Previous SFF Author: Anthony Horowitz
30 Days of Night by Steve Niles (story) and Ben Templesmith (art)
30 Days of Night is an excellent horror comic by Steve Niles with quite creepy art by Ben Templesmith. After a short introduction by Clive Barker, we are taken to Barrow, Alaska on November 17, 2001, the last day the sun shines before there are thirty days of night, which, if you think about it, would be just about perfect for you if you were a vampire with some serious allergies to the sun!
June 22nd, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | niles | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
King Bullet by Richard Kadrey
With 2022’s King Bullet, Richard Kadrey brings the novel series about Hellion wizard James Stark, AKA Sandman Slim, to a conclusion. As Kadrey once said, Stark is a monster who wonders if he can become human. We readers figured out that answer a while ago, but in King Bullet, Stark faces the answer himself, along with an adversary who may defeat him once and for all.
L.A. (if not the USA and/or the world—we don’t know) is hunkering down in the throes of a devastating virus,
May 23rd, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Richard Kadrey | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Darkness Below by Barbara Cottrell
2023’s Darkness Below is the first book in Barbara Cottrell’s new THE SHADOWS OF MISKATONIC series. We’re heading into warmer weather, with the promise of road trips and vacations. Here’s a shivery tentacle-horror story for fans of Lovecraftia, complete with a sprinkle of dark academia on top, that’s perfect for the road or that lounge chair by the pool.
Ellen attends Miskatonic University and lives in the town of Arkham with her guardian, Uncle Joshua (who probably isn’t her uncle.) Ellen is a strong psychic whose past is a mystery.
May 9th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Barbara Cottrell | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Between by Tananarive Due
The Between, first published in 1995, is Tananarive Due’s classic horror novel, about a man who must risk his life to save his family from malignant forces, both supernatural and all too human. In the mid-1990s, Hilton James suddenly starts experiencing the dreadful dreams he had before, early in his marriage. Time with a therapist and a hypnosis session seemed to help then, but now the episodes are worse, and he begins to have waking dreams, until sometimes he can’t tell when and where he is.
April 27th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Tananarive Due | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Revival (Volume One): You’re Among Friends by Tim Seeley (writer) and Mike Norton (artist)
Revival is marketed as “rural noir,” but it is horror, too. Tim Seeley and Mike Norton have created an eight-volume story, and volume one, “You’re Among Friends,” starts off, after an introduction by Jeff Lemire, with a shocking event: Ms. Tao, a reporter given the worst columns to write, is forced to write one on unusual jobs. In the opening scene, she is making a video recording as she interviews the town’s crematorium technician at one in the morning.
April 22nd, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling
Having thoroughly enjoyed Caitlin Starling’s 2019 novel The Luminous Dead, I was very happy to learn that I wouldn’t have to wait long to read more of her work.
Yellow Jessamine (2020), Starling’s new novella, is completely different from The Luminous Dead but similarly features creepy atmosphere, a background of family trauma, and relationships filled with dysfunctional tension and longing.
Evelyn Perdanu is a wealthy woman in the city of Delphinium,
March 13th, 2023. Kelly Lasiter, Skye Walker and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Caitlin Starling | Horror, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (Vol. 2): It Only Hurts When I Pee by Ben Templesmith
The slapstick horror of Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse continues in volume two, It Only Hurts When I Pee. Wormwood is an “intergalactic, interdimensional, immortal, happy-go-lucky larval worm thing” that “wears corpses likes suits.” You can see the worm he is in the eyeball of each corpse. And he has his gang: Mr. Pendulum a “robotic drinking companion”; Ms. Medusa, ex-girlfriend and manager of Wormwood’s favorite bar, The Dark Alley; and Phoebe Phoenix,
March 11th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 3 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (Volume 1): Birds, Bees, Blood and Beer by Ben Templesmith
Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (Volume 1): Birds, Bees, Blood and Beer is first notable because of the identifiable art of Ben Templesmith, who both wrote and drew this first of three volumes. Ben Templesmith is known for his work on 30 Days of Night. The art in Wormwood is haunting, with shifting lights marking the seedy backdrop of a creepy cityscape and “The Dark Alley,” a stripper bar that the Gentleman Corpse seems to like to hang out in with Mr.
February 25th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner
There are so many scary things in Wendy N. Wagner’s short 2021 novella, The Secret Skin. There is the nasty housekeeper who gives the nasty housekeeper in Rebecca a run for her money. There is the leering, unpleasant overseer of the Vogel family sawmill. There is Abigail, a deeply disturbed little girl who may be telekinetic. There is the “community meeting” of the white men in the nearby town of Coos Bay, Oregon, and their white robes and hoods.
February 16th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Wendy N. Wagner | Horror, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | 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 |
Previous SFF Author: Anthony Horowitz
Mine too, but to be fair, he's the only Iraqi torturer I know, fictional or otherwise. He has a great…
COMMENT Sayid ... my favorite Iraqi torturer!
Would you believe that this was the first time that I ever read it? SO glad that I finally caught…
LOVE The Big Front Yard!
Always my pleasure, Marion! And Part 2 of this review should be appearing soon....