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Weird Horror #2
Weird Horror, Issue 2, Spring 2021
Contents (fiction):
- Marc Joan "Unmaskings"
- Catherine MacLeod "Feral"
- Stephen Volk "Adventurous"
- Maria Abrams "A Mouthful of Dirt"
- Mary Berman "Things Found in Richard Pickman's Basement, and Things Left There"
- Rob Francis "Bonemilk"
- Alys Key "Scratching"
- Evan James Sheldon "Eyes Like Pistils"
- Kristina Ten "The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk"
Includes also: opinion from Simon Strantzas (”A firm grounding in the knowable world”); commentary from Orrin Grey (”Hollow Earth”); book & film reviews by Lysette Stevenson and Tom Goldstein.
- Marc Joan "Unmaskings"
- Catherine MacLeod "Feral"
- Stephen Volk "Adventurous"
- Maria Abrams "A Mouthful of Dirt"
- Mary Berman "Things Found in Richard Pickman's Basement, and Things Left There"
- Rob Francis "Bonemilk"
- Alys Key "Scratching"
- Evan James Sheldon "Eyes Like Pistils"
- Kristina Ten "The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk"
Includes also: opinion from Simon Strantzas (”A firm grounding in the knowable world”); commentary from Orrin Grey (”Hollow Earth”); book & film reviews by Lysette Stevenson and Tom Goldstein.
77 pages, Paperback
First published May 23, 2021
7 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Michael Kelly
74 books67 followersMichael Kelly is the Series Editor for the Year's Best Weird Fiction, and author of Undertow and Other Laments, and Scratching the Surface; as well as co-author of the novel Ouroboros.
His short fiction has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including All Hallows, Best New Horror, Black Static, Dark Arts, the Hint Fiction Anthology, PostScripts, Space & Time, Supernatural Tales, Tesseracts 13, and Weird Fiction Review.
Michael is a World Fantasy Award, Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award Nominee.
His short fiction has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including All Hallows, Best New Horror, Black Static, Dark Arts, the Hint Fiction Anthology, PostScripts, Space & Time, Supernatural Tales, Tesseracts 13, and Weird Fiction Review.
Michael is a World Fantasy Award, Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award Nominee.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 29, 2021
More pulpy weird horror from Undertow - an even more consistent entry than #1, I think. Some resonated with me more than others but, an absolute rarity for an anthology, none of them were outright failures.
1. “Unmaskings” (Marc Joan) - A psychology experiment at a masquerade has some things to say about trauma and serial killers and class (it’s a masquerade, after all). Rather overwrought in both prose and structure, but I understand why it was presented the way it was.
2. “Feral” (Catherine MacLeod) - A photographer of houses reclaimed by nature revisits her survivalist childhood. Folksy, short and sweet, aside from a couple of passages that felt kind of muddled in a way that didn't feel intentional.
3. “Adventurous” (Stephen Volk) - Suburban malaise gives way to Narnia-esque portal adventures, one step removed from the reader. Prose with some character, overall a lark, no horror at all. Suffers in comparison with my recent read of Mari Ness’ “Rockshell,” a portal fantasy of a different tone that’s really stuck with me.
4. “A Mouthful of Dirt” (Maria Abrams) - An interview with a woman whose brother vanished while they were camping in Colorado. Creepy sounds and footprints abound. This was good but didn’t give itself enough breathing room.
5. “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There” (Mary Berman) - Eliot’s wife confesses a string of murders to Thurber and disposes of the evidence in you-know-who’s basement. I don’t generally have much use for HPL fanfic but this was a zippy lark, and the wife being a poor native of the North End adds some depth.
6. “Bonemilk” (Rob Francis) - A real estate developer retires to the Welsh countryside and finds that capital isn’t the only thing in the world that’s vampire-like. Landlords, after all, love to reap where they never sowed. Very good!
7. “Scratching” (Alys Key) - Pandemic lockdown irritation of both mind and skin; captures this miserable era very well while paralleling previous disasters in London. Bit more definitive an ending than I usually prefer but a very promising first publication from this author.
