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Tales from the Crust: An Anthology of Pizza Horror
The toppings: Terror and torment.
The crust: Stuffed with dread and despair.
And the sauce: Well, the sauce is always red.
Whether you’re in the mood for a Chicago-style deep dish of darkness, or prefer a New York wide slice of thin-crusted carnage, or if you just have a hankering for the cheap, cheesy charms of cardboard-crusted, delivered-to-your-door devilry; we have just the slice for you.
Bring your most monstrous of appetites, because we’re serving suspense and horrors both chillingly cosmic and morbidly mundane from acclaimed horror authors such as Brian Evenson, Jessica McHugh, and Cody Goodfellow, as well as up-and-coming literary threats like Craig Wallwork, Sheri White, and Tony McMillen.
Tales From the Crust, stories you can devour in thirty minutes or less or the next one’s free. Whatever that means.
The crust: Stuffed with dread and despair.
And the sauce: Well, the sauce is always red.
Whether you’re in the mood for a Chicago-style deep dish of darkness, or prefer a New York wide slice of thin-crusted carnage, or if you just have a hankering for the cheap, cheesy charms of cardboard-crusted, delivered-to-your-door devilry; we have just the slice for you.
Bring your most monstrous of appetites, because we’re serving suspense and horrors both chillingly cosmic and morbidly mundane from acclaimed horror authors such as Brian Evenson, Jessica McHugh, and Cody Goodfellow, as well as up-and-coming literary threats like Craig Wallwork, Sheri White, and Tony McMillen.
Tales From the Crust, stories you can devour in thirty minutes or less or the next one’s free. Whatever that means.
346 pages, Paperback
First published August 27, 2019
8 people are currently reading
283 people want to read
About the author
David James Keaton
54 books185 followersDavid James Keaton received his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Flywheel Magazine. His first collection of fiction, FISH BITES COP! Stories To Bash Authorities, was named the 2014 Short Story Collection of the Year by This Is Horror. Kirkus spotlighted his debut novel, THE LAST PROJECTOR, calling it "rapidly paced and loaded with humor... a loopy, appealing mix of popular culture and thoroughly crazy people." His second collection of fiction, STEALING PROPELLER HATS FROM THE DEAD, received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly, who said, "The author's joy in his subject matter is obvious, often expressed with a sly wink and a wicked smile. Decay, both existential and physical, has never looked so good.” His most recent novel, HEAD CLEANER, was recommended by Booklist and Library Journal, who called it "light and breezy with dark undercurrents that keep the reader off-kilter" as well as "great fun." He also teaches composition and creative writing at Santa Clara University in California.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 24, 2023
Pretty much everybody's reaction to the title of this anthology is probably something like “Wtf is pizza horror?” Having now finished this bizarre 28 story collection, I still can't answer that question, but I'm 28 stories closer to maybe understanding the concept.
The printed grease smear stains on the first page of each story are telling for these partly messy, partly outright revolting stories - some of them are scary, unsettling or even philosophical too. In any case they either center around pizza, pizza parlors, delivery people or the mafia. Every way in which you can connect the beloved pie to horror has been done here, this is the ultimate work on pizza and horror.
Here are my highlights as usual with anthologies:
The Vegan Wendigo by Cody Goodfellow
This story gives the label “100% vegan” a brand new, literal meaning!
Mickey and the Pizza Girls by Sheri White
Oh pizza, you're so great,
You're so great, you fill our plate
Hey, pizza! Hey, pizza!
This story has everything a successful short story needs – at only four pages it builds a completely new universe and gives us compelling characters; a post-cataclysmic world where everybody in the small town of Dodge woke up one day mutated bodily, like with extra organs protruding from their bodies or fused together. We're following Mickey get harassed by the cheerleader twins Zoe and Chloe who are one of those fused together and run around town singing songs, pretending they still are delivering the pizzas they used to deliver when everything was normal. Wonderful.
Cenobio Pizza by Joshua Chaplinsky
A complete pizza menu consisting of pizzas with genre toppings and corresponding explanations; The Lecter and The Baby from Eraserhead sounded good, actually.
Pizza_Gal_666 by Emma Alice Johnson
Sarah's search for love on a dating app leads her to a date with Vannie, who in turn introduces her to the mysterious and chilling subculture of pizzavores. Is this all real?
This was an absolute delight to read!
Phosphenes by Matthew King
Matthew King truly is the king of this anthology because I think this story is by far the best of the bunch. A simple pizza delivery turns into a psychedelic nightmare and brings about extradimensional apprehension.
Amazing.
The Ultimate Pizza Club by Michael Allen Rose
Another simple pizza delivery turns into a gory nightmare.
Despite the amount of grossness in these stories they indeed made me think about pizza all the time and although I hadn't eaten any in months prior to reading this book, I ordered pizza not once but twice while reading. And it was not 100% vegan.
The printed grease smear stains on the first page of each story are telling for these partly messy, partly outright revolting stories - some of them are scary, unsettling or even philosophical too. In any case they either center around pizza, pizza parlors, delivery people or the mafia. Every way in which you can connect the beloved pie to horror has been done here, this is the ultimate work on pizza and horror.
