Unspeakably Scary Things Issue #7
The open door of The Phobia Box filled my vision. The idea that I could fall into the damn thing occurred to me, and I stepped back from it.
Category: The Latest
Creature Feature Reviews: “It Waits In the Woods” by Josh Malerman
If there was an award for the most middle-of-the-road story in this collection, “It Waits in the Woods” would currently win.
Creature Feature Reviews: “Ankle Snatcher” by Grady Hendrix
I’m not that easily scared, but “Ankle Snatcher” genuinely freaked me out. The night I read it, I obeyed all the rules outlined about how not to get brutally killed by this monster that lives underneath the bed. It’s been a few days since then, and I am still overly cautious when I’m falling asleep.
Friday Fiction: The Cold Arrives
The seasons are changing. It will only get colder. Autumn, and all it brings, is here to stay. And, as we cross that threshold, a pair of mystical beings has a routine. It must happen each and every year.
Book Review: I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls
I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls has two qualities that have continued to stand out to me even after some time since I read it. One: it has an extremely unwieldy name to put into an article. And two: it is one of the scariest, most unnerving, most creative pieces of horror fiction I’ve come across as a reader.
Creature Feature Reviews: “The Pram” by Joe Hill
As odd as it is for a horror fan to say, “The Pram” is the first thing I’ve read by Joe Hill, the son of the most famous horror writer in the world, Stephen King. But, from what I’ve heard through the grapevine of criticism, they share a fair number of stylistic flourishes.
Friday Fiction: The Possibly Magical Bird (Part 3)
Timothy has one chance to make a wish. But is this “magic bird” even real, or just some robot playing a prank?
The Call of the Flame: An Interesting Premise
The Call of the Flame initially worried me that it would be a repeat of my usual concerns with Epic Fantasy. In my very recent review of The Legacy Saga, I talked about how stories in this genre can lack strong inciting incidents or story hooks because it’s too busy with worldbuilding. And several times, The Call of the Flame almost fell right into the same trap but miraculously continued to pull back and keep things understandable.
It Came From The Archives! “The Storage Papers: As Scary As The Magnus Archives?”
Before listening to The Storage Papers, I never thought a podcast could scare me as much as The Magnus Archives. That the mind-melting, the dark-is-dangerous thrill it gave me was the peak of horror storytelling.
Friday Fiction: The Possibly Magical Bird (Part 2)
Last week, Timothy met a strange bird. But now we’ll get to find out what the bird wants from him.
5 Reasons Fiction Podcasts Are Amazing
If you’ve been reading some of the more recent reviews, then you know we’ve pivoted to basically only looking at podcasts and books until the Hollywood strike finishes. And, while I have reviewed podcasts previously, I really dived into the medium over the past month or so. This has given me a much better feel for this medium of storytelling. It opened my eyes to the variance and breadth that’s available with audio-only narratives.
The Legacy Saga: Generic Epic Fantasy
The Legacy Saga taught me an interesting lesson about tropes, genre conventions, and storytelling methods that I simply cannot enjoy. In the grand scheme, there’s nothing terribly wrong with The Legacy Saga, no glaring sin, but it was a slog to listen to for any amount of time. The minor issues stack up quickly, and what could’ve been a fun experience turned into a malaise.
“So many people get shived!” – Merril
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