Gerard Van Der Waal’s Reviews > After the People Lights Have Gone Off > Status Update
Gerard Van Der Waal
is 35% done
The Spindly Man, a solid four stars. I like that it's a bit of a nested story. It's a story about the book club and the professor's guilt after a car accident, but it's also a discussion of Stephen King's short story The Man in the black suit, while also continuing the story of the man in the black suit. It's a nice, thrilling hodgepodge of the psychological, the supernatural, and the discursive.
— Oct 04, 2026 05:03AM
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Gerard Van Der Waal
is 29% done
This is Love, 5 Stars. Loved it! What a disturbing story. About the fears of the stuff that can happen, especially to your lover. The bad things you imagine and how they get overshadowed by the worse things the other person has committed. What that does for you love for that person. At first read, I thought this was like some sort of horrible eternal purgatory loop. But on second read, I think Jonathan is a ghost.
— Sep 30, 2026 11:12AM
Gerard Van Der Waal
is 23% done
Welcome to the Reptile House: 5 Stars! Bears all the hallmarks of Stephen Graham Jones's writing, while also being short, sweet, and nasty, and has a couple of twists and turns so that the story ends up in a whole other way other place I'd have expected! I'd have thought the creepy tattoo practice in the funeral home would be the main point of the story, but that's only the instigating part!
— Sep 24, 2026 02:24AM
Gerard Van Der Waal
is 16% done
Brushdogs. Three stars. Very creepy and foreboding. But I'm not sure I'm getting it. Is Danny being impetsonated by a skinwalker or something? Very creepy, just not very clear.
— Sep 11, 2026 02:19PM
Gerard Van Der Waal
is 11% done
Great intro by Joe Lansdale (who I never read) that gets into precisely the things that I love about Stephen Graham Jones' writing too. The conversational style, the blending of genres and stories that you never know where they will end up. Point in case: Thirteen. Four stars; it immediately sets the tone for SGJ writing and ends up being more than a ghost story.
— Sep 04, 2026 10:08PM