Cemetery Dance: Issue 74-75 by Richard Chizmar

Cemetery Dance: Issue 74-75 Reviews

• 
  Karl

  This Hardcover copy is numbered 76 of 600 copies signed by Richard Chizmar.
• 
  Alex

  “Snapshot” is a fascinating novella that defies categorization outside Weird. The tension is released a bit soon for horror, the impacts from the later portions of the frame narrative a little too fantastic for magical realism. But regardless of any cozy compartment, the regrets of aging and the aching loss of a loved one due to Alzheimer’s is brutally delivered. It’s interesting that the timeline of the story also parallels the career of Jack Kevorkian, as the aim of his life’s work is discussed while he is not.
  
  My favorite line feels like an homage to William Gibson: “The sky was the exact filthy gray of a Polaroid just beginning to develop.”
  
• 
  John J Questore

  You've probably read multiple magazines in your life, right? I mean, we all have. But I'm sure 99% of you would say that you have never read an entire magazine - cover to cover, including the advertisements. Am I right? Well, the reason for that is that you've never read Cemetery Dance magazine. And while I have read a few magazines to 90%, I have never read every word on every page until this issue.
  
  We start off with some poignant words from publisher/executive editor, Richard Chizmar. If the name sounds familiar, then you have been reading my reviews. He is not only the owner of Cemetery Dance Publications, but a phenomenal author as well.
  
  Since this is a special Joe Hill edition, we follow that with a quick blurb on Joe, an excerpt from his newest novel The Fireman, an in-depth interview with Joe, and then a Joe Hill novella: Snapshot 1988. Wow, so much power packed into the first 62 pages of this 192 page double issue.
  
  Snapshot 1988 is a great story about stealing memories. I don't want to say too much, just that it was worth the read.
  
  Following that is a story by another favorite author of mine - Lisa Morton. The Rich Are Different was one messed up, frighting, enjoyable read.
  
  How do you top that? Well, throw in a story by Josh Malerman concerning matter, and moving through it. Great story about determination.
  
  And while the remains stories were right on par for readability, and enjoyment, the absolute best article I have read in a long, long time was The Mothers and Fathers Italian Association - an article by Thomas F. Monteleone. I enjoyed it so much that I sought him out and had to tell him so. It is a irreverent, non-politically correct editorial on just how politically correct even the publishing industry has become. To quote, "I couldn't give less of a flying f#@k what color a writer is. Either he can write or he can't. The only colors that should matter to writers are black type on a white page. Anything else is high octane PC bull$hit, and my tolerance for that substance is zero." Is that not beautiful ?!?
  
  I can go into so much more detail, but then this review would turn out to be 194 pages as well. If you are lucky enough to be able to snag a copy of this magazine (Issue #74/75), I highly recommend it.
• 
  R. Andrew Lamonica

  Creepy and well plotted. It almost seems like it could be an episode of Stranger Things if that show told a different story each episode.
  
  I really liked the fact that the hero of this moody story is bumbling and awkward. That, plus the fact that the other characters are all fallible gives them more weight than many characters from much longer works of fiction. My one gripe is that Mr. Hill doesn't seem to have actually spent any time in the Bay Area (where most of the story takes place). The weather in the story provides an important plot-point, but it is utterly unrealistic for this part of the West Coast.
• 
  Becky

  Finally finished off this horror magazine I started at the beginning of the year. Most of the short stories, especially Joe Hill's Snapshot were creepy enjoyable reads. A few of the stories leaned a bit heavily for my taste on the protagonists acting in weird horror story ways, which I found unsatisfying. The non-fiction for the most part was lackluster, most especially the essay bemoaning how PC culture is ruining things blah blah which left a sour taste in my mouth.
• 
  Noe

  This is the first thing I've ever read by Joe Hill. I realize he is not his dad, yet I expected him to have his own voice, for whatever reason. He doesn't, of course, but that's a good thing. I don't even want to think the day we lose Sai King, but at least we have Joe to follow his steps and keep scaring us with strange tales that simply cannot be.
• 
  Leslie

  Kind of sentimental.
• 
  Rachael

  I love Cemetary Dance Magazines!! Such great stuff packed into this one!! And a Joe Hill special at that.
  
