In the bleak landscape of Darkest Hours, people make decisions that lead them into extreme scenarios - sometimes bizarre, often horrific, always unexpected. Between this book's covers you will find academics in distress; monsters abused by people; people terrorized by demons; ghostly reminiscences; resurrected trauma; and occult filmmaking. Ranging from satirical to dreadful, these stories share a distinct voice: urgent, sardonic, brutal, but always empathetic.

Darkest Hours

Literature & Fiction

Thorn, Mike

Genre Fiction

Unnerving

"Mike Thorn brings his masterful skill with immersive language and style to this beautiful and disturbing collection." - Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads and Whispers in the Dark\n"With Peel Back and See, Mike Thorn plants one bloody foot in the history of horror and the other firmly in its future." - Sam Richard, author of Sabbath of the Fox-Devils and To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows\nIn spaces both familiar and strange, unknowable horrors lurk.\nFrom the recesses of the Internet, where cosmic terror shows its face on an endless live feed, to a museum celebrating the sordid legacy of an occultist painter, this chilling collection of sixteen short stories will plunge you into the eerie, pessimistic imagination of Mike Thorn. Peel Back and See urges its readers to look closer, to push past surface-level appearances and face the things that stir below.\n"Mike Thorn's Peel Back and See is a stunning show-stopper of a fiction collection." - Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

Peel Back and See

JournalStone

"A terrifying descent into suburban addiction and male shame, Shelter for the Damned is a gripping, uncanny tale cut from the same cloth as Stephen King and John Carpenter." -Daniel Goldhaber, director of Cam While looking for a secret place to smoke cigarettes with his two best friends, troubled teenager Mark discovers a mysterious shack in a suburban field. Alienated from his parents and peers, Mark finds within the shack an escape greater than anything he has ever experienced. But it isn't long before the place begins revealing its strange, powerful sentience. And it wants something in exchange for the shelter it provides. Shelter for the Damned is not only a scary, fast-paced horror novel, but also an unflinching study of suburban violence, masculine conditioning, and adolescent rage.

Shelter for the Damned

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. &#65279;"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

Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition

Dreams Of Lake Drukka & Exhumation (Short Sharp Shocks!)

Independently published