Here are my highlights as usual with anthologies:
The Vegan Wendigo by Cody Goodfellow
This story gives the label “100% vegan” a brand new, literal meaning!
Mickey and the Pizza Girls by Sheri White
Oh pizza, you're so great,
You're so great, you fill our plate
Hey, pizza! Hey, pizza!
This story has everything a successful short story needs – at only four pages it builds a completely new universe and gives us compelling characters; a post-cataclysmic world where everybody in the small town of Dodge woke up one day mutated bodily, like with extra organs protruding from their bodies or fused together. We're following Mickey get harassed by the cheerleader twins Zoe and Chloe who are one of those fused together and run around town singing songs, pretending they still are delivering the pizzas they used to deliver when everything was normal. Wonderful.
Cenobio Pizza by Joshua Chaplinsky
A complete pizza menu consisting of pizzas with genre toppings and corresponding explanations; The Lecter and The Baby from Eraserhead sounded good, actually.
Pizza_Gal_666 by Emma Alice Johnson
Sarah's search for love on a dating app leads her to a date with Vannie, who in turn introduces her to the mysterious and chilling subculture of pizzavores. Is this all real?
This was an absolute delight to read!
Phosphenes by Matthew King
Matthew King truly is the king of this anthology because I think this story is by far the best of the bunch. A simple pizza delivery turns into a psychedelic nightmare and brings about extradimensional apprehension.
Amazing.
The Ultimate Pizza Club by Michael Allen Rose
Another simple pizza delivery turns into a gory nightmare.
Despite the amount of grossness in these stories they indeed made me think about pizza all the time and although I hadn't eaten any in months prior to reading this book, I ordered pizza not once but twice while reading. And it was not 100% vegan.
October 15, 2020
Pizza horror. There’s a subgenre I bet you didn’t know existed! And maybe it didn’t, not until David James Keaton and Max Booth III willed it into being with their collaboration in editing the twenty-six stories, plus and intro and afterword that take a deep dive into their own realms of pizza horror, for Tales from the Crust. Either way, pizza horror is a thing now — the genie is out of the bottle and can’t be put back, to the point that several other magazines and anthologies open for submission have, hilariously, had to make note that they are not accepting pizza horror stories.
One might reasonably wonder just how much variety there could be in such a singularly defined subgenre, but Tales from the Crust has a surprising amount of elasticity to it. Granted, the idea itself is a bit cheesy, but there’s also plenty of meat on these stories (hey, see what I did there?!). We get stories about a delivery boy stalking a favorite customer, a couple of eerie cults, some cosmic horror, a frat boy hazing gone awry, a creature feature, a post-apocalyptic narrative, and even a horror riff on the old porno staple of a woman answering the door naked and needing a bit more sausage than her pizza pie can provide. Some of these stories are tasty little Totino’s pizza roll-sized offerings, while others offer up a hearty California Pizza Kitchen-style variety.
Keaton, co-editor and brainchild behind this deep dish anthology, and Steve Gillies get the ball rolling right off the bat in their brief introduction. If you’re not the type to read a book’s introduction, well, first of all, shame on you! You can make up for that bad habit here, because you absolutely have to read this introduction in order to understand the flavor of this anthology and prepare yourself for what’s to come. It’s a really funny intro, with Keaton talking about everything from how awful pizza in California is to all the crap he and Booth had to deal with during their submissions period. It’s funny stuff! …until it isn’t. The humor stops when Keaton shares a letter he received from Steve Gillies and it gets very, very creepy... If you want to know what, exactly, pizza horror can be, you have to read this intro. It is hands-down the best introduction I’ve ever read.
Cody Goodfellow launches the antho proper in style with “The Vegan Wendigo,” and Jessica McHugh delivers a fun one about a frat boy hazing that goes terribly, and absolutely justifiably, wrong in “When the Moon Hits Your Eye.” Craig Wallwork’s “Rosemary and Time” is an early standout, though, involving a locked room mystery, a hired killer, the secrets hidden in a homemade pizza pie, and physics. How have I not heard of Wallwork and what the hell else has he written, cause I need more! This is an awesome introduction to his work and the type of story that instantly put him on my watch list.
If you at all found yourself craving a pizza during your own reading of Tales from the Crust, Michael Paul Gonzalez is likely to strangle that urge to death in the womb. His story, “Upper Crust,” is, hands-down, the most repulsive and disgusting story in the whole of Tales from the Crust. It’s is freaking gross, and I found myself reaching for a barf bag more than once. I loved it! This one stars...well, I won’t ruin the surprise, but some readers will love it and others will protest and want to burn this book. It involves an initiate to a secret society and an unholy Edward Lee-like conglomeration of pizza recipes. Fair warning: do not read this story while you eat!
