Book #164 of 2018: 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill Joe Hill’s novels have been hit-or-miss for me, and it turns out that his short stories are much the same. There are some great pieces in this collection: the opening “Best New Horror” manages to be heartfelt, creepy, and darkly comic all at once, and …
Continue reading “Book Review: 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill”
Book #97 of 2018: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero This book skates by on a terrific premise, which is basically Scooby-Doo crossed with Stephen King’s IT. The teens in this off-brand Mystery Gang have disbanded after stumbling across a real Lovecraftian horror, and the surviving members now reunite as adults to face their fears and …
Continue reading “Book Review: Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero”
Book #96 of 2018: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King I’m normally a big Stephen King fan, but I’m feeling pretty underwhelmed by this recent collaboration between the bestselling author and his son Owen. The premise is fine — all the world’s women start falling into deep comas when they go to sleep, …
Continue reading “Book Review: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King”
Book #89 of 2018: Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach #2) I liked but didn’t love Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation, and I was hopeful that this sequel, set outside the mysterious Area X that clouds everyone’s thinking, would offer a more straightforward story. Unfortunately, it does not. Instead there’s the same creeping horror and hypnosis-fueled …
Continue reading “Book Review: Authority by Jeff VanderMeer”
Book #261 of 2017: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff Jim Crow was a time of horror for black Americans, which makes it a natural fit for this novel about an extended black family coming up against the sorts of cosmic nightmares written about by H.P. Lovecraft. (Lovecraft himself was also an infamous racist, so there’s …
Continue reading “Book Review: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff”
Book #257 of 2017: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach #1) This was an unsettling sci-fi tale of delirium and paranoia, but there was a bit too much unresolved ambiguity for me to truly love it. The narrator is exploring an environment that’s known to warp perception and impede clear thinking, and that’s even before …
Continue reading “Book Review: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer”
Book #256 of 2017: End of Watch by Stephen King (Bill Hodges Trilogy #3) This last book in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges trilogy is unfortunately a bit of a mess. Partly that’s due to the tonal whiplash of following up two fairly straightforward crime thrillers with a story about hypnotic mind control, telekinesis, and bodyswaps, …
Continue reading “Book Review: End of Watch by Stephen King”
Book #201 of 2017: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson This is a creepy atmospheric story of people staying in a haunted house, although it’s never completely clear whether we’re witnessing actual spirits or just troubled human minds. It’s a solid story and probably the definitive take on this sort of plot, and …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson”
Book #143 of 2017: The Passage by Justin Cronin (The Passage #1) This post-apocalyptic vampire novel has a real early Stephen King feel to it. The most direct King parallel is probably The Stand, which similarly details the outbreak and aftermath of a deadly plague virus, but there are also classic King tropes like a …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Passage by Justin Cronin”
Book #99 of 2017: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (The Shining #2) I’m still not convinced that Stephen King needed to write a sequel to his classic book The Shining, especially after the original had stood on its own for over 30 years. But for an author who struggled with addiction for much of his …
Continue reading “Book Review: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more