“Thorn just has a way with description that makes the stories hit the reader hard because you feel like you’re part of the experience.”
Darkest Hours Reviewed on More Like Library Booked
Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition Reviewed on Read by Dusk
“Darkest Hours is a fantastic collection of short horror stories with some of the most unique premises I’ve ever read! Body horror, terrifying visions, and monstrous creatures all make an appearance. The clarity and confidence in the writing made these stories come alive.”
Mike Thorn presents a cinematic mood board for his latest book Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition
“As I did with Shelter for the Damned, I have created here a list of titles that provide a kind of cinematic “mood board” for Darkest Hours. I included the films I reviewed in the expanded edition’s Criticism section, as well as the films that had overt or indirect impact on the stories.”
Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition Reviewed on Kam’s Place
“No sober person had any supernatural encounters. Nothing good happens after dark, so stay the F*** home. Oh, and mirrors are evil so get rid of them! Now!”
Review of Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition on IndieMuse
“In the short story notes, Thorn cites a lot of influences (both literary, musical and cinematic) that inform his work, but Thomas Ligotti seems to be a name that crops up throughout. While Darkest Hours covers a lot of the same themes (nihilism, anxiety, and the human condition), Thorn’s work approaches them in a far more mainstream and accessible way. Still, I think this says a lot about the prevailing tone of his work, and there are stories here that scared (‘Long Man’, ‘Sabbatical’), disturbed (‘The Auteur’, ‘Fear and Grace’) and disgusted (‘Fusion’) like few other collections have managed for me.”
Candace Nola Reviews Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition
“I was already a fan of his work, but the range he displays in this collection for both fiction and non-fiction writing is mind-boggling. I loved every word, and every creepy minute.”
Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition Reviewed on Hellnotes
“Highly recommended—whether Thorn is composing his own horror fiction or opining on horror cinema, he’s a gifted writer and craftsman of the written word, and I very much look forward to much more from him.”
“Horror is the Truth” — Darkest Hours: Expanded Edition Reviewed on Tuerlemot
“Each story in Darkest Hours reads like a blast of intense sound. Crisp, erudite and intense, these stories speak with uncanny voices that occasionally converse with one another (as we’ll explore in this essay). Thorn builds narrative worlds that inhabit a set of thematic coordinates that I propose we recognize with the term Thornian.’ The Thornian exists in the interplay between addiction, violence, academic pretensions and the supernatural monsters which push these other themes to their limits.”
Mike Thorn 