As I said earlier, there’s a surprising amount of elasticity to this anthology but I have to applaud Tim Lieder and Joshua Chaplinsky in particular for delivering two of the most out-of-the-box ideas here. Lieder presents his fictional story, “Introduction to ‘Let’s Kill the Pizza Guy’: The Love Poems of Yael Friedman Concerning Hadassah Herz,” as a scholarly examination of the most popular of Yael Friedman’s creative non-fiction poems and her affair with Hadassah Herz, which saw the murder of three delivery boys. It’s a neat story with a really unique presentation, tonally reminiscent of Marisha Pessl’s Night Film and the documentarian accounts in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. If you liked those books, odds are you’ll dig Lieder’s work here. Chaplinsky, meanwhile, forgoes your typical narrative structure and instead serves up an actual freaking menu for the horror-inspired Cenobio Pizzeria, which serves up pies like The Kreuger and The Stuff. “Enter a new realm of culinary indulgence. We have such sights to show you.” This was a quick and creative detour away from your typical story and is a nice little palette cleanser.
James Newman and Desmond Reddick deliver one heck of a romp in “30 Minutes or Less...or Else!” Delivery man Keegan tries to beat the clock on his pizza delivery only to end up kidnapped by cultists! This is a wicked bit of fun that reminded me a bit of Newman’s and Adam Howe’s Scapegoat, one of the most flat-out entertaining books I read last year. I had a lot of fun with this one, and it felt like a bit of a spiritual successor to that particular novel, so definitely a good time here. Also highly entertaining was Matthew Bartlett’s “The Black Cheese,” about a new microwavable pizza that looks and smells funny, but tastes absolutely incredible. The people who eat it are changed forever! I’ll leave it up to you read it and find out how, though.
Keaton and Booth close out the anthology with their post-apocalyptic “Pizza Party Friday!” The last two men on earth are on a quest to make one last perfect pizza before they die of radiation poisoning. It’s a pretty straight-forward plot and humorous, too, but the authors do a nice job giving the story a little twist, crinkling things a bit further with their non-linear narrative structure. Good stuff!
Nathan Rabin’s Afterword is absolutely not to be missed. Again, like the introduction, if you skip it you’re missing out one hell of a story. Rather than deliver a straight-forward afterword extolling the virtues of pizza cuisine and how great all these authors are, Rabin tells us about the true history of “The Violent and Ugly Death of the Noid.” Those of us who were around in the 80s will recall The Noid as Domino’s villainous mascot who tried to stop delivery drivers from getting orders delivered in thirty minutes or less. What you may not know is that the Noid was based on a real-life and very controversial pitchman who roamed the streets murdering delivery boys (and eventually delivery girls, dogs, and children). OK, so none of this actually based on a true story, but it is an interesting comic book-like what if?, and Rabin goes all in, creating a real, albeit fictitious, Noid that is equal parts The Joker and The Punisher, engaged in a war on pizza delivery drivers. It’s a brutal and hilarious story recounting the topography of one’s man rise and fall in the criminal empire of pizza delivery. If you remember the Noid from way back when and thought it needed way more Scarface, Rabin’s got you covered.
Interestingly enough, there’s actually another story in Tales from the Crust partly inspired by the Noid. Rather than Avoid the Noid, Tony McMillen’s “Elude the Snood,” is actually based on a real-life event involving a mentally ill man taking a pizza shop hostage in retaliation for the chain’s advertisements, which he viewed as a personal attack on him. It’s a really interesting story, both the sad real-life incident and McMillen’s fictional account which takes things a bit further as he leans hard into the Illuminati-like conspiracy theory that leads Drederick Fitzgerald Snood to take some rather aggressive steps to halt Dicey Slice’s ad campaign.
As I said earlier, Tales from the Crust has a surprising amount of elasticity, but also a fair share of originality. With nearly thirty stories, once all is said and done, there’s plenty to chew on here and a wide array of tropes to suit any particular taste. As with any anthology, I liked some stories better than others, although I don’t believe there’s any I would single out here as being bad. It’s pizza horror, man! C’mon! You know that old line about pizza being like sex? Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty damn good. Whether you like thin crust or deep dish, there’s plenty of saucy deliciousness to consume here. Go grab a slice and dig in!
One might reasonably wonder just how much variety there could be in such a singularly defined subgenre, but Tales from the Crust has a surprising amount of elasticity to it. Granted, the idea itself is a bit cheesy, but there’s also plenty of meat on these stories (hey, see what I did there?!). We get stories about a delivery boy stalking a favorite customer, a couple of eerie cults, some cosmic horror, a frat boy hazing gone awry, a creature feature, a post-apocalyptic narrative, and even a horror riff on the old porno staple of a woman answering the door naked and needing a bit more sausage than her pizza pie can provide. Some of these stories are tasty little Totino’s pizza roll-sized offerings, while others offer up a hearty California Pizza Kitchen-style variety.
Keaton, co-editor and brainchild behind this deep dish anthology, and Steve Gillies get the ball rolling right off the bat in their brief introduction. If you’re not the type to read a book’s introduction, well, first of all, shame on you! You can make up for that bad habit here, because you absolutely have to read this introduction in order to understand the flavor of this anthology and prepare yourself for what’s to come. It’s a really funny intro, with Keaton talking about everything from how awful pizza in California is to all the crap he and Booth had to deal with during their submissions period. It’s funny stuff! …until it isn’t. The humor stops when Keaton shares a letter he received from Steve Gillies and it gets very, very creepy... If you want to know what, exactly, pizza horror can be, you have to read this intro. It is hands-down the best introduction I’ve ever read.
