Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

THE HANDYMAN METHOD by Nick Cutter and Andrew F. Sullivan

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In THE HANDYMAN METHOD by Nick Cutter and Andrew F. Sullivan, a man moves into a new home with his family, only to become obsessed with fixing its many deficiencies and by extension, his own manhood. I picked this one up after reading Sullivan’s THE MARIGOLD, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and after noting it was co-authored by Nick Cutter. I liked this one a lot.

In this story, Trent moves into a new house in an unfinished development with his successful wife Rita and son Milo. Soon after moving in, he notices a crack and turns to Handyman Hank, a YouTube DIY expert and all-around manly guy ready to offer home improvement advice along with his own aw-shucks wisdom about being a real man. As more things go wrong with the house, Trent finds himself immersing in Hank’s increasingly monstrous worldview, producing a horror story reminiscent of THE SHINING, if Jack Torrance were seduced by the toxic form of masculinity in order to solve his insecurities. He discovers he is a pawn, both in an ancient pact and of the house itself.

Some readers wanted more clarity in the narrative and a tidier landing, and I’m not sure I can argue with that, but I didn’t mind. I found the book a perfect blend of the authors’ strengths–Cutter’s fine skill at writing the horror set piece and Sullivan’s deep and provocative ideas that included his take on one of my favorite elements, the idea of a house within a house. Overall, I had a great time with this story. As with THE MARIGOLD, I appreciated Sullivan showing me something I hadn’t seen before along with his writing that again showed solid skill.

Check it out if you’re looking for something new from a haunted house story.

THE MARIGOLD by Andrew F. Sullivan

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In THE MARIGOLD, Andrew Sullivan delivers a weird and bold if sprawling story about a dystopian future Toronto, where rich developers satiate the earth with blood before building and a sentient fungus appears intent on making the city and possibly all of humanity its own. I loved it.

The novel has an ensemble cast doomed to play their parts in multiple, sometimes intersecting storylines. Decadent developers engaging in an ancient blood rite to fuel their real estate empires, public health workers investigating the monstrous fungus, teens probing the underworld to find a lost friend, and more. Through their perspectives, we see a Toronto built on blood, haunted by its victims, and possibly careening toward destruction. The book is sprawling in its scope and struck some readers as slow and a bit bloated, but I didn’t mind. In fact, I loved it for its bold and original ideas, general weirdness, provocative writing, and overall integrity. Sullivan gave me something I hadn’t seen before, and for that alone, he won my respect.

Check it out if you’re into eco-horror and looking for something new and different.

Cover Reveal for Q.R.F.

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Cover reveal for Q.R.F., my new military fiction novel coming out in late 2023! I love the simple look and how it captures the mood of the story.

A quick synopsis: When an old comrade doing humanitarian work is captured by the Islamic State during the Iraqi civil war in 2016, four war veterans leave their civilian lives to attempt a daring rescue in the most dangerous place on Earth.

The novel is about war, duty, and the pure love experienced between soldiers willing to die for each other.

The cover was done by the wonderful author Jackie Druga, who constantly surprises me with her multiple talents and generosity. She also did my cover for DJINN, which I absolutely loved as well.

Stay tuned! This one is going up for pre-order on Amazon soon!

PETERLOO (2018)

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Directed by Mike Leigh, PETERLOO (2018) is a British historical drama about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 in Manchester, England, currently streaming on Amazon Prime. At nearly 2.5 hours in runtime, the film is powerful if bloated and challenging, particularly with its dense political speeches. Still, the history warranted this approach in my view. From the beautiful cinematography and detailed sets to the historical accuracy and importance of the subject matter, this was a terrific watch for me.

The film’s story plays out in two layers. The first is an average family of British laborers living in Manchester in England’s industrial north, struggling to get by in the economic slump following the Napoleonic Wars. The second is the machinations of radicals hoping to achieve parliamentary reform to give Manchester and the working class greater representation in government, and the utterly corrupt government officials fearing the kind of revolutionary fervor that overthrew the monarchy in France. These storylines come together in a mass rally where the famed radical orator Henry Hunt would give a speech to a crowd of 60,000 people, and the government’s horrific reaction.

The storylines work well together. The leaders of the radical movement clearly spell out the horrible conditions of the working class, greed of the capitalist factory owners, utter corruption of the government, and Britain’s democracy entirely tilted toward government by and for land owners. The family shows us what all this means on a daily basis. Meanwhile, we see the heavy-handedness of the government reaction behind the scenes, with brutal police tactics against dissent that are used to this day, and their willingness to use force to preserve the status quo.

The politics are important but laid on thick, as we see multiple speeches by various radical leaders and a whole lot of interactions between the radical leaders and government officials. Still, I imagine to many viewers this will start to feel like a slog after a while. Personally, I enjoyed the depth and open sentiments, clearly spelling out what was at stake for the average laborer. For our modern times, it provides a nice reminder that while social justice is important, a just economy is just as vital.