8. “Eyes Like Pistils” (Evan James Sheldon) - A homeless ex-priest tends to two plants grown from seeds given to him by a “priest” in the woods. A surreal fever dream of a story, slightly abstract and very self-assured prose, excellent stuff. Do not be afraid, as the angels say.
9. “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” (Kristina Ten) - After an industrial accident ruins the caviar that brought tourists to a Siberian village, the folk invent a monster to do the same. A fantastic story with a distinctive, rueful voice and great sense of place.
1. “Unmaskings” (Marc Joan) - A psychology experiment at a masquerade has some things to say about trauma and serial killers and class (it’s a masquerade, after all). Rather overwrought in both prose and structure, but I understand why it was presented the way it was.
2. “Feral” (Catherine MacLeod) - A photographer of houses reclaimed by nature revisits her survivalist childhood. Folksy, short and sweet, aside from a couple of passages that felt kind of muddled in a way that didn't feel intentional.
3. “Adventurous” (Stephen Volk) - Suburban malaise gives way to Narnia-esque portal adventures, one step removed from the reader. Prose with some character, overall a lark, no horror at all. Suffers in comparison with my recent read of Mari Ness’ “Rockshell,” a portal fantasy of a different tone that’s really stuck with me.
4. “A Mouthful of Dirt” (Maria Abrams) - An interview with a woman whose brother vanished while they were camping in Colorado. Creepy sounds and footprints abound. This was good but didn’t give itself enough breathing room.
5. “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There” (Mary Berman) - Eliot’s wife confesses a string of murders to Thurber and disposes of the evidence in you-know-who’s basement. I don’t generally have much use for HPL fanfic but this was a zippy lark, and the wife being a poor native of the North End adds some depth.
6. “Bonemilk” (Rob Francis) - A real estate developer retires to the Welsh countryside and finds that capital isn’t the only thing in the world that’s vampire-like. Landlords, after all, love to reap where they never sowed. Very good!
7. “Scratching” (Alys Key) - Pandemic lockdown irritation of both mind and skin; captures this miserable era very well while paralleling previous disasters in London. Bit more definitive an ending than I usually prefer but a very promising first publication from this author.
8. “Eyes Like Pistils” (Evan James Sheldon) - A homeless ex-priest tends to two plants grown from seeds given to him by a “priest” in the woods. A surreal fever dream of a story, slightly abstract and very self-assured prose, excellent stuff. Do not be afraid, as the angels say.
9. “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” (Kristina Ten) - After an industrial accident ruins the caviar that brought tourists to a Siberian village, the folk invent a monster to do the same. A fantastic story with a distinctive, rueful voice and great sense of place.
September 12, 2021
Issue 2 and it feels as if Weird Horror is already hitting its stride.
The clear standout fiction for me was Maria Abrams's understated "A Mouthful Of Dirt". But I found something to enjoy in every story in the issue. And I can't remember the last time I said that about any horror anthology or magazine at all. Good solid entertainment!
The clear standout fiction for me was Maria Abrams's understated "A Mouthful Of Dirt". But I found something to enjoy in every story in the issue. And I can't remember the last time I said that about any horror anthology or magazine at all. Good solid entertainment!
July 30, 2021
Time for another round of nu pulpy goodness with the 2nd installment of Weird Horror. I enjoyed this more than the first magazine and am glad I get to make up for the fact that I never got to take part in the original wave of horror pulp magazines. Once again we’re treated to some interesting non-fic, but what I came for was the stories. I’ve put together an overview of sorts below and marked the ones that stuck with me with an ‘*’
-Unmaskings (Marc Joan):
Young Isobel, along with a group of other people in need of extra cash, finds herself a part of Aebersold’s psychological carnival experiment. They are told they’ll all be wearing robes and masks that will each hold the face of a real individual that they won’t be able to remove until the experiment is over.