Cody Goodfellow launches the antho proper in style with “The Vegan Wendigo,” and Jessica McHugh delivers a fun one about a frat boy hazing that goes terribly, and absolutely justifiably, wrong in “When the Moon Hits Your Eye.” Craig Wallwork’s “Rosemary and Time” is an early standout, though, involving a locked room mystery, a hired killer, the secrets hidden in a homemade pizza pie, and physics. How have I not heard of Wallwork and what the hell else has he written, cause I need more! This is an awesome introduction to his work and the type of story that instantly put him on my watch list.
If you at all found yourself craving a pizza during your own reading of Tales from the Crust, Michael Paul Gonzalez is likely to strangle that urge to death in the womb. His story, “Upper Crust,” is, hands-down, the most repulsive and disgusting story in the whole of Tales from the Crust. It’s is freaking gross, and I found myself reaching for a barf bag more than once. I loved it! This one stars...well, I won’t ruin the surprise, but some readers will love it and others will protest and want to burn this book. It involves an initiate to a secret society and an unholy Edward Lee-like conglomeration of pizza recipes. Fair warning: do not read this story while you eat!
As I said earlier, there’s a surprising amount of elasticity to this anthology but I have to applaud Tim Lieder and Joshua Chaplinsky in particular for delivering two of the most out-of-the-box ideas here. Lieder presents his fictional story, “Introduction to ‘Let’s Kill the Pizza Guy’: The Love Poems of Yael Friedman Concerning Hadassah Herz,” as a scholarly examination of the most popular of Yael Friedman’s creative non-fiction poems and her affair with Hadassah Herz, which saw the murder of three delivery boys. It’s a neat story with a really unique presentation, tonally reminiscent of Marisha Pessl’s Night Film and the documentarian accounts in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. If you liked those books, odds are you’ll dig Lieder’s work here. Chaplinsky, meanwhile, forgoes your typical narrative structure and instead serves up an actual freaking menu for the horror-inspired Cenobio Pizzeria, which serves up pies like The Kreuger and The Stuff. “Enter a new realm of culinary indulgence. We have such sights to show you.” This was a quick and creative detour away from your typical story and is a nice little palette cleanser.
James Newman and Desmond Reddick deliver one heck of a romp in “30 Minutes or Less...or Else!” Delivery man Keegan tries to beat the clock on his pizza delivery only to end up kidnapped by cultists! This is a wicked bit of fun that reminded me a bit of Newman’s and Adam Howe’s Scapegoat, one of the most flat-out entertaining books I read last year. I had a lot of fun with this one, and it felt like a bit of a spiritual successor to that particular novel, so definitely a good time here. Also highly entertaining was Matthew Bartlett’s “The Black Cheese,” about a new microwavable pizza that looks and smells funny, but tastes absolutely incredible. The people who eat it are changed forever! I’ll leave it up to you read it and find out how, though.
Keaton and Booth close out the anthology with their post-apocalyptic “Pizza Party Friday!” The last two men on earth are on a quest to make one last perfect pizza before they die of radiation poisoning. It’s a pretty straight-forward plot and humorous, too, but the authors do a nice job giving the story a little twist, crinkling things a bit further with their non-linear narrative structure. Good stuff!
Nathan Rabin’s Afterword is absolutely not to be missed. Again, like the introduction, if you skip it you’re missing out one hell of a story. Rather than deliver a straight-forward afterword extolling the virtues of pizza cuisine and how great all these authors are, Rabin tells us about the true history of “The Violent and Ugly Death of the Noid.” Those of us who were around in the 80s will recall The Noid as Domino’s villainous mascot who tried to stop delivery drivers from getting orders delivered in thirty minutes or less. What you may not know is that the Noid was based on a real-life and very controversial pitchman who roamed the streets murdering delivery boys (and eventually delivery girls, dogs, and children). OK, so none of this actually based on a true story, but it is an interesting comic book-like what if?, and Rabin goes all in, creating a real, albeit fictitious, Noid that is equal parts The Joker and The Punisher, engaged in a war on pizza delivery drivers. It’s a brutal and hilarious story recounting the topography of one’s man rise and fall in the criminal empire of pizza delivery. If you remember the Noid from way back when and thought it needed way more Scarface, Rabin’s got you covered.
Interestingly enough, there’s actually another story in Tales from the Crust partly inspired by the Noid. Rather than Avoid the Noid, Tony McMillen’s “Elude the Snood,” is actually based on a real-life event involving a mentally ill man taking a pizza shop hostage in retaliation for the chain’s advertisements, which he viewed as a personal attack on him. It’s a really interesting story, both the sad real-life incident and McMillen’s fictional account which takes things a bit further as he leans hard into the Illuminati-like conspiracy theory that leads Drederick Fitzgerald Snood to take some rather aggressive steps to halt Dicey Slice’s ad campaign.
