The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw - Book Review

 

'The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers. Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

'But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone. Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?'

Dark academia has been a popular genre for the last several years, with readers happily sitting down with book all about the romantic, sometimes slightly gothic stylings of some old seat of learning filled to the brim with knowledge, romance, and sometimes mystery. I can see why it's a popular setting, as someone who likes Gothic literature throwing in a scholarly setting feels like a decent fit, especially for people who either yearn for a time of their life they missed out on, or wish they could return to. Cassandra Khaw's The Library at Hellebore, however, adds a disgustingly twisted new angle to dark academia my making a body horror tale that will make your skin crawl before you're through the first dozen pages.

The Library at Hellebore takes readers to a world where magic exists. This isn't a different world to ours, however, as here magic suddenly sprang into the world a century before the events of the book, with a world very much like our own suddenly reeling from the forced acceptance of ghosts, witches, monsters, and creatures once believed to be myth. Despite this sudden shock, the world adapted. People who display magical abilities are taught how to use them, in order to maintain a well managed and working society if nothing else. 

Alessa Li, however, falls into a special group, people with powers so destructive that they endanger not just the people around them, but the very world itself. These world ending threats are either enrolled in, or kinapped to, specialist schools and institutes where they can be given much more intense training, and kept away from the rest of society. Alessa had been on the run ever since she used her power to rip her sexually abusive father to pieces, living on the streets, until the morning she woke up inside the walls of the Hellebore Technical Institute, as much a prisoner as a student. Whilst Alessa spends her time at Hellebore getting to know some of the other students, learning what she can in order to try and facilitate an escape, nothing could prepare her for what happens at graduation day.

The day that the Hellebore students long awaited, the day that would see them leave the Institute, finally comes, and all that it brings for them is death. The faculty transform before their very eyes, becoming a horrific mass of limbs and flesh that consume and kill any student they can find. Now Alessa and several other students find themselves barricaded inside the library, the teachers on the other side of the door. These powerful, unstable students will have to figure out a way to band together if they're going to make it out of Hellebore alive.

The Library at Hellebore feels less like what I would expect from dark academia, and more like David Cronenbergs spin on the genre. From the twisted, fleshy mass that was once to faculty, to the meat puppet security, the students gutted whilst still alive so that their organs can be examined, and even the girl who rips her body to pieces to transform into an awful spider creature, there's very few parts of the book where the reader isn't assaulted by some kind twisted imagery. If you're faint of heart, or don't enjoy fairly graphic descriptions of gore and injury detail then this might not be the best book for you to read, as Khaw pushes the boundary between horror and disgust multiple times.

The narrative is as twisted as the violence, with the events of the book alternating between two time periods as we follow Alessa when she first arrives at Hellebore, learning more about the school and making friends with several of the other students, as well as seeing the events that unfold on graduation day. The changes in time certainly helps to keep things flowing well, and means that all of the action and horror of graduation day isn't all towards the back end of the book, allowing for the more normal scenes to act as moments for the reader to catch their breath amidst the awful events.

That being said, I think that the switching narrative made it a bit of a struggle for me to fully connect with the characters in the book. I never felt like I'd managed to fully understand any of them, their development felt somewhat light, and they came across as more caricatures than fully fleshed out characters with multiple dimensions. This might just be me, and other readers may get along with it better, but I was just unable to really click with anyone, and thus found it hard to get invested in their survival.

If you enjoy the aesthetic of dark academia, but want a bit more bite to it then The Library at Hellebore might just be up your alley. And, if you've never tried the dark academia genre before but love body and cosmic horror this could act as a great introduction to a lot of the tropes of the genre.

The Library at Hellebore is available now from Titan Books.

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Chum - Film Review

 

Animal attack movies are a popular genre, one that often plays into the primal fears that humans have of the natural world around us. We might be the most intelligent animal (in our own way), and the best at using tools to exploit the world around us, but we're far from the fastest, toughest, or most dangerous if we came face to face with many of the other inhabitants of the planet. Films that strip humans of our advantages and put them at the mercy of the natural world remind us just how fragile we are, and how brutal nature can be. The more popular films in this genre can vary wildly in tone and style, from the incredibly serious and well made Jaws to the absolutely ridiculous and schlocky Snakes on a Plane. Chum, the latest entry in the shark attack genre, fails to be either, and ends up delivering a movie that's at best completely forgettable, and at worse insulting in its quality.

Chum begins with a couple having a romantic evening in a small cove somewhere in the Mediterranean, soaking up their love for each other. When the woman goes for a swim whilst her husband goes to grab some more drinks disaster strikes when she's attacked by a shark and ripped to pieces. Cut to five years later and we join Tina (Alice Eve) and her new husband Tom (Eric Michael Cole) as they celebrate their luxurious resort wedding with friends and family. However, it soon becomes clear that there's trouble in paradise as they spend their wedding night apart and argue with each other first thing in the morning the next day. But we've got little time to explore this marriage that's falling apart less than a day in as their friends drag the two of them out onto a boat to celebrate and drink out on the ocean.

Despite Tina being unable to swim (an important plot point that vanishes towards the end of the film), the two of them agree and the group piles onto a party boat and heads out to sea. As the trip goes on the friends begin to realise that Tina and Tom are having trouble; but before they can try to help their friends patch things up their boat is attacked by a great white shark, their captain gets knocked overboard and loses a leg, Tina ends up in the ocean, and the engine catches fire. As chaos ensues and the shark bears down to kill the group is rescued by Roy (Jim Klock), the husband from the opening scene who's spent the last five years trying to become Quint from Jaws.

Roy saves the group before their boat explodes (though no one bothered to bring the injured captain along with them), and they think that they've found safety. As they settle onto Roy's boat, waiting for him to bring them back to shore they all begin to pass out, having been drugged by their rescuer. When they wake up they learn that Roy is hunting the shark that attacked them, and that he's found the only bait that will work at attracting it is human blood. Now the friend group must contend with a crazed captor who's feeding them to the shark one by one in his desperate attempt to kill the animal that took his wife's life.

