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Scanlines
In 1987, Congressman Benjamin Hardy III died by suicide on live television amidst accusations of political corruption. Years later, rumors of a recording surfaced among VHS trading groups and urban legend chat rooms. Dubbed the “Duncan Tape,” after the deceased cameraman who attempted to sell the video, the rumors allege that anyone who watches the tape is driven to suicide.
Or so the story goes. In truth, no one has ever seen the supposed Duncan Tape, presumably because it doesn’t exist. It’s a ghost story perpetuated on the forums and chat rooms of the internet, another handful of bytes scattered across the Information Superhighway at blistering 56K modem speeds.
For Robby and his friends, an urban legend is the last thing on their minds when a boring Friday night presents a chance to download porn. But the short clip they watch turns out to be something far more graphic and disturbing, and in the coming days, they’ll learn even the most outlandish urban legends possess a shred of truth…
Or so the story goes. In truth, no one has ever seen the supposed Duncan Tape, presumably because it doesn’t exist. It’s a ghost story perpetuated on the forums and chat rooms of the internet, another handful of bytes scattered across the Information Superhighway at blistering 56K modem speeds.
For Robby and his friends, an urban legend is the last thing on their minds when a boring Friday night presents a chance to download porn. But the short clip they watch turns out to be something far more graphic and disturbing, and in the coming days, they’ll learn even the most outlandish urban legends possess a shred of truth…
83 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2020
About the author
Todd Keisling
42 books407 followersTodd Keisling is a writer and designer of the horrific and strange. His books include Scanlines, The Final Reconciliation, The Monochrome Trilogy, and Devil’s Creek, a 2020 Bram Stoker Award finalist for Superior Achievement in a Novel. A pair of his earlier works were recipients of the University of Kentucky’s Oswald Research & Creativity Prize for Creative Writing (2002 and 2005), and his second novel, The Liminal Man, was an Indie Book Award finalist in Horror & Suspense (2013). He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 362 reviews
May 21, 2021
January 22, 1987. American politician R. Budd Dwyer holds a press conference the day before his sentencing after his conviction for accepting a bribe. While maintaining his innocence, he pulls a gun, puts it in his mouth and shoots himself on national television.
If you haven’t seen this clip, you can find it here:
www.dontbesogullible.com/012287/yousicko
Now, I know what you are thinking. Drama queen, right?
This real-life event was the inspiration for this story. Like the three teens in this story, I actually stumbled upon the video as well – just last year, in fact. I was on a share site looking for something and there were these random links, so I clicked on one of them. It wasn’t the whole video, just the part where he said:
"Please, please leave the room if this will ... if this will affect you."
Then he puts the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger.
And, while I might be desensitized to a lot of things, seeing the blood pouring out of his nose as he lay on the ground shook me inside. We are not meant to witness such things.
This story is very dark, the theme ultimately being depression and suicide. I am not going to rehash the blurb – it says all you need to know about the book. However, there are a lot of things about human nature which is hinted at very subtly, and it might serve as a warning to those who has to deal with suicidal thoughts.
It is brilliantly executed – I only wanted to read the introduction by Max Booth III last night and here I am, writing the review. While it might seem like a coming-of-age/haunting/ghost story (and it is all three), this is a look at the darkness we face inside ourselves. I am almost tempted to say that people who doesn’t understand depression and what those who suffer from it will have to go through, should read this story and try to wrap their heads around it.
Todd Keisling wrote a very powerful story here, and this is one of those that will stay with you long after you’ve read it. While this has been a good year – book-wise – for me, I am fairly sure this will feature in my top 5 by the end of it. It is as close to perfect as anything I have read.
Final thought – for those who contemplate suicide;
You should get help. The most dangerous time is not when you can think of reasons to kill yourself, but if you can’t think of any not to.
If you haven’t seen this clip, you can find it here:
www.dontbesogullible.com/012287/yousicko
Now, I know what you are thinking. Drama queen, right?
This real-life event was the inspiration for this story. Like the three teens in this story, I actually stumbled upon the video as well – just last year, in fact. I was on a share site looking for something and there were these random links, so I clicked on one of them. It wasn’t the whole video, just the part where he said:
"Please, please leave the room if this will ... if this will affect you."
Then he puts the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger.
And, while I might be desensitized to a lot of things, seeing the blood pouring out of his nose as he lay on the ground shook me inside. We are not meant to witness such things.
This story is very dark, the theme ultimately being depression and suicide. I am not going to rehash the blurb – it says all you need to know about the book. However, there are a lot of things about human nature which is hinted at very subtly, and it might serve as a warning to those who has to deal with suicidal thoughts.
It is brilliantly executed – I only wanted to read the introduction by Max Booth III last night and here I am, writing the review. While it might seem like a coming-of-age/haunting/ghost story (and it is all three), this is a look at the darkness we face inside ourselves. I am almost tempted to say that people who doesn’t understand depression and what those who suffer from it will have to go through, should read this story and try to wrap their heads around it.
