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Split Scream #4
Split Scream Volume Four
SPLIT SCREAM has a new home at Tenebrous Press! Editor Alex Ebenstein brings his acclaimed split-novelette series back for a fourth round
Nonsense Words by D. Matthew Urban
An aging professor of ancient history strikes up a friendship with her new colleague, Dr. Paul Duncan, a scholar of undecipherable inscriptions. As she finds herself drawn into Dr. Duncan's life—his brilliant wife and mystical daughters, frightened students and uncanny associates—darker forces behind his research emerge, plunging her into a nightmare of mythical absurdity and ritualistic death. Dark academia meets cosmic horror in Nonsense Words, where the incomprehensible is granted a conjured form—but too much imagination can be a dangerous thing. If the cosmos is nonsense, merely a divine or demonic joke, will she live to have the last laugh, or will she die a punchline?
Bone Light by Holly Lyn Walrath
An icy surf batters Bone Light as its beacon calls to weary souls at sea. This edifice built of bone and wretchedness sits atop a cursed rock, surrounded by death, watched over by the ghosts of light-keepers past. Their records tell of the inhospitable environment, but it is Mary Long’s writings that show the heart. Misfortune necessitates the arrival of her dear Ida, laying bear to the obstacles that shaped their history—a husband and taboo among them. These log entries illuminate Mary’s world—the banality, the heartbreak, the magic. In Bone Light, a beacon of death might finally be the thing to give life to a long-denied romance.
Cover art by Evangeline Gallagher.
Interior illustrations by Echo Echo.
Nonsense Words by D. Matthew Urban
An aging professor of ancient history strikes up a friendship with her new colleague, Dr. Paul Duncan, a scholar of undecipherable inscriptions. As she finds herself drawn into Dr. Duncan's life—his brilliant wife and mystical daughters, frightened students and uncanny associates—darker forces behind his research emerge, plunging her into a nightmare of mythical absurdity and ritualistic death. Dark academia meets cosmic horror in Nonsense Words, where the incomprehensible is granted a conjured form—but too much imagination can be a dangerous thing. If the cosmos is nonsense, merely a divine or demonic joke, will she live to have the last laugh, or will she die a punchline?
Bone Light by Holly Lyn Walrath
An icy surf batters Bone Light as its beacon calls to weary souls at sea. This edifice built of bone and wretchedness sits atop a cursed rock, surrounded by death, watched over by the ghosts of light-keepers past. Their records tell of the inhospitable environment, but it is Mary Long’s writings that show the heart. Misfortune necessitates the arrival of her dear Ida, laying bear to the obstacles that shaped their history—a husband and taboo among them. These log entries illuminate Mary’s world—the banality, the heartbreak, the magic. In Bone Light, a beacon of death might finally be the thing to give life to a long-denied romance.
Cover art by Evangeline Gallagher.
Interior illustrations by Echo Echo.
- GenresHorror
103 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2023
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 11, 2023
Another fun double feature-- I can't stress enough how much I like this format/concept. In this case, the connecting theme is ritual magic. Although Holly Lyn Walrath's "Bone Light" has some nice moments and images, and I'm always up for the "slightly implausible logbook/diary" form in horror, it wasn't quite my type of story overall-- historical fiction that's not as concerned with historical realities/real history as it feels like it should be given its obvious social justice concerns, unambiguously happy and sentimental ending. But I LOVED D. Matthew Urban's "Nonsense Words," a creepy, ambivalent, drily humorous, unreliably narrated tale of dark academia that's Lovecraftian in all the most positive/complimentary ways. The voice is stellar, half pastiche and half something tonally original. Really gave me the same excited feeling I got the first time I read a Kelly Link or Jeffery Ford story, or one of Michael Chabon's Pennsylvanian cosmic horror stories. My only criticism is I don't think Urban knows where Eastern Europe (as opposed to Central or Western Europe) is.
November 2, 2023
Those of us old enough to remember the split singles of the punk days know the glory of placing two disparate songs back to back, the tensions created, the fascinating parallels. It’s also a great reminder that some of the most important creative choices are actually editorial choices: placing this beside that creates interesting resonances, shocking contrasts, or sets them in subtle conversation.