As I said earlier, Tales from the Crust has a surprising amount of elasticity, but also a fair share of originality. With nearly thirty stories, once all is said and done, there’s plenty to chew on here and a wide array of tropes to suit any particular taste. As with any anthology, I liked some stories better than others, although I don’t believe there’s any I would single out here as being bad. It’s pizza horror, man! C’mon! You know that old line about pizza being like sex? Even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty damn good. Whether you like thin crust or deep dish, there’s plenty of saucy deliciousness to consume here. Go grab a slice and dig in!
August 5, 2019
Writing pizza horror is more complicated than it seems, but this group of authors made it happen.
Because there's something inherently comforting to pizza. It has a banality and an ease of access that gets it everywhere and into everyone's hands, so nobody expect their relationship to it to become estranged and alien. My favorite stories in here were Andrew Hilbert's Hitchcockian "Watch Them Eat" and Matthew Bartlett's weird and uncanny "Black Cheese", which explored aspects of pizza I hadn't ever really considered.
More on Dead End Folles in a week.
Because there's something inherently comforting to pizza. It has a banality and an ease of access that gets it everywhere and into everyone's hands, so nobody expect their relationship to it to become estranged and alien. My favorite stories in here were Andrew Hilbert's Hitchcockian "Watch Them Eat" and Matthew Bartlett's weird and uncanny "Black Cheese", which explored aspects of pizza I hadn't ever really considered.
More on Dead End Folles in a week.
October 4, 2019
“FROM EACH, ACCORDING TO HIS MEATZ, TO EACH, ACCORDING TO HIS CHEEZE.”
When I caught wind of this collection, I immediately wanted to read it. The concept is brilliant! Who doesn’t love pizza? And who doesn’t love horror stories that have pizza in ‘em?
A thick flayed, slightly burnt epidermis crust with a menstrual mucus sauce, extra fromunda cheese and blood sausage and eyeball topping. Maybe even pineapple…who knows?
A very well done and eclectic collection of shorts. There’s a lot going on in these tales from the crust, so get ready, dig right in and grab a slice of terror.
When I caught wind of this collection, I immediately wanted to read it. The concept is brilliant! Who doesn’t love pizza? And who doesn’t love horror stories that have pizza in ‘em?
A thick flayed, slightly burnt epidermis crust with a menstrual mucus sauce, extra fromunda cheese and blood sausage and eyeball topping. Maybe even pineapple…who knows?
A very well done and eclectic collection of shorts. There’s a lot going on in these tales from the crust, so get ready, dig right in and grab a slice of terror.
November 1, 2019
What two things go together than horror and pizza?? OK, I know pizza isn’t imminently horrifying, but this group of writers has set out to prove that underneath all the delicious cheese and sauce, there’s something to fear about pizza.
While I love the idea, this collection was hit-or-miss for me. Some of the stories were spot on: funny, weird, uniquely horrific. But a fair amount of them were poorly written, felt unfinished, or just never snagged my interest. I felt that a stronger hand at editing was needed for the stories in the collection to feel as though they all were carrying equal weight.
Equally confusing for me was the introduction—it did not set the tone for what was to come very well and was difficult to understand. It started me off on the wrong foot and made me feel like I was missing some kind of inside joke.
It was definitely fun to see what strange and crazy directions all the writers took off in to scare readers with pizza. But overall, the stories in this anthology are just OK for me.
I recommend you have this book with a huge deep-dish pizza with all the toppings and for dessert, watch the incredible pizza-horror-comedy flick Satanic Panic written by horror novelist Grady Hendrix. Sounds like a perfect weekend!
While I love the idea, this collection was hit-or-miss for me. Some of the stories were spot on: funny, weird, uniquely horrific. But a fair amount of them were poorly written, felt unfinished, or just never snagged my interest. I felt that a stronger hand at editing was needed for the stories in the collection to feel as though they all were carrying equal weight.
Equally confusing for me was the introduction—it did not set the tone for what was to come very well and was difficult to understand. It started me off on the wrong foot and made me feel like I was missing some kind of inside joke.
It was definitely fun to see what strange and crazy directions all the writers took off in to scare readers with pizza. But overall, the stories in this anthology are just OK for me.
I recommend you have this book with a huge deep-dish pizza with all the toppings and for dessert, watch the incredible pizza-horror-comedy flick Satanic Panic written by horror novelist Grady Hendrix. Sounds like a perfect weekend!
August 17, 2019
So you love pizza? Well I have the perfect book for you!
So you hate pizza? Well I have the perfect book for you!
So you hate pizza? Well I have the perfect book for you!
March 22, 2022
3.5 stars.
Some stories were amazing, and other not so much, as a big fan of splatterpunk and extreme horror some stories were exactly what I was looking for. "The Black Cheese", "Upper Crust", "Watch Them Eat" are my favorite of the book !
Some stories were amazing, and other not so much, as a big fan of splatterpunk and extreme horror some stories were exactly what I was looking for. "The Black Cheese", "Upper Crust", "Watch Them Eat" are my favorite of the book !
October 12, 2019
Hear the complete review on our website: https://bookedpodcast.podbean.com/e/4...
