Review: Lexie by F. Paul Wilson

cover of LexieLexie by F. Paul Wilson
Crossroad Press (September 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Recommending an F. Paul Wilson novel is akin to saying oxygen might be good for you. Over the course of his career, there hasn’t been a bad book in his vast catalog. Lexie is no different — it’s the stunning second book of his duology that began last spring with The Upwelling and a fitting conclusion to a tale that holds all the tenets of a classic Wilson story. The characters are intriguing and fully fleshed out, the plot twists and turns yet plays fair with the reader, and the mythos he’s created is on full display.

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Review: The Damage Done by Tony Tremblay

cover of The Damage DoneThe Damage Done by Tony Tremblay
Haverhill House Publishing (July 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Old-school horror. It’s a term that’s tossed around lightly these days but many are unfamiliar with that entails (save for those who lived through the first golden age of paperbacks). What it truly means to many is a solid scary story with real people — just full bore ahead without stopping for subtleties, which is refreshing if the reader craves pure entertainment. There’s enough deep tomes in the dark realm to rip hearts and morals apart. Sometimes, a good story is just a good story.
Tony Tremblay knows how to spin a good — and great — story. The Damage Done is 100% great storytelling that makes the reader strap in, thrill ride style, and produces a smile that doesn’t let up until long after the final page.

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Review: Highway Thirteen by Fiona McFarlane

Highway Thirteen by Fiona McFarlane
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (August 2024)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Is it really a serial killer book if the serial killer is absent from the book?

That’s the question I had in mind when I picked up Highway Thirteen to review. I’d been led to believe — by the jacket copy, by the press materials, and by a few advance reviews — that the focus was not on the killer, but instead on the victims, family members, acquaintances, and curious parties caught in his orbit. That was all true. It was my assumption that the killer was absent that was incorrect.Continue Reading

Review: Obscene Folklore by Mer Whinery

cover of Obscene FolkloreObscene Folklore by Mer Whinery
Watertower Hill Publishing (July 2024)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor 

Mer Whinery is a folk horror author who was born and resides in Oklahoma. He is the author of two collections of short fiction: The Little Dixie Horror Show (Literati Press, 2012) and Phantasmagoria Blues (Literati Press, 2015); as well as the weird western novel Trade Yer Coffin for a Gun (Muzzleland Press, 2018) and the coming-of-age horror novel The Country Girl’s Guide to Hexes and Haints (JournalStone, 2022). Several pieces of his short fiction have appeared in various anthologies, including the forthcoming Hospital of Haunts (Watertower Hill Publishing, 2024). Continue Reading

Review: Sarafina by Philip Fracassi

cover of SarafinaSarafina by Phillip Fracassi
Earthling Publications. (September 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Phillip Fracassi has emerged as a force in horror over the past few years, as his Boys in the Valley rocked the genre, and rightfully so. After a pair of solid follow ups (Gothic and A Child Alone with Strangers), he’s hit another home run with Sarafina.

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Review: A Glimpse of Fear: A Small Collection of Short Stories by B.S. Miller

cover of A Glimpse of FearA Glimpse of Fear: A Small Collection of Short Stories by B.S. Miller
Page Street Publishing (August 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

B.S. Miller is a horror writer and teacher who lives with her husband and children in a somewhat secluded area south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, surrounded by critters, crows, and coyotes. Miller earned her MA in Literature from the University of New Orleans and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. Her newest collection is A Glimpse of Fear, a collection of short stories and two poems, currently available for less than a dollar on Kindle. Continue Reading

Review: Hide: The Graphic Novel by Scott Peterson and Kiersten White

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cover of Hide: The Graphic NovelHide: The Graphic Novel by Scott Peterson and Kiersten White
Ten Speed Graphic (September 2023)
240 pages; $24.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning, and critically acclaimed author of many books, including The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, the And I Darken trilogy, the Slayer series, the Camelot Rising trilogy, and her adult debut, Hide. Kiersten lives with her family in San Diego, where they obsessively care for their deeply ambivalent tortoise, Kimberly. Her novel, Hide, was recently adapted to graphic novel format by Scott Peterson. Continue Reading

Review: Through The Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe

cover of Through the Midnight DoorThrough The Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe
Poisoned Pen Press (August 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Who doesn’t love a good jump scare? While some dismiss jump cares as a cheap element in horror, others know that those quick, intense scares can set the stage for complete emotional collapse when done well.

Remember the car scene from Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House? It was shocking, memorable, and effective. This scene opened the floodgates of the family’s shared trauma and revealed what the lack of communication has since conjured.

Katrina Monroe’s latest release, Through The Midnight Door, accomplishes this several times.Continue Reading

Review: Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self-Destructions by Maxwell I. Gold

cover of Tiny OblivionsTiny Oblivions and Mutual Self-Destructions by Maxwell I. Gold
Raw Dog Screaming Press (August 22, 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American cosmic horror poet and editor, with an extensive body of work comprising over 300 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genre. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies such as Spectral Realms, Weird Tales Magazine, Startling Stories, Space and Time Magazine, Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Chiral Mad 5, and many more. Maxwell’s work has been recognized with multiple nominations including the Eric Hoffer Award, Pushcart Prize, and Bram Stoker Awards. His newest collection of prose poetry is Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self-Destructions.Continue Reading

Review: Drencrom by Hamelin Bird

cover of DrencromDrencrom 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

Review: When You Leave I Disappear by David Niall Wilson

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

Review: Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis

cover of Chisel the BoneChisel 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.

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Review: Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

cover of DiavolaDiavola 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

cover of Assorted MalignanciesAssorted 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

cover of UnwillingUnwilling: 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