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BOOK REVIEW: Laurel Hightower’s ‘Crossroads’ is Beautifully Horrifying

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Crossroads

There is something inherently devastating about Laurel Hightower’s new novella. Titled Crossroads, the author dives deep into what it means to love someone so much more than yourself that you will give anything and everything to protect them and give them a second chance.

As the novella opens, it has been two years since Chris lost her son, Trey, in a tragic single-car accident. Almost every day she goes to the marker she erected at the sight of the accident to talk to him, carrying on an internal dialogue with the son she will never see again. So she thinks…

On one fateful day, she accidentally opens a cut on her hand at the memorial site and a few drops of blood soak into the ground. That night, she sees her son, not in a dream, not in a fit of imagination. He stands just beneath her window in the middle of the night, and from that moment on, her obsession–already unhealthy by some standards–grows by leaps and bounds.

Hightower wastes no time in opening a door into the secret life led by Chris. Sure, she goes to work and occasionally she has a drink with the next door neighbor, but Trey is her real life. Trey takes up her every spare moment. It is unhealthy, but it is all she knows.

As a reader, this peek into another’s life is often uncomfortable, and there were moments when I wanted to reach into the pages to try to talk Chris out of taking the next inevitable step.

Of course, we can’t do that. We can only turn the page and face the consequences with her.

What I find most interesting about the novel, however, is the idea of sacrifice tied to the crossroads. This is hardly a new idea. Tales of the mystic nature of the meeting of two roads go back at least as far as the ancient Greeks who, among their many gods and goddesses, worshiped the dark goddess Hecate sometimes called “the Goddess of the Crossroads.”

When something has existed for that long, no matter how it has changed throughout countless millennia, it speaks to us on a primal level and awakens dormant parts of our psyches if only for a moment. It is as foreign to us in 2020 as the idea of sacrifice, and yet it is powerful enough to force us to turn away with goose-pimpled flesh from darkened corners that no doubt hides horrors whose names we have long-forgotten.

Hightower teases that part of our brain repeatedly throughout Crossroads, twisting emotional screws inside us until we are not sure if we are horrified or heartbroken. If the reader is honest, by the time the last page is turned, they can admit they are standing on the very crossroads where those two things meet.

Now you must ask yourself an important question. “What am I willing to leave behind?”

Crossroads is the first novella published by Off Limits Press, a new indie publisher with Samantha Kolesnik at its helm. If this is the kind of stories she intends to publish, we could very well see great things going forward.

You can pre-order Crossroads by Laurel Hightower today on Amazon by CLICKING HERE. At only 110 pages, it’s a quick read that will grip you from cover to cover.

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‘Alien’ is Being Made Into a Children’s ABC Book

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Alien Book

That Disney buyout of Fox is making for strange crossovers. Just look at this new children’s book that teaches children the alphabet via the 1979 Alien movie.

From the library of Penguin House’s classic Little Golden Books comes A is for Alien: An ABC Book.

Pre-Order Here

The next few years are going to be big for the space monster. First, just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, we are getting a new franchise film called Alien: Romulus. Then Hulu, also owned by Disney is creating a television series, although they say that might not be ready until 2025.

The book is currently available for pre-order here, and is set to release on July 9, 2024. It might be fun to guess which letter will represent which part of the movie. Such as “J is for Jonesy” or “M is for Mother.”

Romulus will be released in theaters on August 16, 2024. Not since 2017 have we revisited the Alien cinematic universe in Covenant. Apparently, this next entry follows, “Young people from a distant world facing the most terrifying life form in the universe.”

Until then “A is for Anticipation” and “F is for Facehugger.”

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Holland House Ent. Announces New Book “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

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Screenwriter and Director Tom Holland is delighting fans with books containing scripts, visual memoirs, continuation of stories, and now behind-the-scenes books on his iconic films. These books offer a fascinating glimpse into the creative process, script revisions, continued stories and the challenges faced during production. Holland’s accounts and personal anecdotes provide a treasure trove of insights for movie enthusiasts, shedding new light on the magic of filmmaking! Check out the press release below on Hollan’s newest fascinating story of the making of his critically acclaimed horror sequel Psycho II in a brand new book!

