Book #155 of 2024: ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King Author Stephen King has said that he wanted his second published novel to be a modern American version of Dracula, and almost half a century on, I think it’s fair to say that he succeeded in that aim. The parallels are there if you seek them …
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Book #151 of 2024: Stories to Keep You Alive Despite Vampires by Ben Acker I picked up this short story collection on the strength of author Ben Acker’s writing for the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast / stage show series, and I can confirm there’s a similar cleverness propelling many of its loosely interconnected entries and …
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Book #143 of 2024: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White YA horror / thriller author Andrew Joseph White’s third novel is unfortunately the first one that doesn’t wholly work for me, although I appreciate the continued #ownvoices trans and autistic representation. The strongest thing about this story, in fact, is the confidence in its characterization, …
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Book #140 of 2024: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Anna #1) I suspect I would have liked this horror tale better when I was younger, like if I had read it when it first came out back in 2011. (To be fair, it is marketed as YA, while I haven’t been a young …
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Book #129 of 2024: The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams (The Babysitters Coven #1) Given the title, I was expecting this 2019 series debut to be a smart and loving homage to The Babysitters Club, with some nice new witchy twist thrown in on top. Instead, it’s unfortunately more of a half-baked Buffy-meets-Labyrinth affair, with …
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Book #121 of 2024: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King One of Stephen King’s regular preoccupations as a horror author seems to be the idea of a person getting stuck in confined circumstances just off the track from their ordinary life. This 1999 novel, in which a nine-year-old girl winds up separated …
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Book #118 of 2024: Brat by Gabriel Smith I suspect this isn’t what Charli XCX meant by brat summer, but the narrator of this 2024 Gen Z gothic horror novel — who shares a name, age, and occupation with its debut author Gabriel Smith — is certainly going through an experience. His father has just …
Book #28 of 2024: Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian The Weird Western vibes of this adventure novel are delightful, presenting a version of the post-Civil War midwest that’s populated with demons, ghouls, and similar entities, all treated matter-of-factly as threats that an unwary traveler might encounter like any other. I’m less sold on the plot, …
Book #10 of 2024: Beholder by Ryan La Sala At first glance, it seems like this fantasy horror novel should have too much going on its plot to be remotely effective: an orphaned teen protagonist with the magical ability to see backwards in time through mirrors and other reflective surfaces, a Lovecraftian entity lurking inside …
Book #6 of 2024: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White Another brutal story from author Andrew Joseph White, although just slightly less viscerally upsetting than his previous novel Hell Followed With Us. (The trans hero of this book is subjected to misgendering, institutionalization / conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and sexual assault dating …
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