Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Dracula of Transylvania by Ricardo Delgado 
Dracula of Transylvania by Ricardo Delgado
Clover Press (November 2021)
560 pages; $45 hardcover, $9.99 paperback
Reviewed by Danica Davidson
Ricardo Delgado’s illustrated novel Dracula of Transylvania is not only full of blood, guts, monsters and gore, but chock-full of history and references to art. It’s a great addition to the Dracula lore. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: American Cannibal edited by Rebecca Rowland 
American Cannibal edited by Rebecca Rowland
Maenad Press (March 2023)
352 pages; $19.99 hardback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms
This is what’s needed right now: a wonderfully brutal anthology about cannibalism in American history. At first, readers may feel a touch of reluctance due to the subject matter. My advice? DO NOT HESITATE.
These stories, chosen with exquisite taste by editor Rebecca Rowland, are all about the story and characters as the history of this country frames some truly unique tales. I’m not one for gore and this anthology, again, focuses on the true horror: human behavior and the awful acts people inflict on each other before the blood begins to spill.Continue Reading
Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology edited by Sadie Hartmann & Ashley Saywers
Dark Matter INK (October 2022)
376 pages; $19.99 paperback; $6.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
There’s something incredibly profound about horror anthologies. Organizers and editors decide on one bloodied but beating heart that thrums aching, booming life into stories. But it is the minds of the authors — those who conjure the devilish indulgences, the unquestioned yet morally gray, ahem, black methods of group leaders, and the deceiving nature of the desperate, and who reveal the snapping jowls of humanity — that give collections such as Human Monsters breath and mobility. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Scratching the Flint by Vern Smith 
Scratching the Flint by Vern Smith
Run Amok Crime (April 15, 2023)
242 pages; $17.99 paperback
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
Vern Smith’s Scratching the Flint is a street-level look at crime and punishment revolving around a small-time auto theft ring and the two detectives tasked with busting it up.
Alex Johnson, a veteran of the Toronto police force, is teamed up with — some might say burdened with — Cecil Bolan, a hot-headed detective who often bucks against the obstacles that bureaucracy and politics place in the path of police work. When an old buddy Cecil uses as an informant is murdered, followed closely by a prostitute Cecil has befriended, he sets his sights on the crew of car thieves and their nervous, paranormal leader.Continue Reading
Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse by Christopher ~cliff~ Reichard
Self-Published via Kickstarter
191 pages; $21.99 hardcover
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Chris ~cliff~ Reichard is the writer and creator of the Angels of Hell comic book and poetry series. Their dark writing style has been influenced by various horror, Gothic and religious media that has only been darkened further from the worldly experience of being a combat veteran and a social activist. They successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign to get the comic series started. Chris is a simply, complicated person that lives and breathes in his Midwest American roots, the Greater St. Louis area of Missouri. Their newest collection is Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Sister, Maiden, Monster, by Lucy A. Snyder 
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder
Tor Nightfire (February 2023)
272 pages; $14.99 paperback; $12.99 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre
Admittedly, I’m a Lucy Snyder fan. Ecstatically so. Still, I’ve been found wanting of her longer fiction for awhile now. Thankfully, I now have Sister, Maiden, Monster to shove into my brainmeat.
A new virus has found itself among and within humanity. It changes us in ways we don’t really understand. We follow three women, Erin, Savanna, and Mareva as they find their place in this new world of murder, brain devouring, and grotesque teratomas. Unfortunately, there isn’t much more I can say without giving away the fun.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall 
What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Flat Iron Books (January 2023)
336 pages; $26.09 Hardcover, e-book $14.99
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
Little girls follow adventure. There’s a wilderness to them, as Kate Alice says in What Lies In The Woods. The local woods was the heart of Naomi, Cass, and Olivia’s childhood fantasies…and nightmares. Among the trees, they created a mystical game, “The Goddess Game,” which guided their lives, fate, and friendship. It was their secret, one they only shared with someone who could never speak the truth. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment on Review: Dead Dudes by Christopher Sebela and Ben Sears
Dead Dudes written by Christopher Sebela, illustrated by Ben Sears, colored by Ryan Hill and Warren Wucinich, lettered by Crank!
Oni Press (September 2020)
126 pages; $19.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Trev, Kent, and Brian, collectively known as Ghostbros, are three struggling television paranormal investigators. Their show is about to be cancelled due to low ratings. Their competitors, Parawarriors, are stealing their audience with their new gadgets and their ability to not just investigate ghosts, but actually fight them. To save their show, Trev forces Kent and Brian to go to the most haunted place he can imagine: Edgeway Penitentiary in rural Montana. The team gets there and, within hours, discover that not only are ghosts real, but they are willing to kill. That’s when the problems really being in the young adult graphic novel, Dead Dudes.Continue Reading
Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films by Nina Nesseth
Tor Nightfire (July 2022)
304 pages; $20.49 hardcover, $13.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
“Do you like scary movies?”
