#after reading his other book the troop. and being disgusted and horrified to my very core. this one was a little underwhelming

[whumpzone]

god fucking damn i just had such a good realisation about where to take the plot for linden and col. i cant believe i didnt think of it earlier. plus i should be able to get the next chapter out soonish <3

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

7 Horror Reads to Chill Your Soul This Summer

It’s summertime, and word on the street is that the livin’ is easy. If you’re anything like me, summer’s arrival means that you’re hiding in the air conditioning and comfort of your home (mosquitos find me quite the tasty treat and I’m not trying to contract West Nile). Othersout there who aren’t as delicious to the carnivorous ectoparasites of the world as I am are hitting the road. They’re going to the beach, they’re camping, and they’re laying in the sun to absorb the delectable, radioactive rays of the sun. It’s the time of cold drinks, loud music, and if you’re a fiend like the rest of here at NOFS, spooky stories.

While the rest of the world tries to limit the creepy and macabre to the month of October, we live a life of perpetual petrification. When you’re at the beach or hanging out by the pool, let the other people get in and splash around like shark bait. We know that there’s nothing sweeter than a horror novel to help keep you cool and take your breath away. So, for this article, I’m going to highlight some of my favorite horror novels that are great summer reads.

So what makes a horror novel a “Great Summer Read”? Well, brevity is a plus. We don’t really want to be lugging around Stephen King’s IT or Robert McCammon’s Swan Song on our way to the beach or up a hiking trail. I struggle to carry those beasts from my bookshelf to the couch, to be honest. So, while it’s not an automatic disqualification, I tried to stay away from the 1,000 page behemoths of the horror world. I also tried to take a look at subject matter and pick titles that involve summer, summer breaks, vacations, or basically anything that can whisk you away to land of pure imagination. Basically what I’m saying to all of you is that this is a completely subjective list. I loved reading these titles either this summer or in summers past, and I think you will, too.

So, without further ado, here is my list of Great Summer Horror Reads:

  1. The Troop by Nick Cutter

    This was the first novel I read from Nick Cutter, and it hooked me for life. It follows a troop of 5 14-year-old boys as they embark on their yearly summer scout adventure on Falstaff Island, an uninhabited area not far from their home on Prince Edward Island. Their excursion is cut short when a bone-thin, obviously diseased man who tries to eat everything in sight lands on the island. Scoutmaster Tim does his best to help the man, but he is soon overtaken and the boys face a nightmare that worms its way into the group and destroys what they thought they knew about themselves.

This book is gory. It is disgusting. It is a vivid walking nightmare that is best read out in the open air, surrounded by other people. Nick Cutter has proven himself to be one of the most visual authors in the horror genre, and never is that more evident than in The Troop. He uses the remote setting and the fear of foreign beings inside your body with an insatiable appetite to create a suffocating sense of paranoia and claustrophobia. You are trapped on this small island with these boys as they fight the disease that brought the skeletal man to their shores, and you must find the survivor inside of you to make it off.

Perfect For: A long hike and camp in the wilderness. Read it by the light of your Coleman lantern. Don’t worry about the noises you hear in the darkness, they only approach when they’re hungry…

  2. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

    I didn’t think that a book would ever crawl inside my bones quite like Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts did. I was wrong. His new novel, The Cabin at the End of the World is his most tense, terrifying book to date, which is saying a lot.

Seven-year-old Wen and her dads are vacationing at their cabin deep in the forests of New Hampshire when she is approached by a giant stranger. He seems pretty weird, and he tells her that her dads are not going to want to let him in the house, but that they have to. Then three more just like him show up. Wen runs into the cabin and her parents barricade the door. The strangers approach, and they knock. They are disciples of a god that visits them in visions, and Wen and her parents are the only people capable of ending the coming apocalypse.

This is much more than a home-invasion story. It’s s tale of survival, sacrifice, apocalypse and doom that has you guessing until the very last chapter. Not only is the fate of this loving family at risk, but the future of the entire human race may just rest on their shoulders. (Side note: The Cabin at the End of the World is the first horror novel that I have read that has a queer family at its center. I know there must be others, but this is a first for me. Well done, Paul Tremblay.)

