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Book List: Horror Novellas You Don’t Have To Put Down

I’m a pretty fast reader, but sometimes a full length novel is just too long. It’s so hard for me to stop once I start, even if I know I need to! I’ve had to swear off certain authors or series because the books were so long, and compelling, that they consumed entire days of my life (I will never forgive George R.R. Martin for the loss of two weeks of my life to a series where he still hasn’t written the conclusion SIX YEARS LATER) If you aren’t a fast reader, then long novels can be intimidating. That’s what makes novellas great. If you’re a fast reader, you can speed right through them and go back to truly enjoy them again at your leisure. They’re just about perfect for travel– small enough to pack away and long enough to keep you engaged on your flight or train, without taking over your entire vacation. The novella length is perfect for a certain kind of horror story, too– it has to move fast and the words have to be carefully chosen in order to have maximum impact in a compact size. I asked for some recommendations from the people following Monster Librarian’s Facebook page,and checked with a few other horror lovers, and a number of them mentioned the same titles.  Here’s a short list of 14 novellas recommended by horror lovers, that will be perfect for your summer reading, if you haven’t picked them up already. And if any of them pique your interest, feel free to click on the book’s image. It will take you straight to Amazon, and since we are an Amazon affiliate, you’ll be helping us out, too. As always, not every book is appropriate for every reader, and while we’ve reviewed some of these, you read at your own risk.

If you feel that the list could use some additions, feel free to contribute your suggestions below!

 Cabal by Clive Barker

  The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

 A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (reviewed here)

 Final Girls by Mira Grant

  Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant

 Strange Weather by Joe Hill (technically this is a collection of four novellas) reviewed here

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

 Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R. Kiernan

  The Mist by Stephen King

 The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

 The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft

 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson  (reviewed here– you’ll have to scroll down)

 The Murders of Molly Southborne by Tade Thompson (a sequel, The Survival of Molly Southborne, comes out in July)

Posted on May 20, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Alabaster: The Good, The Bad, and the Bird by Caitlin R. Kiernan, art by Daniel Warren Johnson


Alabaster: The Good, the Bad, and the Bird by Caitlin R. Kiernan, art by Daniel Warren Johnson

Dark Horse, 2016

ISBN: 9781616557966

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, comiXology

 

The trade paperback opens with a woman in the fetal position, filled in with the night sky, against a stark white background, and narration about personal devils, the mind, and a pale horse. What unfolds is a story of death, resurrection, revenge, and the journey of Dancy Flammarion from death to life. Set in the American South, Dancy, an albino woman, is dragged out of death, despite her refusal to the Angel to return, by twin sisters with questionable reasons for bringing Dancy back. The sisters pray to an old goddess, partake in blood rituals, and control ancient beasts that take someone from Dancy, a woman she loves more than life itself. To fight the twins and powers of darkness, it will take Dancy, returned from the dead, the strength of the woman she loves, and a small snarky bird who speaks to those who understand with a Southern accent.

This is not the first story to feature Dancy Flammarion, but it is the first I have read. The story is compelling enough that I want to seek out the other works that Kiernan has written about her. Dancy is incredibly strong, physically and emotionally, and is a well-written character. She’s mysterious in this volume, and I have to know more about her. I recommend this book if you like a good supernatural tale. Recommended.

This volume collects Alabaster: The Good, the Bad, and the Bird #1-5.

Contains: blood, gore, nudity

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker


Posted on November 13, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow

Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror edited by Ellen Datlow
Tachyon Publications, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1616962326
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Nightmares is a collection of stories chosen by Ellen Datlow as the best stories of 2005-2015. It is a companion volume to Darkness, a previously published anthology of stories chosen by her as the best stories written between 1985 and 2005. Not being as widely read in contemporary short horror fiction as Datlow is, I can’t say whether I agree with her choices or not, but I can say that the stories she chose do live up to the book’s title: in one way or another, they are all nightmares.

Datlow chose stories that take a variety of approaches to instilling horror, from the understated to over-the-top: you’ll find weird fiction, cosmic horror, twisted fairy tales, disturbing family secrets, ghosts and hauntings, Gothic horrors, body horror, incestuous relationships, and more than enough blood and gore. As a reader who prefers creepy and atmospheric writing to graphic descriptions, I found this book to be emotionally, mentally, and even physically exhausting. I received it as an ebook from NetGalley and am not sure how long it actually was, but it required several days for me to read it through. However, as a sampler of well-done short fiction in the horror genre, I think it is successful. Certainly, I have found that several stories have stuck with me even though a few weeks have passed since I finished it.

Standout stories include “Shallaballah” by Mark Samuels, a surreal tale that takes a disoriented plastic surgery patient through a disturbing Punch-and-Judy inspired hospital experience; “Dead Sea Fruit” by Kaaron Warren, about a dentist with a taste for revenge who destroys a man whose kiss drives girls to starve themselves to death; “Closet Dreams” by Lisa Tuttle, the story of a girl who was trapped in a closet by her kidnapper;  “The Goosle” by Margo Lanagan, a horrific take on the Hansel and Gretel story requiring the reader to have an iron stomach; “The Shallows” by John Langan, a tale of a gardener trying to keep going after his wife has died, his son has left, and tentacled aliens have begun their invasion; and “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” by Caitlin Kiernan, a bloody tale of a road trip of serial murders by vicious, incestuous, necrophiliac sisters that you won’t soon forget.

For those horror readers who enjoy variety in their short fiction,  Nightmares is an excellent way to discover authors they may not have tried out before. With her choices for this collection of short fiction from the past decade, despite her disclaimer, Ellen Datlow continues to show not just her enthusiasm as a fan of the horror genre, but her excellence as an anthologist. Recommended.

Contains: graphic gore and torture, cannibalism, incest, necrophilia, violent murders, disturbing sexual situations, body horror, rape


Posted on October 31, 2016 by , 2 comments