Split Scream vol 4, the latest in the series that places two novelettes by two authors side by side, is a sterling example of this particular form of editorial genius.
The first story, “Nonsense Words,” drops us into dark academia by way of the mundane university life as experienced by our narrator, a professor nearing the end of her career who strikes up a friendship with the new, charismatic assistant professor across the hall. Paul Duncan is bright and imaginative, and his family is lovely, even if his daughters’ weird girl energy is a little extreme.
But soon things start to turn sinister as students complain about Paul’s out of class behavior, and our narrator has several unsettling experiences with Paul and his family. And that’s all before they find the bodies.
There’s a certain air of Greek tragedy to “Nonsense Words,” and a peculiar narrative distance from the horrors described, as out narrator never quite responds as we think she might or even should, and the horror unfolds just as we’ve been told it would from the beginning.
And yet, the horror seems almost beside the point. Rather, it’s the incomprehensibility of the violence that seems most important, the way that it stretches the imagination, and we feel our narrator being seduced by the possibilities of the imagination, having brushed up against the outer edges of a dangerous cult and coming away somehow the better for it.
It’s a haunting and oddly beautiful investigation into language, reason, imagination, and violence.
The second tale, “Bone Light,” takes the form of journal entries as Mary and her husband take up residence on Bone Light, a lighthouse standing over a particularly treacherous bit of shoreline.
But the little island that is home to Bone Light is haunted by generations of the dead, and soon the line between the living and the dead grows thin. Mary’s husband dies in a mysterious accident, and Mary’s childhood friend Ida comes to the island.
What follows is a sapphic tale of witchcraft and haunting as the two women battle the elements, sexist lighthouse inspectors, roving bands of thieves, and generations of angry ghosts.
Not unlike “Nonsense Words,” this story ends on a bittersweet note, the horror acknowledged but somehow laid to rest.
Both stories paint remarkably clear characters in very brief spaces, in language that is both lyrical and precise, and there’s a very real spark given off by holding the two story side by side. These two very different stories about very different women experiencing the occult in very different ways feel as if they are in conversation, and I for one was happy to be able to listen in.
Split Scream vol 4, the latest in the series that places two novelettes by two authors side by side, is a sterling example of this particular form of editorial genius.
The first story, “Nonsense Words,” drops us into dark academia by way of the mundane university life as experienced by our narrator, a professor nearing the end of her career who strikes up a friendship with the new, charismatic assistant professor across the hall. Paul Duncan is bright and imaginative, and his family is lovely, even if his daughters’ weird girl energy is a little extreme.
But soon things start to turn sinister as students complain about Paul’s out of class behavior, and our narrator has several unsettling experiences with Paul and his family. And that’s all before they find the bodies.
There’s a certain air of Greek tragedy to “Nonsense Words,” and a peculiar narrative distance from the horrors described, as out narrator never quite responds as we think she might or even should, and the horror unfolds just as we’ve been told it would from the beginning.
And yet, the horror seems almost beside the point. Rather, it’s the incomprehensibility of the violence that seems most important, the way that it stretches the imagination, and we feel our narrator being seduced by the possibilities of the imagination, having brushed up against the outer edges of a dangerous cult and coming away somehow the better for it.
It’s a haunting and oddly beautiful investigation into language, reason, imagination, and violence.
The second tale, “Bone Light,” takes the form of journal entries as Mary and her husband take up residence on Bone Light, a lighthouse standing over a particularly treacherous bit of shoreline.
But the little island that is home to Bone Light is haunted by generations of the dead, and soon the line between the living and the dead grows thin. Mary’s husband dies in a mysterious accident, and Mary’s childhood friend Ida comes to the island.
What follows is a sapphic tale of witchcraft and haunting as the two women battle the elements, sexist lighthouse inspectors, roving bands of thieves, and generations of angry ghosts.
Not unlike “Nonsense Words,” this story ends on a bittersweet note, the horror acknowledged but somehow laid to rest.
Both stories paint remarkably clear characters in very brief spaces, in language that is both lyrical and precise, and there’s a very real spark given off by holding the two story side by side. These two very different stories about very different women experiencing the occult in very different ways feel as if they are in conversation, and I for one was happy to be able to listen in.
