Synopsis: Years ago, in a cave beneath the dense forests and streams on the surface of the moon, a gargantuan spider once lived. Its silk granted its first worshippers immense faculties of power and awe. It’s now 1923 and Veronica Brinkley is touching down on the moon for her intake at the Barrowfield Home for […]
Review: Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson
Synopsis: From the “master of literary horror” (GQ) comes a collection of new stories tracing the limits and consequences of artificial intelligence and “post-human” relationships. Populated by twins stepping into worlds of absence, bears who lick their cubs into creation, and artificial beings haunted by their less-than-human nature, each page sketches a world where our […]
Review: The Dissonance by Shaun Hamill
Synopsis: “You can never go home again,” the saying goes—but Hal, Athena, and Erin have to. In high school, the three were students of the eccentric Professor Marsh, trained in a secret system of magic known as the Dissonance, which is built around harnessing negative emotions: alienation, anger, pain. Then, twenty years ago, something happened […]
Review: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Synopsis: Misha is a jaded scriptwriter working in Hollywood, and he’s seen it all. All the toxic personalities and coverups, the structural obstructions to reform, even dead actors brought back to screen by CGI – and finally, maybe, the hint of change. But having just been nominated for his first Oscar, Misha is pressured by […]
Review: The Night Church by Whitley Strieber
Synopsis: Two congregations worship at the Holy Spirit Church. By day Catholics kneel at the altar of the tiny chapel in Kew Gardens, Queens. But at night the rafters echo with Satan’s music. Feared by the Vatican and as old as Christianity itself, a terrifying alternate religion has flourished in the darkness for two millennia, […]
Review: A Child Alone With Strangers by Philip Fracassi
Synopsis: When young Henry Thorne is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest, he finds himself connecting with a strange force living in the woods—using that bond to wreak havoc against his captors. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this ancient being has its own reasons for wanting […]
The Summer I Turned Gritty
10 Scorching Must Reads For Your TBR This Summer Us horror fans call ourselves “The Halloween people,” but, to the best of my knowledge, we exist all year round: and so does great horror. For too many years, whilst by the poolside, I begrudgingly downgraded from what I actually wanted to read, forcing myself through […]
Review: My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen
Synopsis: Spirits are drawn to salt, be it blood or tears. Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth―strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries―is the light of Roos’ life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos’ backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection. Soon, […]
Review: Transmuted by Eve Harms
Synopsis: Her doctor is giving her the body of his dreams…and her nightmares.Isa is a micro-celebrity who rarely shows her face, and can’t wait to have it expertly ripped off and rearranged to look more feminine. When a successful fundraiser makes her gender affirming surgery possible, she’s overjoyed—until she has to give up all her […]
Review: Revival by Stephen King
Synopsis: In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a […]
Review: The Queen by Nick Cutter
Synopsis: On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on to find a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity’s been missing for over a month. Most people in town—even the police—think she’s dead. Margaret and Charity have […]
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 […]