The concept of Chum isn't on the surface (no water pun intended) a bad one. I realised part way through watching Chum why I thought it sounded somewhat familiar is that it's pretty much the plot for last year's Dangerous Animals; though Chum lacks any real creative chops to stand apart, and ends up feeling something like a cheap knock-off.

A large part of this goes to the script and acting. Despite having the recognisable Alice Eve attached to the film Chum feels like it's made with first-time or low budget stars. Dialogue is stiff and clunky, and no one is able to really delivery it well. From the attempt at a deep and dark narration from Roy at the very beginning 'The sea takes what it wants and leave the rest for us to pick up the pieces. But I am not the sea. I am a man. And a man does not forget.' to the wedding speech in the very next scene that feels like nothing but cringe, to the friend group that talks to each other like they learned to act from watching porno films, there's not a single line in Chum that didn't come across like it was being delivered by someone just having learned how to talk. 

I wasn't expecting high level acting from a film such as this, but when what's supposed to be the triumphant moment of 'Let's kill this son of a bitch' as the survivors take down Roy makes you roll your eyes at how bad it sounds you know that there's a problem. Though my favourite line of the film was when one of the captured friends says they've not seen the shore for hours, yet the shore has been present large in the background the whole time, and is literally behind them as they say it. That moment actually managed to get a genuine laugh out of me, though I suspect it wasn't the intention.

Worse than the bad script and laughable acting, however, is the film's visual effects. CGI in cheap horror films is never going to be good, and I didn't go into Chum expecting any, but I noticed throughout the film that there was a surprising lack of consistency to the shark effects, as well as the blood when characters were attacked. In years gone by this could have been chalked up to bad visual effects artists, but today it's more often a sign of something more insidious, AI. The film doesn't credit any visual effects artists, which is absolutely shocking on its own. It does however credit Tunnel Post, a company that states that it uses AI in it's effects work and filmmaking. 

And thus any amount of credit or good will that Chum may have somehow had goes out the window as it joins the sadly ever increasing ranks of films that are turning to AI effects and artwork to create their finished product. If your film cannot exist without the use of AI don't make your movie. AI is theft, it's destructive towards the environment, it takes wages away from actual workers, and if this film is any example, it's not even being made to crate anything worthwhile. Chum is a bad film, even before the AI generated shark rears its crappy looking head. Chum isn't any kind of masterpiece that's going to change the world so the use of AI can be overlooked, it's a bad film that I would find shocking to learn actually entertained anyone. With AI being used in the effects department I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the bad script also made use of AI in it's creation as it would explain how bad it is.

Chum could have been a fun, schlocky film that managed to entertain despite a low budget and bad acting. As it is, Chum is dull and uninspired. The acting feels phoned in, the script is shaky, it relies on AI to deliver a terrible product, and honestly, the choice of having the one Black actor be the first of the group to be used as bait, locked in a cage by a murderous white man felt both racist and sexist too. If you're desperate for a shark attack movie and you've literally seen every other one made you could watch Chum, but even then I'd still advise going and rewatching something better instead.

Chum is available on digital download from 17th August 2026.

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Affairs of State by Calvin James - Book Review

 

'In this sweeping story of high-stakes romance and cut-throat politics amongst the stars, dashing junior supply officer Levar Boylan finds himself unceremoniously pulled from the front lines to serve as a diplomat for abruptly arranged peace talks with the Empire. All because he once dated an Imperial baroness.

'Levar gets more than he bargained for when his former lover, Astrid, is revealed as the reigning Demon Emperor and despite the years, the war, and their difference in rank, their mutual attraction still burns bright.

'The re-ignited relationship with the towering, horned Emperor threatens to drown the lovelorn soldier in a whirlpool of conflicting agendas. Levar's superiors suspect his loyalty is waning, while Astrid hopes he will abandon the defeated Commonwealth to become an Imperial noble. As sinister schemes bubble to the surface, Levar must dodge assassins, outfox kidnappers, and battle militant insurgency to save his country, his love, and his life.'

Most of my life I would say I'm not into romance stories, I think because everyday life never really appealed to me as a setting, and so many romance stories felt too normal and boring to really satisfy me. Over the last year or two, however, I've been finding more and more romance stories set in fantasy or science fiction settings and have been questioning if perhaps I never really disliked the genre so much as people being unwilling to try fun things with it. Affairs of State by Calvin James continues in this trend of finding new and captivating romance stories, this time following a war weary soldier who's forced to confront the long lost love of his life who's now the Emperor in charge of the demon nation that's trying to wipe out his people.

Affairs of State is set in a distant future, several hundred years from now where humanity has long since left the solar system behind, colonising other worlds. We find the scattered, altered descendants of original humanity separated out into nation states that span multiple star systems, and locked in the middle of a deadly war that is quickly being won by the imposing and vicious Demon Empire. The Demons, a group of transhumans so altered over the centuries that they're closer to their namesake than humanity, halt their unwavering conquest to invite representatives from all of the various states to attend a summit to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the reign of their current Emperor.

Commonwealth solider Levar Boylan is surprised when he's pulled back from the front-line to Commonwealth high command, expecting some kind of court marital. However, his presence is requested due to the fact that he once dated a demon woman during his academy days; though not just because he has first hand experience with demon culture, but because the new Emperor is his former girlfriend, Astrid. Ordered to go along with the Commonwealth delegation, Levar finds himself in a world of court intrigue, secret plots, and unusual etiquette that he has no experience for. And whilst he does his best to try to find a way to help save his country he also finds himself being drawn back into the arms of the woman he loves.

Affairs of State often reads more like a historical novel or a fantasy book, largely due to the tiny details that Calvin James scatters throughout, such as the focus on blades instead of guns as weaponry, balls and galas that feel like they're from the 19th century, and elegant fashion that could have stepped off the page of a history book. The way that James combines these elements with the science fiction, such as sentient hover bikes instead of horses, and ten foot tall demon people, create this wonderful fusion of the familiar and brand new that makes stepping into this universe feel fairly easy to do whilst also leaving a huge amount of room to discover new things.

