Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

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MY EX, THE ANTICHRIST Coming July 1, 2025

June 10, 2025 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

MY EX, THE ANTICHRIST releases July 1, 2025 from Hachette in trade paperback, all popular eBook formats, and a multi-narrator audiobook in all bookstores, libraries, and online retailers!

You can pre-order it here and here.

One of “12 Must-Read Horror Books of 2025” —Novel Suspects

“Outré even by the standards of supernatural horror fiction, DiLouie’s ostentatious, 1990s-set latest proposes that the Antichrist is the front man for a Pennsylvania art band and that the apocalypse he threatens can only be averted through the intervention of a punk pop group headed by his ex-girlfriend… DiLouie seeds the narrative with enough pop theology to undergird its tongue-in-cheek excesses, which include a cabal of rogue clergy wielding rocket launchers and a Universal Priest stage performance that unfolds like a mash-up of The Omen and This Is Spinal Tap. It’s a wild ride.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“A tale of love, self-discovery, and following your dreams, all told through the twisted lens of a rockumentary about Armageddon. Craig DiLouie brings his sharp mix of heart and horror to the end of the world with this clever story about rock n’ roll, relationships, and destiny.” —NYT bestselling author Peter Clines

“One hell of a performance! With My Ex, the AntiChrist, Craig DiLouie once again proves he is a master of the epistolary genre. Immersive, compelling, and chillingly plausible. It’s as if you were there. Resounding.” —Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Awards-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories

“The ultimate battle draped in rock and roll… DiLouie’s latest novel is an exciting glimpse into music history and the enigmatic 2000s with a timeless tale about the end of the world and love, of all things, as its connective tissue. What a wild ride.” —L. Marie Wood, author of The Realm Trilogy and The Promise Keeper

“Thrumming with energy and tension, My Ex, The Antichrist is a horror-filled love letter to music and how it can save our souls.” —Kaaron Warren, author of The Underhistory

“DiLouie assuredly weaves a punk band’s rites of passage with the dark arts, crafting an occult love story from burnt-out memories and scavenged, sacred hearts.” —Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold and The Handyman Method

“Craig DiLouie is the sly officiant presiding over this marriage of heady theology and anthemic punk rock. This book weaves age-old philosophical conundrums into a sensitive, aching, and raw portrait of a band’s rags-to-riches tale. With its lively oral history format, reading My Ex, The Antichrist is like letting Behind the Music take you to hell and back.” – Andy Marino, author of The Swarm

“A diabolical twist on rock and roll saviors, My Ex, The Antichrist conjures a horrifying riff on the classic question: Can rock and roll really save your soul? Craig DiLouie spins a lush account of late 90s rock, a talented but struggling band, and a harrowing brush with the divine conflict between good and evil into an atomic-powered concept album of a novel that shreds the literary walls. Thoughtful, heartbreaking, and unsettling, My Ex, The Antichrist is a rock and roll parable for our times.” —James Chambers, Bram Stoker Award and Scribe Award-winning author of On the Night Border and Three Chords of Chaos

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Books, CRAIG'S WORK, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, My Ex, The Antichrist, The Blog

THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025)

May 21, 2025 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

It’s all the rage to take traditional stories and invert them by making a sympathetic villain the protagonist, but THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025, streaming on Shudder), a fresh take on the Cinderella story, drives it to a whole new level. Rather than skating on the premise, this Norwegian horror film aims for from-the-ground-up reinvention as it harvests brutal body horror and strong themes, making this movie a cross between Cinderella and THE SUBSTANCE.

In this movie, Elvira travels with her sister Alma to a new home in a country ruled by the dashing Prince Julian, whose book of love poems inspired Elvira into a swoon of passion and desire for a fairy-tale romance. There, she meets her new stepfather and stepsister Agnes, whom she initially admires but comes to resent for being naturally graceful and beautiful. When the stepfather dies, Elvira’s mother needs to marry Elvira off to raise money, with them sharing a goal of her marrying the handsome Prince Julian, who is hosting a ball where he will choose his bride.

Thus begins a brutal competition where Elvira will do anything to transform herself to become beautiful using painful and primitive beauty methods and gain what she believes is the perfect man and life.

Thematically, pretty much everything is covered here, from the unfairness of beauty standards and the sacrifices and pressure to conform to them to the belief that beauty is the ticket to a perfect romance and life. While it’s low-hanging fruit, it’s done extremely well by showing (in the most brutal way possible) instead of telling, trusting the audience to get it. From the start, Elvira is a deeply sympathetic character, slowly sacrificing her inner for outer beauty. The sets and costumes all look both formal and shabby, reinforcing the conflict between image and reality. While Agnes is her opponent, the real antagonist is her mother, who gets everything she wants by selling sex, whom Elvira will become if she carries on her path. And then there’s the body horror, which on a 1-10 Cronenberg scale jumps between 7 and 11, made all the more horrific because we really come to care for Elvira as a character.

Overall, I found THE UGLY STEPSISTER impressive and liked it a lot. It could have traded on a gimmick and instead reached for something far more substantial and affecting.

Filed Under: APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Movies, Movies & TV, The Blog

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE

May 19, 2025 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Netflix’s adaptation of ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE is a wondrous and gorgeous work of art. This terrific adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s groundbreaking 1967 novel received plenty of accolades but not as much attention as it deserved, and I’m hoping this post will do its tiny part in rectifying that.

