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The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi
The Lies of the Ajungo (2023), by Moses Ose Utomi, is as close to perfect a modern parable as I’ve read in some time, with prose as sparse as its desert setting and lessons just as unforgiving. I loved pretty much everything about it from its opening line — “There is no water in the City of Lies” — onward.
The novella opens with a brief bit of worldbuilding history: Long ago when the City of Lies suffered greatly from its lack of water,
March 17th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Moses Ose Utomi | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Tenacious Beasts by Christopher J. Preston
Tenacious Beasts (2023) by Christopher J. Preston, is a rarity among environmental/ecological books nowadays — an uplifting work that highlights positivity, resilience, and hope for the future. As such, it’s a highly rewarding book and a breath of fresh air amongst all the depressing numbers out there having to do with our world and the creatures we share it with.
That isn’t to say Preston turns a blind eye to those depressing numbers. Far from it. In fact, he begins by listing some of those very numbers:
Wildlife populations have declined 20 percent over the last century.
March 16th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Junji Ito is, in the United States, the best-known creator of horror manga (Japanese comics). So far, seventeen volumes have been translated into English (some are as long as 750 pages). Most of what has been published are collections of short stories like Shiver and Fragments of Horror. However, there are graphic novels by Ito that tell one long story, like Gyo, Tomie, and his masterpiece, Uzumaki.
February 11th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Shiver by Junji Ito
Seventeen books by Junji Ito have now been translated into English, and while a few of them are graphic novels telling a single story, most are short story collections. Perhaps the best of them is Shiver. Shiver contains ten excellent tales and includes commentary by the author on every story as well as a final afterword. Each story also includes at the end samples of Ito’s notes (with translations). These notes, along with the commentary, give interesting insights into the stories.
January 28th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Ursula Vernon, writing as T. Kingfisher, doesn’t try to out-Poe Edgar Allan in her 2022 novella What Moves the Dead. Instead, she flips “The Fall of the House of Usher” sideways, giving us a creepy, atmospheric, heroic and sometimes funny look at the doomed siblings Madeline and Roderick, the moldering mansion they’ve inherited as the last of the family, and the surreal, creepy mountain lake or tarn that laps at the walls of the house. While the house of Usher does fall,
January 26th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | T. Kingfisher | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Junji Ito’s masterpiece is without a doubt Uzumaki. Junji Ito is a manga creator (writer and artist), and he is known for his horror graphic novels and story collections. The bulk of his work is made up of story collections such as the brilliant Shiver. Uzumaki, however, is a long six hundred-plus page single-story book. Yet, at the same time, it is still made up of discreet, individual stories. Each chapter, while featuring the same main characters, focuses on another aspect of this strange town,
January 14th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Little Eve by Catriona Ward
Little Eve is the best gothic horror book I read last year. Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2018, it won the Shirley Jackson award and the British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel. It’s a book saturated with atmosphere, filled with clues, puzzles, masks and secret identities. Ultimately, it’s about cults, serpents, sisters, lies, and love.
The book starts in the 1920s, when a local man in a remote Scottish village discovers the bodies of everyone who lives in the rotting castle on the bluff.
January 6th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Catriona Ward | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tomie: No Use Escaping by Junji Ito
Tomie: No Use Escaping by Junji Ito is a delightful set of horror stories, and if you are a horror fan and have not read any Junji Ito, you are definitely missing out! In the United States, Ito is the best-known horror manga artist. So far, seventeen volumes of his work have been translated into English. The Tomie stories are important, because the first manga story Ito ever wrote in Japan was a Tomie story. Twenty stories about Tomie are included in this massive near-750 page volume.
December 24th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth (Vol. 15): Cometh the Hour by Mike Mignola (story), John Arcudi (story), Laurence Campbell (art), Dave Stewart (colors), and Clem Robins (letters)
Volume fifteen, Cometh the Hour, is a fantastic wrap-up to the B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth series. The separate storylines come together as we watch the world burn and suffer from the giant monsters roaming the earth, birthing new creatures by the minute. It’s a wonderfully horrific vision of the ending of our planet with only a few brave souls standing in the way to total annihilation.
December 10th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Mike Mignola | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Joe Golem: Occult Detective (volume 1) by Mike Mignola (writer), Christopher Golden (writer), Patric Reynolds (artist), Clem Robins (letterer), and Dave Stewart (colorist)
In the first volume of Joe Golem: Occult Detective, we get two stories: a three-part tale called “The Rat Catcher” and a two-part one called “The Sunken Dead.” Taking place in an alternative 1965, these comics are situated in the “Drowned City,” a post-flood New York city, in which canals and make-shift bridges out of boards crisscross the city’s landscape.
November 19th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Mike Mignola | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Right!! Lindelof and Cuse clearly had parent issues!
While it was on, the best part for me was the water-cooler discussion aspect. I know the old expression, "A…
Andi, don't forget Shannon's cold and greedy stepmom: "Oh, I kept the money, sweetie. You're on your own!"
I was one of those viewers who loved the show throughout and kept thinking "If they manage to tie up…
Yes, it's so much about bad fathers! I guess the writers are blaming the dads for why all these people…