⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stephen King’s Insomnia surprised me in the best way. I went in expecting a fairly straightforward horror story, but it turned into something much stranger and more ambitious. Ralph’s sleeplessness starts off feeling uncomfortably real—King captures that foggy, irritable, slightly surreal feeling of being overtired so well that I could practically feel my own … Continue reading A Restless, Haunting Journey Through Derry
Writers are often told to keep every scrap of writing, every half-finished idea, every abandoned paragraph, no matter how insignificant or directionless it seems at the time. For years, I did this almost compulsively, stuffing note apps with fragments, saving hundreds of stray files on my laptop, keeping dialogue snippets on my phone, and hoarding … Continue reading Writing as Archaeology: Unearthing the Story Buried in Notes
⭐⭐⭐ Overall, I enjoyed Influencer by Adam Cesare, just not quite enough to bump it higher. The concept is great: a horror story rooted in internet fame, parasocial chaos, and the curated madness of influencer culture. Cesare leans into the world of streaming and online personas, blending satire and genuine menace. When the horror elements … Continue reading A Slick, Modern Horror with Uneven Footing
The transmission was faint — weaker than static, buried under cosmic hiss and radiation storms. It should never have been detected. And yet, the SSV Calypso caught it. A single thread of data pulsing across the void, repeating every nineteen minutes: ECHO_402 — SYSTEM STABLE — AWAITING INPUT No one knew what it meant. The … Continue reading The Archive – Chapter Eight: SIGNAL // AFTERLIGHT
⭐️⭐️⭐️ I’m honestly not quite sure what to say about Morsels by Abe Moss. It’s one of those books that isn’t bad at all — the writing’s solid, the pacing works fine — but for some reason it just feels very… average. “Meh” really sums it up. I didn’t dislike it, but I never felt … Continue reading Decently Readable, But Mostly Meh
I’ve just finished the first draft of my current work-in-progress, a biography-horror hybrid that’s consumed more of my thoughts than I’d like to admit and is sure to consume more. It’s a strange, unsettling project that blurs the boundary between truth and fiction, and somewhere in that blur, I’ve found myself trapped between the two … Continue reading The Ghost of the First Draft: How the Earliest Version of Your Story Haunts All Revisions That Follow
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dead Famous by Ben Elton is one of those books that takes a little while to find its rhythm. The opening feels like you’ve been dropped straight into an episode of Big Brother — full of big personalities, forced banter, and that strange mix of boredom and spectacle that reality TV does so well. … Continue reading A Wickedly Funny Murder in the Big House
There is no air here. Only rhythm. My breath matches the pulse of the corridors. My heartbeat echoes through the walls. Every step I take reverberates back at me, delayed, distorted, as though the ship itself were trying to mimic me — or remind me that it no longer needs me to move. I have … Continue reading The Archive – Chapter Seven: Juno
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I absolutely loved The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer — it’s one of those books that makes you laugh out loud, grin like an idiot, then unexpectedly tug at your heartstrings. From the very first page, Mortimer’s voice comes through loud and clear: dry, surreal, and oddly comforting. He’s got this rare knack for … Continue reading Warm, Weird, and Wonderfully Mortimer
Ghost of Yōtei launched on 2 October 2025, exclusively for the PlayStation 5. It’s one of those “built for next-gen only” titles — no PS4, no PC (at least not yet) — so you’ll need a PS5 to play it. There’s a lot of love and polish here. The first thing you’ll notice is just … Continue reading A Welcome Return to Japan – Ghost of Yotei (Review)
Gareth Ellis - Author 