Santa Womble Returns! The Horror is Here
Ho Ho Ho!
For the next Santa Womble visit the treats are a little darker and more menacing. While Halloween is clearly spooky season nothing like the shortest nights of the year (Northern Hemisphere) to help make things get a little creepy and a great counterbalance to enforced cheer. This year a fine selection of horror tales to try
Double Review - The Murders of Molly Southbourne and The Survival of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson - I’ve saved the last in this trilogy for holiday reads but here are my thoughts on a fantastic dark piece of horror where someone finds clones of themselves trying to kill them.
The Finite by Kit Power - A terrifying tale of love in an apocalypse when a nuclear strikes hits a father and his child. Powerful and heart-rending
Hold My Place by Cassondra Windwalker — Horror exploring our time in lockdown I think is a great place to process our reactions to it. This dark poetical gothic tale uses the period brilliantly.
A Face In The Leaves by Nina Oram — - A tale of the horror of nature all wrapped into a middle aged woman’s battle to discover the secret of a strange artists. Very impressive.
All The White Spaces by Ally Wilkes — - a perfect tale for winter. A doomed expedition head to Antarctica and nothing goes right. Cosmic horror in cold places - this is strongly recommended!
Sundial by Catriona Ward — - In the desert there can be many secrets to discover and this intense and strange tale of a family and their mysterious home is a delightful dark tale being whispered to you by a desert campfire. Also strongly recommended.
Mrs March by Virginia Feito — - this is a piece of great modern gothic as our lead character Mrs March finds her husband appearing to write about her and her carefully constructed life and persona fractures impresively. Highly recommened character horror.
The Bone Lantern by Angela Slatter — - A dark tale made of tales with werewolves, stepmothers and magic all carefully linked together.
Seven Dead Sisters by Jen Williams — - A haunting dark folk horror tale of a young woman accused of witchcraft and her lost sisters. Who exactly is the monster?
The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon — - A fine piece of horror sf with a world destroyed by climate change and lost daughter to be found before its too late. You’ll feel the heat
Anchor's Heart by Cavan Scott — - the scariness of neighbours arrives in this rather strange and alarming tale.
Dark Observation by Catherine Cavendish — - A tale of WW2, cults and demons awaits in this highly enjoyable dark tale.
My Life In Horror Volume 1 by Kit Power — - a very very fine collection of essays exploring key horror icons and their impact on someone growing up. A uniquely personal and also very relatable collection that I loved a lot.
The Creeper by AM Shine — - A fine modern folk tale set in Ireland and its is dark and grim. The trap is all set for the unwary,
Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman — - A really smart idea of ghosts, drugs and grief all get combined and create something unique and sinister.
Behind A Broken Smile by Penny Jones — - This could have been in my short story collection but I think this is one of THE best horror collections out this year and fans of Shirley Jackson should read this.
The Talosite by Rebecca Campbell — - A very dark tale of re-animating the dead combined with the horrors of WW! and some gorgeously dark powerful writing. Well worth your time!
Jackdaw by Tade Thompson — - Horror that plays with the idea of the tortured artists and plays with the reader too.. Madness, ghosts or something else to explain the strange behaviour of Tade Thompson.
The Fervor by Alma Katsu — - A really interesting piece of historical horror exploring the internment of American Japanese citizens in WW2 and also very creepy too.
The Hollows by Daniel Church — - Now this tale set on the shortest nights of the year is perfect winter horror and absolutely creepy to boot!
Family Business by Jonathan Sims — a tale of people who clean up after someone dies is bound to be eerie but this tale ramps it up to another level and I also think Magnus Archive fans may find more to enjoy too!
The Dark Between The Trees by Fiona Barnett — Another fine historical fantasy with a twist of folk horror on top and also leaves some mysteries we will never know the answer to just people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
