God is cruel. That’s what this book tells me. I remember buying this book, and its companion piece, The Regulators when they came out. I also know I read them, but some twenty years later, I have no memory of what happened in either of them. So it seemed like a great time for a…
Category: The Book Shelf
Come Closer (2003) – Sara Gran
So good. So unnerving, and truly horrifying. Sara Gran’s novella does not overstay its welcome, but boy, does it get under you skin. This ended up being an exemplary horror story that wa over too quick, but damn if it didn’t unnerve me throughout. Told from the first person narrative, we are in Amanda’s mind…
Inside of a Dog (Revised Ed. 2025) – Alexandra Horowitz
I have always loved dogs. I feel I have an affinity for them, and they me. In a room filled with people, I’m going to look for a dog to hang out with. And though we anthropomorphize our furry companions, they aren’t human. They see and know the world in a different way than we…
From a Buick 8 (2002) – Stephen King
For some reason this Stephen King novel seems to keep slipping off my list, and I don’t know why. I stopped it sliding off this time, and dug into a creepy and fun novel that feels like it’s on the edge of other King stories without throwing you right in the middle of one. It’s…
The Exorcist’s House (2022) – Nick Roberts
Nick Roberts’ The Exorcist’s House is a fun idea, and it’s filled with little nods to the genre and the tropes, particularly William Peter Blatty’s original novel The Exorcist. But for all that, it seems to be a popcorn horror book. It’s fun, though some of it feels like it goes a little too far…
Hurricane Gold (2007)- Charlie Higson
It’s been awhile since I checked in with James Bond, and his early days as chronicled by Charlie Higson. Set in the 1930s, the young Bond finds himself on an adventure that takes him on a dangerous journey through the Mexican jungles, and a dangerous rat-run on a hidden Caribbean island. That island is a…
Lonesome Dove (1985) – Larry McMurtry
According to USA Today, if I only read one western in my life, it should be Lonesome Dove. I’ve enjoyed western films, and now thanks to the spreading Taylor Sheridan universe, I thought I may dip into it. Clocking in at 858 pages, the 40th anniversary edition is introduced by Sheridan, and I saddled up…
Breakthrough (1995) – Whitley Strieber
It’s been forever since I explored more of Whitley Strieber’s journey. His abductions, and encounters with Visitors. Breakthrough is the third non-fiction book in his documentation of the unusual and powerful encounters with a strange type of intelligence. This time out, he documents his attempt to move forward with his communion with these beings. He…
How to Survive Camping: The Man With No Shadow (2025) – Bonnie Quinn
Cozy horror is apparently a thing. I was happy to dig into something unique and fun, and Bonnie Quinn delivers with the first book in her How to Survive Camping series. The book, and the series, started out as a collection of posts on the No Sleep forum on Reddit. The story centers around Kate,…
The Butcher’s Masquerade (2022) – Matt Dinniman
The fifth book in the incredibly entertaining Dungeon Crawler Carl series is The Butcher’s Masquerade. It’s also the longest one in the series so far. It’s hefty, and there is a lot going on. There are a lot more emotional blows in this one, right from the off, the company running the crawl attempt to…
