Book Review: They All Died Screaming - Kristopher Trianna

Year: 2020
Pages: 210
Reading Time: 4 days
Rating: 6 Stars

 I  was enjoying this, having found a new horror writer that I enjoy but alas, another confused woke justice warrior that is putting hate on his books...let me just explain

The story is simple, well the stories. This book has two main stories.. interestingly is the idea of each chapter changing stories and you trying to follow both timelines trying to find out if the boy was one of the characters in the other.

The first story is about s group of survivors on a plague that is making everyone crazy. The second is about the Man who kidnap a young child and is training him to treat the veal (women meat)

I did prefer the man and boy timeline but that's not important...

I think the author didn't really explain the plague since he was more focus on the other timeline and putting all the survivors together.

I am not going to explain more, there are some dark elements and some disgusting moments like eating fries with semen... Then the all sex, abhorrent and depraved.. there is a scene that will make people doing anal sex for a couple days... Damn lol

The other tale we've got human meat, sex with pigs and other stuff... So no better

Everything is cool.. this a book you gonna hate every character and despise everything but at the same time trying to see who survives...

But then there is the counterpart. Every single male character is evil, no exception. The only "good" male is a trans person..

Even children can't escape the author.. "another male abusing a female" when he see the baby male attacking the female.

Damn... This felt so cringe coming from male author. Why so this white males need to do this? You can include different people, you can even talk about rape and such but here it's just generalised and being written today makes this just cringe.. but if you can overcome this and you enjoy splatterpunk, depraved things, sex human meat and such go ahead..I wish it had more 200 pages and more focus on the plague...

Book Review: Lovesickness - Junji Ito

Year: 2011
Pages: 402
Reading Time: 8 days
Rating: 8 Stars

Lovesickness... This is a short story compilation of interconnected tales... The first take is Lovesickness is biggest overall stories and the most interesting. Basically we follow a young teen who returns to his hometown which he left after a strange situation with a young lady. There is belief that in the densest fog you can ask a random person - like fortune teller - and what they answer will happen.

When he returns to his hometown people start dying - usually young female teens. The problem is that their spirits stay behind. There is a mysterious prince/strange and he wants to find who he is.

Amind the story, this is also a tale of redemption and well love. The art is awesome and very dark.

The next tales are also connected (2) and deal with séance and supernatural vs taking advantage of other people. IT was also very dark and ends with a sense of poetic justice.

The next tale is about a young teen who is contracted to take care of a house - but that house has secrets. A young teen feels pain on his body but the pain is not quench on his body but on the house... so a group of workers go from division to division to help alleviate the suffering of course this turns very dark when people start dying and the human condition comes into place.

Overall I find that this tale was not as good as Uzumaki and unfortunately that was the first I read so high standards. I have all the books and I am going to read one per month or so... I don't want to end them all in one go - because I could - they are so damn interesting.

Remembering the anime show I Watch a couple of years ago-- it doesn't make justice. enough said.

Book Review: Ire of the Void - Richard Lee Byers

Year: 2018
Pages: 136
Part of Series: Novella 
Reading Time: 3 days
Rating: 3

This is the third Lovecraftian novella published initial in individual format then turn into a paperback novel called Dark Origins.

This tale focus as you can see in the cover - this if you play the game - Norman Withers tale. What we have here is the tale behind the story of Norman. Basically, Norman was a respected Astronomy professor but due to his "discover" of missing stars he become a bit recluse and discredit. With the help of a physician that discover that there places within Arkham that don't behave as they should they will try to uncover if all the stuff is connected.

So, I am not going to spoil anything here but basically this is the first I saw some mechanics from the games into a book. After the initial investigation Norman must arm himself to go find the physician in another world and we are able to see that things that happen in the game - how Norman or any other play has objects that are a bit strange to him... after all we are not seeing Norman, an old guy with a machete or a machine gun and throwing dynamite sticks... Here we see a bit of that and the realm and some strange beasts... DHOLE's...

unto the fourth tale... or is onto?

