Reademption Literature

No other writer evokes horror in its rawest, most human form like Edgar Allan Poe. Sometimes his stories are a blunt force trauma while others are drilled into the mind using precision instruments of terror. His themes and depictions of people's greatest fears are very diverse and uniquely constructed, more visceral in some aspects but also cerebral in execution for a select few. This anthology The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings   is comprised of his finest works in short story and poetry forms tackling what is readily terrifying, certain terrors that elude the psyche, and the unfortunate ways human beings transform into the very monsters they fear.   With seventeen gruesome tales and sixteen morbid poems, this anthology is a must-have for any aficionado of the genre. The prose that Poe crafts in each of his pieces is spellbinding; we get descriptive ramblings of mad men and women, psychologically layered instances and premonitions, and frightening yet subtle sym...

  "Even death may die.." American author H.P Lovecraft is such a prominent and prolific horror writer that a subgenre of horror was even named after him. Lovecraftian horror involves "the cosmic horror of the unknown and the unknowable more than gore or other elements of shock". With this mind, I was quite excited to read this anthology which collected his finest eighteen short stories throughout the years. This paperback edition I own even includes a great introductory essay to the life and times of Lovecraft, as well as explanatory notes that serve as expansions of ideas taken from his stories; a glossary that also offers more insights to his writing process, influence and conceptualization. Frankly, I think  The Call of Cthulu and Other Weird Stories is a fascinating though difficult read. I have my reservations both in reviewing and recommending this anthology. I don't believe this is exactly something anyone can just enjoy...

"...people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they could not escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who could not defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly into their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men." ~ p. 155 There are two scents that I can remember rather sharply as long as I close my eyes and focus on them. The first one is the cigarette smell of my father's breath every time he kisses me as a child. It was probably the very reason I started smoking in the first place when I was only twelve years old because it was a scent that I associated with love and affection at that time. Even though he quit the habit when I was fourteen, I will always thi...

Since earlier this year, I have enjoyed and consumed a strange quantity of downloaded horror game walkthroughs from YouTube vidders who post their gameplays online for the general masses of people who can't afford or have the time and commitment to play such games, but are nonetheless interested enough to submerge themselves in another person's virtual world that are mostly filled with deaths, macabre and creepy backstories. I've enjoyed gameplays for Alice: Madness Returns , two Outlast games, five Silent Hill games, Among the Sleep , Slender Man the Arrival , and other delightful array of indie horror games. The reason I bring this up in a book review is because Grady Hendrix's novel HORRORSTOR is amusingly reminiscent of this type of games in the most disturbing way imaginable in prose form and that is why reading its content was hypnotic and spooky in a very visceral level. This is the most appealing aspect about Horrorstor for me : Hendrix's pre...

  It was on October two years ago when I decided to familiarize myself with Clive Barker’s works, especially since I thoroughly enjoyed his graphic novel Tapping the Vein . I thought he had a very eloquent prose that fits his gothic and horror themes, so I was more than happy to pick up Everville in one of the secondhand bookstores I go to. As soon as I was done with re-reading some favorite chapters in Les Miserables and The Hobbit in preparation for the film viewing of these two, I went straight for Everviile , eager to devour the contents since the writer was a promising one. On one hand, it was one of the most magnetic and exquisitely realized stories I’ve ever seen in print. On the other, my enjoyment of this novel also depended on my mental preparedness and attention and in that regard, I somehow lost track and found the reading experience tedious since my focus is not entirely on this book. This may make my review slightly evasive but I will try my best to illuminate th...