Todd Keisling wrote a very powerful story here, and this is one of those that will stay with you long after you’ve read it. While this has been a good year – book-wise – for me, I am fairly sure this will feature in my top 5 by the end of it. It is as close to perfect as anything I have read.
Final thought – for those who contemplate suicide;
You should get help. The most dangerous time is not when you can think of reasons to kill yourself, but if you can’t think of any not to.
April 17, 2021
This review was originally published in an issue of SCREAM Magazine
You’re not going to hear me say this too often because it’s pretty rare for a book to really scare me enough to lose sleep or be afraid to walk around in my house after dark, so listen carefully:
This book scared me.
SCANLINES is the story of some horny teenage boys tooling around on dial-up internet for some free, pirated porn when they run across an unusual video. After the boys watch it, their lives are forever altered; haunted.
What did these young boys see that they will never be able to unsee? For you, Horror fans, I will tell you that the video contains an unfiltered, graphic scene from a real-life event. But what happens afterward is something so dark and sinister, it literally left me with the heebie-jeebies and had me making sure the closet doors were shut and my bedroom window curtains were closed.
I think this is an especially relatable book for readers who were teenagers in the ’90s. This is an effective exploration of that era’s vibe with all the pop culture references and the dialog between the three main protagonists. For such a deep, dark dive into an urban-legend type horror story that builds fast and hard, there are some very poignant and tender moments as well. I’m a huge fan of character-driven horror so that there is room for optimum emotional investment which leads to bigger risk and amplified scares.
Keisling manages to evoke so much dread and horror into an impossibly slim book. I honestly don’t know how he did it. SCANLINES can be read in a single sitting but the goosebumps and the explicit descriptions will linger long after you’ve finished.
You’re not going to hear me say this too often because it’s pretty rare for a book to really scare me enough to lose sleep or be afraid to walk around in my house after dark, so listen carefully:
This book scared me.
SCANLINES is the story of some horny teenage boys tooling around on dial-up internet for some free, pirated porn when they run across an unusual video. After the boys watch it, their lives are forever altered; haunted.
What did these young boys see that they will never be able to unsee? For you, Horror fans, I will tell you that the video contains an unfiltered, graphic scene from a real-life event. But what happens afterward is something so dark and sinister, it literally left me with the heebie-jeebies and had me making sure the closet doors were shut and my bedroom window curtains were closed.
I think this is an especially relatable book for readers who were teenagers in the ’90s. This is an effective exploration of that era’s vibe with all the pop culture references and the dialog between the three main protagonists. For such a deep, dark dive into an urban-legend type horror story that builds fast and hard, there are some very poignant and tender moments as well. I’m a huge fan of character-driven horror so that there is room for optimum emotional investment which leads to bigger risk and amplified scares.
Keisling manages to evoke so much dread and horror into an impossibly slim book. I honestly don’t know how he did it. SCANLINES can be read in a single sitting but the goosebumps and the explicit descriptions will linger long after you’ve finished.
September 29, 2023
4.0 Stars
Video Review https://youtu.be/DWp3ljyCkIk
This was a solid horror novella that was authentically dark and disturbing. Pulling from a real life event, added a level of eeriness that really messed with my head and gave the book an almost meta quality. I can be harsh on indie horror these days but this one reminded me why I fell in love with self published work many years ago.
Obvious content warnings for suicide but I felt the subject matter was well handled.
Video Review https://youtu.be/DWp3ljyCkIk
This was a solid horror novella that was authentically dark and disturbing. Pulling from a real life event, added a level of eeriness that really messed with my head and gave the book an almost meta quality. I can be harsh on indie horror these days but this one reminded me why I fell in love with self published work many years ago.
Obvious content warnings for suicide but I felt the subject matter was well handled.
May 19, 2021
Ordinary People meets The Ring
The latest novella from Todd Keisling tackles a lot of sensitive real-world issues and, as a result, it can be a difficult and challenging read at times. The melding of sinister supernatural terror with all too real subject matters is deftly handled, making an already distressing subject matter all the more disturbing. Add in some strong characters and a unique non-linear telling, bookended with a powerful and heartfelt Introduction and Afterword, and the result is a truly unforgettable reading experience.
A group of teenage boys accidentally stumble across a video online seemingly depicting the live airing of the suicide of a well-known politician. The boys’ sense that they have witnessed something they shouldn’t, but this is only the start of a dark path that haunts the group well into their adult years.
The video they have inadvertently seen is known among collectors as the ‘Duncan Tape’ and supposedly does not exist. The effect the tape is having on the boys is all too real, however, as they all begin to have terrifying nightmares that begin to bleed over into their waking hours, forcing them to witness terrible and disturbing images, driving them to suicidal thoughts and the desire to share the video in order to ease their burden.
Scanlines opens with an Authors Note espousing the good work done by the Suicide Prevention Hotline, and is followed up by a chilling introduction by horror author and publisher Max Booth III which details his personal experience watching the infamous on-air suicide of a politician Budd Dwyer. It is a downbeat and ominous start to what is undeniably a very dark book but, even forewarned, Scanlines goes to some very rough places. It does not shy away from its subject matter (namely suicide) and does not sugar coat the act, its impact or its aftermath in the slightest.
