Category: Horror

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

This is a classic Joe Hill horror story. A reclusive, somewhat bitter former rock star, Judas Coyne (known as Jude), lives away from people and collects macabre things, even a snuff film. He purchases a dead man’s suit, and finds that he is now the focus of a malevolent ghost. There’s a reason for the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/18/heart-shaped-box-by-joe-hill/

Symbiont (Parasitology Book 2) by Mira Grant

Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) seems a little bit like Midas to me. So far everything she’s written – whether it’s urban fantasy, superhero, apocalypse, or something else – has hit the mark and become gold. Symbiont, the second book in her Parasitology series, keeps up the excellent writing and the interesting plot. In some …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/11/symbiont-parasitology-book-2-by-mira-grant/

Applewood by Brendan P. Myers

Hardcover: 234 pages Publisher: By Light Unseen Media (May 15, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 193530318X ISBN-13: 978-1935303183 Publisher’s Description: When a mutilated body is found in the woods near the central Massachusetts town of Grantham, Scott Dugan comes home for the first time in more than twenty years. He returns to the decaying house where …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/10/applewood-by-brendan-p-myers/

Eight Pieces of Empire by Lawrence Scott Sheets

Last autumn, Berlin celebrated the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Wall, and the peaceful collapse of the Communist order in eastern Germany. Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20-Year Journey Through the Soviet Collapse, by Lawrence Scott Sheets, reminds readers that in other places the end of Communism was not peaceful at all. The …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/09/eight-pieces-of-empire-by-lawrence-scott-sheets/

Horseman (The Hollow #1) by Christopher Golden and Ford Lytle Gilmore

Interesting take on the Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman mythology that was undermined by serious plot holes and obvious plot devices. The book is written in a very cinematic manner, and clearly serves as the lead-in to a series, but I spent way too much time being annoyed with Aimee and then with the writers for so …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/20/horseman-the-hollow-1-by-christopher-golden-and-ford-lytle-gilmore/

King Rat by China Miéville

Having read Perdido Street Station first, I’m fascinated to see how some of the themes are present here in nascent form. PSS is by far the superior book, but King Rat is a worthwhile entry to the urban fantasy oeuvre: grimy and bold and honest, if mean. It’s also a great take on the Pied …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/27/king-rat-by-china-mieville/

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

As Stalin’s purges neared their apogee, show trials in Moscow featured heroes of the Russian Revolution confessing to the most astonishing things: that they had conspired with foreign powers, that they had plotted to kill Stalin; that they had knowingly and willfully wrecked whole sectors of the economy; and more. How could these men — …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/10/darkness-at-noon-by-arthur-koestler/

The Penguin Book Of Ghost Stories edited by J. A. Cuddon

Wow, I remembered so very little this re-read from the last (which was, granted, nigh on two decades ago.) The two stories that did stir memories, though faint, are likely the ones I will continue to remember, Ann Bridge’s “The Buick Saloon” and Marghanita Laski’s “The Tower”, both for the unflinching cruelty done to the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/09/the-penguin-book-of-ghost-stories-edited-by-j-a-cuddon/