The World Turns Red
Tim Waggoner
Cemetery Dance Publications (June 26, 2025)
Reviewed by Carson Buckingham
Well, all I can say is that The World Turns Red is another in a long line of brilliant horror work by Tim Waggoner. There was never anyone who could blend the real with the surreal so seamlessly that, as wild as the story gets, it makes perfect sense somehow. Now THAT takes one hell of a writer.
The reader is immediately pulled into…well, no…the reader is grabbed by the throat and dragged into the story when Lewis Cooper, an Everyman type of guy, witnesses three gruesome, senseless suicides. And that’s in the first nine pages! The book grabs you and does not let go. It’s almost impossible not to read it all in a single sitting. I did. It was nailed to my hands. I’m pretty hard to shock, but this book did it.
The three initial suicides are only the beginning, as everyone in town starts thinking up ghastly ways to shuffle off this mortal coil. And nobody ever leaves a note. It seems that a voice in their heads, called’ The Unhigh,’ is encouraging them to kill themselves, and by the time they are convinced, they are euphoric about the whole idea, and they die with huge grins on their faces.
Lewis is no stranger to suicide, as he watched his father blow half his head off with a shotgun when he was a child, so the act of suicide has always been anathema to him—especially when his father’s bloody shade starts following him around, trying to get him to follow everyone else’s example. But Lewis seems to be immune to The Unhigh’s urging…perhaps because the horror of his father’s suicide has remained engraved in his psyche for his entire life?
He tries to reach his mother to save her from this insanity…but will he get there in time? And how will he save her if he does?
The story builds beautifully, gradually progressing from a careless whisper to a scream until your throat bleeds. I didn’t see the creepy ending coming, but it was perfect…just like the last creamy bite of Chocolate Mousse.
I have never before read a novella this tightly written, and when you read it, you will look back and be amazed at how much Mr. Waggoner packed into less than one hundred pages, without making it seem like an overstuffed suitcase.
The book is a flawless masterpiece. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The World Turns Red. And if you have horror-loving friends on your Christmas list, grab a few for them, too!
6 out of 5 stars.
