Despite having one of my least favorite shared universe names, A G Slatter’s dark fantasy novels are one of my few can’t-miss series! And nowhere was I happier to have read almost all of the books in it than here in this latest installment, The Crimson Road. As the novel opens, heiress Violet Zennor is …
Category: Horror
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/05/14/the-crimson-road-by-a-g-slatter/
Apr 26 2025
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Annihilation kicks off the Southern Reach series, which was a trilogy for 10 years until VanderMeer published a fourth book in 2024. A movie adaptation of Annihilation was released in 2018. The series, and this first volume in particular, are often described as classics and even appear on some all-time-best lists. It’s fair to say …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/04/26/annihilation-by-jeff-vandermeer/
Apr 01 2025
Shadowplay: Midnight School by Sam Fonseca
Holy Moses, what a debut! Granted, this isn’t Sam Fonseca’s first book ever, but I genuinely can’t remember the last time I was so impressed by an English-language horror comic debut. And with a kick-ass soundtrack to boot! But I’m getting ahead of myself, partly because it’s a bit of challenge to describe the book …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/04/01/shadowplay-midnight-school-by-sam-fonseca/
Mar 19 2025
Bowling With Corpses by Mike Mignola & Dave Stewart
subtitled & Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown. With lettering by Clem Robins. Y’know, I never seemed to hit Mike Mignola’s work at quite the right time. I’ve long been interested in the Hellboy and BPRD franchises, but every time I managed to pick up a book, I was quickly flummoxed by being required to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/19/bowling-with-corpses-by-mike-mignola-dave-stewart/
Mar 03 2025
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Happy Women’s History Month, readers! To begin with, let’s look at an arresting novella about a young woman who refuses to play by the rules of Victorian England, no matter the cost to herself or to anyone around her. Winifred Notty is a troubled soul. Raised by a mother driven to madness by the intolerable …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/03/victorian-psycho-by-virginia-feito/
Dec 18 2024
Scary Godmother Compendium: This Was Your Childhood by Jill Thompson
What a charm- and value-packed compendium of virtually all the Scary Godmother material published to date! I knew of Jill Thompson from her work on Neil Gaiman’s Death and Endless properties for DC Comics, but hadn’t realized the extent of her oeuvre otherwise. In particular, I had no idea that her own original creation, Scary …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/18/scary-godmother-compendium-this-was-your-childhood-by-jill-thompson/
Nov 19 2024
Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan
I can see what Lindy Ryan was trying to do here, given my steeping in world mythology, but I think it needed a little more explaining so that the average reader can figure out what’s actually going on in this horror novella of guilt and grief. Just a few weeks ago, Derek Sinclaire died, falling …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/19/cold-snap-by-lindy-ryan/
Nov 08 2024
A Christmas Ghost Story by Kim Newman
I don’t know if this is the perfect complement or counterprogramming to my eldest child and I watching and really enjoying Agatha All Along together. Probably a little of both — tho my kid will likely have little interest in this book, alas. That might be for the best tho, as it’s A Chilling Tale …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/08/a-christmas-ghost-story-by-kim-newman/
Oct 24 2024
Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson
Oh my God, this was incredible and terrifying all at once. Spicy, sweet and hardcore revolting, this sapphic horror novella breathes new life into the trope of obsessive love as a lonely young woman falls hard for a mysterious figure she meets at the fair. Ro’s recovery from being betrayed by her ex-boyfriend, and the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/24/bloom-by-delilah-s-dawson/
Oct 22 2024
MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark & Mysterious — The Graphic Stories by MrBallen, Robert Venditti & Andrea Mutti
I am genuinely loving the resurgence of horror comics, as well as the myriad channels by which they’re coming onto the market. Some cynics may say that books like these are just a cash grab, but I’d honestly never even heard of MrBallen before this engaging volume landed on my desk. Call me an old …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/22/mrballen-presents-strange-dark-mysterious-the-graphic-stories-by-mrballen-robert-venditti-andrea-mutti/