Not having read Mantel’s memoir, “Giving Up the Ghost,” I was a little befuddled by some of these stories – they return again and again to similar settings and situations but with…
“Blodsuger” by John Langan
All of the stories in Ellen Datlow’s anthology “Screams From the Dark” are great – she is far and away the best collector of horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories working today…
The Girl From Rawblood by Catriona Ward
The story of a cursed family is told through several voices in three different time periods – around 1840, around 1890, and in the aftermath of the First World War.
A brief personal history of social media: Usenet
The ongoing fiasco of Twitter, once my favorite social media site, has put me in a nostalgic mood.
“Ravissante” by Robert Aickman
A story within a story – a man inherits the papers of a painter of fantastical scenes, and finds a memoir of the painter’s visit with the widow of another painter of…
“The Game of Rat and Dragon” by Cordwainer Smith
Humans and cats form a psychic bond to fight against monsters lurking in the deep space between stars. This is a subtle and intriguing story of interspecies communication that manages to give…
“The Stains” by Robert Aickman
A widower visiting his vicar brother in the country encounters a strange young woman on the moors and moves into an abandoned house with her, where they are pursued by the girl’s…
“Apate’s Children” by Brendan Vidito
A man’s guilty conscious and his wife’s refusal to forgive him create a monstrous creature and its evil children that torment his dreams.
“Mother’s Mark” by Brendan Vidito
A woman seeks to create a perfectly un-man-like man through black magic but is unable to exorcise its worst traits.
“Walking in Ash” by Brendan Vidito
A man has a panic attack and is granted premonitions into a horrific apocalypse he is powerless to alter or avoid.