protean depravity

Demon-possessed, blood drenched teenage girls aimlessly running in the woods… Cursed heavy metal songs with the best lyrics since the invention of heavy metal and a music festival to end the world… A warehouse full of haunted ready-to-assemble and ready-to-kill furniture… Sexy vampires kindling the struggle of the sexes in US suburbia… The battle of tropes breaking loose when a group of final girls is confronted with a timelier horror trope… Over the past decade Grady Hendrix has been gradually working his way upwards from class clown of horror literature to seriously credible writer who, with each new work, manages to reinvent a new subgenre of horror. Now you may or may not like his style, you may say he’s not hard enough for a horror writer, but there is one thing in particular that you can never say about Hendrix; that he is not a feminist. Each and every one of his books displays the story of yet another woman otherwise overlooked and erased, brought into the spotlight by Hendrix....

Last month was a pretty crazy reading month. I joined many reading groups where I read books out of my comfort zone I wouldn't normally have chosen, but also re-read books from years ago I had almost forgotten about. But in the end it feels good to stray from the plan every now and then and rediscover old stuff. Enjoy the wrap up!

My quest of reading and reviewing the complete “Rewind or Die” series for the Otherland Newsletter proceeds; a sum total of 23 retro-horror paperbacks (I recently realized that the series isn't even complete yet, so it's still counting!) inspired by 70s, 80s and 90s horror movies. Ever since I first found out about this series I am dreaming about these colorful little books with amazing cover art and extremely over the top storylines. Tongue-in-cheek, bizarro, absurd, gore-splatter, wild ride or pulpy are terms that come to mind describing this incredibly fun series that I will happily read and discuss for you guys in the near future.  

Let's talk about horror awards! There are so many books to read and so little time... And despite the pandemic and the lockdown, TBR-lists are growing and growing to never-ending proportions. So awards really come in handy for the despairing and a little lazy reader, who wants to read all the good books and lose no time with the less good ones. In other words, very proficient readers doing the work for you; reading a bunch of books, narrowing their selection to four or five chosen ones, from which in turn, they select a winner - unless, of course, they are readers' choice awards. So, besides the list of most-anticipated reads of the year and the season's readings on Christmas and Halloween, it is a popular project of thousands of genre readers to devour this top-of-the-crops-selection. And if you happen to have more time on your hands, you just go through past award-winners.

 Folks, I almost missed my blog's first birthday, which was last week! Photo by Angèle Kamp  I can't believe it has been a year already - my lockdown project became a full-  blown blog with lots and lots of books, books, books, author interviews and even one piece of original fiction! I really do hope that you're enjoying the blog as much as I sure do. I am so grateful and thankful for everybody who contributed and for everybody who is reading! Happy birthday to us! Let's celebrate our geekdom and hope for many more years to come!

I hope you're having a great summer! Here are some short reviews that might help you with your summer reading list, enjoy.

To read my full review of Chains please click here (or just take a look at previous post...) Inci: Hello M.! Let me start by congratulating to what I understand is your debut novel, I really enjoyed reading it! Are there any other writing projects you have been involved in and where can we find them? M. Todd: First of all, thank you so much your review of my first and only novel Chains . Your review is dead-on with my own feelings. I am glad you enjoyed the story and found the characters – especially the Kludde/Kledde – engaging. This is my only published project, although I am a lifelong reader, and have enjoyed writing, mostly poetry, my entire life.

Chains is by far one of the most interesting books I have read this year: its structure, its pacing and above all, its strangely compelling antagonist are just a breath of fresh air in often formulaic horror fiction. To be honest I initially had my doubts I would like it, mainly because I've really had it with books who move between two timelines present and past. Having now finished the book, I realize it was very necessary for Chains to do so and in hindsight I'm glad it did, because I ended up enjoying the "past" parts more than the storyline and the characters in present. And to be fair, M. Todd does not follow the trend of alternating the two timelines, but brings in the past in due places as an explanation. But, first things first, let's start from the beginning with the plot. It doesn't matter what you believe. Hell believes in you. Chains is a folk horror book that borrows folkloric elements from Dutch mythology; we follow a Canadian family with Dut...

I have read so few books this week, oh no! It's all because The Living Dead is such a door-stopper and took so much of my time... And I have no thrillers at all this time, what a crying shame. But I still have had two more interesting reads, one non-fiction on black culture and one translated gothic novella, that I review here and hope you enjoy these recommendations aling with the currently nice weather!