What Keisling does do, is add in a supernatural element that serves to make what would have otherwise been a hard-hitting, downbeat cautionary tale into something genuinely scary. It is still hard-hitting, very much downbeat, but it gets under your skin in a way that few other books manage thanks in large part to how effectively these two elements come together. The format of the book, switching between different POVs and timelines, jumping between characters who are either relaying events as they happen or looking back on them in hindsight, allows each of the group their moment in the spotlight and this focus on character makes a lot of the events of the book all the more tragic.
A deeply disturbing and grounded tale told in a fresh, unique way. This is Todd Keisling’s darkest work to date and perhaps his most accomplished. He treats the difficult subject matter with respect, without shying away from the grim reality of it and the addition of an insidious supernatural element elevates the work, making Scanlines one of the scariest books of the year so far.
The latest novella from Todd Keisling tackles a lot of sensitive real-world issues and, as a result, it can be a difficult and challenging read at times. The melding of sinister supernatural terror with all too real subject matters is deftly handled, making an already distressing subject matter all the more disturbing. Add in some strong characters and a unique non-linear telling, bookended with a powerful and heartfelt Introduction and Afterword, and the result is a truly unforgettable reading experience.
A group of teenage boys accidentally stumble across a video online seemingly depicting the live airing of the suicide of a well-known politician. The boys’ sense that they have witnessed something they shouldn’t, but this is only the start of a dark path that haunts the group well into their adult years.
The video they have inadvertently seen is known among collectors as the ‘Duncan Tape’ and supposedly does not exist. The effect the tape is having on the boys is all too real, however, as they all begin to have terrifying nightmares that begin to bleed over into their waking hours, forcing them to witness terrible and disturbing images, driving them to suicidal thoughts and the desire to share the video in order to ease their burden.
Scanlines opens with an Authors Note espousing the good work done by the Suicide Prevention Hotline, and is followed up by a chilling introduction by horror author and publisher Max Booth III which details his personal experience watching the infamous on-air suicide of a politician Budd Dwyer. It is a downbeat and ominous start to what is undeniably a very dark book but, even forewarned, Scanlines goes to some very rough places. It does not shy away from its subject matter (namely suicide) and does not sugar coat the act, its impact or its aftermath in the slightest.
What Keisling does do, is add in a supernatural element that serves to make what would have otherwise been a hard-hitting, downbeat cautionary tale into something genuinely scary. It is still hard-hitting, very much downbeat, but it gets under your skin in a way that few other books manage thanks in large part to how effectively these two elements come together. The format of the book, switching between different POVs and timelines, jumping between characters who are either relaying events as they happen or looking back on them in hindsight, allows each of the group their moment in the spotlight and this focus on character makes a lot of the events of the book all the more tragic.
A deeply disturbing and grounded tale told in a fresh, unique way. This is Todd Keisling’s darkest work to date and perhaps his most accomplished. He treats the difficult subject matter with respect, without shying away from the grim reality of it and the addition of an insidious supernatural element elevates the work, making Scanlines one of the scariest books of the year so far.
May 19, 2021
A very dark coming of age story that deals with the haunting reality of depression and the looming threat of its consequences. At once an indelible horror story and a study of adolescents in a current of despair, this story will drag you kicking and screaming to its shorelines without an anchor. Unnerving and impressive.
May 24, 2023
Like a cross between Penpal and Negative Space. DEPRESSING.
I have seen the video that inspired this book, and while I was never haunted by it, there is one that went around when I was in Jr. High that I still see in my nightmares so the overall vibe/atmosphere created in this story really resonated.
I have seen the video that inspired this book, and while I was never haunted by it, there is one that went around when I was in Jr. High that I still see in my nightmares so the overall vibe/atmosphere created in this story really resonated.
August 30, 2022
Right. Stupidity in my adolescence. There was that time my friends and I accidentally downloaded a video of Budd Dwyer’s televised suicide. That was pretty stupid. Mr. Dwyer’s blank expression post-gunshot is something I’ve never forgotten, so maybe I could explore the unspoken ramifications of witnessing such a horrific tragedy.
September 1, 2021
A VHS tape of a congressman, accused of corruption, killing himself in front of an audience is circulating urban legend chat rooms, and the rumor is that whoever watches will eventually commit suicide themselves. A group of friends come across the tape by mistake and so the story begins. This short book starts with an author’s note which is warning from the author and then an introduction from the publisher that gives the background to the story; the real suicide of Budd Dwyer (the allegedly corrupt congress man in 1987); the ‘video nasty’ Faces of Death movies in the late 70s and early 80s; and the Traces of Death movies that peppered the 1990s —a further warning. By the time you actually reach the story your appetite is totally whetted. Unfortunately, what follows really never lives up to the introductions and warnings that precede it. It never really grabbed hold of me and I found it quite putdownable. I think I just wanted more depth and connection from the characters than was there.
May 15, 2022
One of those dark and heavy books that really lingers in your mind after you’ve finished.