In Isobel’s case, she’s informed that she’ll wear the likeness of the infamous serial killer Genipperteinga & then told to "do as she pleases”.
The story weaves an intricate web with the help of the shifting pov’s between a unhinged Christman & increasingly worried Isobel, experiments on shaky ethical grounds (not entirely unlike the Stanford Experiment) and an underlying question of how evil comes to be. All these aspects and more made for an interesting read which comes beautifully full-circle in the last paragraph.
-Feral (Catherine MacLeod): *
"The land reclaims".
A young female photographer (Rose Travis/Elizabeth Adele) takes photos of feral houses; abandoned places being reclaimed by nature. This is just one of the story’s feral aspects, though, and we learn that Rose/Elizabeth is more similar to the places she photographs than one would expect.
-Adventurous (Stephen Volk): *
Carole is a jaded wife who decides to have an affair with Colin, the awkward young guy at work. Things don’t exactly go to plan and they’re nearly discovered in the act by one of her kids. Colin has a ‘trapped in the closet’ moment which marks the beginning of the weird as we’re introduced to a fantasy-story within the story kind of tale. Colin keeps coming over, not for Carole but the world beyond the back of her closet.
-A Mouthful of Dirt (Maria Abrams):
A misadventure story told via an interview with the police, Clara Adler goes camping with her brother Jake, whom she hasn’t been in contact with for a long time. Scary noises that seem eerily human and creeping ever closer to camp can be heard, then the footprints not belonging to either of them start to appear outside Jake’s tent. Impressively, there’s a two-sided focus of tension in this 3 page story as we’re also introduced to some of Clara & Jake’s family background.
-Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There (Mary Berman):*
A story told through a very unapologetic murder confession. Mrs. Eliot is young, beautiful and has been on a bit of a murder spree. She’s killed her sister-in-law, the undertaker who suspected foul play and her husband. Fortunately for her, she catches the husband and his friend talking about a Mr.Pickman, whose basement well will serve as a dumping ground for the bodies, while the man himself (a painter of the grotesque) is the perfect scapegoat. She’ll be surprised to learn just what inhabits the well and might have inspired the disturbing art, but the ultimate question here will still be who’s the real monster.
-Bonemilk (Rob Francis):
Rich old man, miser & property owner Derek has invested in a farmhouse and is shocked to find a dried out corpse lying in a cabin on his property. He then encounters a creature resembling a child referred to by some as “the bones of the earth”. This creature is hungry, lives off bone milk & Derek will learn (the hard way) that we all sometimes have to give back.
-Scratching (Alys Key):
A doctor in 1889 contracts a mysterious itching illness which makes him unable to stop scratching & a woman stuck in the current lock-down starts hearing scratches she believes to be a pest problem. These two stories will intersect and leave you with an itch you can’t seem to reach(at least it did for me).
-Eyes Like Pistils (Evan James Sheldon):
Clive is a disillusioned former priest down on his luck when he meets another priestlike figure on a deserted road at night. He is given two seeds by the mysterious priest: One to eat, one to bury, and is told to prepare himself for the priest’s return in a week. We follow Clive as he does like he’s told and learn that there’s more ways to holiness than he ever knew.
-The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk (Kristina Ten): *
A town legend has it that to catch their river’s sturgeon or eat its eggs will bring a lifetime of bad luck upon the village. Then disaster strikes: An accident at a factory wipes out life in the river and the inhabitants are left struggling to make a new living. They then hatch a plan of inventing a monster in order to draw tourists in. As the story goes, things work a little too well and it becomes unclear where the lie stops and the real monster begins.
-Unmaskings (Marc Joan):
Young Isobel, along with a group of other people in need of extra cash, finds herself a part of Aebersold’s psychological carnival experiment. They are told they’ll all be wearing robes and masks that will each hold the face of a real individual that they won’t be able to remove until the experiment is over.
In Isobel’s case, she’s informed that she’ll wear the likeness of the infamous serial killer Genipperteinga & then told to "do as she pleases”.