Horror icon and filmmaker Tom Holland returns to the world he envisioned in 1983’s critically acclaimed feature film Psycho II in the all-new 176-page book Oh Mother, What Have You Done? now available from Holland House Entertainment.

‘Psycho II’ House. “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

Authored by Tom Holland and containing unpublished memoirs by late Psycho II director Richard Franklin and conversations with the film’s editor Andrew London, Oh Mother, What Have You Done? offers fans a unique glimpse into the continuation of the beloved Psycho film franchise, which created nightmares for millions of people showering worldwide.

Created using never-before-seen production materials and photos – many from Holland’s own personal archive – Oh Mother, What Have You Done? abounds with rare hand-written development and production notes, early budgets, personal Polaroids and more, all set against fascinating conversations with the film’s writer, director and editor which document the development, filming, and reception of the much-celebrated Psycho II.  

‘Oh Mother, What Have you Done? – The Making of Psycho II

Says author Holland of writing Oh Mother, What Have You Done? (which contains an afterward by Bates Motel producer Anthony Cipriano), I wrote Psycho II, the first sequel that began the Psycho legacy, forty years ago this past summer, and the film was a huge success in the year 1983, but who remembers? To my surprise, apparently, they do, because on the film’s fortieth anniversary love from fans began to pour in, much to my amazement and pleasure. And then (Psycho II director) Richard Franklin’s unpublished memoirs arrived unexpectedly. I’d had no idea he’d written them before he passed in 2007.”

“Reading them,” continues Holland, “was like being transported back in time, and I had to share them, along with my memories and personal archives with the fans of Psycho, the sequels, and the excellent Bates Motel. I hope they enjoy reading the book as much as I did in putting it together. My thanks to Andrew London, who edited, and to Mr. Hitchcock, without whom none of this would have existed.”

“So, step back with me forty years and let’s see how it happened.”

Anthony Perkins – Norman Bates

Oh Mother, What Have You Done? is available now in both hardback and paperback through Amazon and at Terror Time (for copies autographed by Tom Holland)

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Sequel to ‘Cujo’ Just One Offering in New Stephen King Anthology

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It’s been a minute since Stephen King put out a short story anthology. But in 2024 a new one containing some original works is getting published just in time for summer. Even the book title “You Like It Darker,” suggests the author is giving readers something more.

The anthology will also contain a sequel to King’s 1981 novel “Cujo,” about a rabid Saint Bernard that wreaks havoc on a young mother and her child trapped inside a Ford Pinto. Called “Rattlesnakes,” you can read an excerpt from that story on Ew.com.

The website also gives a synopsis of some of the other shorts in the book: “The other tales include ‘Two Talented Bastids,’ which explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills, and ‘Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,’ about a brief and unprecedented psychic flash that upends dozens of lives. In ‘The Dreamers,’ a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored while ‘The Answer Man’ asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.”

Here’s the table of contents from “You Like It Darker,”:

  • “Two Talented Bastids”
  • “The Fifth Step”
  • “Willie the Weirdo”
  • “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream”
  • “Finn”
  • “On Slide Inn Road”
  • “Red Screen”
  • “The Turbulence Expert”
  • “Laurie”
  • “Rattlesnakes”
  • “The Dreamers”
  • “The Answer Man”

Except for “The Outsider” (2018) King has been releasing crime novels and adventure books instead of true horror in the past few years. Known mostly for his terrifying early supernatural novels such as “Pet Sematary,” “It,” “The Shining” and “Christine,” the 76-year-old author has diversified from what made him famous starting with “Carrie” in 1974.

A 1986 article from Time Magazine explained that King planned on quitting horror after he wrote “It.” At the time he said there was too much competition, citing Clive Barker as “better than I am now” and “a lot more energetic.” But that was almost four decades ago. Since then he’s written some horror classics such as “The Dark Half, “Needful Things,” “Gerald’s Game,” and “Bag of Bones.”

Maybe the King of Horror is waxing nostalgic with this latest anthology by revisiting the “Cujo” universe in this latest book. We will have to find out when “You Like It Darker” hits bookshelves and digital platforms starting May 21, 2024.

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