Too Many Mondays

December 2025

This year, I began a tradition called Too Many Mondays. For any month afflicted with five Mondays, I would devote a post to resharing some of my favorite stories and articles from the past month.

Here are a few stories that turned my head in December.

Red Creek Boy by Shaina Read

Red Creek Boy - Index

Red Creek Boy is a new serial from Shaina Read, and holy hell does it check a lot of boxes for me. Creepy rituals in the woods? Supernatural killers? Small town horror with a dash of police procedural?

Be still, my bloody heart.

Chapters One through Six are up on the index page, so you can follow along from week to week or wait until April to binge them all at once.

You Cannot Spell Paradise Without Lies by Zachary Roush

You Cannot Spell Paradise Without Lies

This one was posted way back in January 2023, but I didn’t hear about it until it got a Runner-Up nod from the Lunar Awards, so it was new to me in December. Dystopian, alien, surreal. This line alone is worth the price of admission:

“There are dogs patrolling here, eye stalks turning at every sound.”

I AM TRYING TO TELL YOU A DREAM by Ian Patterson

I AM TRYING TO TELL YOU A DREAM

This one is a vignette, rather than a full story, but it grabbed my interest. For a guy who “doesn’t write horror,” Ian nailed it with this one. The voice is superb, the descriptions are killer. Allegedly, this is meant to be part of a larger tale, and I’m excited to see what else he has planned for it.

(Obligatory link to Ian’s award-winning book, which I also enjoyed!)

The Last Useful Man by Aled Maclean-Jones and The Metropolitan Review

The Last Useful Man

Finally, this was my favorite essay of the month. The tagline might fool you into thinking this is a movie review, but it’s actually a very salient analysis of the uses of technology. When is technology a crutch, and when is it an extension of human expertise? Read and find out.

It’s also very accessibly written, even if you’re like me and haven’t seen Tom Cruise in a starring role since your dad showed you the original Top Gun on VHS.

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