Nightmare #157, October 2025“Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead” by Sam J. Miller
“Body? Glass” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu
“The Versions of Yourself That You’re Better Off Without” by Aimee Ogden
Reviewed by David Wesley Hill
It’s been a couple years since I last reviewed an issue of Nightmare, and I’m happy to report the magazine has maintained the high standards I had come to expect of it. The issue opens with the novelette “Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead” by Sam J. Miller, which I did not expect to like, as I really don’t enjoy reading scripts, and the story is framed as the transcript of a podcast—but the author’s deft use of voice quickly drew me into the tale. Back in the Nineties, you see, I worked as a chef at an open-mic drag bar in New York’s West Village, and I became familiar with the performers and their routines … so Miller’s star, Courtney Lovecraft, rings true to me, both in costume and out. Although at The Seven Oaks we occasionally had psychics giving individual readings among the audience in-between sets, we never had a performer who included the paranormal into her act—as does Lovecraft in Shenanigan’s, a decrepit venue in, of all places, Poughkeepsie. The thing is, during the course of the podcast, it becomes clear to the host that Lovecraft may possess a real connection to the other side, and that she is bearing a terrifying message from the dead to him—and to the world. Highly recommended, particularly in these troubled times.
I’ve always been unrealistically vain about my appearance, so—thankfully—I’ve never felt a twinge of body dysmorphic disorder, from which the protagonist of “Body? Glass” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu apparently suffers. I think I understand it a little now, since the author brings the condition to agonizing life, describing in excruciating detail the narrator’s hatred of himself, for every part of himself, from his hair to his feet, and how he eviscerates himself, bit by bit, bloodily, for an invisible audience, which boos his efforts at self-dissection. Even after reading the story twice, though, I couldn’t decide whether what takes place is all in the protagonist’s head or if he is relating actual—albeit fantastical—events. Does this matter? Perhaps not. Body horror is the point of this tale—and I was definitely icked out.
Last up for the month is a decent bit of flash fiction, “The Versions of Yourself That You’re Better Off Without” by Aimee Ogden, in which Brenna returns home unexpectedly and finds an old version of herself in the kitchen eating left-over falafel. The situation quickly turns murderous—who doesn’t hate wimpy old selves, after all—and becomes even more complicated when a new version of Brenna’s old love comes knocking at her door. Recommended.