The Irregular Reader > Recent Status Updates

The Hangman's Bride by Sarah Pinborough

Truly, deeply creepy, with tones of j-horror and classic Victorian Christmas horror takes. Perfect way to end this collection.

Hiking Tgrough by Michael Koryta

Love this story. Hiking the AT is a fever dream of mine, and the author really captures the ruggedness and isolation of northwestern Maine (Rangeley, Maine shout-out!)

Home by Tim Lebbon

I had no idea how this would end until I got there and I'm loving it! A great take on the post-apocalyptic

Honor Thy Mother by Angela Slatter

Oooohh I like this. The tone, the visuals, it's a very vivid story

Yankee Swap by John McIlveen

Saw meets The Purge? I dunno. I have to say that this went somewhere completely different from what I was expecting.

Doctor Velocity by Jonathan Maberry

I feel somewhat like I’m missing out on some key backstory here. I know Maberry has an absolutely huge volume of work out there, so maybe this story ties into a previous world of his.

Farrow Street by Elizabeth Hand

An odd one. Not entirely sure what happened in the end ...

The Second Floor of the Christmas Hotel by Joe R. Lansdale

This is probably one of my favorites of the collection so far. If MR James had written J-Horror with Michael McDowell, I can see the end product being this perfectly, genteelly terrifying.

Snake’s Tail by Sarah Langan

This is odd. Not bad just odd. Hard to put my finger on. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the writing style, but it reminds me of the Southern Reach books by Jeff VanderMeer. With a bit of Lovecraftian cosmic horror thrown in. I don’t know... like I said, hard to pin down

Mistletoe and Holly by James A. Moore

A slowly building story, but all the more powerful for it. The horror is largely left to the reader’s imagination and supposition.

It’s a wonderful Knife by Christopher Golden

A nice, classic tale, settled deep in Hollywood Culture. You’ll probably know where the story is going, but it’s a good read nonetheless

Good Deeds by Jeff Strand

I’m not sure exactly what it was that I just read, but I’m still laughing (and probably a horrible person)!

Tenets by Josh Malerman

I was a huge fan of Bird Box and was looking forward to Malerman’s contribution to the book. Tenets is an odd, subtle kind of story. It starts out delving into the brutal capabilities of “ordinary” people, and then at the end move to something ... else

Not Just for Christmas by Sarah Lotz -
This one is like a Black Mirror episode, technology run amok and the consequences of messing with nature. This time it’s the beloved family pets getting upgraded.

Love Me by Thomas E. Sniegoski -
Ex-con trying and failing to go straight ... one last job robbing a little old lady and her antique store to set him on the straight and narrow ... what could go wrong?

The answer, of course, is everything, but it’s still creepy as hell

Fresh as the New Fallen Snow by Seanan McGuire -
I have such a fondness for fairytale stories, Russian and Eastern European fairytales are especially evocative, especially when it comes to wintertime