#chandler morrison

[underdog1224557]

I wish there were fandoms for obscure fucked up horror books so people like me who can’t take anything seriously can joke about the dark plot

[naansdeadtired]

hi i go by naan im 18, love horror books especially, splatterpunk and psychological horror. my favorite authors are chandler morrison, edgar allan poe, and kurt vonnegut . I love tim burton movies, gory movies like terrifier 2 , im a college student. I hope to eventually gather the courage to write horror stories let me know if anyone wants to be mutuals.

[thebanishedreader]

Ongoing Book Review: Dead Inside (Chandler Morrison) Pt. 1

I take way too long to finish books since I read like 7 at a time, so I have decided to start posting my thoughts and reviews as I go along. Also, that way I can actually commit to posting these reviews once I finish the book, which is yet another thing the commitment devils have kept me from accomplishing.

Anyhow, though, here we go: the first ongoing review will cover what I have read so far of Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison.

(CW: mentions of necrophilia, cannibalism, and sex. NSFW I guess).

Description by Seller (amazon.com): "A young hospital security guard with a disturbingly unique taste in women. A maternity doctor with a horrifically unusual appetite. When the two of them meet, they embark on a journey of self-discovery while shattering societal norms and engaging in destructively aberrant behavior. As they unwittingly help each other understand a world in which neither seems to belong, they begin to realize what it truly means to be alive... And that it might not always be a good thing."

Here I am, 15% through the book. I know it's not far, but honestly, it's far enough. All I have to say is-- wow. Wow.

This book kinda sucks. Just an all-around drag. A bore, but not the pleasant boring drawl of a lecturer putting you to sleep. The harrowing, suffocating boredom of having to work a shift with that coworker that you hate, that makes you cringe so hard that it's not even entertaining to hate them anymore. Get me out of here. That's how this book feels.

For a book constantly boasting how readers say it's "not for the faint of heart," it's surprisingly underwhelming. I'm frankly disappointed, and yet this book keeps embarrassing itself so much within only 15% that I can't even be angry at myself for falling into its trap.

My reasoning falls into 3 categories: Let-Down, Cringe, and Excuses.

First things first - I was expecting something raunchy, something gruesome and disturbing. I'm not one of those people who shies away from Dead Dove content, far from it. I love that shit. Literature is a place to explore the dangerous, the taboo, the fucked up-ness of being a person. So, finding a book that pledged it was disgusting, disturbing, and medically horrifying? Sign me up. This book is... not that.

What was promised to be a horror novel that pushes the boundaries of what is too much horror, what toes the line between gratuitous and entertaining, this novel relies on one thing: shock value. And the biggest bummer for that tactic is this: if your audience is not shocked, then there is nothing left supporting the narrative.

Dead Inside relies entirely on the audience not being familiar with horror stories or even true crime stories involving necrophilia or cannibalism. The concept of a perverted security guard using his power to violate corpses is supposed to be mortifying, unbelievably despicable. Yet for a seasoned horror fan, it's nothing short of lame. Juvenile, almost. There is hardly any risk when our security guard goes into a morgue which he holds the key to, wherein there are no security cameras, where he can do whatever he pleases, lay on the floor afterwards, and go back to work-- in a tiny, unbusy hospital. It's boring, it's lame, who gives a shit if this weirdo gets his rocks off in weird ways; it's horrible to think of it happening in real life to the body of a loved one, certainly, but this is horror literature. Stephen King would have had worms crawling up the dude's dick and blossoming into a parasite that whispers in his ear until he castrates himself. Chandler Morrison just has our (I hate to even call him this) protagonist fuck a corpse. Cool, I guess.

2. Number Two. Let's talk Cringe Factor.

This narrator is unbearable. Unbearable. He sounds like the stereotype of a discord edgelord who is narrating this book with the sole purpose of scaring off the normies. He relishes in saying gross things, being gross, all while acting as if he is so much more sophisticated than he is.

It doesn't help that the book is narrated in first person. This goes back to how I described the experience of reading Dead Inside to be equivalent to working a shift with a coworker that is very much not your friend who disrespects you the same way a friend would tease. It's just plain oblivious. Our necrophiliac incel narrator is the epitome of the Riverdale meme where Jughead says "I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in. And I don't want to fit in." Like, Christ man, we get it, you don't shower and your hair is greasy and people don't want to be around you not because you're "weird", but because you're inconsiderate and unhygienic and put 0 effort into anything whatsoever. Having to listen to the narrator's commentary on how he's aware how disturbing his own actions are, how he knows the ordinary person would see him as a freak, it's just so lame. That's the only word I have for it, really. Just completely and utterly lame. This novel reads with the same tone as a Reddit incel jerk-off posting about Elliot Rodger. It's just pathetic, but there's no pity there. It's entirely self-induced patheticness that the narrator excuses as being "unique."

