Graphic Content: Killadelphia Deluxe Edition Book 2 by Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander

There are some that say horror shouldn’t deal with anything political. My initial response to such a statement is to ask the person making said statement how much actual horror they’ve seen in the last 50 or so years. Horror, indeed a great deal of speculative fiction, hits not only the universal truths of human existence but provides a mirror, no matter how cracked, into our currently broken times. Some may pejoratively call such horror “woke,” but such stories also bring a bright light to some very dark and harmful social issues. Rodney Barnes’s book Killadelphia is an excellent example of this, using the idea of vampires as the Founding Fathers as an example of our current broken system. I had already reviewed the first deluxe edition of this series, but Killadelphia Deluxe Edition Book 2, like any good sequel, raises the stakes for all the characters involved. 

The book opens with Philadephia as a fallen city. Abigail Adams, wife of former president John Adams, and her vampires are not roaming the streets at night to slaughter any innocent humans in their way while humans fighting for survival are turning on each other in the bright light of day. Undead detective James Sangster, Sr., along with his son, find help in the form of the enigmatic vampire Seesaw, a pack of werewolves who know a thing or two about war, and a trickster god, but the vampire army have boosted their numbers with the addition of founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. 

With the stellar depictions of vampiric carnage rendered by artist Jason Shawn Alexander, the meat of the story is filled in by writer Barnes. Barnes does quite a bit of narrative lifting in this volume, having to handle so many new characters, from werewolves to new vampires. In the hands of an inexperienced writer, all the new characters could have flitted past the readers without leaving any impression, but Barnes balances them all, letting them all develop organically and contribute to the overall story in their own ways. Along with character development, Barnes uses the vampire metaphor to shine a light on the dark underbelly of America and the promises it has left unfulfilled with monologues by a man who helped build it. 

Have You Read This? The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

There are works of horror that have violence and works of horror that are violent. They are violent with their depictions of a human body’s surgical deconstruction, violent with their brazen exploration of taboo subjects, and violent with their wanton disregard to the fairy tales that remain sacrosanct for many people. This is, of course, a good thing, even necessary, since horror is a genre that often pushes and even destroys boundaries. Cassandra Khaw’s retelling of The Little Mermaid story, The Salt Grows Heavy, is a novella that rejoices in its violence. 

It starts with the tale that everyone is familiar with, that of a mermaid princess who falls in love with a prince whose kingdom is on land and her sacrifices to be with him. What those books don’t mention is how the prince mistreated the mermaid once she was his or how the mermaid’s daughters went on to eat the kingdom. Disney execs would likely be horrified to learn that this mermaid then goes on the run with a nonbinary plague doctor who discovers a village full of murderous children ruled by “saints” who really love performing surgery. 

As a novella, this is a quick read. As a story, it’s a fever dream/acid trip of a fairy tale retelling. This is mostly due to Khaw’s writing. Not content to simply describe events as they happen, she paints a gloriously visceral picture with her words, blurring the boundaries between what is beautiful and what is horrifying. In this retelling, the mermaid who is not named Ariel is no longer a victim; instead she is a force of nature that will tear through anything to get what she wants. 

Graphic Content: The Devil That Wears My Face written by David Pepose and illustrated by Alex Cormack

 

God bless Mad Cave Studios! I say this as a horror fan and a fan of horror graphic novels. They might not have the same name recognition as Image Comics or Boom Studios! However, this means that they’re able to establish themselves as the scrappy underdogs of horror comics, and scrap they do. They don’t post inflammatory posts about the major comic companies or challenge editors to street fights, but they garner attention by coming up with the most unusual subjects for their stories, often throwing away traditional genre conventions. Their latest horror series, The Devil That Wears My Face, written by David Pepose and illustrated by Alex Cormack, calls itself “‘Face/Off’ meets ‘The Exorcist’,” and no other elevator-pitch-style tagline sums up a series better. 

In 1740, conflicted priest Father Vieri was summoned to Spain to perform an exorcism. The demon known as Legion has killed lesser priests who have tried to force him out of the Spanish nobleman in which he resides. When Vierti tries to remove the demon, Legion turns the tables on him and ends up switching bodies with Vieri. Now Legion is loose in the Vatican, spreading violence and chaos wherever he goes, and Father Vieri, whose captors believe he is the possessed Spanish nobleman, must stop Legion in his body before he burns the Vatican down. 

This book and Cormack’s gruesomely gory artwork, featuring people not just murdered but exploded, plants it firmly in the adult horror category, along with its use of demonic possession, but Pepose’s story owes a lot to Face/Off, the face-switching action film from the ‘90s, not only in its plot similarities but in its overall tone. This book zooms at an action movie pace as the stalwart heroes try to apprehend Legion and stop the demon’s carnage. And the delightfully evil Legion himself hams it up in a way that would make Castor Troy, Face/Off’s main villain, proud. Movie fans who gravitate between Jerry Bruckenheimer action and James Wan splatter might enjoy this horrific trip to 1700s Italy.

