Blu Gilliand Archives - Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Edited By edited by Ellen Datlow

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 22, 2020September 21, 2020ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Edited By, Ellen Datlow, Reviews, Subterranean PressLeave a comment

Edited By edited by Ellen Datlow
Subterranean Press (September 2020)
632 pages; $45 limited edition hardcover; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

If you look back over the history of horror fiction, there are a few names that have become synonymous with the genre. Stephen King. Edgar Allan Poe. Shirley Jackson. Clive Barker. Ellen Datlow may not have quite the same level of mainstream recognition as these authors, but her influence on horror fiction (not to mention fantasy and sci-fi) stands equal.Continue Reading

Review: In the Shadows of Men by Robert Jackson Bennett

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 2, 2020August 29, 2020ReviewsBlu Gilliand, In the Shadows of Men, Reviews, Robert Jackson Bennett, Subterranean PressLeave a comment

In the Shadows of Men by Robert Jackson Bennett
Subterranean Press (August 2020)
120 pages; $40 limited edition hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

If there’s one thing readers of horror fiction know to be true, it’s that old, isolated motels are not the place to go if you’re looking to get your life together.

Especially if said motel is brimming with secrets.

Especially if the person seeking sanctuary is bringing his own demons along for the ride.Continue Reading

Interview: Into the Cornfield with Adam Cesare

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 25, 2020August 22, 2020InterviewsAdam Cesare, Blu Gilliand, Clown in a Cornfield, InterviewsLeave a comment

Adam Cesare, author and Cemetery Dance columnist, has been a fixture on the horror scene for nearly a decade. Early books like Video Night and All-Night Terror made him an instant favorite among fans of horror fiction, and he’s continued developing his skill and style with books like The Con Season and The First One You Expect.

His new novel, Clown in a Cornfield, is generating the sort of next-level buzz those of us who’ve been reading Cesare’s work since the beginning have been expecting. Adam was kind enough to take time during a busy book-launch week to talk with his old Cemetery Dance editor, who may or may not have taken the opportunity to press him relentlessly about writing for us again….but mainly asked him questions about the new book.Continue Reading

Dead Air: An Interview with the Creators of The Kingcast

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 21, 2020August 16, 2020Dead Air, InterviewsBlu Gilliand, Columns, Dead Air, Eric Vespe, Interviews, Scott Wampler, The KingcastLeave a comment

Not too long ago, journalists Eric Vespe (formerly of Ain’t It Cool News, among others) and Scott Wampler (formerly of birth.movies.death, among others), got together to discuss an idea that would evolve into “a Stephen King podcast for Stephen King obsessives.” The Kingcast invites guests from the entertainment industry to discuss the King novel or short story of their choosing, along with the film or television adaptation of that work.

Over the past few months, The Kingcast has hosted a variety of guests, including Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) discussing 1408, Elijah Wood discussing Misery, Karyn Kusama discussing Carrie, and Damien Echols (who was wrongly convicted and jailed for murder largely due to his interest in heavy metal and horror) discussing the Dark Tower series.

Recently, the co-creators and hosts were kind enough to answer a few questions for Cemetery Dance.Continue Reading

Review: Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 3 edited by William Schafer

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 17, 2020July 20, 2020ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Reviews, Subterranean Press, Tales of Dark Fantasy 3, William ShaferLeave a comment

Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 3 edited by William Schafer
Subterranean Press (July 2020)
234 pages; $40 hardcover; $150 limited edition hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Like most anthologies, Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 3 is a bit of a mixed bag. There are no bad stories here, but some resonated with me more than others. No doubt each reader will have his or her own favorites; rather than try and predict what those will be, I’m just going to share a few of mine.Continue Reading

Review: Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Cemetery Dance OnlineJune 26, 2020June 25, 2020ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Night of the Mannequins, Reviews, Stephen Graham Jones, TorLeave a comment

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
Tor (September 1, 2020)
136 pages; $11.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

So Shanna got a new job at the movie theater, we thought we’d play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead, and I’m really starting to kind of feel guilty about it all.

Stephen Graham Jones packs a lot of information about his new book Night of the Mannequins into that opening sentence. You get a hint of events to come, a clear idea of the tone, and an important clue about the attitude of the narrator, all in less than 40 words. That, my friends, is talent.Continue Reading

Review: A Little Amber Book of Wicked Shots by Robert McCammon

Cemetery Dance OnlineJune 22, 2020ReviewsA Little Amber Book of Wicked Shots, Blu Gilliand, Borderlands Press, Little Books Series, Reviews, Robert McCammonLeave a comment

A Little Amber Book of Wicked Shots by Robert McCammon
Borderlands Press (Spring 2020)
146 pages; $30 limited edition signed & numbered hardcover (750 copies; sold out)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Borderlands Press has a built an outstanding back catalog of titles with its Little Books Series, attracting an array of legendary-or-heading-there authors including Charles L. Grant, Jack Ketchum, Josh Malerman, Sarah Pinborough, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and a host of others. These tend to sell out quickly—including the entry we’re looking at today, A Little Amber Book of Wicked Shots by Robert McCammon. So, while today’s review may not serve as a call for you to rush out and buy this book—I mean, I ain’t sellin’ mine, and I doubt many others will, either—let it be a lesson for you to get on the Borderlands Press mailing list so you can start grabbing these titles when they are released.Continue Reading

Review: The Darkling Halls of Ivy edited by Lawrence Block

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 7, 2020May 6, 2020ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Lawrence Block, Reviews, Subterranean Press, The Darkling Halls of IvyLeave a comment

The Darkling Halls of Ivy edited by Lawrence Block
Subterranean Press (May 2020)
328 pages; $50 limited edition hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

A life in academia always struck me as a somewhat safe, even enviable career choice. I mean, what could be so bad about a career dedicated to increasing knowledge—your own, and that of others? What could be bad about a workplace where you’re surrounded by books and intelligent colleagues, and you’re encouraged to pursue whatever niche interest catches your eye?

