I found 13 Months Haunted at Barnes & Noble while browsing the new releases with my wife (she always gets me into the bookstore).
The back cover jumped out at me with references to Y2K and dial-up internet—right in my wheelhouse.
I worked in the dot-com world during that era, so this one felt like it was written for me.
Why it clicked
This is absolutely techno-horror, which is a genre I both read and write. The book’s nostalgia really lands: Y2K paranoia, AOL dial-up modem sounds, and Visual Basic 6
(which I actually learned back in the day). There’s even a Dodge Neon in the driveway.
Before I transitioned into tech, I was an auto technician at a Dodge dealership and worked on a ton of Neons, so that detail hit home.
No spoilers
The story is well-written, immersive, and fast-paced. I couldn’t put it down. It’s easy to imagine the situations the characters find themselves in, and the pacing keeps the tension high.
Authentic tech scenes (finally!)
At the start of Chapters 11 and 25, there are “web scraping” sequences that were refreshingly accurate. I work in information security, I hack websites to keep people from hacking them, and
the Linux/Unix command line details, scripts, and output looked exactly like what I’d expect in real life. Too often, “hacking” in books and movies is laughable (two people on the same keyboard, anyone?). Not here. You can tell the author did the research.
Back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, the technique shown would have worked. Today it’s much harder because forums and social platforms have tightened things down. In my world, we’d call that work OSINT, open-source intelligence, and the book captures that early-internet era perfectly.
Final thoughts
If you’re nostalgic for the Y2K years or you enjoy techno-horror, I highly recommend 12 Months Haunted. I also discovered that Jimmy Juliano wrote Dead Eleven, which sounds fascinating, that’s going on my TBR list.