the fantasy, horror, sci-fi, weird and dark fiction page of my reading journal
" ... an empty house is an admirable field for the operations of the imagination ..." -- from "The Haunted Vicarage," by Emeric Hulme-Beaman 9780712355933 British Library, 2025 244 pp hardcover Ever since Valancourt Books put out its first book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories , reading ghostly tales for the holidays has become a personal tradition. Now, just in the nick of time—Saint or Old,…
First off, a huge thank you to everyone who emailed to check if I was still alive and okay—I can’t tell you how much that meant! This past year has been…well, weird, and not the kind of year I’ll be looking back on fondly. After my sweet spouse's major health scare (all good now, thankfully), my mental health took a severe nosedive for a few months. A much-needed summer trip to upstate South…
9789992033876 Mons Culturae Press, 2023 190 pp paperback (read in April) Taking its place on my favorite books of 2025 shelf, this collection of stories sits next to Snuggly's The Onyx Book of Occult Fiction , which is where I first read anything by its author, Martin Locker. His contribution to that most excellent volume is a tale called "The Dreaming Plateau," which is so powerful that it kept…
" ... we all search for meaning -- to give our life purpose." 9781912586615 Tartarus Press, 2025 253 pp hardcover (read earlier in March) If you find that recently you've been a bundle of nerves given world events, do yourself a favor and do not read this book before trying to go to sleep. I started out doing that, as is my regular practice, and discovered that far from settling me down enough to…
9781949491609 Cemetery Dance, 2025 253 pp paperback I'm hopefully done with sporadic posting now. The end of January through the end of February is one giant blur -- my poor husband had three surgeries (one completely unexpected immediately on the back of the second) during that time, and I was in no kind of mental shape to do much except sit in the hospital and drink way too much coffee.…
9781912586608 Tartarus Press, 2024 240 pp hardcover It is not only a true pleasure to have a book published by Tartarus in my hands once again, but added to that is the joy of it being a book of collected stories by Reggie Oliver. Long may they continue to be published -- I love his work. In This Haunted Heaven , as the blurb notes, the author "insinuates strangeness into the lives of his unwary…
" Your bombs were meant to cast down Hitler, but they raised his spirits." 9781787589292 Flame Tree Press, 2024 245 pp hardcover First, my many and grateful thanks to Flame Tree Press for my copy of this book. A new novel by Ramsey Campbell -- definitely not an everyday occurrence, so when I was asked if I might want to read this book and post about it, I jumped at the chance. I wasn't…
"There are more men in the world who wreaked senseless havoc than men who preached for peace." 9781913766306 Eibonvale Press, 2024 406 pp I would have done a happy dance when this new book by Alexander Zelenyj arrived at my door, but there were people here so I just did it inside my head. I have had the very great fortune to have read several of this author's short story collections, and this…
" And so, life itself that one needs to live so as to write the stories that creates the life that created them in the first place, will be sure to prevail perhaps forever, whoever the one is whom one chooses to write them. " 9781069101624 ghosttruth/Montag, 2024 127 pp paperback Regular, long-time readers of strange/weird/ghostly/horror fictions (mainly small press but not always) will have at…
9781913766153 Eibonvale Press, 2024 143 pp paperback Crikey! It's been a long while since I've been here but things have been a bit on the chaotic side for a while. There really just hasn't been much spare time to post my thoughts about what I've been reading, although I will say I have a stack of small-press gems sitting here waiting for my comments. First up is one of Eibonvale 's latest…
9781939063702 Wakefield Press, 2021 originally published 1943 translated by Iain White 246 pp paperback Sometimes you just find that book that you know is not only unlike anything you've ever read but also makes you wonder just how in the hell you're going to find aything that ever tops it. This past summer I had the great fortune to have read all four volumes of Belgian author Jean Ray's…
" There would be tokens and talismans of the true country ..." --- from "The House of Flame" 9781783800476 Swan River Press, 2024 198 pp hardcover It's no secret that Mark Valentine is one of my favorite writers and now, with Swan River's publication of Lost Estates , I've added another gem of a book to my collection of his works. If you haven't yet bought a copy, go to Swan River Press and get…