August 25, 2020
Okay, I know what you're thinking: pizza horror? Really? That's certainly what I was thinking before I picked this up, but I have a near-obsessive love for both pizza and horror, not to mention an overactive sense of whimsy, so I figured it would be an over-the-top crazy ride full of cheesy pizza-themed horror. It certainly is that, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it's actually even more than that.
If you're looking for some fun and crazy horror stories that will take you right back to the good old days of eating cheap pizza and watching cheesy movies from the video store, you certainly won't be disappointed. Many (though thankfully not all) of the stories are exactly what you're looking for. However, if you like a bit more depth in your literature, even you'll find something to like here, and that's what really blows me away about this anthology. Somehow these authors have come up with (and these editors have selected) a variety of stories that manages never to get stale despite their common (and admittedly offbeat) theme. The cheesy goodness of one story is perfectly balanced by the emotional or intellectual depth of another. And amazingly, they manage to pull that all off in stories about pizza.
Well, mostly about pizza. That brings us to another point about what I expected from an anthology like this and how I was pleasantly surprised. Let's be honest here: there's never been a thriving sub-genre of pizza horror. My fear was that I'd end up reading a bunch of just regular old horror stories (not that there's anything wrong with that) into which the authors happened to shoehorn some reference to pizza. Tell a vampire story but make the protagonist a pizza boy, for instance, or tell a ghost story but set it in a pizzeria. Yeah, a couple of the stories do feel a bit like that, but much to my delight, the vast majority actually feel like the pizza element is an integral part of the plot. That doesn't mean they're all about horrifying pizza. Sometimes the pizza is incidental to the horror element (though certainly not always), but in most of these stories, the element of pizza genuinely feels like it adds something, if not to the horror, then to the characters or the setting or some other element of the narrative.
Let's be perfectly honest, though. There are twenty-six stories here (plus an introduction and afterword that veer into the narrative category themselves). Not all of them are going to be to your liking. Certainly not all of them were to my liking. There were a few entries that really didn't do anything to me. They're balanced, however, by a couple other stories that I feel are worth the price of admission alone.
It's a weird book, to be sure. But if you're the kind of person sitting on this page reading reviews for a book about pizza horror, you're probably the sort of person who really ought to buy a copy.
If you're looking for some fun and crazy horror stories that will take you right back to the good old days of eating cheap pizza and watching cheesy movies from the video store, you certainly won't be disappointed. Many (though thankfully not all) of the stories are exactly what you're looking for. However, if you like a bit more depth in your literature, even you'll find something to like here, and that's what really blows me away about this anthology. Somehow these authors have come up with (and these editors have selected) a variety of stories that manages never to get stale despite their common (and admittedly offbeat) theme. The cheesy goodness of one story is perfectly balanced by the emotional or intellectual depth of another. And amazingly, they manage to pull that all off in stories about pizza.
Well, mostly about pizza. That brings us to another point about what I expected from an anthology like this and how I was pleasantly surprised. Let's be honest here: there's never been a thriving sub-genre of pizza horror. My fear was that I'd end up reading a bunch of just regular old horror stories (not that there's anything wrong with that) into which the authors happened to shoehorn some reference to pizza. Tell a vampire story but make the protagonist a pizza boy, for instance, or tell a ghost story but set it in a pizzeria. Yeah, a couple of the stories do feel a bit like that, but much to my delight, the vast majority actually feel like the pizza element is an integral part of the plot. That doesn't mean they're all about horrifying pizza. Sometimes the pizza is incidental to the horror element (though certainly not always), but in most of these stories, the element of pizza genuinely feels like it adds something, if not to the horror, then to the characters or the setting or some other element of the narrative.
Let's be perfectly honest, though. There are twenty-six stories here (plus an introduction and afterword that veer into the narrative category themselves). Not all of them are going to be to your liking. Certainly not all of them were to my liking. There were a few entries that really didn't do anything to me. They're balanced, however, by a couple other stories that I feel are worth the price of admission alone.
It's a weird book, to be sure. But if you're the kind of person sitting on this page reading reviews for a book about pizza horror, you're probably the sort of person who really ought to buy a copy.
October 23, 2024
A mostly 'cheesy' collection!
Not sure if I will ever be able to disassociate pizza with raunch after reading this. Some truly disturbing pizza stories.
There were a few standouts however- 'introduction to let's kill the pizza guy...' by tim lieder, 'crucifixions in the garden of garlic bread' by pearse Anderson, 'and she answered the door... naked' by Wallace Williamson, 'the violent and ugly death of the noid' by Nathan rabin, and 'the parlor' by even dicken.
Honorable mention goes to 'mickey and the pizza girls' by Sherri white for being truly silly. Honorable disgusting mention goes to 'the vegan wendigo' by Cody goodfellow. Honorable priests driving muscle cars mention goes to 'body of crust' by Amanda hard.
Am I a better person for having read this book? No. Do I regret it? Also no.
I see the editors have a few other anthologies they have created and I might have an interest in them as well.
Overall, a fun and pizza crave inducing collection.
Not sure if I will ever be able to disassociate pizza with raunch after reading this. Some truly disturbing pizza stories.
