July Horror Round-Up

No One is Safe! -  Philip Fracassi (Lethe Press) *Pick of the Month*

With all honesty, few books have been as engaging, frightening, or delightful as Philip Fracassi’s recent collection, No One is Safe. While the book is branded around a “pulp horror” aesthetic, it really follows a similar model to his earlier collections of well plotted genre storytelling that depends on at least a degree of subtlety and dread-building. While not as purely Lovecraftian as earlier books, such as Beneath the Pale Sky (2021) or Behold the Void (2017), this book retains every quality that makes Fracassi such a dependable voice in the world of literary horror. While there is little that is qualitatively new about No One is Safe, there is something enticing about watching a master create pitch-perfect short fiction, and this would remain at the top of my recommendation list for 2024’s best horror. The best stories included are… “Over 1,000,000,000 Copies in Print,” “Autumn Sugar,” “The Wish,” and “Row.”

Incidents Around the House - Josh Malerman (Del Rey Books)

Malerman’s new haunted house novel is a good example of when mainstream horror hits the right tone, producing a work of genuine quality with a broad appeal. The story is written from the perspective of a young girl, watching her parent’s marriage hit the rocks while a spectral figure increasingly presses her by asking to be let “into her heart.” The book evolves to be both genuinely frightening and an insightful discussion of the pressures of early family life on parents who are crushed between their responsibilities and their desires. This would also make a great audio book and is a rather quick read, as well as both a perfect novel to hand to genre newcomers and one of the best recent efforts from Malerman.

Middle of the Night - Riley Sager (Dutton)

While Sager is known more as a “thriller” author (whatever that means), this book has been shelved as horror primarily for the underlying haunting subplot that may or may not hold weight in the world of the story. Our main character is haunted by a childhood experience of his best friend being kidnapped from a tent they shared, and now he has returned to the neighborhood it happened in and he feels the ghost of that lost companion demanding him to find answers. The book itself trunks along with small reveals every chapter or so, most of which feel hackneyed, obvious, convoluted, or simply manufactured. What we are left with is a readable, but forgettable, paperback mystery story that offers little to those who think of horror as an access point to genuine human emotion and fear. While there is nothing particularly offensive about Middle of the Night, it’s also unclear why someone would want to spend 350 pages in the narrative it offers.

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive - Craig DiLouie (Redhook)

This new film-focused horror novel by Craig DiLouie is what I call the perfect “birthday book:” a relatively easy to read, fun and engaging horror novel that is fantastic as a break from anything more demanding. DiLouie’s book is the story of a haunted camera and a devious filmmaker trying to step beyond what horror had become in 1980s Hollywood, no matter how many casualties it required. While the text is significantly longer than it should be and filled with unnecessary digressions, DiLouie’s competent storytelling always keeps it engaging and it ends up as a thoughtful reflection on the meaning of genre in film.