This book meets LOVECRAFT COUNTRY meets BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. You can read this in one sitting but fair warning, you will want more.
I have experienced a lot of side-eyes glances and unwelcome critique for my love of the horror genre, the assumption being that my outlook and tastes must be base if not subterranean.Tell that to Carol J. Clover. Through thoughtful and academic lenses she looks at the slasher/horror genre as one with the potential to build empathy. This book reminds me that guilt and pleasure should never occupy the same space.
"There is no delight the equal of dread"
Clive Barker's artistic range is on full display in this toothsome collection of shorts: from haunted shrouds bent on revenge to possessed pigs, each tale is an allegory wrapped in viscera. Along with Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber', 'Books of Blood' rests atop my list when it comes to short story collections. A truly bloody affair.
This slight but viciously effective novella introduces a sadomasochistic mythology that spills over with gore and poetics. The monastic creatures within are iconic for a reason: they intrigue, terrify, and titillate. But its the human characters that are the real monsters, driven by ego and selfish desire. This tale explores the line between pleasure and pain and reveals the bloody face of transcendence.
What an angry and satisfying story. Apart from creating a compelling and morally ambiguous character worthy of his own series, Lavalle serves up a rebut to the xenophobia writhing in the depths of the Lovecraft mythos. This book made me hold up foot traffic on the way to the store, demanding that I finish the heartbreaking chapter before I took another step. J'adore.
Child logic and base ferality attempt to work together in this beautifully bleak fable. A group of fairies are forced to leave their previous 'home' and survive the wilderness. If you are looking for a sweet moral ribbon to tie around this tale, you wont find it. It is lost; buried in the woods amongst the maggots.
Do you like the Twilight Zone? Of course you do. But you might not know Richard Matheson. And you should, because arguably the most iconic episodes were adapted from his masterfully-written short fiction. Each story is so tightly crafted as to border on pulp, each ending twists with a stinger that demands your return. If I'm on a plane: 1) I have a Richard Matheson collection in my carry on and 2) I'm not going to look at the wing of the plane. Yeah. He wrote that.
Clive Barker (my future husband) displays the fecundity of his imagination by creating a dark fantasy epic on the scale of Tolkien full of deliciously sacrilegious subtext. The characters and scenes within have woven themselves into my psyche never to be unraveled. Thank Goddess.
This story revolves around 14-year-old Marjorie, the eldest of two sisters and her increasingly bizarre and erratic behavior. Is it the onset of mental illness or full on demonic possession?? This books sends up the exhausted tropes of past exorcism tales whilst simultaneously exploiting them to the benefit of the reader. It is a witty and creeptastic read with an homage to Shirley Jackson that left me reeling.
I adore the creative force that is Junji Ito. His tales are never dull, at times retch-inducing, and always ghastly. What more could a girl ask for??
