Title: And One Day We Will Die: Strange Stories Inspired by the Music of Neutral Milk Hotel

Edited by: Patrick Barb

Release date: January 14th, 2025

*Huge thanks to Patrick Barb for a digital ARC of this one!*

As long as I can remember, music has been an integral part of my life. I’m not ashamed to say that there’s been times music has literally saved my life and when I’ve been at my lowest of low moments, I’ve turned to music. When a song can take me somewhere, whether the lyrics relate specifically to that moment – and at times they’re not even in English – it forever sticks with me. When I was traveling to Lac La Biche, Alberta to say my goodbyes to my aunt, CCR ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’ played literally everywhere. I can still hear it playing in the Kelowna Airport, on the airplane when we landed in Calgary to transfer planes, in the van driving to my aunt and uncles house and again in the hospital when we were visiting my aunt. And wouldn’t you know it, the song was playing a million times on the trip home.

I had a similar experience a few years ago when I took our believed American Bulldog OJ to the vet for the final time. On the drive there, Rod Stewart’s ‘Forever Young’ was playing. It was on again at the vet’s. And when I left without him, I was trying to keep it together, so I changed the radio channel, not wanting to listen to anything else while driving. And sure enough, the scheduled show on the sports talk channel used ‘Forever Young’ as it’s intro music. SERIOUSLY!

Music is the lifeblood of our emotions, our memories and brings people together like nothing else.

Saying all of that, before I read this anthology, I’d heard of Neutral Milk Hotel, but had never really listened to them. After reading this, I popped onto Youtube and listened through a dozen songs, recognizing a bunch of them. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan, but I can absolutely see why they’ve created the cult following they have and why it was that Patrick Barb got together over a dozen authors for this anthology based on the band’s songs.

What I liked: The level of talent on display here is world class, but it was also refreshing to see a lot of newer names to me and up-and-coming names as well. It wasn’t the standard TOC that everybody always sees when a new anthology is announced and you can practically guess the first twelve authors announced every single time.

There were a lot of very solid stories, but there were a few that really stood out.

The opening story, ‘Untitled’ by Lilah Lawson was easily the perfect choice to open the anthology. It’s not only the most eerie story, but in this readers mind, the best story within. It follows a woman who decides that she’s going to become a ghost and goes about remembering her life, why she decides being a ghost is the best way forward. The ending to this story showcases what each story is going to deliver, but none of them do it as pristinely as Lawson did. Haunting and atmospheric, which is exactly what I want in a well crafted song.

‘The Clown King in Yellow’ by Joe Koch is another perfect example of why you should be reading Joe’s work. Joe’s work is always powerful and pushes the boundaries of where a story can go. It’s like the first time you see a comic book artist draw part of the image outside of the frame. The story follows a family that changes their memorial celebration into a Halloween party of sorts and as the night goes on, things grower tenser and tenser. It works so very well and if it wasn’t for Lawson’s phenomenal piece, this would’ve been my favorite.

‘The Garden Head’ by Brian Evenson. Good friggin’ lord. Is there nothing that Evenson can’t make creepy? This story had me tucking the blankets around my feet and making sure the closet doors remained closed. A person finds a path. They follow it. They find some gates and a transcendental event occurs. That’s about all I can say without really spoiling it, but holy wow was this unnerving.

Throughout, the stories weave and work there ways into the readers brain and I can really see fans of the band absolutely raving about this anthology for years to come.

What I didn’t like: If you know my reading tastes, you’ll know I struggle with epistolary storytelling, and there were a number of those stories within that I just couldn’t connect with.

As well, though I think you can really enjoy and experience this batch of stories without being familiar with the band, there are definitely Easter eggs and song lyrics within that fans of the band will embrace and enjoy that much more.

Why you should buy this: Fans of the band will definitely eat this up and hold these stories high within their reading lives. Those who’re not familiar with the music but are familiar with the authors will be very, very happy with what is delivered here. And those readers, who simply enjoy anthologies and anthologies around music will most likely find their new favorite short story within.

Solid, balanced and (as evidenced by the amazing foreword) respectful of the source material, Barb has done an amazing job with this anthology.