FOMO - How is controlling my life - Advices appreciated

 If you don't know what FOMO is, I am not the best person to talk about it since I am not a psychologist ALTHOUGH to my knowledge is the Fear Of Missing Out.

How can it control my life?

Well basically we are inundated with pressure from life - normal one - like family, work , school etc and then we've got our hobbies and they are becoming chores instead of enjoyment... 

Have you ever felt that if you don't know X situation you feel lost? If you didn't watch that latest show or read that "special" book? After a while that you start doing stuff you don't even appreciate and not doing stuff you want. Losing time to facebook, tiktot, instagram , reddit etc...

This is a very brief and my understanding on what is FOMO - it may completely wrong BUT this un-named problem is plaguing me... 

How?

Let me explain; I don't have social media besides Reddit and Blog. And the Blog I don't really follow anyone. But reddit is a source of problem.

But my lack of enjoyment is being damaged for other stuff..

As you know I love reading but what you don't know is that I Have 5000 novels. Yes, I have more than 5000 novels which I have been amassing over the years

This is my overall books I bought and read.. as you can see I have over 4000 novels - probably more - I believe I am not counting everything I have  BUT alas, it's a good idea... This are purchased books not ebooks or audiobooks.

As you can see I read roughly 25%. IF I continuously read for 100 pages per day I will not be reading everything since I don't expect to live past 80 and my past prime will be gone... So I already divided my reading stuff for stuff I want to read and next wave.. 

My first goal is to diminish the purchase of books. Only buy some I feel essential ,or special editions. I recently purchase some LOTR novels I love among others special editions.... 

So what did I do what I am going to do...

In terms of books I will reduce the value/amount of books I am going to buy... maximum €100 per month.

Usually BL publish like two or three per month, so that's around 30€ the remaining will be to new releases and tries... I hope I can do it. I will let you know in 25/9 how I 've done it. 

How? I made a list of all books I want or going to be released and per month we're talking 2  at maximum...  Then I every month see if my favorite writers publish some more stuff.

Now how to read more and to get of my chest about the FOMO on movies, tv series and animes..

I've watch a lot of animes, like 1200 different series but my blacklog is around 950+. I will cut in half this.

I had around 200 movies, I've already cut this as well for 60 or so - 30 of them are for Oktober Horror Fest.

Netflix & Disney - I had 227 different series and titles to watch on both the app's - I cut them down. I now have 54. My goal is to cut down even more to 30 and then only add one if I remove another... With time I will be reducing even more...

In terms of series I am watching and such I don't have that many, sometimes I have like 10 series and 10 animes BUT I simply don't have time. So I am cutting down seasonal animes & going to cut series... Every type of series that I consider WOKE or garbage I Won't watch it. Per example LOTR War of the Ring I won't be watching because I dispise everything they are doing to JRR Tolkien memory and world. It's bsaically fan fiction at this point and I won't be watching. Boys tv series turn woke and I burn it....

So that's it for me for now...

Reduce watchlist material, watch more "important" stuff.

Reduce buying of books - read more books

Simple, no?

Yes the next NEW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR is x,y, z but I must not fall into buying just because x tell. That's why I reduce the name of reddit channels and reduce from 120 channels on youtube to around 40. I will reduce more. Less temptations no?

FUCK FOMO!

Boys TV Series - SJW Woke Crap

 I've watch Boys season 1, 2 and 3 now. I bet they will do a season 4 BUT most probably I am not going to watch it.

It started so good, there are some instances that you could call it anti-woke; anti- normal BUT season 3 is just a wet dream of social justice warriors crap.

I mean the all nazis, racists side stories, sex liberties - how the series have fallen...

genderswap, lgbt stuff included on characters that weren't just to serve a purpose... oh well...

Goodbye, farewell

September 2021 - TBR

 I am going to start posting here what I am reading and how I nailed it - probably not.

July & August (so far) have been great reading books. I've made TBR and nail them (most of them). In the end of August I will tell you how I did it.

Usually in October I watch 31 movies of horror for my OctoberHorrorFest and this month I will do the same. BUT I am also going for Horror Books. Only Horror Books. I will let you know back in September my choices but I must say I am very ambitious.

