My Life in Fiction

The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub

"If you drop it, all be lost."

Finally! I finally finished Stephen King & Peter Straub's The Talisman , can you say amen.

Unlike King & Straub even feigned at with this book, I'm going to keep this one short(ish?). Y'know, because "if you have nothing nice to say" and whatnot. But, yeah, the lack of some much needed editing, glacial pacing and shockingly weak, convenient character development here make this one an absolute chore. There's maaayybe a killer 250-page book, somewhere in here; but the extra 400 pages ruin the overall experience. And sure, the fact that it's very much Dark Tower related is fun, if you're jonesing for more of that. But I can honestly say that's never going to be something of which I'll ever be jonesing for more.

God pounds his nails well and true.

I will gladly admit, though, that there's a stretch here in the middle—that epic final chapter at the Sunlight House, and the following chapters at Thayer—that blends the horror and fantasy in such an effectively enjoyable, engrossing manner. And the finale—once we finally get there—is pretty damn satisfying; especially that incredible Earthquake chapter. Beyond those parts, though, I really struggled with this one, and was elated when I finally reached the end of the journey. Here's hoping Black House is a little more my speed, can you gimme hallelujah.

Joy. They live in a mystery, these people live in a mystery. It's joy that holds them up.

4.5/10

Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle

I'm here for the body.

Chuck Tingle's Fabulous Bodies is basically Michael Mann's Collateral if Tom Cruise was playing his most maniacally animated self rather than the the calculating and composed Vincent; which is to say, it's an absolutely cuckoo-bananas series of violent errands that teases the slasher, zombie and cosmic horror sub-genres with a gleefully madcap creativity, wickedly dark sense of humor and overwhelmingly clever heart.

This is nowhere near your run-of-the-mill night kidnapped by a flamboyantly evil, mind-controlling zombie rock-star, and I had a total blast with its exceedingly insane elements and how they still managed to naturally evolve into such an original confirmation of Tingle's ultimate thesis—Love is Real. Eddie Michaels is such a fabulous villain; an unpredictable, unforgiving, undead force of nature that's always one step ahead of our protagonist. And he's also, ultimately, nothing that I was expecting him to be, and what he is revealed to be creeped me the f*ck out in the grossest, weirdest way possible. Fabulous Bodies is a wild, entertaining nightmare of a road trip, so hold onto your seat and enjoy the ride.

"Live your life with a little fucking pizzazz, sport."

8.5/10

The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus

---------------------------------------------------- WARNING! GA! WARNING! GA! This Review MAY Contain Some MINOR, VAGUE SPOILERS! ----------------------------------------------------

DESTINY CANNOT BE IMPLANTED

HAIR?!? GA! PLACENTA!?! GA! SCREWWORMS?!! GA! GA! THAT FU-GA! CKING-GA! SNARL CHAPTER!!? GA! HOLY SH-GA! IT!!

Daniel Kraus following his Pulitzer Prize Winning Angel Down —a high-concept anti-war nightmare written as one never-ending sentence—with The Sixth Nik —a high-concept sci-fi nightmare teeming with extreme body-horror and crushing existential enigmas—is absolutely f*cking bonkers! And to stick the f*cking landing?!? Bravo, Kraus! Bra-f*cking-vo! Seriously, I'm equal parts blown-away and speechless and disgusted and disturbed.

The purest heart might be the most dangerous of all.

I had one helluva time getting into this one because of a pretty damn brutal reading slump and some issues with the pacing in the first act, but once I brought in the audiobook and turned this batshit crazy chore into a hybrid read, things clicked. Kraus' world-building is layered and vast yet not too detached from a world you can recognize, making the horror elements throughout all the more nightmarish. His cinematic prose will make your skin crawl as you gag as you wake with a jump, drenched in something you pray is sweat. And his plotting and characters embody the complex themes in a way that makes the riddles at their core ring profoundly despite never spoon-feeding you any concrete solutions. Come for the seriously f*cked up body-horror. Stay for the eternal existential terror.

"Nothing's normal about this."

8/10

Headlights by C.J. Leede

You can't tame what's wild. And there’s no reason to want to.

Wow, y'all... Wow. This is a special one.

