Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Drencrom by Hamelin Bird

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 12, 2024August 12, 2024ReviewsDrencrom, Haley Newlin, Hamelin Bird, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Drencrom Drencrom by Hamelin Bird
Piper House (May 2023)
144 pages; $12.95 paperback; $5.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Hamelin Bird’s Drencrom is a graphic and poetic love letter to Lynchian horror and A Clockwork Orange.

Since getting kicked out of her home, Coda has indulged in a hippie-soul existence without much direction. All of that changes when she scours the dark web for an allegedly “mythical” drug called Drencrom, a crimson-colored liquid with unimaginable power. Continue Reading

Rick Hipson and the Art of Reviewing Books

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 9, 2024August 6, 2024InterviewsA Reviewer's Guide to Writing Book Reviews, Crystal Lake Publishing, Interviews, Kevin Hoover, Rick HipsonLeave a comment

banner graphic that says Cemetery Dance Interviews

cover of A Reviewer's Guide to Writing Book Reviews Everyone’s a critic these days, but within the literary universe, the art of critiquing is no task for the meek. Dissecting the nuts-and-bolts of what makes a story work — or not — takes a trained eye. There are miles of distance between a one-star stinker and a five-star phenomenon, and recognizing those differences requires the work of the assertive; those unafraid to flay the flesh from characters and dig deep into the viscera of influences and motives, or to call out those narrative plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. It’s the business of Rick Hipson and the like, shored up by chops that take decades of commitment to develop. Or took decades — a time investment that Hipson’s latest release, A Reviewer’s Guide to Writing Book Reviews: And How to Get Paid for Them (Crystal Lake Publishing), is hoping to shave down as much as possible. Continue Reading

Review: When You Leave I Disappear by David Niall Wilson

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 7, 2024August 6, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, David Niall WIlson, Reviews, When You Leave I DisappearLeave a comment

When You Leave I Disappear by David Niall Wilson
Shortwave Media (August 20, 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

When can a novella be accurately described as a mindf**k? One can imagine David Niall Wilson arching his fingers and giggling like a cartoon villain, just waiting for readers of When You Leave I Disappear to have their heads explode. It’s likely best as a one-sitting read, but slowing it down accentuates the fine lines and threads which weave their way through this nesting doll of horror mystery. It’s that good.Continue Reading

Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #235

Bev VincentAugust 5, 2024August 2, 2024Stephen King News from the Dead Zone'Salem's Lot, Always Holly, Bev Vincent, Columns, Holly, It, mike flanagan, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, The Institute, The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, The Monkey, The Running Man, The Shining, The Talisman, Welcome to Derry, You Like It Darker1 Comment

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I last wrote one of these columns (except for a couple of book reviews). I refused to believe it until I verified it three different ways. It’s mind-blowing. Where has the time gone? Oh well, I’m here now and we have a few things to talk about.

No, not hurricanes or the Olympics or the forthcoming election. We’re here to talk about what’s new in the Stephen King Universe, so let’s get to it.
Continue Reading

Steven S. DeKnight drives a Hard Bargain

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 2, 2024July 30, 2024The Comic VaultColumns, Danica Davidson, Hard Bargain, Interviews, Steven DeKnight, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

cover of Hard Bargain Steven S. DeKnight, whose credentials include writing for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, is coming out with his own comic Hard Bargain, with art from Leno Carvalho. Hard Bargain, which follows Frank Harding, P.I. and mixes noir with monsters, has been described by DeKnight as a dream thirty years in the making. DeKnight spoke to Cemetery Dance about his influences, how the dream came to fruition, and how writing comics compares to writing for TV. Continue Reading

Review: Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 31, 2024July 30, 2024ReviewsChisel the Bone, Dave Simms, Encyclopocalypse, Renee S. DeCamillis, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Chisel the Bone Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis
Encyclopocalypse (July 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

When I first read The Bone Cutters by Renee S. DeCamillis a few years ago, I was impressed by the brutal talent of the author in a way that knocked my psyche out of my comfort zone — in a very cool way.

