And I’m back from my summer hiatus! Here is my conversation with the one and only, Clay McLeod Chapman! Clay is the author of many, many books such as Whisper Down the Lane, Ghost Eaters, and What Kind of Mother. As of this week, his novelette, Stay on the Line, is out in the world […]
Review: Dear Hanna by Zoje Stage
Synopsis Zoje Stage delivers another knockout with a blood-chilling follow-up to international sensation Baby Teeth, taking readers back into the unsteady world of a young sociopath who’s all grown up. Hanna is no stranger to dark thoughts: as a young child, she tried to murder her own mother. But that was more than sixteen years ago. […]
Review: Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning
Synopsis Willow’s worst nightmare was being canceled. But the shadows in the woods of Camp Castaway might destroy more than her reputation. After sitcom star Willow tweets herself into infamy and stumbles blind-drunk into a swimming pool, her agent ships her off to Camp Castaway. Nestled deep in upstate New York, Castaway is a summer […]
Saviors and Sinners: Longlegs, Lee Harker, and the Confrontation of Morality in Strong Female Leads in Horror
If you have a pulse and enjoy anything close to horror, odds are you’ve heard the immense buzz around Oz Perkins’ latest film, Longlegs. The focus of this box-office hit is a string of bizarre, unsolved cases thought the be committed by a serial killer known as Longlegs. If this very short synopsis doesn’t ring […]
Review: The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson
Synopsis In this raw and lyrical folk horror novel, a journalist sent to a small town begins to unravel a dark secret that the women of the town have been keeping for generations. Marshall is still trying to put the pieces together after the death of her husband. After she is involved in a terrible […]
Essays of a Recent Constant Reader: Duma Key (2008)
“Be prepared to see it all. If you want to create – God help you if you do, God help you if you can – don’t you dare commit the immorality of stopping on the surface. Go deep and take your fair salvage. Do it no matter how much it hurts.” Welcome back, fellow Constant […]
Review: House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
Synopsis For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo’s mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all […]
Review: Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman
Synopsis The body of Glenn Partridge’s 15-year-old son was discovered in a vacant lot nearly forty years ago. The police are still no closer to finding the murderer decades later. Glenn refuses to let the memory of his son fade—or let anyone else within this small working-class community forget. His long-suffering wife signs him up for […]
Review: Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons
Synopsis A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons is a crime horror novel which blends It Follows and The Outsider, with a pinch of The Evil Dead, in which a criminal and the cop she’s taken hostage must find their way to safety – pursued by threats both human and supernatural – after a failed bank robbery. In the grisly aftermath […]
Review: Pay the Piper by George Romero and Daniel Kraus
Synopsis A terrifying tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou, from the minds of legendary director George Romero and bestselling author Daniel Kraus. In 2020, while sifting through University of Pittsburgh Library’s System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up a a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper, a project […]
Review: Letters to the Purple Satin Killer by Joshua Chaplinsky
Synopsis Jonas Williker is considered one of the most sadistic serial murderers of the modern era. This epistolary novel explores the aftermath of his arrest and the psychological trauma of those who lived through it. The Pennsylvania native brutalized his way into the zeitgeist during the early part of the new millennium, leaving a […]
Author Interview: Angela Sylvaine
This week I’m sharing my conversation with Angela Sylvaine! She is a self-proclaimed cheerful goth who still believes in monsters. Her debut novel, Frostbite, and her debut short story collection, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls, are both available from Dark Matter INK. Her short fiction and poetry have been appeared in over 50 […]