July 2, 2021
People like me. The thought drove home this harsh reality of Stauford's sons and daughters. Most of the people here were born with nothing, lived with little, and died with even less. Tiny blips in human history, offering nothing to the species except a chiseled marker saying "I was here for a time. Now I'm not."
Lurking under this simple premise of a technological haunting is a novella about melancholy, grief, aimless small-town youth, and the true misery of existing in the modern world. Keisling's Scanlines is a deep allegorical exploration of the early days of internet file sharing as a metaphor for the looming American disenchantment that Y2K soon came to deliver.
Admittedly, with such a lean length, some of its characters are screaming for more development, and the "haunting" concept seemed a bit stunted and unexplored. However, there is an artful and engrossing poignancy here, one that I have always suspected horror is the only genre able to truly achieve. There's copious emotional investment, with Keisling being the rare author who writes adolescents with brutal and unflinching reality, giving airs of Scott Heim, and of course, the King himself.
The comparisons to Suzuki's Ring series are inevitable. However, the two couldn't be more different in terms of authorial concerns. While Suzuki deftly dissects the concept of virality in a truly visionary way, with an emphasis on exploring the nature of infection, Keisling explores no such infection, instead portraying characters already fragile and on the verge of self-destruction, the haunting almost secondary at times. His story is a moment in history paused, obsessively rewound and replayed, a retrospection of the wild and untamed days of the internet and how they mirrored the collapse and ever-present struggle of the oldest batch of millennials thrown into an America no longer able to provide the prosperity it once deafeningly promised.
There is a lot here to engross and break your heart. Any story that explores horror and emotion on equal terms is always a winner in my eyes. Keisling has wrought a tale of hurt and loss, and his semi-autobiographical insights on depression and suicide were truly gripping. While there's something lacking in terms of a more developed story, and while some characters within the main cast seem abandoned and underdeveloped after the first act, nonetheless there is a lot in here to provoke and warrant discussion, which horror should always aim to do. Fantastic book.
Lurking under this simple premise of a technological haunting is a novella about melancholy, grief, aimless small-town youth, and the true misery of existing in the modern world. Keisling's Scanlines is a deep allegorical exploration of the early days of internet file sharing as a metaphor for the looming American disenchantment that Y2K soon came to deliver.
Admittedly, with such a lean length, some of its characters are screaming for more development, and the "haunting" concept seemed a bit stunted and unexplored. However, there is an artful and engrossing poignancy here, one that I have always suspected horror is the only genre able to truly achieve. There's copious emotional investment, with Keisling being the rare author who writes adolescents with brutal and unflinching reality, giving airs of Scott Heim, and of course, the King himself.
The comparisons to Suzuki's Ring series are inevitable. However, the two couldn't be more different in terms of authorial concerns. While Suzuki deftly dissects the concept of virality in a truly visionary way, with an emphasis on exploring the nature of infection, Keisling explores no such infection, instead portraying characters already fragile and on the verge of self-destruction, the haunting almost secondary at times. His story is a moment in history paused, obsessively rewound and replayed, a retrospection of the wild and untamed days of the internet and how they mirrored the collapse and ever-present struggle of the oldest batch of millennials thrown into an America no longer able to provide the prosperity it once deafeningly promised.
There is a lot here to engross and break your heart. Any story that explores horror and emotion on equal terms is always a winner in my eyes. Keisling has wrought a tale of hurt and loss, and his semi-autobiographical insights on depression and suicide were truly gripping. While there's something lacking in terms of a more developed story, and while some characters within the main cast seem abandoned and underdeveloped after the first act, nonetheless there is a lot in here to provoke and warrant discussion, which horror should always aim to do. Fantastic book.
May 5, 2021
Dark and heavy, this book is excellent. I never tried to find the real video that this book is based on. But I thought about it. You have to be careful what you put in your own head. Some things will stay and haunt you forever.
March 2, 2020
My review of SCANLINES can be found at High Fever Books.
The roots of Scanlines, a signed and numbered limited edition chapbook publishing in mid-March from Dim Shores, can be found R. Budd Dwyer, the 30th Treasurer of Pennsylvania who, on January 22, 1987, called a news conference and surprised reporters and home viewers by killing himself live on-air. In Todd Keisling's version of events, it's the suicide of Congressman Benjamin Hardy III that haunts a group of teenagers, and takes on an urban legend all its own thanks to the Duncan Tape.
Robby and his friends come across the Duncan Tape purely by accident. As teenagers in 1998, they're using the Internet for it's one true, golden purpose -- downloading pirated pornography from illicit bulletin boards and ICQ chat rooms. After spending hours downloading a single AVI file via a 56K dial-up modem, they discover that instead of receiving a Jenna Jameson XXX clip, they've been sent a weird, old press conference. It's a short video, but the promise of potential boobs convinces them to tough it out. Instead of hardcore sex, though, they see a man's graphic suicide before an assembly of reporters. It's a video that sticks with them, in more ways than one. Even after deleting the video, they still see Hardy's face everywhere they look. Hardy's bloody visage, tracking lines and all, appears over the faces of their parents, their teachers, on their computers and televisions. Everywhere.
