A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson is a delicious tale of the romance and love between two men in a fantasy world and time far from here. Told in multiple time frames, the story is fascinating and paced well, and the language is beautiful and poetic. I even caught myself shout-whispering some of…
What Immortal Hand, by Johnny Worthen is a well-paced road mystery that steps up the weirdness gradually until it’s in full flow, and the end is only the beginning, for some. In essence: What Immortal Hand, by Johnny Worthen Michael Oswald is a survivor. A washed up, almost ready to cash it all in, survivor. An…
Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke is a collection of shadowy tales in a wide range of contexts. In these pages you’ll find a zombie apocalypse, horrors on a city train, the Harlem underworld of gang warfare, and the life and losses of a hoodoo woman in a distant town in Kentucky. In essence: Let’s…
Muti-Nation by Monique Snyman is a one-sitting horror whodunnit, packed with the dark magic of Africa, and bursting with gore, fear, and creep. In essence: Muti Nation by Monique Snyman Esme Snyders has got one of those jobs you’d kill to have, if it didn’t kill you first. She’s an occult investigator, working for her…
Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson is WOWWWIE! It’s a complex tale of a kind of alternative secret service. A story that becomes both darker and more ridiculous by the page. A journey through Europe in the near future, but not a Europe as we really know it. More like the undercurrent of Europe in…
Barefoot Gen Vol. 1 by Keiji Nakazawa is … well, it isn’t often that a book or movie turns my emotional belly inside out, but this 300-page comic really packs the full five fingers. It’s an uplifting and devastating tale of the backdrop of war; the realities of life in Hiroshima during the weeks that…
Celeste by Johnny Worthen will rock you across the dancefloor of the Prom and ravage your body with the bullets of ignorant hatred, fear, and greed. No joke. It sucks you into what appears to be a better ride for Eleanor Anders, the young girl with a primeval secret locked in her cells, but the…
Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter by Richard Parks is a swashbuckling set of noir short stories set in mediaeval Japan, where demons, ghosts, and spirits of all kinds bring barely fathomable mysteries to the down-and-out detective, Yamada no Goji. In essence: Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter Yamada-san is officially a lord of the imperial court, but he…
Nobody Wakes Up Pretty by Diane Lefer is a book that takes you on a trip through racist 1990s New York. It’s punchy, gritty, has a few patches of seriously real and squelchy sex, and its message is more than relevant in today’s civil rights climate. In essence Diane Lefer feeds you through a blender…
Eleanor: The Unseen by Johnny Worthen is a solid tale. The characters have the depth of real people, so the challenges they face become the reader’s fights, but more than that, the story ambushes you in just a few pages. It’s the kind of book that permeates your mind. Click the image for the Amazon…
The Book Bird 