2006 / Ebook / 160 pages / USA
***
This careless collage of band memoirs, fan outpourings and academic forgeries is a fitting reflection of the ramshackle album and made for one of the more readable entries in the series, though I was relieved when it was over.
Joseph Niezgoda, The Lennon Prophecy: A New Examination of the Death Clues of the Beatles
2008 / Ebook / 240 pages / USA***
"Dialing the name “John Lennon” on a telephone key pad produces the number string “5646536666,” which contains six sixes (inverted nines)."
Overly literal Christian analysis, backmasking, mirror writing, anagrams, numerology and citing fictional plays as historical sources, this has everything I hoped for and more. His sensationalised reconstruction of the murder was pretty chilling too, I'll give him that, the nutter.
Overly literal Christian analysis, backmasking, mirror writing, anagrams, numerology and citing fictional plays as historical sources, this has everything I hoped for and more. His sensationalised reconstruction of the murder was pretty chilling too, I'll give him that, the nutter.
2010 / Ebook / 160 pages / USA
**
This isn't the only book in the series that fails the brief to obsess over a single album and instead provides the complete band history, but at least it's honest about it. Apparently a story that hadn't been told before, possibly because it wasn't very interesting.
Rhys Hughes, Worming the Harpy and Other Bitter Pills
1994-95 (collected 2011) / Ebook / 203 pages / UK****
If Thomas Ligotti was into puns. A little less refined if you're riding the story cycle backwards, and the stories featuring specific public domain characters are less distinctive than his home-brewed stock mix, but I'm happy for all the expansion packs I can get. He threatens to rouse the would-be writer in me like no one else, but he's so prolific that there's no need for a rubbish tribute act.
Fave: 'A Carpet Seldom Found'
Fave: 'A Carpet Seldom Found'
2018 / Ebook / 32 pages / Australia
***
Comfortably ensconced in the hall of fame by this point, this felt like a more predictable and less inspired fable than earlier hits like The Arrival and The Lost Thing, even if the ending pulls off the same simple surprise as The Very Hungry Catterpillar's.
