Bark At The Ghouls

This a Jack Ketchum story and like all of his stuff, it is rough to read. Stranglehold by Jack Ketchum , narrated by Chet Williamson Horror Fiction Released April 2011 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   Lydia McCloud meets Arthur Danse at a wedding party in Plymouth, N.H., and she thinks he's a man she could grow to love. Arthur sees things differently. In Lydia, he sees the sort of woman people always want to protect. He decides he's going to show her she wouldn't always be protected. Once their only child, Robert, is born, Arthur's behavior worsens. When the courts become involved, the nightmare really begins. This scathing novel is an indictment of a justice system that makes a mockery of its very name. My Thoughts: Ketchum throws you down into the muck that is the worst of humanity, pins you there and rubs your face in it. If you haven’t read him before you should know this before jumping in. Stranglehold takes an unflinching lo...

The Secret LIfe of Souls  by Jack Ketchum & Lucky McKee Dark Fiction At the heart of this psychological suspense novel is the haunting depiction of a family’s fall and the extraordinary gifted dog, Caity, who knows the truth. As the drama unfolds Caity evolves from protector to savior, from scapegoat to prop, and eventually, from avenger to survivor. She is an unselfish soul in a selfish world—and she is written with depth and grace by authors Ketchum and Mckee, who display a profound understanding of a dog’s complex emotions. With her telling instincts and her capacity for joy and transformative love, Caity joins the pantheon of great dogs in contemporary literature.   Eleven year old actress Delia Cross is beautiful, talented, charismatic. A true a star in the making. Her days are a blur of hard work on ­set, auditions and tutors. Her family—driven, pill­-popping stage mother Pat, wastrel dad Bart, and introverted twin brother Robbie—depends on her for their upsc...

Today I'm featuring a film that was based on a book based on a true story and written by the great Jack Ketchum. Sadly, the movie was not so great but thems are the breaks. The Lost  (DVD Release March 2008) Once upon a time, a boy named Ray Pye put crushed beer cans in his boots to make himself taller. But this is no fairy tale: For suburban sociopath Ray (Marc Senter) and his friends, small-town life is a dead-end road of sex, drugs, liars and losers. And what begins with a sudden act of senseless violence will climax in a mind-blowing frenzy of depravity…with the worst still yet to come. Michael Bowen (Kill Bill), Dee Wallace-Stone (The Hills Have Eyes), Ed Lauter (True Romance), Megan Henning (Seventh Heaven), Katie Cassidy (Black Christmas) and Erin Brown (aka Misty Mundae) co-star in this controversial shocker adapted from the infamous novel by Jack Ketchum and based on the true story that stunned America. I'm giving this film a 2 out of 5, her...

A collection that does NOT disappoint?! I know, I can hardly believe it either! Garden of Fiends by Mark Matthews, Kealan Patrick Burke, John FD Taff, Jessica McHugh, Jack Ketchum, Max Booth III , Glen R. Krisch,  Johann Thorsson by  Horror Fiction Collection, Released: April 2017 Amazon  ♦  Goodreads The intoxication from a pint of vodka, the electric buzz from snorting cocaine, the warm embrace from shooting heroin--drinking and drugging provide the height of human experience. It's the promise of heaven on earth, but the hell that follows is a constant hunger, a cold emptiness. The craving to get high is an intense yearning not unlike that of any other blood-thirsty monster. The best way to tell the truths of addiction is through a story, and dark truths such as these need a piece of horror to do them justice. The stories inside feature the insidious nature of addiction told with compassion yet searing honesty. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause...

If you're too happy with your life here are a few suggestions that'll change your attitude. Please be aware that nearly all of these books contain some sort of trigger which may or may not be revealed in my review depending upon how lazy I was at the time. Clicking on the book covers will bring you to my review either here or at GR (getting them all here is an on-going, never-ending project called Retro Reviews). A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara :  You can blame this book for the existence of this list. This one will most definitely adjust your happy-go-lucky attitude and throw you straight into a pit of despair. It's over 700 pages too so there's lots of time to straighten you right out! The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum : This is a "Girl" book that is very unlike all of the others that have arrived in recent years. The worst of humanity is on display here and there are things here that can never be unread. Even worse than the long drawn out tortur...

This is a book about human monsters. The worst kind of monster. Ain't Worth A Shit by Robert Essig & Jack Bantry Released July 2019 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Received for Review Consideration From Jack Bantry, editor of Splatterpunk Zine and author of The Lucky Ones Died First and Robert Essig, author of Death Obsessed, In Black and People of the Ethereal Realm comes a story of gut-wrenching noir. Issy has become used to her new life in the UK, away from poverty in her native land. New beginnings weren’t without struggle, and sometimes the past comes back when you least expect it. Mark dealt a little weed on the side, just enough to get him a few bucks and provide some for personal use. No big deal. Not until he makes a little mistake. Sometimes even the smallest error can turn into a dire situation. There’s another world under the veneer of city streets in London’s Leicester Square, streets people wa...

Here's my reading line-up for the next week or two.  Let me know if you've read any of these and please share your thoughts. Review Submission All In Fear: A Collection of Six Horror Tales Horror wears many faces, and its masks can be tantalizing. Some of the top names in queer fiction come together to spin their own versions of horror. Worlds rife with dark beauty and mystery, the familiar becoming terrible, creatures ethereal and alluring—and all bearing the gleam of love. Does hope lie along these grim passages or only doom? It will become clear. All in time—and all in fear. *** Six of the top names in queer romance join forces with Open Ink Press to bring you a deliciously unsettling horror anthology slated to release December 1st, 2016. All in Fear will feature chilling new and original stories from KJ Charles, Roan Parrish, Avon Gale, Kris Ripper, J.A. Rock, and Steve Berman. Coinciding with the winter holidays, the anthology will focus on the traditional mac...

Here's my line-up for the next week or two. I'm down to only two books on Netgalley  and am starting to get to the submission queue. Now, if only I could resist the siren call of Netgalley . . .   Let me know if you've read any of these and please share your thoughts. Review Submission: The Ghostwriters by Mickey J. Corrigan She's ghostwriting a book for a famous author--a recently deceased one. A struggling writer living in Manhattan, Jacy McMasters is the first to admit she's a terrific liar and a screw-up. Then the ghost of the famous novelist JD Balinger asks her to "channel" a follow-up to his classic coming of age book, The Watcher in the Sky. Along with her new boyfriend, a bear of a man who has no patience for mind games, the ghost in Jacy's head forces her to confront a lifetime of secrets—dark secrets. Secrets she's been keeping from herself. Horror After Dark: The Bride Wore Brains by Emily Wesley Stringer Claire...