The story weaves an intricate web with the help of the shifting pov’s between a unhinged Christman & increasingly worried Isobel, experiments on shaky ethical grounds (not entirely unlike the Stanford Experiment) and an underlying question of how evil comes to be. All these aspects and more made for an interesting read which comes beautifully full-circle in the last paragraph.
-Feral (Catherine MacLeod): *
"The land reclaims".
A young female photographer (Rose Travis/Elizabeth Adele) takes photos of feral houses; abandoned places being reclaimed by nature. This is just one of the story’s feral aspects, though, and we learn that Rose/Elizabeth is more similar to the places she photographs than one would expect.
-Adventurous (Stephen Volk): *
Carole is a jaded wife who decides to have an affair with Colin, the awkward young guy at work. Things don’t exactly go to plan and they’re nearly discovered in the act by one of her kids. Colin has a ‘trapped in the closet’ moment which marks the beginning of the weird as we’re introduced to a fantasy-story within the story kind of tale. Colin keeps coming over, not for Carole but the world beyond the back of her closet.
-A Mouthful of Dirt (Maria Abrams):
A misadventure story told via an interview with the police, Clara Adler goes camping with her brother Jake, whom she hasn’t been in contact with for a long time. Scary noises that seem eerily human and creeping ever closer to camp can be heard, then the footprints not belonging to either of them start to appear outside Jake’s tent. Impressively, there’s a two-sided focus of tension in this 3 page story as we’re also introduced to some of Clara & Jake’s family background.
-Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There (Mary Berman):*
A story told through a very unapologetic murder confession. Mrs. Eliot is young, beautiful and has been on a bit of a murder spree. She’s killed her sister-in-law, the undertaker who suspected foul play and her husband. Fortunately for her, she catches the husband and his friend talking about a Mr.Pickman, whose basement well will serve as a dumping ground for the bodies, while the man himself (a painter of the grotesque) is the perfect scapegoat. She’ll be surprised to learn just what inhabits the well and might have inspired the disturbing art, but the ultimate question here will still be who’s the real monster.
-Bonemilk (Rob Francis):
Rich old man, miser & property owner Derek has invested in a farmhouse and is shocked to find a dried out corpse lying in a cabin on his property. He then encounters a creature resembling a child referred to by some as “the bones of the earth”. This creature is hungry, lives off bone milk & Derek will learn (the hard way) that we all sometimes have to give back.
-Scratching (Alys Key):
A doctor in 1889 contracts a mysterious itching illness which makes him unable to stop scratching & a woman stuck in the current lock-down starts hearing scratches she believes to be a pest problem. These two stories will intersect and leave you with an itch you can’t seem to reach(at least it did for me).
-Eyes Like Pistils (Evan James Sheldon):
Clive is a disillusioned former priest down on his luck when he meets another priestlike figure on a deserted road at night. He is given two seeds by the mysterious priest: One to eat, one to bury, and is told to prepare himself for the priest’s return in a week. We follow Clive as he does like he’s told and learn that there’s more ways to holiness than he ever knew.
-The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk (Kristina Ten): *
A town legend has it that to catch their river’s sturgeon or eat its eggs will bring a lifetime of bad luck upon the village. Then disaster strikes: An accident at a factory wipes out life in the river and the inhabitants are left struggling to make a new living. They then hatch a plan of inventing a monster in order to draw tourists in. As the story goes, things work a little too well and it becomes unclear where the lie stops and the real monster begins.
June 9, 2021
The second issue of Weird Horror is full of monsters. Some are unseen, some bare themselves to our scrutiny, and some serve as our narrators.
This issue’s gleefully macabre cover art is provided by the great Nick Gucker, while black-and-white interior art was done by Wesley Edwards. The issue opens with non-fiction. First, Simon Strantzas muses on what distinguishes Horror from Fantasy and Science Fiction, and then Orrin Grey gives us a brief overview of the Hollow Earth in fiction, film and D&D.