October 9, 2023
Special thanks to Tenebrous Press for the ARC copy they provided.
I LOVED everything about this book. Seriously.
Split Scream Volume Four is everything it says it is. A duo of novelettes that you can sit down and read in the space of an hour or two with a bowl of popcorn in your lap and the cicadas calling in the night outside your patio door. A movie in book form, like a double feature. It. Was. Amazing.
When I was younger, I could sit down and read a four hundred page book in a day and still want more. Now that I’m a bit older, and have more life responsibilities… well my concentration has gone off in a few different directions. You wouldn’t happen to have found it, would you???
Ahem!
Point being, reading a long book with multiple plotlines interweaving can be challenging these days. Split Scream Volume Four was a pleasant reprieve from that. I was not only able to read it quickly, practically in one day, but both the novelettes held my attention to the point of obsession. They were both fabulously detailed and marvelously well written. By the time I finished them both, I came away wishing they were longer, instead of being glad for the short read.
Given my concentration problem, this is a deep compliment.
“Nonsense Words” by D. Matthew Urban caught my attention right from the get go and didn’t let go. A deviously creepy, yet subtly beautiful, exploration of the power of the imagination, the novelette gripped me beginning to end. I found it as thrillingly gorgeous as I did sickly gruesome.
“Bone Light” by Holly Lyn Walrath is a completely different experience altogether. Written as log entries by the keeper of Bone Light lighthouse, the tale blends curses, ghosts, witches, and the strength there is in love into a bone chilling (I could not leave out the pun) read, with a touch of warmth tucked in. Not to mention some queer romance. A truly gratifying read.
Now that I’ve read volume four in this series of movie-esque books, I will have to wait for Tenebrous Press to get the first three volumes up for sales. I truly cannot wait to read the rest of the volumes in this collection of double features.
I LOVED everything about this book. Seriously.
Split Scream Volume Four is everything it says it is. A duo of novelettes that you can sit down and read in the space of an hour or two with a bowl of popcorn in your lap and the cicadas calling in the night outside your patio door. A movie in book form, like a double feature. It. Was. Amazing.
When I was younger, I could sit down and read a four hundred page book in a day and still want more. Now that I’m a bit older, and have more life responsibilities… well my concentration has gone off in a few different directions. You wouldn’t happen to have found it, would you???
Ahem!
Point being, reading a long book with multiple plotlines interweaving can be challenging these days. Split Scream Volume Four was a pleasant reprieve from that. I was not only able to read it quickly, practically in one day, but both the novelettes held my attention to the point of obsession. They were both fabulously detailed and marvelously well written. By the time I finished them both, I came away wishing they were longer, instead of being glad for the short read.
Given my concentration problem, this is a deep compliment.
“Nonsense Words” by D. Matthew Urban caught my attention right from the get go and didn’t let go. A deviously creepy, yet subtly beautiful, exploration of the power of the imagination, the novelette gripped me beginning to end. I found it as thrillingly gorgeous as I did sickly gruesome.
“Bone Light” by Holly Lyn Walrath is a completely different experience altogether. Written as log entries by the keeper of Bone Light lighthouse, the tale blends curses, ghosts, witches, and the strength there is in love into a bone chilling (I could not leave out the pun) read, with a touch of warmth tucked in. Not to mention some queer romance. A truly gratifying read.
Now that I’ve read volume four in this series of movie-esque books, I will have to wait for Tenebrous Press to get the first three volumes up for sales. I truly cannot wait to read the rest of the volumes in this collection of double features.
April 8, 2024
4 stars for the first story by Urban
3 stars for the second story by Walrath
The first story was a cosmic horror tale, complete with creepy children, phrases in unknown languages, and occult tomes. Exactly the type of thing I love! I wish it could have gone into more about the young professor's family. The story seemed kind of cut off by limiting it to a colleague recounting what happened.