What about September? Well I want to clean a bit of my books so I am going to read only anthologies... Like reading three of four short stories from different anthologies at the same time... Horror, Fantasy, Sci Fi and even one that is usually out of my scope - literature fiction - Salmon Rushdie. 

September TBR 2022

Horror

• 
  Lovecraftiana Volume 1 (26 Stories) 424
• End of Lines (19 Stories) 374
• The Children of Cthulhu (21 Stories) 461
• Chiral (16 Stories) 423
• Dark Origins - The Deep Gate (1 Story) 117
• The Accursed (12 Storiers) 320

Sci-Fi

• The Solaris Book New SF Vol1 (16 Stories) 408
• The Solaris Book New SF Vol1 (16 Stories) 408
• The Solaris Book New SF Vol1 (15 Stories) 406
• Hold Up the Sky (11 Stories) 405
• Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (16 Stories) 385

Literature 

• Haroun And the Sea of Stories (12 Stories) 212

Fantasy

• Sword and Sorceress XXI (26 Stories)  306

This is highly ambitious with 4600 pages WHICH I doubt I can read them all BUT alas, that's plans no?

Book Review: The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1 - Kazuo Umezz

Year: 1972
Pages: 744
Part of Series: 1st of 3
Reading Time: 8 days
Rating: 9

Man that was awesome. I was reading 200 pages per day.

Basically a school is disappears from our time and it seems it exploded but there are no debris. The families are suffering and one mother is grieving more about her son Sho Takamatsu because when he left home they had just argue and both said that they didn't want to talk to one another ever again.

In the paralell story we've got Sho trying to understand what is happening since only the school remains and all around is just sand. The grownups, as the author says can't handle this changes and quickly died (or are killed) while the children stay behind.

Stuff happens, not going into spoilers room but one interesting it was cool to see the interaction of Sho and his mother in the different timelines.

This is Lord of the Flies up a notch. Children died and some of them very horrible; but it wsa interesting that even at earlier stage (this is a classroom from children from 1st grade to 6th grade so what 12 years old?) and it's interesting he tries to explain the differences between mentalities from the 1st vs the 6th grades. It's not for the faint heart - specially if you can read about children brutality and death. BUT highly advisable as a horror manga series.

Book Review: The Harrowed Paths - Anthology

Year: 2019
Pages: 311
Part of Series: Anthology 
Reading Time: 5 days
Rating: 7.5

Welcome to Warhammer Horror where the Horror is the normal day - after all, when you read Dead Men Walking and the horrors, hopelessness, the death of millions and the crush of human spirit - if that is not horror what is?

Here we have a compilation of stories - two are novellas and 5 short stories.

The first novella is The Colonel's Monograph by Graham Mcneill which I already reviewed here The Colonel's Monograph. It's set on 40K. I don't

As you know I haven't read that much of Sigmar Tales. I want to finish first warhammer fantasy. The only I've read are these set on these anthologies.

Five Candles by Lora Gray - Sigmar Tale is set on Ashq which is one of the realms in the new sigmar world stuff. I know they are4 proud and this tale really want to show that. I don't know this is horror.

Tesserae by Richard Strachan - Sigmar Tale - this one has Duardin (aka Dwarves). Around the fire tales and one finish with a bang.

Ghost Planet by Steven Sheil - 40K Let me explain something before - as I've said I've been reading warhammer 40k horror and there are has been some connections with Valgaast. The next three tales will mention Valgaast- in one it's a being, other a planet or other stuff. The first one I notice was The Bookkeeper's Skull - but I think I've notice this before. In this tale when the ship Endless Wrath explodes most people dies 5 people become stranded on a ship with no way of being rescued. When a new person arrives outside the ship with a promise of hope stuff goes sideways and thus horror elements

Pentimento by Nick Kyme - 40K is another story set in 40K in the same vein of those Warhammer crime brand. It's about a gruesome murder being committed and it has some interesting twist.

Bone Cutter by Darius Hinks - 40K - A world being ravaged by plagues where two women a baby try to reach safety. I am not going to spoil anything but the end was a bit predictable BUT I am not saying it's not good.