At its core, C.J. Leede's Headlights is about the insatiable darkness that lingers at the edge of our light, forever trying to snuff it out; about how the only way to keep that darkness at bay in our trauma and grief and depression and loneliness—and everything else upon which that darkness savors—is to shine on just a little brighter.

It's also one hell of a serial killer procedural. One that gets significantly weirder than anyone unfamiliar with Leede's creatively rebellious approach to genre is ready for. One that embraces its inspirations rather than downplaying any similarities. One that brilliantly takes all of the elements that make the serial killer procedural so riveting and manipulates them to delve further into its darkly explored themes through expertly utilizing several horror sub-genres to devastating ends. One that has a killer with some of the most savage crimes in recent memory, all of which Leede delivers in such unforgiving detail.

Being near it . . . Life and death and power and fear. I feel sick. I feel like my head is going to explode.

Leede also creates a cast of characters that are as relatable as they are odd; whose decisions and relationships feel genuinely flawed in a way that allows the plot to unfold the way it does without ever stumbling on its unpredictability and glorious weirdness. Seriously, I dare anyone who wants to believe—or who, like me, just straight-up believes—to not immediately identify with Tillman and his spacey picadilloes, or immediately fall hopelessly hard for Hannah right alongside Stansfield. Even more than the genre dynamics and unsettling atmosphere throughout, Leede nails the emotional complexities of these characters and explores them in a way that makes them wholly human, thus making the events that unfold all the more devastating.

"Maybe our headlights just, for some reason, shine a little to the other side. Our signals sometimes just get a little crossed."

The Shining via Season One of True Detective, with heavy doses of The Silence of the Lambs and some quiet Fallen vibes as directed by David Fincher, Headlights stands toe-to-toe—and perhaps even surpasses—its inspirations by willingly immersing its readers in the darkness rather than merely making them peer into it; by reminding us we’re not alone in the darkness; by directly confronting that suffocating darkness—that raw emotional trauma at its core—and still having the strength and audacity to shine on.

"You do, eventually. Turn and embrace the night. But every once in a while, maybe a car drives by. And its headlights are shining through the dark, reminding you of that particular kind of light of your old house, that forgotten kind."

9.5/10

The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Emily Wilson

"When gods spin threads of pain, even great kings are made to wander far and suffer greatly."

I did it! This was a slow-going read for me, but I finished in ample time to be prepared for Christopher Nolan's film, coming to cinemas next month.

Much like Emily Wilson's translation of Homer's The Iliad , her translation of The Odyssey faithfully modernizes the language in a way that honors the historical and thematic spirit of the piece while also creating a reading experience that will captivate even the most casual of contemporary readers.

The Odyssey is a significantly more plot heavy poem than it's counterpart, bringing its audience on a grueling journey in search for home. Delivering much of its most exciting action through tales told by a desperate Odysseus as he finally nears the end of his days as a castaway makes this a slower read than the extremely violent The Iliad. But the wide variety of perilous adventures upon which Odysseus goes makes for a fascinating glimpse into the mythological dangers of ancient Greece and how such dangers were utilized in the teaching of morality and manners and faith. And the violent payoff that occurs once Odysseus makes his way back home is brutally epic, and so immensely satisfying. Above all else—even above its longing for home and revenge—this is a morality tale about the treatment of guests; family, friend and stranger, alike.

"Be kind to guests while they are visiting, then help them on their way."

7/10

Abyss by Nicholas Binge

The only way out is further in.

Nicholas Binge's Abyss is an extremely heavy-handed indictment of the capitalistic mindset and expectations in cosmic horror's clothing. Despite effectively unsettling atmosphere and some fairly effective use of setting, this one's themes are so laughably oppressive in their beliefs, and the concept so amateurishly cryptic in their execution. Thankfully, it's very short, and pairing the physical book with the audiobook for a hybrid read turned it into a commitment of less than two-hours.

The inevitable endgame of the entire planet. Alive, but not living.

3/10

Monumental by Adam L.G. Nevill

"Something monumental!"

In Adam L.G. Nevill's Monumental , a group of paddlers on a kayaking trip up a secluded, privately owned estuary find themselves face-to-face with ancient horrors. Sadly, they also find themselves confronting A LOT of personal drama that does nothing but detract from the potential of the cosmic-horror at hand.

