Horror | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Series: Horror

Southern Gods: Gave me serious nightmares

Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs

Bull Ingram is a very big fellow. He’s a former Marine who is still a little raw from the war like most men in the early 1950s. Bull works as paid muscle and his primary job is finding people who owe his employers money. When he finds them, he “convinces” them to pay back their debts. He is very good at his job. A folk music dealer wants Bull to locate a mysterious blues man by the name of Ramblin’ John Hastur. Hastur’s music has strange effects on those who listen to it,

Revenge of the Witch: Terrifying children’s fantasy

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney

Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son. Therefore, his mother has always planned to apprentice him to the Spook — the traveling exorcist who services the surrounding villages, ridding them of ghosts, witches, ghasts, boggarts, and other troublesome creatures. The Spook performs a nasty, dangerous, and necessary job for the community, and he’s well respected, but his line of work makes him an outsider — people just aren’t comfortable around him. Thomas doesn’t want to become the next Spook — the Spook’s life is hazardous and lonely — but as the seventh son,

The Great God Pan: A horror classic

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

Written in 1894, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan is a short novel which was highly influential to H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. King, in fact, said The Great God Pan is “…one of the best horror stories ever written. Maybe the best in the English language. Mine isn’t anywhere near that good…” The Great God Pan used to be hard to find, but is now available free on the Kindle (and at other public domain e-book outlets) and is easily read in one dark and rainy evening.

Fathom: Not the best beach book

Fathom by Cherie Priest

Fathom is an entertaining horror novel once it gets going. Cherie Priest spends the first 100 pages of Fathom setting a scene, complete with pages upon pages of infodumps. One character will tell another character a story about a third character, for instance, or a character will have a prolonged recollection of a scene from his past. In addition, the time in which the novel is set does not become apparent until the last few chapters of the novel.

The Curse of the Wendigo: A joy to read

The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey

Rick Yancey’s The Curse of the Wendigo is an amusing and well-written sequel to his award winning young adult horror novel The Monstrumologist. Set at the close of the 19th century, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop’s latest adventure takes him deep into the Canadian wilderness as he and his assistant Will Henry attempt to disprove the existence of the wendigo in the face of a series of seemingly monstrous murders.

Though commonly considered a “monstrumologist,” Dr.

Neverland: Will appeal to horror and fantasy fans both

Neverland by Douglas Clegg

It’s a hot and humid Georgia summer, and 10 year old Beau Jackson and his family have made their annual journey to the summer retreat of Gull Island. (Gull Island is not really an island, it’s a peninsula, but like the name of Gull Island, not everything is like it seems.) Beau’s family stays in the old home still occupied by his grandmother and they’re joined by his aunt and his odd cousin Sumter. The Jacksons seem like a typical albeit somewhat dysfunctional Southern American family, but that doesn’t take long to change.

The Red Tree: What a strange book!

The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan

What a strange book! Then again, I know never to expect the expected when reading Caitlín R. Kiernan.

The story centers on Sarah Crowe, a writer who moves to an isolated house in Rhode Island after her lover’s death. Beset by writer’s block, she finds herself unable to write the novel her contract demands, and instead becomes obsessed with an old manuscript she finds in the basement. This manuscript was written by a previous tenant of the house who died before he could complete it,

The Bone Key: Tales of weirdness and horror

The Bone Key by Sarah Monette

I’ve been seeing Sarah Monette’s name for a while but, for the most part, this collection of short stories was a blind purchase. The Bone Key deals with the exploits of Kyle Murchison Booth which are homages to M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft. Now I’m not familiar with the former but I can attest that Monette captures the mood of the latter with this book. Even the protagonist himself is similar to Lovecraft’s “heroes” although Monette improves upon the concept and provides us at the very least with an interesting character instead of simply delivering a verbose narrator who can’t hold a decent conversation.

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October 2024

Series: Horror

Southern Gods: Gave me serious nightmares

Revenge of the Witch: Terrifying children’s fantasy

The Great God Pan: A horror classic

Fathom: Not the best beach book

The Curse of the Wendigo: A joy to read

Neverland: Will appeal to horror and fantasy fans both

The Red Tree: What a strange book!

The Bone Key: Tales of weirdness and horror

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