1997’s Asylum by Patrick McGrath was a novel that was recommended to me by a viewer of my book review videos on YouTube, and though I had heard the author’s name before, this was the first novel of his that I read. McGrath is a British writer, and Asylum is essentially a bleak, gothic thriller … More Books: Asylum by Patrick McGrath
In my previous post about Stories That Scared Even Me, I mentioned how influential horror stories were on me as a kid, and how much I adored seeking them out and reading them, whether they were intended for children or not (my parents were pretty chill that way). Sure, I delved into the very disturbing adult … More More Favorite Creepy Books from My 70s Childhood
Upon reading the synopsis of Gemma Files’s 2015 novel Experimental Film, I became immediately intrigued, as the premise deals with a mystery surrounding a supposedly cursed movie, and the “cursed movie” trope is one of my favorites in all of horror. I was thinking that maybe this would be something along the lines of John … More Books: Experimental Film by Gemma Files
The film adaptation of The Shining and the well-publicized blood feud between Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick has been the subject of nearly endless internet debate, but for some reason it’s a subject I’m obsessively fascinated by and often get into long, rambling conversations about, which is why I decided to unburden myself in written … More A Tale of Two Shinings
Several weeks back, an independent author named Cristina Mîrzoi contacted me and asked if I would review her book The Headsman, which was published early in 2022 and was available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited. Doing a little background research into Cristina Mîrzoi led me to discover that she’s a very new, emerging … More Books: The Headsman by Cristina Mîrzoi
Kealan Patrick Burke is an Irish author who won a Bram Stoker award for his novel The Turtle Boy, which came out in 2004; I’ve seen a few of his novellas—including Sour Candy and Blanky—being widely recommended as well. But the first book of his that I got around to reading was a 2011 novel … More Books: Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke
I had been wanting to read Thomas Tryon’s Harvest Home for quite a while, but had somehow never gotten around to it. I adored his 1972 book The Other, and the film adaptation of it is one of my favorite horror films of the decade. A while back, I was reading a post in a horror Facebook group where … More Book vs Movie: Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
Victor LaValle was yet another author that I had been sadly remiss in hearing about it until his work was recommended on several book review channels I watch. Other than being a novelist, LaValle is also a writing professor at Columbia, as is his wife. They have a son named Geronimo, which I thought was … More Books: The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
Arkansas author Robert Campbell was nice enough to contact me several weeks back and ask if I’d like to receive a signed copy of his first novel for review, and of course I readily agreed, so thank you, Robert, for going to great personal expense to send me the print book by one-day shipping. The … More Books: The Legend of the Cove Witch by Robert Campbell
Though I mostly read and review horror fiction, every now and then, I decide to go with something that’s not quite horror, but more horror-adjacent. So I heard about this book from 2016 called Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, which is a whodunnit with a twist that was a massive bestseller and turned up on … More Books: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
The Scare Salon 