Synopsis: Patrick Torrington’s aunt Thelma was a successful artist whose late work turned towards the occult. While staying with her in his teens he found evidence that she used to visit magical sites. As an adult he discovers her journal of her explorations, and his teenage son Roy becomes fascinated too. His experiences at the […]
Occult
Review: Whisper Down The Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman
Synopsis: A pulse-pounding, true-crime-based horror novel inspired by the McMartin preschool trial and Satanic Panic of the ’80s. Richard doesn’t have a past. For him, there is only the present: a new marriage, a first chance at fatherhood, and a quiet life as an art teacher in Virginia. Then the body of a ritualistically murdered […]
Review: Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper
Synopsis: Bram Stoker Award-winning author Hailey Piper joins Bad Hand Books with a supernatural crime novella. What’s been happening at Cranberry Cove? It’s unspeakable. It’s unspoken. Emberly Hale is about to take a dark journey inside the derelict hotel—and inside her own past—to find out the horrible truth. Review: Hailey Piper’s Cranberry Cove begins with […]
Review: River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan
Synopsis When Eva’s husband is arrested for the murder of a friend, she must confront her murky past and embrace her magick to find out what really happened that night on the river. Eva Santos Moon is a burgeoning Chicana artist who practices the ancient, spiritual ways of brujería and curanderisma, but she’s at one […]
Review: The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
Synopsis: From Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a chilling novel about three childhood friends who miraculously survive the night everyone in their suburban hometown turned into ghosts—perfect for fans of Yellowjackets. The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared […]
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: It Haunts the Mind and Other Stories by Nick Roberts
Synopsis From Nick Roberts, the best-selling author of The Exorcist’s House and Anathema, comes fifteen dark tales that are as horrific as they are moving. “Come for the horror, stay for the heartbreaking emotion that bleeds into every page. Roberts really shows his range here, and it’s obvious early on in these stories that they will stick with […]
Review: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Synopsis Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend Tristan, a charming if faded soap opera star, even though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then […]
Review: Split Scream Vol. 4 by D. Matthew Urban and Holly Lyn Walrath
Synopsis Nonsense Words by D. Matthew Urban An aging professor of ancient history strikes up a friendship with her new colleague, Dr. Paul Duncan, a scholar of undecipherable inscriptions. As she finds herself drawn into Dr. Duncan’s life—his brilliant wife and mystical daughters, frightened students and uncanny associates—darker forces behind his research emerge, plunging her […]
Review: Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt
Synopsis When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie’s workplace, she blows up Frankie’s life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, sleeping with strangers, pushing away her friends. Then, she meets Vanya. Mysterious, beautiful, terrifying Vanya. The two hit it off immediately, but as their relationship intensifies, […]
Review: Mister Magic by Kiersten White
Summary Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent […]
Review: Schrader’s Chord by Scott Leeds
Summary Heart-Shaped Box meets The Haunting of Hill House in Schrader’s Chord , Scott Leeds’s chilling debut about cursed vinyl records that open a gateway to the land of the dead. I told you they were real. After his estranged father’s mysterious death, Charlie Remick returns to Seattle to help with the funeral. There, he […]