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

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...

Capricorn Literary continues to republish some old school "Paperbacks from Hell" and as the end of year gets closer, I've enlisted some help of friend's to get through reviewing some of the books I've been sent for review. Chris Mayek says of DNTD: "It's nothing original - a family a four moves into a seemingly nice home with a haunting past - in this case, following Amityville exactly, with a gruesome murder happening there decades prior. It progressively ends up affecting each family member differently. You've read this before, likely several different examples of it. Disturb Not The Dream is unfortunately one of the more boring versions of the haunted house trope book. It's written well enough, similar to any other early 80s horror author, but it is bogged down by over explanations of non-horror scenarios in it's too-long length. There was a funny scene in the beginning - The older sister teasing her slightly younger, nerdy brother se...

Practitioners. I'd been extremely excited to read this one since it had been announced. Patrick Lacey and Matt Hayward are two of my favorite authors putting out books today, both of which put out novels last year that made my "best of 2017" list. Those novels, We Came Back and What Do Monsters Fear, are both highly recommended and if you haven't read those, you're missing out. Stop missing out and go buy a copy of each. Ten of each, give em out as Christmas gifts. Anyway, I learned that this would be coming out by Bloodshot Books, who for my money, are putting out some of the best horror fiction on the market today. Not only does Pete Kahle, the man behind Bloodshot (and author in his own rite), have a great eye for exciting new talent, but he makes sure each book the press outs out looks fantastic. Books you can judge by their cover, for sure. By all accounts of those involved in this one, looked like it was going to be a winning recipe of great horror readin...

I'm a bit late to the party, but Kill Creek was one of the most buzzed about new Horror novels of 2017, published by one of the most buzzed about new publishers with a specialty in Horror, InkShares. InkShares is a relatively new force in the publishing world, that has me fairly excited with last year's A God In The Shed and now this, both of which have been optioned for TV. One of the most exciting parts about InkShares for me, is their visibility, as they're actually making it to the shelves of brick and mortar bookstores, a feat not many genre titles, especially by new authors, are able to manage these days. For that alone, I'll give them my money, as a token of appreciation and in hopes it'll keep them there. But is this book any good? I'll be honest. A 400+ page book billed as a 'slow burn haunted house story' doesn't exactly get my reader senses jumping for joy. There's a billion of them and they generally aren't for me. It's ...

The Blood Lights, as far as I know, is the debut long-form work of author Elaine Pascle, who if I read correctly, isn't too far from me, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Cool enough, and worth a read to support a fairly local writer. The storyline mainly takes place there, jumping back and forth between the horrific happenings of "present tense" (which in this book, for a reason I am unclear of, is 2021) and a tropical island, which seems to be unfolding at the same time? I'm not sure, but honestly, for a quick 150ish pages, this one sure had me lost. It's the constant flip-flopping between timelines, an overabundance of characters with similar occurrences happening to each, that lost me. It wasn't particularly bad, middling stuff when all is said and done, with a few great moments to put it just a bit above "bad". The Blood Lights tells it's convoluted, jagged story of women transformed by the titular menace into pus- filled flesh eaters with eno...