2006: Bedlam in Print
Welcome to the first installment of my year-end overview of the year in horror fiction
THE SUBJUGATED BEAST
THE SUBJUGATED BEAST is said to be Ryan’s most overtly sadistic novel, and seeing as how Ryan is (in John Pelan’s words) the “Godmother of Splatterpunk,” that claim is not to be taken lightly
THE SCARLET GOSPELS
Now that THE SCARLET GOSPELS is finally here two things are immediately apparent: 1) at 361 pages it’s far from the 1,000-plus page masterpiece I’ve heard portended, and 2) it’s not exactly the “epic summation” of Barker’s work that was promised
2008: A Look Back in Horror
2008? An eventful year, though not so much for the horror field
The Twisted Fiction of David J. Skal
I know David J. Skal best as a writer of dark fiction, and one of the most distinctive such authors on the scene
THE PRESERVE
This tough, gore-packed blow-out combines breakneck action with unflinching horror
POISONING EROS
A reading experience as nasty and cathartic as any you’ll have
THE ROOM
There are so many things wrong with THE ROOM, the first (and thankfully only) novel by Canadian author Michael Grey, that it’s difficult to know where to start the criticism
RED STAINS
If nothing else, this gross-out anthology definitely lives up to its billing. It contains (as the back cover proclaims) “Tales of the Darkest Biological Extremes and the Psycho-Sexual Imagination”
RAW PAIN MAX
This novel represents all we’re not supposed to like about the splatterpunk movement: it’s trashy, adrenaline-fueled, misogynistic and ultimately pointless