Scanlines goes into some truly dark places with its examinations of suicide and the ways in which these kids are haunted by this short video clip, even well into adulthood. At least for those who live to adulthood, anyway... Keisling's 90s geek cred is high, too, and the portions of the story that deal with online life at the turn of the millennium brought back a lot of memories, not all of them pleasant. While my buddies and I certainly used the internet to scour plenty of porn sites, we thankfully never came across a Duncan Tape. What hit really close to home, though, was the nature of these friendships and the socioeconomic realities they exist in. Robby is from the poor side of town and spends as much time as he can away from home, practically living in his buddy's basement. There's a scene late in the book that plays out like a moment from my own life, I'm sad to say, one that cost me the friendship of a guy I knew who, like Robby, was less fortunate than myself and who spent a lot of time at my house to escape some of the worries at his home. Like Robby's friend, I said some really stupid and hurtful things, caught up in being an ignorant teenager, and effectively destroyed that relationship.
While Keisling nails the creepier aspects of the literal haunting at this book's core, it's the ghosts of our earlier selves that haunt our older figments that really stuck with me. Scanlines has multiple timelines to follow involving journal entries, a present-day narration, and the 90s-set segments that make up the majority of the book. The stuff with Hardy and his creepy visage are all supremely well done, but it's Robby's reflections on broken friendships and the stupidity of our teenage years that cling to us, memories like ghosts, that really hit me the hardest. I could also recognize and relate to, all too easily, the allusions to suicide, and the way certain dark voices compel us to do irrational, irreversible things.
Let's just say that, as somebody who came of age in the 90s and lived through the agonizing wait-times of downloading large files with a 28.8K modem, and had to begin grappling with depression at a young age, I found a lot to relate to in Scanlines. Not all of it made for comfortable reminiscing, even if there were a few familiar, and funny, scenarios involving a bygone online age. Keisling writes one hell of a coming-of-age story here, and I suspect that much like the Duncan Tape, Scanlines is going to haunt me for a good long while.
The roots of Scanlines, a signed and numbered limited edition chapbook publishing in mid-March from Dim Shores, can be found R. Budd Dwyer, the 30th Treasurer of Pennsylvania who, on January 22, 1987, called a news conference and surprised reporters and home viewers by killing himself live on-air. In Todd Keisling's version of events, it's the suicide of Congressman Benjamin Hardy III that haunts a group of teenagers, and takes on an urban legend all its own thanks to the Duncan Tape.
Robby and his friends come across the Duncan Tape purely by accident. As teenagers in 1998, they're using the Internet for it's one true, golden purpose -- downloading pirated pornography from illicit bulletin boards and ICQ chat rooms. After spending hours downloading a single AVI file via a 56K dial-up modem, they discover that instead of receiving a Jenna Jameson XXX clip, they've been sent a weird, old press conference. It's a short video, but the promise of potential boobs convinces them to tough it out. Instead of hardcore sex, though, they see a man's graphic suicide before an assembly of reporters. It's a video that sticks with them, in more ways than one. Even after deleting the video, they still see Hardy's face everywhere they look. Hardy's bloody visage, tracking lines and all, appears over the faces of their parents, their teachers, on their computers and televisions. Everywhere.
Scanlines goes into some truly dark places with its examinations of suicide and the ways in which these kids are haunted by this short video clip, even well into adulthood. At least for those who live to adulthood, anyway... Keisling's 90s geek cred is high, too, and the portions of the story that deal with online life at the turn of the millennium brought back a lot of memories, not all of them pleasant. While my buddies and I certainly used the internet to scour plenty of porn sites, we thankfully never came across a Duncan Tape. What hit really close to home, though, was the nature of these friendships and the socioeconomic realities they exist in. Robby is from the poor side of town and spends as much time as he can away from home, practically living in his buddy's basement. There's a scene late in the book that plays out like a moment from my own life, I'm sad to say, one that cost me the friendship of a guy I knew who, like Robby, was less fortunate than myself and who spent a lot of time at my house to escape some of the worries at his home. Like Robby's friend, I said some really stupid and hurtful things, caught up in being an ignorant teenager, and effectively destroyed that relationship.
While Keisling nails the creepier aspects of the literal haunting at this book's core, it's the ghosts of our earlier selves that haunt our older figments that really stuck with me. Scanlines has multiple timelines to follow involving journal entries, a present-day narration, and the 90s-set segments that make up the majority of the book. The stuff with Hardy and his creepy visage are all supremely well done, but it's Robby's reflections on broken friendships and the stupidity of our teenage years that cling to us, memories like ghosts, that really hit me the hardest. I could also recognize and relate to, all too easily, the allusions to suicide, and the way certain dark voices compel us to do irrational, irreversible things.
