Undivine Interventions: Reviews of Horror Novels, Past and Present.

2018 has been an overwhelmingly good and especially prolific year for Horror. So, let me start by saying I am going to hold off on my "best of" list until I've gotten through a few last books of the year, so keep an eye out for that in mid-January. That being said, there are many strong contenders for that list and here is yet another. Glenn Rolfe is an author who I have watched and followed from very early in his career, from his first novel, The Haunted Halls. I read him religiously, because he has never let me down. Rolfe's writing embodies the aura of classic horror fiction perfectly. Even better, his writing gets more focused and refined with each book. To see a guy start humbly with a single title, to now a fairly vast library and fanbase, even starting his own publishing line, Alien Agenda, this year, is a really cool thing to watch. And so, it goes without saying, if you haven't checked out Glenn and his work, you absolutely should. He's amongst th...

As the year closes out, I find myself in a "tough" predicament...as most Horror fiction blogs do, I am preparing an "end of year list". While it's absolutely impossible to have read every new horror novel published in 2018, much less every book I have been sent for review, I am doing my best to cover the corners of the material that meshes at least somewhat closely with the things I enjoy reading, and therefore cover on my blog. There were a few titles I was interested in covering by Sinister Grin Press, and when I outreached their publicist to obtain copies, she also suggested this one, Kill Hill Carnage by Tim Meyer. After checking a quick synopsis, I agreed. Somehow, both this title and its author, have slipped under my radar. It's quite surprising to me, as this dude has quite a bit of interesting material out and is in cahoots with some of newer favorite authors. Not to mention, Sinister Grin has its own hallmark of quality that's been quite depe...

Oh, damn it. I've gotta figure out a better way to do this. I typed a whole bunch of this review already, but had some things to take care of, so I had to put it aside. I saved the draft and now... I come back to it to find it completely empty. I suppose one could argue that I am "professionally" reviewing books now, yeah? So, I should be a professional about it, yeah? Not throw a tempertantrum and say "SCREW THIS!!", YEAH!? Well, SCREW THIS. The Toy Thief is a book by the fledgling new horror line, Flame Tree Press, which as I have alluded to in previous reviews as something I am excited about. My excitement is starting to wane. Not because the books are particularly bad or anything. I'm just yet to read anything by the publisher that has that "wow factor". So far, things are pretty by-the-numbers and The Toy Thief is no exception. There's a good amount of small press putting out tons of "wow" level titles and with the advent...

Shadow Child has had a more fortunate life than many of its 80s horror kin. On the surface, it's hard to put a finger on why. Originally published in 1987 by Zebra, the title bore no outstanding traits in its initial packaging; a horror novel in a sea of horror novels, churned out for mass consumption. Nothing to really set them apart in their presentation, a skull face here, a spooky kid there, we'd be lying to ourselves as readers to deny that while we adore these covers in a nostalgic way, little was done to knowingly separate these novels from one another in their marketing. And with nothing to make them standout from one another, without star power of a "name author", it was very easy for these titles to fall into the abyss to never be seen or heard from again. Shadow Child has avoided this completely, here now in its 4th publication/edition. While I theorized how it has had such a rich life, one thing is clear and delineates it from its much less fortunate br...