Ghostface asks this as he stands outside an unsuspecting Casey Becker’s (Drew Barrymore) house. Becker entertains the raspy voice on the other end of the line and plays horror movie trivia. But the game turns deadly when she wrongfully answers Jason Vorhees as the killer in the 1980 slasher film Friday the 13th instead of Mrs. Vorhees.
Cut to Barrymore strung up on a tree in her front yard, disemboweled. And to make it worse, the killer escaped.
Sounds intense, maybe even offensive to some. So that leaves the question: why do we like scary movies? Why subject ourselves to this kind of distress?Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica by Susan Snyder 
Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica by Susan Snyder
Madness Heart Press (June 2021)
312 pages; $12.95 Paperback; $4.99 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre
I ADORE SUSAN SNYDER. Like, seriously. My girl has so much personality clawing its way through these pages. You don’t even know.
But, fine. Let’s back up a tick.
Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica is a movie guide book. You know the type. Movies are listed. Reviews are given. Yawn. We’ve been here a thousand times.
What makes the difference here is the abject joy and love Susan has for sharks in general and these stupid movies that have taken up so much video, TV, and streaming space in our consciousness. Have you seen her Sharksploitation Sunday YouTube channel? You should. She is cute and fun and a great time to hang out with while she talks about sharky stuff. This book has all of that same personality and exuberance, but in a more compact and oddly more silly format.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Lone Women by Victor LaValle 
Lone Women by Victor LaValle
One World (March 28, 2023)
304 pages; $27 hardback; $13.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Some books, special books, have a narrative style that grab the reader by the throat while whispering the words of angels in the ear. When that writing connects with a story so mesmerizing, the result is a reading experience that whisks away the hours.
When attempting to explain the plot of Lone Women, one might find themselves a bit tangled. Victor LaValle has been know to accomplish this before. The Changeling, The Ballad of Black Tom, and The Devil in Silver all exemplify this in stories that meld genres, the fantastic with the grotesque, the beautiful with the grittiest of settings.Continue Reading
Scream Vol. 1: Curse of Carnage by Clay McCleod Chapman
Marvel (August 25, 2020)
120 pages; $15.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
For those unaware of the Marvel Universe, specifically Earth-616, the Klyntar are a race of conscious symbiotes. While Klyntar are fully sentient creatures, in their natural state they are predators who feed on the darkest emotions of their hosts, compelling their hosts to violence and corrupting them. Scream: Curse of Carnage, written by Clay McCleod Chapman and illustrated by Chris Mooneyham, focuses on one of these symbiotes, Scream, and its host, Andi Benton. For fans of the Marvel Universe, this is a really compelling tale, and for fans of horror, the allusions to classical myth and horror will be entertaining as well.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Del Rey (Hardcover – July 2022) (Paperback – April 11, 2023)
320 pages; $16.60 hardcover; $18 paperback
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
Horror icon Vincent Price once said, “Science is frighteningly impersonal.”
What if the scientist’s work becomes his family, his children, in a way? Some argue this is evolution, a matrimony of a creator and his work. Others argue ethics.
But in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s reimagination of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, Carlota, the doctor’s only daughter, lives in a static and balanced world in the jungles of Yucatan alongside the human-animal hybrids. She is happy to assist her father with his research and befriends most hybrids, but despite the idyllic scope Moreno-Garcia introduces, there’s a lingering dread. Dr. Moreau punishes the hybrids for “losing control,” yet Carola believes her father would never truly harm anyone. He is reclusive and sometimes spends days mourning a lost love. This emotional side, however, is kept behind closed doors and never relayed to others.Continue Reading
Shadowman: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of Criminal Profiling by Ron Franscell
Berkley (March 2022)
304 pages; $23.19 hardcover; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
“Assertive, confident women unnerved the UnSub– (…) his emotional reaction had shown, a strong woman might disarm him.” – Ron Franscell
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower by Ronald J. Murray 
Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower by Ronald J. Murray
Bizarro Pulp Press (June 2020)
64 pages; $12.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Ronald J. Murray is a fiction writer and poet living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His short fiction has appeared in various anthologies. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, he can be found drinking entirely too much coffee and staying awake far too late. His newest dark poetry collection is Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower, a collection of visceral mythic and grisly body horror poetry.Continue Reading
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