It's fine to have characters in books that are frustrating, irritating, that make you just want to smack them upside the head for yapping too long. But it's never a good sign when the person I want most desperately to shut the fuck up is the narrator. It's not good writing if my method of making the narrator quit talking is closing the book and contemplating whether or not it's even worth finishing. Extraordinarily poor quality character. But it's not intentional - we are supposed to find this character disturbing, threatening, and eerily fucked up. We're supposed to wonder why he got this way, and what it will take to break him. We are supposed to hate him, and relish in his demise. I feel nothing but exasperation from this man. The simplest way to resolve my hatred for him is to close the book and put it away. I don't give a fuck what happens to him. I don't think he even deserves my attention, and he's the narrator. This is bad.

3. And finally. Excuses.

This complaint is a short, but prudent one. The writing quality is mediocre at best. One of the biggest rules of any creative work, but particularly writing, art, and filmmaking, is that your audience is smarter than you think. Leave things open for interpretation. Leave opportunity for ponderance, and analysis. Show, don't tell.

Dead Inside is all tell, with nothing to show. Our narrator is a loser, but Morrison doesn't let us own it. Instead, excuses are made; the most infuriating example of this is after our narrator has finished fornicating with a poor, lifeless victim. The section goes:

"... but my lovers are all equipped with the best birth control the world can offer. As in, dead reproductive systems. I know that goes without saying, but I like to say it." (p. 21)

If it goes without saying, then don't say it. The segment would have been entirely fine without that last remark; if anything, it would have been better, and bolstered the narrator's character as a whole! And this is only one of the outright examples I have of this characterization.

The bitter, dark humor of our narrator would have been brilliantly given if the quote ended at "dead reproductive systems." We would have been left with the pure objectification and lack of emotion our narrator possesses, how he sees dead bodies purely as anatomical tools for his own peak control and pleasure, his own performance. We as the audience would have been victims of him as well, subjected to listen to the gross things he says and does and entirely unable to resist it-- pure puppets for his sick fantasies, just like the corpses he violates. It would have illustrated an actual level of mystique and unsettling nature to the relationship between narrator and narrated and audience. The novel's ongoing themes of fetish and object, the definitions of violation, it all would have been so interesting if only the narrator didn't say something so juvenilely self-aware every five seconds, like he's vying for our attention and approval. Look!!, Morrison makes our narrator constantly wave his hands in our face like a child, Look!! Isn't that fucked up!! Look at how fucked up I can be! Tell me I'm gross, tell me I'm weird!! Look at how gross that is, right!! That's scary, right??

No. It's annoying, and it gets old before it even got a chance to start.

Again, I'm 25 pages into a 191 page book. It's mid as fuck. I hope it turns around, but I don't think it will-- I can see from only 15% where this story is going, I bet I can plot out most if not the entire rest of the book. I think the concept is one spooky "what-if" that goes no deeper than that. Honestly, I'm really disappointed. I wanted to be disturbed. I don't have much motivation to keep reading this book except the pervasive nagging of my soul to finish most books I pick up. Plus, I want to know if I'm wrong about how dog this has so far turned out to be.

If you made it this far, holy shit. Congrats. You're running the Athens marathon by reading this. You're amazing. I'm giving you a small kiss on the forehead.

[yourmaddestobsessi0n]

do you like to read? what kind of books if you do? fav author and book?

Yes i love to read, i loveeee romance books, splatterpunk, really sad looks like girl in pieces and classic literature

My fav books (if i have to chose) would probably be the picture of dorian gray, dead inside, RES series, girl in pieces, you’d be home by now, Emma, Devils night series (there is more LMAO)

my fav author(s) is probably Chandler Morrison, Kathleen Glasgow, jane austen or oscar wilde

[vaginatard]

Ppl that trash Dead Inside, the splatterpunk novel, don't get the point.

[afeelingofdread]

I’m reading dead inside rn and this book isn’t even like. Good. I’ve been trying to get into splatterpunk and unfortunately I think this writing is just kind of shit crazy plotline aside

[litandlifequotes]

Let us make haste, for the night is calling to us, and we alone have the answer it seeks.

