Synopsis: Antenora: Dante’s ninth circle of hell reserved for traitors to their country. What really happened to Nora Willet? The religious community of Bethel, Alabama can’t agree on the truth. They always said she was trouble. Later, they said she was possessed. Maybe she lost her mind, killing three people and injuring many others. In […]
Review: American Rapture by C.J. Leede
Synopsis: A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin. Review: […]
Review: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Synopsis: Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms—there are no secrets in this house—and her mother doesn’t allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother’s beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides […]
Review: Teleportasm by Joshua Millican
Synopsis: Four friends unearth a unique VHS tape that, when viewed, causes short-distance teleportation with euphoric after-effects, inadvertently launching a perilous trend. As copies of the original tape are made, the results become less predictable and ultimately gruesome due to analog generational decay. Despite the danger, some will risk everything for just one more trip. […]
Review: From the Belly by Emmett Nahil
Synopsis: The whaling vessel Merciful has just made its strangest catch yet: a massive whale containing a still-living man secreted within its stomach lining. Sailor Isaiah Chase is tasked with keeping the enigmatic man alive. As their relationship grows, a series of accidents, injuries and deaths quickly befall the ship and its crew. Isaiah is […]
Review: Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
Synopsis: Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty […]
Review: In Excess of Dark by Red Lagoe
Synopsis: What if every terrible thing imagined came true? Every fleeting, nightmarish thought a reality? For grief-stricken Karina, her newfound ability to turn her worst daydreams into palpable truths has sent her into a downward spiral of depression and guilt. Coupled with the appearance of an enigmatic shadow figure and visions of her dead family, […]
Review: The Only Way Out is Through by Paul Michael Anderson
Synopsis: You move to a new area, hoping for a fresh start.You bury yourself in a new career, hoping for an identity.But the new area has roads no one travels down if they can help it, and the people stare at you with secrets behind their eyes that were old before you were born. But […]
Review: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Synopsis: Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he’s pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale―”for the algorithm”―Misha discovers that it’s not that simple. As he is haunted by his […]
Review: When the Devil by Emma E. Murray
Synopsis In When the Devil, Libby finds salvation in a new sapphic partner, homebrewed poison, and facing a God she no longer believes in. Review When I finished Emma E. Murray’s novelette, When the Devil, my first thought was that it was a kind of demonic version of the classic novel, Fried Green Tomatoes, and […]
Review: The Devil By Name by Keith Rosson
Synopsis Five years after a powerful broadcast turned a sizable portion of the world’s population bloodthirsty and mad, communities have begun the slow steps of righting themselves. John Bonner monitors activity in the walled “fever house” of Portland, Oregon, while Katherine Moriarty has fled to the East Coast in an attempt to build a new […]
Review: The Eyes are the best Part by Monika Kim
Synopsis Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing. In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same […]