New Arrival: I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

 

Stephen Graham Jones may be entering his Stephen King phase. Not only is his name becoming synonymous with horror, thanks to novels like Mongrels and the Jade Daniels series, but he’s also demonstrating just how prolific he can be. He seems to be writing at a blistering pace where the novels just seem to fall out of his head as fully formed as Athena, but he’s also been branching out into other mediums, like comics. His current novel is a return to one of his tried-and-true favorite horror subgenre: the slasher. However, I Was a Teenage Slasher is far from a rehash of his previous work in the Jade Danies series; rather, it’s a tragic tale of a future slasher who’s agency was stolen from him. 

Lamesa, Texas circa 1989 is far from a bustling town. Their main exports are oil, cotton, and death. Death comes in the form of Tolly Driver, a rudderless seventeen-year-old who hangs out with his best friend Amber while trying to process the death of his father. One fateful night, Tolly becomes something worse than a disaffected teen; he becomes a slasher, an unstoppable killing machine that attacks the teens of Lamesa, taking full advantage of the Slasher rules that govern his abilities and drive him to murder everyone who wronged him. 

Made for fans of slashers but with more emotional heft than most slasher films, the story of Tolly discovering his abilities has more in common with superhero stories than slasher films. Much like superheroes (or villains, in Tolly’s case), his story involves struggling to accept what he’s become. Like the Jade Daniels series, this book is a loving homage to the slasher genre, but Jones flips the script by putting readers in the mind of the killer. That killer, it turns out, does not necessarily want to be a murder machine; rather, he is merely fulfilling the role this universe has given him. To put it another way, one could compare the moral of Tolly’s story to Uncle Ben’s advice to his nephew, the Amazing Spider-Man: With great power comes great responsibility (for Tolly, it should probably be “With great power comes a substantial body count”). 

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. 

Graphic Content: Dark Spaces: Good Deeds by Che Grayson and Kelsey Ramsey

 

Fans of horror and comics, or horror comics, might know the name Scott Snyder. Superhero fans might have heard of him because of his seminal work on Batman series like “Death of the Family” and “Dark Nights: Metal.” Horror fans might remember him from such original works as American Vampire and Wytches. He’s managed to parlay that name recognition into an anthology series called Dark Spaces, published by IDW comics. Though he has contributed his own writing to this series, Dark Spaces: Good Deeds is a collaboration from two female creators, with writing done by Che Grayson and illustrations done by Kelsey Ramsey. 

This particular story in the series is a female-centric one with two female protagonists. The first is teenager Cheyenne Rite, who is trying to adjust to her new home in small-town St. Augustine, Florida. The other is Jean McKnight, who is looking to put her journalism career back on track with a piece about St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary celebration. Both women join forces to try and uncover an evil act that goes back centuries that could destroy the town and everyone in it. 

The premise could have had dueling protagonists, with each of them fighting for recognition in their own story, but Grayson keeps them balanced enough so that neither feels like a shallow character (the third act twist also helps keep each protagonist distinct). Ramsey contributes with artwork that doesn’t skimp on the horror, with images that could be pulled straight from a Creepshow comic, which is a complement. Grayson and Ramsey’s collaboration has created a spooky story that looks ready to topple with all the elements going on but still delivers a solid supernatural tale of karma come due. 

Have You Read This? Kill Creek by Scott Thomas

 

While some might have a TBR pile, I have a TBR tower. As a librarian, I am surrounded by so much great stuff to read, I feel like a kid locked in a Toys R Us. Sadly, it takes me longer to read books than it does to play with toys, so my TBR tower can become either an architectural marvel or a disaster waiting to happen. To prevent such a collapse, I decided to finally read a book that I have wanted to read for a long time: Scott Thomas’s Kill Creek. While the cover seems to promise a by-the-numbers haunted house story, Thomas adds enough dramatic flair and compelling characters to help it stand out from the other haunted houses on the block. 

Somewhere in the Kansas countryside, situated by the titular Kill Creek is the Finch House, an abandoned home with its share of ghosts. It is here where four of the most famous writers of horror have agreed to be interviewed. There’s introspective Sam McGarver, reeling from a recent split from his wife; Daniel Slaughter, a writer of Fear Street-like books who is a devout Christian; Sebastian Cole, the esteemed elder statesman of horror, and T.C. Moore, an acerbic female Splatterpunk author. All are intrigued by the Finch House and the house is more than happy to let them in. In fact, a little bit of what haunts the Finch House might follow each of these authors home. 

