STEVE CARROLL WRITES

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of Nick Robert’s newest book, a collection of short stories entitled, It Haunts the Mind and Other Stories , published by Crystal Lake Publishing . I also recently conducted an interview with Nick which can be found here . Having read his previous novel, The Exorcist’s House , which I enjoyed (review forthcoming), I was eager to sample his short stories. In my experience some authors excel at longer prose forms and some excel at short tales. I’m happy to report that Nick Roberts deftly handles both. It Haunts the Mind and Other Stories features a total of 15 stories that run the gamut from in-your-face grisly horror to genuine chill-inducing subtle innuendo; from weird fiction to hard-boiled noir; and even a touch of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, all culminating with a possession tale set in the world of The Exorcist’s House .  In truth, all of the stories in this collection connect to each other to a certain degree on two different fronts....

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of the   novella,  Joey Leonard’s Last Horror Movie Marathon  by Kevin Lucia for review. Little did I know that   my commitment would   cause me to read the entire 175-page tale in a single sitting (something I   rarely do). I don’t say that as a begrudging by-product of   compulsion to   complete my review; I simply had to keep reading to find out the resolution to   the central mystery of this propulsive page-turner. Right off the bat, I knew I was exactly the intended   audience for this short book. It starts with a dedication of sorts that reads:  To all   of us who thrived   during the age of Be Kind, Rewind . That was certainly me as I lived for those   Friday night VHS video rental runs to acquire movies that inevitably kept   me   and my friends up all night. And much like our protagonist, Joey Leonard, I   also was first and foremost a horror movie afi...

Nick   Cutter first came to my attention when researching the sub-genres of  body   horror and survival horror within the context of modern horror literature   at   large. His book The Troop was my introduction to his work and I was blown away.   Its plot hurtles forward and embraces both body horror and survival   horror   while achieving an escalating sense of dread and terror that becomes uncomfortably   difficult to endure. I count it among the top 5 best horror   reads I’ve encountered. I recently was researching recommendations for folk horror (do others do this?) and found a list of the best examples that listed Little Heaven near the top. So, it was with both excitement and not a small amount of trepidation that I waded into this one. In simple terms, the book is seemingly a mash-up of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, mixed with a fanatical religious cult clearly inspired by Jim Jones and his People...