Have You Read This? Rabbit Hunt by Wrath James White

 

Though I consider myself a scary librarian (meaning one who loves all things horror, and not an actual scary librarian), I must admit that my knowledge has been lacking in one particular area: extreme horror. If more mainstream horror is a hamburger that might have mustard on it, then extreme horror is a burger covered in Carolina Reaper Scorpion Devil’s Spit Sauce (if such a sauce exists). Why I am just dipping my toe into this genre is likely due to a lack of understanding of the genre. Detractors of extreme horror might say that it favors gore over story necessities like plot and character development, but I wanted to see for myself, which is why I checked out Rabbit Hunt by Wrath James Wright. 

The story follows former fraternity brothers Big Mike, Mooky, Rashad, and Steve are excited about a hunting trip and leaving behind their adult responsibilities like their jobs and their wives. Six college kids are also looking forward to getting back to nature by dropping acid and getting drunk. When these two groups meet in the woods, far away from civilization, readers will see a hunt where bodily fluids flow freely and respect for human life flies completely out the window. 

This book definitely lives up to its “extreme” reputation, going above and beyond not just in its original methods of desecrating and destroying a human body but the visceral detail in which these acts are described. However, while such books also have a transgressive quality to them, its level of violence will be readily familiar to fans of such movies as Terrifier. And like Terrifier, the characters might not be considered likable, or even well-developed, but these serve the purpose of the story: to either tear apart human flesh or be torn apart. Slashers like Friday the 13th are filled with these kinds of shallowly drawn characters who are simply fed to the meat grinder in a hockey mask. However, describing Rabbit Hunt as a slasher clone does ignore White’s attempts to ground it into the current and volatile political climate. Many of White’s characters, despite their political leanings, seem quite capable of violence; all they need is the opportunity, which White repeatedly gives them. If White’s tale does have a message, it’s that anybody, anywhere is capable of violence that would shock the sensibilities of civilized (or uncivilized) society. 

Have You Read This? Your Body Is Not Your Body edited by Alex Woodroe and Matt Blairstone

 

As a genre relying on generating a particular emotion within its audience, horror can be both universal and very personal. Horror can often touch on universal fears, such as the fear of death, but it can also be used to discuss the personal fears of the author, including fears of being attacked simply for being who they are. Often, these kinds of stories aren’t so much a whimper of submission as they are a cry of rage. Such stories are included in Your Body is Not Your Body, an anthology of weird fiction featuring authors from the Trans/Gender Nonconforming community. 

Editors Alex Woodroe and Matt Blairstone have compiled stories that definitely put the weird in weird fiction. Take, for example, a medieval monk whose body is transformed by a different kind of possession. And if such a tale is too tame, there are stories featuring living weapons, transcendental massages, haunted telephones, and a story from rising star like Hailey Piper about women exploding. Many of the stories in this collection focus on all the ways that a human body can become twisted into something unimaginable, both beautiful and horrifying. The weird in this fiction anthology is definitely the gloriously great kind of weird. 

Anthologies such as this serve not only as an introduction to the various authors who are presented in this book, but books like this one also introduce readers to weird fiction. There are no gothic castles or classic monsters here; the horrors presented in this book are from not only one’s body becoming unrecognizable, but the world they live in becoming hostile, which is what many transgender and gender-nonconforming people are experiencing with the rash of anti-LGBTQ laws being ratified by various states. Horror is supposed to create a fear response, but horror, of all kinds and especially the stories in this book, rely on creating feelings of empathy for the protagonists in these stories. 

Graphic Content: Harrower by Justin Jordan and Brahm Revel

Slashers are back in a big way, and killers wielding life-ending weapons are in. Whether it’s Stephen Graham Jones reinventing the genre in his Indian Lake trilogy or streaming service Shudder pumping out contemporary slasher along with their library of slasher classics geared for gorehounds, maniacs are making a bloody splash. Nowhere and no one is safe, not even graphic novels. One of the latest to capitalize on the slasher renaissance, and seemingly the closest to a traditional slasher, is Harrower, a book of small town savagery written by Justin Jordan and drawn by Brahm Revel.

The small town that is to be the center of carnage is Barlowe, New York. Jessa Brink, along with her friends, are ready to cut loose this Halloween night despite warnings from their parents and the local legend about the Harrower. The Harrower is Barlowe’s resident boogeyman. For generations, the Harrower has stalked the shadowy streets of Barlowe, looking for young men and women who stray from the path of puritanical purity. Unfortunately, Jessa and her friends find themselves in the Harrower’s bloody, destructive path.

