Upstream Reviews Presents…!
Looking for some scary reads, videos, and music? Have we got some ideas for you!
Ah, the fake spider webs, the motion-activated gargoyles, the grinning pumpkins, and the wackily posed skeletons are out in force! October has come at last and the Halloween preparations are in full swing. We here at Upstream Reviews would not have it any other way. Though that much pumpkin spice might be overkill….
Since we are preparing for All Hallows Eve, why not begin with some mood-setting videos? Below are a few descriptions of the horrors in the state of Maine, the unknown terrors of the past, and the mysterious lore of the Southern U.S. Then we get into the fun fantasies...they are fantasies, right?
Right?
YouTube Channels
You can find plenty of horror and chills outside of fiction. Just view these videos to see what we mean!
Werewolves of WW2 - The Winter War - Forgotten History
Family HUNTED by pack of unidentified creatures | The Palmyra wolves
Mythical Creatures of The Southern U.S. - Documentary
Fantasy
Need some spooky fantasies to enjoy this Halloween? Try these!
Iron Chamber of Memory by John C. Wright (reviewed here)
The small island of Sark in the English Channel is the last feudal government in Europe. By law, no motor vehicles run on the road, and no lights burn at night. Only the lord of the island may keep hounds.Into the strange, high house of Wrongerwood wanders Hal Landfall, penniless graduate student at Magdalen College, looking for his missing friend Manfred Hathaway, who has just inherited the lordship, the house, and the island. What he finds instead is the lovely, green-eyed Laurel, a beautiful girl from Cornwall who is Manfred's wife-to-be.
There is said to be a haunted chamber in the house, erected by Merlin in ancient days, where a man who enters remembers his true and forgotten self. When Hal and Laurel step in, they remember, with fear and wonder, a terrible truth they must forget again when they step outside.
John C. Wright is one of the living grandmasters of science fiction and the author of THE GOLDEN AGE, AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, and CITY BEYOND TIME: TALES OF THE FALL OF METACHRONOPOLIS, to name just three of his exceptional books. In 2016, his novel SOMEWHITHER won the inaugural Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Providence Blue: A Fantasy Quest by David Pinault
At his typewriter in little Cross Plains, Texas, Robert E. Howard created big characters—Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, Conan the Barbarian—who shaped the art of fantasy fiction for generations. But Howard would never know it. On June 11, 1936, at the age of thirty, he shot himself outside his country home. Why would he do it, and where could death have taken him?
Providence Blue imagines the strange underworld journey of Howard after his suicide, through Texas flatlands, ancient Egyptian ruins, and New England city gutters. Meanwhile, as his girlfriend Novalyne Price investigates what caused the tragedy, she is led to Providence, Rhode Island, home of the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, where she makes a terrifying, life-changing discovery.
In Providence decades later, aging grad student Joseph Bonaventure struggles to finish his dissertation on Lovecraft. When he and a young librarian, Fay O''Connell, chance upon some of the author''s lost papers, this breakthrough locks both of them in a web of black magic, occult conspiracy, and dark cosmic forces—and ties them intimately to the fate of Robert E. Howard. Alongside a cast of Providence characters, including a local priest and a stray Chihuahua, Joseph and Fay join a supernatural quest for good against evil, heaven against hell, the Lamb of God against the horrors of oblivion.
Written in a lean, direct style, with a native''s sense of Rhode Island''s geography and culture, David Pinault''s Providence Blue pushes the fantasy novel into new terrain, bringing the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft into contact with the startling reality of Christian doctrine.