"We thought we were privileged to be close to such ancient wonders."

Nevill sets the scene brilliantly, building and using the setting completely. However, his prose is so painfully over-detailed in the parts that aren't interesting to begin with, never mind in such grueling, repetitive detail. Then, when it comes to the high-concept nightmare shit, his prose becomes annoyingly fleeting and murky in its execution, stripping the novel of most of what would make it terrifying. The introduction to the 'god' alone should've kept me up at night. Thankfully, though, the Little Priests are great and creepy-as-f*ck, if sadly underutilized—I really wish they were a bigger threat and explored just a little more, rather than the insufferably boring love triangle and shoe-horned backstory for a late-addition characters about whom I quite literally could not care any less. Seriously, that final chapter was atrocious. Bummer.

"I can see! It's inside me!"

5/10

True Grit by Charles Portis

You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God.

Charles Portis' True Grit is a bona fide masterpiece of classic American western literature; an adventure as exaggerated as its oddball characters that's told through the scope of an aging memory in a way that allows for these events and personalities to ring true despite their embellished nature.

I really loved this one—and it's not just because I love The Coen Brothers' perfectly adapted film. Portis creates an eccentric journey and characters whose personalities and nature are fully-formed through his narrator's singular voice. The dialogue throughout is pitch-perfect from character to character; fitting and hilarious banter and arguments that fill the moments between the action with a peculiar wit that's completely at home in this unpredictable, dangerous and romantic western landscape. And best of all, these characters' personalities bleed into the action, creating genuinely thrilling sequences that feel every bit as classic as they do exaggerated as they do spontaneous, thus filling them with a genuine sense of danger that kept me on the edge of my seat despite already knowing—mostly—where things were headed. Whether you've seen the films or not, Charles Portis' True Grit is a must-read western.

Time just gets away from us.

9/10

Molka by Monika Kim

"All pigs go to the slaughterhouse to die."

Monika Kim's Molka is an infuriating slow-burn about the hidden camera epidemic in South Korea, the absurdity of the male—and legal—mindset regarding it, and the lengths to which one woman is brought to make those responsible pay for their disgusting transgressions.

I enjoyed this one well enough. Thankfully, the tone and Kim's prose make this a quick read, so the flaws throughout are more easily digestible than they'd be, otherwise. It's very heavy-handed, but it kinda works—to a point, at least—given Kim's dark humor and absurdist tone. Where it stumbles most is in its balance of build-up and payoff. It just takes too long to get to its final destination, and when it finally does get there it doesn't quite reach the levels of batshit crazy I was hoping it would. With all the time we spend with these characters—especially the disgusting, pathetic Junyoung—I really needed the payoff to be completely unhinged rather than just darkly comedic in its resignation. Plus, the paranormal aspects just didn't work for me... at all.

"Only a woman could come up with something that twisted."

5.5/10

Dinah's Hat by Stephen King

Riot Grrrl.

It's always exciting when a new Stephen King story pops up in the world. In the beginning, Dinah's Hat struck me as a companion-piece to Laurie. It similarly establishes an aging character who's full of opinions and hesitant to get close to those around them. Where they part is in their titular characters. Dinah is no Laurie, that's for damn sure. And once we set out with Sherry, Morris & Dinah, the only similarities between the two stories is Florida. The conflict here shines a damning light on a certain Floridian attitude, and builds up tension and anger in a way that feels all too familiar in this day and age. In classic King fashion, all of this builds in a way so that once we get to "the moment" it hits in ways shocking and cathartic and so damn weird. I should have seen it coming. I really should have. But there I sat with my jaw on the floor.

This far from the top tier of King's short stories—and definitely feels like an outtake from You Like It Darker—but it fit the bill as a quick nightcap on a Friday night. Dinah's Hat dropped yesterday on The Atlantic, and can be found in their June 2026 issue.

7/10

News from the Fallout by Chris Condon & Jeffrey Alan Love

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS?

