Special thanks to Kyle Edward Ball for the inspiration.
I made this during a bleak period of my life.
It is made with love but also with great sadness.
Some of it looks and sounds ridiculous.
But thats how I felt. As close as I could capture.
Thanks for reading.
I hope you overcome anything that comes your way.
Not many books have left a lasting impact on me like these books. This is not a lost of best to worst, just kinda.. a list.
Sick bastards: the trilogy. Only matt shaw story I have read, but I thought the writing was decent and the story horrific enough to keep me interested. The twists are good. The story assembles, dissassembles, then reassembles again. I must admit, for splatter punk, the ending was good.
Cipher: kathe koja does some brilliant stuff in this one. The tension and the gnawing in the back of your head as to what the f*ck the "funhole" is. I cannot recommend it if you like definitive endings. But it is great.
Cows: matthew stokoe. Oh man. I am embarressed to say I liked this one. It is absolutely mad. If I told you what happened in this book, you wouldnt believe me. Honestly. I hate that I loved this, but for splatterpunk especially, this thing is not only an innovation to horror in terms of tropes, but it genuinely made me feel hopeless.
The crooked god machine: autumn christian. I do not need to describe this. I honestly want you to look this up. No commentary, no nothing. Jump into the rabbit hole. I will never forget this book and neither will you.
We are here to hurt eachother: paula D ashe. This is my favourite in the list. I love this book. I love it so much that I reached out to thank paula and she replied! That was an incredible thing.
It is an anthology of stories, all entirely unique and horrifying. A certain story 'bereft' will make you rethink everything you thought you know about horror.
Blood meridian: cormac mccarthy. No comment.
Hogg: samuel delany. I had to wear a hazmat suit while reading this. Its not your run of the mill story of boy meets cruel world. Its pornography of the most depraved. Its horror lies in making the reader sick to their stomach.
You feel bad for the POV character, until you realise as the pages go by he is maybe more recipricating of the depravity than even the monsters. Saló levels of grossness and somehow.. unfortunantly.. waaaaay more.
Thats my round up of all the books that got some kind of reaction out of me. Horror comes in many forms. Tension. Cosmic. Dread. Disgust. Terror. Enjoy!
A narrative about a little shit of a young boy that is grounded and secluded upstairs. He escapes his room and ventures into the attic where he encounters his old action man.
He had loved the action man. Then he was disinterested. Then he was downright mean.
Then something drags him screaming into the toybox.
He lands within the expansive planes of oceanic ballpits and endless plastic. A childs heaven,
But not so much heaven when something follows,
Something preys.
A daring escape from the entity across towering climbing frames, ballpits and netting, plastic buffers that smell like socks,
He falls into a secluded ballpit through a narrow space and drags himself onto a stage area, hyperventilating. Not knowing what follows.
It snaps and cracks through the narrow space and dives into the ballpit, sending the multiple-coloured orbs crashing upwards.
It crawls upon the stage, and stands.
My take on arguably the best written villian in all of literature, the Judge.