The author describes this story as for fans of the “horror movies of the 1980s and 1990s that were green lit by studio executives who were snorting their lunches”, and suffice it to say that is a most perfect description. However, I’ll go one step further and say that, to me, this book felt like the raw poignancy and cursed carnival vibes of del Toro’s Nightmare Alley meets a Courage the Cowardly Dog episode, in all its macabre, gory, occasionally psychedelic, and darkly humorous glory
Ghosts
Review: DuMort by Michelle Tang
Synopsis Mrs. Mina Braithwaite has never quite fit into Mydalla’s polite society. Her features are so different from the other noblewomen, more like the city’s foreign workers, and she chafes at all the rules. Then there’s the furious entity that has followed her for years, crawling from shadows to hurt her and staining every memory […]
Review: House of Beth by Kerry Cullen
Synopsis A haunting and seductive tale of a young career woman who slides quickly into the role of stepmother, in a life that may still belong to someone else. “Vivid, addictive, and crackling with life (yes, even the ghost), House of Beth asks us to consider how and why we make the lives we make” (Lynn Steger […]
Review: Stay on the Line by Clay McLeod Chapman (Audiobook)
Synopsis: “This book is a literary punch to the heart.” —New York Times After a small coastal town is devastated by a hurricane, the survivors gravitate toward a long out-of-service payphone in hopes of talking out their grief and saying goodbye to loved ones, only for it to begin ringing on its own. As more […]
Review: Stay on the Line by Clay McLeod Chapman
Stay on the Line is a deeply human novelette about the loss of a loved one. It’s the kind of story you can’t help but finish in one sitting.
Review: Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
Synopsis The New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones, brings readers a spine-tingling journey through a young boy’s haunted home. Winner of the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Long Fiction! “A triumph. So emotionally raw, disturbing, creepy, and brilliant.”—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie Walking through his own house at night, […]
Review: To Those Willing To Drown by Mark Matthews
Synopsis: To save her daughter’s soul, a grieving mother must battle a sinister pastor who feeds off the cremains of the dead and haunts a lake community. “This is goddamn wonderful. It’s both beautiful and horrible.”—Julie Hutchings, author of The Harpy“A beautiful, seismic novel.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes When […]
Review: The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt
Synopsis There’s a ghost in the walls, and V must decide if it is an ally or an enemy. The wrong decision could destroy her and her family. From Schneider Honor Award winning author Meg Eden Kuyatt comes a chilling and insightful novel-in-verse. After a hard school year, V has been sent to her Grandma […]
Review: Fitted Sheet by Ian Rogers
Synopsis: An innocent game takes a turn for the worse when 7-year-old Greta pulls a bedsheet over her head and ends up becoming a real ghost. What follows is an exhilarating journey into a world of fantasy and wonder. Review: Ian Rogers’ “Fitted Sheet,” is a wistful, whimsical, perhaps even cute story, with a gentle […]
Review: Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
Synopsis: Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, his mother or his brother, the figure reminds him of his long-gone father, who died mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows it he discovers […]
Review: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
Synopsis: Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater. […]
Review: The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth
Synopsis From the author of White Horse (“Twisty and electric.” —The New York Times Book Review) comes a terrifying and resonant novel about a woman who uses her unique gift to learn the truth about her sister’s death. Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of […]