HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY TO SONORA TAYLOR’S NOVELLA “ERRANT ROOTS”! NOW AVAILABLE FROM RAW DOG SCREAMING PRESS AND YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSELLERS

October 15, 2024Leave a comment

If you’d like a guided tour from your old pal Skull, be sure to check out my previous post where I do a non-spoiler review of this excellent book! Yes, you can go back home, but should you? ERRANT ROOTS will have you looking at those cheery autumn bonfires in a whole new way. Highly recommended!

“ERRANT ROOTS” BY SONORA TAYLOR SHOWS READERS JUST HOW DANGEROUS FAMILY TREES CAN BE!

October 10, 2024Leave a comment

ERRANT ROOTS
Sonora Taylor
10/15/2024
Raw Dog Screaming Press
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Greetings fellow Horror fiends, it’s your old pal Skull with a nifty new read from Raw Dog Screaming Press! Volume 6 in the Selected Papers from The Consortium For The Study of Anomalous Phenomena, ERRANT ROOTS, by one of my favorite Horror authors, Sonora Taylor, packs a big punch. Behind that splendid cover by Lynne Hansen, this novella almost looks like a Victorian era handbook of etiquette, but readers will soon find out that the Croft family’s traditions are anything but polite.

When Dierdre Croft finds out that she and her boyfriend Tom are pregnant, she does what most women do: tell her mom. Harriet is pretty cool about it, avoiding the old school “living in sin” speech in favor of congratulating her daughter. Tom is a caring, standup guy who’s just as excited for the baby as Diedre is. But then, seemingly out of the blue, Harriet insists that they all go see the family that she left behind 24 years ago, to announce the upcoming child and have a gender reveal party.

Dierdre goes along with the plan to make her mother happy, even though she has the feeling that something is wrong about this sudden visit to people she doesn’t even know. Why drive out to the middle of nowhere when they could just as easily have a baby shower in a nice city restaurant? Tom also feels upset when his family is excluded from the proceedings. His discomfort only increases when all the residents of Grandma’s house are female and they don’t seem to like him very much.

Grandmother Yvonne is a regal looking woman, who is clearly not someone to mess with. Her eyes burn with madness as she reveals some of the secrets and rituals surrounding the Croft family tree which is in fact a huge Oak tree that all the women of the family must serve and maintain as per the book of rules and traditions drafted up by their great grandmother, Josephine. Dierdre shares many coincidental elements of her pregnancy with Josephine, Yvonne, and Harriet, including the age she’ll be giving birth. To the Croft family this means that Dierdre is the chosen one to continue something called The Daylight Branch which requires some rather gruesome traditions “for the strength of the line.”

But an isolated family that self-governs with no outside interference from the government or local law enforcement is not immune from jealousy, anger, and dark thoughts. Once things start going horribly wrong at the gender reveal party, it doesn’t take long for the sanity train to go screaming off the rails. As it picks up speed, surprises galore are revealed with every twist and turn. The way things turn out will shock both readers and the book’s characters, who thought they knew how the ceremonies went. But when you’re at the mercy of someone who claims to be doing what’s best for the family, hell can break loose at any time.

Whew! Great writing by Sonora Taylor and thanks to Raw Dog Screaming Press for requesting a review of this awesome addition to the Selected Papers from The Consortium For The Study Of Anomalous Phenomena volumes. Damaged Skull Writer and Reviewer rates Errant Roots 5 STARS*****! Once again, Taylor continues her tradition of bringing fine work into the world. Errant Roots is for anyone who’s ever dealt with a difficult or toxic family, especially those that do their dirty work in private, making you look bad when trying to expose them. No thanks to many of the agencies who are supposed to help, but don’t. Bringing a child into the world should be a wonderful, joyous occasion, not a one-way ticket to misery. Eden Royce contributes a solid and thought-provoking afterword that wraps things up nicely. For those with sensitivity concerns there is a list at the rear of the book for consultation before reading.

Sonora Taylor is an award-winning author of several books including Someone to Share My Nightmares, Seeing Things, and Little Paranoias. She also co-edited Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology with Nico Bell.This collection is one of my favorites because of its strong body positive theme. All the stories feature strong, sexy, and diverse plus-size people who are the heroes (not helpless targets or villains) and gives the bird to naysayers and shade throwers. To find out more about Sonora Taylor, visit her at: https://sonorataylor.com

Raw Dog Screaming Press is an independent publisher of horror stories and poetry with a solid focus on diversity in what they print and who writes it. They are a force for good in the world and care about the creatives they work with. Be sure to check them out at: www.rawdogscreaming.com

About your reviewer:

When darkness falls Brian James Lewis becomes his alter ego, Skull, and burns the midnight oil reading and reviewing recent arrivals to his lair, the Skullcave! You can catch up with him on social media at: https://facebook.com/DamagedSkullWriterandReviewer where he’d really appreciate some follows to get more exposure for Indy horror writers and presses!