Let's just say that, as somebody who came of age in the 90s and lived through the agonizing wait-times of downloading large files with a 28.8K modem, and had to begin grappling with depression at a young age, I found a lot to relate to in Scanlines. Not all of it made for comfortable reminiscing, even if there were a few familiar, and funny, scenarios involving a bygone online age. Keisling writes one hell of a coming-of-age story here, and I suspect that much like the Duncan Tape, Scanlines is going to haunt me for a good long while.
June 26, 2021
Remember the recording of the congressman who shot himself on tv? I’m pretty sure you do if you’ve ever run across it. It’s heavy and something that you can distance yourself from but never really escape entirely. This book is based on that tape.
Scanlines is one of the darkest books I’ve read in a long while. It’s realistic in the way that it accurately conveys depression and how it will follow you relentlessly throughout your life. Sometimes we see things or deal with issues that we are ill-equipped to deal with, and those things leave scars. Sometimes it takes a darker subject matter to truly convey the darkness and isolation some struggle with throughout their lives. Scanlines isn’t a story for everyone as it will take a certain level of understanding and ability to deal with the darker subject matter. Still, it feels like an important story nonetheless. I guess the most important thing to know is just to proceed with caution when reading this novella.
It’s 4 stars for me.
Scanlines is one of the darkest books I’ve read in a long while. It’s realistic in the way that it accurately conveys depression and how it will follow you relentlessly throughout your life. Sometimes we see things or deal with issues that we are ill-equipped to deal with, and those things leave scars. Sometimes it takes a darker subject matter to truly convey the darkness and isolation some struggle with throughout their lives. Scanlines isn’t a story for everyone as it will take a certain level of understanding and ability to deal with the darker subject matter. Still, it feels like an important story nonetheless. I guess the most important thing to know is just to proceed with caution when reading this novella.
It’s 4 stars for me.
February 15, 2023
I was interested in this book because it had my all-time favorite horror trope (anything to do with dark web/snuff films/forbidden internet videos etc.) and man, it did not disappoint! It’s not a gore fest by any means—and it’s definitely not extreme horror. It’s a meditation on trauma, depression and addiction. It’s a bleak story about how pain in our youth rears its ugly head everywhere throughout our lives, and the self-destructive things people have to do just to cope. The author’s note at the end made me feel so seen. As someone who engages with dark material like this to cope with my own trauma and depression, this was really special.
April 22, 2024
Sometimes you read a book and you know that what you are reading is extremely disturbing. But you also know you will not forget it.
You also find yourself adding every other book by the author to your cart.
Based on a true story, this novella follows a group of friends that came across The Duncan Tapes. A tape that was supposed to be a legend. The tape shows a congressman committing suicide and everyone that watches it, will be changed forever.
A different take on The Ring but with a more realistic and disturbing approach to a cursed tape.
You also find yourself adding every other book by the author to your cart.
Based on a true story, this novella follows a group of friends that came across The Duncan Tapes. A tape that was supposed to be a legend. The tape shows a congressman committing suicide and everyone that watches it, will be changed forever.
A different take on The Ring but with a more realistic and disturbing approach to a cursed tape.
February 15, 2024
We were ghouls in a graveyard, digging up a dead man’s grave for closure. We never considered he might want to stay buried.
I love horror stories featuring technology and Todd Keisling's work has been on my TBR for way too long, so I finally decided to pick up this novella. I enjoyed it, though it moved a little slow at times despite its short page count; in the story's defense, though, I've been fighting a reading slump for a few weeks, so it's possible that it was a "me" issue.
I grew up on the darker side of the early 2000s internet and I remember photos and videos that haunt me to this day, so I found myself commiserating with these characters in a sense. I wasn't on the edge of my seat, but I liked this novella and really thought the writing had a lot to offer, so I'm looking forward to picking up more of Todd's stories soon!
✨ Content warnings for:
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April 18, 2021
I rarely read a book in one sitting but I just ignored all my responsibilities for a couple hours so I could binge this.
Scanlines runs a little over 100 pages and it'll rattle you. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
Scanlines runs a little over 100 pages and it'll rattle you. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
June 1, 2021
Scanlines really packs a punch in its 100 or so pages. It’s a dark, brutal, gripping, and haunting novella by the same author as Devil’s Creek, which was one of my favorite horror books of 2020. So far Scanlines is one of my favorite novellas of 2021!
I picked up Scanlines on a whim and I’m so glad I did. It’s a sort of coming of age story meets found footage horror, as well as a story about mental health and ghosts that was partially based on a real recording. I happen to have actually seen the real recording of R. Budd Dwyer’s infamous suicide when I was a late teen, so Scanlines was extra chilling to me. This book follows three teenagers who become haunted after watching a very similar recording (aka The Duncan Tape) and trying to keep others from falling victim to the recording and its malevolent ghost.
Most of the story takes place in the late 90s and I really felt connected to that aspect. I was very young in 1998 (only 6), but I definitely remember video stores and VHS tapes. It was a couple of years later before I began exploring on computers, but the early to mid 2000s was still somewhat of a wild west of the Internet and I remember stuff like Rotten.com, weird viral videos, pirating music and movies, and forums dedicated to spooky stuff like conspiracies, hauntings, and urban legends.
