One night to survive. One soul to save. When five friends break into an abandoned house, they expect to find dust and old furniture. Instead, they find themselves caught in a terrifying trap. After a séance gone wrong, a primal, bloodthirsty spirit takes root in their friend, and the teens find themselves trapped in a house of horrors with a predator that is evolving. As the moon climbs higher, the human part of Jared begins to fade, replaced by a hunger that can't be satisfied. With every exit barred, the group tries desperately to escape the beast their friend is becoming. Get it here.
There is a longer version of this horror short with a different ending called The Board. You can find it in the book The Barrow, The Board, and The Bunny: Three Short Tales of Horror.
"Second Skin" is free, but it has PWYW pricing so you can leave a tip -totally optional, but very much appreciated. 4k words, file is ePub.
The Barrow, The Board, and The Bunny: Three Short Tales of Horror
This ebook uses PWYW pricing. The minimum purchase price is 1.99 USD. 32k words. Get it here.
The Barrow
In old Scandinavian folklore, the dead do not always rest. When a careless young man unwittingly violates an ancestral taboo, he awakens an angry undead creature fueled by bitterness and brutal strength.
The Board
Five friends. One abandoned house. A game they should never have started. When the group breaks into the abandoned childhood home of a serial killer, they expect a night of tall tales and urban legends. But after a session with a Ouija board goes wrong, Jared isn’t himself anymore. He’s faster, stronger, and his eyes reflect a light that shouldn't be there. As Jared’s scent for blood rises, his friends are looking more like prey by the second. It’s a race against time: can Jared’s friends exorcise the killer before the transformation is complete, or will they become the first kills in a new cycle of blood?
The Bunny
The rabbit is gentle. The rabbit is sweet. The rabbit is never afraid. The child calls it a pet. But her mother feels something watching from behind its glassy eyes—something old, hungry, and patient.
Shadows of the Past
This novel uses PWYW pricing. Minimum purchase price is 4.99USD. ePub file. 120k words. Get it here.
When a young woman returns to her family’s derelict mansion, she does not come alone. With her estranged cousin, she reenters a house where a child died—and where the explanation was easier than the truth. As rooms are reopened and memories surface, the line between belief and blame begins to erode, and the house reveals a quieter, more devastating kind of haunting.
The thing that frustrates me the most with cosmic horror is how tied it’s become to space, tentacles and the deep sea. A tragically reductive interpretation. Sometimes it’s an alien god, sure; but sometimes it’s a house, a heart, sycamore trees or even a single word. Stop trying to make your own Lovecraft and start taking these themes and making something Your Own. Be more creative. You can make something stranger than a squid monster.
I just finished these two books this past week while I reread The Locked Tomb series and try to catch up on The Apostles of Mercy. So here's some takes:
I absolutely adored My Darling Dreadful Thing, it played on some wonderful imagery and traumas but withheld what could have been graphic depictions of violence. Not to say there aren't any, but it was sickly sweet, sad, and satisfying.
Bloom on the other hand took a complete 180. Whereas MDDT let me know what it was from the very beginning, Bloom sets itself up as a lovely sapphic cottagecore romance, akin to Late Bloomer, and pivots suddenly. There are fun little clues and hints that makes me want to reread it with the knowledge in mind. Short, sickly, and seductive.
Both of these are available on Libby and the audiobook for My Darling Dreadful Thing was very well-done by Jess Nesling.
The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey has such a fucking cool cover. And it's gay and has gross magicians and monsters and shit. I need it so bad
I'm sorry to deflate a million fanart, but the descriptions in the text of Frankenstein go against the conception of him being handsome.
For example, on the top of Chapter V, he is described as follows
His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips
"Beautiful" here is meant as a bit of irony, contrasting his intent of a handsome creating turning out like the horrific amalgam of dead flesh the body was. As bonus evidence against the Monster supposedly looking pretty, here's one from the final letter, from when Captan Walton finally sees him.
I entered the cabin where lay the remains of my ill-fated and admirable friend. Over him hung a form which I cannot find words to describe—gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its proportions. As he hung over the coffin, his face was concealed by long locks of ragged hair; but one vast hand was extended, in colour and apparent texture like that of a mummy.
It's very obvious that the Creature was meant to be beautiful, but because he's made of rotten body parts it came out horrific and uncanny. I imagine he looks like a ghoul from Fallout, honestly.
A Look at Goosebumps SlappyWorld (Part 1)
Hello, Spongey here.
It’s time to finally end a saga. By that, I mean another Goosebumps series. In Part 1, I lined up what we’re doing here so you can visit that to hear all about SlappyWorld. Basically, it’s the follow up to Most Wanted where Slappy gets more stories because he sure needed more. At the time I didn’t know when the series end, but soon…