Until the Sun by Chandler Morrison

[caffeinebzz]

Here's how Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison would have gone if I was the main character (TW):

*I'm working the graveyard shift as the security officer in a hospital. I walk into the morgue and see a naked doctor eating a baby.*

"Why are you eating a dead baby?" I ask. "That's fucking odd."

She starts crying. "Oh no. I have been found out. I love to eat babies."

My eyes widen. "You're a freak. I am calling the cops."

*She cries while I'm on the phone with the police. She is arrested. I go home and schedule an appointment with my therapist. I now suffer from PTSD. The End.*

[mylifeinfiction]

Human-Shaped Fiends by Chandler Morrison

"Justice doesn't have anything to do with anything."

Boring. Chandler Morrison's brand of 'shocking for the sake of being shocking' extreme 'horror' is—for lack of a better word—boring. The fact that he then injects the meta exercise of literary masturbation that is autofiction into the mix makes it insufferably boring.

I get that Morrison is trying to be subversive by dismantling the (splatter) western genre by taking its tropes to 'shocking' extremes, but he's very clearly not clever—or talented—enough to effectively pull it off. Instead, we're left with a paint-by-numbers western that so badly wants to be some sort of spiritual successor to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian—just, y'know, without the thematic weight or the gargantuan literary talent of Cormac McCarthy—thus making it little more than a hodgepodge of juvenile scenes of r*pe and m*rder clumsily interwoven with delusional, over-the-top autofiction 'satire' that never manages to achieve anything besides shining a light on Morrison's clear disdain not only for this genre, but for his fans. He's very clearly bored of writing this sh*t. But not nearly as bored as I was while reading this sh*t.

2/10

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[misskriemhilds]

anyways if you are looking for more taboo, guro-y books that are surprisingly thought-provoking and don't mind reading a work deliberately written to read slightly like something off of r/menwritingwomen or with repulsive, kind of unlikable protagonists, i STRONGLY recommend "dead inside" by chandler morrison

[mariocki]

The Hooked Generation (1968)

"Man, you cats are hot! You're hot, baby!"

"What are you talking about, we're hot?"

"You knocked off the Coast Guard men, right? Right? Right? Am I putting you on so far?"

[queerstuffonscreen]

Cheetah in August (2015-2017)

Episode length: 17-31 min.

Country: USA

Genre: Drama

Language: English

A riveting story about a former high school track athlete who's distorted views on love, negatively affects the people closest to him.

Season 1

Episode 1: Pilot (It's Cheetah)

Episode 2: Mahogany Sings the Blues

Episode 3: You Got the Answers

Episode 4: I Lost God

Episode 5: He's Coming

Episode 6: Doors Closing

Episode 7: Steam and Light

Episode 8: Work of Art

Episode 9: Black Arts Movement

Episode 10: Were All Tops

Episode 11: Let's Move Around

Episode 12: Fight or Flight

Season 2

Episode 1: Calling All the Monsters

Episode 2: Reunited and It Feels So Good

Episode 3: Without Love

Episode 4: Here Comes the Boom

Episode 5: Give In

Episode 6: Win Some, Lose Some

Episode 7: Chanel from Hell

Episode 8: Touchstone

Episode 9: Spent

Episode 10: To a Head

Watch on PrimeVideo or Tubi

[pupsmailbox]