There were a few standouts however- 'introduction to let's kill the pizza guy...' by tim lieder, 'crucifixions in the garden of garlic bread' by pearse Anderson, 'and she answered the door... naked' by Wallace Williamson, 'the violent and ugly death of the noid' by Nathan rabin, and 'the parlor' by even dicken.
Honorable mention goes to 'mickey and the pizza girls' by Sherri white for being truly silly. Honorable disgusting mention goes to 'the vegan wendigo' by Cody goodfellow. Honorable priests driving muscle cars mention goes to 'body of crust' by Amanda hard.
Am I a better person for having read this book? No. Do I regret it? Also no.
I see the editors have a few other anthologies they have created and I might have an interest in them as well.
Overall, a fun and pizza crave inducing collection.
June 14, 2022
I love a good horror anthology. This one was no exception. That being said I gave this one a three over all because for every story I loved there was at least two I thought could have been much better but that is just me.
There were quite a few stories that featured some sexual elements which is something I absolutely hate in horror. That being said I still would suggest this book to horror and pizza lovers alike just for the novelty of it. plus there were some great ones in here and the passion surrounding pizza in each piece will leave you hungry and in my opinion in doing so this anthology accomplishes what it aimed to do.
There were quite a few stories that featured some sexual elements which is something I absolutely hate in horror. That being said I still would suggest this book to horror and pizza lovers alike just for the novelty of it. plus there were some great ones in here and the passion surrounding pizza in each piece will leave you hungry and in my opinion in doing so this anthology accomplishes what it aimed to do.
September 15, 2020
Short, delectable slices of horror covering every variant of pizza horror a fevered cheese-clogged brain could conceive and some you'll wish it hadn't. Creatures, maniacs, Satanists, assholes, beasts, eldritch horrors—everybody loves pizza, though maybe a bit less after reading a couple of these tales in particular. Very Highly Ratty-Recommended Indeed, and the special edition is an aesthetic delight, fun fact.
March 9, 2023
I have no idea how to rate or review this ridiculous book. Tales from the Crust: An Anthology of Pizza Horror is a delight. I saw the title, and with my love of pizza, knew I had to read it. As always with anthologies, I enjoyed some entries more than others. Overall, it was a good time. But I did feel like the stories were slagging towards the end of the book. I don't know if that's just because I was reading too many of the stories closely together at that time or if the entries in the middle were just more enjoyable to me than the ones at the beginning and end. If you like horror and have a sense of humor or love pizza, this is definitely a book you should read.
July 29, 2022
This is a case where I really wish Goodreads had 1/2 stars. This is really a 3.5 for me, but I don't want to round up.
All in all it wasn't terrible. I think I was hoping for more pizza horror and less pizza boy horror.
All in all it wasn't terrible. I think I was hoping for more pizza horror and less pizza boy horror.
September 3, 2019
If you follow either of the co-editors on social media, or are yourself a budding short story author, you may well have seen the origin of this seemingly-absurd concept play out online. Max Booth III and Lori Michelle are no strangers to publishing anthologies consisting of a strong line-up of contributors (see 2016’s Lost Signals and 2018’s Lost Films). They are also no strangers to taking on a challenging concept. So, it came as no surprise when they announced an open call for submissions for a new anthology, the only caveat being that the subject had to be ‘pizza horror’. To say editors Keaton and Booth’s unique concept had an effect on small press short story magazines and anthologies would be an understatement; it was suddenly not uncommon to see open calls include the statement ‘NO PIZZA STORIES!’. The real question was: could they successfully deliver an anthology containing stories exclusively about pizza?
To answer the question, Keaton and Booth absolutely delivered an anthology about pizza horror. And it is an overwhelming success. There are stories of cosmic horror, body horror, action, humour, bizarro, surrealism, science-fiction, stories masquerading as non-fiction, and even a menu straight from the number one pizzeria in hell. Therein lies one of the strengths of the anthology; variety. There are so many different flavours of horror available that it will be nigh on impossible for a reader not to find something to enjoy. And the strong line-up of storytellers not only guarantees the quality of the work within, but also demonstrates the ability of the editors and publishers to appeal to the very best, even with an idea as seemingly absurd as ‘pizza horror’. Pull up a stool, grab a delicious slice of pizza horror, and enjoy the ride.
To answer the question, Keaton and Booth absolutely delivered an anthology about pizza horror. And it is an overwhelming success. There are stories of cosmic horror, body horror, action, humour, bizarro, surrealism, science-fiction, stories masquerading as non-fiction, and even a menu straight from the number one pizzeria in hell. Therein lies one of the strengths of the anthology; variety. There are so many different flavours of horror available that it will be nigh on impossible for a reader not to find something to enjoy. And the strong line-up of storytellers not only guarantees the quality of the work within, but also demonstrates the ability of the editors and publishers to appeal to the very best, even with an idea as seemingly absurd as ‘pizza horror’. Pull up a stool, grab a delicious slice of pizza horror, and enjoy the ride.
