protean depravity

Devastation from cover to cover... A story of a man who lost everything, became a monster and confronted bigger monsters - what a genuine adventure.

Hope you're all having a great summer despite the crazy weather... If you don't enjoy the weather, then I hope you at least enjoy the short reviews of my latest reads, here they are!

With all the hits the women's human rights had to take the last couple of years worldwide it wouldn't be too far-fetched to say life is indeed imitating art in that we're about to embrace Margaret Atwood's handmaid dystopia in our everyday lives. In a most recent development, the restriction of one of these rights, the reproductive autonomy and control over one's own body, has justly caused a wild debate, fights and protests after the overturning of Roe v Wade by the SCOTUS.

So I have been feverishly reading aquatic horror themed books for my summer challenge and as a side-effect I am discovering hidden gems every now and then. Even though it isn't necessarily aquatic horror, one of these gems definitely is Zombie Sharks With Metal Teeth , a short story collection by Stephen Graham Jones from times back when the Lazy Fascist Press was still alive. I love short stories and I love SGJ books, so this has to be ideal for me, right? Right! As in all his writing, Jones really puts thought into every single one of his stories here too, no matter how short they are, which makes this seriously quality reading. I think I will keep on returning to these stories often.

Enjoy the latest short reviews!

Guess whose blog turned two years old? Clue: It's Protean Depravity! Isn't it amazing how fast time flew by? My thanks and grattitude to everyone contributing to the running of this this blog; readers, authors, illustrators, photographers, artists, friends... We made it to two years, wow! Hope you can grab a little cake and coffee or wine and celebrate with me two years of great books and movies tonight. By the way, there is a birthday present for the blog too; PD is getting a twitter account soon, so stay tuned for more!

Probably nothing to worry about ninety-nine percent of the time. Yeah, ninety-nine percent secure. What could possibly go wrong handling an extinct virus, right? The quotation above could have been a sentence that sealed the fate of real life Earth in 2019 just before that cursed lung infection took us by storm. The madness that ensued has now, almost three years later, become almost normal, almost a part of our lives. And things have changed... Our language has been undergoing massive changes with tons of new terms and names for things we didn't know existed. Certain industries flourished during lockdowns while others quickly became obsolete and died. Working conditions have been revolutionized. The value we attribute to certain objects has been radically altered. We witnessed mass dying - certain age and health groups have suffered enormous losses, faced a lonely death in cold hospital rooms and many of us have lost loved ones we could not say goodbye to. We have changed a lot. S...

Not only is the living easy during summertime, so is reading summer-themed horror books! While most people feel that Halloween is an especially good time for horror, I, not completely uncontroversially, argue that the summer is much more terrifying. The oppressive heat, the unknown waters, buzzing insects, nature and creatures coming to life all at once, crippling boredom... It can certainly be too much for some. Then there's my personal story - a couple of years back I had explained on the Otherlander's Blog how there is an intense connection between hot summer days and horror movies for me and maybe that clarifies this whole subject some more. We're not talking movies right now though, I will talk about summer-themed horror books. And luckily there are a lot of them.  Incidentally I'm joining a water-themed reading challenge for my Horror Aficionados group called "Summer Horror Reading Challenge", prompting me to look up aquatic horror books set in and arou...

Finally, here is the second part of my May reads with the more light-hearted, fun stuff. Enjoy!