The book is fairly light on explanations, there's no pages of history that get dumped on the reader during the early chapters so that you get caught up and understand everything; instead readers are allowed to learn things as we go, to get pieces of history here and there that eventually lead to a fuller understanding. I appreciated being able to read the book this way, to learn what certain words meant organically, to find out about the complicated alliances and history between the nations. It made me want to learn more about this universe, to dive deeper into the elements that are only really briefly touched upon here. Whilst I have no idea if this is a world that James intends to visit again or not I hope that we get more books in this setting because it's got so much potential to tell interesting stories; even if they're following new characters or set in new parts of the galaxy.

Whilst the universe itself is rich and full of interesting things to discover the main focus of the novel are our two leads, Levar and Astrid. The book is told from Levar's point of view, and other than overtly queer focused romance stories I can't really remember many books I've read that have chosen to put the man both as the person we follow, but also the physically and socially weaker of the couple. Yes, there's confirmation that at least one of the couple are openly queer in some regard (never expressly stated which), and sexuality doesn't seem to be an issue in the book it is largely a straight presenting romance; but thanks to the dynamics of power and the physical dominance that Astrid has as a demon it does feel like gender roles are being played with to some degree.

Affairs of State also seems to do something a little less common in its portrayal of its core romance by having it as more of a second chance love story where the previous relationship is never shown. Yes, the characters talk about their past, but there are no flashback scenes showing how these two people from vastly different cultures end up falling in love, or how they were torn apart years before the events of the book. Instead, the focus is on whether they can find a way to make their love work when on opposing sides of a war. I largely enjoyed that we were able to skip over the 'will they, won't they?' part of the story and instead got to focus on the more important parts of their relationship and how it plays into the events of the war and the attempts to forge a peace.

Whilst this is a romance story it's also a book that deals with war, and as such there are things that happen that do see our characters put into dangerous situations. I won't say much about the what or why so as to avoid giving away spoilers, but there are enough scenes of humans having to match physical prowess with twelve foot tall demon warriors to keep any action fan happy, and the final third of the book was by far my favourite, and made me want to see more books in this setting that could continue to explore how these cultures engage each other in a violent setting, especially with the demons complex system of honour and strength.

Affairs of State is a fairly long read, though not one that will feel it. I read through a digital copy of the book and never once felt like it was dragging or dipping in quality, and the ending felt like it came along far too soon. However, it was when I picked up my physical copy to come write my review just in case I needed to check details I was surprised to see that the book was almost five hundred pages long. Not once did it feel that long, and Calvin James has managed to create a novel that's absolutely packed to the gills with enjoyable scenes and expansive world building, one that moves at such a wonderful pace that you'll find yourself coming to the end far quicker than you expect. It's a delightful read, one that I was sad to see end and cannot wait to read all over again some day.

Affairs of State is available now from Titan Books.

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Mockbuster - Film Review

 

As long as there have been popular movies there have been knock-off films, movies that make fast, cheap cash-in's on whatever the popular thing is at the time. Over the last few decades, especially with the advent of digital technology, this business has exploded as filmmakers no longer need big budgets or practical effects wizardry to put their vision on screen. One company that has dominated this mockbuster market is The Asylum, an American independent studio who has been making movies since the late 90's, and has been responsible for some of the more prolific mockbusters like Snakes on a Train, Transmorphers, and Paranormal Entity, as well as giant animal movies such as Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus, and the Sharknado series. Somehow The Asylum has made dozens of films, and a lot of people will be aware of at least one of their films even if they've never watched them.

One of the main players at The Asylum says in Mockbuster that 'We make shitty movies for people with bad taste... and alcoholics.' It's perhaps a little unsurprising that a company with this kind of philosophy would be willing to try just about anything on one of their films; and that's what leads us to the documentary film Mockbuster which follows Australian filmmaker Anthony Frith, who's found himself stuck in a fairly boring life of making corporate training videos. However, when Anthony, who's something of a fan of The Asylum movies (hopefully not because he's an alcoholic) emails The Asylum and asks if he can direct one of their films. And of course, they say yes.

What follows is perhaps one of the wildest filmmaking journeys documented onto film as Anthony travels to Los Angeles to meet the studio heads, sign a contract, and get assigned a film... that he has six days to shoot. It turns out The Asylum make movies in the same way that an episode of South Park is made; and if you thought it wild that a 20 minute episode of animation can be knocked out in just a week wait until you see the absolute chaos of an Asylum shoot.

Over the course of Mockbuster we watch as Anthony returns to Australia and attempts to assemble a cast and crew, despite not having a script for the film, and then battles against studio oversight, filming difficulties, and a gruelling time constraint to somehow create something that can be assembled into some degree of a coherent 90 minute movie. 

Perhaps the most eye-opening thing about Mockbuster is that it completely changes the way that you'll look at these cheap knock-offs. Yes, they're still terrible quality filled with rambling incoherent scripts, bad acting, and terrible effects, but having now seen how they're made they kind of become miracle projects. No one is going to say they're any kind of high-brow art, or even middle-brow (The Asylum studio heads make it clear they dislike and discourage 'arthouse complexity'), but the fact that even something as mildly entertaining as The Asylum pictures can be made under such gruelling, impossible constraints is something of a testament to the people creating them. And I can't help but wonder just how much more the quality could increase if these creatives were given more time.

This is something that Mockbuster does touch upon when Anthony meets with former Asylum director Rachel Lee Goldenberg, who began her career making Sunday School Musical for The Asylum, but has gone on to win an Emmy, has worked with Hollywood stars such as Will Ferrell, and even worked as a White House liaison. Her example, and words of encouragement to Anthony seem to do little to lift his spirits as he fights to make his film, a loose adaptation of the public domain The Land That Time Forgot, as we see the stress mount over the course of the film. Whilst Anthony is able to salvage some degree of enjoyment out of the experience, on his last say according to his narration, it's clear that his initial statement of 'even a bad movie is better than no movie' may have wavered at times.

Despite the masses of stress and difficulties, including having to fly to the US for a day of reshoots to add entirely new story and characters into the film, Anthony makes his film and comes out the experience happy. The film ends with a screening at his local cinema, packed to the gills with friends and family who come to celebrate his bad film. Mockbuster shows the incredible lows of Anthony's experience, as well as his giddy highs, and it makes for an entertaining movie; more so than the film he actually made for The Asylum. 

