Tag: Tenebrous Press

Book Review – Olyoke

Olyoke, by Vincent Endwell. Coming in March 2026.

The cover to Olyoke by Vincent Endwell. It shows a landscape with a distant town and amusement park amid green hills. In the foreground, an amorphous figure that is vaguely human floats in the sky.

This was another ARC from Tenebrous Press, which is doing lots of cool things with horror in the weird mode. Many of the books they put out fall outside my personal taste zone, but I always appreciate the creativity and drive behind them. But this one fell well within that zone.

I am going to struggle to summarize this one because it is… Nebulous. I think it qualifies as a collection of short stories, but all of the stories fit together to create a much bigger story, which is probably why Tenebrous lists it as a novel on the website. The stories are, or the novel is, all set in and talk about the town of Olyoke, built on a swamp in Tennessee, but the Tennessee is arguably not the one we know. Because things happen in Olyoke that do not happen in our world, and no one really seems to question that.

The swamp is full of gray-eyed worms and gray-eyed people who have lived there since long before. Ghosts of people who never died haunt the religious/music theme park. The men who drained swampland to build the town vanished in the night or went mad because they drank the water flowing from a mysterious girl trapped in a tree. And people in the town dream of other worlds where they have other faces, and an approaching cataclysm that is either a cleansing flame or an unstoppable titan was foretold by one of several prophets who founded cults in the town.

It is all capital-w Weird.

And it is not just the subject matter that dodges easy grasp. The way Endwell approaches the writing is squirmy, too. Things are simply left unexplained, such as who the hell “Holly” is, the subject of the theme park that dominates the town’s center. Or why the town is overrun by red-frogs, which also seem to carry a plague?

Then there is the language use. Endwell approaches language in a not-too-unusual manner, except for the (very “now”) flexibility of pronoun use, which comes across at first as quite gender-aware until you meet someone who goes by “it” who might, actually, not be a someone?

Now, I will say that things come together. There are lots of unanswered questions but they are of the sort that really don’t need answers. And the ending, as such, does not leave the reader dissatisfied so much as… In a state of wonder. Dazed, even. Because this collection, or novel, or whatever it is seems to be swirling somewhere above mere storytelling, much as the figure on the cover swirls above the world.

This was a fascinating book. An eminently readable book. And, dare I say, an enjoyable one, if a bit outre. For those who look for stories that avoid pat explanations and neatly tied-up ends, this is definitely one worth pre-ordering.

Book Review – Dear Stupid Penpal

I signed up for ARCs from weird horror publisher Tenebrous Press, and this one showed up recently.

I try to be judicious with my reading time and don’t hesitate to stop reading books that don’t interest me. I finished this, and was happy to do so… With some caveats.

Essentially, it’s an epistolary story about love growing over email, between a character name Aku and another, Atticus “Finch” Davani. These are the “Penpals” of the title.

The cover to Dear Stupid Penpal by Rascal Hartley. It looks like a spaceship cockpit against the emptiness of space with digital noise running up the left side.
Dear Stupid Penpal by Rascal Hartley

Finch is on board a spaceship and Aku back on earth, and they fall in love as they communicate across the void. Complications and drama ensue.

There are things I really liked about this one. Aku in the story is a poet, and his voice is actually poetic. Some of the writing in his letters is achingly beautiful.

Hartley did a wonderful job in general with voice and pace. There were lots of fun little interacts that felt really natural.

And, I suppose given the day and age, it’s important to mention that this is a queer love story, of several flavors, with wide representation: disability, religion, and color.

So, I want to commend  Hartley on writing a beautiful story that moves quickly.

If that sounds like something you’d like, in a near future weird SF/light horror story, then I think you’ll really enjoy this one. Stop reading this review and go pre-order/read this book.

And if, by any chance, Rascal Hartley is reading this, good job! Seriously. Now, go live your life happily.

But, like I said, there are caveats. So if you’re curious about some nitpicky details, read on.

Warning: this part has some spoilers, because a basic plot point that I would normally put in a summary ends up being used as major turning point in the story… Oddly.

**Spoilers Start**

So, as mentioned, Finch is on a spacecraft. An interstellar one. Sent to explore the vast reaches of space beyond the solar system using a hyperdrive system.

And along the way, the crew suddenly has the terrifying, shocking realization of the existence of… Time dilation. One of the most basic of all SFnal concepts. One that I, a philosophy/linguistics student with no grasp of physics or math, have known about since elementary school.

I mean, once I saw the mention of “hyperdrive” I started thinking, “These folks sure are blasé about never seeing their friends or families again.”

Because, for those who don’t know, (theoretically) when you travel fast enough to reach other stars within a single human lifespan, you’re at a significant enough portion of light speed that time travels much, much more slowly for you than those not traveling. Your people back on earth will outstrip you, aging and dying while you live on.

But none of the crew of this highly advanced spacecraft with FTL communication equipment etc. knew about that?

Sure, we can assume the government is despicably trying to hide that this is essentially a mission from which there’s  no return to normal life, but the media didn’t notice it before the launch?

None of their friends had ever read any SF books?

The actual scientists aboard that ship didn’t think about it until after they left?

I have to be honest, I just assumed the crew was utterly unqualified  for the mission when that became clear. It’s obvious Atticus shouldn’t be there. I mean, he’s kind of an idiot. So, perhaps the government chose people it saw as useless and disposable to be the guinea pigs for this inaugural trip. They didn’t choose the best and brightest, that’s for sure.

But! If you can ignore all that and not think too deeply about two people who have never met falling so deeply in love over email that their love lasts *literal millennia* then this is a fun book that actually has many more plot points that remain unspoiled by this review.