A Head Full of Horror

“Weird” is a complimentary word in the lexicon of horror fiction. One of Us, written by Dan Chaon is one of the weirder books I’ve read. It’s very literary and cinematic in allusions; I can easily fantasize a film adaptation sumptuously directed by Guillermo del Toro. The narrative largely unfolds in 1915, a time when the world was in flux and keen on cultural oddities. Carnivals and sideshows satiated the appetite for the bizarre. Author Chaon employs this universe to unveil an outlandish narrative that is tantalizingly peculiar. At times the novel is heartbreaking. In other instances, it is hilariously absurd and facetious, chock full of references warped by the writer’s…

Greg Iles defied expectations. He was diagnosed at age 36 with multiple myeloma in 1996, but unlike many who succumb to the illness within a few years after diagnosis, it didn’t reach the critical stage for him until the 2020s. He died on August 15 of this year. In 2011, he was severely injured in a car accident, which resulted in amputation of his left leg. That was a three-year recovery period, but established author Iles continued his writing and produced what is perhaps is most lauded body of work, known as The Natchez Burning trilogy. Years before that collective magnum opus, he dabbled in the horror genre. Sleep No…

Alma Katsu has built a solid reputation as a writer of historical horror fiction. With Fiend, her latest novel, Katsu shifts gears, crafting a work set in present day. The publicity blurbs describe it as Succession mixed with the supernatural, and it is refreshing to see such truth in advertising. Of course, the premise of the popular television series, an obscenely wealthy family’s misuse and abuse of power, is not new. More dramatic takes can be found in theatre, with examples such as Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Lear, and two of the great Lillian Hellman’s plays: The Little Foxes (1939) and its prequel, Another Part of the Forest (1946) which…

The 1990s was a fertile period for crime-fighting bloodsuckers. Author Tanya Huff wrote a themed sequence of books under the umbrella caption of The Blood Books (1991-1997.) Adapted in 2007 for CBC Television as the short-lived Blood Ties, the stories partnered a police detective with a vampire. Another Canadian TV production, Forever Knight, aired from 1992-1996. In this case, the vampire was himself a police detective. I have always preferred fictional private eyes over their counterparts on the force, which is why I was drawn to P.N. Elrod’s 1998 novel A Chill in the Blood. The book is the seventh in a series referred to as The Vampire Files, which stars PI Jack Fleming, a former journalist…

Resurrection and horror fiction have a long history. It’s hard to keep a good theme buried. The longevity of Frankenstein along with certain writings of Poe, and subsequent famous resuscitations of “The Monkey’s Paw” such as Pet Sematary, demonstrate that bringing back the dead is in an everlasting state of revival. The Unkillable Frank Lightning by Josh Rountree is a hybrid riff on the Universal Studios movie interpretation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Like Rountree’s previous novel, The Legend of Charlie Fish, which was based on Universal’s Creature from the Black Lagoon, the narrative uses the Old West as a partial backdrop. The reckless violence of the locale and era works quite well atmospherically for a tale of gore and…

Digging into bookshelves is a bit like archaeology. There are treasures to be found among the double-rows of volumes. On the most recent excavation, I unearthed a jewel from the past: Dark Gods, a collection of four novellas by T.E.D. Klein. Klein’s prose is insightful and delightful. It delves into the basics of fear, that awareness of something terrifying lurking close by, while knowing that all the introspection in the world can’t keep it at bay. A jaundiced sense of humor, a witty riposte, a philosophical outlook, or an acknowledgement of the malevolent adversary are shabby temporary defenses. Excellently establishing mood is another Klein characteristic. Consider, for example, this atmospheric…