This novel of magical realism influenced generations of Latin American writers. I read it many years ago and remember being mesmerized by its episodic multi-generation plot, strangeness, and often melancholy tone fitting its themes of solitude, fate, and how history repeats itself. Magical realism can be challenging to do right in a screen adaptation, however, and the sprawling nature of the novel seemed to outright defy the possibility, with Márquez apparently stating he wrote it to prove a written work can be so much bigger than any cinematic production.

Nonetheless, this adaptation captures all of the beauty, melancholy, and wonder of the source work. In this story, the Buendía family travels deep into the wilderness to found a new town and a simple, naive society based on harmony, which is constantly challenged internally by love and betrayal and externally by government and eventually civil war. Spanning several family generations, these primal and cycling events are given an almost mythical flavor by the story’s magical realism, which includes ghosts, a plague of insomnia, a trail of blood announcing a death, and the stars turning into yellow flowers that rain on the town. The acting is solid, and the world is beautiful and visually lush and fun to explore. I found myself completely charmed by this show and was sorry to see it conclude.

The eight episodes comprising the first season cover the first third of the novel, with a second season already in the works that will cover the rest of the story. I’m looking forward to catching the rest of this extraordinary adaptation.

Filed Under: MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Movies & TV, The Blog

CASTLES IN THE SKY Releases!

April 28, 2025 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Castles in the Sky, my WWII novel set during the air war over Europe, is now available to read in Kindle eBook, trade paperback, and audiobook!

From every corner of America, they crossed the Atlantic to destroy the Nazi war machine on its own turf: the B-17 bomber crews flying bloody bombing missions over northern Europe. On March 6, 1944, General Doolittle launched a massive operation he believed would change the air war. The largest air armada the Eighth Army Air Force had ever launched. The first full-scale daylight bombing of Berlin, capital of the Third Reich.

This horrifying battle would become known by the men who survived it as Black Monday.

From the author of Hell’s Eden, Strike, and the bestselling Crash Dive and Armorseries, Castles in The Sky tells the story of one such Flying Fortress crew. It’s a story of courage and grit in the face of impossible odds and the search for meaning in the madness of war. The 250th mission of the Eighth Army Air Force and the last for Pop’s Flying Circus.

You can get it here. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Books, Castles in the Sky, CRAIG'S WORK, HISTORY, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Submarines & WW2, The Blog

CASTLES IN THE SKY Available for Pre-Order!

March 23, 2025 by Craig DiLouie 2 Comments

Happy to announce that Castles in The Sky, a WWII novel set during the air war over Europe, is now available for pre-order!

From every corner of America, they crossed the Atlantic to destroy the Nazi war machine on its own turf: the B-17 bomber crews flying bloody bombing missions over northern Europe. On March 6, 1944, General Doolittle launched a massive operation he believed would change the air war. The largest air armada the Eighth Army Air Force had ever launched. The first full-scale daylight bombing of Berlin, capital of the Third Reich.

This horrifying battle would become known by the men who survived it as Black Monday.

From the author of Hell’s Eden, Strike, and the bestselling Crash Dive and Armorseries, Castles in The Sky tells the story of one such Flying Fortress crew. It’s a story of courage and grit in the face of impossible odds and the search for meaning in the madness of war. The 250th mission of the Eighth Army Air Force and the last for Pop’s Flying Circus.

The book releases April 28, 2025 and will be available in Kindle eBook, audiobook, and trade paperback.

Check it out here. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Books, Castles in the Sky, CRAIG'S WORK, HISTORY, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Submarines & WW2, The Blog

ADOLESCENCE

March 23, 2025 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In the British Netflix miniseries ADOLESCENCE, a 13-year-old boy is arrested for murder. In four separate but linked stories, we see how the arrest impacted everyone around him and piece together what happened and why. It is a brutal, arresting watch for pure human drama, and it blew me away.

The story begins with police bursting into a home to arrest Jamie Miller on suspicion of savagely murdering his classmate Katie Leonard. Thus begins ADOLESCENCE in a breathless first episode that will have your blood boiling and shatter your nerves if you’re a parent. It looks like Jamie did it, but did he?

In the next three episodes, we see the police investigation at Jamie’s school, a psychologist questioning the boy at a detention center, and see how his family is coping and struggling for hope, answers, and peace.

Each episode is a single take, normally a technically ambitious but in these episodes a tremendous feat as we travel through a large, perfectly conceived realistic setting. Stephen Graham, who co-wrote and starred as Jamie’s dad, is no stranger to this type of filmmaking after doing BOILING POINT. That was set in a restaurant, though, and in ADOLESCENCE we follow the characters through an entire police station, high school, and town. You really feel like you’re there, and stretches of little mundane things happening take on the gravity of a dramatic pause rather than produce boredom. From timing to everything happening in the background, it’s all meticulously planned, though it doesn’t look it but instead feels completely natural.

The actors are just incredible, every single one absolutely nails it, with the great Stephen Graham leading the pack. The actor who plays Jamie, in particular, was a real standout.

The themes are as grueling as the drama. The horrible role of social media in teen’s lives, the bullying, incel subculture, never-ending hierarchy of popularity haves and have-nots, and how you think you’re doing parenting right but you never know the one thing that might have a negative influence on how your child sees the world. At the heart of this is boys and girls, young boys thinking girls have all the power, lacking positive mentor role models, and thinking you have to be aggressive to stand up for yourself. Beautifully done, none of the themes are explicit, instead offering the entire story as food for thought and discussion.

Overall, ADOLESCENCE is a powerful, heart-shredding, thought-providing, and very human drama. Highly recommended.

Filed Under: MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Movies & TV, The Blog

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