A pleasingly unpleasant set of horror stories for adventurous genre fans.
The first volume in a cosmic-horror anthology series features short stories, poetry, and semi-experimental fragments portraying people caught in a terrifying universe.
Editor Page presents a collection of macabre tales, surreal poems, and flash-fiction–style pieces by diverse hands that fall into a Lovecraft-ian tradition of weird tales, although they’re not directly linked to the Cthulhu Mythos. Indeed, in a preface, Page says that he reached out to Thomas Ligotti, the inheritor of the eldritch Lovecraft-ian crown, to write a guest introduction, but Ligotti deferred to Page. The anthologist sets the tone with ruminations on SF and dark fantasy that feature horror and dread in abundance: “Glitching astronomical bodies blanket across this gloomy yet many-hued pane of seemingly extraterrestrial firmament...dead stars, pale suns, blood moons, and blots of strange black.” The material is divided into seven sections with titles such as “Form and Beast: Axiom,” which don’t exactly offer explanation but would make great heavy metal deep-cut titles. Among the more accessible tales is Alice Austin’s “Moonstruck,” a boy’s-eye view of all people on Earth staring in the direction of the moon nonstop prior to some approaching, ominous event. Several yarns reference underwater and maritime terrors, a favorite H.P. Lovecraft motif, as in Pedro Iniguez’s “Adrift Ebon Tides,” Elaine Pascale’s “The Middle,” Marcus Hawke’s “Spire,” and J.A. Sullivan’s “In the Jaws of the Blackfish.” Novelties of narrative form include A.W. Mason’s “A Return to the Land of Sunshine and Bullets,” a scriptlike work with doomed characters seemingly stuck in a pocket universe of an endlessly rerunning TV show; Richard Beauchamp’s “Do Not Be Afraid” takes the form of a guide/pamphlet to an underground Ozarks cave network with a nasty destination for tourists; and Aleco Julius’ “The Seven Mysterious Drownings of the Crew of the SS Neptune” appears as a neat facsimile of a Great Lakes maritime history article. Two pieces, “The Singing of Old House” and “The First Book of the Shadow Under Cromledge,” by the pseudonymous Godwyn are parodies—albeit mirthless and gruesome ones—of cosmic-horror literary tropes.
A pleasingly unpleasant set of horror stories for adventurous genre fans.Pub Date: May 26, 2023
ISBN: 9798218163747
Page Count: 337
Publisher: Strange Elf Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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