Corey Redekop
@coreyredekop
Canadian author, SHELF MONKEY, HUSK, assorted literary sundries. Socially friendly, emotionally distant.
BOOK #30, 2026 FERAL AND HYSTERICAL, Sadie Hartmann (2025) A fantastic book of recommendations of horror novels written by women. Sadie Hoffman—better known as Mother Horror on the sosh meeds—she KNOWS her horror, and her passion for the subject comes through in every entry. 💙📚
BOOK #28, 2026 THE OCTOBER FILM HAUNT, Michael Wehunt (2025) Consider this one “David Lynch in book form.” There’s been a spate of “haunted/cursed movie” novels lately, and Wehunt’s entry surely belongs in the category of “Most Dreadful” (in the most positive interpretation of that phrase).
Some people go their whole lives without witnessing something this beautiful…
BOOK #27, 2026 THE DOOMSTERS, Ross Macdonald (1958) Another quietly devastating detective noir from a true master of the form. McDonald’s tales are intricate yet logical, populated with vivd secondary characters more well-rounded than most protagonists in similar fare. 💙📚
BOOK #26, 2026 THE IVORY GRIN, Ross Macdonald (1952) The hardboiled detective genre rarely gets better than this. Canadian-born Macdonald was one of the true greats of literary mystery, a master of intricate plots, memorable characters, grim wit, and bleak atmosphere.💙📚
BOOKS #23-25, 2026 THE BUSINESS OF DEATH, Trent Jamieson (2011) Hardboiled urban fantasy about the bureaucracy behind the concept of death. Altogether a nice feat of paranormal world-building, perfect for fans of Richard Kadrey’s SANDMAN SLIM and Kristi Charish’s KINCADE STRANGE series.💙📚
BOOK #22, 2026 THE LIBRARY OF TRAUMATIC MEMORY, Neil Jordan (2026) An off-beat, elliptical, timey-wimey sci-fi trek into love and loss. Jordan is a fantastically talented film director/writer; however, the story is convoluted, one of the most difficult-to-follow novels I’ve read in years.💙📚
BOOK #20, 2026 THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP, Grady Hendrix (2021) Vastly entertaining homage to one specific horror trope; the “final girl,” the lone female survivor of a slasher film. There seems to be a lot of slasher-inspired fiction lately; this one is a stand-out.💙📚
BOOK #19, 2026 REREAD #5 LOOK AT THE BIRDIE, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (2009) As witty, deceptive, & idiosyncratic as you’d expect from one of the finest writers of the past 1000 years. While unpublished in his lifetime, these stories show an author already struggling with the basic insanity of humanity. 💙📚
BOOK #18, 2026 1922, Stephen King (2025) Spooky novella from a maestro. A farmer murders his wife with his son, leading them down a path of fear & guilt. As is customary in such tales, the outcome is a foregone conclusion; the treat is King’s excellence at creating mood and character development.💙📚
BOOK #17, 2026 NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, Orrin Grey (2025) A fine collection of Canuckian strange. Grey leads readers on a trek into the Hollow Earth, combining the pseudo-science of Jules Verve with beetles, cults, body horror, and pulpy Lovecraftian evils from beyond. It’s very effective. 💙📚
BOOK 16, 2026 GARTH MARENGHI’S THIS BURSTED EARTH, Garth Marenghi (2025) As you’d expect from a man who said, “I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards,” Marenghi relays his tales through abundant asides & adverbs, repetition, and enough run-on sentences to give Bulwer-Lytton pause.💙📚
BOOK #15, 2026 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, Henry Slesar (1957) Fairly rote adaptation of a classic creature feature. Still, it’s not so disposable as to deserve the shoddy release it gets from BearManor Media: nary a page passes without an error in spelling, punctuation, and/or formatting. 💙📚
BOOK #14, 2026 THE UNMOTHERS, Leslie J. Anderson (2024) After a report of a child born to a horse, a journalist discovers a town ruled by a ancient forest entity. Anderson creates a cosmic dread that lingers. Not quite WICKER MAN + horses, but it’s a tense dive into existential weird. Plus horses.💙📚
BOOK #13, 2026 WRITTEN ON THE DARK, Guy Gavriel Kay (2025) Twisty espionage thriller. A poet becomes a player in a web of conspiracies, assassinations, & war. Based loosely on events of medieval France, Kay hits it out of the park with intricate world-building, rich characters, & graceful writing.💙📚
BOOK #12, 2026 JACKAL, JACKAL, Tobi Ogundiran (2023) Fascinating dark fantasy stories. Drawing on African folklore, Ogundiran’s tales are a marvellous mix of magic realism, fables, and horror. This is a sterling, imaginative collection by a talented author. 💙📚
BOOK #11, 2026 SLICE THE WATER, PP Wong (2025) A fractured dystopia only seconds away from the dystopia we’re in. We follow Fred, a boy of the island nation of Mahana, swept up in an underground political movement. Part coming-of-age tale, part satirical fable, part prescient warning. 💙📚
It has been a time of monsters, of evils most befoul, of glories unsurpassed… 🎥🎬
BOOK #10, 2026 THE WONDER LANDS WAR, Peter Darbyshire (2025) A hardboiled urban fantasy that joyfully fuses literary, religious, and mythological genres. For those who prefer their fantasies warped, these are a treat! 💙📚
BOOK #9, 2026 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, John Russo (1974) A zombie chiller that can’t reach the cinematic heights of its source material. Unable to duplicate the intense, skin-crawling dread George A. Romero created, it’s a fun but slight offering, an amuse bouche to the film’s meaty main course. 📚💙
BOOK #8, 2026 TENDER IS THE FLESH, Agustina Bazterrica (2017) After meat becomes poisonous, governments introduce the production of “special meat” i.e. people. Bazterrica effectively creates a world monstrous & familiar, a grotesque parody of humanity only a few steps to the right of our own. 💙📚
BOOK #5, 2026 SHORT THINGS, ed. John Gregory Betancourt (2019) Wobbly but fun anthology, inspired by John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?” Some stories are sublime, some forgettable; a few couldn’t survive without knowledge of the source material. For fans of the story (or movies), worth a read. 💙📚