Cover Artist: Mikio Murakami
Description
Between the covers of Darkest Hours, you will find academics in distress; humans abusing monsters; demons terrorizing people; ghostly reminiscences; resurrected trauma; and occult filmmaking. Ranging from satirical to dreadful, these sixteen stories share a distinct voice: urgent, sardonic, and brutal.
This expanded edition includes a new foreword by Sadie Hartmann (Mother Horror) and author notes for every story describing Thorn’s process, influences, and more. This updated release also features seventeen of Thorn’s essays on horror cinema, which cover films by Tobe Hooper, George A. Romero, Rob Zombie, M. Night Shyamalan, Wes Craven, and Dario Argento, among others.
“Mike Thorn manages to find new and shocking ways to traumatize his readers, in the best sense. Even for a seasoned genre veteran, there are some truly scary and disturbing journeys to be taken in Darkest Hours. Mike is the real deal. A startlingly talented author with an imagination H. P. Lovecraft would have envied.”
– Jamie Blanks, director of Urban Legend and Valentine
“A collection of horror stories that are not only scary, but also intelligent, thoughtful, and carefully planned.”
– iHorror
“The element of surprise is a tribute to Thorn's ingenuity; the assuredness of his prose is due to his extensive knowledge of the horror genre. Perfectly paced from the first sentence, these stories grab you by the collar with the urgency of mortal danger. Highly recommended.”
– S.P. Miskowski, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Strange is the Night
“Mike Thorn is inescapable, and he understands that most terrifying variety of monsters, the hidden ones, the inner ones. They’re on display here. Savor the experience."
– Robert Dunbar, author of The Pines
“Mike Thorn is an author to watch. I think he’s going to do great things in the world of horror and dark fiction, and I for one, will be there to watch it. Will you?”
– Char’s Horror Corner
Biography
Mike Thorn is the author of the novel Shelter for the Damned. His second short story collection, Peel Back and See, is coming soon from JournalStone. His fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, including Vastarien, Dark Moon Digest, The NoSleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify, and Prairie Gothic. His film criticism has been published in MUBI Notebook, The Film Stage, Seventh Row, In Review Online, and Vague Visages. He completed his M.A. with a major in English literature at the University of Calgary, where he wrote a thesis on epistemophobia in John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness. Connect with him on Twitter (@MikeThornWrites) and visit his website: mikethornwrites.com.
