Book review: Aletheia – JS Breukelaar

‘Aletheia’ is a very dense novel and a sizeable book to boot. There is a murky essence to this story of a family returning home after a lengthy absence, but does it buckle under its own weight? Certainly not. Crystal Lake Publishing doesn’t release books they don’t heartily believe in. My TBR pile meant that…

Book review: The Trench – Paul Mannering

I’ve read a few books by Paul Mannering and he does this sort of action/horror fiction, often set in the middle of some ocean better than most. Both his previous books, ‘Hell’s Teeth’ and ‘Eat’ were great, fun reads, filled with gore, humorous dialogue and lightning fast pacing. ‘The Trench’ follows a familiar storytelling path….

Book review: There is Darkness in Every Room – Brian Fattah Steele

The truth is out there…and, for Brian Fatah Steele, it was time to break out his favourite X-Files episodes then get stuck into the writing of ‘There is Darkness in Every Room’. And let me tell you, fans of the show will love this book. Weird aliens, black goo, flesh being flayed from the bodies…

Book review: Garden of Fiends – Tales of addiction horror.

Mark Mathews’ Wicked Run Press has assembled quite the cast to share these stories of addiction horror. A mixture of novellas, short stories and a flash fiction piece, ‘Garden of Fiends’ is not a happy reading experience but it is an incredibly fascinating and at times grim one. These are dark tales set against a…

Book review: The Silent Invasion – James Bradley

I do enjoy a good apocalypse read. The thought of dying world’s, alien invaders, mysterious plagues, it’s all good stuff that I love to dive into. These books often represent the opportunity for writers to develop fascinating, three-dimensional characters, or characters that you’re not always sure whose side they are on, characters with motives all…

Book review: The Rage of Cthulhu – Gary Fry

I’ve read some damn good books recently and maybe I’m being a little harsh on this novella from Horrific Tales Publishing. Horrific Tales Publishing have released some great novellas in the past 12 months. Gary McMahon delivered a gem in ‘The Grieving Stones’, Paul Kane impressed with ‘The Rot’ and I also enjoyed John Llewellyn…

Book review: Unnerving Magazine #2

I was really impressed with issue #1 of Unnerving Magazine, so much so that issue #2 was always going to be a bit like the difficult second album by your new favourite band. My initial worries were laid to rest when I saw that Stephen Kozeniewski *checks spelling*, James Newman and Jessica McHugh had jumped…

Book review: Baby Powder and other Terrifying Substances – John C. Foster

Not since John F.D. Taff’s short story collection have I enjoyed a coming together of short tales such as this. Though I have read some of these before, I was only too pleased to revisit the dark landscapes that Foster has crafted here with his imagination. To label ‘Baby Powder and Other Terrifying Substances’ (wow!…

Book review: Primordial – David Wood & Alan Baxter

The speed in which I blasted throughout this book should give you a good indication bas to how much I enjoyed it. Whilst it wasn’t quite worthy of the full quota of stars (it was close!) due to a little pace dip in the middle, ‘Primordial’ sure is a hell of a lot of fun and…

Book review: Splatterpunk’s Not Dead

Jack Bantry, editor of Splatterpunk Magazine puts his DIY zine to one side to release an anthology of Splatterpunk fiction. I’m a big fan of the magazines, a BIG fan. I have every one published to date. They have awoken me to a number of new writers within the horror genre and a few of…