Synopsis: In The Door in the Field, a construction worker’s bad day becomes a far worse night when drinks at an off-the-books bar send him down an unforeseeably bloody path. In The Boy in the Woods, something evil has infected the counselors at a summer camp, and a young boy will have to do anything he can […]
Gothic
Review: Skin Thief by Susan Palumbo
A book review for Skin Thief: a short story collection that explores our sense of identity and belonging mixed with some delightful gothic themes.
Review: Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
Synopsis Ana and Reid need a break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling―with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia, but he can’t explain the needle-like bite marks on their baby. Review […]
Review: The Folly by Gemma Amor
Synopsis: Morgan always knew her father, Owen, never murdered her mother, and has spent the last six years campaigning for his release from prison. Finally he is set free, but they can no longer live in the house that was last decorated by her mother’s blood. Salvation comes in the form of a tall, dark […]
Review: The Fisherman by John Langan
Synopsis: In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman’s Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared […]
Review: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
Synopsis As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters—her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that […]
Review: What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
Synopsis The follow-up to T. Kingfisher’s bestselling gothic novella, What Moves the Dead . Retired soldier, Alex Easton, returns in a horrifying new adventure. After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor […]
Review: What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman
Synopsis After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It’s there that she connects with old high school […]
Navigating The Flanaverse: A Guide to Mike Flanagan on Netflix
As the dust settles on Mike Flanagan’s newest series The Fall of The House of Usher, so too does the dust settle on his time with Netflix. In December of last year Flanagan announced that he had signed a TV deal with Amazon Studios, and although I am sure there will be plenty of long […]
Review: DreamScape by Antonia Rachel Ward
Synopsis If you fall deep enough down the rabbit hole, how will you even know when you’ve made it out? When teenage runaway Wren Silver’s little sister gets lost in the DreamScape, a virtual world so addictive its use has been outlawed, the prognosis is bad. Nobody who’s fallen into a coma while using the […]
Review: Before The Devil Knows You’re Here by Autumn Krause
The best way I can think to summarize this book would be to say that Krause writes up an atmospheric homage to a mixed cultural background and the memory of a person dear to her, depicting a different, darker, and more folk gothic side to early 19th century americana. Bringing to life that solid and vivid mix of folk tales and myth that were also paired with the Christian overtones informing the 1800s American short story. Think Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker but add more monsters and a gutsy young woman willing to do anything for her family.
Review: Bride of the Tornado by James Kennedy
There’s something about spec-fic that I love, and Bride of the Tornado kept me enthralled right until the end. I couldn’t give you a blow-by-blow of the plot, but what I can tell you is that there are some utterly bonkers & epic moments that I’ll remember for a long time.