Tag Archives: horror

Books of the year 2023 Edition

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Mark Hayes

As with last year this may be slightly early, as there is a fair chance I’ll read a couple more before the end of the year. (in fact I know I will as there are a couple I am reading … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, books, indie novels | Tagged amreading, books, horror, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk | 1 Comment

Love, Death and Witchcraft

Posted on November 22, 2023 by Mark Hayes

A couple of short reviews for sequels to books I have previously reviewed. That is the brief here. No waffling on about anything, just do the reviews… Have I ever mentioned I hate sequels. As a writer that is, not … Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, fantasy, horror, pagan, reads | Tagged amreading, books, horror, reads, urban fantasy | 1 Comment

Dear Edgar #12 King Pest

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Mark Hayes

King Pest is also a bit of an odd ball, even amongst other Poe stories. It reveals in description and the grotesque to a far greater extent than even Poe’s usual work. While the story is something akin to a nightmarish romp through a plague ridden London. Think of it as the literary equivalent of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar, horror, humour, opinion, Poe, reads, retro book reviews | Tagged amreading, amreadinghorror, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, horror, Poe | Leave a comment

Strange wonders

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Tales of Sanctimonious cults, another of a strange tower that do not want to be seen. A story of madness and elder gods returning in the Tees valley, a tale of a magician appointed to the court of Victoria Sax-Coberg. The strange statement of a life repeating in waves of twenty-seven, a tale of a wyrd in the western deserts cira 1850, a story with Sigmond Freud in a rowing boat and finally Hannibal Smyth, who is his as reliably honest as ever, while carrying and aspidistra. Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, amwriting, books, cthulhu, fantasy, fiction, Hannibal Smyth, horror, indie, indie novels, indie writers, indiewriter, Passing Place, reads, sci-fi, steampunk, supernatural | Tagged books, fantasy, horror, newbook, Passing Place, reads, sciencefiction, steampunk | 1 Comment

Dear Edgar #9 Morella

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Our own Dear Edgar is, as you are probably aware, much beloved by those who favour clothing themselves in black, wearing dark eye-shadow and catching moon moths while they dance to ‘This Corrosion’. Some might say this is because he and his story’s have a reputation for more than a fleeting obsession with tragedy, love and death. That and his poetry, obsessed with tragedy, love and death…

This is of course an unfair summing up of Poe’s body of work, in some stories no one comes to a tragic appalling end… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Dear Edgar, Goth, horror, humour, Poe, reads | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, horror, Poe, reading, reads, writing | 4 Comments

Dear Edgar #8 Berenice

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Mark Hayes

…she roaming carelessly through life with no thought of the shadows in her path, or the silent flight of the raven-winged hours. Berenice! — I call upon her name — Berenice! — and from the grey ruins of memory a thousand tumultuous recollections are startled at the sound! Ah! vividly is her image before me now, as in the early days of her light-heartedness and joy! Oh! gorgeous yet fantastic beauty! Oh! Sylph amid the shrubberies of Arnheim! Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, Goth, horror, Poe, reads | Tagged amreading, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, gothic, horror, Poe, reads, sciencefiction, writerslife, writing | 6 Comments

Lucy and the bear…

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Anyway I have to go now, there is someone at the door, a small figure in a white dress holding a bear. I am not worried by this, not at all… Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, books, fantasy, Hannibal Smyth, Harvey Duckman, horror, indie novels, indie writers, steampunk | Tagged books, Harvey Duckman, harveyduckman, horror, newbooks, sciencefiction, steampunk, writerslife, writing | 1 Comment

Dear Edgar #7 The Assignation

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Mark Hayes

This is not so much horror, as it is often coined to be despite note having any traditional elements of horror within it, but a romance for bored housewives. There is an odd, and somewhat convoluted line but there is a line all the same, between this story and 50 shades of gre Continue reading →

Posted in amreading, book reviews, Dear Edgar, goodreads, horror, Poe, reads | Tagged amreading, books, Dear Edgar, Edgar Alan Poe, horror, Poe, reads, writerslife, writing | 5 Comments

Dear Edgar #6 MS Found in a Bottle

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Mark Hayes

Poe scholars are apt to say it was this story that truly launched Poe’s career. Certainly its is the first tale to read the way you expect Poe to read, with an ominous intensity wrapped in poetic language, creeping with ever more intensity towards a dark grim conclusion. In this tale then, you can see all that is to come late in Poe’s career. Continue reading →