Book Reviews

SLAY BELLS RINGING Slay Bells Ringing is an anthology of Christmas-themed horror stories, most of which were written by first-time published authors. This is definitely not an anthology for children to read; quite a few of the stories were extremely violent or contained explicit sexual situations. Although some of the stories were good, the editing of this anthology needed a …

Famous Monsters Magazine – Issue 254 Hey all, Welcome to a new review of another familiar face on the print scene arena. This article we review the latest release of Famous Monsters #254. First off, ….and I imagine I’ll be saying this alot, it features an amazing cover per Jason Edmiston. Yep it’s that cartoonish elongated face of our natural …

THE CHOCOLATE MAN by Waide Aaron Riddle Enter into night in this house of dark and no light Where Evil lives and ghouls and specters remember… and never forgive. This house known as Blackraven, haunted by death, where there is no God…there is no heaven. “The Chocolate Man” by Waide Aaron Riddle is something that comes along only once in …

THE RED CHURCH This big, fat slice of American Gothic has been haunting my Kindle for the past few nights. It’s one of those ‘can’t wait to get into bed and read’ books. Remember when you were young, and you’d be walking home, but when you got to that house, you know, the haunted one, you’d run hell for leather …

THE DISAPPEARED by David B. Silva Dark Regions Press Ten years ago: Gabriel Knight, age 11, takes a bike ride to the park and becomes one of the … disappeared. When Teri Knight answers a knock at the front door, she discovers her son Gabriel standing in the doorway. Only it can’t be her son. Gabe took a bike ride …

iDRAKULA Book Author: Bekka Black Publisher: SourceBooks Fire, 2010 150 pages, $9.99 The story of Dracula isn’t new. It isn’t even kind of new. There have been dozens of film, literary, graphic novel, and even musical adaptations and interpretations of the story. Dracula has been to the past, he has been brought forward into present day, he has been to …

BRAIN CHEESE BUFFET “Their philosophy was societal and rather militant in its feministic design. Never mind that they were f*cked up in the head: abused, malnurished and locked in closets as children, maladapted via unbridled drug and alcoholuse and hence damaged certain critical brain receptors, and, in general, rife with a plethora of environmentally causated personality disorders and biogenic amine …

ANGEL OF VENGEANCE I don’t watch much TV. I have nothing in particular against it, but it doesn’t hold my interest the way a book does. This renders me unapologetically out of touch with most television series. So when I heard that Trever O. Munson’s Angel of Vengeance, which I was about to read and review, was the inspiration for …

DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK As we grow into a more conscious metaphysical society and the number of related tv shows grow, it becomes a necessity to start preparing for things that we only associated with fairy tales. Now that might sound absurd, and it certainly does saying it, however…there is always the “what if” that lies beyond the truth to …

ALICE ON THE SHELF by Bill Gauthier (Bad Moon Books) “Where’s Alice? Down the Rabbit Hole.When Brad awakens with this question on his lips but his friend Miranda on his mind, a sense of unease fills him. When he finds she isn’t home, and a strange visitor is outside her house looking for a missing pocket watch, Brad knows something …

WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE The best works of fiction are those that absorb you to such an extent that they become a work of non-fiction, in that the world you’re drawn into is real and utterly absorbing. This is one of those memorable literary experiences. It’s a particular treat if you like your fiction dark and bewitching. …

The Poltergeist Phenomenon: An In-depth Investigation Into Floating Beds, Smashing Glass, and Other Unexplained Disturbances Have you heard a good ghost story lately? Afraid of things that go bump in the night? Have trouble seperating fiction from reality? Well you might be just the kind of reader that Clarkson has created this very piece for. The Poltergeist Phenomenon is no read …

INTO THE DARK By Patrick D’Orazio Into the Dark is Book 2 in author Patrick D’Orazio’s Dark trilogy. It picks up exactly were the terrific first installment ends on a cliff hanger note asserting itself as a worthy sequel right away. The main character, Jeff Blaine, and his small rag tag band of survivors (including a woman from Jeff’s former …

THE BONE TREE by Christopher Fulbright (Bad Moon Books) Above a Civil War graveyard in the backwoods of Texas, Kevin and Bobby’s treehouse was their haven against the world. But the day Tom Plecker comes screaming through the creek below, terrified of a shadow man, that all changes. Walking Tom home they see it — the tree, its branches twisted …

VISITANTS Editor: Stephen Jones Published By: Ulysses Press Published Date: November 1, 2010 Format: Black /White – 400 pages Price: $14.95 ($9.99 on Kindle) It pains me to imagine the amount of time, effort, thought and research that went into putting together this anthology of stories of “Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts,” but I am absolutely thrilled that it happened. …