Mockbuster is both encouraging people to pursue their dreams, to swing big and take those risks needed to do the things that they've always wanted, yet also acts as something of a warning that doing so won't be easy by any means. It offers an insight into the movies that you scroll past on streaming services or fail to pick up off the supermarket shelf because the terrible title and bad poster art screams 'terrible movie' and how they're made in a way that will probably change how you see them; even if it doesn't encourage you to actually watch them. 

Mockbuster is available now on digital services.

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The Mortuary Assistant - Blu-ray Review

 

Before watching The Mortuary Assistant I was somewhat aware of the game the film was based upon, having seen a couple of clips appear in places such as YouTube shorts and Instagram, usually showing a streamer reacting to some of the jump scare moments. It looked to be a fairly simple yet enjoyable game, one that had a fun concept of the titular mortuary assistant dealing with ghosts and demons whilst working alone at night. With relatively little about the game known to me, and as fairly decent trailer to go off, I was excited to get the chance to see if The Mortuary Assistant film would end up being one of those video game movie adaptations that people would rave about.

The Mortuary Assistant tells the story of Rebecca (Willa Holland), a recovering addict who's been working towards qualifying as a mortician. When we meet her she's being evaluated by a potential new employer, Raymond (Paul Sparks), in his old mortuary facility that's filled with unusual creepy character. We get hints that there might be something a bit more than the usual going on when Raymond stops Rebecca from going down into the basement, something he insists she'll never need to do, before the audience sees some kind of weird naked figure crawling around at the bottom of the stairs acting creepy. After satisfying her new boss that she's got the skills for the job Rebecca is hired. Unfortunately for her, she's barely signed on before she's getting called in late at night to work until dawn.

Things begin to get stranger as the night goes on, first with Rebecca being told to embalm a body before burning it, something she questions the reason for as why would they need to do both? Shortly after Rebecca begins to see a red eyed shadow figure around the building, as well as a few unusual hallucinations. Thinking that perhaps it's just the stress of the new job Rebecca is surprised to awake at home the next day as her sponsor bangs on her door. She claims that Rebecca has relapsed despite Rebecca having no memory of it. Things spiral out of control as Rebecca believes she loses control of herself and kills her sponsor before realising it's all a hallucination. Returning to work, Rebecca is told that a demonic force has latched itself onto her, and that she will need to face the dark forces trying to take her over alone in the mortuary if she has any hope to survive.

The premise of The Mortuary Assistant is fairly simple, push your way through ghostly visions and dangerous encounters with the spirits of the dead in order to find the pieces of the puzzle that you need in order to perform a ritual and save yourself. It definitely sounds like something that's the perfect set-up for a video-game that would encourage you to keep exploring a frightening environment. But when it comes to the film, there's just something missing in The Mortuary Assistant. I think it's that the film doesn't really explain what's happening in any really satisfying way. It's clear that demons are trying to get into Rebecca, but the how and why are barely discussed. How Raymond learned about demons, where he got the fancy demon decoder ring needed to burn them is left unspoken yet is an important piece of the plan to save Rebecca. I understood what the characters were doing, but had very little context or solid world building around it, and so was left feeling somewhat uninterested and bored; sentiments that were shared by the other people I was watching the film with.

The real lack of much plot isn't helped by the film having almost no scares. The film tries to build atmosphere, and whilst it works somewhat to begin with I found that this tension very quickly faded away when things began to get a bit campier. The red eyed shadow entity looked more like a tall Jawa watching Rebecca than some kind of spirit, the sudden eye opening corpses who'd squirm and shift on the table when Rebecca wasn't looking felt over used. And the moments when Rebecca became possessed, complete with yellow eyes, was more cheap Deadite than anything else. And whilst I don't like movies that rely on the over use of jump scares I can't help but think that The Mortuary Assistant really could have used some.

Lacklustre is perhaps the word that I'd have to settle on for The Mortuary Assistant. There was nothing egregiously wrong with it, the acting was competent, the set design was really nice, the script was unoriginal but not terrible, and the effects work was largely good. It just felt like the film lacked any real punch, innovation, or identity of its own. I did question if perhaps this was an issue I was experiencing because I wasn't familiar with the source material, so after the movie I went and checked out some streams of the game on YouTube; and I have to admit these were much more entertaining. Where the films lack of any real depth or explanation felt like a detriment in the game it allowed the player to explore and learn more on their own terms. I came to realise that without some substantial changes to the formula of the game the concept that worked so well in that format just didn't make the translation to film medium. Which is a huge shame.

The blu-ray release of the film is also fairly light when it comes to extra features, having only a short six minute behind the scenes feature that goes a little into the making of the movie. The new release feels more like it's been designed for those who want to watch the movie but don't have a subscription to Shudder's streaming service; so if you're someone who's already seen the movie or has Shudder and wanted to check out the blu-ray for the special features and to learn more about the film this is perhaps not the best investment. However, if you're a fan of the game and haven't yet had the chance to see the film this is probably a release that you're going to want to pick up.

The Mortuary Assistant attempts to capture the fun and frights of the game that it's based upon, and whilst it gets some of the details spot on it felt like it fell short of capturing the magic that has made The Mortuary Assistant a popular game. A movie that fans will want to see, but casual audiences might find a little lacking.

The Mortuary Assistant is available now on blu-ray.

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Strange Pictures: Volume 1 by Uketsu & Kikou Aiba - Blog Tour

 

'From Japan’s breakout horror sensation comes a chilling new manga experience. Strange Pictures is the spine-tingling manga adaptation of Uketsu’s bestselling novel, brought vividly to life by artist Kikou Aiba. Uketsu – the enigmatic masked writer who has become one of Japan’s most talked-about authors – first captivated readers with a novel that sold in the millions. Now, the terror unfolds panel by panel.

'At its core lie nine childlike sketches. A pregnant woman’s doodles on her blog conceal a dire warning. A boy’s simple drawing of his home hides a message no child should know. A murder victim’s final sketch becomes a clue that drags an amateur sleuth into a labyrinth of secrets. Each picture is innocent at first glance ­– yet when pieced together, they reveal a web of unsolved mysteries and shattered psyches.'

