In 2011 I was trying to climb out of a hole. The previous couple of years were the worst of my life and I was trying to fix myself. My mental state was in a shambles, my work life was going very badly, and there were times I wondered if I would even be able to read or watch horror. Yeah, it was that bad.
I was holding on as best I could, but I wasn’t reading a lot. I played the part for my public life on the Horror Drive-In forums, but it was a hollow sham.
The only friends I had were party animal losers. Online dating brought me more grief than joy. I was mostly watching old eighties comedies.
At one point a publicist contacted me and asked if I was willing to read and review a book. It was an unknown title by an author I knew absolutely nothing about. I was inclined to say no, but I needed something new.
The book was called Rotters and its author was named Daniel Kraus. I accepted the offer without much optimism. I am, as my longtime readers know, a very picky reader.
Rotters wasn’t just a horror novel. It was and is a young adult title. I knew a lot of great stuff was hiding out under the YA banner. Neil Shusterman’s Unwind recently blew me away, so I was ready to try something similar.
Rotters? What’s that about? I usually don’t read synopses before jumping into a novel, so in suspense I began turning pages.
This was exactly what I needed. Horror is as much a part of my life as air and water. I was desperate for something new, and I found it in Daniel Kraus’s book.
Rotters is about a guild of graverobbers. The novel is original, horrifying, and extremely well-written. I loved it and I wrote a laudatory review.
That was the beginning of my love affair with Daniel Kraus and his writing. Rotters was an important book for me. I still had dark days ahead, but I was making progress. Rotters was my favorite book of the year and an important step in bringing me back to life.
I read book after book as they were released. The beautiful thing about Daniel Kraus is how unpredictable he is. He refused to stay in one place as a writer. Horror, YA, fantasy, you name it. Some books defy categorization, like the deranged Blood Sugar.
Kraus was a cult writer building an audience brick by brick, book by book. Readers were rarely disappointed when they turned the final page of his books. Daniel’s most underrated books are, in my opinion, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch Parts 1 and 2. I also think Bent Heavens is a brilliant book that deserved a lot more attention.
Lo and behold, Daniel Kraus pulled a rabbit out of his hat when he got the rights to complete an unfinished George Romero novel. I don’t care how sick of zombies you were, The Living Dead is stunning.
Whalefall! A nightmare of a book, especially for a claustrophobe like me. Its audacious premise and powerful execution won Kraus a legion of new readers. It will soon be a movie, but I’m not sure I will be able to watch it.
Night of the Living Dead is Daniel’s favorite movie and he wrote an absolutely stunning nonfiction book about it. No mere summary of plot or anecdotes about the making of the movie, Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World is no less than an indictment of America’s troublesome recent history. Believe it or not, this one is my favorite of all the Daniel Kraus books.
I used the word audacious before. Get this: Angel Down is a historical fantasy/horror/fable set in World War One. The novel is written in one extended sentence. How do you even pull something like that off?
Angel Down is a great novel, but there are a lot of great books that get lost in the shuffle of publishing. Not this time. Angel Down is the recipient of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
I am so proud of Daniel Kraus. I can’t say he and I are close friends, but we’ve met and got along well. He knows I have been a rabid fan of his work since I picked up Rotters.
Vindication. One of us got the highest honor a book can receive. It couldn’t have happened to a more talented or nicer guy. One of the great things about Kraus is his total lack of pretension. There’s hope for all of us.
The work of Daniel Kraus has more than entertained me. It has enriched my life, and his books were a life raft when I needed it the most. Daniel also called me his favorite horror essayist, which touched me deeply.
Gratitude and congratulations are in order. The rest of the world is now getting to see what some of us have known for a long time. Daniel Kraus is one of the greatest living writers.
I think it’s time for me to break out the advance reading copy of Kraus’s upcoming science fiction novel, The Sixth Nik. The rest of the world can read it next month.
Written by Mark Sieber
I was holding on as best I could, but I wasn’t reading a lot. I played the part for my public life on the Horror Drive-In forums, but it was a hollow sham.
The only friends I had were party animal losers. Online dating brought me more grief than joy. I was mostly watching old eighties comedies.
At one point a publicist contacted me and asked if I was willing to read and review a book. It was an unknown title by an author I knew absolutely nothing about. I was inclined to say no, but I needed something new.
The book was called Rotters and its author was named Daniel Kraus. I accepted the offer without much optimism. I am, as my longtime readers know, a very picky reader.
Rotters wasn’t just a horror novel. It was and is a young adult title. I knew a lot of great stuff was hiding out under the YA banner. Neil Shusterman’s Unwind recently blew me away, so I was ready to try something similar.
Rotters? What’s that about? I usually don’t read synopses before jumping into a novel, so in suspense I began turning pages.
This was exactly what I needed. Horror is as much a part of my life as air and water. I was desperate for something new, and I found it in Daniel Kraus’s book.
Rotters is about a guild of graverobbers. The novel is original, horrifying, and extremely well-written. I loved it and I wrote a laudatory review.
That was the beginning of my love affair with Daniel Kraus and his writing. Rotters was an important book for me. I still had dark days ahead, but I was making progress. Rotters was my favorite book of the year and an important step in bringing me back to life.
I read book after book as they were released. The beautiful thing about Daniel Kraus is how unpredictable he is. He refused to stay in one place as a writer. Horror, YA, fantasy, you name it. Some books defy categorization, like the deranged Blood Sugar.
Kraus was a cult writer building an audience brick by brick, book by book. Readers were rarely disappointed when they turned the final page of his books. Daniel’s most underrated books are, in my opinion, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch Parts 1 and 2. I also think Bent Heavens is a brilliant book that deserved a lot more attention.
Lo and behold, Daniel Kraus pulled a rabbit out of his hat when he got the rights to complete an unfinished George Romero novel. I don’t care how sick of zombies you were, The Living Dead is stunning.
Whalefall! A nightmare of a book, especially for a claustrophobe like me. Its audacious premise and powerful execution won Kraus a legion of new readers. It will soon be a movie, but I’m not sure I will be able to watch it.
Night of the Living Dead is Daniel’s favorite movie and he wrote an absolutely stunning nonfiction book about it. No mere summary of plot or anecdotes about the making of the movie, Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World is no less than an indictment of America’s troublesome recent history. Believe it or not, this one is my favorite of all the Daniel Kraus books.
I used the word audacious before. Get this: Angel Down is a historical fantasy/horror/fable set in World War One. The novel is written in one extended sentence. How do you even pull something like that off?
Angel Down is a great novel, but there are a lot of great books that get lost in the shuffle of publishing. Not this time. Angel Down is the recipient of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
I am so proud of Daniel Kraus. I can’t say he and I are close friends, but we’ve met and got along well. He knows I have been a rabid fan of his work since I picked up Rotters.
Vindication. One of us got the highest honor a book can receive. It couldn’t have happened to a more talented or nicer guy. One of the great things about Kraus is his total lack of pretension. There’s hope for all of us.
The work of Daniel Kraus has more than entertained me. It has enriched my life, and his books were a life raft when I needed it the most. Daniel also called me his favorite horror essayist, which touched me deeply.
Gratitude and congratulations are in order. The rest of the world is now getting to see what some of us have known for a long time. Daniel Kraus is one of the greatest living writers.
I think it’s time for me to break out the advance reading copy of Kraus’s upcoming science fiction novel, The Sixth Nik. The rest of the world can read it next month.
Written by Mark Sieber
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