NEUTRAL LEANING MASC NAMES︰ abner.　 abram.　 adam.　 adrian.　 alex.　 alistair.　 andreas.　 ariel.　 arlen.　 arley.　 arlo.　 ash.　 atlas.　 auden.　 august.　 austin.　 avery.　 bailey.　 baron.　 barrett.　 baylor.　 beauden.　 bee.　 bellamy.　 bennett.　 blair.　 blaise.　 bowen.　 brayden.　 brendan.　 bronson.　 bryce.　 byron.　 caius.　 caleb.　 callahan.　 callan.　 calloway.　 callum.　 camden.　 cameron.　 carlin.　 carson.　 casey.　 cassian.　 chandler.　 chase.　 cody.　 cole.　 connolly.　 corban.　 corwin.　 cyrus.　 dallas.　 damion.　 damon.　 daniel.　 darius.　 davis.　 dawson.　 daylon.　 denver.　 desmond.　 devin.　 doran.　 dorian.　 drew.　 elian.　 elias.　 ellery.　 ellison.　 emery.　 ethan.　 evan.　 ezra.　 fallen.　 farren.　 finley.　 ford.　 foster.　 gabriel.　 gannon.　 garner.　 gavin.　 gentry.　 graham.　 greer.　 griffin.　 guthrie.　 harley.　 harlow.　 hartley.　 hayden.　 henley.　 henry.　 heron.　 hollis.　 hunter.　 ian.　 irving.　 isaiah.　 jace.　 james.　 jameson.　 jared.　 jeremiah.　 joel.　 jonah.　 joran.　 jordan.　 jory.　 josiah.　 jovian.　 jude.　 julian.　 juno.　 justus.　 kalen.　 kamden.　 kay.　 kayden.　 keaton.　 kellan.　 keller.　 kelly.　 kendon.　 kieran.　 kit.　 kylan.　 landry.　 lane.　 lennon.　 leslie.　 levi.　 leyton.　 liam.　 linden.　 lowell.　 luca.　 madden.　 marley.　 marlow.　 marshall.　 martin.　 mason.　 mathias.　 mercer.　 merritt.　 micah.　 miles.　 miller.　 milo.　 morgan.　 morrie.　 morrison.　 nate.　 nevin.　 nick.　 nicky.　 nico.　 nicolas.　 noah.　 noel.　 nolan.　 oren.　 orion.　 owen.　 parker.　 percy.　 perrin.　 peyton.　 pierce.　 porter.　 preston.　 quincy.　 quinn.　 reece.　 reid.　 reign.　 rein.　 remi.　 remington.　 renley.　 riley.　 river.　 robin.　 rollins.　 ronan.　 rory.　 rowan.　 russell.　 ryan.　 rylan.　 sam.　 samuel.　 sawyer.　 saylor.　 seth.　 shiloh.　 soren.　 spencer.　 stellan.　 sterling.　 talon.　 taylor.　 thaddeus.　 thane.　 theo.　 toni.　 tracy.　 tristan.　 tyrus.　 valor.　 warner.　 wells.　 wesley.　 whitten.　 william.　 willis.　 wylie.　

NEUTRAL LEANING FEM NAMES︰ abigaël.　 abilene.　 addison.　 adrian.　 ainsley.　 alexis.　 and.　 andrea.　 arden.　 aria.　 ashley.　 aspen.　 aubrey.　 autumn.　 avery.　 avian.　 ayla.　 bailey.　 beryl.　 blair.　 blaire.　 blake.　 briar.　 brooklyn.　 brooks.　 bryce.　 cameron.　 camille.　 casey.　 celeste.　 channing.　 charlie.　 chase.　 collins.　 cordelia.　 courtney.　 daisy.　 dakota.　 dana.　 darby.　 darcy.　 delaney.　 delilah.　 devin.　 dylan.　 eden.　 eisley.　 elia.　 ellerie.　 ellery.　 ellie.　 elliot.　 elliott.　 ellis.　 ellory.　 ember.　 emelin.　 emerson.　 emery.　 evelyn.　 ezra.　 fallon.　 finley.　 fiore.　 florence.　 floris.　 frances.　 greer.　 gwenaël.　 hadley.　 harley.　 harper.　 haven.　 hayden.　 heike.　 hollis.　 hunter.　 ivy.　 jade.　 jamie.　 jocelyn.　 jordan.　 jude.　 juno.　 kelly.　 kelsey.　 kendall.　 kennedy.　 koda.　 kyrie.　 lacey.　 lane.　 leighton.　 lennon.　 lennox.　 lesley.　 leslie.　 lilian.　 lindsay.　 loden.　 logan.　 lou.　 lyric.　 madison.　 mallory.　 marinell.　 marley.　 mckenzie.　 melody.　 mercede.　 meredith.　 mio.　 misha.　 monroe.　 montana.　 morgan.　 nico.　 nova.　 oakley.　 olympia.　 owen.　 page.　 palmer.　 parker.　 pat.　 paulie.　 perri.　 petyon.　 peyton.　 phoenix.　 piper.　 priscilla.　 quinn.　 raven.　 ray.　 reagan.　 reece.　 reese.　 remi.　 remy.　 riley.　 rio.　 river.　 robin.　 rory.　 rosario.　 rowan.　 ryan.　 rylie.　 sacha.　 sage.　 sam.　 sammy.　 santana.　 sasha.　 sawyer.　 saylor.　 severin.　 shannon.　 shelby.　 shiloh.　 skye.　 skylar.　 sloane.　 sol.　 soleil.　 sterling.　 stevie.　 sutton.　 swan.　 swann.　 sydney.　 tatum.　 taylo.　 taylor.　 tracey.　 valentine.　 vanya.　 vivendel.　 vivian.　 vivien.　 wren.　 wynn.　 yael.