5/5

Title: The Modern Prometheus

Author: Jayson Robert Ducharme

Release date: April 24, 2022

I’ve had this book on my Kindle for far too long. Featuring a stunning cover by Francois Vaillancourt, it was released only a few months after my own novel ‘Mastodon’ was released, which also has a Francois cover. Because of that, I was excited to see all of the other books that Francois’ artwork was adorning – and I still am to this day – which meant, I snagged this one when it was released… and it languished on my TBR ever since. Over and over, other readers whom I chat with books about a bunch kept telling me to give this one a go, and when I saw it coming up on the top of my TBR I was excited to dive into this.

Going in, I decided to not re-read the synopsis, instead wanting to be surprised and fresh.

What I liked: The story follows a man, who awakens in a strange place. He’s hooked up to machines, body feeling odd and off, and as he comes to, he begins to remember that his name was Peter. His life and memories slowly return, but one of the hands is not his own, instead a woman’s hand. He’s scarred, stapled and stitched and when the person who brought him back to life arrives, he manages to escape.

It’s evident that this is influenced by Shelley’s genre-creating classic, but parts of this also reminded me of M. Shaw’s ‘One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve.’ This ‘who am I’ mentality with the ‘what of me still exists.’ It makes for some really intriguing and claustrophobic moral dilemma’s. Peter knows who he was, but he’s not that man anymore. He sees this at his gravesite. He sees it when he returns to his home and runs into his wife.

But all the while he continues to change, to transform and when the end arrives, he understands he’s no longer Peter and he questions what his life will be like going forward. It’s got shades of what Tim McGregor’s ‘Eynhallow’ presented within it’s pages as well.

Ducharme gives us a lot of questions, but also presents a variation of possible answers, which worked perfectly to give us both a very solid fictional story, but also one that walks that line of bringing the fictional world into every readers real lives.

What I didn’t like: I really wanted to love this book, but the reality was, it was good, not great. Compared to Shaw and McGregor’s books, this one got close to the elevated ideas and delivery, but didn’t completely deliver when all was said and done.

Why you should buy this: Purely for what I said at the end of a previous section of this review, this novel worked so well to make the reader uncomfortable while reading it, but also to really force the reader to ask themselves what would they do while in that position in their real lives.

The story gallops along, the emotions are high and the introduction of accessory characters really gives this an extra depth.

Overall, it was a really solid and engaging read, and fits that bit nicely for a reader looking for a novel that’ll make them squirm but also want to hold their loved ones close. And this was does that fantastically.

4/5

Title: The Bridge

Authors: John Skipp & Craig Spector

Release date: September 1st, 1991

In the Splatterpunk world of fiction, there are a number of authors and books who defined and launched the genre. Since it’s beginning, Splatterpunk has forged ahead on the tenement that any extreme violence or graphic events are specifically in the book to move the story forward. That is one of the major differences between Splatterpunk and Extreme horror, though that definition has seemingly become diluted and blended over the last few years.

I’ve had ‘The Bridge’ on my Kindle for a number of years, but it wasn’t until back in September of this year (2024), when I was discussing the books that seemed to have launched Splatterpunk with Nick Cutter, that he said I needed to bump this book up my TBR and read it. According to Nick, this is one of those books that launched a thousand books and influenced his own releases as Nick and Patrick Lestewka.

So, with that in mind, I dove in recently, excited to see where this one went.

What I liked: At its core, the novel is an environmental story about man’s destructive ways. It follows the events in a small town after years of toxic waste has been dumped in the creek and on this particular day, a storm rages and conditions are perfect for the waste to transform into a sentient killing beast.

Within that overarching narrative, we get smaller stories of many of the people who live in the town, their roles in the toxic waste mayhem, as well as those who’re innocent and deal with the repercussions of what those have done behind closed doors.

It’s a fascinating examination of what happens when some do whatever they want for power, money, greed and control, while also investigating the trickle effect of those stomped on. That metaphor works well to be applied across any time period, which makes the main story line almost timeless.

The gore is plenty and brutal, the setting is great and well developed and many of the characters are vividly created, making the reader either love them or loathe them almost immediately.

The ending is solid, if not a bit suggestive of a sequel (though I don’t believe one was every made), and worked well to showcase the power that was unleashed.

What I didn’t like: I found the novel to be too scattered and often anti-climatic. Early on, we get somebody introduced with paranormal powers. That then is left behind for a lengthy time, when at first it seemed like it was going to be a driving force of the novel.

