Tag: Horror

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

This is a classic Joe Hill horror story. A reclusive, somewhat bitter former rock star, Judas Coyne (known as Jude), lives away from people and collects macabre things, even a snuff film. He purchases a dead man’s suit, and finds that he is now the focus of a malevolent ghost. There’s a reason for the …

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Symbiont (Parasitology Book 2) by Mira Grant

Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) seems a little bit like Midas to me. So far everything she’s written – whether it’s urban fantasy, superhero, apocalypse, or something else – has hit the mark and become gold. Symbiont, the second book in her Parasitology series, keeps up the excellent writing and the interesting plot. In some …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/11/symbiont-parasitology-book-2-by-mira-grant/

Applewood by Brendan P. Myers

Hardcover: 234 pages Publisher: By Light Unseen Media (May 15, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 193530318X ISBN-13: 978-1935303183 Publisher’s Description: When a mutilated body is found in the woods near the central Massachusetts town of Grantham, Scott Dugan comes home for the first time in more than twenty years. He returns to the decaying house where …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/10/applewood-by-brendan-p-myers/

Horseman (The Hollow #1) by Christopher Golden and Ford Lytle Gilmore

Interesting take on the Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman mythology that was undermined by serious plot holes and obvious plot devices. The book is written in a very cinematic manner, and clearly serves as the lead-in to a series, but I spent way too much time being annoyed with Aimee and then with the writers for so …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/20/horseman-the-hollow-1-by-christopher-golden-and-ford-lytle-gilmore/

The Penguin Book Of Ghost Stories edited by J. A. Cuddon

Wow, I remembered so very little this re-read from the last (which was, granted, nigh on two decades ago.) The two stories that did stir memories, though faint, are likely the ones I will continue to remember, Ann Bridge’s “The Buick Saloon” and Marghanita Laski’s “The Tower”, both for the unflinching cruelty done to the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/09/the-penguin-book-of-ghost-stories-edited-by-j-a-cuddon/

Misery by Stephen King

I was familiar with the premise of this book before I started it, and it didn’t seem very interesting, but once I started it I was surprised by how engrossing the story was. In a way, this is King’s own story, the story of a writer whose formidable talent never fails him, not even during …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/08/22/misery-by-stephen-king/

Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King

I recently finished the Dark Tower series, which is mostly fantasy rather than horror, so I had forgotten how utterly creepy Stephen King’s imagination can be. I had been of the opinion that King peaked in the 80’s and had lost his touch since then, but this collection of stories has forced me to revise …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/09/28/nightmares-and-dreamscapes-by-stephen-king/

The Dark Half by Stephen King

This one of the better books from the period that I tend to think of as the Decline of the Master. Naturally, the bad guy is the most interesting character; the other characters are quite bland and uninteresting. King employs his usual device of supernatural phenomenon without a shred of explanation or plausibility, but we …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/02/20/the-dark-half-by-stephen-king/

Just After Sunset by Stephen King

Uneven, but some of these stories were pretty good. The scariest story was about an obsessive-compulsive whose condition is contagious. There is more than one story that is basically a revenge fantasy, which makes me wonder what goes on in King’s head these days. And there is more than one story featuring the stock King …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/13/just-after-sunset-by-stephen-king/

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

It is refreshing to read a novel about vampires in which vampires are scary monsters and not romantic sex symbols. This book is a good creepy read, and even though it is only the second novel King wrote, it is clearly one of his finest. The only flaw is that it goes on for a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/03/06/salems-lot-by-stephen-king/