Unnerving Magazine #5

by Eddie Generous (Editor, Contributor), John C. Foster, Christa Carmen

Issue #5 includes fictions from Stephen S. Power (author of The Dragon Round), John C. Foster (author of Mr. White, and Baby Powder and Other Terrifying Substances), David Busboom (author of Nightbird), Gary Buller, Jake Marley, Christa Carmen, K.P. Kulski, Sara Codair, and Aaaron J. Housholder. Includes a feature by Gwendolyn Kiste (author of And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, and Pretty Marys All in a Row). Publisher spotlight on Coffin Hop and Q&A interviews with Owen King (coauthor of Sleeping Beauties, and author of Double Feature) and Christina Henry (author of Lost Boy, and Alice).

Genres: Horror

62 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Leo Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, I read Unnerving. What, you jealous? Come at me. All the cool kids do it. Don't tell your mother. I order it with my dad's credit card and steam open the packaging when it arrives so he doesn't know I nicked his Unnerving Magazine.

So don't come at me like some sorta Unnerving superfan!! They don't have t-shirts but if they did I'd buy 'em. I'm a Day-One-r. I interviewed its eddietor. I LIKE THIS MAGAZINE, okay?

COVER:

You hear a crash in your yard.
Outside, you see that the moon fell out the sky again.
His front teeth are embedded in the neighbour's car, the alarm of which blares, and the moon is giggling stupidly.
He got high on meth again. He thinks it's funny.
You're like, "Moon, you were stable for millions of years. Where did it all go wrong?"

And really that can happen to any of us. I think that's what this cover is trying to say. Evil is real, permanent as night. It isn't going away. Like, really almost everywhere in the universe is night anyway. A chilling consideration. And Unnerving stories are as dark, timely and timeless as a methed-up, toothless moon, giggling in your goddamn yard.

FICTION:

Then we get to the content itself! I very much enjoyed Gary Buller's story, "Porcelain Skin." And I simply enjoyed the fact that Gary has a story in Unnerving because I know he's been interested in this market for a good while, at least since we chatted on my podcast early last year!
(That's genuine excitement from me! I just wanted to add this disclaimer because it had that taste of me saying, "I interviewed X this week because he asked if we could" and X is like, "Lol couldn't you just pretend you were as excited to hear from me as you were about the people you seek out for interviews? :(" BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M SAYING.)

KP Kulski's Shades of Imugi Mare was an awesome piece of dark sci-fi! Most sci-fi I relate to is dark like this one—because space is literally the worst place. Like, there's Earth, with—you know—all that associated bullshit, and then there's an even worse place than that: SPACE! Ew. Great story :)

Christa Carmen's "Red Room" was also very cool!

But really all stories were great :) And, oh my! As always I look at these authorses credentials and I'm like whaaa. I don't know why I would, though. They're clearly all very talented folks :)

SOME OTHER FEATURES:

Interview with Owen King! He has some cool insights regarding the lauded collab with his dad, Sleeping Beauties. Pretty cool! He seems like an interesting, down-to-earth guy. Also proves once again that we're all like one degree of separation from Stephen King himself. (And zero degrees away from typing/saying his name at least once a day hahaha)

Q&A with Christina Henry, discussing her Unnerving favourite, "Lost Boy." I particularly enjoyed this description of how Unnerving came across it: "I was neck deep in review requests and decided to ignore them all and hopped onto NetGalley." (Because we all do that :P) Anyway, cool interview and nice reminder to pick up "Lost Boy" :)

Gwendolyn Kiste's essays are always illuminating, and this time she delves into the horror of fairy tales. Which is cool because I recently picked up a cheap copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales and now I can read it with a new context. She even recommends some contemporary reads as examples (yet humbly refrains from including her own stellar—and Stoker-nommed collection!—And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe! So I'll do that, then. Recommend it, that is :D)

CONCLUSION:

Though I mean my favourite thing in this one has to be pg 18. It's a full-page ad for Leo X. Robertson's Unnerving books, Bonespin Slipspace and The Grimhaven Disaster! Yeah! Uhuh. Read them? Should have! Lemme tell you, I read like 100+ books a year and I haven't read anything like them. Or I wouldn't have written them duh :D

ENJOY

[Sarah Budd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this magazine since it launched in December 2016 and with each issue it has really grown. I bought a years subscription for just $10 and so far it's been a really good investment. Issue 5 is brilliant and features some really great authors.

Unnerving's Issue 5 contains nine stories which are all really varied but united with their dark cores of horror. Its also really cool to see lots of female horror writers featured too.