Throughout, we get new people introduced – and thoroughly introduced – to only be killed off. Time and time again, pages and pages of backstory are described for characters that really play no role in the story, other than something happening at that location. It made it so that the main characters of the novel are missing from the story for chapters and chapters and chapters and the minor characters who are there at the beginning are easily forgotten about, and when they return, you feel like you’ve missed something.

And because of that introduction of so many characters, we often get a cliff hanger at the end of chapters that doesn’t go anywhere. I’m not sure if this a case of the time period it was released – which might be how some things were done back then – or because of the two different authors, but it became a reoccurring ending to each chapter.

Why you should buy this: The main component of the novel was fantastic, and I wished it had stayed with just that – the story of the barrels being dumped, the news folks discovering it and them trying to get to the bottom of it, but too many other elements continued to get introduced, which ultimately slowed this one down for me.

Saying that, if you’re looking to read some of the books that formed the Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror Genres that so many read and love these days, then definitely give this a read. The town is great, the gore is solid and you can definitely see the influence all these years later.

3/5

Title: Placerita

Authors: Lisa Morton & John Palisano

Release date: June 14th, 2024

If you’ve been a fan of crazy creature stories, then you might’ve come across the story/idea that deep below the city of Los Angeles resides or used to reside a race of lizard people. While it sounds insane to some, to others it’s not rumor – it’s fact – and that fact was first presented back in 1934 in the LA Times of all places.

G. Warren Shufelt – a miner and engineer, said he’d developed a way to scan below ground and in doing so, had discovered a massive, sprawling city made up of tunnels and chambers below LA. Shufelt then claimed that after mapping this area, he’d met with a well-respected Hopi Indigenous man, who told him about the Lizard People who lived below the surface and that there was a city built of gold.

It’s with that back drop that Morton and Palisano deliver ‘Placerita’ a history-horror novella that deftly blends fact and fiction. That should come as no surprise, when considering the two authors involved. Morton is an internationally lauded writer of both non-fiction and fiction, and Palisano himself is no slouch, having won a Bram Stoker Award and been nominated several other times as well. Both know the area this is set in intimately, and it was with all that in hand that I jumped into this story.

What I liked: The novella follows a young woman in 1928. Alexis has been hired on as a Professor of Biology at a University, and is excited about making strides in her field. Then things take a turn. A dam bursts, her home is destroyed, and within all of that madness, she finds a scaled hand. One that shouldn’t exist.

It’s that discovery that sends her down the rabbit hole of learning about the oddities of the potential Lizard People below Los Angeles. She has run-ins with some nefarious characters and even Schufelt himself.

Morton and Palisano do a wonderful job of collaboration. It felt like a singular voice wrote this and the pacing is spot-on perfect, with each section building intrigue but also setting up for a big reveal.

Throughout, we get hints and clues regarding whether that population of lizard folks actually exist, and the ending was a rational, well executed ending that also showcased how Alexis processed her new-found information.

What I didn’t like: While I really enjoyed the story and the way it was told, a lot of the ‘big moments’ felt like Lite moments. We were always on the precipice of a big reveal, only for it to arrive and not happen, the direction of the story changing. It left a lot of ‘what if’s’ and ‘what was that’ spots. Additionally, while the ending was exactly how it should’ve played out for Alexis’ character, for the story itself, it just didn’t resolve anything for those reading this for a creature experience. It just sort of… ends.

Why you should buy this: This is a novella that really does two things perfectly. The first, is that it is very, very engaging and will have you racing through the story to see what happens. The second, is that is will also have you racing to your bookshelf (if you’re like me and have a bunch of books about mythical creatures and forgotten civilizations on your shelves) or Google (if you don’t have those other books!) to read all about the history of the Lizard People.

This novella was really well done and I think it’s one that historical-horror fans will really enjoy!

4/5

Title: Cold Storage

Author: David Koepp

Release Date: September 3rd, 2019

It’s crazy how the passage of time has taken place over the last five years or so.

Since the onset of Covid-19, I’ve personally found the last five years has flown by while also taking forever. Some things feel like they happened a lifetime ago, while others just the other day.