I wasn't aware of Strange Pictures, originally published as a prose novel in Japan in 2022 by surreal YouTuber Uketsu, or its new manga adaptation until I was offered a copy from Titan Manga. After having my interest grabbed by the blurb I went and did a little looking online and thought that it might be something that would interest me due to its surreal, horror, mystery vibes. With only a small part of the original novel adapted into the first manga volume I wasn't sure just how well it would draw me in; but I soon found myself trying to solve the mystery alongside our protagonist, and am now patiently awaiting the next instalment.

Strange Pictures begins by introducing us to Sasaki, a university student who we're introduced to during a lecture about art therapy. The lecturer talks her students, and the readers, through the significance of a drawing made by a ten-year-old girl who was arrested for killing her mother. We have the features of the drawing explained to us, how the smile that was erased and redrawn over and over reveals the girl's feelings of having to pretend to be happy around her abusive mother. The house with no doors tells us that the girl felt trapped in her home, unable to escape the cycles of abuse she was living through. And that the tiny bird sitting in the middle of the spiky, dangerous looking tree tells us that she has an instinct to protect others, showing us that she's not an evil killer, but a girl who killed her abusive mother to protect herself and other people. This lecture isn't just a throw-away scene, but introduces us to some key concepts for the book; that pictures hold hidden meanings, and that in order to understand things fully you'll need to delve deep into them.

Following his lecture Sasaki meets a friend of his, Kurihara, from the uni's paranormal club. Kurihara mentions a strange blog he's discovered, and passes the information on to Saski. That evening Sasaki checks it out, finding what first appears to be a very ordinary blog by a man named Ken who writes about his wife, Yuki, and their life together. After Yuki falls pregnant the young couple of excited for their first child, but some complications through pregnancy puts them through some difficult times. During this period Yuki draws five pictures, pictures that Ken believes shows their child, and their possible future selves. Unfortunately, Yuki dies during childbirth, and shortly after the blog comes to a close after a cryptic post in which Ken mentions how he finally realised what the strange pictures really mean, and how he can't forgive Yuki, but will never stop loving her. 

With Sasaki's interest in the blog piqued he discusses it with Kurihara, who reveals more strangeness within some of the blog entries. Believing that there is more to find within the blog, and knowing that the illustrations Yuki created holds some kind of key, the two of them set out to discover more and get to the bottom of the mystery.

Strange Pictures begins as something of a slow burn story, and I'm not entirely sure at what point I'd become invested in the narrative; something that is reflected in the story itself when Sasaki reads Ken's blog and starts off not thinking much of it but soon realises he's fully invested in the lives of these people he's never met before. The slow set-up works in the books favour, and I like how it gives you the mystery without you really knowing that's what's happening. The slow reveal of the five titular strange pictures definitely has a slightly unsettling edge to it, thanks in part to the somewhat unusual framing and the change in art style, but it's only when Kurihara reveals more that these pictures take on a different feel, becoming much darker.

I won't say much about what the pictures are, or how our protagonists use them to find the next piece of the puzzle, but it's definitely an interesting series of deductions that leads to a chilling twist in the tale. As I have no knowledge of the original story, beyond a small blurb describing it, I don't know if this is the end of Sasaki's part of the story, as the final chapter of the manga introduces a new protagonist and another strange picture with possible sinister implications, but I certainly hope that it's not as whilst a twist in the initial story presented in the blog posts certainly seems to have been presented it by no means feels conclusive or complete. If there is more of this mystery to come, along with the one introduced in the final pages, I'm more than happy to continue reading on and learning more; however, if this isn't the case it would certainly feel somewhat lacking and half finished. 

The art on the book, by Kikou Aiba, feels fairly standard, with nothing about the art seeming to set Strange Pictures apart from other books on the shelf. Characters and environments are drawn cleanly and crisply, with it being easy to tell who everyone is and what's going on in the panels. However, it's when Aiba draws the titular pictures that the book begins to stand out. The art in these pictures has a very different feel to it, with the clean, dark linework replaced by faded, light illustrations, appearing more messily hand drawn, created with pencils and other physical media that gives it a rougher, more tangible feel. Delightfully, Titan Manga sent along art cards of each of the pieces, presenting them in colour, which really emphasised this aesthetic as the grain and shading in the manga changed to show where some parts of the paper had more pressure applied when colouring, creating darker and lighter areas, picking up rough details from the surface beneath the paper in places. These illustrations are so different from what else is in the book that you can't help but find yourself drawn to them in a similar way to Sasaki.

Strange Pictures is one of those manga's where I wished I had the next volume already as just one wasn't enough to satisfy me. I want to find out more, to see just how far this mystery goes and how surreal things will get.

Strange Pictures is available now from Titan Manga.

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Jim Henson's Labyrinth: The Illustrated Novelization by Liz Braswell & Andrea Guardino - Book Review

 

'Welcome to the realm of the Goblin King, where walls are doors, doors will lie to you, up is sometimes down, and left is rarely right. Join Sarah in her hero’s quest through the Labyrinth with her band of adventurous new friends as they make their way to the castle beyond the Goblin City in this illustrated movie adaptation the whole family can enjoy. This brand-new edition, adapted by New York Times bestselling author Liz Braswell, brings Jim Henson’s iconic story to life with vibrant art by Andrea Guardino featuring all the imaginative characters and creatures that call the Labyrinth home.'

I can't remember my first experience with Labyrinth, it was a film that I had on VHS, recorded off TV, that was played over and over again. Luckily I was happy to watch it repeatedly, and that it was also my mothers favourite film and so my very early obsession didn't end up driving her insane. Labyrinth was a comfort movie for me, one in which I knew every scene inside and out, knew every line of dialogue, and could happily have on as background noise whilst I did other things because I didn't have to look at the screen to see the film I loved, just hearing it brought those images to life in my head.