Now, she returns to that world in a full novel that allows her story to breathe, expand, bleed, and chisel itself into the reader’s primal fears.

Chisel the Bone is beautifully vicious, both in story and writing. Dory, the main character from the novel, returns. She’s damaged from her stay in the mental hospital, but safe from her attackers. Living with a friend who watches her back, she’s almost able to put the nightmares behind her.

The nightmares? A good cult almost always makes a novel fun. DeCamillis does that here with her “Dusters,” a sick group who are addicted to chiseling the bones of their victims. They grind the slivers of bones into a fine dust and, well, snort them like cocaine. Disturbing? Definitely. Yet the story is so much more than that. Dory barely escaped the hospital the first time but burns for revenge. Her friends who helped her stick with her; a father and daughter, both who bring out the best in the main character while becoming strong elements themselves.

On the flip side, there’s a cast of baddies who range from the head doctor who organizes the movement, hoping to grow his movement of dusters, to the addicted and unhinged members both within and outside the hospital.

What resonates here is how the DeCamillis imbues all of her characters with distinct personalities. Each rocks their scenes and punctuates the horror in a way that speaks of a talented hand. The writing is as cutting as the tools the cults utilize. The words dig deep, and her prose is electric. For those expecting “quiet horror,” look elsewhere. This is “loud horror,” if that term actually exists. That doesn’t mean it isn’t quality — it holds plenty, but this is metal in style: beats pumping, staccato rhythms with smooth breakdowns, and lyrics that bounce off the page.

Recommended.

Review: Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 29, 2024July 28, 2024ReviewsDiavola, Haley Newlin, Jennifer Thorne, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Diavola Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
Tor Nightfire (March 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

In 2022, I reviewed Jennifer Thorne’s debut novel, Lute, a folk horror story compared to Ari Aster’s Midsommar, where the town’s adults were impressively desensitized to occult traditions. (Are you thinking of the murderous ritual for the elderly? I can still see Florence Pugh’s face.) The execution of this element lends itself well to an unnerving mystery and a sense of outrage in Lute that made readers devour the pages and does so, once again, in Thorne’s latest release, Diavola.Continue Reading

Review: Assorted Malignancies by Dale W. Glaser

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 26, 2024July 18, 2024ReviewsAssorted Malignancies, Dale W. Glaser, Joshua Gage, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Assorted Malignancies Assorted Malignancies by Dale W. Glaser
LVP Publishing (June 2023)
234 pages; $20 paperback; $5.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Dale W. Glaser is a lifelong collector, re-teller and occasional inventor of fantasy tales. His lifelong love of written words has manifested as a devotion to the English language almost exclusively, which is probably just as well because if he were to master any of the dead tongues that conceal ancient mysteries and invoke malevolent forces, we’d all be in trouble. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife, their three children, and a rotating roster of pets. Six is a good estimate of how many animals cohabit with the family at any given time. His first book, Assorted Malignancies¸ was recently published and is available.Continue Reading

Review: Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness by Gerri Leen

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 24, 2024July 18, 2024ReviewsGerri Leen, Joshua Gage, Reviews, Unwilling PoemsLeave a comment

Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness by Gerri Leen
Gerri Leen (May 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Gerri Leen spent her childhood and early adult years in the Seattle area but moved to Northern Virginia in the late eighties and has stayed there ever since. She began writing in her forties and credits fanfic over the public school system for teaching her how to punctuate and plot. She prefers writing speculative prose and poetry. She also writes romance under the pen name Kim Strattford. She is a full member of SFWA and HWA. Gerri follows horse racing avidly, is big into single-origin tea, and collects art, focusing on encaustic (especially mixed media) and raku pottery. Her newest collection of poetry is Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness.Continue Reading

Review: The Upwelling by F. Paul Wilson

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 22, 2024July 18, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, F. Paul Wilson, Reviews, The UpwellingLeave a comment

The Upwelling by F. Paul Wilson
Crossroads Press (July 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

F. Paul Wilson has been a grandmaster of horror, thrillers, science fiction, and medical mysteries, but it somehow feels natural when he slips into this mythos that he’s built for decades. Beginning with The Keep, and through the Adversary series, which launched the iconic Repairman Jack series, the tales of the Otherness thread through novels, sometimes peripherally, sometimes head-on.

