Communion by Steve Stred is the second book of an ongoing trilogy – book one was Ritual (which we reviewed here) and the second book starts pretty much where book one finished. This proposed trilogy of books by Stred is dark, brooding and graphic as hell, with Stred giving us a slice after slice of
It is early evening when a dishevelled and terrified twelve year old girl bangs on the door of a middle aged Irish priest. Her father has disappeared and we immediately find ourselves sharing the narrator’s intense anxiety. Conor O’ Callaghan’s first novel, Nothing on Earth, is a Gothic tale set in a barren half built
The motif of the Bird flies all the way through Anna Vaught’s novel, Saving Lucia. It encapsulates in its image a plethora of contradictory notions: freedom and constraint, strength and vulnerability, companionship and loneliness, elation and desolation. The birds that flit in and out of this novel offer both solace and sorrow to the characters
Dear Laura is one of the finest novella’s that I have read, the stylistic qualities on show are sublime, the prose is taut as if at any moment it’ll snap and whip the reader – maiming them at any given moment. The uniqueness of the story is another masterstroke with Amor dropping us right into
Last Meal In Osaka & Other Stories by Gary Buller is a journey through various interpretations of horror, first we have Swashbuckle Cove which is your more childhood based horror where we are unsure if the things that are transpiring to our protagonists are real or if it is a coping mechanism for grief and
I was told by a few people to read this book, that this book changed their lives and the way they approached horror. Others said that this book is a must read that delivers horror in a way no other book has. High praise indeed! So, I decided to start the journey and I have
Rym Kechacha worked as a professional ballet dancer with the Northern Ballet before becoming a teacher. She has an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmith’s University and Dark River is her debut novel. Dark River entwines two parallel stories, both centring on a mother fighting to protect her family from the impact of
Crowded House & Other Stories is a small collection of short stories by S.J. Budd and published by Demain Publishing as part of their Short Sharp Shocks! series and boy is it good! This is the first time I’ve read S.J. Budd and I can tell you it most certainly wont be the last. Budd
In the summer of 2016, I moved to Putney in south-west London and got a new job that meant I could cycle to work. Some days on my two-wheeled commute I would get to the river at Putney Bridge and turn left to pedal upriver along the Thames river path. I would pass long hedges
Ross Jeffery’s Juniper is a rare-breed indeed, a snarling animal of a novella that sinks its teeth into you and refuses to let go. From the very first line, we are draw into a surreal world where nobody is quite right in the head, and where the most innocuous people are fearsome tyrants behind closed
