The Genre Bucket

Unlike the worst list my best of was really hard to narrow down. I only completed 35 books but as I discussed in my previous post in general, I enjoyed most of what I read. To compromise with myself there is an honorable mentions section this time featuring books that didn't quite make the cut. With that out of the way these are my Top 5 Best Reads of 2019! 5) The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson Written by the same author as future genre classic The Troop, this slim but emotionally rich meditation on memory and loss made me cry like a baby. On the surface about a man's memories of his summer adventures with a quirky uncle it unfolds into so much more successfully combining the myths of childhood with the real spectres of growing up and untimely death. This would rank higher but I was expecting this to be actually horror instead of a coming of age story but it still deserves to be on this list. 4) Monster by Christopher Pike This YA Horror was insane in t...

In Adam Cesare's breakneck publishing debut Tribesmen,  a barebones cast and crew headed by a sleazy film director, travel to an out of the way island to film an exploitation movie and get more than they bargained for. A loving tribute to the insanity that was Italian gore flicks like Cannibal Holocaust, Cesare takes several important cues from those movies besides the violence. The most important of which is the pacing. He keeps characterization to a minimum in order to notch up the frenzy of his novella sized story. This, for the most part, works. We essentially are handed cue card snippets of characterization that in broad strokes tell us the island is cursed, the director only cares about himself, who to root for, and who will probably die. Black T Shirt Books 2019 Edition That is the singular problem with the novella though. If you have seen any amount of horror movies especially slashers, there aren't any surprises in the narrative. Saying that, the novella is still ...