Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: I Hear the Clattering of the Keys by Jamie Stewart 
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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Ibitsu by Haruto 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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: 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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Pangaea: Prose and Poetry by Hinna Mian 
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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Sister Funtime by Spencer Hamilton 
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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Coffin Honey by Todd Davis 
Coffin Honey by Todd Davis
Michigan State University Press (February 1, 2022)
147 pages; $19.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
In Coffin Honey, Todd Davis explores themes of violence and how people hurt each other. The book is broken into sections, each one reading like a short story told in narrative poems, which makes for some haunting connections between the poems. For example, the first section contains the poem “Taxidermy: Cathartes Aura” with lines like:
The bird’s spiraling descent
was unexpected, like when
his uncle touched him
in the cellar as he shoveled
coal for winter, telling him
he couldn’t have the fried
doughnuts sprinkled
with confectioner’s sugar
if he screamed
or told his mother.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Exposed Nerves by Lucy A. Snyder 
Exposed Nerves by Lucy A. Snyder
Raw Dog Screaming Press (September 2021)
114 pages; paperback $12.95; $5.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Exposed Nerves is a collection of feminist horror poems, mostly in the narrative or lyric vein. Lucy A. Snyder excels at taking a known trope — the big bad wolf in “Wolf Waltz” or rapists in “My Neighbor Defends Her Champion” — and flipping the perspective. A lot of these poems use their subjects to make social commentary, which is one of the main purposes of horror. Snyder often takes the women in her poems and allows them to triumph over evil. In “turnt,” for example, a teenage girl is lured into a older boy’s automobile until she can’t help but turning into a ferocious beast:
pulse hammering inside the secluded car
skin splitting over hairy muscle, scarlet claws
and he’s screaming, wailing like he’s burning
Here the hunted becomes the hunter, and while the idea of a teenage werewolf is certainly nothing new, Snyder’s imagery and metaphorical language makes the redemptive story fresh and interesting for readers.
There are times when Snyder’s poems, however, seem to teeter into weak craft decisions. “The Unforgiving King,” for example, has stanzas that seem based on a haiku “syllable count” (which is, of course, a linguistic misunderstanding that has been disputed and disproven by poetry scholars) but show no understanding of how the haiku form works. “The Invisible Woman,” a poem written with Gary A. Braunbeck, suffers from weak lines and poorly executed line breaks, but its strong imagery and overriding metaphor overwhelm its flawed structure. How much of this is Snyder’s fault or just poor curation or editing one can’t tell, but these flaws are few and far between, and the collection doesn’t suffer greatly because of them.
Overall, Exposed Nerves by Lucy A. Snyder is a relatively strong collection of feminist horror poems. While there are a few misses, most of the poems stand up to scrutiny and the overarching themes within the collection — angry defiance against a threatening patriarchy and a thirst for revenge and justice — are current and necessary. This is a solid collection of horror poetry which readers will very much enjoy.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Mestiza Blood by V. Castro 
Mestiza Blood by V. Castro
Flame Tree Press (January 25, 2022)
240 pages; $26.95 hardcover; $16.95 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann
After a string of successful releases, Hairspray & Switchblades (Unnerving Press) Goddess of Filth (Creature Publishing) and Queen of the Cicadas (Flame Tree Press) V. Castro unleashes her first short story collection, Mestiza Blood.
A short story collection of nightmares, dreams, desires, & visions of the chicana experience
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward 
The Last House On Needless Street by Catriona Ward
Tor Night Fire (September 2021)
352 pages; $24.79 audiobook, $19.29 paperback, $14.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Burner by Robert Ford 
Burner by Robert Ford
Blurred Images Press (November 2020)
230 pages; $12.99 paperback; $.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann
In Burner by Robert Ford, readers are introduced to two characters, Iris and Audrey. We follow their story through “then” and “now” timelines told in short, bingeable chapters that switch back and forth between the two women.
If you read the preface, you will know that Burner deals with a heavy subject and has the potential to cause emotional trauma, so I recommend reading the preface. Bob Ford does a great job setting early expectations.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Del Rey (August 2021)
288 pages; hardcover $14; paperback $20.48; e-book $13.99
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
They were both angry at the world, that was why this was happening. It was a kiss of scorpions, both heavy with poison.
Once again, Silvia Moreno-Garcia exhibits the versatility of her eloquent storytelling in her noir/pulp fiction novel Velvet Was the Night.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment on Review: The Book of Maggor Thoom by James Turner
The Book of Maggor Thoom by James Turner
SLG Publishing (September 2021)
164 pages; $14.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Beware, Mortal! You hold the forbidden book of Maggor Thoom, a text from beyond sanity! Read further and your puny ape-brain will boil inside your skull and your eyeballs melt into a steaming ooze. For I am a being of impossible thoughts, who dwells on the surface of Azathoth, the living black hole, the cosmic chaos!
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Cunning Folk by Adam L.G. Nevill I immediately knew Adam Nevill’s writing style, and storytelling was for me within the first few chapters of Cunning Folk.
Nevill opens with a horrific scene of a man which readers can only guess spells misfortune for the protagonist, Tom, and his family (wife Fiona and daughter Gracey).
Nevill then takes us to present day, where Tom‘s family arrives at their new home in rural Southwest England. The property is a massive but ruinous-looking house, one in which the tragic history and condition made affordable.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro 
The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro
Flame Tree Press (June 22nd, 2021)
224 pages; $14.95 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann
There are so many important themes to unpack in V. Castro’s The Queen of the Cicadas, that I almost don’t know where to start. First, I’ll entice you with some plot details. There is a dual narrative which involves a present-day wedding ceremony at a farmhouse and a story from the past that takes place at the same location.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (2021 Set) 
Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories (2021 Set)
Biblioasis (October 2021)
$9.50 each paperback; $25 set of three
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
Reading a ghost story on Christmas Eve was once as much a part of traditional Christmas celebrations as turkey, eggnog, and Santa Claus.
I wish that had been the case with my family growing up. Don’t get me wrong, I love our traditions, but mixing in a ghost story would have been perfection. But I have to be honest — even as a young card-carrying, Fangoria-buying, Stephen King-reading horror fan, the idea of reading a ghost story at Christmas never occurred to me. If it had, I have no doubt I would have gravitated to these “Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories” sets from Biblioasis.
Biblioasis, a literary press based in Windsor, Ontario, has been releasing these editions for a few years now. They’re a smaller (4×6) size, so they’re perfect for stockings, and each year they focus on a different set of Christmas ghost stories. Past entries include such tales as “The Signalman” by Charles Dickens, “The Apple Tree” by Daphne du Maurier, and “The Story of a Disappearance and An Appearance” by M.R. James.
The 2021 set includes the following stories, each presented as its own paperback book:
As good as the story selection is, the design of each book is the star. Seth’s evocative covers and black-and-white interior illustrations provide the perfect accompaniment to the stories. His clean style elicits a ton of atmosphere without being hyper-detailed. In his work I see the brilliant use of shadow a la’ Mike Mignola, combined with the dark whimsey of Tim Burton.
Come Christmas Eve, you might find me dimming the lights and gathering the family to listen (and look at) one of these tiny terrors. Come the day after Christmas, I’ll be hitting the Biblioasis website to start building out my collection. Highly recommended for the horror lovers looking for something special in this post-Halloween season.
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