Such was the case with this book. When it was first released, I was super intrigued, but I’m also terrified of organism based horror. Books like Jason Parent’s ‘The Andromeda Strain,’ Michael Crichton’s work and Nicholas Kaufmann’s Dr. Laura Powell series that have seemingly sentient organism’s that can mutate and find ways of devouring and overtaking and controlling organic matter. When I went to the theatre – way back in the 1900’s as my son says – and watched ‘Outbreak,’ I was terrified. We truly live in a globally connected world and as such, everything can be spread faster than the blink of an eye. Even the timing of me writing this review – on a break at work – demonstrates that. The first patient I saw this morning landed last night in Edmonton, returning from a work trip to Hong Kong. Over the last few days, they travelled over 10,000 kms (6200 miles) and then came to their appointment.

So, even though I purchased this book for my Kindle on Christmas Day, 2020, I was stressed about reading it. I knew it’d be great. I knew Koepp would deliver – seriously, the guys screenplays have generated over SIX BILLION DOLLARS in theatres – but I didn’t know if I could handle it.

Finally, after That Horror Bish told me I HAD to read it, I took the plunge, and wow. What a plunge it was.

What I liked: The story opens roughly twenty-five years ago, when Roberto and Trini are called into to investigate a strange event in a rural Australia village. Aided by a biochemist, they discover that a rocket that crashed upon returning to earth was harvesting some sort of bacteria that didn’t burn up upon re-entry. The organism is beyond anything they’ve ever encountered and to protect earth, the sample taken is stored deep under ground in the US in a cold storage facility.

Fast forward to present day and the government has sealed the storage facility and rented the ground level section to a normal storage company. Folks rent the units, store their crap and life goes on. Until one day, when a malfunction occurs and two workers decide to investigate what the beeping sound behind the wall is.

From there, Koepp delivers a fast-paced, engaging sci-fi-horror novel that is neither ridiculously over the top nor bogged down in so many details that you’d need a PHD to even understand what’s going on.

Our two main characters, Teacake – real name, Travis – and Naomi, work well together, even if they’re tentatively awkward at first and Koepp works their relationship weirdness of being coworkers then potentially an item perfectly.

As the stakes get higher and the reality of the organism getting out, Roberto returns with a plan in hand.

I’ll admit, this part of the story is very cinematically over the top. A bit Michael Bay cheese if you will, but it worked well for the story and it kept the tension high and the pages flipping all the way to the end.

What I didn’t like: For me, the one thing that I felt was a bit light throughout, was the actual organism. When it’s a factor it was a factor, rapidly mutating and exploding and overtaking and just creating brutal carnage. But it wasn’t as prevalent as I expected, and there was only so much of Teacake’s nervousness and Naomi’s calmness that could be used to continue the story forward.

Why you should buy this: This was a really fun, edge-of-your-seat thriller that had me completely invested. It was set in a great setting, the characters were charmingly annoying and I’m a huge sucker for this exact type of organism-based sci-fi/horror. Definitely one to read if you’ve had it sitting on your TBR forever, like I did.

4/5

Title: The Wind Began to Howl

Author: Laird Barron

Release date: May 16th, 2023

I’ve had this book on my TBR for far too long and with how wonderfully kind and supportive Laird’s always been, it’s a bit shameful I didn’t get to it sooner.

In my defense, my Kindle has like 5000 books on it and my TBR continues to grow taller and taller (well, digitally, but you know what I mean!) with no end in sight.

Not too long ago, I read (and loved) Barron’s ‘The Croning,’ but I’m more of a tried-and-true horror reader, and that fell within that category nicely. I’m not a huge fan of crime fiction, of noir type stuff and having never read any of Barron’s Isaiah Coleridge books, I wasn’t 100% sure how this one would hit, considering it’s listed as Coleridge 3.5.

But still, the synopsis sounded intriguing, and the cover art was phenomenal. Murano at Bad Hand Books keeps putting out fantastic work, and when you put Murano and Barron together, then surely it’s going to be a home run, yeah?

What I liked: The story follows our M/C, Isaiah Coleridge, former mob enforcer, who has now become a P.I., who gets hired to do what should be a simple job. A movie producer needs him to track down two ambient/black metal musicians and get them to sign the contract necessary so a snippet of their song can appear in a movie. The song is absolutely necessary for the movie and with that in mind, Coleridge sets off.