Chris Condon & Jeffrey Alan Love's News from the Fallout takes the red scare to new levels in this isolated horror story about a mad-General who spreads a zombie-like contaminate through a nuclear bomb test in the desert. I really liked the setting, here. I love a good horror story finding strangers stuck together in the middle of nowhere. But sadly, this is no Tremors. All of the metaphor is a bit too on the nose for my liking, there's way too much bouncing back for minor characters' backstory, and too much of the finale is relegated to 'Top Secret' documents. And while Love's style of art makes for some interesting visual storytelling, I don't think he ever quite takes it as far as he should have, and the result is less striking and more unclear than a horror comic should be.

5/10

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

"Death means Hell, so I'm going to keep death off me for as long as I can."

I love religious horror, and knights, and missions from God and Angels and Demons and all the great end-of-days stuff that makes you feel like you need to head straight to a confessional booth after reading it. So, yeah, I really should've loved this one, and I'm kinda pissed that I didn't. The fact is, Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires has some serious pacing issues throughout, and is—for the most part—just too similar in structure and execution to the works that most definitely influenced it.

Yes, this was Hell. And if all that was left for him to do was fight, he would fight to frighten Lucifer.

That's not to say it's bad, though. Sequences throughout are fantastic; written in an immersive manner and chock-full of visceral brutality and horrific impossibilities and a spiritually hopeless sense of desperation that grips almost as tightly as Catholic guilt, itself. Buehlman's plot is rife with rich religious allegory that creates an affecting thematic journey, his prose is cinematic and teeming with humor amid great darkness, and paired with flawed characters that time and again come face-to-face with sacrifice both conflicted and altruistic, all that ultimately allows Between Two Fires to overpower its own imperfections.

Love is always harder. Love means weathering blows for another's sake and not counting them. Love is loss of self, loss of other, and faith in the death of loss.

7/10

Jefferson's Poplar Forest: Unearthing a Virginia Plantation, Edited by Barbara J. Heath and Jack Gary

To the extent that he was able to do so, Jefferson surrounded himself at Poplar Forest with the themes, landscapes, architecture, imagery, and people that were important to him. —Jack Gary

I don't often read nonfiction, in general, but even more rarely do I read historical nonfiction about plantation archaeology as studied through the unearthed history of Jefferson's Poplar Forest . But my parents recently visited Jefferson's Poplar Forest when they went down to Virginia to see my sister become a doctor, and when they got home they gifted me this book, so I had to squeeze it in immediately so it wouldn't get lost in my bookshelf (without exaggeration, I still have unread books that I bought from Borders back in 2006-2009).

This book is an academic—it's dry, folks... very dry—exploration of the archaeological significance of Jefferson's Poplar Forest, both in the years of Jefferson and beyond. Unfortunately, it can—at times—seem manipulative in its approach to its topics, thus reading more like a grant proposal than anything else—a flaw that's most evident in Chapters 2 & 10, written by Barbara J. Heath & Stephen A. Mrozowski, respectively. I'll be completely honest, some stretches—especially those written by Heath (Sorry.)—found me skimming, here and there. However, when it's interesting, it's extremely interesting... Because I'm an architecture and landscape history dork, apparently??

Chapters 3-5, written by Eric Proebsting, Timothy Trussell & Jack Gary, respectively—covering Community Life, the Landscape Design of Poplar Forest, and Jefferson's Aesthetic Philosophy as understood through unearthed ceramics on the plantation—are especially fascinating, and give great insight into Jefferson's vision for Poplar Forest in his retirement. Chapters 8 & 9, written by Jessica Bowes and Heather Trigg & Lori Lee, respectively—which delve into the lives of the slaves who lived at Poplar Forest, their Use of Plants, and their Consumerism and Social Relations—give an eye-opening look into the inner lives of slaves in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, but are ultimately just too broad and rambling in their approach. Everything else is successful in its undoubtedly passionate, incredibly well-researched and informative study of plantation archaeology, but—for someone like me, at least—too often let their focus stray from the aspects of Poplar Forest's history about which I actually have any interest in learning.

They're right, though, archaeological studies like those at Jefferson's Poplar Forest and other similar historical sites are important.

But Jefferson was not the only person to contribute to the history of Poplar Forest; he was not its only founding father. —Stephen A. Mrozowski

5.5/10

Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta

Ghosts and Orphans. Orphans and Ghosts. The ways we're abandoned and never left alone.

