Services 4 — S. Creaney

Tools of Gods and Magic

Solene sat down, reaching for her cup of water with her free hand. There was a stagnant smell to it, but Solene drank it anyway. The unnamed god purified any foulness that passed her lips.

BOOK REVIEW: The Charm Buyers

The Charm Buyers, by Lillian Howan, is a novel about family drama and expectation, cultural assimilation, and the mystical sense of ancient ideas that center around Tahiti.

BOOK REVIEW: Purgatory Road

Purgatory Road by Samuel Parker tells the story of several people lost in the desert. Filled with personal discovery and mysterious circumstances, this novel is an action-packed adventure with a wide cast of characters and a variety of different personalities and goals.

BOOK REVIEW: Hard Hardscrabble

G. D. Dess’s Harold Hardscrabble has the feel of a postmodern bildungsroman, though it gradually evolves into something far more Kafkaesque.

BOOK REVIEW: Max The Mouse & The Secret of Mars

Michael Cantwell’s Max the Mouse and the Secret of Mars is a fun adventure that explores feelings of loneliness and the search for acceptance while subtly underscoring the importance of being yourself and protecting your home environment.

BOOK REVIEW: Moralis Aleam

Priyesh Patel’s Moralis Aleam is a political thriller in the classic Clancy style, filled with action and drama and with no one escaping suspicion.

BOOK REVIEW: The Last Train

In The Last Train by Michael Pronko, Detective Hiroshi Shimizu and the Tokyo homicide unit go on a thrilling hunt for a murderer of rich men. Theirs is an utterly page-turning adventure.

BOOK REVIEW: Found Audio

Found Audio, by N.J. Campbell, is a novel comprising a series of letters and transcriptions, forcing a state of metaphysical uncertainty.

BOOK REVIEW: Variance

Variance by Josen Llave is a militaristic action-adventure story that takes place in the distant future and revolves around differing systems of belief and aspects of cultural self-reflection.

BOOK REVIEW: Women Within

Relevant and expertly arranged, this novel is composed of stirring and sympathetic trials and tribulations. Women Within interweaves three women’s lives in an introspective, literary fashion.

BOOK REVIEW: My Pet Serial Killer

My Pet Serial Killer, by Michael J. Seidlinger, is an unsettling and deeply graphic thriller focusing on the overlap between sex and violence.

BOOK REVIEW: Always Red

Ronin’s is a series that holds fast to the notion of true love and the classic ideal of a rescuer. Always Red hinges on the idea of love conquering all and being worth any cost.

BOOK REVIEW: The Beasts of Electra Drive

Magical realism meets old school noir in Rohan Quine’s technological thriller The Beasts of Electra Drive, which poses philosophical questions around reality, humanity, and where to draw the line with tech-infusion.

BOOK REVIEW: The Unlounging

Selraybob is an unexpected protagonist whose journey is satisfying and thoughtful. A humorous and engaging fictional memoir, The Unlounging relates an existential crisis.

BOOK REVIEW: THE FIRST PREHISTORIC SERIAL KILLER AND OTHER STORIES

Teresa Solana’s short story collection The First Prehistoric Serial Killer is darkly amusing and always entertaining. Its depictions of various criminal schemes and instances of murder range from realistic to fantastical.

BOOK REVIEW: Fire, Faith & Glory

R. R. Pravin’s poetry collection Fire, Faith & Glory responds with emotional eloquence to a stressful, difficult job working with ill children.

BOOK REVIEW: Dig Down

Damian Myron’s high-tension action thriller Dig Down is the story of Robbie Moore, an American financial advisor who’s on the run from drug cartel hit men, bounty hunters, people whose lives he has ruined, and the police.

BOOK REVIEW: Le Morte d’Arthur

Gerald J. Davis’s modernized translation of the Arthurian myth is Le Morte d’Arthur, following in the tradition of his translations of Beowulf, Don Quixote, and The Canterbury Tales.

BOOK REVIEW: Philosophy

Rahmel Garner’s discourse Philosophy questions the essence of human nature and proposes the influence of the devil on human beings’ perceptions of reality.

BOOK REVIEW: The Dishwasher

Stéphane Larue’s debut The Dishwasher is a precision piece of youthful omphaloskepsis and urban fatigue. Its crisp narration and nearly journalistic aplomb with detailing the addictive spiral of its protagonist make it compelling.

BOOK REVIEW: The Lady in the Coppergate Tower

Nancy Campbell Allen’s steampunk romance The Lady in the Coppergate Tower is a fantasy-laden Victorian era tale whose fascinating world is filled with drama and adventure.

BOOK REVIEW: Saint Agnes' Garden

In Diana Lynn Klueh’s short, sweet novel Saint Agnes’ Garden, a young girl finds that faith is important during her tumultuous childhood.

BOOK REVIEW: Among the Thorns

Aubrey Kyle’s Among the Thorns is the first novel in a planned trilogy. At its center is a love story: supernatural forces bring a couple together, but others wish to drive them apart.

liminal space

this is a door without a latch. no opening, no closing, no jab to set a shoulder tight against and feel the serrated edge consuming the option to “enter” or “exit”. should I stay or should I go. not a question but a worry, concern, fear, dread, panic,

breathe breathe breathe

breathe

take two. refresh.

Life Giver, Life Given

At thirteen, Erienne stands in the doorway to her bedroom, swaying at the knees. Her hair wild, dark with grease. Her complexion ashen; gray skin, blue lips, wisps of veins mapping their way across translucent flesh. She looks drowned.

Under Her Eye

A follow-up to the award-winning poetry showcase Under Her Skin, UNDER HER EYE features the best in never-before-published dark verse and lyrical prose from the voices of Women in Horror, themed on domestic horror and the terror women too often experience in their own homes.