Fans of slasher movies will find a lot that’s familiar in this book, from the secondary characters who are only there to add to the body count to the killer and his distinct weapon (in this case, a medieval battle axe swung with deadly precision). Jordan’s story doesn’t necessarily break new ground, but there is also comfort in the familiar. Fans might even feel nostalgic watching the Harrower use brutal methods to enforce a moral code, remembering how Jason Voorhees killed teens who have sex and/or do drugs on his campground. The twist at the end even references how slashers are often portrayed as purity enforcers. Along with Revel’s depictions of carnage, Harrower is a feel-good kind of slasher for fans who long ago wore out their VHS copies of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, along with those lucky enough to have just discovered the slasher genre.

Have You Read This? Always Listen to Her Hurt by Kenzie Jennings

 

There’s a lot of aspects about an author’s life that seep into their fiction, but it’s often that writer’s home that seems to leave the biggest footprint. Some of the more well-known examples of this are the creepy hamlets of Stephen King’s Maine or the crime-riddled backwoods of Chris Offutt’s crime fiction. Kenzie Jennings might be adding Florida to the list of literary locations explored on the printed page with her short story collection Always Listen to Her Hurt. 
Many of the stories from this collection hail from the Sunshine State, particularly those that look beneath the seedy, sweltering underbelly of Florida’s thriving tourism industry. These tales include the story of a harried mother at Walt Disney World or a woman whose vacation destination is a little more out-of-the-way, learning with frightening consequences why some beware of what some locals call “a local thing.” There’s one tale that’s even a revenge fantasy of obnoxious tourists getting their comeuppance from assassins whose specialty is dealing with unwanted guests. 
However, the stories in this collection aren’t all gleefully wicked gorefests. Jennings offers an explanation about all the stories here, but the horror becomes all too real when she explains how some writings are more biographical. These works are typically shorter, but they also offer some revealing glances at true emotional pain. Some might call it jarring, but the purpose of a collection is often to introduce readers to a writer’s overall body of work. What this collection does is show Jennings at her most creative and her most confessional. 

New Arrival: Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

 

Eric LaRocca is an author that diehard horror fans have recently discovered. He has written such unnerving works as Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood. LaRocca has recently spread his light-absorbing wings, creating his first novel length work called Everything the Darkness Eats, a work that threatens to put all of us under its oppressive shadow.

That shadow rises from the depths of Henley’s Edge, a small Connecticut town, with anger and bigotry boiling beneath its veneer of Americana. This is where eccentric older gentleman Heart Crowley drives around in his Rolls Royce looking for victims to help with his occult rituals. Another local from Henley’s Edge is Ghost, a young man reeling from personal loss and a little spirit that feeds off his misery. The two men meet just as police officer Malik tries to solve the town’s rash of disappearances and Crowley’s dark deeds start to come to fruition. Malik might be in over his head because what Crowley has in his basement could destroy Henley’s Edge and the universe that exists beyond it.

Those who’ve seen John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness might find a lot of things similar in Henley’s Edge, particularly the cosmic horror brewing underneath. Ghost and Heart are delightfully and expectedly weird, but the real terrors come with officer Malik and his husband bearing the brunt of the town’s simmering prejudice, first as scare tactics and then slowly but surely upping the brutality, culminating in an assault that will leave readers gasping. LaRocca’s story is a blend of otherworldly horrors and all-too-familiar ones, particularly if one watches current events. Overall, this story feels like a collaboration between Stephen King and Clive Barker if they were 30 years younger, but it still has all the bloody flourishes that marks it as straight from the brain of Eric LaRocca.

Graphic Content: Creepshow Vol. 1

 

It seems that Creepshow has enjoyed a kind of wretched renaissance, to employ a phrase the eponymous Creep might use. Indeed, Creepshow is still showing on the Shudder network, just as horror anthologies are still going strong on all the streaming services. Horror historians might remember that books like Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow not only offended pearl-clutching parents back in the day but also how they created new media properties in the form of movies and television shows. Proving that horror is ultimately cyclical, there is Creepshow, Vol. 1, once more returning to the graphic novel medium while also featuring some heavy hitters in comic book writing like Clay McCleod Chapman and Paul Dini.

Fans of the Creepshow series, the movies, and even the comics are familiar with the format: each issue collected in this trade paperback features two stories (a grand total of ten for this entire collection) and they all feature the same gory, campy shenanigans of the Creepshow brand. From birthday mascots scarier than any clown to forbidden temples guaranteed to make shallow influencers pay for desecrating them, there should be a few tales guaranteed to raise hackles and tempt you to buy some x-ray specs.

Like many anthologies, the entries vary in quality but there are a few standouts, like the one featuring a character that eats more than cake at a children’s birthday party and a group of hunters who frequent a local barber shop talking about what could be lurking out there in the woods. One particular story that shows the series’ gleefully dark humor is about a comics creator who defends his home thanks to the brutal encouragement of his cuddly creations. But if you’re a fan of Creepshow, or even Tales from the Crypt, this is one anthology series you should check out while waiting for new episodes on Shudder.