I can confidently say that this is the first book I’ve read where I’ve felt physically unwell reading a birth scene. There’s one in particular where the girl is referred to as a ‘patient’ and it’s meant to feel detached from reality, but the body horror and detail Hendrix included made me flush hot and cold. I genuinely felt like I was going to pass out. And I think that’s a sign of some truly incredible writing.
Coming of age
Review: Children of The Dark by Jonathan Janz
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Will Burgess is used to rough times. Abandoned by his father, son of a drug-addicted mother, and charged with raising his six-year-old sister, Will has far more to worry about than most high school freshmen. To make matters worse, Mia Samuels, the girl of Will’s dreams, is dating his worst enemy, the cruelest […]
Review: Rose of Jericho by Alex Grecian
Synopsis: Something wicked is going on in the village of Ascension. A mother wasting away from cancer is suddenly up and about. A boy trampled by a milk cart walks away from the accident. A hanged man can still speak, broken neck and all. The dead are not dying. When Rabbit and Sadie Grace accompany […]
Review: Incidents Around The House by Josh Malerman
Synopsis: To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and […]
Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Synopsis: They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever […]
Review: Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel
Synopsis: Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same […]
Review: Another by Paul Tremblay
Synopsis: When Casey Wilson’s parents tell him that his friend is coming for a sleepover, he has no idea who that might be. Ever since the Zoom Incident, everyone treats him like a pariah, and his tics are worse than ever. When Morel appears, he’s not like any friend Casey has ever met. His skin […]
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: Summer of the Monsters by David Sodergren
Synopsis: “Monsters aren’t real.” That’s what sixteen-year-old Lucy Brannigan has always believed, until, broke and desperate, she and her father move to an isolated farmhouse in the small Scottish town of Helsbridge. It’s their last chance, and they have to make it work. For Lucy, life appears to be over. With no friends, and surrounded […]
Review: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
Synopsis On the night Miles Abernathy-sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian-comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, […]
FLASHBACK REVIEW: The Troop by Nick Cutter
SYNOPSIS Once a year, scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip; a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story and a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder — shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry — stumbles upon their campsite, Tim […]
Review: The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones
Synopsis: “The Night Cyclist” by award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones is a horror novelette about a middle-aged chef whose nightly bicycle ride home is interrupted by an unexpected encounter. There must be no compulsion to hide the bodies. Otherwise I’d have never found them. Review: Every now and then, I need to remind myself that […]