Reading Time: 5 minutesHe will miss the fog and the light on the Bay. But he hungers for the solace of the Redwoods’ towering shadows. He needs to hear waves break endlessly on wild rocky shores.
Gods and Monsters Installment 45: Love Without Compromise Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesMariana Enriquez is mostly known for her short narrative. We included her in a little list to keep spreading the Halloween cheer last year. Our Share of Night, for its part, is a big, chunky girl. It is also Enriquez’s most ambitious novel to date that keeps her style intact and introduces more horrors and
Our Share of Night Review: Horror, Legacy, and Everything in Between Read More »
Reading Time: 5 minutes“Tarantulas are loners, like you,” says Ryo, resting a weightless hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “I was a loner too. Perhaps if I had it to do over… But that’s foolish talk. I don’t, I can’t. I don’t know if you can, but…”
Gods and Monsters Installment 44: Premonitions of Endings Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesSam was a company man. He was exactly what the company needed and what the company wanted. That is what made him so disturbing.
Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of this year’s surprises is The Werecleaner. You play as Kyle, a janitor at a corporate company. But — you’re actually a werewolf!
The Werecleaner Review: Werewolves Against Capitalism Read More »
Reading Time: 8 minutesRiver enters Bert’s. In spite of himself, his heart leaps at the sight of Pam. He wants his heart to be stone. He wants never to have met her. But wishes are overrun by desire. Love triumphs over fear.
Gods and Monsters Installment 43: Predator and Prey Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutesBeethoven does not merely drain his victims, he eviscerates them. When there are no more cats, he moves on to dogs and babies, climbing the food chain with grisly effect.
Gods and Monsters Installment 41: The Color of Empathy Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesI cracked my brain trying to come up with a review for Dredge, but what always came out was a lot of gushing over the game itself. So, I decided to change gears a little: This is not a review, it’s a love letter.
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s twilight. Jeremy has finished his eight hours of practice and is out walking through golden fields. Smoke weaves the smell of burning wood and sugar through the air. At the end of the field is a tall man.
Gods and Monsters Installment 40: The Fabric of the Universe Read More »
Reading Time: 9 minutesAs River’s eyes grow accustomed to the night, he sees a cat emerge from around a corner and disappear down a narrow alleyway. Another follows, and another. Surely, River thinks, there must be some meaning in all of these cats drifting toward a single destiny, their eyes glowing like secrets?
Gods and Monsters Installment 39: Beethoven’s Salt Sonatas Read More »
Reading Time: 2 minutesNeal Cassidy’s Schroeder presents a man’s one-day killing spree. Although at first the book doesn’t quite explain what is happening, it never slows down or goes easy on the violence. The novel begins with Schroeder starting his daily routine, but it is quickly established this is no ordinary day. Schroeder leaves his house, cruises through
Reading Time: 8 minutes“If you follow a life,” says Ryo, “one strand leads to another. You take me to Pamela, and Pamela guides me to Jeremy. It is impossible to understand her without him. Jeremy was both her lover and her creator.”
Gods and Monsters Installment 38: A Little Night Music Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesAfter a thief is mortally wounded, strange visions of past crimes begin to haunt him. As he tries to make his way out of a dark forest to see the sun once more, he cannot shake the feeling he is being followed.
Reading Time: 3 minutesIf you feel like Halloween didn’t last enough, here are five books to continue spreading the scares.
5 Short Horror Books to Extend the Halloween Cheer Read More »
Reading Time: 25 minutesA little boy discovers a mysterious seashell that contains more than just “ocean sounds” – a lot more…
Reading Time: 10 minutesWhen Margareta is not working, and if Pamela has been very, very good, Sarah lets her model the lacey cap. When Pam puts on the cap, she becomes an enchanted princess. The dirty pigeons that clutter the ledges of the city are snow white doves that come at her call and do her bidding. She leans out her window, arms spread wide, embracing her kingdom… until Sarah catches her and pulls her inside.
Reading Time: 4 minutesMarsha and Frank are driving along a country road on a rainy night, with Frank regaling Marsha about his knowledge of Japanese Samurai films,
when they encounter a ghostly specter in the middle of the road.
Reading Time: 9 minutesMike grabs Ashley from her quilted comfort. Her head droops back like a wilted flower. Her neck shows white in the night. Mike’s canines grow long with desire and need.
Gods and Monsters Installment 36: Stained Glass Soul Read More »
Reading Time: 9 minutesWhen their mother dies, a pair of precocious twins are placed in the care of their father, a conservative and stern man with whom their Wiccan practices immediately clash.
Reading Time: 7 minutesWhen Hephaestus emerged clubfooted and malformed, Hera tossed him off Mount Olympus. He fell for nine days and nine nights, landing in the sea with a splash so big it caused a tsunami. No wonder then, that he prefers Earth to Olympus and children to gods.
Gods and Monsters Installment 35: Gods and Circuses Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutesNow, after the advent of dreams and the appearance of color, when Gabriel reads of a killing, something inside him screams. When he looks upon a charcoal figure that so recently possessed unearthly beauty, he mourns. He wants to create, not destroy. He doesn’t like the role in which he has been cast.
Gods and Monsters Installment 34: The Fault Line Within Read More »
Reading Time: 8 minutesVampires followed the deluge of fluid and fear, tracking the lonely, homeless, and lost to the city, drawn by the need for belief, as well as blood.