January 15, 2022
Loved the pizza-horror premise for this anthology, but the overall tone of the stories didn’t work for me. Too many of them relied on a gross-out or a cliche twist, not to mention the repetitiveness of delivery boys being predators or prey began to wear thin quickly. There were a couple of standouts, however. My favorite of the lot was The Parlor by Evan Dicken which featured a dark family secret and cosmic horror centered at a pizza parlor. Rosemary and Time by Craig Wallwork was an intriguing time-loop mind game that offered a genuinely surprising ending. And Joshua Chaplinsky’s Cenobio Pizzeria was an amusing pizza menu, offering sly references any horror fan will chuckle at.
May 6, 2020
DNF Seven Stories in.
I’m so disappointed in this book. It could have been such a fun idea. Who wouldn’t want to read pizza-themed horror stories? It brings to mind campy, low budget films like Attack of the Killer Doughnuts.
What did we get instead? A gross out, puke kink collection. No. Thank. You. Unless you like reading about characters eating puke, or shitting on pizza and eating it - avoid this book! 🤮
I’m so disappointed in this book. It could have been such a fun idea. Who wouldn’t want to read pizza-themed horror stories? It brings to mind campy, low budget films like Attack of the Killer Doughnuts.
What did we get instead? A gross out, puke kink collection. No. Thank. You. Unless you like reading about characters eating puke, or shitting on pizza and eating it - avoid this book! 🤮
November 4, 2019
fun for novelty reasons, not quality.
May 10, 2020
This is fun. Outlandish, often demented and disgusting fun. From the starting point of pizza horror these stories head off in some very imaginative directions. I found around 10 good slices here, but even the ones that weren't quite to my taste I wouldn't describe as dull. Favourite for me is the darkly funny opener from Cody Goodfellow. (Would the book's concept work for other foods? Lasagne: no, Chips: no, Ice-cream: no (?), Sandwiches: no, Donuts: yes, Cheese: yes, Sausages: yes, Cake: yes, Fruit: ... undecided).
March 25, 2023
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Tales from the Crust! A Pizza Horror Anthology from the warped minds over at Ghoulish Books.
As is par for anything Max Booth III is part of, this collection is top notch entertainment. Even the introduction is a fun read.
Plus, there's a couple of ghoulish pizza menus included that made my night.
As is par for anything Max Booth III is part of, this collection is top notch entertainment. Even the introduction is a fun read.
Plus, there's a couple of ghoulish pizza menus included that made my night.
June 3, 2023
Not bad. I do not regret buying, nor reading this one.
No absolute stinkers.
Nothing absolutely amazing.
Serviceable.
As with most anthologies, some stories stick to the theme better than others.
There are horror stories ABOUT pizza.
There are horror stories INVOLVING pizza.
And there are horror stories THAT MENTION pizza.
No absolute stinkers.
Nothing absolutely amazing.
Serviceable.
As with most anthologies, some stories stick to the theme better than others.
There are horror stories ABOUT pizza.
There are horror stories INVOLVING pizza.
And there are horror stories THAT MENTION pizza.
Want to read
February 25, 2023Taking "Pizza is bad for you" to a whole new level. Not that I care, of course, I still want pizza.
October 28, 2019
It is going to be a challenge to review this book. I have a love and hate relationship with the novel. I think it has too many stories in an anthology. I loved the concept of doing an anthology on pizza in the horror genre. Unfortunately, a lot of stories just fell flat for me. There were only a few of them that I enjoyed a lot. I originally was going to review it per story, but it has gotten too much for me to keep up with the review because I find myself reading it through as fast as possible just to be done with it.
The story I dislike a lot was Upper Crust. It was just flat out gross. It didn't have any horror plot. It was filled with gore. I did hope there will be more to the story, but it didn't.
There were a couple of stories that I like, which were 'Pizza_Gal_666', 'When the Moon Hits Your Eye', and 'And She Answered the Door...Naked!'.
I know I like other stories, but I honestly just forgot because I was ready to be done with the anthology of pizza horror. I think it'd be much better if it was shortened down to maybe 10 stories. I can imagine how hard for the editor to choose which stories should be included in the anthology.
I'm glad I was given an opportunity to read the novel because it was different than what I normally read.
Would I recommend it? Yes, I would. As long as you are not sensitive to the disgusting part. After all, it talks about pizza and you'll be expected someone eating the grossest toppings on the pizza.
I received the book in exchange for an honest review from the publisher.
The story I dislike a lot was Upper Crust. It was just flat out gross. It didn't have any horror plot. It was filled with gore. I did hope there will be more to the story, but it didn't.
There were a couple of stories that I like, which were 'Pizza_Gal_666', 'When the Moon Hits Your Eye', and 'And She Answered the Door...Naked!'.
I know I like other stories, but I honestly just forgot because I was ready to be done with the anthology of pizza horror. I think it'd be much better if it was shortened down to maybe 10 stories. I can imagine how hard for the editor to choose which stories should be included in the anthology.
I'm glad I was given an opportunity to read the novel because it was different than what I normally read.
Would I recommend it? Yes, I would. As long as you are not sensitive to the disgusting part. After all, it talks about pizza and you'll be expected someone eating the grossest toppings on the pizza.
I received the book in exchange for an honest review from the publisher.
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