9781905784356 Tartarus Press, 2024 (first Tartarus edition 2000) originally published 1951 289 pp hardcover I hadn't actually planned on reading this book this summer, but I had recently finished reading Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites (ed. Katy Soar) as part of my ongoing reading of the British Library Tales of the Weird series and as it happens, that book began…
9798886010619 Stark House Press, 2024 292 pp paperback (read earlier in May) I have to confess that I have never read a book by Sax Rohmer before although I own a copy of his Tales of Secret Egypt, one of the two books included in this double-feature edition from Stark House. I remember buying that one along with a bunch of books after reading Riccardo Stephens' 1912 novel The Mummy , reprinted…
9781949641578 Two Lines Press / Calico 215 pp paperback I think I'm finally back from my long hiatus caused by the when-it-rains-it-pours syndrome that seems to plague my house every so often and just knocks me mentally on my can. I've declared June a drama-free, stress-free month here so it may actually last a while. I don't remember where I first heard about this book but I was so excited for…
9798886010787 Stark House Press, 2024 224 pp paperback I've finally come to the last of the three volumes of Hichens stories I'd set out to read, and to my very great surprise there isn't one supernatural or even supernatural-ish tale in the bunch. As ST Joshi notes in his introduction, the stories here "exhibit the broad range" of Hichens' writing "outside the realm of weird fiction." While it…
9798886010510 Stark House Press, 2023 241 pp paperback Back again with the second entry in my three volumes of tales by Robert Hichens published by Stark House. This time, as S.T. Joshi notes in his introduction, these stories seem to hinge on a "crucial, life-altering decision" made by certain characters and the responses of the people in their immediate orbits. As was the case in the first…
" These occult things can't always be told of, even when they are known ." 97886010565 Stark House Press, 2023 245 pp paperback Not too long ago the very good people at Stark House Press sent me an ARC of a forthcoming collection of stories by Robert Hichens (1864-1959) entitled The Folly of Eustace and Other Satires and Stories. [ As a quick sidebar, his name may also be found under the name of…
9780712354271 British Library, 2022 305 pp paperback It's been a while since I've been here -- vacation and then a subsequent case of covid have sucked up my time pretty much since Thanksgiving and I'm just now feeling up to posting again. I couldn't let the year go by without reading at least one volume of Christmas ghost stories, which, ever since Valancourt launched its first book of Victorian…
"Nobody asks questions, and it goes on." 9781639640225 Schaffner Press, 2023 originally published in 2003 as El Criadero translated by Andrea G. Labinger 177 pp paperback As I am never shy about saying, I love fiction in translation and so when something new comes along, I take notice. This book, The Sanctuary by Argentinian author Gustavo Eduardo Abrevaya, is the latest to have caught my…
9781956321953 Valancourt, 2023 translated by James D. Jenkins illustrations by Luis Perez Ochando 198 pp hardcover I initally came across the work of Bernardo Esquinca in the first installment of this publisher's Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories. His story "Señor Ligotti" was a standout in that book, so when Valancourt announced the publication of an entire volume of this author's work, I…
9781739733940 Broodcomb, 2023 281 pp hardcover First things first: a mega thank you to Jamie Walsh -- you know why. I had actually started this post Tuesday of this past week, and I had meant to finish it long before today, but I've had a weird week of waking up at 4:30 in the morning and have subsequently been living in a haze from the lack of sleep. Today's the first day of clarity since. The…
9780712354424 British Library, 2022 340 pp paperback It's time for another book in the British Library Tales of the Weird series. This time we're off to the remoteness of the Arctic and the Antarctic with Polar Horrors: Strange Tales From the World's Ends. My geek self has a particular fascination with the history of polar exploration, which after a while led to a particular fascination with…
9781783807482 Swan River Press, 2021 (originally published 2012) 197 pp paperback I've been more than a bit depressed lately, coping with the recent death of one of my friends, and figured I needed to get off my can and do something other than simply sit and stare into space. My go-to therapy is cleaning and organizing, and the target this time around was the bookshelves in our bedroom. While…
" The past seems so close here..." 9780712354134 British Library, 2023 279 pp paperback I have a serious addiction to the British Library Tales of the Weird series, so much so that I tend to preorder the books often months ahead of their scheduled release. I actually just got one in yesterday's mail, The Uncanny Gastronomic (ed. Zara-Louise Stubbs), which I will likely set aside to read in October…