Category: Uncategorized

Source: strangebooks.com

This is likely a good source for good literature. And anyway, I like this Mike’s picture on his About Page on WordPress. 😘💝🤣🇺🇸🎇🙏🏻🙏🏿🙏🏽🌏🌎🌍🌈💛💜💚❤️💙

Cover design: Mike Russell

Published December 31st 2014 by StrangeBooks
Format: eBook
Author: Mike Russell
Genre: Short stories, fiction
Pages: 146
Star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Opening line:

“Mr Spencer’s scones are legendary.”

Goodreads synopsis:

20 mind-expanding short stories.
Inspiring, liberating, otherworldly, magical, surreal, bizarre, funny, disturbing, unique… all of these words have been used to describe the stories of Mike Russell so put on your top hat, open your third eye and enjoy: Nothing Is Strange

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When I began reading this collection I was more than addicted to Mike Russell’s strange fiction. The title Nothing is Strange caught my attention more than anything because it seemed to contradict everything I had encountered so far since delving into this odd world of peculiar characters.

I thought ‘will these stories be somehow…less strange?‘ and I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I shouldn’t…

Nothing is Strange by Mike Russell

4/5 stars

Genre: Science Fiction
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 144
Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication date: December 31, 2015

A man called Dunce who is bald with a pointed head, a couple who wishes that their genitals would fall off, and a clone who gets locked up in a shed, are all different types of people who make appearances in Nothing is Strange. The 20 short stories exist in their own fantastical lands that each have their own special laws of physics. What happens when right arms are nonexistent or the act of crying is never heard of? These things are just normal occurrences in Mike Russell’s writings.

Earlier this year, I was gifted a copy of Mike Russell’s other book, Strange Medicine. It was the first short collection in a long time that I actually enjoyed. I went into Nothing is Strange with…

Strange Medicine by Mike Russell

Mike Russell is back to scramble your brains!! this time with tiny little stories…little pills, if you will, that are truly, truly, truly strange.

Reading this collection of short stories is very much like untying yourself from this world and losing sense of gravity, they all make enough sense to be human, but they mainly twist you upside down and leave you stuck to the ceiling with a confusing feeling in your stomach.

within 141 pages, Mike Russell tells 8 stories that all seem to have their own meaning, I feel that if you decipher them enough they are somewhat a cautionary tale…of what? maybe to step out of the normality? the meaning of the subject is in the eye of the beholder.

What I love about Russell’s writing is how detached it is. The characters describe objects to every inch/measurement, and they converse…

I started the summer by delving back into Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, a collection of short stories from early in Clive Barker’s career.

Clive Barker started out writing horror. His novella, The Hellbound Heart , went on to became the original Hellraiser film, which Barker himself wrote and directed. If you haven’t heard of the Hellraiser film series, you may be more familiar with it’s scary character, Pinhead.

Books of Blood were published in 1984-1985 a year or two before The Hellbound Heart. There are six volumes in total, however today they are generally available in two omnibus editions of volumes 1-3 and volumes 4-6. I haven’t read much of volumes 4-6, however I started reading volumes 1-3 back in 2006, this summer I had the urge to pick it off the shelf and revisit it.

I’m glad I did, Books of Blood is as compelling as when…

Firstly I wish to thank Jay Snelling of STRANGE BOOKS for inviting me to read and review this book.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

We recommend the following prescription: Strange Medicine – weird and wonderful stories for all that ails you.
Strange Medicine is a fantastic collection of extraordinary tales of transformation by UK weird-fiction author Mike Russell. If you love the strange, surreal and unusual or if you are just looking for something different, Strange Medicine is for you.

HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS AND REVIEW

I love stories that are different, the ones that make you think outside the box, well this book is so removed from that, that is doesn’t even have a box! If you like weird or strange you will absolutely love this the bizarre concoction of 8 tales that you couldn’t even dream about. Some of the stories I found very intriguing with quite deep meanings when you really…

When I began to read Strungballs I wasn’t sure what to expect! Published by strangebooks I knew that this was going to be a very different read to what I was used to. A YA novel set in an alternative world where everyone is expected to give up cubes of skin and must wear Strungballs in there place, this is a novel for older readers with a fast-paced and unexpected story to tell.

With measurements and times used to create a regimented experience, the wooden language of characters and the repetitive type of the world Sydney lives in, the novel feels oppressive. Similar to other speculative fiction in its early chapters, I was reminded of controlling societies from other novels. Strungballs is different in what happens next and I would warn any squeamish readers this book might not be for them as the details are sometimes grissly.

This is a…