protean depravity

Not for the squeamish or faint of the heart, but oh, so cathartic. While all horror fiction gets my unconditional love, things get a little tricky when it comes to body horror, not to mention extreme horror. These are subgenres that at times I can react to a little too intensely and although that itself is a desired effect, and as Ellen Datlow puts it, oh so cathartic, it is also something I struggle with. Hence it is important to me to feel that I am in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, someone who deals with the subject in a respectful manner. There is a lot of writing out there produced for shock value only, violence for violence's sake, but a few of them can do more and move you on a different, deeper level. I am convinced that Datlow can find exactly those writings for her collection and that is the reason why I went into this book with the confidence of trust. And wasn’t disappointed at all.

Unfortunately, in my various horror book clubs, reading groups and monthly reads it is perpetually difficult to enforce the nomination and selection of books written by women. Yes, we have come a long way already and more and more women authors dare to write horror. But it is a sad truth that women are seriously underrepresented in the genre, as it is the case in speculative fiction in general. To even out this disadvantage each February we celebrate women in horror month and you can read the whole story of the initiative here . So, for this occasion I have decided to present my top 10 women horror authors here and my favorite book by them. Maybe and hopefully one of these books catches your eye and you may want to try and read it. Happy women in horror month!

Here's my wrap-up of last month's reads - I will try and include as many short story collections as possible in 2022, plus, since last year I discovered that I really enjoy reading a good thriller, that streak will continue too. Enjoy!

Women find their power where they can, and remember it in twisted threads. Misheard whispers. Embroidered and disguised. This was a pretty wild read, people, and I don’t know how to begin reviewing... I guess it's best to start with the author and her previous work.

Yay, The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival is due in two weeks and their program looks AMAZING! The festival takes place in City Kino Wedding but the very cautious of you or those who can't come can watch the shorts online! Here's their message:

I finally made the time and gathered the concentration to write this post about my last few reads in 2021 and my more recent reads. Hope you enjoy the first shorties of this year!

The Best Horror of the Year Volume Thirteen was to be my final book of 2021, the perfect closure of my reading year… Or so I thought. What actually happened is that it didn’t even make it to the first book of 2022 because it starts so damn slow! My initial impression of the first few stories is such a poor one that I seriously wondered if this really can be the best horror of any year at all! I was wrong, though, a slow start does not necessarily mean a bad anthology. And as we all know anthologies usually are a mixed bag – it’s next to impossible to find consistently awesome ones and even if they were filled with only good stories we’d start petty bickering and comparing them to each other. Even though I was a little disappointed of the weak start (and honestly thought it would all go downhill from there because anthologies usually start really strong to get you hooked), I was very pleasantly surprised by the middle streak of genuinely scary and/or original stories which basically ...

Happy new year, I wish everyone a safe and terrific 2022! I'm starting the new year with big reading plans, joining various reading groups, book clubs and challenges that I'm all excited about, so let's take a look at them.

High were the hopes for 2021 - after a disastrous pandemic year, tons of confusion, losses, sickness, bush fires, earthquakes and other catastrophes the world was going to enter a new, better era in 2021 with vaccination for all, freedom days everywhere, return to normality... It didn't turn out that way. Having reached the end of this year, having seen that the worst was yet to come, that those vaccines don't really work, 2021 actually feels like an extension of the most unpopular year 2020. The good things about the collective state that we are in can be counted on the fingers of one hand and one of them is certainly that there is much more time for reading compared to the old normal. So much did I read this year that it was seriously difficult to choose the winners for the Protean Depravity Best Books of 2021, but finally here they are!