I believe that the dark themes of this story are very tastefully done. It explores without exploiting, and touches on themes I’m sure many of us can identify with. Just like the novella’s warning, I do recommend readers be in a decent headspace for it because of its dark and potentially triggering themes.
If you’re up for it, give this one a shot! It’s a fantastic scary novella that will stick with you long after you’ve read it.
I picked up Scanlines on a whim and I’m so glad I did. It’s a sort of coming of age story meets found footage horror, as well as a story about mental health and ghosts that was partially based on a real recording. I happen to have actually seen the real recording of R. Budd Dwyer’s infamous suicide when I was a late teen, so Scanlines was extra chilling to me. This book follows three teenagers who become haunted after watching a very similar recording (aka The Duncan Tape) and trying to keep others from falling victim to the recording and its malevolent ghost.
Most of the story takes place in the late 90s and I really felt connected to that aspect. I was very young in 1998 (only 6), but I definitely remember video stores and VHS tapes. It was a couple of years later before I began exploring on computers, but the early to mid 2000s was still somewhat of a wild west of the Internet and I remember stuff like Rotten.com, weird viral videos, pirating music and movies, and forums dedicated to spooky stuff like conspiracies, hauntings, and urban legends.
I believe that the dark themes of this story are very tastefully done. It explores without exploiting, and touches on themes I’m sure many of us can identify with. Just like the novella’s warning, I do recommend readers be in a decent headspace for it because of its dark and potentially triggering themes.
If you’re up for it, give this one a shot! It’s a fantastic scary novella that will stick with you long after you’ve read it.
June 21, 2021
SCANLINES should be packaged with a "trigger warning, " yet I'm not sure what such warning should say. Given the gruesome nature of the video in question--in a sense, found footage, as it was received inadvertently--one might say a warning of gore was needed. But I think the nature of the video scared me not nearly as much as the consequences to all the viewers, particularly the three seventeen-year-old boys and their female classmate.
I felt I was not reading alone: bizarrely, as the story unfolded I could "perceive " James Newman at one shoulder (the horrifying "coming of age"), Joe Hill at the other shoulder (the collector of macabre plus the ghost from "Heart-Shaped Box") and shortly, fast-fleeting film images from Ramsey Campbell's "Ancient Images. " So I read this mind-boggling story in a densely crowded room.
For me the most horrifying aspect of SCANLINES was not the contents of the video, as bad as that was; it's the Ghost Story interweaving throughout, and it's also the sense of Destiny, as if all those involved [the video's subject, its cameraperson, the unwitting high school students] had no choice, no free will, no option to make alternate decisions: as if they were all crushed under the tread of a Juggernaut.
I felt I was not reading alone: bizarrely, as the story unfolded I could "perceive " James Newman at one shoulder (the horrifying "coming of age"), Joe Hill at the other shoulder (the collector of macabre plus the ghost from "Heart-Shaped Box") and shortly, fast-fleeting film images from Ramsey Campbell's "Ancient Images. " So I read this mind-boggling story in a densely crowded room.
For me the most horrifying aspect of SCANLINES was not the contents of the video, as bad as that was; it's the Ghost Story interweaving throughout, and it's also the sense of Destiny, as if all those involved [the video's subject, its cameraperson, the unwitting high school students] had no choice, no free will, no option to make alternate decisions: as if they were all crushed under the tread of a Juggernaut.
June 25, 2021
This was SO good...absolutely loved it. Very dark...very creepy...did not want to put it down. These shorter, horror novellas are really hitting me lately and the ones that are well written (like this one) make a much more powerful impact than many of the full length novels I've been reading. I highly recommend this unless you are sensitive to stories about depression and/or suicide because this story definitely goes to some dark places. But...wow...it was amazing.
September 1, 2021
This pitch-dark story leaves a hell of a brutal mark and stays with you long after you turn that last page. Scanlines is a heavy and haunting coming-of-age story set in the late 90's with Stranger Things vibes throughout. But instead of finding Elven this group of friends find a cursed video that contains a vengeful ghost. Not for the faint of heart. Highly recommended.
April 9, 2021
This book is hauntingly well written, although it is short it sinks its teeth in deep and is the kind of story that will stick with you long after you've finished the last page.
April 8, 2023
Definitely a heavy book that comes with a major trigger warning about suicide. Very well done and fast paced.
February 7, 2020
Scanlines is the latest by Todd Keisling, and I have to start off by saying. Buy this book, read the review after, but buy this book.
With that out of the way, Scanlines is the story of Robby and his friends who brave the sloth like speeds of the early internet days in hopes of watching some porn. What they didn’t expect was to run into a tape that made “faces of death” look like a children’s show. The video has stuck with the boys, and now the question must be asked, is there any escape?
This is such a dark, bleak book. From the very beginning of the story, Keisling pulls you in and never lets you up for air. The writing here posses a wonderful quality that has you just turning the pages until you’ve finished. The atmosphere of the entire story was just dark, ominous and sad. You could just tell that things were going to keep getting worse. It’s hard to describe but something about this book just stuck with me, it didn’t feel like fiction. It felt like an urban legend you heard about, and wonder if it could be true.
