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Books Interviews

Artist and illustrator Eli John on M. R. James, obsessions, and artistic inspirations.

Artist and illustrator Eli John is primarily inspired by ghost stories, and supernatural and gothic fiction, searching out the sublime and psychological landscapes in his work. That he lives and creates in the Pendle Forest, in the shadow of the Lancashire witches, could not be more appropriate. That he’s also a bookseller specialising in old ghosts and new, even more so. As Eli John adds a new M. R. James project with US publisher Centipede Press to his illustration stable, he talks to Sublime Horror’s Lucy Wood about obsessions, solitude and getting his hands dirty.

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Book reviews Books Fiction

Red Hands by Christopher Golden review – ‘Golden clearly has the magic touch’

A family on a day out to celebrate July 4th experiences the unthinkable. 

Categories
Horror Film Horror Film Reviews

The Glass Man review – ‘that’s where the beauty of it lies – the viewer is constantly having to reassess the truth’

Aren’t we all the heroes of our own narratives?

The Glass Man, at last released to the wider public after having been made in 2011, is, thankfully, as box-fresh as it was then – a relevant, eternal and enduring character study delving into the stories we humans can’t help but make up, to make sense of the world. 

Categories
Book reviews Books Fiction

Petra’s Ghost by C.S. O’Cinneide review – a touching tale of grief

Secrets are at the haunting heart of this touching page-turner of a debut novel by C.S. O’Cinneide.

Categories
Book reviews Books Fiction

Elsewhere by Dean Koontz review – a comfortably familiar but offbeat tale

Dean Koontz is a first-class storyteller. I have fond memories of squirrelling under the covers in my childhood bedroom with his horror novels, worried my mother would deem them too adult, or some other protest prefixed with “too” that would see me denied his riches. Revisiting Koontz now had no less of a thrill.

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Books Fiction Interviews Non-fiction

Edward Parnell interview: ‘I wanted to breathe some sort of flickering life into the ghost of their memories’

Ghost stories are often not about ghosts at all – they are about people. And so goes Edward Parnell’s Ghostland, a deeply personal and quietly magnificent reflection on what it is to be human, through a genre-blending mix of memoir and narrative non-fiction.

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Book reviews Books Non-fiction

The Haunting Of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale review – Stranger than fiction

In a London suburb in 1938, with war looming on the horizon, attractive well-off housewife Alma Fielding is being plagued by a poltergeist. Glass and china are splintering in mid-flight before smashing to the floor, objects float down the stairs behind her, lumps of coal levitate from the grate… it is a house under siege – from itself.

Categories
Book reviews Books Fiction

Hope Island by Tim Major review – claustrophobic, paranoid and exhilarating

We all know one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But the artwork for Tim Major’s Hope Island is arrestingly gorgeous and, I’m delighted to report, the story it contains is equally so.

Categories
Book reviews Books Fiction

Distinguishing Features by Kealan Patrick Burke review – short is horrifically sweet

The saying “short and sweet” couldn’t be more appropriate for novelist Kealan Patrick Burke’s new story. Distinguishing Features packs not one but several delightfully gruesome shocks into its 32 pages, at the same time delivering a fully-formed and well-thought-out narrative to get our teeth into.

Categories
Book reviews Books Fiction

Isidora’s Pawn by Erik Hofstatter review – high-stakes horror and steamy encounters

I’m a huge fan of the short story. There’s something immensely satisfying about being able to settle with a book, knowing the story will be wrapped up within an hour or so. Of course, there is an art to it – the introduction, development and conclusion of a plot and ideas in a minuscule space – and I tip my hat to those who try, including Erik Hofstaffer in Isidora’s Pawn, a novelette spilling over with grand themes such as unrequited love and deceit.