Check it out if you’re interested in a deep, fiery historical drama about a little known but very important event in British history, supported by a terrific cast including Rory Kinnear and Karl Johnson.

THEY CLONED TYRONE (2023)

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THEY CLONED TYRONE (2023) is a surprising movie. It plays like a 70s Blaxploitation film with a clever sci-fi element reminiscent of THE CABIN IN THE WOODS. I didn’t love this one, but I liked it a lot, and damn, like I said, it’s surprising in how it mashes so many elements together to create something I’d never seen it before. For that alone, it got my respect.

The movie starts with Fontaine (John Boyega), a drug dealer in a depressed Black community haunted by the death of his younger brother. He gets mixed up with pimp Slick Charles (Jaimie Foxx) and sex worker Yo-Yo (the stellar Teyonah Parris) when a strange and impossible event sets them on a course to uncover a bizarre conspiracy. To save their community, they’ll need to figure out the system opposing them and use brains and muscle to defeat it.

Otherwise, I don’t want to say too much, as this is one of those movies that’s best discovered knowing as little as possible. At first, we’re given what seems to be a Blaxploitation film, shot to look as 70s and gritty as possible, with Black stereotypes that are frankly uncomfortable and also uncomfortably familiar from historical depiction in film. As the sci-fi element becomes exposed, the movie veers off into some weird territory.

The allusions to the forces that keep poverty-stricken people in poverty are obvious, treading into satire territory and leading to comparisons with films like SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (a movie about capitalism that I love, love, love). Still, though the payoff didn’t quite hold together for me–the explanation exactly why all the bad stuff in the story was happening. Nonetheless, with its distinct style by director Juel Teng, terrific performances, mashup of numerous Blaxploitation and sci-fi media, and overall punch, THEY CLONED TYRONE is a nice, provocative surprise, and definitely something to check out if you’re sick of the usual fare.

BARBIE (2023)

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In BARBIE (2023), mixed, heavy-handed messaging turns an otherwise vibrant production tedious, but it feels good for its intended market, with which the core messaging appears to be resonating. That’s wonderful, but aside from some bright moments, the movie wasn’t for me.

In this story, Barbie lives in her Barbie Dream House in Barbie Land, where the Barbies followed the evolution of the toy with great diversity among the Barbies and empowering professions. Everything is perfect, except one Barbie (Margot Robbie) is having troubling thoughts. For her, reality appears to be intruding. The only solution, she learns, is to go to the real world. Along the way, she learns about the wonders and challenges of a complicated real existence as a woman.

This comedy is certainly fun though not very funny, at least for me. Margot Robbie, an excellent actor, shines as Barbie. Ryan Gossling steals the show as Ken, especially during his dance number lamenting Ken’s #2 status in Barbie world, possibly the brightest point in the movie. The actor looks like he’s having the time of his life in the role.

There’s a lot of feminist messaging here, a great deal of which I already agreed with, though it’s laid on so thick and without wit that it comes across as smug and tedious, though again I’m not really the target market. The core message is that women face unique difficulties in a society in which a lot of progress has been made but in which there are still strong institutional hurdles against them succeeding. This comes to life in the film as the perfect life of Barbie, which morphed into an empowering image of womanhood over the years, is contrasted against real society and the challenges women face. Again, that’s a solid theme and relevant, but I don’t tend to enjoy being hit over the head with a theme but prefer to discover it on my own as a thinking adult.

Besides that, the messaging for me got muddied at the end. (Spoilers ahead.) Forget Mattel’s influence on and portrayal in the movie, which is itself problematic for a whole slew of reasons. Forget the abundance of low-hanging fruit of negative male stereotypes, where we’re told all men do this or that crappy thing. Where things got really muddy was the portrayal of the Kens, led of course by Ken (Ryan Gossling). Seeing the men in his world reduced to second class citizens with literally zero agency, jobs, power, or even a purpose other than to worship Barbie, he naively imports “patriarchy” to Barbie Land, resulting in a male-dominated revolution. What he really wants is basic respect, some agency, and a voice. This is great stuff. But instead of getting anything, instead of both Kens and Barbies learning anything, the Kens are smugly manipulated back into being subservient, and we find out Ken’s problem all along is he’s basically an incel. So, patriarchy bad, but matriarchy good? I thought the goal was equality?

Overall, it is what it is, making BARBIE fairly YMMV. I basically enjoyed it despite frequently finding it overwrought and tedious between the good bits, though I think THE POWER, the series based on Naomi Alderman’s fantastic novel THE POWER, handles these themes in a far more interesting way. Check it out yourself and make up your own mind if you’d like to see what all the fuss is about.