Into Dark Water by Jake Ozga - Sigmar Tale - This is the second novella but this one set on Sigmar universe. It was a very interesting read about Stormcast Eternal - Knight Questor. Basically we've got a Questor - and if you don't know what they are, they are basically task by Sigmar to perform somekind of quest - Killing someone, going to a place and retrieve something. In this take he was task to go to a place - a bit cryptic message/task. He meets an historian and with his help they travelled throughout the lands, battle enemies and such. One interesting set was the interaction between both characters; one a bit distress of the other, while the stormcast being stoic and almost expressionlessness. As the quest comes ever forward things start to change. It made me wonder and I couldn't find anywhere - since Stormcast Eternals are chose and when they died they are reforged. What does it mean? Does it mean they never die? Does it mean they are not human but soulless machines? Seeing this one I don't think they are soulless but how can anyone live their life knowing that they cannot die? The fear of death that makes you evolve, do unexpected stuff and so on would be absent, no? I don't know. I have to read more about stormcasts eternals.

Either way - very cool tale.

In the end I did enjoy the book. There are some weak stories but probably the novellas and Ghost Planet saved the da

Book Review: Seeds of Evil - Greig Beck

Year: 2021
Pages: 176
Part of Series: Solo
Reading Time: July 2022 (10 Days  - Audiobook)
Rating: 6 Stars

This is going to have spoilers...

As soon as the book started and we read the prologue I knew how the main protagonist would died.

I was not wrong and to be honest I Was not dissapointed with the ride. I enjoy hearing and it was a cool story.

True be told; it's nothing really out of the extradiorinary but it serves the purpose. With under 176 pages or 4/5 hours it's a day of work. Although I've been hearing only a bit at night; when I am puting the clothes hanging and other instances I am doing manual labor.

What we've got here is a tale of a guy who has lost a group of people in the iraq war and now after that trauma, and later losing the wife to cancer he goes to work in a small town. Right from the start stuff starts happening and the story is very fast pace. 36 chapters in 176 pages is like 3 or 4 pages per chapter.

The tale as expected, from all other thrillers, it has fast paces stuff; some history and some resolution and investigation. There is always a bit of romance and that's it. It's a sunday afternoon movie. By next sunday you will not remember much. What was the name of the guy?

It's Mitch.

6/10 

Book Review: 14 Sai 1 - Kazuo Umezu (Manga)

Year: 2001
Pages: 316
Part of Series: 1 out 13
Reading Time: July 2022 (1 Day)
Rating: 8 Stars

What an interesting concept. This was written around 95 to 00's so Japan was going through a transformation on the society that started in the 80's. If you see some OVAS from that time the theme is always the same. A bleak universe due to corporativism and black ops stuff, the majority of humankind living in proverty and violence going rampage.

Yes, today is a bit different but some stuff stays the same...

What can I say about this, basically imagine that we start growing food out of vat tubes... instead of massive chicken killer zones you just breed the chicken breasts, or wings or foots or whatever. But as you may have learn in science - life always creates a way to never give up and throws a curve ball. There are documented instances of animals changing because of extinction; now imagine those vat's created life? Well here you go... Now imagine that life becomes smarter and started to get revenge from humanity destruction of nature? Well I am game for it and rooting for Chicken George...

This first one really flows... It's not horror but more thriller and the horror is more Lovecraftian and less jumpscare. I will keep reading of course

Book Review: Alone - Brian Keene

Author: Brian Keene
Book: Alone
Year: 2011
Pages: 63
Part of Series: Solo
Reading Time: July 2022 (1 days)
Rating: 7 Stars

Brian Keene is one of my favorite horror writers and here is on top form. A man wakes up in solitude whereas before he had a family. Due to some mystery everyone was gone. Neither on home, or in the street. No soul. The food is bland and nothing electronic works and he is becoming a bit crazy... So where is ? What it that being that he sees far beyond like a mist...

Everything in this story works perfectly. The despair, the sorrow , the confusion and the final confrontation... Perfect.

I don't know if anything here connects to the Mythos he created but there may be - like the existence of other worlds.