Book Reviews

Kayla and the Devil by Bryan Smith College student Kayla Monroe seems to have everything. Stunning looks, smarts, and loads of money thanks to her privileged upbringing. But something’s gone wrong. Ever since the start of her sophomore year, people have been avoiding her. Her friends shun her. Guys no longer flock to her. Even her former stalker, an awkward …

The Creeping Kelp by William Meikle (Dark Regions Press) Some seaweed, a jellyfish and some material brought back from the Peabodie expedition to Antarctica. An innoccuous enough blend you might think. But when a storm in the North Atlantic frees a sample that has been dormant inside an old wreck, the new creature finds that it is hungry. Our plastics-oriented …

THE ANCIENT ALIEN QUESTION If you are a fan of Zacharia Sitchin, Erich von Däniken, or Carl Sagan, just to name a few, then this book is for you. Carrying on their work, and bringing us a bit more up to date in the wake of the “Ancient Aliens” series on the History channel, Philip Coppens recounts his travels and …

It’s nice to finally read something… original. Most things I get are glittering homoerotic vampires knocking up EMO girls. I also get a bunch of zombies that are very atypical. Blah. In any case there is no mistaking its originality as Tainted Blood is about demons! This scourge comes through their world to our own to feed on us. To …

Years ago, back before she became a blowhard talk-show host and everything kind of went sideways, to a certain extent, for Rosie O’Donnell, she was a movie ‘star’ –at least in the loosest sense of the word. Well, as a star, one of the things she regularly found herself doing was press for the films she was in. Sometimes this …

DUNCAN’S DIARY: BIRTH OF A SERIAL KILLER I was forewarned of the atrocities found within Duncan’s Diary. Allow me to be bold enough to state I entirely disagree. Some may attempt to steer you off the slashing, beaten path and suggest Payne’s efforts are a carbon copy of Jeff Lindsay’s lovable anti-hero Dexter Morgan. This is a naïve assessment at …

Blindspot by Michael McBride (Dark Regions Press) At 2:31 a.m., seismic monitoring stations in China and South Korea detect a magnitude-4 event consistent with a nuclear detonation in the southeastern corner of North Korea, within the Korean Demilitarized Zone. With the threat of full-scale war escalating by the minute, the United Nations Security Council dispatches an elite unit of peacekeepers …

Abarat – Absolute Midnight – Author Clive Barker Here was the mystery of creation, played out on a field of dirt and desperation. Candy could see it, this mystery. It was happening all around her. Out of the common earth of living beings, fragile and afraid, came the extrodinary forms of the glyph beyond conceiving of any single mind. She …

Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas (Dark Regions Press) In the dead of night, there are footsteps in the hall In the dead of night, your past mistakes will haunt you In the dead of night, you hear a discordant tune In the dead of night, the nightingale sings Simon Strantzas, master of the subtle and the bizarre, returns with a …

Soul Survivors Hometown Tales: Volume 1 Isaac Newton, working from dates prophesied in the books of Revelation and Daniel, proclaimed the world in its current state would end in 2060. If Harold Camping were right, the end times would have already happened by now and we wouldn’t be here reading (or writing) about a doomsday-themed anthology. Let’s not forget the …

Full disclosure: I submitted to this anthology and was rejected. On the other hand, my wife, who allows me access to all her soft and naughty bits, has a story on display within its pages. My hope is that the two cancel each other out and leave a relative sense of objectivity to my review. Just wanted to warn you. …

First, a confession: It seems whenever I start a review, I tend to go immediately off into tangent-territory, usually via a self-conscious aside, where I feel the need to give some of my own personal history as an attempt to give my review context. My wife likes to think I do this because I’m being difficult, but being difficult has …

“Eye Contact” is an absorbing, terrifying story of the personal nature of reality and a poignant, nerve-wracking exploration into whom or what is our most defining voice amidst the suspension of all sensory input. It reminded me in plan (but not in execution – more on that later) of the non-linear Aronofsky film “The Fountain”, wherein recurring visual motifs and similitude of action grounded us amidst the jump cuts of time, space and character though in “Eye Contact” we also have the singular “voice” of protagonist David Matson as a through line and the husband and wife team of David and Gina Matson maintain their present day relationship as well.

The Official Zombie Handbook- The Ministry of Zombies If you think your having deja vu, your not the only one. I’ve reviewed I believe at least 4 books sporting the title of “Zombie Handbook” this year…give or take. This one though has a particular focus in that respect which is centralized in Australia. I believe the message that is being …

THAT WHICH SHOULD NOT BE Something lurks within the darkness. A spell binding, crippling fear taunts the very hairs upon the nape of your neck. Your stomach lurches as your pulse quickens; prayers for salvation or at least a fast and painless death.  Talley’s odyssey into the unknown makes this tale a heart stammering page turner from beginning to end. …