Author name: Daniel Haeusser

Daniel Haeusser (He/Him) is an Associate Professor of Biology who teaches microbiology and biochemistry. He researches bacterial cell shape & division, and phage (bacterial viruses) that alter either in their host during infection. His constant reading spans many genres, but SF, Fantasy, Horror, mystery, and world literature remain closest to his heart. His regular book reviews can be found at Reading 1000 Lives, and he also contributes reviews to Strange Horizons, Fantasy Book Critic, Speculative Fiction in Translation, and World Literature Today. You can connect with him on Goodreads or Bluesky.

Cover of Hornytown Chutzpah by Andrew Hiller, featuring an impressionistic person wearing a fedora and trenchcoat, firing off multicolored water balloons, one with googly eyes.
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Book Review: HORNYTOWN CHUTZPAH by Andrew Hiller

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No, the title probably doesn’t refer to what you think it does. Andrew Hiller’s Hornytown Chutzpah is an urban fantasy noir with a Yiddish twist, and the title refers to a demon-populated neighborhood that suddenly popped up beside Washington D.C., years prior, as sort of a colony of Hell. Think Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but with horned-demons of Hornytown rather than the famous animated characters populating Toontown. That Zemeckis film, or Gary K. Wolf’s Who Censored Roger Rabbit? that inspired it, serves as a good reference for the tone of Hornytown Chutzpah: plenty of noir that leans into the tropes of the genre with humor. Urban fantasy noir and comedy are elements often mashed up as a subgenre, but two things make Hornytown Chutzpah stand out. First is the aforementioned Yiddish twist. Before the story begins, Hiller gives readers “The Ten Commandments according to Sol the Wise Guy” that already got me chuckling. And after the story’s end is a glossary of (some) Yiddish and Jewish terms that one finds in the book, with cleverly and humorously crafted definitions in Sol’s voice.

Cover of Night & Day (or Day & Night), a horror anthology edited by Ellen Datlow. The Night cover is blue-toned and features some sort of ghoul-like monster; the Day cover is red-and-orange with a gray-skinned woman with a huge cowlick (?) and what looks like a root coming out of her mouth.
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Book Review: Night & Day, edited by Ellen Datlow

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As usual, readers who broadly enjoy the genre and styles of stories/authors will have a higher chance of loving the collection overall. But the book would also serve as a great entry point for people wanting to try out more from the genre, particularly with the cohesive strength and interesting dichotomy that this anthology holds.

Cover of A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper, featuring what looks like a pair of crossed women's legs with the lower legs starting to melt, or maybe there's a woman's hair instead of just darkness, and maybe an ear, and maybe a worm or tentacle-mouth.
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Book Review: A GAME IN YELLOW by Hailey Piper

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Though her books don’t fall within my favorite niche of horror, I respect the hell out of Hailey Piper’s writing. The stories might not end up being personally beloved, but I can still recognize how effectively they will squarely hit for readers with experiences and appreciations that I just simply lack. As many people should quickly recognize, Piper’s new novel draws its title (and at least a portion of its inspiration and plot/framework) from Robert W. Chambers’ classic story of a cursed book/play The King in Yellow. That classic has been referenced countless times, from other horror writers to True Detective to The Dead Milkmen, punk band from my homeland area of Philly. Piper’s novel also owes debt to Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa,” which Chambers incorporated into his work. The King in Yellow also has elements that put it into taxonomical relation to Lovecraft. And this makes perfect sense for something for a cosmic horror author like Piper to draw from. Piper’s A Game in Yellow may not have a focus on any abundance of monstrous elder Gods or eldritch horrors within it, but the existential vibe of the novel with its characters’ anxieties, depression, and bleak failures in full view entrench it in that cosmic horror vein. But Piper combines this with an intimate look at a trio of characters and their relationships with one another. And that element is blended into the narrative with strongly and responsibly written erotica.

Cover of Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen
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Book Review: BLOOD ON HER TONGUE by Johanna van Veen

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Our last podcast featured Shaun and guest host Kendra interviewing Dutch author Johanna van Veen about her new novel Blood on Her Tongue. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that conversation yet about bog people and shifting cultural perspectives on death, madness, identity, and gender, then be sure to tune in along with reading this review and checking out van Veen’s rich, gothic treat. Blood on Her Tongue ticks off most all of a reader’s expectations from the gothic literature genre: familial secrets, supernatural beings, madness, gender challenges, emotional intensity, isolation, curses, doubles, and above all that yearning for what isn’t good. With the pages of the book inked to appear like blood dripping out from within it, and the darkly decadent cover art, this title from Poisoned Pen Press simply screams Gothic.

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