As a genre, ‘weird fiction’ is defined by its peripheral position on the boundaries of mainstream literature. Hoag’s multi-authored short story collection, all penned by female writers, encompasses this position by utilising a concoction of genres such as horror, science fiction, fairy tale and even Greek mythology, all with a shared thematic concern, namely( as Read More
“A boy goes out to the shop and doesn’t come back. A boy goes out to the shop and doesn’t come back for seven years. A boy goes out to the shop and when he comes back seven years later he is a girl. These are stories, if I am not mistaken.” ~ “Story” (2nd Read More
“Manfred suddenly felt the gloomy effect of the wine. […] The bar had fallen silent. The regulars had suddenly ran out of topics of conversation, or perhaps felt self-conscious on account of the previously unnoticed stranger in their midst. The place was tainted now. He was no longer a nobody, but somebody who had been Read More
Over the last couple of decades, Scottish crime novels have become immensely popular and increasingly in demand. The genre is going strong thanks to pioneering authors such as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, and now Denzil Meyrick wishes to join that list. This latest novel in a series by Meyrick, The Last Witness is a Read More
J. Michael Shell’s The Apprentice Journals follows the story of Spaul, one of the few remaining Apprentices in a post- apocalyptic America, an individual with the ability to speak to the strange elemental beings that now run rampant across the Earth. Spaul crosses paths with another Apprentice, a mute woman named Pearl, who merges with Read More
Reliquiæ is an annual little magazine of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, translations and visual art.Volume Two’s deep-green cover asks the reader to connect the book with “A tree, a rock, an embedded boulder, a ruin, a body, a hand, a passage” before opening it. These are not clearly linked objects: you can enter a ruin, Read More
Beta Life is a collection of science fiction short stories, tied together by the thread of artificial life (A-life). From body-altering nanotechnology to the future of immersive games, Beta Life explores the imaginations of over a dozen writers and scientists, each with their own unique take on the future. The opening story, Martyn Bedford’s “The Read More
Written by the winner of the Dundee International Book Prize in 2000, Andrew Murray Scott’s third novel The Mushroom Club certainly bolsters his reputation of having a somewhat unusual approach to writing. The narrative is one of the ultimate mid-life crisis, centring around three friends from university, Emerson, Quinn and Edwards, who meet once a Read More
Do you still look under your bed, checking to see if the monsters are asleep? Does the wardrobe give you a sense of foreboding, harbouring, as it must all manner of things that go bump in the night? Perhaps they all come from the woods outside your home. Canadian writer and artist Emily Carroll is Read More