Stand out stories for me include, Porcelain Skin, this was just so creepy and I loved how the tension was built up throughout the story and the ending was really cool too! I've been reading his stories for a few years and now and they never fail to disappoint. I also really liked Ghoul by John C Foster and The Weight of Her Smile by Jake Marlow.


Glug Glug by Aaron J Housholder

A great tale to start off the magazine, its playful and creepy and leaves you wondering and worrying about what's lurking in your house.

Red Room by Christa Carmen

A young woman wakes up with gruesome photos on her phone after her friends messy alcohol fuelled wedding. No one can explain or take her concerns seriously and yet they keep coming.I loved this story, thought it was a really dark and unsettling premise and teaches mankind how you're girlfriend always knows best!

Porcelain Skin by Gary Buller

A young woman travels to the middle of nowhere to visit her long lst wealthy Aunt after hearing she is set to inherit from her. This tale was really creepy and full of suspense I was actually scared on a few occasions!

Ghoul by John C Foster

A young boy fuelled by adolescent urgings and curisoity breaks into a graveyard to find his ultimate prize. This tale was so dark and twisted and held me enthralled from beginning to end. John C Foster is a name I'm going to look out for.

Succubus Blues by Sara Codair

A young woman has to battle between what's right and her desires. This was a cool little tale abiut why you shouldn't follow a lady into the toilets!

The Worst by David Busboom

Sharon really regrets asking her boyfriend the worst thing he's ever done. A story that stays with you long after you finish reading. Is it still out there?

The Changeling by Stephen S.Power

Left alone by his wife to care for their young child, a young father realises there's something very wrong. This is a really clever retelling of a well known faerie creature who strikes with devastating consequences.

Shades of Igumi Mare by K.P.Kulski

Lari Daniels has 1,834 seconds to get to the Mare and back before her oxygen runs out. What could possibly go wrong? A really nail biting and tense tale.

The Weight of her Smile by Jake Marlow

A young man wrestles with his demons before he can move on. I really liked this tale, it was really thought provoking and emotionally moving. This is a writer I'd like to see lots of in the future.

[Suz Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite pieces in Unnerving Magazine Issue #5 are Gwendolyn Kiste’s essay “No Happily Ever After Here: Death and Dismay in Fairytales” and the short stories by KP Kulski and Jake Marley. Kiste warns of the happily ever after fallacy and explains how fairytales help us “navigate an inherently unsafe world.” Kulski’s science fiction horror tale “Shades of Igumi Mare” addresses the longing for home, while Marley’s horror story focuses on the violence of transcendence and the power of memory.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unnerving Magazine, Issue #5
I was a contributor to Unnerving Magazine, Issue #5, but that doesn’t mean I can’t give some well-deserved praise to the wonderful authors I shared the pages with.

“Glug, Glug,” Aaron Housholder
Issue #5 starts with a short and eerie tale by Aaron Housholder. There’s enough uncertainty bubbling up from between the lines of the story that, in addition to the general unease the voice coming up through the drain elicits, the reader cannot be sure if the father’s intentions are sinister or benign. In addition to a potentially unreliable narrator (how reliable can a small child really be?), Housholder masterfully introduces the possibility that—with Daddy’s proclivity for corny jokes—his is the voice in the drain. Ultimately, the story’s climax sheds light on whether or not this is the case, but the result will not be one to leave you warm and cozy inside.

“Porcelain Skin,” Gary Buller
A dread-inducing take on the evil doll trope, Buller’s first person narrator is juxtaposed with a worthy foil in her sinister great aunt, and neither Aunt Florence nor her niece is entirely good, or exactly as she seems. The pitter-pat of animated doll feet, a botched plan to hasten Florence’s demise and lay claim to an expansive Victorian estate, a startled housekeeper, and a history of family secrets kept as mum as the lips on a china doll, Buller delivers in this spine-chilling tale, with fast-flowing prose and vivid imagery that never feels overdone. My favorite lines?: “Half of its face is broken. An eye rolls toward the hearth. Within the cavity of its head, a miniature skull gnashes teeth, making a wet, gasping sound.”

“Ghoul,” John C. Foster
In “Ghoul,” John C. Foster delivers less a creepy kid than a full-blown devil-child. This story moves along at a breakneck pace, and though the reader has an inkling as to where the ghoul-child’s appetites will take him, this dilutes the dread not even a little. The final line of the story packs the punch of a five-star restaurant’s most expensive cut of meat. Dig in...

