Eliza Turner

About seventeen miles outside of Mexico City, deep in the Xochimilco canals, you will find the Isla de las Muñecas, or Island of the Dolls. This small island is home to hundreds of old, decaying dolls. Most of them hang from trees, but some are nailed to walls or other furniture. While it was formerly only known to locals in the Mexico City area, over the last decade the Isla has become an international tourist destination of the macabre. By the end of the 1950s, the island was already well established as an oddity, and its infamy has only grown since then. The original inhabitant of this small island, Julián Santana, lived there much like a hermit. He tended a crop of corn, vegetables, and a garden of flowers which made up his income, until one day when he found the body of a little girl that had drowned in the canals and washed up on his island. After that, he began to be tormented by the spirit of the little girl. A lone doll also drifted upon his shores very shortly after the...

“The Green Book,” a small, unassuming diary of a young girl; an unheard of book of the Talmud known as the “Tractate Middoth”; “The King in Yellow,” a play that drives people to insanity; two mysterious grey stone plaques from the sands of Chaldea known as the “Tablets of The Gods”; “The Confessions of Constantine,” which drives its readers into a homicidal rage—these accursed books are the subject of this collection of olden tales. Each of these tales features a forbidden book, most of which are detrimental to anyone who dares to read them. Some of them are ancient, while others are mass produced—either way they are all dangerous to read. Many of these fictional books served as the inspiration for Lovecraft’s famed “Necronomicon,” as all of these authors were among his favorites (such as M.R. James, Arthur Machen, and Algernon Blackwood). This collection is available on  Amazon , Kobo , and Barnes & Noble  for $1.49.  If you prefer, you can also buy...

Everyone has heard of, or even read, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and many assume it to be the first of its kind. However, the vampire had made his way into literature on numerous occasions before and after. These are the stories you have never heard of. I have split the anthology into three parts. The first deals with straightforward classic vampire tales. These blood-suckers do not sparkle! The second part is dedicated to psychic vampires, including the earliest ever written. The third section is called “Not Quite Vampires” because these tales are often included in lists of early vampire fiction, but are not actually about vampires. They are close to vampires, or vampire-like, but still are not vampires. They are great literature (Lazarus by Andreyev is one of the darkest pieces of fiction I’ve ever read) and are well deserving to be reread by today’s readers. Each story contains reproductions of all original illustrations from their first publications. In addition to that, ther...

“Rasputin and the Jews” by Delin Colon is a great introduction not only to Rasputin, but to the state of the average Jew in Tsarist Russia. The author does assume that the reader has some basic knowledge of Rasputin’s story, but nothing you couldn’t find after an internet search about Rasputin. The primary source used for this book is the papers of Aron Simanovich, Rasputin’s Jewish secretary. Instead of focusing only on recounting the outline of his life, Colon instead expounds upon Rasputin’s beliefs, sayings, and the actual advice he gave to the Tsar—most of which was ignored, despite the popular belief that Rasputin somehow controlled all of the Tsar’s decisions. In fact, Colon does a magnificent job of explaining that if Tsar Nicholas II had listened to Rasputin, the entire Bolshevik Revolution would likely have been avoided. Rasputin drew the ire of the aristocracy because he believed in equal rights for all Russians, including Jews. Jews were at the bottom of the soci...

Guy de Maupassant, one of France’s most prolific writers of the 19th century, is also the father of the modern short story, for good reason. He wrote over three hundred short stories throughout his career, with most of them being written during the 1880s. While most of these dealt with mundane occurrences, some of them were quite strange.  Maupassant’s style is much more approachable than a lot of other Victorian-era authors. Each of his short stories immediately grab your attention and make you wonder where exactly he is going with it. Oftentimes, the ending is not the climax of the story; there doesn’t even seem to be a climax in some of them. Maupassant did not write mere stories.  He wrote about occurrences that otherwise would not be noticed or remembered and strove to find a deeper meaning behind them. While the stories chosen for this collection are juicier than his others, this element is still to be found in them. Also included is my essay, “The Demise ...

Ever since I wrote the original posting on Giaquinto’s Penitent Magdalene, I have had unanswered questions brewing in the back of my head about this intriguing painting. So, when I was in Manhattan last August, I jumped on the first chance to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and took that long awaited second look at this masterpiece. If you have not read my earlier post, I recommend that you read it, as I will build upon some of the concepts already mentioned there. You can read it  Here . A Thorny Vine  In a “penitent” painting, it is a little surprising that Giaquinto chose to forgo the cilice as her outer garment and put Mary Magdalene into a flowing white and blue gown. However, he chose to put a sliver of a thorny vine visible only under her right arm. It appears to wrap around her ribcage underneath her robes. Perhaps the artist is making a statement by doing this. The message I hear when looking at it is that, no matter what your outward appearance...

It is my pleasure to present to you the latest installment from the Forlorn Press! Strange Tales of the High Seas is a collection of the strangest maritime tales by the now forgotten early masters of weird fiction. Many of the elements of these early tales have become common fare in today’s horror, and I find it inspiring to read the originals. These are not your typical ghost stories; rather, they walk the line between science, the supernatural, and the bizarre. These stories have everything from invisible sea monsters to rabies-infected crews turning the ship into a blood bath, odd twins, and sea-worshipping Pagan captains. Rifts in time and space and even real life mysteries grace these pages. I have also reproduced the original illustrations of these tales as well as added additional atmospheric pictures. Table of Contents: “The Voice in the Night” by William Hope Hodgson “From the Darkness and the Depths” by Morgan Robertson “The Sea Fit” by Algernon Blackwood “Ma...