Moving past the standard groans and rattling chains, Thomas takes his time building up the discomfort, which steadily grows into dread. What really sells the book is the ensemble cast, who all have their own approaches to horror but all bring assorted traumas that the house will gleefully exploit. As with all the great haunted house stories, it’s the mix of those haunted with the things that are haunting that create the book’s combustible elements, showing them that any horror these writers can devise pales in comparison to what Finch House shows them. 

One book down, several more books to go. 

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: Shook: A Black Horror Anthology by Bradley Golden, John Jennings, and Marcus Roberts

 

When people think of graphic novels, they tend to think of them as . . . well, novels, or at least one overall story. But there are other creators who are using the comic book format to tell smaller stories. Not only does this demonstrate experimentation with the form but it also introduces readers to comic creators they might never have discovered otherwise. There are many different creators that aren’t as famous as, for example, Jim Lee or Geoff Johns who are telling their own stories, including black creators utilizing the monsters within the horror genre to reveal their own unique perspectives on what is scary. The book Shook: A Black Horror Anthology features a collection of graphic novel horror stories from today’s most-well known black comic artists and authors.  

The stories in this anthology reflect many different tropes and subgenres residing under horror’s umbrella, and readers who want to explore black stories, and the subsequent hardships within them, will savor these sinister tales. Fans of dystopian fiction will like Tasty! Itchy! by Bradley Golden (“Mississippi Zombies”), but they might want to stay away if they are terrified of bugs. Writer John Jennings (“Box of Bones”) gives readers“The Breaks,” a 90’s spin that could have been part of “Tales from the Hood.” Rodney Barnes, creator of “Killadelphia,” offers up a ghostly serving of Southern Gothic justice in his story “The Last March.” 

The artwork presented within this anthology is as varied as its stories. For “The Breaks,” artist Charlie Goubile evokes the most talented graffiti artist in how he draws the characters. Allesio Nocerino, the artist for “Evil Lives,” gives the story the feel of an EC comic book with his choices of color and composition. Artist Roberto Castro goes black and white but fills his artwork full of superhero-looking action sequences in “Ezra the Hunter.” Even if readers find some stories in this anthology lacking, there are others that could put a delicious shiver of fear in their spine. 

Graphic Content: Haunt You to the End by Ryan Cady and Andrea Mutti

 

When people say that the world is on fire, they might mean that figuratively or literally. Just checking the news is enough to fuel a truckload of anxieties, but in particular the climate is worrisome; the news is filled with temperature records being broken and violent storms leaving devastation in their wake. Horror stories are often at their best when they’re addressing these kinds of anxieties. Writer Ryan Cady incorporates climate catastrophe with the classic ghost story in the book Haunt You to the End.

The story is set in the near future (but it still seems like a pretty close future). As the climate spirals out of control, where even the air can be toxic. An unemployed journalist, a compassionate doctor, a TV demonologist, join an eccentric billionaire and his small contingent of military contractors on an expedition to Isla Lodo, supposedly “the most haunted place on Earth,” all to prove the existence of life after death and to give people hope that there is something beyond this life (whether that’s actual hope is debatable). As a superstorm threatening to wipe Isla Lodo off the map approaches, this team discovers that there is something more dangerous than the air and the storm that’s coming. It’s something that wants their very souls.

The horrors that Cady explores seem quite relevant to today, even as the book it set nearly a century into the future, and the characters he populates this world with are the ones you’d expect to find in a by-the-numbers ghost story, from the billionaire who has relatively good but misguided intentions to the disillusioned cynic who is forced to become a believer. There’s even a corporate big bad that not only is keeping what’s happening on Isla Lodo quiet, but they are also responsible for the way the world is. To keep this story grounded, Artist Andrea Mutti doesn’t draw things like flying cars and hoverboards, keeping the technology very much down-to-earth, perhaps to show just how close this environmentally-ravaged world is to ours. However, readers should expect the typical ghastly ghostly images of bodies in various states of injury and reanimation. As for the story itself, it doesn’t break new ground, but its environmental message does evoke some very real-world terrors.