“Succubus Blues,” Sara Codair
The poor protagonist at the heart of Sara Codair’s story, “Succubus Blues.” She just wanted to dance and enjoy a few drinks without an overzealous man ruining the evening for her. She tried to tell him no. She tried to remove herself from the situation. But he wouldn’t take a hint; he wouldn’t leave well enough alone. What’s a demoness to do? Why, suck the life force out of him like a “tick that spent a week feeding on a dog’s neck,” of course.

“No Happily Ever After Here: Death and Dismay in Fairy Tales,” Gwendolyn Kiste
If you’re a fan of both horror and dark, dismal fairy tales, you immediately drop everything to read an article entitled: “No Happily Ever After Here: Death and Dismay in Fairy Tales.” Just by virtue of being a huge fan of Gwendolyn Kiste’s fiction, and knowing how many of her stories encompass elements of the fairy-tale-gone-wrong, meant that I flipped forward to read this non-fiction piece before anything else in the magazine. I enjoyed how the focus of the piece came to rest on a particular shared vestige with the straight horror genre: that both horror and fairy tales appeal to so many of us because everyday life is horror. If that is not a concept you can agree with whole-heartedly, then excuse me while I pluck those rose-colored glasses off your face. Gwendolyn includes within the piece a measure of hope as well: fairy tales reflect life, but also how to survive it. And that’s as close to a happy ending as many of us are going to get. Keen to continue the exploration of horror-infused fairy stories? Check out Gwendolyn’s recommended reading list at the end of the article. I definitely found a few new entries for the Goodreads to-read list.

“The Worst,” David Busboom
The worst is the best! Set in my home state of Rhode Island, with a heaping dose of the Lovecraftian influence that Providence allows for, Busboom’s story is a cosmically horrific delight. I love a story within a story, and the protagonist’s delivery of the “worst thing he’d ever done,” to girlfriend Sharon struck the perfect pace before depositing the reader at the height of horror, matching the car’s progression from Pennsylvania to New York, New York to Connecticut. By the time the couple arrives in the Ocean State, and H.P.’s old stomping grounds, Robert has completed his tale. Concurrently, something continues to move along the highway, restless, waiting to be seen.

“The Changeling,” Stephen S. Power
Changeling stories never get old for me, and Power’s installment is pure, dread-inducing gold. The best changeling stories—like Victor LaValle’s 2017 novel, or Jessica Wick’s poem, “Taken”—work off their merits of slow burn dismay and the teeth-gritting regret that things did not turn out differently, could not have been seen for what they were, until it’s too late. Without giving anything away, Power does this with care, skill, and a twist that will have you slapping your hands over your eyes, then peeking out just enough to see how it ends.

“Shades of Igumi Mare,” K.P. Kulski
“Shades of Igumi Mare” pulls off a stunningly smooth transition from stylized science fiction to good old fashioned body horror. Tight, well-written prose and a suspenseful narrative, fans of all types of horror and sci-fi will enjoy K.P. Kulski’s contribution to Unnerving Issue #5.

“The Weight of Her Smile,” Jake Marley
A beautifully macabre story, full of pain and suffering, the weight of regret, and the heartbreaking desire to avoid adding more of that pain and regret to the load, Marley’s “The Weight of Her Smile,” was perfect in that I wanted to know more—more about Audrey, more about the elevated transference, about Jenny and the others and the state they now found themselves in—but yet was utterly satisfied with the story as it actually resolved itself, the protagonist’s strength in continuing to carry his daughter’s memory, the image of him walking away from the ultimate deliverance for an existence of pain, but also one of truth. And what can we ask of our horror writers other than stories of pain and truth?

Unnerving Extras: Coffin Hop Press, Q&A with Owen King, Q&A with Christina Henry
The Christina Henry interview reminded me (along with Gwendolyn’s fairy tale piece), that I’m as late in reading Henry’s novel, Alice, as the white rabbit was to the Hatter’s tea party. Likewise, my desire to read Owen King’s Double Feature. So while Unnerving Issue #5 was a 5 out of 5 reading experience, it has stressed me out in that, between wanting to read the work of the other fabulous authors featured in the magazine, Gwendolyn’s recommended reading list, and the novels of the authors spotlighted in the Q&As, my TBR pile has grown from struggling-to-climb-Everest-insurmountable to stretching-all-the-way-to-Neptune-impossible.

[Wondra Vanian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cracking magazine! My favourite stories in this issue were "Glug Glug" by Aaron J. Housholder and "Ghoul" by John C. Foster. Had nightmares after finishing this last night so thanks for that! Will definitely be reading more of these!