[notbecauseofvictories]

50/50

Well, 2024 sure did...happen.

Anyway! I didn't set any sort of goal to watch 50 films and read 50 books this year, but that's where I ended up. Neither number is exactly accurate, and I'm leaving out television, revisiting what I've already read/watched, and all the ridiculous novels I pick up when I'm hungover, but still. I'm kind of impressed with myself. I didn't get to 50 books last year, and I don't think I've watched 50 movies in a year ever---but the more I watch them, the more I explore what they can do and communicate, the more I want to see. As a lifelong reader, it's interesting to explore a new kind of art, to try and intuit your way in through a strikingly different form of communicating the exact same humanness.

TOP FIVE 2024

FILMS

The Florida Project (2017)

Crimes of the Future (2022)

M (1931)

Something in the Dirt (2022)

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021)

It's been months and months since I saw The Florida Project, and I still think about it. The bright and artificial sherbet coloring of it; the dank and mold and shadows that linger around the edges....Actually, I think of all these films in terms of their aesthetics first. Not that there wasn't a story there, but because they all represent such a marriage with form. Consider Crimes of the Future with its fading decay, its browns and rust; M with its stylized, refined cityscape even in the greyscale of 30s cinema; Something in the Dirt where every shot is mundane, or fantastical or both; and We're All Going to the World's Fair, with the particular blue-grey loneliness of the internet age. Surely the benefit of watching a movie (as opposed to anything else) is being presented with something to watch, and I like when directors and creative teams understand that.

Honorable mention to American Psycho (2000) since I'm still a little insane about it---or maybe Corsage (2022) because whether or not it was a good movie, it was nevertheless the most uncompromising, brutal portrait of a historical figure I've seen.

BOOKS

The Rehearsal, Eleanor Catton

Big Swiss, Jen Beagin

Vintner's Luck, Elizabeth Knox

Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand

Diavola, Jennifer Thorne

Some people may try to tell you that horror is a discrete genre---I am here to tell you that it's not. All great novels are horror stories, and those listed above especially. From The Rehearsal's self-important artistes, to the therapy-speak Millennials of Big Swiss, to the musicians of Wylding Hall (who miss every sign that Something Is Happening) and the Pace family of Diavola (who deny that the signs mean anything, even after fleeing their vacation home in the night)....all these novels are a study in people experiencing something painful, even terrible. And yet, that provides incredibly fertile territory for their authors to explore the things that come with horror---complicity, desire for closeness, narration and performance, the open wound of family, the thin netting of modernity that keeps us from plunging into something older and darker than we can comprehend.

The only exception might be Vintner's Luck. Not because it's not there as a theme, but because the novel itself spans the narrator's life. By the time he's middle-aged he's committed so many errors, he can't judge too harshly when others do. In this respect it's almost an answer to the questions horror poses---not just how do you survive this? but how do you go on, having survived that?

Honorable mention to Dead Inside, by Chandler Morrison, because it was stomach-turning in the very best way. Echoes of Cipher by Kathe Koja---when an author really knows, really understands, how to wield grossness without shirking or apologizing for it, the result is delightful.

Books of 2020 | Books of 2021 | Books of 2022 | Books of 2023

[armandyke]

Would love to hear about the books u read in 2024, surprise bests, biggest disappointments?

I think I will do a multi part post over the coming weeks with reviews of all the books I read since I have about half of them written up already. For now I'll just say my two absolute favourite reads of the year were Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock and Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova. Two very different books but both of them permanently altered my brain chemistry.

Below are my ratings for all the books I read and as I say, I'll try to post more in depth reviews over the next few weeks. My aim this year is to try and do proper reviews of the books I read as I'm reading them instead of having to go back several months later lmao.

Oh, and because it's something I'm always looking for specific recs for, I've highlighted the books with queer rep (that I remember) in pink, and the extreme horrors/books I advise checking trigger warnings for are marked with a lil skull.