Over the years I've come to appreciate it more, thanks to learning that the Goblin King is in fact a very talented musician whose music I also came to adore, and by diving more into the making of the film and the incredible talents at the Jim Henson company who made the amazing creatures and effects; a love that would go on to see their sci-fi television series Farscape become one of my all time favourite shows. Even finding out small things like finding out that Gates McFadden, who played Doctor Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation was the dance choreographer for the film gave me further appreciation for it.

With Labyrinth as one of my all time favourite films I of course leapt at the chance to read the new illustrated novelisation of the film from Titan Books. Adapted by Liz Braswell, and accompanied by gorgeous illustrations by Andrea Guardino, the book wonderfully captures the beauty, wonder, and terror of the film perfectly.

The book sticks close to the movie, which doesn't sound too surprising, but when many novelisations of films will include deleted scenes, new dialogue, or bridging scenes that weren't in the actual film it is something to note that this adaptation doesn't do that. It does include things that aren't in the movie, such as giving more focus to Sarah's inner workings, how she's processing the events around her, what she's feeling, as well as tiny details that were in the background of the film such as her mother and her new boyfriend being actors, but these are things that those familiar with the film will know well and will get a lot of enjoyment from their inclusion. 

It's also impressive how without having to give long paragraphs of text over to describing every detail of the scenes Braswell is able to translate the feel of the film onto the written page. She's able to make you feel the dreariness and glittery sticky quality of the first part of the labyrinth that Sarah walks through, the bubbling disgust of the Bog of Eternal Stench, or the mind bending physics of the staircase sequence. These moments are also brought to life brilliantly by the illustrations, some of which even get some truly magnificent double page spreads to really show of the scope and grandeur of the story. There are so many moments when reading the book that I found myself thinking that I'd happily frame this are to have on my wall because it so perfectly captures why I adore this film and these characters.

Perhaps the only downside of the book is that it doesn't include the songs, which is honestly completely fair because there's not really any way to make these moments even feel natural in the book, let alone making them as fun as they are in the movie. Then again, I'm happy to lose the fun of Magic Dance if it means I don't have to endure the Fireys singing Chill Down, a sequence that still makes me feel as uncomfortable now as an adult as I did as a kid. The moments where these musical numbers take place are written in a way, however, where they don't feel unusual by their absence, and if you came to the book before reading the film you wouldn't come away from these scenes feeling like there was something missing, or that you didn't understand those moments. 

This new novelisation makes for a great adaptation of the film, and it's extra-large size, hardcover, and the beautiful illustrations inside make it feel something special, like some big tome of magic lore that and myth that a parent would take off the shelf to read you to sleep with when you're a child. Whether you're a long time fan of Labyrinth, or if you're relatively unfamiliar with it this book is a perfect way to experience it.

Jim Henson's Labyrinth: The Illustrated Novelization is available now from Titan Books.

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The Red Sacrament by Sarah Hinkley - Book Review

 

'Paris, 1869. The Théâtre Saint-Siméon is the place to be, if you can get in. The black slips of paper that guarantee entry are rare and highly desired, and given only to certain persons. The actors on stage are magnetic and ageless, performing only at midnight and never seen during the day…

'Arnault and his clan of vampires have survived for as long as they have by observing a rigid set of rules. At night, they perform on stage at the Théâtre Saint-Siméon, picking off just enough people in the audience to survive. But they understand the city, and how to live in it without being noticed.

'Their peace is shattered first with a visit from Béatrice, a witch who forms a strange connection to Arnault; then with the arrival of Victor de Rouvray and his sister Françoise, vampires from a very different world. And, as Arnault grows closer and closer to the beautiful, enigmatic Victor, he risks becoming distracted from the constant bickering of his immortal friends, from the daily running of the theatre, and worse, from the premonitions of blood, death and starvation that he receives at night.

'For a terrible change is on the horizon, revolt and revolution are brewing in the streets and soon, the city, and Arnault will never be the same again.'

The Red Sacrament is a debut novel that you'd be hard pressed to believe was a debut novel. With many first works you can see where the author is still trying to find their voice and style, you can feel which parts were likely added or changed later down the line in the editorial process, and you can come away satisfied, but sure that the authors next work will be better. The Red Sacrament reads like Sarah Hinkley has been writing for decades. Hinkley delivers a depth of detail and flowing quality to her work that is impressive to see, even if you end up not being a fan of the entire work.

Borrowing inspiration from Interview with the Vampire, The Red Sacrament takes readers to Paris in the 1860's where we discover a coven of vampires that has taken up residence within the tunnels and catacombs of the ancient city, masking their presence and hunting victims by establishing the Théâtre Saint-Siméon, a secretive and exclusive theatre experience. Rather than being open to the public, the vampires, led by the Arnault, invite prospective victims to their performances via black invites, which cannot be purchased, and must be received as gifts. 

The theatre isn't just a cover for the vampires, however, instead becoming an expression of them. Their performances are made for audiences soon to be fed upon, and so the plays and operas they pick to feature become a part of their hunts, an expression of who they are. These are vampires that live and breathe the theatre, and so the book heavily features references to works of the era that fill the early sections of the novel. These early parts of the book are crammed with tiny details and quotes from plays, and it's clear that Hinkley is either a huge theatre nerd, or did a ton of research into what a theatre of the time could have been putting on in order to present it here. And whilst other theatre lovers will probably get a lot out of this, these early parts of the book were some of the hardest to get through for me.

The first half of The Red Sacrament did relatively little for me. Long passages were given over to theatre talk, to discussions about what plays should be put on, who should perform what roles, how the shows went, what should be in the next show, and so on. Despite being filled with characters these moments were so packed with these extra details and long passages that I felt somewhat lost as to who every character was. It didn't help that many of them had little to nothing about their personalities to set them apart. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice, some form of commentary about how a community that's been together so long ends up losing individuality and becomes one homogenised whole, but even if it was it wasn't particularly enjoyable to slog through.

There are some hints at a larger plot scattered through these early few hundred pages, such as a witch who comes to visit the coven, or a pair of vampire twins from outside Paris who arrive at the theatre one night; but these elements are so scattered and light that I'd sometimes forget they were happening or even cared about them. For example, the witch who visits has a deeply disturbing effect on Arnault, and he becomes determined to track her down, but between each small step of the journey to figuring out who she is or where she's from there's dozens of pages of theatre talk; which not only felt like it was dragging out the plot too long, but also made it look like Arnalut didn't really care about finding her.