Reading Time: 7 minutesThanatos never kills. He’s just the messenger.
Gods and Monsters Installment 32: Time Before Time Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutesEver since he found Gabriel in the field, River has been cut off and alone. Separated from humanity by a knowledge that he didn’t even realize he possessed, a perception deep within his bones. An understanding that though fairy tales may come true, they are written in blood and lies.
Gods and Monsters Installment 31: Small Time Gods Read More »
Reading Time: 8 minutesThe door is heavy, about four inches thick. A long narrow staircase leads down into darkness. He is in total darkness. Feeling his way slowly along the wall, carefully tapping his feet to see where the stairs begin, he finds a light switch. Harsh fluorescence floods the stairwell. This light would make anyone look dead, River thinks.
Reading Time: 7 minutesPamela stands in the doorway. River stops stirring and opens his arms. Pamela doesn’t even need to cross the room. She melts into him, soft as butter into flour. She is cold, damp as night fog.
Gods and Monsters Installment 29: Beautiful and Strange Read More »
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere’s an aswang on the loose and it’s up to us to deal with it. Don’t forget to bring trash bags…
Reading Time: 8 minutesThat night, Jackson does not come to Bert’s.
Reading Time: 6 minutesJim is standing on the rocky shore of a dark underground river. The only sound is the constant thrum of pebbles which gently lapping waves draw back and fling up the high strand. There is a whisper, the sound of a shadow gliding over hard round stones. Against the blackness he sees a man, tall and lean.
Reading Time: 6 minutesGlistening like a frozen tear, delicate as a kiss, the crystal necklace lies on wine velvet cloth. Jim has never seen anything so lovely and flawless. His breath catches in his throat. It’s out of his price range. There’s no way he can afford it. There’s no way he can walk away. Something in the manner the colors intertwine weaves around his soul.
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt is the first time Gabriel has heard birdsong. Usually, birds drop lifeless at his feet. Hearing the song, Gabriel is warmed by an invincible summer. He stretches his arms toward the light.
Gods and Monsters Installment 25: In the Time of Many Pigeons Read More »
Reading Time: 8 minutesDust fur falls like rain, feathering into the plumes of a dove. The dove’s wings become sleeves. Amimi is shining like a hologram in the glooming.
Gods and Monsters Installment 24: Wastelands of the Wild Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutesIn the night shadows of trees, shunning the moonlight, a man waits. It is Kristjan, taller than Jim remembers. He is nearly naked, covered only by a wolf skin. In the night, his eyes glow red. As Jim looks at him, unable to turn away, something dark slips beneath Jim’s fingernails, flowing like a shadow into his blood.
Reading Time: 7 minutesWhen a Virgin is seen in a small Mexican town it’s a miracle – the town is blessed… or is it?
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn the mornings, if he wakes beside the dust of a beautiful stranger, he knows he’s drained the world of a bit of color, a bit of beauty, however deadly.
Reading Time: 5 minutesJason’s daughter, Sarah, approached him one morning and said, “Daddy, the Shadow Man is back.”
Reading Time: 8 minutesOut of the earth, up through the floor, dust rises. It clings together, forming a translucent woman. She is brown as earth. Her face is worn. Her eyes are shadows in the night. Red paint dots her cheeks and ears. Her hair is made of darkness, the part decorated by a circle of crimson. “I am Amimi, matriarch of the Lenni Lenape,” she says.
Gods and Monsters Installment 21: Out of Dust – The Lenni Lenape Read More »
Reading Time: 2 minutesHow will a child react to his father’s unsettling business decisions?
Reading Time: 5 minutesAn old man’s dedication to his garden goes beyond the grave.
Reading Time: 7 minutesI drove that ancient pick-up all the way out into the Catskill Mountains. Even after that trek, that good old Ford was running strong. Still is. I rented a place out in the woods about ten miles from Greene Village, New York. It was tiny; just bed, bath, and stove, but I didn’t need more.
Gods and Monsters Installment 19: Lonely Journeys Read More »
Reading Time: 7 minutes“Where did you get the gun, River?” Jackson asks. River looks down. His right hand is wrapped around a cold black gun.
Gods and Monsters Installment 17: Moirai Mechanics Read More »
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe earliest account is from our foremother, Rhoda. You know her better as Red Riding Hood. That’s right, she was a real person. Back then, the handbag was still a handbasket, but more on that later.
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn the dark, something shambles toward you, its squelch squelch squelch sound getting louder, and louder. Is it here for you?
Reading Time: 3 minutesWith his life spiraling out of control, and a desire for revenge taking over his mind, a man takes drastic actions.
Reading Time: 26 minutesYoung Daisy must evade the clutches of forest-dwelling witch Madame Sosostris and Malcolm, the town brute, as she tries to solve the mystery of her friend Violet’s disappearance.
Reading Time: 4 minutesTotally narcissistic, Electra loved admiring her herself in the mirror. One day a wish turned her to stone gazing in a mirror at herself for eternity. She was mostly happy with this situation, until her old, dying husband visits her and gets a wish of his own.
Reading Time: 10 minutesDesperate for cash, Nick and his friend plot a home invasion. They picked the wrong house.
Reading Time: 10 minutesA young woman faces her vengeful parents returning from the dead.