Perfect For: Staying at that creepy lodge you booked online. You and your family should be just fine! Maybe just don’t answer the door when you hear a knock, ok?

  3. Providence by Caroline Kepne

    You may know the name Caroline Kepnes from her amazing novel You, which has been turned into a series for Lifetime that will air this fall. Her depiction of narcissist/psycopath Joe Goldberg was refreshing, funny, dark, and utterly terrifying. Providence, her third novel, follows a different path than her earlier works, but it is just as gripping and horrifying.

One morning, middle-schooler Jon Bronson is abducted from his small New Hampshire town (what is the deal with New Hampshire, you guys? I mean, is it really that spooky?). He awakens at his home four years later with no memory of his kidnapping or his captivity. Beside him is a copy of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror and a letter from his abductor that tells him that he is fine, but he has an un-specified special ability. The joy that his best friend Chloe feels after his return is smashed to pieces once they find out that his “special ability” begins to threaten the lives of those he loves.

Kepnes is one of the finest authors in the world and she is a master at creating pace and tension. All three of her novels force your eyes across the page like they are tied to the front of a freight train. Providence is an exploration of not only what makes us human, but what keeps us that way.

Perfect For: Sitting on the back porch with a sweet tea and plenty of sunshine. Be sure to pack sunscreen for the rays and extra Kleenex for the nosebleeds that will splatter the page.

  4. Some Will Not Sleep by Adam Nevill

    A bestial face appears at windows in the night. In the big white house on the hill, angels are said to appear. A forgotten tenant in an isolated building becomes addicted to milk. A strange goddess is worshipped by a home-invading disciple. The least remembered gods still haunt the oldest forests. Cannibalism occurs in high society at the end of the world. The sainted undead follow their prophet to the Great Dead Sea. A confused and vengeful presence occupies the home of a first-time buyer . . .

If you have read any of my articles, then you know how much I love Adam Nevill and his terrifying tales. I was able to interview him last year (check it out HERE), and that piece remains the highlight of my journalistic career. Most of you may know him as the author of The Ritual and Last Days, but I fell like his work that is most like a “Great Summer Read” is his collection of short stories, Some Will Not Sleep.

While the book itself has some girth, it is conveniently sectioned into several perfectly crafted short tales of the horrifying and disturbing. These stories, according to Nevill on his website, were written and published between 1995 and 2011, and they reflect fears that are often the author’s own. About the title of the book, I can’t explain it better than the Master himself:

Some within it do not sleep, some who read it may not sleep, and he who wrote it often doesn’t sleep.

Perfect For: Reading in the car on the way to your destination. That way, the nightmares hopefully won’t be able to find you as you travel down the road.

  5. Rabbit in Red: The Complete Series by Joe Chianakas

    (Disclaimer: Joe is a local author that I have had the pleasure of working with in the past through my job. The inclusion of his series was neither asked for nor was it paid for… Joe… come on, man. GIVE ME SOME MONEY, BRO!)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory was designed, created and run by Rob Zombie? Well, wonder no more! This series of books (the first of which was selected to be included in a 2016 Horror Block and sent out to tens-of-thousands of subscribers), compiled together in one volume, follows a group of teens as they spend their summer vacation competing for an internship under the reclusive owner of a horror film company.

They compete in VR challenges that mirror some of the most iconic scenes in horror film history and intense trivia that will leave even the most knowledgable horror hounds scratching their heads. This series of books is a quick read that will keep you up at night as the kids win their internships and enter the dark web of their beneficiary. It is a love letter to the horror genre and, as it did with me, it will make you fall in love with the genre all over again.

Perfect For: Handing out to your teenage niece or nephew when they visit for the week. They have annoyed you enough with the youth-words that they use, so it will feel really good to keep them up at night.

  6. Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten

    You didn’t think I would put out a list like this and not include a shark book? You know nothing about me! Instead of going with the classic Jaws by Peter Benchley (which, to be honest, I really do not care for), I decided to opt for the book that started the series that the next great shark movie, The Meg, is based on.

Jonas Taylor is a deep sea diver working with the United States Navy. He spots a Megalodon while on a top-secret mission in the Mariana Trench. No body believes him, of course, because the Megalodon is supposed to have been extinct for millions of years. To prove them wrong, Jonas becomes a paleontologist (as one does) and attempts to find the beast again. His wish is granted when he returns to the Trench, only this time, one of the beasts follows him back up to the surface.