As I mentioned, normally, this wouldn’t be my bread-and-butter, but the writing really reminded me of Adam Nevill’s stunning ‘Lost Girl’ and Barron had me captivated in no time. It also helped that this focused on how these two brothers who made up the band, reminded me a lot of the crazy dudes who populated the PNW when I lived up in that area. Wolves in the Throne Room type folks, who live off the grid, make music that they believe will open portals, connect with Gods and help them see far into the future. The type of music that will literally let them walk through walls. (I should note, I met Wolves in the Throne Room once, and they were all really friendly, I’m just using them as an example of bands from that area who live in seclusion.)

As the story progresses, we find Coleridge partnering up with someone connected with the brothers and a few leads come through. Barron keeps the truth concealed really well and even a few times, when you are certain things are unravelling he laughs at the reader and takes it elsewhere.

The big reveal ending was fantastic and definitely left some questions unanswered, all for the betterment of the reader.

What I didn’t like: Now, obviously, this won’t be an issue with long time Barron/Coleridge readers, but for a new reader diving in here, I think it would absolutely help if I’d read the other books first, just so I was more familiar with the secondary characters that play a role in Coleridge’s life. Saying that, I was never lost nor confused and there didn’t appear to be any significant ‘inside’ info that I was missing out on.

Why you should buy this: I assume all Coleridge/Barron fans already have this on their shelves, but for those who don’t or for those looking for a great cosmic-horror/crime-fiction mash up, this one fits that bill perfectly. The inclusion of the band, their back story and the truth of what was going on will make every reader happy,. Count me as one who was very delighted with the reveal. And while I’m still on the fence over whether I want to make the plunge into the Coleridge series, this definitely pushes me closer to wanting to, than not.

5/5

Title: Where the Bones Lie

Author: Nick Kolakowski

Release date: March 11th, 2025

*Huge thanks to Nick for sending me a digital ARC of this!*

If you’ve followed my reviews for the last almost-decade, you’ll know I’m not really a true crime fiction reader. My reading desires typically include the necessity of supernatural/paranormal/horror elements and the straight up crime stuff sometimes causes me to drift away and not stay focused.

Saying that, there’s been some books that’ve been excellent in the crime world that’ve excited me, the most recent being the Bishop Rider series of books that Beau Johnson has been releasing.

When Nick reached out to see if I’d take a stab at this one, I agreed for one big reason. Nick can write his ass off. In every thing I’ve read of his, he’s night and day one of the best writer’s you’ll ever read. The quality of storytelling, the quality of character development and the careful crafting of the narrative is simply unparalleled.

What I liked: The novel follows Dash, former Hollywood clean-up man, now failing stand-up comic. He’s trying to put his former life in the rearview mirror and get on the straight and clean bus, but that’s simply impossible. The opening scene shows him faltering at a stand up set, when his old boss, Manny, arrives and offers him a job. It opens up old trauma, a job gone wrong, that pushed Dash away from the life, but cash is cash and once it’s done, he convinces himself that he’s done for good.

Here’s where things take a turn. He gets a phone call, from the daughter of Ken Ironwood. His body was found after having been missing for decades and she wants Dash’s help to figure out who took him out.

Kolakowski weaves a very strong cat-and-mouse game from that point on. Chalk full of humor, action and clues, the pace was frantic and it wasn’t long before I was fully immersed. Even when things were moving along and I thought for sure that I knew what was going on, a new wrinkle would arrive and I’d have to rethink everything I thought I knew.

The ending is a massive wrap up of a bajillion loose ends that worked to really put a nail in a number of coffin’s. It was a cinematic ending to a novel that had bulldozed its way to that crazy conclusion.

What I didn’t like: There were hints of paranormal stuff at the beginning, which faded away not long after, and I was a bit saddened, because it really made you question whether Dash was crazy or not. It worked out well, when all was revealed, but for this reader, I was saddened it wasn’t a bigger angle later on.

Why you should buy this: If you’re like me and not a typical crime reader, but are looking to dip your toes into something and see how you dig it, this would be the perfect book to take for a spin. A remote setting, two unlikely people working together, and a ton of crazy twists and turns, Kolakowski’s delivered a superb novel that’ll have people zipping through it.

5/5