Category: Reviews

by @Asenath Cosmic horror plays with the horror of the incomprehensible, where knowledge comes with a steep price and powerful entities view humans as ants. Hailey Piper takes cosmic horror’s preoccupation with alienation and insignificance and instead places it firmly within the familiar—homeless populations. This human touch is usually the antithesis of cosmic horror, but… Continue reading The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper

by Christopher O’Halloran (@BurgleInfernal) According to the US 2020 census, 36 million Americans identify their primary ethnicity as Irish—four times the actual population of Ireland. Over 5.6 million people around the world are using the language-learning app Duolingo to learn Irish. No backyard griller is without an apron saying, “Kiss me, I’m Irish.”People love Irish… Continue reading The Wych Elm by Tana French

by @Asenath Fairy tales cover diverse ground, from retellings of historical events to cultural in-jokes, but some of the most popular and longest enduring are tales about behavior, especially the behavior of women. Though queer and feminist takes on fairy tales are common today, with reimaginings written by everyone from Helen Oyeyemi to Margaret Atwood,… Continue reading The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

by Christopher O’Halloran (@BurgleInfernal) There are authors who write to change the world. Those who are able to create such beauty and wonder in words that a reader’s life is forever changed. Authors who astound with their brilliance.Then there’s Clive Barker—often credited with kickstarting the splatterpunk movement—doing his best to make your stomach turn and… Continue reading The Hellbound Heart By Clive Barker

by Molly Collins (@mollyec) People do weird things at art school. Believe me, I've been there. A girl in one of my classes collected preserved insect carcasses and dismembered bird wings to use in her projects, and the rest of us didn't blink an eye—I even borrowed them once for my own work. It was… Continue reading Comemadre by Roque Larraquy

by @SemaphoreRaven Humans are social creatures. We need human contact like plants need water—without it, we wither and die. Quarantine brought that into sharp focus. As we learned to bake homemade sourdough and finally sat down to teach ourselves French, something slowly gnawed away at our souls. When would we actually see another human being… Continue reading The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun

by @Asenath Monsters in horror should disturb us. And what monster is more disturbing than . . . a human? Yes, the serial killer. No fangs, no fur, no claws, just an incredibly charismatic and charming exterior hiding the desire to destroy, hurt, and humiliate. And we can’t get enough of them; there are thousands… Continue reading Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

by Lindsey Ragsdale (@Leviathan15) The house is always innocuous at first appearance. It sits on a lonely piece of land, it’s usually quite large, and always a few generations old. The group that moves in, temporarily or permanently, is typically a family, although sometimes it’s a loose bunch of acquaintances. No one stays in a… Continue reading Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco