S.A Gambino

When you think of poetry you don’t think of horror, but maybe you should. Poems are all about expressing emotions and while most poems I think of are about describing something beautiful, you could also use poetry to explain something dreadful. Fear and desire are strong emotions so it stands to reason that there should be some great poems out there that are all about horror.

Fear and Desire by S.A. Gambino and Michael McCarty is a collection of poems all about the primal emotion of terror.What I liked about this book was how it covers the horror genre so well. There are some poems that are funny, some have monsters and some are about real emotion. For instance in the poem No Escape we hear about someone trapped somewhere without bars, chains or locks. They describe pain but it’s not physical and they scream but only on the inside. I loved this poem because it was psychological, it could have been about a job, a bad relationship or just life in general. We don’t know for sure but it felt personal and really hit home for me.

Another poem that felt emotional and personal was The Mind, this one is about the feeling of anxiety and how sometimes life and all the information around you is too much to bare. One of the lines here is: “Taking in the entire world, Mind goes into a chaotic twirl. Hypersensitivity is so much to take. A mind That’s constantly awake.” Who hasn’t felt like what’s described in this poem? At this point in the book I found myself just simply thinking: “Wow!”

While there are some very personal feelings in these poems there is also a sense of fun here. In Zombie Love we hear about what love is like for flesh eaters. This one hits on love, comedy and horror. We get the description of a zombie couple eating someone and it ends with the line: “Zombie lovers rise to an upright stand and walking away hand and hand..” Another similar poem is My Cannibal Girlfriend. I love how this one says that dating a cannibal is never easy because when you kiss them you taste someone else.

Horror, desire and comedy can all go hand in hand and this book covers it all. Another poem I loved here was It Has No Name. Here we get a description of a female creature climbing out of the swamp looking for a sweet delicious man to eat. I love how lyrical this poem is and how it describes the lust of a monster for a man. Another poem that sounds like the lyrics of a song and has a great rhyme is Carnival Of Souls. This one describes a soul after death and the decent to purgatory because its to late to repent. “A Mortician’s transition Formaldehyde ride The Carnival Of Souls Where you go when you die.

I have to admit a lot of times I don’t understand poetry, I think that’s because the meaning is always open to interpretation and it’s about something personal to the author.. You have your own idea what it’s about but the writer may have had something else in mind. In the case of Fear And Desire some poems made me think while others made me smile and it also appealed to the horror fan that I am. . This is an entertaining and quick read, if you love poetry and horror you have to get it.… (altro)

Sheri Gambino (S.A. Gambino) is a part-time horror writer whose work I was unaware of until I recently came across this powerful short story anthology. I’ll certainly be acquainting myself with more of her writing following this full-blooded introduction to her work. “Lilith and Other Stories of Femme Fatale” is a linked anthology of 12 stories, which either feature the demon Lilith or are imbued with her spirit of retribution. Lilith’s mission is to take vengeance on men who have wronged women – and boy do they pay for their misdeeds and does she revel in the application of her punishments. Gambino’s writing is spiced with a righteous anger and she dreams up some vile and gruesome tortures for the villains of the piece – this is full-on splatter-punk, hardgore horror that holds little back - demonic sex and ultra-violence are the order of the day. The stories aren’t afraid to journey into some really dark psychological places and as such will be too vicious, difficult and demanding for many. Gambino’s writing is exciting, fast-paced and full of drive and momentum. Overall this is an excellent, challenging collection – horrific, sexy and chilling in equal measure.
- Lilith’s Revenge
- A Girl Just Wants to Have Fun
- Story of a Womanizer
- Blind Date
- Something Outside My Window
- Snarl
- Recluse
- The Awakening
- Monster
- Vampire Sex: Fun and Fatal
- Trixie’s Thirteenth Birthday
- Sometimes It’s Better to Stay Dead… (altro)