Jon Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism, named the Best Fiction Book of 2016 by Rue Morgue Magazine, heralds the arrival of a significant new literary talent. The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett Hamantaschen is an exciting talent, and his collection A Deep Horror That Was Very Nearly Awe makes good on the promise inherent in self-publishing-delivering a product that is weird, unique, and utterly captivating. But, as with anything, there are glimmers of hope, and one author I’ve read recently is doing exactly what I want so badly to see. Self-publishing doesn’t typically bring us interesting, original visions-more often than not, it’s a dumping ground for the deluded. It could be the coolest fucking thing in books, but in practice, it amounts to little more than a joke. The idea at its core is to abandon the gatekeepers and embrace DIY-a place for weirdo, experimental works to be released without publisher intervention. Self-publishing, like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, is the subject of a thousand invalidating knocks-but in spite of subpar quality, low aims, and poor editing (and just like the cryptids in question) self-publishing is something in which I continuously want to believe. These are eleven tales of macabre horror, filled with estrangement, honor, wonder, terror, delusion, pity, desperation and perseverance. Hamantaschen’s third collection of short stories delivers more inimitable dark fiction. Suicide is an excellent pessimist novel that takes Ligotti’s ideas into a more conversational and vicious realm, while remaining darkly funny.Ī Deep Horror That Was Very Nearly Awe by J.R. Nicole Cushing is criminally underread and her fiction is so electric, dark, and transgressive that it can’t help but affect its readers. Then it was gone and replaced by the civilized thought: You can’t do that. Hell, at more than one point in your life you’ve wanted to kill someone really, literally kill someone. You’re not engaging in… whatchamacallit? Hyperbole? You’re not engaging in hyperbole.Maybe the impulse flashed through your brain for only a moment, like lightning, when someone tried to skip ahead of you in line at the cafeteria. Like everyone else in the world, you’ve wanted to do things people say you shouldn’t do.How many times in your life have you wanted to slap someone? Really, literally strike them? You can’t even begin to count the times.
Winner of the 2015 Bram Stoker Award ® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel
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