While recent novels have been entertaining and well-written, it’s in this novel, The Upwelling, that Wilson reclaims the throne of what he has built — awesome storytelling with interesting characters that readers root for and wish for future adventures to enjoy.

Night Time Logic with Jonathan Janz

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 19, 2024July 14, 2024Night Time LogicColumns, Daniel Braum, Interviews, Jonathan Janz, Night Time LogicLeave a comment

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Stephen King. Strange Things. And the Children of the Dark books.”

photo of author Jonathan Janz — Jonathan Janz

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance Online and over on my YouTube channel.

Through in-depth conversation with authors, this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.

My short story collection with Cemetery Dance is titled The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales in homage to Aickman and his kind of stories that operate this way. It can be found here.

In June 2024 I spoke with Jonathan Janz about his Cemetery Dance Publications books Children of the Dark, Children of the Dark 2: The Night Flyers, and more. Our conversation is on YouTube.

We begin our conversation by talking about his favorite writer and his influences…Continue Reading

Review: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 17, 2024July 16, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Incidents Around the House — Version 1.0.0

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
Del Rey (June 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

The early buzz about Josh Malerman’s newest novel was high. Yet, an eight-year-old narrator? How is that scary? How could he pull off detailed, intense scenes with a sense of dread through an entire novel? I wish I knew, but all doubts fell by the wayside after a few chapters. Incidents Around the House is a stunning achievement in the most fascinating ways.

Review: Ignited Melodies by Emberly Lily Summers

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 12, 2024July 11, 2024ReviewsEmberly Lily Summers, Ignited Melodies, Joshua Gage, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Ignited Melodies Ignited Melodies by Emberly Lily Summers
Independently Published (March 2021)
128 pages; $7.24 paperback, $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Emberly Lily Summers (Lauren Adele) is native to Baltimore, Maryland, and has been writing for the last ten years. She is a blind author and writes poetry, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. Her debut novel HUNTED: The Immortal’s Kiss cowritten with Luna Nyx Frost is available on Amazon. She has had several poems featured in Maryland’s Best Emerging Poets 2019 by Z Publishing and Fae Thee Well: An Anthology and Rogues and Rebels: An Anthology both published by Dreampunk Press. Her inspiration comes from nature, the fantasy and paranormal literature, classic musicals such as The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked and of course, her favorite music ranging from showtunes to punk rock. Emberly also loves reading about magic, mythology, faeries, witches, and dragons. Her newest collection is Ignited Melodies.Continue Reading

Review: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 10, 2024June 29, 2024ReviewsAll the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker, Dave Simms, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of All the Covers of the Dark All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
Crown (June 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

This novel just might be this year’s Whalefall, a story which defies true categorization but is full of darkness, mystery, and enough emotion to bring a lumberjack to tears.

2024 is shaping up to be even better than last year, which was astounding for dark fiction. Making a best-of list is going to be a tough one, and it’s only July.Continue Reading

Review: Slow Burn by Mike Allen

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 8, 2024June 29, 2024ReviewsJoshua Gage, Mike Allen, Reviews, Slow BurnLeave a comment

Slow Burn by Mike Allen
Mythic Delirium Books (July 16, 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

As Christina Sng writes in the introduction to this collection, “Mike Allen is synonymous with the mysterious and the macabre.” He’s been a Nebula, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy Award finalist. He’s won three Rhyslings from the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He’s edited a number of award-winning books and anthologies. It’s no surprise, therefore, that his newest collection, Slow Burn, is yet another incredible read by an incredible horror author and editor. This collection of horror and dark fantasy poetry and short fiction needs to be on the shelf of any horror reader. Continue Reading

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