The nights are drawing in, the weather is… well, still quite sunny, actually, and that’s probably scarier than bare trees and swirling mists. Still, it’s Halloween, so I thought this month I’d share some of the spooky fiction, movies and TV I’ve enjoyed in 2023. Some are new out this year, and some are just new to me. Hopefully you’ll find something in here to give you the creeps.
Uzumaki, Junji Ito
Yes, it’s a classic I should probably have read before now. I’d watched the film version some years ago, but only got around to tackling the manga series this year. Of course, there’s plenty of grotesque body horror to be found within its pages, but what really makes
Uzumaki
so discomfiting is its atmosphere. The dank, grey humidity practically drips from the page, and the sense of claustrophobia as the residents of Kurouzu-cho find themselves trapped in the town’s downward spiral is suffocating.
Midnight Mass, Netflix
It wasn't a perfect show -- the ending was too neat, and as is often the case with Mike Flanagan's stuff, the dialogue was sometimes painfully on the nose -- but I loved
Midnight Mass
's unabashedly grotesque take on
vampires and the suffocating isolation of the setting.
"Mycophilia", C. B. Blanchard
A lonely trans man living in a shitty ground floor flat becomes fascinated by his upstairs neighbour, who may not be human at all. This short story is an intense read, bringing some of the more stomach-churning fungal horror I’ve read lately, but also worse things: isolation, neglect, poverty and social rejection. Next to those, the embrace of an undead mould-man might just be sweet relief.
Box of Light vol. 1, Seiko Erisawa
Some rather lighter paranormal fare, here. This quietly lovely manga series is a moody, sometimes funny slice of unlife set in a convenience story on the border between life and death, with charmingly odd characters and creatures. There are two volumes translated into English so far, and the second one is sitting on my shelf ready to be devoured, like a convenience store customer by a slice of sentient darkness…
The Route of Ice and Salt, José Luis Zárate
First published in the Nineties but only recently translated, this novella is an atmospheric and unabashedly weird-horny tale that slots into one of the textual gaps in
Dracula
. The currents of hunger and desire here don’t so much flow beneath the surface as they overwhelm the mind of our narrator, the captain of the
Demeter
. The captain fears that his queerness makes him a monster, but the story affirms his humanity even as it engulfs him in horror.
Talk to Me
I saw this jumpy teen horror in the cinema this last summer. It has some decent scares, and a wonderful central performance from Sophie Wilde, but the sense of isolation it creates is where it really excels. Protagonist Mia’s father has drifted away from her instead of holding her close as they both grieve her dead mother, and the friends she’s come to view as surrogate family reject her once her grief begins to manifest in frightening and unmanageable ways. It’s a truly bleak, brilliantly effective movie.
Castlevania: Nocturne (Netflix)
I didn’t honestly know what to expect from this spin-off series, never having played any of the
Castlevania
games, but really enjoyed its story of ruthless vampire aristocrats in the French revolution. There are some really beautiful monsters, and the series’ tragic moments earn their emotional heft. I didn’t personally love the final twist, but if there’s a Season Two, as seems likely, I suspect that will redeem it for me.
"Up in the Hills, She Dreams of Her Daughter Deep in the Ground", Karlo Yeager Rodriguez
I first came across Karlo Yeager Rodriguez’s short stories this year, and the ones I’ve read have been consistently great (“Vanishing” and “All Good Children Come out to Play” are also well worth a read). “Up in the Hills…” is a haunting story that refracts an under-reported historical injustice – the forced sterilisation of women in Puerto Rico – through the prism of a crumbling marriage and a ghostly child. Gloria’s reaction to the violations she experiences is imperfect, human and deeply believable, even after events take a supernatural turn.
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez
I’m around halfway through this collection of short horror stories, but the ones I’ve read so far are too good not to recommend. Each story is a tiny, polished black jewel, reflecting dark and ugly parts of the human psyche. They don’t hang around to explain themselves or overstay their welcomes – instead, they vanish just a moment before the reader is ready to let go, leaving a scatter of unsettling questions behind.
Paranorm, Desmond Astaire
And here’s something a little more light-hearted to end on. Though it sometimes seems as though you can’t move without tripping over a
Dresden Files
knock-off, I’ll cop to an enduring fondness for urban fantasy. The first in a potential series,
Paranorm
is a short novella following supernatural investigators Saul and Rosie as they hunt down a time-travelling killer. It’s pacy, page-turning fun, and satisfied my occasional nostalgia for Nineties-style paranormal mysteries.
Writing news! October saw the launch of
in Swansea. Seeing the number of people who turned out to support Welsh short fiction on a rainy Thursday night was heartening, and it was great to hear the other authors talk about their stories, as well as a reading from the overall winner, Matthew G. Rees. My shortlisted story, "Sunny Side Up", is a lovely story about a guy having a nice breakfast in which nothing weird or horrific happens, honest.
And it's not the only story of mine out this autumn -- my urban fantasy story, "Shadows Like Hunting Sharks", will be out in November from
Nadine has taken on a curse in exchange for saving her sister's life, but perhaps she shouldn't have trusted that dodgy backstreet magician...
This month, I also took part in an online QuickReads event by
, which was great fun -- friendly, supportive and with a real variety of readings. Videos of the event will be available if you missed it, and I'll definitely hope to read again with them in future.
Finally, I found out that my novelette "Light as Air" will be published in the upcoming anthology,
Hidden Villains: Betrayed
from Inkd Publishing. This is the third volume in the
Hidden Villains
series, and the second one I've contributed to.
"Light as Air" is a fantasy murder mystery featuring political backstabbing and a terribly dysfunctional secret love affair. If that sounds like your cup of poisoned tea, you can
to be informed when pre-orders start.
I'll leave out the recs for this month, since I think I've thrown quite enough at you already! 'Til next time.
JL