Lee

Would probably be a good companion piece to Vincenzo Latronico’s superior Perfection.

Oakburn Opus + The Empty Man + Night of the Ghoul + Scream + Blair Witch x Cursed Media.

The October Film Haunt is a very promising debut for Michael Wehunt that just oozes eerie atmosphere and great suspense pacing. Wehunt knows his readers and the demographic that would eat this up as he even writes in diegetic (almost meta) bits about various filmmakers, A24, Trevor Henderson (the creator of Siren Head), and a very niche shoutout to rising Mexican director Michelle Garza Cervera. It could just be me being the ol cinephile I am, but I enjoyed all the little industry nods. That said, I can totally see those not as enamoured by film easter eggs and homage not really giving with the pacing: similar to how non-horror movie fans struggle a bit with Stephen Graham Jones’ Indian Lake trilogy.

I would love for this book to get a mini series or film adaptation, and despite having a pretty lacklustre ending to me, I do hope we get more. Consider me locked in to whatever Wehunt writes next. The Pine Arch Creature has a lot of potential.

The casual, almost invisible assault on your youth and bountiful dreams not through huge jabs to your gut and face, but in minuscule paper thin cuts gradually applied over the course of very generic, almost mundane actions. It’s an exposé of the hollowness of life and how we really don’t ever fully grow up from those teen versions of ourselves who want to do cool stuff and grow up, but we don’t really know what to do or when. While not limited to it, Perfection is very much an existential social critique parody of the influencer dream and hunt for the picture perfect screen life. You know the type without me even having to explain; you probably have a couple friends that live as such and make sure you know where they are through an onslaught of photo dumps. Through a stream on consciousness style writing without any actual character dialogue, Latronico deconstructs this life condition many have yet we can’t quite put a specific name to it. Not much happens in this book, and it’s by no means exciting at any point, but the prose and realness of how Latronico and translator Hughes captures raw life, is so captivating and palpable. Is this the modern “American Dream?”

The two expat protagonists aren’t bad people, but you can’t really say they’re all too likable despite their self-deprecating acknowledgement of their consumerist ideas and digital fakeness. You’re going to see and feel the plight of these characters despite not necessarily relating to them. It’s very familiar and almost sympathetic yet also some degrees separated enough to slightly mock. While I don’t have a strong relation to social media, I saw a lot of cross over of sentiment and lifestyle from when I myself lived in Austria (the book being Germany). These characters are distinctively human and I absolutely love that Latronico didn’t rely on making them depressed or afflicted with any mental health illness as a scapegoat for their lives. Sometimes even when you have what you want, life feels unfulfilling and boring, and that’s because we as humans will always be chasing a new high no matter how stable and happy we are in the moment. I highly recommend this very quick read to anyone who feels a little lost in life or just doesn’t feel like they’re doing what they should be doing. It’s not going to make you feel better, but it’ll feel like you’re being seen. For Gen X and older Millennials, this probably reads as a horror book.

The Twelve Labours of Hercules set in a Cyberpunk world, with the titular hero being a dying super soldier forcibly brought back by aggressively invasive body mods. It's a fun and captivating concept, but the story really drags by the time we get to the Cretan Bull.

While I did not love the narrative nor the characters much, there is no denying the prescient impact of how well this parallels what is occurring in the United States. I like the concept and framework of Dream Hotel, just didn’t thoroughly enjoy the characters and their development. Not to make qualitative comparisons, what Lalami accomplishes is in the same vein of Philip K. Dick’s pre-crime parables in Minority Report—PKD himself of course being directly influenced by Huxley, Orwell, Wells, and Bradbury. All the terrible things occurring in Dream Hotel are not only real, but occurring as we write and read this (to a slightly lower degree of dream reading tech so far).

The likes of Palantir are undeniably actively pursuing and researching how to make this mind and dream reading tech a reality, which when paired with their already existing invasive facial recognition tech, will essentially erase any sense of privacy. Think the pre-crime AI pool girls from Minority Report blended with the dream marketing tech of Nic Cage’s Dream Scenario, backed by big money secretive corporations like in Inception, now multiply it all by 5 and weaponize it. Oh you had a dream where you punched your terrible boss in the face? Well, now we’re legally able to place a premeditated assault charge on you and imprison you. What’s that, you had a dream you went on a date with your celebrity crush and things went well let’s say? Well, with a good lawyer, the government might be able to smack you with a sexual assault charge just because you thought of it. I know a lot of people would be sent to Dream Hotel’s Risk Assessment Administration system just for day dreaming of a certain orange individual disappearing…

Suffice it to say, I’m curious what Lalami follows this up with, as I do think she has a strong voice that could work well within a realistic near future sci-fi realm.