It's been ages since I've blown through a book as quickly as this one.

Tom Perrotta's Ghost Town is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story about memory, grief, and nostalgia. Emotionally impactful in a way that feels as profoundly authentic as any memory ever can, our narrator tells the story of the summer that changed his entire world—of grief striking at that impossible moment in time where you're not quite an adult, but no longer a child—in a way that's often as fleeting as memory itself, and surely just as distorted by time and experience.

Perrotta wholly captures this moment of time—these haunted remnants of grief and reluctant nostalgia—in his prose, completely transporting the reader to moments in their own past, however similar or dissimilar they may be to those in this book. And his extremely short chapters effectively accentuate the fleeting nature of memory; the fleeting nature of remembering moments we'd perhaps rather leave forgotten.

This is an achingly poignant book that captures the complexities behind the ghosts of our past and the concept of home as tragically as it does beautifully. And much like the imperfect nature of memory, Ghost Town never attempts to answer all of the reader's questions or wrap every character's story up in a tidy bow. In that regard, it can leave you wanting—longing for a deeper understanding and more complete resolution of the events recalled—but that's ultimately the point, and it's a point made naturally, staying true to our narrator's haunted past.

That's the dream, right? To look at yourself and be at peace with the person you were and the person you've become.

9/10

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

"I will make of you a God."

Scott Hawkins's The Library at Mount Char is an epic suburban fantasy revenge story about the infinite potential of knowledge and the corrupt nature of unchecked power. Hawkins delivers an intricately plotted piece of violent fantasy that very rarely ever goes anywhere near where the reader expects, exploring these themes in an unexpectedly creative—if occasionally sluggish—manner that exploits both its revenge and fantasy tropes in ways as wild as they are philosophically complex.

The concept here is brimming with potential, and Hawkins very creatively taps into that potential throughout to deliver exciting action sequences that are as cinematic as they are brutally bizarre, somewhat too vague world-building, and heavy questions about morality and existence and punishment and power. And the characters are either relatable and interesting or completely fantastical, acting as counter-points to one another in a way that immerses us in both their world and lives, and the overall themes at the core of the book.

I do have some pretty significant issues with the overall pacing and the directions in which the final act takes us, but most of those issues are resolved once all of the threads are finally woven together. And while the chapters are simply just too long, I did like how they—especially early on—feel almost like interconnected short stories in their structure. And I LOVED how each time we come to the end of a chapter we're left in a truly shocking, wholly unexpected place, narratively. Again, The Library at Mount Char almost never goes anywhere near where you expect it to go, and that unpredictability and Hawkins's willingness to embrace it are this book's greatest asset.

"In the service of my will, I have emptied myself."

7.5/10

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker

What comes after the truth?

I immediately had trouble getting into this one, so I decided to tackle it as a hybrid read—reading the physical book while listening to the audiobook. It helped, but I still had some serious issues with both of the main characters and the pacing, throughout—despite being completely captivated by the premise and ideas. Kylie Lee Baker's approach to the haunted house tropes, the philosophical concept of ghosts, and the way in which she shapes them using Japanese folklore saves Japanese Gothic from its aforementioned issues. And while she doesn't quite stick the landing how I might've liked, her structure and themes still bring it all together with a deeply sorrowful resonance that lingers like a . . . well, like a ghost.

No one leaves this house.

6.5/10

The Martian by Andy Weir

I'm pretty much fucked.

Above all else, Andy Weir's The Martian is proof that—with likable characters, an innate wit, and enough at stake—you can write a book that's like 90% science that'll often go over 90% of readers' heads, and it'll STILL be the most exciting thing they've read all year. That's right, folks, science is... ::gasps::exciting!

That's my considered opinion.

Now, I'm not quite one of those people (yeah, I understood like 75% of the science, 63% of the time), but—despite having seen Ridley Scott's adaptation at least a handful of times—even I was hooked from Sol 6. Weir handles the gravity of the situation very well—especially given that this is a debut—and balances the humor and science and danger of it all effectively, making everything that happens feel genuinely plausible while still delivering a thrilling, hilarious, and accurate-enough science-fiction adventure that'll leave you cheering for Mark Watney alongside the rest of the world. Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)

Fucked.