  Happy Reading.....
• 
  Eddie Generous

  Unnerving Magazine Review
  Spur of the moment, step aside reviews waiting in the wings because I get excited about reading a publication where I get to flip real life pages!
  Reviewing magazines is a whole bin of candy worms, squirmies if you’re a Bulk Barn shopper, that Unnerving Magazine isn’t quite ready to jump into. However, there are exceptions to every rule, written in washable marker or not. The most recent issue of Cemetery Dance features a novella by Joe Hill, the following review is of said novella, as I haven’t had the time to read anything else of the magazine just yet, and as I mentioned, can’t really see reviewing a magazine, not with so many different parts.
  Anyway, Snapshot, 1988. The narrator is a man recalling his chubster boyhood, a character that brings to mind Jerry O’Connell's performance in Stand by Me, the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Body, sincerely. Once the brain settles in and stops spotting potential inspiration sources, the quality of this story reveals itself.
  It’s intriguing and suspenseful from almost the very beginning, takes a designed dip, lulling for the notion of safety before a dark birdie chirps its hunger once again. There are hard truths in this fantasy and developing, rounded and plausible characters reacting reasonably really assisted in bringing across a message that demanded big emotion from a not so long story.
  The idea is fun and no less sinister for its rather pedestrian seeming designs on tyranny. Presenting a tool of destruction in the body of an everyday object is great way to mount terror and rattle the rib cages over the long run. Can’t really call the cops with concerns about a man is rolling around in a Caddy packing a Polaroid, can ya?
  High-quality writing, fine pacing, strong characters and a true notion of fear pack together in a truly heart-hammering, heart-wrenching tale of the fantastic.
  Cemetery Dance has never failed me and featuring stories like Snapshot, 1988 is why.
• 
  Kandice

  Review to follow
• 
  Sean Carlin

  This is a review of the trade paperback release, not the hardcover limited edition.
  
  Even at its $14.95 cover price, you get your money's worth with this double-sized issue, chock full of good short stories and some excellent essays. Here are some of the highlights, in my estimation:
  
  - "An Interview with Joe Hill" by
  Bev Vincent. Hill is a fascinating, well-spoken man, and offers great insights into his latest novel,
  The Fireman, his writing process, and the perils of social media.
  
  - "Snapshot, 1988" by
  Joe Hill. A wistful novella about the nature of memory, with a truly frightening new villain: the Phoenician.
  
  - "Matter" by
  Josh Malerman. Very short but very effective story from the author of the brilliant and terrifying
  Bird Box. Malerman's work always has a unique point of view and something to say; he is one of the great emerging voices in horror/dark fantasy.
  
  -
  Michael Marano's Mediadrome column, which a explores (and rightly criticizes) a phenomenon he's identified as "fascia filmmaking," citing Jurassic World, Fantastic Four, and Spectre as examples, in which a film exists as "mostly just connective tissue linking to the next movie(s) in the franchise, at the cost of narrative and emotional cogency in the movie itself that you're currently watching." It's a great, thought-provoking piece -- a must-read.
  
  - The latest entry in
  Mark Sieber's Horror Drive-In column, "The Dreaded Hard Sell," a cautionary tale for self-published authors who hawk their wares like used-car salesmen.
  
  - "Autophagy" by
  Ray Garton, a squirm-inducing short story that will have you shifting uncomfortably in your seat as you read it.
  
  - "The Blue House" by
  Bruce McAllister, a nice haunted-house yarn.
  
  - "The Lazarus Effect" by
  JG Flaherty, a standard-issue zombie story expertly elevated above the pack by a compelling central relationship and stronger theme work than one usually finds in this subgenre.
  
  -
  Ian Rogers' "Eyes Like Poisoned Wells" is a really cool (supernatural) twist on the age-old hardboiled detective story, even if the month in which the story takes place is identified first as October and then, a few pages later, as July.
  
  - "A Man's Heart Is Stonier" by Bev Vincent offers some nice background on the development of
  Stephen King's
  Pet Sematary.
  
  - "A Stony Heart" by
  Stewart O'Nan is a concise review of Pet Sematary -- a good counterpart to Vincent's contextual piece.
  
  In summary, this issue features a wealth of worthwhile content (more than what I've spotlighted above) that makes it worth reading -- and owning -- for connoisseurs of horror/suspense/dark fantasy.
• 
  Susan

  wow... not 100% sure that description could be more misleading
  
  the story itself was awesome and I loved the Locke & Key universe link-in
  
  heheh