You can also find him on: X/Twitter@skullsnflames76

And we’re also on Goodreads and leave reviews on Amazon under the mortal’s name Brian James Lewis

Sonora Taylor

SONORA TAYLOR’S “SOMEONE TO SHARE MY NIGHTMARES” IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I’VE READ THIS YEAR!

December 15, 2021Leave a comment

SOMEONE TO SHARE MY NIGHTMARES
Sonora Taylor
October 19, 2021
Reviewed by Brian “Skull” Lewis

Hello there fans of horror and speculative fiction. It’s your old pal Skull here to share a cool collection of short stories with one and all. Sonora Taylor’s recently released collection Someone To Share My Nightmares is fucking AMAZING! That’s right, I said it and no one’s paying me to offer high praise like that, but it’s the truth. Once again, Taylor shows that the ladies can be just as scary as the gents. Maybe even scarier, because she gives us the perfect balance of hot and cold, wet and sweat, topped with shouts of terror and screams of ecstasy. Someone To Share My Nightmares is packed with powerful, well-crafted stories that this reviewer couldn’t tear himself away from.

The book kicks off with a couple of really cool things: A forward by V. Castro that gives readers a wonderful picture of the very modest Sonora Taylor and what she’s doing to make the world a better place. As I frequently say, you will find the most compassionate people in horror. There’s a lot more to us than scaring people. Check it out! The other thing is a notice that the author has included a list of possible trigger warnings in the back of the book. That way, those that require that feature get it and the rest of us are none the wiser until we read Taylor’s work. Hooray for no spoilers!

Someone To Share My Nightmares is the opening tale for this great collection and really sets the tone for the book. Taylor doesn’t write about wimpy women who are little balls of fluff that scream their heads off and wait to be saved by a hunky man. Protagonist Kristin is a strong woman with her own viewpoints, strengths, and desires. She lives in Creekwood, a place frequented by bravado-fueled arty types who think they can explain the dark forest there. But the forest doesn’t want to be exposed, violated, or used to make money. The same can be said about women. Some things are meant to be secret, revealed to only a select few. Kristin enjoys the hunky man but also understands that she is at one with the forest.

Bump In The Night is a cleverly woven tale of lust, terror, that also gives props to plus size sexiness, interracial love, and same sex fun. What’s not to like? I’m just going to say right here and now, if you’ve got a problem with big women being luscious or people loving who they want to love, then you’re reading the wrong book, blog, and review. We’re not going to get along. A good time is saved by magic.

The Parrot is a chilling story with a twist ending I didn’t expect. Whoa! In these modern times, the majority of the population rely on digital assistants. Ask Alexa for a recipe, use your cellphone to shut off the lights, autopay your bills…There are even little robots that can roam about your home meeting your needs. But what if someone was able to twist that technology around for evil purposes? Charles is an asshole who thinks that he controls his wife, Melinda. He likes to hurt women and force them to do what he wants. He even has Melinda make him a personal assistant called Parrot, never suspecting that it might have other uses. Then his wife suddenly ends up dead and the Parrot starts to malfunction, showing him strange things on TV. Somebody is in control and it damn sure isn’t Charles. Satisfying conclusion for all of us who hate domestic abuse.

Prefer an ecohorror tale about a man and woman working equally together? Then check out The Sharps! Scientist Camila is a biologist doing research at her isolated cabin, which normally is a pretty chill time. But not when the sharps make their unwanted appearance, trapping her there. Enter ecological activist, Joseph who also ends up stranded by the sharps on Camila’s island. There’s romance but also two people working together towards a positive end. Equality is a lot more sexy than the outdated Hollywood stereotype of an overly brawny guy seizing the reigns and dragging a scrawny little honey who can barely lift a fork (obviously!) to safety. Sonora Taylor’s “The Sharps” is an awesome story that’s also the perfect amount of hot. BRAVO!!!

The verdict, if you can’t tell already, is that Damaged Skull Writer rates Someone To Share My Nightmares by one of my absolutely favorite authors Sonora Taylor, a hearty FIVE AND A HALF STARS out of 5! This fine paperback is also in a place of honor on the Skullcave’s Wall of Fame. I mean, seriously, if you don’t have this book, I recommend you grab yourself copy NOW. There’s a long cold winter ahead, which is great for reading in bed. Someone To Share My Nightmares will not only give you chills, but heat you up as well. It also includes many more tales than the ones I’ve mentioned!

Sonora Taylor www.sonorawrites.com is the author of many fine books, including: Seeing Things, and Little Paranoias: Stories. Both of which have been reviewed by your old pal Skull right here at: www.damagedskullwriterandreviewer.com Once again, thank you for reading and sharing this post. I’m also looking for more followers of my WordPress blog, which will cost you absolutely nothing but helps more independent authors and presses to get positive exposure. I only post once or twice a week, so I won’t bombard your inbox with a lot of extraneous garbage either. Damaged Skull Writer is a safe space that has no room for hate.