I recommend scanlines to anyone looking for a dark read. To talk about this book too much is to ruin it, I’ll just reiterate...I couldn’t stop thinking about this book. It just sticks with you.
With that out of the way, Scanlines is the story of Robby and his friends who brave the sloth like speeds of the early internet days in hopes of watching some porn. What they didn’t expect was to run into a tape that made “faces of death” look like a children’s show. The video has stuck with the boys, and now the question must be asked, is there any escape?
This is such a dark, bleak book. From the very beginning of the story, Keisling pulls you in and never lets you up for air. The writing here posses a wonderful quality that has you just turning the pages until you’ve finished. The atmosphere of the entire story was just dark, ominous and sad. You could just tell that things were going to keep getting worse. It’s hard to describe but something about this book just stuck with me, it didn’t feel like fiction. It felt like an urban legend you heard about, and wonder if it could be true.
I recommend scanlines to anyone looking for a dark read. To talk about this book too much is to ruin it, I’ll just reiterate...I couldn’t stop thinking about this book. It just sticks with you.
July 3, 2020
Full review to come
July 17, 2021
This wasn’t the scariest book I’ve ever read, but it certainly hit a nerve. The reason why I give it 5 stars is because the boogeyman in this novel is not the real horror…the real horror was perfectly laid out by our author:innocence lost.
I have never read a book that so perfectly encapsulates what that means. There is a moment in time for all of us when we suddenly grow up rather unintentionally-whether it’s some kid at school who shows you your first dirty magazine, or you saw your first violent action or horror movie after your friends parents went to bed or you were pressured into any other vice like drugs, alcohol or cigarettes….there is always something waiting to rob you of your innocence and that is the true boogeyman. Once it’s lost, things change….friends, family, responsibility, and especially sleep. This book is one giant metaphor for life and transitioning into adulthood. That time is challenging, hard, scary and most of all exhausting. Hats off for this little freaky gem!
I have never read a book that so perfectly encapsulates what that means. There is a moment in time for all of us when we suddenly grow up rather unintentionally-whether it’s some kid at school who shows you your first dirty magazine, or you saw your first violent action or horror movie after your friends parents went to bed or you were pressured into any other vice like drugs, alcohol or cigarettes….there is always something waiting to rob you of your innocence and that is the true boogeyman. Once it’s lost, things change….friends, family, responsibility, and especially sleep. This book is one giant metaphor for life and transitioning into adulthood. That time is challenging, hard, scary and most of all exhausting. Hats off for this little freaky gem!
July 8, 2021
I loved this book. It was dark and scary. The CoverArt is horrific. But I loved it. It’s a story about depression, friendship and ghosts. And I felt better and less depressed after reading it.
Depression is sometimes called The Black Dog and I never liked that. Dogs represent unconditional love and companionship. I like Todd Keisling’s metaphor better. Depression is a haunting or a ghost. Always following you, appearing when you least expect it. It will be on the face of your friend, your family or your neighbor. You’ll think you’ve beat it, only for it to rear its ugly head again.
However isolating depression might appear I think this story shows how many people you know who are going through the same thing. It’s important to know you are not suffering alone. So thanks, Todd, for writing this because I for one feel less alone. ❤️
Depression is sometimes called The Black Dog and I never liked that. Dogs represent unconditional love and companionship. I like Todd Keisling’s metaphor better. Depression is a haunting or a ghost. Always following you, appearing when you least expect it. It will be on the face of your friend, your family or your neighbor. You’ll think you’ve beat it, only for it to rear its ugly head again.
However isolating depression might appear I think this story shows how many people you know who are going through the same thing. It’s important to know you are not suffering alone. So thanks, Todd, for writing this because I for one feel less alone. ❤️
January 2, 2023
I've never watched the R. Budd Dwyer video, and while curiosity is a persistent force that I'm usually powerless to resist, resist I sure as hell will after reading this novella.
I wouldn't call Scanlines a scary ghost story--that's just the surface of it. What makes it so impactful is the reality of the dark depths that depression can drag you into and how it affects every single aspect of your life. This one's heartbreaking and horrifying, not easy to read, but worthwhile.
I wouldn't call Scanlines a scary ghost story--that's just the surface of it. What makes it so impactful is the reality of the dark depths that depression can drag you into and how it affects every single aspect of your life. This one's heartbreaking and horrifying, not easy to read, but worthwhile.
May 16, 2021
I read a lot of dark books but this book is really, really DARK. That’s the point, though. It’s a book about mental illness, suicide and addiction. It’s also a great coming of age story and a ghost story and it’s just fantastic in every way. Keisling continues to impress me with his phenomenal writing style. Five stars all the way and my highest recommendation.
May 15, 2021
Amazing dark story. This is a great coming of age story very original. The afterward was definitely inspiring and Todd Keisling shares some of his real life struggles and how he copes with them. I can relate to his struggles. I will definitely be reading more of his work.
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