Magnificent Octopus

For an entire year I spent my allowance on expensive medical books, while my friends all spent theirs on drugs. Nothing brought me as much h...

The mushrooms glowed brighter, and she thought perhaps later she might touch them, running her hands against the wall and settling her face ...

I mean, people have actually said to me, "Wow, I guess having cancer so young must have given you a whole new perspective on life?...

All I want on the screen, Arlo said, is the present tense. Anything is possible in the present tense. Failure and love and stillness and cha...

In the elevator, the silence made her arms itch and she was relieved when the foreman broke it, until he informed her that he had just obser...

I was reading in the metro this morning and I read a sentence that reminded me of another sentence. I made a mental note of the sentence and...

Far worse, though, was a low, powerful moaning at dusk. The wind off the sea and the odd interior stillness dulled our ability to gauge dire...

The unevolved axolotl is an apt pet for Javier Cetarti, although he comes to care for it quite by accident and later abandons it without a t...

The first few years of Helena's life, I used to imagine her dying. All the time. It was exhausting. Not senseless, horrific deaths, exac...

A sudden mist, a mumble of thunder over the sea, the wind scurrying along the beach with its crop of old bones and litter, was sometimes all...

This Census-Taker , by China Miéville, is short and creepy, and hints at a much larger narrative. Something small and intense that makes you...

It was as if dawn had been told to come quicker on that side, as if the greater emptiness of the streets sucked the light in. What watchers ...

I thoroughly enjoyed Slade House by David Mitchell. I turn round to tell Jonah to stop the game something's wrong, we need a grown-up....

Mrs. Todds my English teacher gives an automatic "F" if anyone ever writes "I woke up and it was all a dream" at the end...

David Cronenberg's short film The Nest documents a medical consultation with a woman who wants her left breast removed because she belie...

Edge , by Koji Suzuki, is billed as quantum horror. That is, it's horror derived from quantum physics. Or maybe it's that you don...

I'm mildly obsessed with Consumed , a new novel by David Cronenberg. I haven't actually read it yet — I'm still hoping someone w...

Importance of names — Most appellations appear to displease them; they would prefer not to be discussed at all, I believe. The expression ...

Another, this time animated, interpretation of Jeremias Gotthelf's story The Black Spider .

The Black Spider , by Jeremias Gotthelf, has an incredibly high creepiness factor. The exceedingly creepy cover should have fully primed my ...