ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

Horror/Gothic Fiction

Book Reviews

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “The Fourth Man” by Agatha Christie

    During the Month of October, I will again be reviewing Gothic and Horror fiction here at ClimbingSky. I begin this month of reviews with an unexpected surprise from the “Queen of Mystery” herself, Agatha Christie. When you begin a Christie short story, you naturally expect to find yourself reading a detective mystery of some kind. Read more

  • On the Art of Rereading

    “Rereading, not reading, is what counts,” ~ Jorge Luis Borges.  “When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before,” ~ Cliff Fadiman.  ““If a book isn’t worth reading over and over again, it isn’t worth reading at all.” ~ Read more

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “The Girl Who Loved Graveyards”by P.D. James

    P.D. James (1920-2014) had to leave school at the age of 16 to take care of younger siblings and because her father did not believe that women needed higher education. Anyone who has ever read P.D. James knows that this early departure from formal education does not appear to have hampered her ability to become Read more

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “Canon Albric’s Scrap-Book” by M.R. James

    Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) was a renowned English scholar and author. He made significant contributions to medieval studies and served in prestigious academic roles at Cambridge and Eton. While his scholarly work is still respected, he is most famous for his ghost stories which he published as M.R. James. According to Wikipedia, these ghost tales Read more

  • The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon

    For my last Horror Book Review for October, I am reviewing a book that I am actually a little bit sheepish to admit that I enjoyed, The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon. I am sheepish because it is the kind of book that almost anyone would, or probably should, find offensive. It is gory, Read more

  • Powers of Darkness by Bram Stoker & Valdimar Ásmundsson

    In 2017, right after it was published, I read the book Powers of Darkness. Powers of Darkness is a Icelandic adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1899. It was published anonymously in a newspaper and credited to Stoker and an unidentified author. While it shares the same main character, it differs significantly from the original, adding new characters Read more

  • Werewolf Omnibus by Guy N. Smith

    Guy N. Smith is a guilty pleasure. I began with his series of Pulp Horror books featuring giant crabs (yes, you read that right, giant crabs), Smith’s fiction is as close as you can get to the kind of 1950s or early 1960s horror films that were regular fare when I was growing up on Read more

  • Friday Thoughts from Stephen King

    “Life is like Friday on a soap opera. It gives you the illusion that everything is going to wrap up, and then the same old shit starts up on Monday.” — Stephen King “Lost in the Green Mountains” (photo by m.a.h. hinton) Read more

  • The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

    I am currently working through Stephen King’s The Shining. It is a book I have started before but have never gotten very far into. I am giving it another try right now because I will be spending Thanksgiving this year in Estes Park and at the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley is the real-life inspiration for Read more

  • Gothic vs. Horror

    Trying to define the difference between Gothic and Horror is difficult. Ann Radcliffe once said, ‘Whereas terror is a feeling of dread that takes place before an event happens, horror is a feeling of revulsion or disgust after the event has happened.’ The usual way to look at the difference is that Horror seeks to provoke Read more