Edited By BILL BREEDLOVE (Dark Arts Books; 2007)
I doubt I’ll read a stronger horror-themed collection this year than WAITING FOR OCTOBER, the genre-busting follow-up to Dark Arts Books’ 2006 anthology CANDY ON THE DUMPSTER. Like that publication, WAITING FOR OCTOBER features four authors each contributing three stories.
The contributors here are unusually strong: Andrew Mayhem [...]

By “JACK MARTIN” [DENNIS ETCHISON] (Zebra Books; 1983)
Yes, this is a movie novelization, and yes, it does suffer from quite a few of the pratfalls afflicting most such books: it’s hastily written and definitely could have withstood another draft, if not two or three. Overall, however, it’s far better than the majority of movie [...]

By VITEZSLAV NEZVAL (Twisted Spoon Press; 1945/2005)
A real curiosity: a surrealist novel masquerading as a gothic thriller that never entirely satisfies as either. Rather, it’s a rare book that exists in its own indefinable category.
I know VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS best in its 1970 film incarnation by Jaromil Jires, which has in [...]

By JEREMY C. SHIPP (Raw Dog Screaming Press; 2007)
Fans of the late Philip K. Dick will appreciate this hallucinatory first novel, as will all those unafraid of challenging, thoughtful writing. In the manner of Dick masterworks like THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRICH and UBIK, this is a profoundly trippy book, but also a [...]

“Edited” By Chet Williamson, “Alan Drew” (Cemetery Dance; 2007)
Here’s something unique: a novella, penned by veteran horror scribe Chet Williamson, written in the style of the late Lafcadio Hearn. In fact, it purports to be an actual manuscript by that author, complete with an introduction attesting to that “fact” and an afterward disputing it. [...]

By CHRISTOPHER FOWLER (Warner Books; 1994)
To be sure, the novels of England’s Christopher Fowler–which include ROOFWORLD, RUNE, RED BRIDE and DARKEST DAY–have quite a few flaws: most are steeped in “hip” culture (SPANKY’S title character’s every appearance is accompanied by elaborate descriptions of his trendy duds) and so tend to date none too well, and [...]

By DONNA ANDERS (Pocket; 2007)
I’ve found it’s a good idea to occasionally look outside one’s sphere of interest into the wider world. This is to say that my preference for weirdness and transgression in genre literature is well known, but in an effort at broadening my horizons I decided to give a paperback original [...]

Edited By JOHN EVERSON (Dark Arts Books; 2008)
The third release from Dark Arts Books, a publisher specializing in sampler anthologies of genre fiction. SINS OF THE SIRENS contains stories by four women authors–Loren Rhoads, Maria Alexander, Mehitobel Wilson and Christa Faust–none of whose work, I’ll confess, I was previously familiar with. I’m pleased to [...]

By ROBERT DEVEREAUX (Leisure; 1998/2000)
Here’s a Yuletide favorite I’m betting you won’t find on any traditional Christmas reading list: SANTA STEPS OUT by Robert Devereaux, a true “Fairy Tale for Grown-ups” and an essential book in my household ever since its first mass market appearance back in 2000.
In a lengthy afterward Devereaux details the hellacious [...]

By C. DEAN ANDERSSON (Popular Library; 1988)
The novels of C. Dean Andersson represent all we’re not supposed to like about the splatterpunk movement: they’re trashy, adrenaline-fueled, misogynistic and ultimately pointless, handily encapsulating novelist Lucius Shephard’s criticism of the cycle: “Most of this crap is written for and by people with language skills comparable to those [...]