1) Gone to see the River Man by Kristopher Triana (4⭐) 💀

2) Skeleton Crew by Stephen King (4⭐)

3) The Butcher by Laura Kat Young (5⭐)

4) The Hollow Places by T.Kingfisher (5⭐)

5) Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (4.5⭐)

6) The Shuddering by Ania Ahiborn (3.5⭐)

7) Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (5⭐)

8) Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandraw Khaw (3.5⭐)

9) Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (4⭐) 💀

10) Good Girls Don’t Die by Christina Henry (1⭐)

11) The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino (3.5⭐)

12) Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley (4⭐)

13) The Dead of Winter curated by Cecily Grayford (3⭐)

14) Off Season by Jack Ketchum (3⭐) 💀

15) Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt (3.5⭐) 💀

16) Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison (4⭐) 💀

17) The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum (5⭐) 💀

18) Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (4⭐)

19) Caraval by Stephanie Garber (2⭐)

20) The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (4⭐)

21) Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims (5⭐)

22) Nod by Adrian Barnes (4⭐)

23) How to sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (5⭐)

24) Among the Living by Tim Lebbon (2⭐)

25) 19 Claws and a Black Bird by Augustina Bazterrica (3⭐)

26) House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson (4.5⭐)

27) Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (DNF)

28) The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Perry (DNF)

29) A House with Good Bones by T.Kingfisher (5⭐)

30) A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock (5⭐)

31) Cujo by Stephen King (5⭐)

32) The Dark Net by Benjamin Percy (3.5⭐)

33) The Dinner Guest by B P Walter (4.5⭐)

34) The Cloisters by Katy Hays (1⭐)

35) Diavola by Jennifer Thorne (5⭐)

36) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (4.5⭐)

37) Nettle and Bone by T.Kingfisher (3.5⭐)

38) The Hatching (3.5⭐) Skitter (1⭐) and Zero Day (1⭐) by Ezekiel Boone

39) Come Closer by Sara Gran (4⭐)

40) Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison (5⭐)

41) The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (DNF)

42) Wranglestone by Darren Charlton (3.5⭐)

43) Piñata by Leopoldo Gout (4⭐)

44) Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca (1⭐) 💀

45) Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle (5⭐)

46) The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice (I didn't rate this because this was less like reading a book and more like studying for an exam)

47) The Ghost Woods by C.J Cooke (4.5⭐)

48) Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (3.5⭐)

49) Too Late by Colleen Hoover (DNF)

50) Alice by Christina Henry (1⭐)

51) The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton (3.5⭐)

52) All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes (4.5⭐)

53) Violent Faculties by Charlene Elsby (4⭐) 💀

54) Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin (3.5⭐) 💀

55) Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison (4.5⭐)

56) My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino (3.5⭐)

57) Bloom by Delilah S Dawson (4⭐)

58) Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella (DNF)

59) Out There Screaming curated by Jordan Peele (3.5⭐)

60) The Watchers by A.M Shine (4⭐)

61) Whalefall by Daniel Kraus (4.5⭐)

62) My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham (3.5⭐)

63) Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (4.5⭐)

64) Incarcerat by Garth Marenghi (4⭐)

65) Feast While You Can by Onjuly Datta and Mikaella Clements (5⭐)

66) The Whistling by Rebecca Netley (4⭐)

67) Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (4⭐)

68) Scuttle by Barnaby Walter (DNF)

69) Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (5⭐)

70) Revival by Stephen King (4⭐)

71) Blight by Tom Carlisle (3.5⭐)

72) The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw (5⭐)

[aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman]

Favourite writers?

I have so many and not enough time to read!! Actually this may sound absurd but lately I’ve been thinking that the concept of a “writer” is so steeped in modernity when really it’s not the name of the simple humans who spin the fables who are important.

We remember not the human authors of the Egyptian & Tibetan Books of the Dead, the Bhagavad Gita, the Kabbalah, the Quran, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible etc. But instead we remember the content of these higher texts and that the human is a humble vessel for greater and sacred ideas which transcend beyond the petty ego and flesh.

But sorry my crazed pedantism aside, I do have certain authors I love returning to time and time again. I like the Brontë Sisters, Aldous Huxley, Flannery O’Connor, Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, the Marquis De Sade (he’s fucked but his writing style is flowery), Oscar Wilde, Percy & Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Homer, Voltaire, Nietzsche, Amrita Pritam, Rene Guenon, Goethe, Jim Thompson, Schopenhauer, Faulkner, Philip K. Dick, Emily Dickinson, Sappho, Catullus, Euripides, Orwell, Suetonius, Shakespeare, HG Wells, Tennessee Williams, James M. Cain, Poe, Camus, Bret Easton Ellis, Malcolm X & Jim Morrison.

I know it’s a weird list but I tried to include only authors who I’ve read several works by and whose works actually moved me as a human being and English major 💗 I enjoy all types of books but my fave genres within fiction are noir detective, philosophical, gothic romance, science fiction & horror novels.