Whoa boy. I’ve read all three books of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, and I still don’t know how to describe them. I heard about them after they won some fantasy award, but they’re not quite fantasy. They’re in part sci-fi, dystopian and mystery, but those labels don’t really mean much to the book. The people tasked with solving the puzzle of the mysterious Area X know that they’re never going actually solve the mystery. They’re just hacking away at what they can. And we […]
It’s always hard for me to say if I love or hate a book of short stories.
Kevin Wilson’s collection of eleven short stories was my first time reading him, and it turned out to be one of those books that I’d recommend to someone but I wouldn’t really want to read any of his other stuff. It’s impossible to generalize with how I felt about these stories, so I’ll review each one briefly. Grand Stand-In: Wilson started strong with this one, which was hands down my favorite story in the series. An agency hires out stand-in grandparents for a variety […]
Horror thriller set under the sea is solid but unremarkable
While on patrol off the coast of Syria, the naval submarine USS Nebraska detects a distress call 4000 feet down at the end of a long tunnel. They find a lost Russian submarine from the 1950’s perched on a precipice in the shadow of a massive underwater structure. On board the Russian sub the men find artifacts and ancient texts from the lost Ugarit people, the first known civilization with a written language. They learn the huge building is a sanctum, dedicated to an ancient […]
I wanted to be scared, and I was not disappointed.
This review was originally published at Women Write About Comics. Jude Coyne is an aging rock star who collects macabre trophies. When his assistant Danny finds a haunted suit for sale online, Jude purchases it without a second thought, hardly even remembering he bought it when it finally arrives in a large, black, heart-shaped box. We soon learn that the suit is haunted by Craddock McDermott, a dowser and hypnotist by trade. It quickly becomes clear that he intends to kill Jude and anyone […]