SILKWORM by Ogden Nesmer
There’s something in the basement…
The black smog of war creeps over the horizon. Every day the front inches closer, preceded by sulfurous fumes and explosions, and the smell of money is in the air. As the best arms dealer in the business, Gilly should be thriving in these worst of times. But he can’t relax: professional success only brings more confusion, his new boss is hiding something sinister, and the girl he admires won’t bother to remember his name. Still, none of this compares to the mystery of what lurks under his floorboards. A menacing creature— or is it? Does it live? Undoubtedly it hungers, with an insatiable appetite for blood. Soon the question of what Gilly will do with it takes a back seat to the worry of what it will do with Gilly…
From Unreal Press and the author of Eggplant and I Pray to the Hungry God comes this story of horror and adventure, of unknowable eldritch beasts and the last hopes for humanity that glimmer through apocalypse.
Urban Fantasy (including Paranormal)
Want something a little closer to home for your horror? These urban fantasies might be the books you want to crack open this Halloween!
Oni the Lonely by C. Chancy (reviewed here)
A grieving mountain cove doctor. A pair of wayward oni. A curse borne on the black wings of crows.
The Rivertown Shopping Village has seen a lot of strange proprietors. An oni painter on the run from a bad breakup is a new one. Maple Leaf Studio opened with blazing color, but will a haunting end Kyosai Momoji’s dream before it begins?
At the south end of Rivertown, Rain McKee delivers soap and perfume with a hint of mountain blessings, picking up her life in the wake of her grandparents’ deaths. Deaths that may have been from a firstborn curse....
Kyosai’s a firstborn, and oni attract trouble like lightning strikes. If either of them want to survive, they’ll have to face haunts, monsters, and a curse so ancient no living mortal knows its name.
The Appalachians are old; the evils lurking there, older still....
(If you want ancient folklore, modern magic, and a love story that prioritizes friendship first, this is the slow burn for you!)
Honor At Stake (Love At First Bite Book 1) by Declan Finn (reviewed here)
A 2016 Dragon Award Nominee for Best Horror Novel!
One is a heartless, bloodthirsty killer. The other is a vampire.
College freshman, Amanda Colt knows few people and wants to know fewer still. She enjoys fencing and prefers facing a challenge every once in a while. She is beautiful, smart, and possibly the most interesting person on campus.
Then she finds tall, intense Marco Catalano in her fencing class. With a mind like a computer and manners of a medieval knight, he scares most people - but not Amanda. They both have secrets, for they are both monsters.
As they draw closer, they must find the line between how much they can trust each other, and how much they can care for each other. Each carries a secret that can destroy the other. But they must come to grips with their personal drama soon because a darkness rises around them. Bodies keep turning up all over New York, and an army of vampires closes in on all sides.
They have only one hope - each other.
This Thing of Darkness by Fiorella De Maria and K V Turley
Hollywood, 1956. Journalist and war widow Evangeline Kilhooley is assigned to write a "star profile" of the fading actor Bela Lugosi, made famous by his role as Count Dracula. During a series of interviews, Lugosi draws Evi into his curious Eastern European background, gradually revealing the link between Old World shadows and the twilight realm of modern horror films.
Along the way, Evi meets another English expatriate, Hugo Radelle, a movie buff who offers to help with her research. As their relationship deepens, Evi begins to suspect that he knows more about her and her soldier husband than he is letting on. Meanwhile, a menacing Darkness stalks all three characters as their histories and destinies mysteriously begin to intertwine.
Music
Do you want some horror-inspired music for your Halloween party? Try these tunes and see if they are what you seek! Samples from Youtube included so you know what the album is like. ;)
Bloodsails (A Musical Saga) by Dread Pirate Records
Legends of the Crimson Sea by Dread Pirate Records
Blessed And Possessed by Powerwolf
There you have it, readers! Plenty of horror and terror to fill your Halloween, all on one short list! Peruse it at your pleasure and pick up what you want before the season is out. If you do not get to use it this year then maybe it will do for next Halloween. After all, you never know...
...that werewolf costume your new party guest is wearing tonight might not be as fake as anyone would prefer!
I'd like to read Iron chamber of memory sometime but that to-read pile is just so large....
It does have one of the greatest covers ever though.
This column was a fun read! Thank you.