There are nine pieces of fiction in this issue. “Unmaskings” by Marc Joan tells about a masquerade through two intercut timelines, one in present tense about what happens at the party, one in past tense recounting a character’s experience immediately before the party begins. In “Feral” by Catherine MacLeod the narrator ruminates on her relationship with her off-the-grid survivalist father and how she left him. “Adventurous” by Stephen Volk puts a light-hearted, adult spin on a Narnia-esque portal fantasy. “A Mouthful of Dirt” by Maria Abrams is an interview transcript in which a woman recounts a camping trip that went monstrously awry. “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There” by Mary Berman is a thoroughly enjoyable response to “Pickman’s Model.” In “Bonemilk” by Rob Francis a wealthy landowner learns what it means to truly give something back. “Scratching” by Alys Key is a ghost story set specifically during the COVID-19 lockdown in London. “Eyes Like Pistils” by Evan James Sheldon chronicles the floral transformation of a drifter lost in the woods who consumes a seed given to him by a strange priest. In “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” by Kristina Ten, after the river which serves as the source of their livelihood is polluted and destroyed, the citizens of Starosibirsk decide to create a monster to lure tourists back.
The issue ends with book reviews by Lysette Stevenson and movie reviews by Tom Goldstein.
Though for me none of the stories hit the creepy, surreal heights of last issue’s “Children of the Rotting Straw” by Steve Toase, they are still well worth your time. A strong thematic thread of the mysteries and dangers of nature, and our relationship to the natural world, runs through most of these stories. As with any anthology or magazine some stories will affect you more than others, but in thinking back over this issue, I remember finding the stories “Feral,” “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There,” “Bonemilk,” “Eyes Like Pistils” and “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” to be particularly striking. If this is the new pulp, then I am down for it. Bring on issue three!
This issue’s gleefully macabre cover art is provided by the great Nick Gucker, while black-and-white interior art was done by Wesley Edwards. The issue opens with non-fiction. First, Simon Strantzas muses on what distinguishes Horror from Fantasy and Science Fiction, and then Orrin Grey gives us a brief overview of the Hollow Earth in fiction, film and D&D.
There are nine pieces of fiction in this issue. “Unmaskings” by Marc Joan tells about a masquerade through two intercut timelines, one in present tense about what happens at the party, one in past tense recounting a character’s experience immediately before the party begins. In “Feral” by Catherine MacLeod the narrator ruminates on her relationship with her off-the-grid survivalist father and how she left him. “Adventurous” by Stephen Volk puts a light-hearted, adult spin on a Narnia-esque portal fantasy. “A Mouthful of Dirt” by Maria Abrams is an interview transcript in which a woman recounts a camping trip that went monstrously awry. “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There” by Mary Berman is a thoroughly enjoyable response to “Pickman’s Model.” In “Bonemilk” by Rob Francis a wealthy landowner learns what it means to truly give something back. “Scratching” by Alys Key is a ghost story set specifically during the COVID-19 lockdown in London. “Eyes Like Pistils” by Evan James Sheldon chronicles the floral transformation of a drifter lost in the woods who consumes a seed given to him by a strange priest. In “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” by Kristina Ten, after the river which serves as the source of their livelihood is polluted and destroyed, the citizens of Starosibirsk decide to create a monster to lure tourists back.
The issue ends with book reviews by Lysette Stevenson and movie reviews by Tom Goldstein.
Though for me none of the stories hit the creepy, surreal heights of last issue’s “Children of the Rotting Straw” by Steve Toase, they are still well worth your time. A strong thematic thread of the mysteries and dangers of nature, and our relationship to the natural world, runs through most of these stories. As with any anthology or magazine some stories will affect you more than others, but in thinking back over this issue, I remember finding the stories “Feral,” “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There,” “Bonemilk,” “Eyes Like Pistils” and “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” to be particularly striking. If this is the new pulp, then I am down for it. Bring on issue three!
June 15, 2021
A great publication with wonderfully written stories and interesting commentary sections. I am very excited for this publication to continue. Sign up!
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