"Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there." -John Barth
by F. Paul Wilson “No rules in this alley, friend. Just you and me. And I’m here to get you.” The first Repairman Jack novel, The Tomb (as it was originally published in 1984) or Rakoshi (as Dr. Wilson wanted it to be titled before being overruled by the publisher) introduces us to the hard-boiled... Continue Reading →
by F. Paul Wilson “He flashed his beam at the figure blacking his path. He saw the waxy face, the cape, the clothes, the lank hair, the twin pools of madness where the eyes should be. And he knew. Here was the master of the house.” Set in Romania around World War II, this story... Continue Reading →
by Jamie Delano (from Hellblazer vol. 2 - The Devil You Know) "Hell is a slow, cold dream… a numb descent to absolute zero… a dead-eyed observation of atrocity. It’s where you go to chill out when the horror catches up with you. You can easily die there, and never even care." Hellblazer is the... Continue Reading →
by Various Authors “I chuckle to myself to keep from sobbing. It's been over a year since I've seen my children.” (from "Visitation Rights") A chapbook from Cemetery Dance containing 4 Christmas-themed short stories, Holiday Horrors is super-fast and is a great read at this time of year. In no particular order: "Stocking Stuffers" by... Continue Reading →
by Richard Chizmar “I… I thought I was the only one. But… but you’re like me, aren’t you?” she asked. “Like you and then some.” Richard Chizmar’s outstanding collection of short stories, Midnight Promises, is another title suggested from John R. Little’s favorite 10 collections list. An unmistakable pattern is his choices has emerged. The... Continue Reading →
by Harlan Ellison “A world that has grown so complex and uncaring with systems and brutalization of individuals because of the inertia produced by those systems’ perpetuation of self, that merely to live is to be assaulted daily by circumstances.” Shatterday is another collection favorited by one of the best short story writers in the... Continue Reading →
by Jim Thompson “It’s a screwed up, bitched up world, and I’m afraid it’s going to stay that way. And I’ll tell you why. Because no one, almost no one, sees anything wrong with it.” This book takes a fairly strong stomach as the story unfolds from the first-person perspective of our main character, a... Continue Reading →
by Fritz Leiber “There are two sides to every woman. . . One is rational, like a man. The other knows.” Norman, a successful professor at a mid-level private college is happily married to his wife Tansy when he one day catches her practicing witchcraft. He immediately pounces on her superstitions and insists she rid... Continue Reading →
by Stephen King “I pulled out a single sheet of paper wrapped around a smaller envelope. Written on the face of this second envelope was Read my letter before opening this one. So I did. Got help me, so I did.” Revival opens with a young boy, Jamie, meeting the new local preacher, Charles, as... Continue Reading →
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