There is more than happens in the book, but this ends up being much later into the story, and by then you'll be hundreds of pages deep into the book. The Red Sacrament is a long novel, over 500 pages, but if it's taking hundreds of pages to even get interesting it's not going to be a book that I'm going to be able to easily enjoy. If it wasn't for the fact that I had agreed to review the book I would likely have not finished it, bowing out at a much earlier point.

That isn't to say that The Red Sacrament is a bad book, I just think that it's not for me. There will be people who love the slow pace and the focus on the theatre, and for them this will be a perfect exploration of those areas. As someone who likes to find something, even something small, to get interested in early on I was sadly left feeling somewhat deflated whilst reading The Red Sacrament. I think that there's definitely an audience and fanbase out there for The Red Sacrament, and if you're looking for a slower book to really spend some time with then it's definitely worth trying out.

The Red Sacrament is available now from Titan Books. 

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Marion by Leah Rowan - Book Review

 

'NORMAN WAS HER FIRST. Marion is in deep. She's stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. It's late at night, and the only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She pays for a room in cash, and ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's handsome, charming and a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower, scrubbing off the late-summer heat, when the curtain is pulled back...

'Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him in the balls, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now, she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run—not just a thief, but a killer, too. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?

'In Psycho, Hitchcock shocked audiences when he killed off his protagonist. But what if the leading lady had fought back? Marion offers an alternate history of the most famous dead blonde to ever grace the silver screen. Only this time, the knife is in her hands—and she's no victim.'

The original Psycho is a classic of cinema, not only spawning multiple sequels (which are all really good films too!) but inspiring staples of cinema going forward, such as the slasher genre, and the pretty blonde victim trope. The fact that the film followed its supposed lead, Marion Crane, for the entire first act, and that Hitchcock cast major star Janet Leigh in the role made her sudden murder at the hands of Norman Bates one of the biggest shocks in cinema history, especially at the time. It changed what people thought films could do, and it made the brutal stabbing of Marion Crane a piece of history. 

But, what could happen if Marion didn't die? What if she fought with Norman over the knife? What if she managed to not just survive, but became the only person to come out of that bathroom alive? These questions, built around a modernisation, are what lies at the heart of Leah Rowan's Marion, a novel that turns cinema's most memorable victim into a fierce survivor.

Marion tells the story of two women, across shifting points in time. The main focus of the book is 'Marion', a woman whose real name we never learn over the course of the story. Marion works in New 
York City at a major advertising firm, where her boss brings her into a secret meeting with a rich new client. Agreeing to take $100,000 in cash there and then to work on a new campaign, Marion's boss sneakily tells her that he's doing it off the books, looking to break away from the firm and use this client to set up his own business; a business he wants Marion to come and work for. Giving Marion the money, with instructions to take it to the bank and put it in his personal account, he leaves Marion with the cash whilst he takes the client for a night on the town.

However, when Marion is turned away from the bank and is unable to deposit the cash without her boss present she's left holding the $100,000 over the weekend. To make matters worse, Marion learns that her sister, Lauren, who was staying with her for the week after her husband hit her, has decided to go back home without telling her. Knowing that her sister is in danger, and that she needs a small fortune to leave her abusive husband without losing her business, Marion sets out to save her sister, the stacks of cash in tow. Thanks to a broken down buss, Marion ends up stuck in a small town named New Paltz overnight, where she manages to find accommodation in the Billings Motel, ran by a strange but charming man named Norm. Trying decide what her next move should be, Marion soon finds all of her plans, and her entire future, at risk when Norm attacks her in the shower with a knife. Now Marion not only has a sister to save, a stolen $100,000 in her luggage, but also a dead body to deal with.

Interspersed with Marion's narrative is the story of Hannah Pierce, a private investigator trying to find a missing young woman who may have stopped in New Paltz. Set two weeks after the events of Marion's story, Hannah's investigation into the missing girl leads her into a mystery that involves murder, and the twisted lair of a serial killer.

Those familiar with Psycho will understand how the story is supposed to go, and know that after Marion's death at the hands of Norman her sister eventually comes looking for her at the Bates motel weeks later. Marion takes the structure of the film and plays with it in delightful ways, using the shifting times and different character perspectives to play homage to the original story whilst being hugely creative in its own ways. There's very little that I can actually say about the book beyond the initial set-up and comparing it to the original as the book does so many interesting new things that create its own new narrative that discussing them would spoil parts of a mystery that readers will be wanting to try and solve themselves. All I can say is that I was surprised at how much the novel was able to avoid just being a retelling or a modernisation, and managed to create a story that felt inspired by the film whilst being its own animal.

Leah Rowan does a phenomenal job with the shifting narrative, and creates an interweaving story that adds the twists and surprised that readers get to experience. Every time I thought that I knew what was coming, or what I was seeing, something happened that not only subverted those expectations but took the plot in a new and unexpected direction that made the book so much more fun. There were a few times where I'd find myself yelling 'what?!' out loud, or flipping back to an earlier part of the book to see just how Rowan had managed to mess with me so wonderfully.

Marion was described to me as a 'feminist retelling of Psycho', and I can't think of a better way to sum it up. The book has so many good women characters in it that are not only standing up to terrible, shitty men, but in doing so discovering a fierceness and strength that they never knew they had before. The book showcases these transformations incredibly well, it makes them believable, and it even kind of has you wanting to see them come out on top despite it meaning getting away with murder. It was fantastic to see such strong women not only getting the centre stage, but seeing terrible men get put in their place. 

Marion was an incredibly fun read, one that was filled with twists and turns that keep the narrative from ever feeling stale, yet also serving the characters stories well. If you're familiar with the original story you won't be able to predict what happens throughout the book, and you'll get to have just as much fun as someone coming to this completely fresh. As someone with a great deal of respect for Psycho this felt like not only a brilliant reinvention of it, but a carefully crafted love letter to it.

Marion is available now from Titan Books.

