Book Review: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Jurgis Rudkos is a Lithuanian immigrant who has come to America with his fiancee Ona and their families to seek the good jobs advertised in his poverty-stricken homeland. It’s tricky for people who don’t know English or the local customs to get around, but finally they make it… Continue reading Book Review: The Jungle
Tag: rape
Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939
Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939 This is a facsimile reprint by Adventure House of a pulp magazine. Pulp magazines tended to stick to one genre, so you knew what you were getting from the beginning; in this case action-mystery. Great literature was rare, but they really got the blood pumping. And a dozen stories… Continue reading Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939
Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder The title is pretty self-explanatory; this book is about the location of the worst mass murders of the 1930s and 1940s; the part of Europe between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Starting with the 1933 deliberate starvation of Ukrainians by the Soviet government, policies… Continue reading Book Review: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Book Review: 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories
Book Review: 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg This was my Halloween season read this year, an anthology commissioned for the Barnes & Noble stores in 1995. There are indeed one hundred stories in this hefty tome, averaging about six pages. They are not all about… Continue reading Book Review: 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories
Book Review: Hell-Bent
Book Review: Hell-Bent by Jason Ryan Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. My copy was an advanced reading copy, and changes will be made in the published version, due out November 2014. In particular, the end notes and index were not yet finished. Hawaii’s… Continue reading Book Review: Hell-Bent
Magazine Review: Infernal Ink Magazine January 2014
Magazine Review: Infernal Ink Magazine January 2014 edited by Hydra M. Star Disclaimer: This magazine came to me through a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. Infernal Ink is a horror fiction and poetry magazine aimed at ages 18+. As such, it contains sex, violence, sexualized violence (Trigger Warning for rape)… Continue reading Magazine Review: Infernal Ink Magazine January 2014
Manga Review: Ooku
Manga Review: Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga In an alternate history version of Japan, disaster strikes during the reign of Shogun Iemitsu (circa 1630). A plague that becomes known as the “red-face pox” sweeps the islands, with a fatality rate of 80% among boys and young men. Within a couple of years, the gender imbalance among… Continue reading Manga Review: Ooku
Anime Review: Elfen Lied
Anime Review: Elfen Lied There is a secret laboratory off the coast of Kamakura, Japan. There a naked woman wearing an eyeless helmet, codenamed “Lucy”, is undergoing experimentation. When the helmet is damaged, allowing Lucy to see, she sets about freeing herself, slaughtering many of the lab’s personnel in the process. Yes, even the… Continue reading Anime Review: Elfen Lied
Magazine Review: Out of the Gutter #7
Magazine Review: Out of the Gutter #7 (Winter 2010) Back in the day, the low-cost entertainment option of choice was the pulp magazine. It contained fast, exciting stories on cruddy paper–a lowbrow art form that is still fondly remembered by some. “Out of the Gutter” tries to be somewhat in that tradition. This is the… Continue reading Magazine Review: Out of the Gutter #7
Book Review: Kitty Genovese
Book Review: Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and Its Private Consequences by Catherine Pelonero Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. I am not quite old enough to have any firsthand memories of the coverage of the March 13, 1964 murder… Continue reading Book Review: Kitty Genovese