Chaos ensues. People are gobbled up like Tic Tacs and there’s only one man in the world that can stop it. JASON MOTHERF**KING STATH… oh, sorry… JONAS TAYLOR!

It’s ridiculous in all the right ways. It is a 50’s monster movie come to life with thrills, chills, blood and awesome one-liners.

Perfect For: Enjoying the bay while laying on one of those giant inflatable pool floats that look like a swan. You know the ones! Take a deep breath, relax, and hope that there’s nothing watching you from beneath the waves.

  7. Malevolents: ‘Click Click’ by Thom Burgess and Joe Becci

    I must say that I am a novice in the realm of horror comics. I know that there are a lot of them out there, but I’ve just never gotten into that style of horror literature. I can gladly say that Malevolents: ‘Click Click’ has opened my eyes to a whole new world of terror.

This incredible comic book from award winning writer Thom Burgess follows four school friends who dare one another to spend the night in one of Britain’s most haunted houses. They bring along with them an Ouija Board (what could go wrong), and tell each other the story of the ghost that lives in the walls and wants to take your tongue from your mouth.

I include it in this list because it is short (only 32 pages or so), it’s horrifying, and it transports you to a different place and time. If you’re stuck at home due to work or insufficient funds, Malevolents will take you on a trip that you will never forget.

Perfect For: Reading by flashlight after a summer storm has knocked out your power. If you don’t look at the shadows crawling out of the walls, they won’t come after you… I promise. ‘Click’

So, there you have it! Whether you’re out and about this summer or hanging out in the house like me, here are 7 horror reads that will chill your bones and keep you cool as the temperature rises. Do yourself a favor and pick these titles up today! While you’re at it, join our Facebook group, Horror Fiends of Nightmare on Film Street, and let us know what you think.

  The post 7 Horror Reads to Chill Your Soul This Summer appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[hammock-and-barn]

“Where Did All This Heroin Come From?” or “I didn’t mean to start investigating the CIA”

For nearly six months now, I have been on and off investigating dark imperialist histories of the United States.  I said in my previous post on the history of oil that I would unhappily describe what my biases are and where they come from. There are other motivations at work, but the basis is this- My bias is against profiteering, excessive accumulation of wealth, and people who neglect human suffering in their campaigns for power.  My reasons are personal.  My investigations are a coping mechanism.  

The Details

Returning from Qatar in May, I was overjoyed to see the trees around Philadelphia International Airport.  Endless fog and greenery contrasted strongly to the flat desert of my previous months.  Excitement of homecoming contrasted strongly with fierce tears at the American injustice system.  My brother could not greet me at the airport.  He was in jail because of his addiction to heroin.  He was in jail because suburban depression made him choose pot as self-medication.  He was in jail because a misdemeanor paraphernalia charge got him on piss tests for weed.  He was in jail because opiates leave your system faster than weed.  He was in jail because heroin is cheaper than pills.  He was in jail because there’s a lot of jobs and money to be made in “corrections.”  He was in jail because of a war on drugs.  

At the center of the war on drugs, the Nixon administration wanted to criminalize being Black and antiwar.  

A new report by Dan Baum refers to a quote from John Ehrlichman, who served as domestic policy chief for President Richard Nixon when the administration declared its war on drugs in 1971. According to Baum, Ehrlichman said in 1994 that the drug war was a ploy to undermine Nixon's political opposition — meaning, black people and critics of the Vietnam War:

“At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. "You want to know what this was really all about?" he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

-Vox

Let us be mindful that there is always a need for vigilance when determining the motives of large and complex institutions.  However, let us also consider the first private prison was founded by a Congressman from Tennessee.  Two billion of Pennsylvania’s thirty-two billion dollar budget is spent on state correctional facilities.  The Thirteenth Amendment prevents involuntary servitude, except as punishment for ‘crime.’  America’s unemployment rate does not count the incarcerated, usually the poorest and least educated people in the country.  Let us acknowledge that there are possible domestic explanations to keep the war on drugs as it is.  

