Moan is the 2025 English Version of the 2013 Japanese Language Junji Kessakusha 8: Umeku Haisuikan which, in turn collects Junji Ito’s short stories from the early 90s. If you like Junji Ito, you’ll like it. It is not the strongest collection, but Blood-Orb Grove and Flesh Colored Mystery are both worthy of further note, and others will spark interest.
Category: Horror
Nevill hits all the right notes in one of the best paced and balanced books of his long and (hah, pun!) storied writing career. While already a fan, this story of kayakers caught up in the tail-end of a much broader horror tale has helped to rekindle a spark. Too bad I’ve read pretty much everything by him, eh?
This hybrid ghost- / animatronic-horror movie coasts on a mixture of good visuals and the good chemistry of the sibling pair at its core but regularly slams into walls of non-sense. More a missed-chance than modern classic but fair enough when it just lets the cast shut up and the screen do the talking.
The Long Walk does an astounding job of bringing the source material to life and both honoring the original but also updating it in dozens of minor ways to show how the story of young men walking to their death is still a poignant parable. Great cast. Great choices. It is perhaps only the ending that ultimately fails to convey the horror.
Jeff Long’s The Descent is a hefty novel overfull of plot and characters, many elements that are simply too underdeveloped to stand up to their own weight. Still, throughout its labyrinthine plotlines and setting, there are many elements that make it an interesting read.
Kago’s collection of four stories are strange and quirky and occasionally repulsive. While they explore some interesting concepts in novel ways, it is hard to recommend the collection without a couple of caveats.