Turns out there’s a lot that can be bad about it. Continue Reading

Review: Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 23, 2020March 22, 2020ReviewsBent Heavens, Blu Gilliand, Daniel Kraus, ReviewsLeave a comment

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus
Henry Holt and Company (February 2020)
304 pages; $12.39 hardcover; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Liv is a teenage girl, a high school freshman living with the typical teenage drama that comes with trying to find your crowd, not to mention your own identity. Unfortunately for Liz, she has more than the usual obstacles standing in the way of acceptance and self-confidence; she has to carry the burden of being the daughter of the man who went missing, showed up raving and naked in the middle of town, and then disappeared again.Continue Reading

Review: Blackwood by Michael Farris Smith

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 2, 2020March 3, 2020ReviewsBlackwood, Blu Gilliand, Michael Farris Smith, ReviewsLeave a comment

Blackwood by Michael Farris Smith
Little, Brown and Company (March 2020)
304 pages; $27 hardcover; $13.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

If you’ve been to the South you’ve seen kudzu, the suffocating green vine that will envelop anything that stands still long enough. It fills gullys and blankets hills. It climbs telephone poles and encircles trees. It’s got a deep foothold in the region, and it’s tough. I once saw a car that had plunged nose-first into a kudzu-filled ravine, its taillights the only thing visible through the green webbing — webbing strong enough to catch the car like a net and keep it from hitting the ground.

Were the kudzu to disappear one day, to turn brown and crumble the way other, lesser plants do, there’s no telling what would be revealed. Abandoned pickup trucks. Forgotten general stores and shotgun houses. Animal bones by the millions. And secrets…so many secrets.Continue Reading

Review: Jane Goes North by Joe R. Lansdale

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 18, 2020February 17, 2020ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Jane Goes North, Joe R. Lansdale, Reviews, Subterranean PressLeave a comment

Jane Goes North by Joe R. Lansdale
Subterranean Press (March 2020)
232 pages; $40 limited edition hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

I took a few road trips in my youth. While they were marked with plenty of shenanigans and questionable decisions (as was most of my youth), none of them came close to the craziness experienced by the women in Jane Goes North, Joe Lansdale’s new novel from Subterranean Press. It’s probably a good thing, too; Lansdale’s women barely flinch in the face of the inconveniences and dangers he tosses at them, while I would have crumbled like a cheap cookie.Continue Reading

Review: The Sky Done Ripped by Joe R. Lansdale

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 8, 2020January 8, 2020ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Joe R. Lansdale, Reviews, Subterranean Press, The Sky Done RippedLeave a comment

The Sky Done Ripped by Joe R. Lansdale
Subterranean Press (December 2019)
296 pages; $95 signed limited edition hardcover; $40 trade edition hardcover; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

I think that, sometimes, in the midst of all the discussion about craft and theme and structure, we—meaning writers and readers and reviewers—forget that this stuff is supposed to be fun. It’s so refreshing, then, when an author like Joe R. Lansdale comes along, manuscript in hand and shit-eating grin on his face, to remind us of that very fact.Continue Reading

Double Feature Review: Stephen King at the Movies & The World of IT

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 23, 2019October 22, 2019ReviewsAlyse Wax, Blu Gilliand, Ian Nathan, Reviews, Stephen King, Stephen King at the Movies, The World of ITLeave a comment

Stephen King at the Movies by Ian Nathan
Palazzo Editions (October 2019)
224 pages; $28.93 hardcover

The World of IT by Alyse Wax
Harry N. Abrams (September 2019)
224 pages: $24.49 hardcover; $16.79 e-book

Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

If there’s one thing we as horror fans have never been deprived of, it’s Stephen King adaptations. From major novels like The Shining and Misery to minor stories like “The Mangler” and “Secret Window, Secret Garden,” virtually every corner of King’s bibliography has been mined. If you count sequels and remakes, there are more than 80 film and television adaptations of King’s work…and counting.Continue Reading

Review: How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 16, 2019October 22, 2019ReviewsBlu Gilliand, How to Survive a Horror Movie, Quirk Books, Reviews, Seth Grahame-Smith1 Comment

How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith
Quirk Books (September 2019)
176 pages; $11.99 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

It’s the middle of October, just a couple of weeks away from Halloween as I write this, and I find myself (like, doubtless, many of you) in the midst of a horror movie marathon leading into my favorite holiday. Most of what I watch this time of year are classics that I’ve seen a time or two (or ten) before, and — again, I suspect, like many of you — I find myself constantly second-guessing the actions of the characters on the screen.Continue Reading

Review: Blood Sugar by Daniel Kraus

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 3, 2019October 2, 2019ReviewsBlood Sugar, Blu Gilliand, Daniel Kraus, Hard Case Crime, ReviewsLeave a comment

Blood Sugar by Daniel Kraus
Hard Case Crime (October 8, 2019)
224 pages; $9.95 paperback; $6.15 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Depending on your reading habits, you may be familiar with Hard Case Crime in a couple of different ways. If you read horror exclusively, you may know Hard Case Crime as the publisher of two Stephen King novels: The Colorado Kid and Joyland (neither of which are horror, although Joyland does incorporate some supernatural elements). If you’re the kind of reader who makes room for more than one genre on your bookshelves, you may know Hard Case Crime as a publisher specializing in a mix of original and reprint pulp crime novels. I’m a Hard Case Crime fan from way back, so when I read they were combining my love of crime fiction and Halloween stories in a novel called Blood Sugar, I was all in.Continue Reading

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