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This is Where the Future Bleeds by Mike Brooks - Book Review

 

'Kitt Carver is one of the best diviners in the business at finding destinies for the rich and powerful. When she’s nearly killed, and her regular broker is murdered, it becomes clear that someone has an issue with the last destiny that she found. 

'Determined not to let anyone else die, Kitt gathers a mismatched group – including Two Tongue Derna, her childhood friend and now a renowned street duellist; Sulian the Swallowmage, powerful but plagued with intrusive visions of futures; and Donal Klae, Kitt’s one-night stand who was accidentally responsible for her near-murder – and sets off across the Timeless Lands to warn the destiny’s recipient.  However, unbeknownst to Kitt, she has her own destiny; one which might spell disaster for everyone.'

Destiny and fate are often used in fantasy stories as a main driving force for heroes and villains alike. Whether it's the chosen one, predicted by prophecy who has to leave home and heed the call to adventure, or the wicked villain who's out to prevent their downfall that fate seems to have engineered the concept of people bound to certain paths in life is a theme that writers explore time and time again. And whilst This is Where the Future Bleeds is all about fate and destiny, it goes about exploring these concepts in wonderfully original ways.

Many generations ago the future was broken. A powerful god used their divine sword to shatter the very concept of fate, breaking the mechanism of destinies finding people; as well as leaving a whole part of the world perpetually frozen in time. For those brave enough, and equipped with magical devices that allow them to exist in this land where time has stopped, the high moors contain some of the most valuable commodities around, destinies. Kitt Carver is a diviner, someone with the magical ability to sense and find destinies, and along with her crew she's able to search the high moors for these valuable pieces of the future and sell them on to the rich and powerful who'll pay good money to secure a grand future for themselves.

Kitt's life is fairly simple despite the constant dangers that going onto the high moors brings, but that all changes when someone tries to kill her. Thankfully, her old friend, Two Tongue Derna, the vicious swordfighter, is around to keep her alive, despite her hatred for Kitt's choice in work. The two of them learn that Kitt isn't the only person involved in the destinies trade who has been killed in town over the last few days, and discover that someone is trying to track down everyone involved with the sale of a particularly powerful destiny that Kitt discovered. Fearing that her life might still be in danger, and not wanting anyone else from getting killed, Kitt sets out to travel across the high moors, something no one has ever done before, and head to the distant city of Derrigsmoot. Along the way she'll be joined by some members of her old team, Derna, the magic wielding Swallowmage, and another diviner who's also been targeted by her would-be assassins. But little does Kitt know that killers are the least dangerous things that she will have to face, and that her actions could end up changing the future for everyone.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is fairly bold, as it drops you into things with little to no background information and makes you keep up with the world as the story progresses. Mike Brooks, who's no stranger to writing stories in complex and fantastical settings, doesn't hold your hand and take things slowly. The very first chapter introduces you to key characters, the concept of the destiny trade, the high moors where time stops, the strange creatures that inhabit it, a number of non-human races, as well as the world that the story takes place in. It would be easy to get bogged down in lore dumps and huge passages of explanatory text, but instead Brooks relies on his evocative storytelling to draw you in and get you invested in the characters, allowing you to instead discover the world as and when things become relevant.

It's this enjoyment of the central characters that made This is Where the Future Bleeds one of those books that I didn't want to put down. As much as I wanted to learn more about the setting and see more of the central mystery it was Kitt that had me coming back, had me reading long beyond the point that I should have put the book down to do something else. Kitt is something of a flawed young woman, someone who's trying her best to get by in a town where she doesn't have many opportunities, nor many friends. She understands why people like Two Tongue Derna might not like the work that she does, how it can be seen as potentially destructive or unfair, yet has to do it because she's someone with very few real opportunities to do much else. Thankfully, she's such a warm, caring person that you almost never think about these parts of her, instead seeing the person who's braving extreme danger to try to save the lives of strangers, who's concerned with the safety of those on her quest with her, and even wants to be liked by people who you can definitely say are much worse people than her; such as Derna.

As the story progresses more and more colourful characters join Kitt on her mission, characters that are absolutely delightful in their weirdness; though they're that much more flawed people than Kitt that they make her look absolutely normal in comparison. Whilst there are a few that I really like, but can't say much about as even their inclusion would spoil aspects of the story, the one I loved the most was Derna. Presented as something of an antagonist in the very first chapter due to her interfering with Kitt's destiny harvesting, she quickly becomes Kitt's fiercest ally and eventual love interest. Watching the evolution of their strained friendship, seeing Kitt realise that she has feelings for Derna, and then her trying to carefully navigate this new awkwardness was absolutely delightful and had me rooting for the two of them to get together. 

Kitt and Derna's relationship isn't even the only queer representation in the book, however, as there are multiple queer characters, as well as non-binary and trans characters throughout the book, integrated in ways that made it clear that this was a world where queer identities and expressions were perfectly accepted and normalised. I absolutely adored this aspect. Yes, more books are including queer characters, and queer leads, in ways that weren't done years ago, but having as many as this book does, and with it never being treated as different or other in any way is the kind of representation that I was screaming out for as a frightened, closeted queer child, and I'm so happy that its on the shelves now for anyone to pick up and experience.

My main criticism of the book is that the pacing in the final chapters isn't the best, and it does feel a tiny bit rushed for the final pieces of the plot. This pacing issue felt even worse as it was a book that I was really loving, and so would have been happy to have it go on for longer so that these moments had longer to breathe, had more set-up time, and even something of an epilogue so that we can see where the characters end up and how their lives are different once the main story comes to a close. As it is, it almost felt like Brooks had a hard cut-off where he couldn't take the time to do that, or he had to wrap things up fast due to some circumstances outside of his control. Like I said, I'd have liked to have had more of these characters anyway, so perhaps this feeling is just a reflection of that, and others won't have any issue with the pacing.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is the first thing of Brooks' I've read outside of the Warhammer IP, and I wasn't sure what to expect as that was my only frame of reference for his work; but I'm happy to say not only was I thoroughly impressed and engrossed with the book, but it felt so thematically different that it really highlighted how versatile and talented Brooks is as a writer.

This is Where the Future Bleeds is available now from Titan Books.

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