Johann Thorsson
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?
I recently made a vow to myself to read more books by women, in part to overcome my own bias towards books by white guys (which is, I fear, the default setting for too many of us). In the process I read a whole heap of great books and wanted to share some stories that… Continue reading 5 Weird and Wonderful Short Stories from 5 Outstanding Collections by Women.
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
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
There's this friend you had in high school who you sometimes think about calling. You had some great times but drifted apart. You know the one? Well, in Max Booth III's Carnivorous Lunar Activities, Justin calls up his friend Ted, unknowingly stopping him from killing his wife in a murder-suicide. He tells Ted that he… Continue reading There’s a Werewolf in the Basement, Asking me to Kill It.
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 haven't read The Silence of The Lambs you are in for a treat. I am going to assume you've seen the movie, right? Well, there's a surprising element to the book, one that I had not expected when I read it. Since reading it, something I did to study how Thomas Harris pulled… Continue reading The Silence of the Lambs and the Surprise it Holds for Writers
I'm not sure where I first heard of Kristi DeMeester. I'm pretty sure I read a short story of hers somewhere, and then saw Beneath and bought it right away. (This is why I think writing short stories is as much marketing as anything else) Beneath tells the story of a reporter, Cora, who goes… Continue reading Book Review – BENEATH by Kristi DeMeester
On Books and Writing 