that made me go "Ugh, what the.... are you allowed to write that?" I read the story in John… Continue reading Short Story of the Week – Poppy Z. Brite’s Calcutta, Lord of Nerves
What a fantastic book. Andrew and Eric are on a holiday at a cabin with their adopted daughter, Wen. Wen is playing outside when a man approaches her, the tallest man she's ever seen. He tells her that none of what is about to happen is her fault. Wen then notices three more people behind… Continue reading Book Review – The Cabin at the End of the World
The Girl in the Video is a cyber-stalky horror thriller from This is Horror podcast host Michael David Wilson. I've listened to the This is Horror Podcast for a while and so I knew that the author and podcast host had good taste in horror. The book is about a teacher living in Japan who… Continue reading The Girl in the Video – Michael David Wilson
It's Pirates of the Caribbean in Hell. It's the best horror story of the year for me so far, possibly one of my favorite horror stories ever. It has Hell-monks with iron boxes locked over their heads forever, pirate ships, cannibal cults and last and definitely not least, flying, ship-destroying angel-possessed giant squid. I am,… Continue reading This is the Best Pirate-themed Horror Story You’ll Read All Year
Sometimes you come across passages that remind you again of what good writing is. I just started the classic Wuthering Heights last night (yes, you need to read the classics) and was taken aback by a passage not just because of the quality of the prose but also by the tone. It was like the… Continue reading The Best Writing of the Week – Wuthering Heights
One of my favorite books of the last few years is John Langan's incredible The Fisherman, the 2016 Stoker Award winner. The Fisherman tells the story of two grieving men who become friends because of their shared passion for fishing (as a means to take their minds off the grief). The hear of a mysterious… Continue reading The Fisherman – Book Review
If you are on Instagram, you should take a look at something called #circleofbookishfriends It's booky-thing (of course) where you get a prompt like "Favorite author" or "Women Wednesday". The posts are, more often than not, Stephen King or horror-related, as the people who started the Circle of Bookish Friends (I think it was mother.horror)… Continue reading Just Some Fancy Books – Instagram
On Books and Writing 