An interesting take on a whodunit with a potentially unreliable narrator framework. My second least fave Moshfegh, but still a captivating character study for yet another weird girl, amplified by the isolated setting. I could see this being made into an A24 psychological thriller with the likes of Isabelle Huppert.

Not sure how to feel about this one. On one hand it's somewhat of a different take on vampires, using a fun narrative conceit to keep you intrigued, but on the other, I didn't really care about any of the characters. One thing is for certain though, as a debut, the Anna Kovatchava has a strong and promising grasp on world-building and atmosphere. The pacing is probably what will give most some hurdles

Peter Swanson is always challenging himself with some sort of writing mechanic. Whether it be telling you who the murderer is right away, giving you the climax early on, or in this case, writing his narrative backwards, he never bores. I was surprised to see he pulls it off here, keeping my intrigue and attention to the central dynamic as we walk through their lives backwards from middle-aged to literal children. If you're into crime thrillers, Swanson is your guy.

Not that's tonally similar at all to Hokum, but the thought did cross my mind with Adam Scott’s troubled author and this book’s cursed sentient dead author’s desk. I do like a cursed object movie! This is my first Fracassi, and I am inclined to check out some more (the retirement home slasher next), as he does well with building a dark atmosphere and integrating gory kills with flowing modern prose. I was expecting to like this more, but I do think it's well worth your time—albeit overlong—if you like the Stephen King influenced cursed author (s/o Alan Wake) narrative. Fracassi even takes a couple of fun jabs at King, like he tends to use the n-word more than necessary.

Content warning: rape

The film adaptation is much better. I actually didn't even connect that these were connected till I was returning it; that's how different they are.

I like the mixed media formatting of having to follow along with blueprint diagrams and maps of the houses in question. That said, I found the mystery and eerie atmosphere to be nonexistent, as you could immediately point out the titular strangeness of the house the moment you take one look. I was hoping for the reveal to be much darker and twisted as many Japanese tales go.

If you enjoyed Calypso Protocol, this will be right up your alley. Imagine that Dead Space influenced space prison barge setting of infected zombie convicts paired with the a Star Wars theme. Less Jedi/Sith than in the previous book Red Harvest, but more eerie atmosphere and gore with the entrapped and dark setting. There’s also a pretty cool cameo I was not expecting!

A short and easy psychological eco-horror read of how we are poisoning ourselves by killing our planet.

Was not expecting it to be more of a kid’s adventure story. Should be marketed as such.

“Money is like acid. It burns through everything: friendships, family, lovers, husbands and wives. What ever bond you think you have, money will make that bond dissolve, it's acid.”

Believe the hype. King of Ashes is a highly entertaining and well-crafted crime revenge thriller with some really fun characters. This is my first experience with S.A. Cosby, and now I'm eager to explore his other books. I was told this book has some terrific villains, and it definitely delivers with the sadistic Tranquil & Torrent. Reading this book made it very easy to picture a movie adaptation in my mind, as Cosby’s writing flows smoothly and clearly captures these living characters right off the page. My only major gripe is that the ending feels rushed and comes together too quickly, especially after all the buildt up tension and raised stakes preceding it. That said, I very much enjoyed it from start to finish and was upset it ended. This would make an excellent double read or a future double feature film billing alongside Don Winslow’s City on Fire.

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Fancast:

- Roman: Michael B. Jordan / John David Washington - Dante: Damson Idris - Naveah: Teyonah Parris / Zazie Beetz - Mr. Carruthers: Forest Whitaker / Sam Jackson - Torrent: Daniel Kaluuya - Tranquil: Trevante Rhodes - Yellaboy: Lakeith Stanfield - Splodie: 21 Savage / Jason Mitchell - Khalil: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II / Winston Duke - Chauncey: Aldis Hodge - Jealousy: Anitta - Shade: Brian Tyree Henry

This is what happens when you don't have a proper trip sitter.

