Totally Biased Review #1: Weird Horror Spring 2021

The second issue of Weird Horror is full of monsters. Some are unseen, some bare themselves to our scrutiny, and some serve as our narrators.

This issue’s gleefully macabre cover art is provided by the great Nick Gucker, while black-and-white interior art was done by Wesley Edwards. The issue opens with non-fiction. First, Simon Strantzas muses on what distinguishes Horror from Fantasy and Science Fiction, and then Orrin Grey gives us a brief overview of the Hollow Earth in fiction, film and D&D.

There are nine pieces of fiction in this issue. “Unmaskings” by Marc Joan tells about a masquerade through two intercut timelines, one in present tense about what happens at the party, one in past tense recounting a character’s experience immediately before the party begins. In “Feral” by Catherine MacLeod the narrator ruminates on her relationship with her off-the-grid survivalist father and how she left him. “Adventurous” by Stephen Volk puts a light-hearted, adult spin on a Narnia-esque portal fantasy. “A Mouthful of Dirt” by Maria Abrams is an interview transcript in which a woman recounts a camping trip that went monstrously awry. “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There” by Mary Berman is a thoroughly enjoyable response to “Pickman’s Model.” In “Bonemilk” by Rob Francis a wealthy landowner learns what it means to truly give something back. “Scratching” by Alys Key is a ghost story set specifically during the COVID-19 lockdown in London. “Eyes Like Pistils” by Evan James Sheldon chronicles the floral transformation of a drifter lost in the woods who consumes a seed given to him by a strange priest. In “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” by Kristina Ten, after the river which serves as the source of their livelihood is polluted and destroyed, the citizens of Starosibirsk decide to create a monster to lure tourists back.

The issue ends with book reviews by Lysette Stevenson and movie reviews by Tom Goldstein.

Though for me none of the stories hit the creepy, surreal heights of last issue’s “Children of the Rotting Straw” by Steve Toase, they are still well worth your time. A strong thematic thread of the mysteries and dangers of nature, and our relationship to the natural world, runs through most of these stories. As with any anthology or magazine some stories will affect you more than others, but in thinking back over this issue, I remember finding the stories “Feral,” “Things Found in Richard Pickman’s Basement, and Things Left There,” “Bonemilk,” “Eyes Like Pistils” and “The Dreadful and Specific Monster of Starosibirsk” to be particularly striking. If this is the new pulp, then I am down for it. Bring on issue three!