Books

Dead Tide By: Stephen A. North Permuted Press Publishing 237 Pages An onslaught of a virus outbreak has devoured civilization in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. Residents strive to stay alive while government officials responsible for the disaster attempt to flee abandoning all social responsibility and liability. As a novel critic one may only imagine the extent in sheer volume …

My first reaction? Wow….if there is a book solely dedicated to this crappy film toting it as cult phenomenon, then the film “must” be worth checking out. I admit it, I didn’t jump on the wagon when it arrived back in 2003. The movie, that is…had escaped my interest. Since word of this press release, I took it upon myself …

Still The Shadows By Elizabeth Fields 117 Pages A collection of four short stories with a common theme of the macabre. Flypaper: A young couple’s car breaks down and they seek help in the most precarious of circumstances. The Apartment: A first person account of one woman’s experience with malicious spirits. Cinnamon: First person point of view in how one …

I’ve raved on and on about how much I love the DIY aspect of Jack Bantry’s Splatterpunk zine. Twice now, in fact, in my reviews of issues 4 and 5. So I’m not going to repeat myself again by going into all that about how it feels punk, and how it’s so good to see paper zines still exist, etc, …

The Dark Side Issue 163 Editor: Allan Bryce Ghoulish Publishing With this issue, The Dark Side hits its 25th year, which is pretty good going for a magazine which was once on the scrapheap and eventually rose like a chilling phoenix fashioned from the bones and entrails of the fallen issues in order to become something very special again. It …

I love poetry and I love horror. Unsurprisingly, I have a soft spot for horror poetry. Unfortunately, like many expressions of horror, the amount of subpar work by cheap, gimmicky hacks makes the entire genre I adore look like shit. Because of that, I tend to be pretty damn harsh on poetry. Unless I like it, then I glow like …

The Dark Side Issue 162 Editor: Allan Bryce Ghoulish Publishing Ahh, the delights of the Dark Side hitting UK shelves every two months continue, and once again the question must be raised as to why it isn’t monthly. Mind you, having to wait for new issues generates excitement rather than impatience, and harkens back to an era when you could …

The Nightmare Girl – by Jonathan Janz Samhain Publishing, 2015 301 pages You ever feel like no matter what good you do for someone, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t win? Well, let me introduce you to Joe Crawford. Joe was on his way home with his wife and young daughter when he realized he had to …

The End In All Beginnings By: John F.D. Taff Grey Matter Press 330 Pages A collection of five short story/novellas with a central theme of loss of love, innocence and youth. What Becomes God-A young boy will do anything to save his best friend of a terminal illness regardless of the consequences. Object Permanence-Chris Stadler is institutionalized in a psychiatric …

I can’t remember the last straight-up monster book that I’ve read. Probably some book about Bigfoot or something when I was younger. It’s not even that I don’t like the creature features, but more that my tastes usually lay in a more reality-centered realm, where there are far more serial killers and devil-worshippers than there are monsters hiding in the …

The Good and the Bad – Author Jack Bantry Run for Your Life Nick McClusky – Author Nathan Robinson Splatterpunk – 2014 In the already established tradition of keeping things punk and keeping things DIY (which seem like they should be synonymous, but too often are not), Jack Bantry and Splatterpunk are not only in the business of releasing a …

AXES OF EVIL A Heavy Metal Horror Anthology Edited by Alex S. Johnson Chupa Cabra House Publishing 576 Pages A mammoth collection of thirty-three tales with a common theme surrounding heavy metal folklore, legends and horror that will exhilarate even the blackest of souls. Mourningstar By Del James-Destruction likes on the horizon for Rhain, Wraith, Revile and Ruin collectively known …

Joe Lansdale. If I have to tell you about him, I’m not sure I want to talk to you any more. The premier purveyor of sun-baked Texas grit and straight up goddamn oddity has been tapped by Dark Regions Press to be paired with artist Santiago Caruso for the second of their Black Labrynth novellas. If you don’t recall, I …

EQUILIBRIUM OVERTURNED Edited by Anthony Rivera and Sharon Lawson Grey Matter Press 322 Pages A collection of fourteen tales with a sense of unbalance challenging perception as we know it The Final Testimony of Molly Ryder By Jeff Hemenway-Kristoff a murderer is used as a test subject in a psylink to unveil the true darkness that lies within. Amnion By …

LUNCHMEAT Issue 8 (Independent Publication) Editor: Josh Schafer Crank up your VCR, slip in your favourite VHS tape as background and kick back with the long-awaited 8th issue of LUNCHMEAT, the brilliant magazine from the Lunchmeat VHS website. A zine which leaves most major publications in the dust, it’s a labour of love for Josh and the gang and also …