Dusk to Dawn: Reading Horror and Weird Fiction

Discussing North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud

This debut short story collection features nine tales of down and out ex-cons, single parents, unemployed laborers, and other desperate characters living on the margins of society, encountering horrors both human and supernatural.

Next Up:
Candy Cain Kills – Brian McAuley
Krampus: The Yule Lord – Gerald Brom
Fever House – Keith Rosson

Books Me...

Discussing Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

An asshole scientist channels his energy into bringing the dead back to life which he abhors the moment the experiment succeeds. People suffer and die and Victor feels little to no remorse over the whole thing. Meanwhile, the creature just wants to do people’s chores in exchange for not being hated on sight.

Next Up:
North American Lake Monsters – Nathan Ballingrud
C...

Discussing Yeehaw Junction by Kayli Scholz

When a family of thieves and runaways joins the search for a missing girl in rural Florida, they’re drawn into a chemical conspiracy that extends far beyond their worst nightmares.

Join us in this special bonus episode talking about a very weird, very Florida book!

Next Up:
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
North American Lake Monsters – Nathan Ballingrud
Candy Cain ...

Discussing The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi

Old people are dropping like flies at the Autumn Springs Retirement Home and nobody seems to care until one Rose DuBois smells foul play, recruiting her best friend Miller to help investigate the string of deaths. Could it be the youthful and ubiquitous Administrator Blackwell, the cackling Baxter Sisters casting spells in the old asylum, or someone ...

Discussing Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place on earth as every child’s favorite ice princess. By night, she haunts dive bars in the Sunset Strip with a drink in one hand and a book in the other. Add in a few splashes of murder and horniness, and we're off!

Next Up:
The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – Philip Fracassi
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Candy Cai...

Discussing Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

8 million people were killed in the now infamous Low Probability Event. Fish fell from the sky, manholes exploded, animals ran amok, and everything else impossible and improbable occurred all at once in a spasm of murderous chaos. Four years after the LPE, Vera struggles to find meaning in life when Special Agent Layne barges in with orders to help him investigate a Las Vegas casino bel...

Discussing Tastes Like Candy by Jessica Lacy

The incoming seniors at Pritchett High go on a scavenger hunt at the Poison Apple Halloween Carnival. Things go poorly for the girls in this gory, bubblegum slasher.

Next Up:
Lucky Day – Chuck Tingle
Maeve Fly – CJ Leede
The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – Philip Fracassi

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Fr...

Discussing The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

12-year-old Robert Stephens Jr. gets sentenced to six months' time at the Gracetown School for Boys, a haunted reform school in the Jim Crow South run by a sadistic warden.

Next Up:
Tastes Like Candy – Jessica Lacy
Lucky Day – Chuck Tingle
Maeve Fly – C.J. Leede

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, The G...

Discussing G-Fest, Chicago Bookstores, Summer Reading

Summerween... Midsommar update... call it what you want, we miss you!

Next Up:
Season 2 begins September 2! Stay tuned to dusk.to.dawn.podcast for the reading list.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
The Penguin Book of Demons
The Penguin Book of the Undead
The Penguin Book of Witches
Last Evenings on Earth – Roberto Bolaño
Occul...

Discussing Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

The meat processing industry... with humans!

Next Up:
Summer break! See you again in September (and maybe once or twice over the summer). Stay tuned for the Season 2 reading list!

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, Matar a la niña, The Unworthy – Agustina Bazterrica
Nestlings, Mary: An Awakening of Terror – Na...

Discussing The Road Through the Wall by Shirley Jackson

Nobody likes anyone else on Pepper Street. Poor Caroline.

Next Up:
Tender Is the Flesh – Agustina Bazterrica

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery – Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin
The Diving Pool – Yoko Ogawa
Morality, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams – Steph...

Discussing The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

A group of friends from the Blackfeet Nation – Ricky, Lewis, Cass, and Gabe – trespasses into the elder section of the reservation hunting grounds to pursue a herd of elk. The resulting hunt has dire consequences that haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Next Up (in order):
The Road Through the Wall – Shirley Jackson
Tender Is the Flesh – Agustina Bazterrica

Books Men...

Discussing A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

A Mormon man goes to library hell.

Next Up (in order):
The Only Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones
The Road Through the Wall – Shirley Jackson
Tender Is the Flesh – Agustina Bazterrica

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
The Library of Babel, Ficciones – Jorge Luis Borges
Finnegan's Wake – James Joyce
Song for the Unraveling of the World – Brian Evenson
M...

Discussing Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

A lonely 19 year old girl makes friends with a vampire at her castle in the woods of Austria. Things get steamy between them in a delicious serving of gothic tropes.

Next Up:
The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones
or maybe A Short Stay In Hell - Steven L. Peck

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
The Castle of Otranto – Horace Walpole
Vathek - William Beckford
The Mysteries...

Discussing Where I End by Sophie White

A young woman goes loopy caring for her invalid mother on a craggy island off the west coast of Ireland.

Next Up:
Carmilla - Sheridan Le Fanu

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
Corpsing – Sophie White
We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
My Darling Dreadful Thing – Johanna van Veen
Dust & Grim – Chuck Wendig
Edward II – Christopher Marlowe

Episode Trigger ...

Discussing The Fisherman by John Langan

Two widowers strike up a friendship fishing. Things get fishy.

Next Up:
Where I End - Sophie White

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
The Book of Job – Old Testament
Maeve Fly - CJ Leede
At Dark, I Become Loathsome - Eric LaRocca
Between Two Fires - Christopher Buehlman
Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty - Dan Jones
Dark Tales - Shirley Jackson
Cannibalism: A Perfect...

Discussing Such Lovely Skin by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

A self-absorbed Twitch streamer accidentally causes her little sister's death and is now being haunted by a mimic summoned through a horror video game.

Next Up:
The Fisherman - John Langan

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
Only the Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones
The Mean Ones - Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
Wi...

Discussing Punk Rock Ghost Story by David Agranoff

A punk band goes on tour in a haunted van. Things end badly.

Check out the Playlist on Spotify: Punk Rock Ghost Story 

Next Up:
Such Lovely Skin - Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
We Sold Our Souls – Grady Hendrix
The Last Night to Kill Nazis, Boot Boys of the Wolf Reich, Goddamn Killing Machines, The Vegan Revolution... with Zombies – David Agranoff