Book Reviews

Meet Sam Brody, skeptic extraordinaire and late night host of The Red Eye, a radio show where he debunks myths of supernatural, psychic and otherworldly goofiness. So what does he do when he finds himself thrust neck deep into the same sort of stuff he professionally calls bullshit on? Say, for instance, items start exploding or flying around when he …

The Independent Filmmaker’s Guide to Writing a Business Plan for Investors By Gabrial Campisi Part One: Funding The Film 1 Taking the Next Step

Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where we are all going. If I need to finish quoting our dear Criswell, then I weep for that same future. Dearly, do I weep. Yet, as cheesy as the line is, none of us can deny the draw of a bit of life spoilers. We want …

It’s everything you never wanted to hear or that perhaps you or somebody you knew suffered through, whether from the human misery of this universe or a criminality intruding from the supernatural.   -from Essay I: The Myth of Falling  I’ve been known to mutter that one of the best reason to create art, to spin the patently unreal out of …

SPLATTERLANDS Reawakening The Splatterpunk Revolution Edited by Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson Grey Matter Press 283 Pages A collection of thirteen tales with a common theme surrounding graphic, gory and often violent depiction of terror that knows no boundaries: Heirloom By Michael Laimo-A woman’s obsession with firearms is handed down from generation to generation. Violence for Fun and Profit By …

ZOMBIE ATTACK BOOK 2: ARMY OF THE DEAD By Devan Sagliani Permuted Press Publishing 218 Pages Just when a glimmer of hope seems to illuminate in restoring some normal society, Xander MacNamara finds himself engulfed in turmoil once again. Happily married to the love of his life Felicity Jane and adapting to his newfound military rank in Freedom Town life …

I’ll never forget what I saw. Blood splattered the books and dripped from the shelves. Chunks of –something- globbed the carpet. “What is that?” I whispered. “Looks like an ears,” the Colonel replied, staring at the globby thing by his foot. “No, not specifically, Colonel.” I swallowed and swayed. “What is that, in general?” “A dead body.” The Colonel snorted. …

Ever since reading Gabino Iglesias’ Gutmouth, I’ve been more and more interested in the New Bizarro Author Series (NBAS for short) put together by Eraserhead Press. Without beating a dead horse, what they do is give a chance to promising new authors who haven’t yet published their first novel. With five to seven releases each year, we get a fresh …

MazeI know only one prayer. Whatever gods are in this maze, may you suffer as we have suffered. May our prayers leave you ill and dying, as you have left us. I like bizarre, complicated stories. The kind that warp and wrap themselves into intricate designs of opaque obscurity and leave you scratching your head and rereading the same paragraph …

Movie reference books are a horror fan’s gold. Most every horror fan fills their book shelves with tome after tome of gems about Hammer Films, Universal Monsters, Vampire Films, Zombie Movies. There are books on every topic, sub-genre and fan favorite out there. HIDDEN HORROR edited by author Dr. AC is an excellent, entertaining, intimate addition to the monster movie …

I really liked the writing I found in Sixty Five Stirrup Iron Road, the nine author collaboration put out by Sinister Grin Press at the end of last year. So much so, in fact, that I decided to check out some of the contributing authors’ other books, hoping for more of the same. My first stop was Shane McKenzie’s Muerte …

My first encounter with the writing of Jessica McHugh showed me an inventive horror short story called Food For Thought. Turns out, that’s just a tiny part of the McHughniverse. There’s also Pins, a suspenseful dark thriller involving strip clubs and bowling alleys. There’s the young adult mystery/thriller, Rabbits in the Garden. There’s her trip into the world of steampunk, …

When you’re a horror writer, and blurbs for your book are being written by Jack Ketchum and Edward Lee, you know you’re doing something right. This is definitely the case with Shane McKenzie, a writer who is absolutely tearing up the extreme horror landscape. The guy has written twelve books (at least, maybe more by the time I finish writing …

The spirit of D.I.Y. is alive and well within the pages of Jack Bantry’s Splatterpunk, but just because it has the look of an old cut and paste style, made in your basement, punk zine doesn’t mean it’s lacking in quality. The complete opposite, actually; these forty pages are packed with great in your face, extreme horror fiction. Not only …

With his newest release, Toxicity, Max Booth III has taken a break from the wild western zombies of Black as well as the flash fiction of They Might Be Demons and thrown us into the complex, nasty world of the suburbs of Chicago. Having grown up there, I can vouch for this; they are truly frightening, indeed. The world he …