The concept of a Norwegian heavy metal band body horror revenge thriller with a splash of (shockingly not marketed) Jennifer’s Body and Norse gods was enough to peak my intrigue. Unfortunately the coloring really did not do it for me, and often times was actually quite difficult to make out with its shading/lighting. Vanesa Del Rey’s art style was interesting and unique, but I felt that the colors and shading obscured a lot of the lines and detail. Meanwhile I was let down by the lack of more Norse myths given Azzarello’s extensive work with Wonder Woman. It could have leaned more into The Ritual.

Probably the bleakest noir I’ve read. There are almost no redeemable characters throughout the story yet you keep reading to see if they get their comeuppance or not. Wildly unexpected ending with a lot of thematic parallels one could make.

Star Wars with some eco-Dead Space infected. A lot more brutal and gorier than expected, which leads me to get even more excited about the sequel with the undead troopers.

[3.25/5]

A decent crime thriller that has you trying to solve who the killer is. I don't think it flows as well as Peter Swanson’s murder thrillers, but I can't deny this one has quite the fast pace. It's not as mind-blowing and wild as the word of mouth, but I was never bored. That said, I did not like the ending at all.

One of the big twists is rather predictable, while the other is one you just could not guess given the lack of any breadcrumb evidence left by the author. A pet peeve of mine for movies, shows, and books is when the creator pulls a reveal out of nowhere without having left one iota of potential evidence for the eagle-eyed viewer/reader. It's a personal preference, but I think you should always be able to solve the mystery on your own before reaching the actual reveal, if you're actively paying attention and making your own detective conspiracy boards. Rant aside, it's a brisk read for fellow fans of not as grim murder mysteries and crime shows like The Watcher, His & Hers, The Girl on a Train.

Fancast:

- Ruth: Daisy Edgar Jones / Monica Barbaro

- Scott: Jake Gyllenhaal / Sebastian Stan

- Detective Farrow: Ben Mendo / Jon Tuturro / Colman Domingo

- Detective Hernandez: Eiza Gonzalez

- Amanda: Jodie Comer / Rachel McAdams

- Wendy: Anne Hathaway / Cate Blanchett

- Wallace Crone: Michael Fassbender

- Billy Cameron: Dan Stevens / Jon Bernthal

The Purge mixed with Ready or Not 2. It could improve in the next volume, but I felt like they built up the zany killers with more hype than they could deliver. I was expecting to spend more time with them and their unique manners of playing their respective games. But again, it could be fixed in the future since this initial volume sets up the playing field world of the comic. I was expecting a little more from Pornsak Pichetshote’s section though.

My first foray into Torrey Peters, and a great first impression at that. Very immersive transgressive collection of shorts, with the titular one being the absolute highlight. There are a total of 4 shorts of varying lengths, from 40pg, 50pg, up to the titular best at roughly 150pg. If anything, I recommend you at least read the Stag Dance short (a novella essentially) towards the middle of this overall brisk read. It's a really interesting crises of identity mixed with a bit of camp thriller and eco-horror. The Chaser is a also very good, I didn't care too much for the opening and closing shorts. I will def be keeping my eyes out for more from Torrey Peters.

Plays out more like a tedious soap opera more than a comedic whodunit thriller. Knives Out meets Groundhog Day, it is not. It felt like there was more cousin loving going on than actual mystery stakes and unexpected plot revelations. Not as fun as word of mouth.

A slow-burn surreal psychological comedy I unfortunately did not love or find to be funny. I’ll give it props for its absurdist plot and meta narrative that truly had me guessing left and right up until the out-there ending, but I don’t particularly think James Joyce would have been jealous of this (as the book states). It’s unique, and if you want something genuinely fresh to get the brain cogs turning, give it a whirl. Maybe I'll revisit this again down the road.

Checked this out from the library to see if I wanted to invest more time into the anime. I saw the shockingly short 35ish minute anime film and was very disappointed. So I figured maybe the manga will have more of the desired violence, bloodshed, and creature designs I felt were lacking. Nope, not really. You'll have a better time with the Gantz vampire arc (not that their plots are identical).