Assuming there are large parts of the federal and state governments actively committed to preventing heroin addiction and incarceration of American citizens, why can’t they stop the drug at its source?  Poppies are not widely grown in America.  Assuming Afghanistan as source and Mexico as border import, how is so much volume coming into America that heroin is cheaper now than in the 70s in absolute dollars?  Even with so much money supposedly spent on eradication, why do we never hear about large international busts?

Is it ineptitude or complicity?

This is where I started my investigations.  Dark Alliance by Gary Webb is where I pursued them.  The book is a journalistically thorough documentation of how a reporter at small town San Jose Mercury News uncovered a CIA alliance with Nicaraguan Contras to import cocaine.  When I say thorough, I mean thorough.  Webb needed to substantiate every claim and discovery.  His paper trail of investigation comprises over four-hundred pages.  The reason for his meticulous publication is in the the last two chapters recounting the incredible backlash his piece received.  Although he maintains an impersonal stance, the scope and ferocity of retribution clearly surprised him and had grave personal consequences.  

Going into this book, my only guide was Gary Webb’s Wikipedia article.  The tone of the article is unobjectionably dubious of his findings, using words like “suggested”, “alleged”, “inaccurate”, and “overstated”.  I was willing to accept there was possibly no collusion.  After reading the book and the evidence against the CIA, the Wikipedia article is horrifying and disgusting libel to a man whose courageous life was ruined by the truth.  While I always urge personal investigation and confirmation, there is no doubt in my mind that the CIA explicitly allowed anti-Communist Nicaraguan Contras safe passage to sell cocaine in order to fund their military assault against the Sandinistas.*  That crack happened to come into popularity at the same time was a tragic and unintentional consequence.  In the words of Gary Webb, it was “unbridled criminally stupidity, cloaked in a blanket of national security.”  What are the lives of a few poor and disenfranchised American citizens in the face of nation-building global struggles?  

Although it is difficult to discern the sources of the current heroin epidemic, Dark Alliance clearly proves there can be geopolitical motivations connecting international drug trade and American security policy.  My next book, currently awaiting delivery at the Shoe, is Politics of Heroin by historian Alfred McCoy.  His work details the political motives of U.S. military support for Vietnamese opium during the Vietnam War.  I am looking forward to this book in particular.  The mechanisms of transporting drugs between Central America and the United States are very different from those used in Asia.  

My current branch of investigation is based on “The Politics and Economics of Drug Production on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border”, by Asad and Harris (2003).  The Helmand valley in the southwest provinces of Afghanistan is a major opium producing region.  Transport across the border into the North West Frontier Tribal Regions of Pakistan would provide two benefits.  For one, this largely ungoverned territory is widely populated by heroin production facilities.  Point two, it facilitates access from land-locked Afghanistan to Karachi, the largest city and port of Pakistan.  Evidence for this possibility is Taliban control of many neighborhoods in Karachi.  If the heroin leaves by sea, this is the place.  If it leaves by air, it implies greater American intervention.  Following its travels through Mexico also depends on the air-sea shipping method.  

Possible geopolitical motivation is beyond me.  US troops patrol poppy fields in Afghanistan.  Over a trillion dollars worth of minerals exist in the mountains of Afghanistan.  There is a violent political inheritance still lingering from U.S. instigated Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  Pakistan has nuclear weapons.  Billions of dollars of USAID money can be disbursed or withheld upon “success” of drug control in countries like Pakistan, and Asad and Harris claim that the statistics of “success” can be artificially adjusted for political gain.  There’s a lot happening.  While our “Great Game” against the U.S.S.R. has subsided, we are still at odds with Russia and its expansionist vision.  In the modern era, I would think economic infrastructure is the key to ‘security.’  Quoting Wes’ history teacher, “Follow the monies.”  

*What economic motivation tied us to Nicaragua is also beyond me.  Looking at nationalized industries by the Sandinistas is probably the easy solution, though a cursory investigation proves this is hard to uncover.  Coffee was the single major economic staple until 1950.  Wiki’s list of coffee importers suggested The American Tea and Coffee Company.  This was the largest retail company in the world during the decades under investigation.  Further leads on how foreign investment structured the Nicaraguan government is unclear.   It may also have been part of the “Great Game” where this tiny country and its inhabitants were part of the larger chess game played by the U.S. and U.S.S.R.