Reviews Archives - Page 20 of 66 - Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Secret Identity by Alex Segura

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 7, 2022February 28, 2022ReviewsAlex Segura, Blu Gilliand, Flatiron Books, Reviews, Secret IdentityLeave a comment

cover of Secret Identity Secret Identity by Alex Segura
Flatiron Books (March 15, 2022)
368 pages; $27.99 hardcover; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

“It was barely eleven and Carmen Valdez already wanted to die.”

Doesn’t exactly sound like someone working at their dream job, does it? Carmen Valdez knows that being the secretary for the owner/editor-in-chief of Triumph Comics isn’t what she wants, but she’s hoping it’s at least a foot in the door…a first step on her journey to writing comic books for a living.Continue Reading

Review: Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 4, 2022February 20, 2022ReviewsChloe Clark, Escaping the Body, Joshua Gage, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark
Interstellar Flight Press (March 7, 2022)
118 pages; $12.99 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Chloe N. Clark is the author of Collective Gravities, Under My Tongue, Your Strange Fortune, and The Science of Unvanishing Objects. Her forthcoming books include Every Song a Vengeance and My Prayer is a Dagger, Yours is the Moon. She is a founding co-EIC of literary journal Cotton Xenomorph. Her favorite basketball player will always be Rasheed Wallace and her favorite escape artist can only be Houdini. Her newest collection, Escaping the Body, is a tour de force exploring the physical body and the liminal spaces between one’s soul and one’s skin and bones. Continue Reading

Review: The Pussy Detective by DuVay Knox

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 2, 2022February 28, 2022ReviewsDuVay Knox, Mother Horror, Reviews, Sadie Hartmann, The Pussy DetectiveLeave a comment

cover of The Pussy Detective The Pussy Detective by DuVay Knox
CLASH Books (February 2022)
180 pages; $14.95 paperback
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann

The Pussy Detective. A title like this elicits a response; an invite to engage right off the bat. For some, it’s off-putting because of the p-word. Others see the title and the amazing retro-inspired artwork and pull the trigger. Some people think it’s a joke or a parody.

“Wait, this book is about women who have lost their pussy and some detective helps them find it?”

That’s exactly right.Continue Reading

Review: Entomophobia by Sarah Hans

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 28, 2022February 13, 2022ReviewsAnton Cancre, Entomophobia, Reviews, Sarah HansLeave a comment

cover of Entomophobia Entomophobia by Sarah Hans
Omnium Gatherum Media (January 2022)
178 pages; $14.99 Paperback; $3.49 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Bugs, amiright? Creepy little bastards. Skittering around on too many legs. Staring at us with too many eyes. Click-clacking their chitinous carapaces from the dark corners. Then they have the nerve to squirt out all those gloppy bits when you squish them. EW!Continue Reading

Review: The Headsman by Cristina Mirzoi

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 23, 2022February 13, 2022ReviewsCristina Mirzoi, R.B. Payne, Reviews, The HeadsmanLeave a comment

cover of The Headsman The Headsman by Cristina Mirzoi
Independently Published (January 2022)
41 pages; $3.50 e-book
Reviewed by R.B. Payne

One of the joys of living abroad is meeting new writers and connecting as storytellers. Living in Europe, that means meeting poets, writers, and artists from various countries and cultures.

Cristina Mîrzoi is Romanian and English and also speaks Spanish and French. She is a member of the European Dark Fiction Writers group. She is a new writer, emerging onto the scene. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to her and encourage you to take the time to support her by reading her tale.

Without delay, then, let’s review The Headsman by Cristina Mîrzoi.Continue Reading

Review: Sleepwalkers: Round One by Izzi Breigh

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 21, 2022February 13, 2022ReviewsIzzi Breigh, Joshua Gage, Reviews, SleepwalkersLeave a comment

cover of Sleepwalkers Sleepwalkers: Round One by Izzi Breigh
Somnium Publishing LLC (Feb 22, 2022)
332 pages; $19.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Izzi Breigh, raised by a family of peacocks, grew up on a rutabaga farm. She now resides in a small cottage made entirely of pinecones. Izzi enjoys knitting shirts for starfish, rooms without corners, and peddling time. Her day job is filling hourglasses with precisely the right amount of sand, which she sells for two copper pennies every Saturday at her local flea market. Hide and seek is her favorite sport and though she has repeatedly spotted Waldo, she has yet to figure out where in the world Carmen Sandiego is. Her newest book is Sleepwalkers: Round One, a dark middle-grade book that will thrill readers young and old alike.Continue Reading

Review: Dancing With Maria’s Ghost by Alessandro Manzetti

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 18, 2022February 13, 2022ReviewsAlessandro Manzetti, Anton Cancre, Dancing with Maria's Ghost, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Dancing with Maria's Ghost Dancing With Maria’s Ghost by Alessandro Manzetti
Independent Legions (December 2021)
65 pages; $11.90 paperback, $2.99 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Alessandro Manzetti always does a great job of evoking a narrative with his poems. He has figured out a great balance of information given and withheld within the swirling images his poems paint that hints at the larger narrative beyond what we are given. I love it. So, when he has a narrative stretched over fifteen poems, you know I’m in. Continue Reading

Review: The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 11, 2022February 10, 2022ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Ryan Douglass, The Taking of Jake LivingstonLeave a comment

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (July 2021)
244 pages; hardcover $14.39; $10.99 e-book; $35 audiobook (or 1 Audible credit)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

It seems impossible to turn something so pretty so ugly, but it’s not. Everything turns ugly after it’s dead.

