Hellnotes
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Horror - Covering the horror genre ... horror films, horror novels, horror reviews, writing horror, horror conventions and more.
Hellnotes
1d ago
Grasshands
Kyle Winkler
JournalStone (January 19, 2024)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy
“Good and evil? … Wrong dichotomy. She preferred thinking of Less Pain or More Pain. More knowledge or Less Knowledge.”
With a loud “FA,” a glowing saltshaker, a singing pike, and a machete Sylvia, Albert, and Ms. Gamlin save the city of Caldecott, Indiana from Grasshands and the moss originating in the library that overtook the town. Kyle Winkler has written a unique and beautiful fairytale like no other I have read. If Neil Gaiman, Tim Burton, Lewis Carroll, J. R.R. Tolkien, and William Gibson created a baby, t ..read more
Hellnotes
3d ago
Home Before DarkRiley Sager
Dutton (June 30, 2020)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
The odd thing about this book is that title doesn’t really anything to do with the story. This is the first time I’ve ever come across a book that was so bewilderingly mistitled.
But that is the only area where the author slightly slipped up and is totally forgivable, because this is one great horror novel.
We meet the Holt family, who just purchased Baneberry Hall—a huge Victorian pile with a dark reputation. Jessica Holt is a teacher and Ewan Holt is a writer who could really use a break. Maggie is their five-ye ..read more
Hellnotes
5d ago
LullabyCécile GuillotTrepidatio Publishing (January 5, 2024)Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy
Cécile Guillot wrote a beautiful and haunting short story, “Lullaby,” which resonates deeply with me for personal reasons. I am going to share them here because they relate to the plot; I have kissed more than a few women because I am bisexual; I write horror; I have been institutionalized twice for suicidal tendencies and severe depression, once as a teenager and once as an adult; I am a woman who speaks out for women’s rights, and as you find at the end of the story, which I will not give away, I also share ..read more
Hellnotes
1w ago
We’re Not Ourselves Today
Lydia Prime and Jill Girardi
Kandisha Press (March 2024)
Reviewed by Elaine Pascale
Full disclosure: I am familiar with the writing of Lydia Prime and Jill Girardi so I began reading We’re Not Ourselves Today with high expectations. I was not disappointed. We’re Not Ourselves Today contains 13 short stories that are creepy, distressing, and well written.
We’re Not Ourselves Today begins with an amusing introduction by Aisha Kandisha, aka “The Librarian.” The librarian is a sort of crypt keeper; she is the green-skinned curator of stories for Kandisha Press. She is als ..read more
Hellnotes
1w ago
Skin That Screams
Thomas Stewart
Unveiling Nightmares Ltd. (April 15, 2024)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy
Skin That Screams by Thomas Stewart is a collection of nightmare tales forcing readers to face their greatest fear – themselves. Stewart writes, about “misery … just being deadlocked in a state of entropy … unable to move or do anything to help yourself …” This is the detritus of our nightmares, those rotting, festering, niggling questions living inside your skin that come to life at 3AM when you can’t sleep. Skin That Screams is the perfect title for this book. All the stories deal with chara ..read more
Hellnotes
1w ago
Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror
Jacob Steven Mohr, ed.
Crystal Lake Publishing (November 27, 2023)
Reviewed by Mario Guslandi
The telltale title of the book says it all. Which, of course, causes a certain repetitiveness in the structure of the included stories, despite the laudable efforts of the authors to produce some original plots. In this respect the editor’s decision to include so many tales ( this is a big anthology featuring twenty-one stories) doesn’t help to avoid, every now and then, a certain degree of boredom.
Needless to add, as in most anthologies, the intrinsic qual ..read more
Hellnotes
2w ago
Green Tsunami
Laura Cooney and L.L. Soares
Smart Rhino Publications (May 19, 2014)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
L.L. Soares and his wife, Laura Cooney, in a major departure from the exemplary horror fiction we’ve come to expect, have presented us with a remarkable surrealistic novella.
The premise is that the Earth has been swept by an organic green tidal wave that has eliminated most of civilization pretty much overnight, altered what it didn’t kill, and changed some inanimate objects to an animated state. The metamorphosis is Kafka-esque, but much more far-reaching.
Among the few huma ..read more
Hellnotes
2w ago
Hallowed Days
Daniel Hale
JournalStone (November 20, 2020)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy
“He is the midwife to fire … I (he) am (is) the Overseer of the Under Realms and the Autumn Kingdom. I (he) is the flutter of leaves on October breezes, and the cackling of witches under the full moon,” parts from Daniel Hale’s book, Hallowed Days. Yes, he is “the midwife of fire,” spinning tales of the “hallowed days.” It is fitting I am writing this in the month of March; Ostara is March 19th, the Spring Solstice is March 20th, and Easter Sunday is March 31st. Daniel Hale starts his collection with “Eggshell ..read more
Hellnotes
3w ago
HEX
Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Tor (September 21, 2021)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
With as much reading in the horror genre that I do, it is often difficult to happen upon a novel that’s really unique, genuinely scary, and not chock full of all the horror tropes I’ve already read…and read…and read.
Then I found HEX.
The sky cleared, the clouds parted, a ray of sunlight reflected off my tears of gratitude, and cherubim sang one perfect chord.
Yeah, it’s that good.
Though it came out in 2016, and is one of the most solid horror novels, start to finish, that I’ve ever read, it doesn’t seem to have re ..read more
Hellnotes
3w ago
Let Him In
William Friend
Sourcebooks (October 3, 2023)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
Newly widowed father Alfie is now taking care of his twin daughters, whose mother recently died of anaphylaxis when stung by an insect. One night, the girls come into his room saying that there is a man in theirs. Though there is nobody there upon searching, this nightly ritual goes on for quite some time, with the entity receiving a name—Black Mamba—who, after a while, the girls are no longer afraid of and who becomes, or so Alfie thinks, an imaginary friend to help them cope with the loss of their mother. E ..read more