This one’s got a big mammajamma entry in it. That’s right… I consumed the COMPLETE LOVECRAFT FICTION. Check it out below. Also in this batch is a collection of stories influenced by Lovecraft, a pair of horror tinged dark fantasies and the first in what I’m afraid will be many interludes of Goosebumps micro-reviews. For…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: The Troop Sounds the Witching Horn
Welcome back for another enticing sandwich of fiber and justice! In this installment of the wildly popular and generations-defining feature Me Reads Horror Bookz, we have a boy scout trip gone horribly wrong, a strange tale of a Nazi-fueled alternate future with cat women, a massive omnibus of mostly classic ghost stories, a beautifully illustrated…
Ben Reads The Horror Classics: Ghostly Cellars and Vampiric Crones
When I first started this whole journey through a big ass list of horror books and started mentioning it to people, I inevitably received the response: “How can you read that much horror? Don’t you think you’ll get sick of it?” To that I say, of course not, silly goose! Sure if I stuck just…
Ben Reads The Horror Classics: Exquisite Hallucinations and Parasitic Bird Boxes
What’s the state of modern horror fiction? Is it still thriving or dying on the vine? Well, compared to the boom of the ’70s and the ’80s, it certainly isn’t as prevalent as it was back then. But in some ways, horror fiction is as strong as it ever was, and I’m not talking about…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: The Smell of the End of the World
As Grady Hendrix and Will Erickson have spoken/written of at length in Paperbacks from Hell and elsewhere, the ’80s were a boom period for horror fiction where writers like Stephen King and Dean Koontz were treated like superstars, regularly appearing on the New York Times bestseller list. But as Paperbacks from Hell pointed out, there…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: Anubis Mongrels in Black and Yellow
Welcome to another trip through the annals of horror history. One thing I wanted to touch on in this bunch is that some of the books in this list may not be what it classically thought of as horror necessarily. In this bunch specifically, Tim Powers’ fantasy/sci-fi/horror/wtf amalgamation is an example, but there are many…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: Our Lady of the Lesser Dead Nation
I’m back, y’all! After a short break to give the gift guide some breathing room, it’s time for another round of write-ups for books that seem to be well-regarded in the realm of horror. In this intro, one thing I did want to mention that may have crossed some minds in all this. The title…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: I Am the Experimental and Beloved Gifts
As I near completing a third of the big list of horror books I’ve committed to reading, I thought I’d reflect a little on why I’m doing this. There are a few reasons actually. First and foremost, I genuinely LOVE horror fiction, whether it be books, films or TV series. The thing is, horror rarely…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: Bloody Guns on the Borderland
In the last entry, I know I started with a fancy intro talking about weird fiction that might have led you to believe I was going to get all high falootin’ trying to educate you on history and stuff. Well, fret not, dear folks! I am far too lazy to do that kind of intro…
Ben Reads the Horror Classics: Gothic Psycho Beauties
Things are gettin’ weeeeiiiirrrd, folks. I thought in this intro, I’d talk a little about the history of weird fiction as I see it (which may indeed be a narrow lens to look through). First, what exactly is weird fiction? Well, it’s fairly self-explanatory actually. Generally pretty strange in tone, often with horror elements and…