? Ryan Douglass, The Taking of Jake Livingston

I stumbled on The Taking of Jake Livingston through one of my favorite YouTube channels, BowTies & Books. According to the channel host, BookTube collectively held its breath for the release of this YA horror story.

And I can see why. Continue Reading

Review: Devil House by John Darnielle

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 9, 2022February 8, 2022ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Devil House, John Darnielle, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Devil House Devil House by John Darnielle
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (January 2022)
416 pages; $20.16 hardcover; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Diving into John Darnielle’s Devil House is akin to entering a hedge maze: there are twists and turns ahead, and a few dead ends, and there will be times where you feel a little lost, but for the most part it’s a worthy journey.Continue Reading

Review: Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 7, 2022February 6, 2022ReviewsDead Silence, Mother Horror, Reviews, S.A. Barnes, Sadie HartmannLeave a comment

cover of Dead Silence Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Tor Nightfire (February 8th, 2022)
352 pages; $23.99 hardback; $13.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann

Dead Silence makes use of well-loved tropes within the sci-fi horror sub-genre while introducing elements borrowed from popular modern thrillers. A genre mash-up that easily captivates its audience but struggles to utilize that up-front investment to maintain interest.Continue Reading

Review: I Hear the Clattering of the Keys by Jamie Stewart

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 2, 2022January 30, 2022ReviewsHaley Newlin, I Hear the Clattering of the Keys, Jamie Stewart, ReviewsLeave a comment

I Hear The Clattering of the Keys by Jamie Stewart
Blood Rites Horror (November 2021)
175 pages; $7.99 paperback ; $2.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

In the past, when I’ve read horror short story collections, I’ve found them a bit insular; they’re always too fast, and the payoff isn’t consistent.

I Hear The Clattering of the Keys is a horrific web of tragedy, love, and the supernatural — a complete antithesis of what’s turned me off to short stories in the past. Continue Reading

Review: Ibitsu by Haruto Ryo

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 28, 2022January 15, 2022ReviewsDanica Davidson, Haruto Ryo, Ibitsu, Reviews, Yen PressLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

cover of Ibitsu by Haturo Ryo

Ibitsu by Haruto Ryo
Yen Press (July 2018)
416 pages; $20 hardcover, $9.99 ebook
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Ibitsu comes from the Japanese word for “twisted,” and it follows a creepy urban legend. The main character Kazuki is walking along at night when he sees someone dressed in Gothic Lolita style sitting in the garbage. Lolita is a fashion style in Japan with lots of frills and Victorian influences that has multiple substyles. One of those substyles is Gothic Lolita, where the frills and little girl look is also strongly influenced by gothic, morbid and dark imagery.

Kazuki thinks she’s creepy, especially because it looks as if blood might be seeping from her, and it looks as if her arm had been ripped open and then sewn back together. She asks him, “Would you . . . have a little sister?”Continue Reading

Review: Saltblood by T.C. Parker

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 26, 2022January 15, 2022ReviewsMother Horror, Reviews, Sadie Hartmann, Saltblood, T.C. ParkerLeave a comment

cover of Saltblood by T.C. Parker Saltblood by T.C. Parker
Independently Published (August 2020)
306 pages; $11.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann

Imagine a world where public opinion is measured by real units and offending people whose behavior results in accumulating a high amount of units, get shipped off to an isolated location to live out a predetermined sentence.

The concept of Saltblood by T.C. Parker is quite terrifying, actually. Public opinion is so fickle and subjective. I hate the thought of a majority of people who don’t really know you passing judgment with real consequences based on perceived reality; your reputation and not your character. No facts, just opinions. The power to strip you from your life and throw you away.
Utterly horrifying.Continue Reading

Review: Pangaea: Prose and Poetry by Hinna Mian

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 24, 2022January 15, 2022ReviewsHinnah Mian, Joshua Gage, Pangaea, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Pangaea: Prose and Poetry Pangaea: Prose and Poetry by Hinnah Mian
Central Avenue Publishing (February 8, 2022)
128 pages; $16.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Hinnah Mian is a Pakistani American poet and author whose work has appeared in Harness Magazine, JUMP, Blue Minaret, and The Rising Phoenix Review. Her first book, To Build a Home, won silver in the Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards. She spends her time journaling, exploring, and living out her days with the love of her life — her dog, Felix. Her newest collection, Pangaea: Prose and Poetry explores the horrors and traumas inflicted on one’s body in a striking and poignant collection.Continue Reading

Review: Sister Funtime by Spencer Hamilton

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 19, 2022January 15, 2022ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Sister Funtime, Spencer HamiltonLeave a comment

Sister Funtime by Spencer Hamilton
Nerdy Wordsmith (November 2021)
140 pages; $9.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

There’s an old saying that water can wear away stone, but only over hundreds of years. In a classic Stephen King novel, Christine, a character, argues that people are not stone, but mortal.

Spencer Hamilton’s Sister Funtime untethers this phrase from such limitations and instead strangles it into a festering devout, sinister power — something inhuman and hungry for flesh. Continue Reading

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