The second story was a sapphic Gothic tale about a couple of women who live in lighthouse made of the bones of the people who died on the island. There are a lot of ghosts and ship wrecks. It is epistolary, but again, I feel like that POV limited the story that could've been told with more depth and feeling. The story also suffered from what I call "contemporary woman shoved into a period tale and acts like it." Part of the appeal of reading about stories from this time is how women were often extremely constrained by social and religious mores. Their language and behavior felt too modern for the time period it supposedly depicted. Since I've been reading A LOT of Gothic horror and ghost stories lately, this especially bothered me.
Overall, I was entertained for the afternoon, but I really preferred the first story over the second.
3 stars for the second story by Walrath
The first story was a cosmic horror tale, complete with creepy children, phrases in unknown languages, and occult tomes. Exactly the type of thing I love! I wish it could have gone into more about the young professor's family. The story seemed kind of cut off by limiting it to a colleague recounting what happened.
The second story was a sapphic Gothic tale about a couple of women who live in lighthouse made of the bones of the people who died on the island. There are a lot of ghosts and ship wrecks. It is epistolary, but again, I feel like that POV limited the story that could've been told with more depth and feeling. The story also suffered from what I call "contemporary woman shoved into a period tale and acts like it." Part of the appeal of reading about stories from this time is how women were often extremely constrained by social and religious mores. Their language and behavior felt too modern for the time period it supposedly depicted. Since I've been reading A LOT of Gothic horror and ghost stories lately, this especially bothered me.
Overall, I was entertained for the afternoon, but I really preferred the first story over the second.
November 24, 2023
An absolutely mesmerizing duo of intense and terrifying novelettes. I picked this up because I’m a fan of Holly Lyn Walrath’s poetry, and her take on the haunted house is just as good. “Bone Light” was eerie, moving, and expertly presented. I read it in one shivering sitting.
D. Matthew Urban is new to me, but if “Nonsense Words” is any indication he is a marvel. It’s a strange twist on Lovecraftian horror where cosmic menaces lurk in language itself. You could almost read it as a fantasy exploration of how people get radicalized by new and exciting imaginings that have the weight of ancient wisdom.
I loved this collection so much I immediately bought another book from Tenebrous Press. They specialize in the short and weird, plus they give you free ebooks with every physical purchase from the website. I’m so glad I stumbled across this lair of madness.
D. Matthew Urban is new to me, but if “Nonsense Words” is any indication he is a marvel. It’s a strange twist on Lovecraftian horror where cosmic menaces lurk in language itself. You could almost read it as a fantasy exploration of how people get radicalized by new and exciting imaginings that have the weight of ancient wisdom.
I loved this collection so much I immediately bought another book from Tenebrous Press. They specialize in the short and weird, plus they give you free ebooks with every physical purchase from the website. I’m so glad I stumbled across this lair of madness.
December 3, 2023
Split Scream is a series edited by Alex Ebenstein featuring two horror novelettes (such a good idea!) Volume four included two stories from D. Matthew Urban and Holly Lyn Walrath, and was a lot of fun. Both stories were weird, and unsettling, but told in entirely different ways and settings. D. Matthew Urban’s ‘Nonsense Words’ is a dark academia tale which would be easy to spoil, so I’ll only say that it unravels in unexpected ways, to draw you deep into both the character’s mind and a dark world of rituals and the weird. ‘Bone Light’ by Holly Lyn Walrath, was equally pacy and beautifully written, about the keepers of an eerily haunted lighthouse, with a love story at its heart. I definitely recommend checking this out and look forward to future Split Screams!
February 4, 2024
I really enjoyed my first foray into Tenebrous Press’s Split Scream series. I loved the shorter novelette format. Nonsense Words was my favorite of the two because my interests trend towards weird/dark academic horror and the ancient cult aspect sealed the deal for me. It was just as weird as I hoped it would be! Bone Light was just as enjoyable, and I devoured it as quickly as I read the first novelette. If you haven’t tried one of these, you should!
October 5, 2023
[review pending]
July 14, 2024
Split Scream series continues to be excellent, and this volume is the best to date I think.
October 11, 2024
quick and fun but maybe i wish these stories had been a touchhh spookier ... but so good regardless + format is rly fun and i'd love to read the other volumes
October 11, 2024
Two excellent novelettes in one volume make for another fine book from Tenebrous Press. Each piece offers tight storytelling and suspense. I will be seeking out more books from this series for sure.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews