The yearly StokerCon was last week, and the latest Bram Stoker Awards (BSA) have found their new owners. The BSA's are arguably the most important awards in horror fiction because they basically decide which books will enter the horror canon and which will not, and authors who have been granted the award, or even have been nominated, carry that title with a certain kind of honor - even though it's the books that make the authors, not the awards.
Being a USA-based award, the lineup is usually heavily from there, which can be a shame as there's great horror from everywhere these days. It's always wonderful to see a name or two who made it despite being in translation, and this year there's Mariana Enriquez from Argentina and Sofia Ajram from Canada, but unfortunately nobody outside of the American continents. It is usual I don't always agree with the nominees or winners, as I think the same names keep on rotating and some fresh horror authors who do deserve to be awarded or wrote awesome books, especially from the absurdist/weird fiction/splatterpunk/transgressive corner, don't get the love they deserve. But that's my personal opinion, and at the end of the day, the final lineup is just as important and inspire me to read them as do the winners. That being said, let's take a look at the books that have been nominated in the important categories (I'm leaving out the categories I'm not interested in) and that won this past week.
Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection
It's not only the cover that's fire, if you look at the reviews and ratings to this book, it's all around on fire, with a rating of at least 4.5/5 both on amazon and Goodreads. And it's not only fellow authors who rated, that's always a good sign.
I will need to put aside my preconceptions and read this to see for myself, as unfortunately the only piece of writing I know from Yardley is a short story I absolutely hated, and it's the titular Love is a Crematorium which I have previously read in Mark Matthews and Caroline Kepnes' addiction horror anthology Lullabies for Suffering. I still will give this book a chance and see if it's worth the hype.
A book which is definitely worth all the hype is Laird Barron's Not a Speck of Light, which I recently read. Barron recounts in his afterword something we all knew and followed from social media, that he had been very very ill, and basically almost died. I remember this, as John Langan launched a gofundme which mobilized the whole horror community, and it was awesome to read that he's doing good, if not great now, and is still recovering.
Mariana Enriquez' A Sunny Place for Shady People, it's no secret, was among my best-of's for 2024 too, so totally deserved, and actually a shame she didn't win.I haven't read the remaining two nominees, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls by Angela Sylvaine, and Old Monsters Never Die by Tim Waggoner, and with my tbr-list for especially new publications, I doubt I'll have the time.
Superior Achievement in a First Novel
OK, wow. I couldn't disagree more, but fine. The only other book I have read in this category is Jenny Kiefer's This Wretched Valley, which, despite having its horror moments, is like any other basic, run of the mill survival horror.
Considering these two titles weren't exactly great for me, I think I will pass and not go for the other nominees. I am curious about Donyae Coles, as her short story Capture the Flag was among my favorites in the Antifa Splatterpunk anthology, but the Bram Stoker nominated book Midnight Rooms is a historical book, which can be a hit or miss for me, and that's just too risky right now. The remaining nominations were Jessica Drake-Thomas with Hollow Girls and Lindy Ryan with Bless Your Heart.
Superior Achievement in Long Fiction
OK, the story of a suicidal man trapped in the subway he entered with the intent of ending his life, sounds very good at first sight. The cover is awesome too, and clocking in at 139 pages, I think this is a sure bet for me. I had been eyeing this one for quite some time, but it's available to me in hard cover novella only, which, honestly, isn't worth the price. I'll see f I can get a review copy.
Nat Cassidy is an author I enjoy reading, and I really heard only good things about Rest Stop, so this one's in my cart already!
I can't say the same about the following to authors, Clay McLeod Chapman (who was nominated with Kill Your Darling) and Eric LaRocca (All The Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn), so I'll be skipping those.
Eden Royce's Southern Gothic Hollow Tongue was published by Raw Dog Screaming Press, and I can't remember that they've ever let me down, so I might as well give this one a chance too.
Superior Achievement in a Novel
I'm torn. Apparently the story of three women who survived their whole town turning into ghosts overnight is an "emotionally devastating, character-driven ghost story" according to the cover description, but my book friends, of which none have rated this more than 3/5, say "not bad, but boring and pointless". Ouch.
In terms of novels, Kiste has been a "standard" author for me, who doesn't really stand out with her writing. I have to say I really enjoyed some of her short stories, though. I do have access to the audiobook version of The Haunting of Velkwood over my StoryTel membership, so I will at least give it a chance.
I just recently bought Gabino Iglesias' House of Bone and Rain and will definitely read it, and I immensely enjoyed Stephen Graham Jones' I Was a Teenage Slasher although I don't think it was BSA material. The remaining nominees Josh Malerman (Incidents Around the House) and Paul Tremblay (Horror Movie) just aren't good authors for me, and I don't intend to read the first one, and the latter I have read and hated, if you remember.
Superior Achievement in a Screenplay
Movies! Nominations were;
● Beck, Scott and Woods, Bryan — Heretic
● Eggers, Robert; Galeen, Henrik; and Stoker, Bram — Nosferatu
● Fargeat, Coralie — The Substance
● Perkins, Osgood — Longlegs
● Schoenbrun, Jane — I Saw the TV Glow
...and the winner is Coralie Fargeat's ravishing The Substance! Deserved. Except for Nosferatu, which I think was a pointless remake and way too draggy, although beautiful to look at, all nominees had interesting stories, amazing horror scenes and engaging plots.
By and large, this year's BSA provided for a few interesting titles I wasn't aware of before, but except for the novellas, there is really not much I'd be willing to go out of my way to make space for. Luckily I still have my own selection which looks way better than what the BSA provided for, haha!
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