What I'm Reading: Booklist's Spotlight on SF/F/H Online Only Reviews

As I mentioned last week, I wanted to make sure that the August 2024 issue of Booklist had content for the Spotlight issue above and beyond the most obvious Horror novels. Working with my editor, Susan Maguire, I was able to find a NF collection of essays and a poetry collection to include in the online coverage.

(I still have a third online only review but it is not up yet, but it is Ellen Datlow's upcoming anthology. I will post it when I can but you know you are buying it, especially because it contains a long out of print SGJ story. But I digress.)

Below I have my draft reviews of 2 books with bonus appeal info and my three words, but please note, these reviews are longer than their print cohorts. Online allows for up to 300 words which means I can add more information to the official review. And in this case, since both are collections, it allowed me to go into detail about some of the essays and poems inside of the books.

Please check out all of the wonderful Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror content available for you all month over on Booklist Online. And click here to see more from me on how to use it to help readers.

The Horror Aesthetic: Essays from the Dark Corners of the Genre

By L. Marie Wood  

Oct. 2024. 232p. Mocha Memoirs, $25 (9781962353151); paper, $17.99 (9781962353144); e-book (9781962353168). First published August 9, 2024 (Booklist Online). 

Horror author and scholar Wood has collected dozens of her essays and lectures from the last decade into one volume centered around her thoughts on the genre from her perspective as an African American woman and professor. With essays on topics as broad as the genre as a whole to specifics about tropes, the use of African Folklore in Horror, the history of Horror and its popularity across time, Horror film, and more, Wood’s essay collection stands out as more than a book, rather it could be seen as a course on Horror, its readers and society as a whole. Of particular note to library workers and their readers is the excellent section outlining the various types of antagonists (e.g. mummies, vampires, werewolves, killers or the undead in general, even bugs) in Horror fiction with a detailed breakdown of their history throughout literature, film, and human storytelling, discussion as to how writers employ them and why readers enjoy them. Whether readers turn to this book for a specific essay or to read it in its entirety or something in between, this is a stellar entry point into the genre, told with a compelling mix of the authoritative voice of a well known teacher and the grace of a critically acclaimed fiction author, and suitable to die hard Horror fans and newcomers alike. As Horror is seeing a surge in interest from a more mainstream audience, this volume serves as a great companion to help libraries provide context to their Horror fiction collections both to assist library workers as they help readers and for curious readers themselves.

Three Words That Describe This Book: essays about Horror, authoritative, fascinating

Further Appeal: This book sells itself. I was able to capture the reason someone would read it-- either cover to cover- or consult it for a specific need or interest. What I like about this collection the most, is that while Wood is an expert, she is also a college professor. That comes through in the essays included here. She is sharing her knowledge but in a way that even someone new to these topics can understand. Anyone, from those just curious about Horror to hardcore fans, will enjoy this book.

Readalikes: I could not list in in the review itself but my book is a great readalike here. It is listed in the side bar of the online review. Also this collection of essays is the perfect companion to Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Film from 1890s to Present by Robin R. Means Coleman and the film made about it, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.

Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self Destructions
Poems by Maxwell I. Gold
Aug. 2024. 96p. Raw Dog Screaming, paper, $13.95  (9781947879775). First published August 9, 2024 (Booklist Online).

Cosmic horror is having a moment as it separates itself from its virulently racist and hateful founder, H. P. Lovecraft. Authors—many from groups Lovecraft openly despised—are harnessing the subgenre’s powerful message of nihilism, of looking at forces whose power is so vast that human suffering is of no concern, and then using the terror of being forced to live in their marginalized identities as the root of their own horrific tales. Gold, fresh off a Bram Stoker nomination for his last horror poetry collection, Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums​, boldly inserts himself into this conversation, staking his claim as the voice of cosmic horror poetry and centering his own experience as a gay Jewish man. Many of the works in this collection of free-verse poems could chillingly stand on their own, as illustrated in “The Mirrored Ones,” featuring a protagonist who is trapped and repeatedly tapping, in a futile attempt at release. However, they are stronger together, united by an unnamed narrator, presenting a story of intense existential dread where the repetition of the small things, like needles and mirrors, are continuously juxtaposed with gaping mouths and unending voids. Take for example, the placement of the poem “2055,” which offers a clear picture of an Earth in extreme eco-distress, followed immediately by “I Was Nothing But A Dead Star in His Pocket,” which casts the narrator as a rat trapped by a cosmic being for millennia. Recurring places, situations, and events all build to a crescendo as they shift and change, carving out a space where the reader must grapple with immersive and visceral feelings underscored by the terrifying threat that all could “succumb to the pressure.”  Like the works of Stephanie M. Wytovich and Christina Sng, Gold's collection is a great option to showcase how poetry is an excellent format to elicit the tantalizing and unsettling feelings that are at the heart of horror’s popularity, or as an introduction to cosmic horror as it stands today.

Three Words That Describe This Book: cosmic horror, thought provoking, immersive

Further Appeal and Readalikes: It cannot be overlooked how important Cosmic Horror is at this moment in history-- both because we are living in tumultuous, existentially devastating times AND because even before the dumpster fire got lit, authors who Lovecraft would have HATED started using his works as an inspiration to both thank him for creating the subgenre AND to give him the middle finger. 

For example, a line I had to cut this line from the review: This has been a winning formula for authors like Lucy Snyder (in Garden of Eldritch Delights, 2018) and Victor LaValle (in The Ballad of Black Tom, 2016), among others, as new readers from diverse backgrounds find comfort in their bleak realities through these dark but awe-filled stories

This collection of poems is important for that first point because Gold is the leading writer of Cosmic Horror poetry right now. But also, Horror poetry in general is very popular. As poetry gains in popularity, Horror poetry in particular is rising to the top because of how accessible it is to a general audience. Horror is about how it makes you feel, and so is poetry. Using words and imagery to  make the reader feel emotions is the bread and butter of poets already. Combine that skill with the emotion that is Horror and you can see why Horror poetry is having a mainstream moment.

Above I mention 2 specific award winning Horror poets. It should be mentioned that they and Gold are all published by Raw Dog Screaming Press-- the leading publisher of Horror poetry, a small press that has been around over 20 years and that you can get through Ingram.

I also want to point you to the Bram Stoker Awards homepage where you can see every nominee and winner of the poetry award over the years.