Horror hot take: I’m not that into Aliens as a film. But I dig the heck out of Jenette Vasquez’ take no crap, tear everyone to bits attitude. Without question, I absolutely adore the heck out of everything I have read from V. Castro. While Vasquez ended up being quite different from what I expected, it also ended up being much better.Continue Reading
In 2020 Kim Vodicka gifted us with The Elvis Machine, one of the most compelling, and honest collections of the year. This time, she is focusing on Ted Bundy. It would be easy to go with straight depictions of the murders. Instead, Kim pictures herself as both the fangirl obsessed with Bundy and as his victim. She delves deep into the squishy desire to be both a dehumanized thing of flesh to be used and an object of adoration.Continue Reading
Max Booth III has set himself up as the king of turning the worst ideas on the planet into absolute gold. Two old friends arguing in a basement because one thinks he is a werewolf? Killer. A family stuck in their bathroom? Heartbreaking. A father and a son dig up their own corpses from the back garden…
Yup, that is the elevator pitch here. At best, a minute-long gag filling space in a cheap anthology film. WEIRD! CREEPY! DONE! And we move on with our lives.
But not Max. Nope. He manages to turn it into a stupidly engaging book.Continue Reading
I dug the hell out of Laurel Hightower’s previous book, Crossroads. It had that heart I am always looking for, a fair amount of “messeded up,” and an attitude that took zero percent of my guff. So, of course, when I found out that she had a new one coming out, and that it involved Mothman, I was down as a clown in D-town.Continue Reading
Bugs, amiright? Creepy little bastards. Skittering around on too many legs. Staring at us with too many eyes. Click-clacking their chitinous carapaces from the dark corners. Then they have the nerve to squirt out all those gloppy bits when you squish them. EW!Continue Reading
Alessandro Manzetti always does a great job of evoking a narrative with his poems. He has figured out a great balance of information given and withheld within the swirling images his poems paint that hints at the larger narrative beyond what we are given. I love it. So, when he has a narrative stretched over fifteen poems, you know I’m in. Continue Reading
Most likely, you know Chuck Tingle. Also incredibly likely, you have never read more of his work than the covers. Which is a shame, because Dr. Chuck Tingle is honestly a hell of a writer. But, if you are too scared of a little butt pounding, then maybe his first foray into full-out horror will get you to give the dude a chance. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.Continue Reading
In the decently distant future, most population centers of the United States of North America are domed cities where even the poorer members of society live in relative ease and comfort. Poppets, the reanimated and mechanized bodies of the deceased, have taken over most manual labor. Outside of the domed cities lies the chaos of the wilds. Ellie, the assumed heir of the company that makes and runs the Poppets, is about to learn that life within and without the domes is far uglier and more complicated than she realizes.Continue Reading
Max Booth III is carving a niche out for himself as the king of premises that should not, in any way whatsoever, work. Yet, somehow, he does it. Every frickin’ time. Even with that anthology that every editor on the planet curses him for. I’ll be damned if he doesn’t pull it off again with We Need to Do Something.Continue Reading
Alessandro Manzetti has quickly made a fairly large stamp on the genre. I remember hearing his name some a couple years ago, seeing something from him pop up here and there. Now, dude’s name is moving mountains. Whitechapel Rhapsody is a marvelous example of why.Continue Reading
I generally don’t spend time talking about the personalities of writers when reviewing their work. Here, though, personality is the point of the whole thing. Pippa Bailey and Myk Pilgrim have established themselves as playful, boisterous members of the horror community over the years they have been a part of it. They walk that line between the dark and the heart and the weird little dancey places in between very well and it comes across clearly that this is just who they are.Continue Reading
I know what you are thinking: we can all get this story for free. At the very least, we can get it in a collection with plenty of other stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. Why would anyone want to pay $27?Continue Reading
Porn parodies. We know ’em. We love ’em. Except maybe Porn of the Dead. I don’t think anyone was asking for someone to go that far with it. Maybe Joe D’Amato. Look, I got a bit sidetracked. Point is: why the heck didn’t anyone think of doing porn parodies of classic literature before now?
Take Autumn Christian’s “The Thottery, by Shirley Jacksoff.” That title alone should print solid gold bricks that fall like rain from its moistened nethers. Or “The Martian Cumsicles by Ray Fatberries (Charles Austin Muir).” And “A Bird Came Up My Walk and I Put It in my Vagina by Emily Getta Dickinson.” That last one deserves an award.
But it isn’t all just the titles. Stories here range from the pure goofball oddity of Max Booth III’s “Tit, by Stephen Kink” to the satire of a satire that is “American Sly-ho by Breast-Eatin Ellis” from our dear friend Jessica McHugh. Then there is the raw heartache and fury we all have come to expect from Betty Rocksteady encapsulated in “Pinnochio’s Big Dick Energy, by Cucko Cuccoldi.” The less said about Johnwayne Comunale’s “The Receiving Tree, by Shell Silversteen” the less prepared for that particular ball of what-did-I-just-experience you will be.
Point is, Boinking Bizarro is exactly what it says on the tin, with just that smidge more to make for a special surprise. I liked it so much that I bought a physical copy just so the pages could get stuck together.
In Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison: Songs of Death and Love, Anton Cancre creates scenes of death and works to capture them in short, poignant poems. Cancre works within various horror tropes but does his best to keep the ideas fresh and visceral for the reader. This is an interesting collection, and while the poetry is inconsistent at times, fans of horror poetry will enjoy perusing it.Continue Reading
I assume you know about @midnight_pals and The Midnight Society. If you dig horror literature, I don’t know how you could have missed it. You know, THE twitter gathering of great minds from across generations. Where Mary Shelley slaps the soul out of anyone pretending to the throne. That Midnight Society.
If you don’t know it, just look it up. I don’t have the space here and it is worth your time. This is the best literary satire currently going. And it is actually funny.
If you do, then I am sure, like me, you wanted to know why you should buy a book of stuff you can get online for free. But Bitter Karella has some treats in store for you here. Cute drawings that add to the lampooning of your favorite writers? Check. Plus additional faux stories from those authors we all love that really nail the silliness we all look past.
And if you want to find out about new horror talent, this is a surprisingly good place. Amid the gags at King and Barker and Lovecraft, there are pokes at the likes of Mary Sangiovanni (one of the bewb gags had me spitting while I sat on the toilet) and Betty Rocksteady, aka the sneaky snake of Canada that will rock your world.
The only downside is that orders can only be placed through direct contact via twitter at @midnight_pals but it is totally worth it.