bookshelves: horror, coming-of-age, arc, netgalley, indie-publishing, flame-tree-press, trigger-warning, favorites Rating: 4/5 stars I received an advanced e-copy from NetGalley and the publisher, Flame Tree Press, in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own. Since the publication of Blood and Rain in 2015, Glenn Rolfe has not stopped. Like a man on edge or a character possessed, Rolfe refuses to let anything deter him from […]

bookshelves: sci-fi, short-stories, favorites, classics Rating: 4/5 stars Without having seen John Carpenter’s 1988 film, They Live, starring the late Rowdy “Roddy” Piper, I have no means of comparing the two. It’s best not to. They’re completely different mediums and as such, they should stand on their own. Eight O’Clock in the Morning was a very short story (its five pages felt closer […]

My family and I have been relatively quiet about the next adventure set before us, and by no means has the journey been simple or fast. Like anything worth pursuing, the road’s been bumpy, throwing us in many directions. That was quite frustrating at times. It required a fair amount of patience, gratitude, and guidance […]

bookshelves: literary, horror, buddy-read, we-need-diverse-books, native-american, magical-realism, hyped-books, owned-physical-copyRecommended to Dustin by: Curt (Facebook friend) Rating: 2/5 stars I’m always interested in the individual writer’s process, as each one is unique, coming from a different place, a different mentality, and each is equally fascinating. Naturally, when you read a work as celebrated as Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians and are familiar with […]

bookshelves: short-stories, urban-fantasy, favoritesRecommended to Dustin by: Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ Rating: 5/5 starsFrom the award-winning and best-selling author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January comes a powerful short story called Mr. Death, published in January 2021 by Apex Magazine. In just over five thousand words, Alix E. Harrow explored the everyday existence of a reaper named Sam Grayson, as he’s tasked to making […]

bookshelves: challenging-literature, historical-fiction, war, kindle, netgalley, we-need-diverse-books, buddy-read, coming-of-ageRecommended to Dustin by: Havelock & Baker Publishing At its core, Columbiano was a story of revenge, and how one young man navigated the world– in many ways a brand-new world– without the unyielding love and protection of his father. I’d never heard of the book or its Australian journalist turned author, Rusty Young, so naturally, when I […]

In this exercise, I chose to write a brief memoir (not exceeding two pages,) about a non-family member from my childhood. Explore my perspective both as a child and as an adult. This one stumped me. I thought I had an idea of what I wanted to write about, but nothing really felt right. I […]

I’d been curious about Amy Munson’s book for years. I put it off for years and years, telling myself, ‘Maybe next year I’ll read it, see what it’s all about.’ A few years later, I thought Lent would be the ideal occasion. Thankfully, I heeded the call this year and in some ways, I wish […]

Rating: 4/5 stars As I mentioned in a previous review, these six bonus episodes weren’t originally intended to be part of season ten. I can’t say definitively that they would’ve ever been written, let alone filmed and aired. And regardless of your opinions on these bonuses, I think it’s fair to say that Here’s Negan […]

*This suggestion asked me to write a two-three page description of a specific time that I struggled with a personal insecurity. I was instructed not to hold anything back, to be very specific. For instance, who was I with when the incident occurred? What made the experience significant? What did my thought processes look like? […]