The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) – Victor LaValle

H.P. Lovecraft gets a fantastic spin in this novella by Victor LaValle. Lovecraft is hard to admit you like, because his stories of cosmic horror and old ones are so good, and have become such a cornerstone of horror fiction, but he was just so racist and that permeated all of his writing. The Ballad…

At The Mountains of Madness (1931) – H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft’s unnerving novella, At the Mountains of Madness was my next read, and I can’t believe how much I enjoyed it. It’s dark, frightening, and immensely enjoyable. An Antarctic expedition finds something they don’t expect, and from there the tale descends into horror and madness. I feel that the story influenced the short story of…

Fragile Things (2006) – Neil Gaiman

I love curling up with a Neil Gaiman book, be it a novel or a collection of short stories, for me he is literary comfort food – engaging, a joy to lose myself in, and a spark for my own imagination. His collection of short stories and poems gathered in this volume, some of which…

Just After Sunset (2008) – Stephen King

  So as I bounced back and forth about what I wanted to read next, I decided it was time to pick up another Stephen King collection. Short stories can be strange things, and collections of them can be just as odd. They either work together or they don’t, and some stories can be hits,…

TIFF 2015: Portal to Hell – Vivieno Caldinelli

  TIFF tends to be filled with hidden gems, each one tucked away and made all the more pleasing when you find it. So let Sue and I give you a little nudge in the right direction… Portal To Hell!!! is part of the Short Cuts Programme 4 and is nothing short of pure gold. Running…