In case you missed it and have interest, my interview with the delightful Jason Henderson at Castle of Horror has been posted in its permanent home at Bleedingcool. Here’s that.
Category: Press and Reviews
Good Girls is Launched!
“Top notch writing, enjoyable prose, a twisted and demented story…. From the opening line, there’s magic in the words.” –Frank Michaels Errington, Cemetery Dance Online
“This hair-raising horror novel causes serious shivers with its portrait of humans and vampires pushed to their limits.” –Rob LeFevre, Shelf Awareness
Glen Reads at Mysterious Galaxy
RT Book Reviews names GOOD GIRLS a Top Pick, awards it 4 1/2 stars
Ian Mathers’ exceptionally thoughtful capsule review of Good Girls here:
“This is real, full-blooded horror in a sense that’s too rarely found; the gore is vivid, but more than just life and death is at stake. Our protagonists are brave, clever and loving–but that may not be nearly enough to save them.”
Read the full review here.
A starred rave for GOOD GIRLS in PUBLISHERS’ WEEKLY
Publishers’ Weekly greeted Motherless Child with a starred, rave review a couple years ago. They’ve now greeted Good Girls the same way:
“Set in the immediate aftermath of the justly lauded Motherless Child, this intense novel weaves its themes of love, loss, family obligation, and personal sacrifice into another richly textured tale of supernatural horror…The novel’s suspenseful finale is a bravura display of storytelling finesse; its visceral horrors are intensified by the care that Hirshberg has taken to develop the emotional lives of the characters on whom the horrors are inflicted.”
Complete review here.
Glen and Good Girls on the Airwaves
In addition to the live appearances noted elsewhere on this site, Glen will be making a series of web and radio appearances in conjunction with the release of Good Girls.
First, on Thursday, February 25th, he will once again fling sanity, good taste, and judgment to the wind to rejoin the delightful Thorne & Cross on Haunted Nights Live at 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern. You can listen now to Glen’s 2014 visit to the show.
Then, on Tuesday, March 1st, he will join Jason Henderson on the Castle of Horror Podcast.
Surprises inevitable. Fun practically assured.
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW OF GOOD GIRLS
“…this intense novel weaves its themes of love, loss, family obligation, and personal sacrifice into another richly textured tale of supernatural horror….”
Glen’s newest novel, GOOD GIRLS (out February 23rd) just got a fantastic–and starred!!–review in PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Pre-order the book.
From the review: “Set in the immediate aftermath of the justly lauded Motherless Child, this intense novel weaves its themes of love, loss, family obligation, and personal sacrifice into another richly textured tale of supernatural horror….” Read more!
What Scares Horror Writers
In her article for the Nerd Element “Everybody Scares Sometimes” Desiree Guzzetta talks with us scaryfolk (including the entire original Rolling Darkness Revue, Dennis Etchison, Peter Atkins, and me, plus my pals Kate Maruyama and Lisa Morton) about stories that scare us.
My choice is one of Ramsey Campbell‘s…Could have been many of Ramsey’s…
The Writerly Reader discovers MOTHERLESS CHILD
A thoughtful new review from The Writerly Reader. “Motherless Child does offer a new slant on vampires, which is an increasingly rare thing. It was published in the post-Twilight era, and Hirshberg’s vampires are beautiful and seductive (whether they want to be or not), but also terrible…Make no mistake, this is a horror novel. There is gore. There are shocks. The last two chapters especially left me pretty gob-smacked. The ending works; Hirshberg doesn’t pull any punches. Which I absolutely love.”
Elitist Book Review Weighs In on MOTHERLESS CHILD
“…this story, from its very beginning, is a character story, and in that respect, the author nailed this one out of the park.”
Full review here.
The Amazing Amazon Review
Amazon.com’s official review, by S. Kay Murphy, of The Book of Bunk, which should appear on the book’s order page sometime around the moment it becomes officially available:
“Those familiar with Glen Hirshberg’s other works know that he is the consummate storyteller. The Book of Bunk, however, transcends anything he has accomplished previously. Part Great Gatsby, part Grapes of Wrath, and even a tiny bit One Hundred Years of Solitude, this novel exists in a genre of its own. It is a complex and rich piece of story-telling, lovingly rendered. In an age of plot-driven work, Hirshberg offers a richness in these characters that enables us to fall in love with them easily, then mourn the loss of their companionship at the book’s end.
Paul Dent, the protagonist, is similar to Nick Carraway in Gatsby in that he is the quiet observer, the objective reporter as a tragic drama unfolds (although his objectivity is somewhat compromised when he meets the love of his life). After he struggles to escape the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma in the 1930’s, he lands a job, through strange circumstances, with the Federal Writers Project. His assignment is to study, then write about, the town of Trampleton. What he finds initially is classic small town life—a depiction awash in brilliant colors from Hirshberg’s ardent pen. As he begins to immerse himself in the culture, however, a veil is lifted, and he is made privy to the extraordinary and courageous pursuits of the townspeople, orchestrated by none other than…. I am reluctant to reveal the identity of a well-known literary figure who makes, shall we say, a cameo appearance in the novel. Part of the delight of the book is discovering him there.
My only criticism of this book is its brevity; at 236 pages, the experience of it is over far too quickly. I loved reading it, and I hated finishing it. Superb and highly recommended. ”
I’ll, um, take that…