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Review: ‘Last Train from Perdition’ by Robert McCammon

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 29, 2016September 29, 2016ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Featured, Last Train from Perdition, Reviews, Robert McCammonLeave a comment

Last Train from Perdition by Robert McCammon
Subterranean Press (October 2016)
181 pages; $35 hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Sometimes, horror is the perfect genre for exploring universal themes such as loss, isolation, or grief.

Sometimes, horror is the perfect genre for exploring how humans react to adversity, loneliness, temptation or, naturally, fear.

And sometimes, horror is the perfect genre to take a group of people, strand them on a train in the dark frontier, and unleash a siege of bloodthirsty creatures upon them.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Children of Lovecraft’ edited by Ellen Datlow

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 26, 2016September 28, 2016ReviewsChildren of Lovecraft, Dark Horse Books, Ellen Datlow, Featured, ReviewsLeave a comment

Children of Lovecraft edited by Ellen Datlow
Dark Horse Books (September 2016)
384 pages; $12.81 paperback; $10.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over thirty years. She has won numerous awards for her work and is certainly one of the best in the business. As a result, she attracts some of the best writers when she puts together a new project, and Children of Lovecraft is a fine example of this effect.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Mysterion: Rediscovering the Mysteries of the Christian Faith’

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 22, 2016ReviewsDonald S. Crankshaw, Featured, Kevin Lucia, Kristin Janz, Mysterion, ReviewsLeave a comment

Mysterion: Rediscovering the Mysteries of the Christian Faith edited by Donald S. Crankshaw and Kristin Janz
Enigmatic Mirror Press (July 2016)
300 pages; $16.99 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

Writers grappling with faith through the trappings of speculative fiction isn’t new. George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J. R. R. Tolkien, Madeleine L’Engle, Russell Kirk, William Peter Blatty and others did it long before now. There are many industry greats—such as Dean Koontz, Anne Rice and Stephen King, only to name a few—who have also written powerful works which address both the inspirational and also terrifying aspects of the Christian faith.

It’s a tricky balance, however, honestly grappling with these questions without proselytizing in the fashion of a preachy “Sunday School Lesson Wrapped Up in a Story.” All too often, “Christian” fiction errs too much on the side of “doctrinal correctness,” “proper theology” and an almost Puritanical “cleanliness,” completely missing out on the transformational power fiction has to impact humanity by sharing deep tales of the human experience and what it means to believe, hope, grieve, sacrifice, and trust in a higher power. Continue Reading

Review: ‘Stranded’ by Bracken MacLeod

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 20, 2016ReviewsBracken MacLeod, David Simms, Featured, Reviews, StrandedLeave a comment

Stranded by Bracken MacLeod
Tor Books (October 4, 2016)
304 pages; $24.99 hardcover; $11.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms

Stranded is the kind of book which generates plenty of hype and high expectations—like many others every year. This one delivers on all that’s promised, and more, in a genre-hopping blockbuster which draws immediate comparisons to The Terror, The Thing, and even The Twilight Zone. Strong comparisons, yet in this case, apt words. A tour-de-force of claustrophobic thrills which places the book in the same field as Simmons, Koontz, and Golden.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Savages’ by Greg F. Gifune

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 19, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, Greg F. Gifune, Reviews, Savages, Sinister Grin PressLeave a comment

Savages by Greg F. Gifune
Sinister Grin Press (September 2016)
168 pages; $17.00 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Reminiscent of the pulp fiction stories of the ’30s through the ’50s, or perhaps the B-Movies popular at drive-ins in the ’70s and ’80s, Greg F. Gifune’s new novel, Savages, is every bit as good as the best of those sub-genres. Prior to the start of the book, the author quotes the 1920 film “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”:

A man cannot destroy the savage in him by denying its impulses. The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it…

The story which follows is about a group of friends and acquaintances, shipwrecked, adrift for days, and washed ashore on a seemingly uninhabited island…and that’s the good news.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Hunter of the Dead’ by Stephen Kozeniewski

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 14, 2016ReviewsFeatured, Reviews, Stephen Kozeniewski, The Hunter of the DeadLeave a comment

Hunter of the Dead by Stephen Kozeniewski
Sinister Grin Press (August 2016)
402 pages; $17.59 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Hunter of the Dead is a sprawling, epic tale of vampire houses, the Inquisitors who seek to destroy them, and the one both vampires and Inquisitors fear the most, simply known as The Hunter.

Kozeniewski wastes no time setting the bloody tone for the tale which follows. I have never read anything like this. At times mesmerizing and breathtaking, Hunter of the Dead is every bit as entertaining as The Strain, but dissimilar in many ways. Multiple story-lines are woven together in a complex tapestry of blood and violence. No sparkly vampires here, these undead are definitely hardcore.Continue Reading

Review: ‘They Say a Girl Died Here Once’ by Sarah Pinborough

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 13, 2016ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Earthling Publications, Halloween Series, Sarah Pinborough, They Say a Girl Died Here OnceLeave a comment

They_Say_a_Girl_Died_Here_Once_by_Sarah_Pinborough They Say a Girl Died Here Once by Sarah Pinborough
Earthling Publications (October 2016)
202 pages; $35 signed & numbered hardcover; $400 lettered edition
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Every year for the last 11 years, Earthling Publications has played Santa on our “Horror Christmas,” a/k/a Halloween. Their gift to us each year: a new entry in the Halloween Series, a collection of short novels written by some of the best the horror genre has to offer. We’re talking your Peter Crowthers, your Gary McMahons, your Glen Hirshbergs, your James A. Moores, etc. The cream of the crop.

You’re forgiven if you haven’t heard of this series or read any of them—they are published in extremely limited quantities of 500 copies plus a smaller run of deluxe editions (the series starter—Mr. Dark’s Carnival by Glen Hirshberg—was only offered as a run of 15 handmade hardcovers), so they tend to disappear quickly. I fully expect that to be the case with this year’s entry, They Say a Girl Died Here Once, written by soon-to-be-an-overnight-success Sarah Pinborough.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Stay Crazy’ by Erica L. Satifka

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 12, 2016ReviewsErica L. Satifka, Featured, Reviews, Stay CrazyLeave a comment

Stay Crazy by Erica L. Satifka
Apex Book Company (August 2016)
254 pages; $14.67 paperback; ebook $6.99
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

If you knew that your brain made up its own narrative sometimes, how would you know what to believe? Beset by manipulative self-help gurus, religious cults, corporate brainwashing and other-dimensional beings that might want to destroy our entire universe, you have to decide what you will believe. That’s where we find Em in the course of Stay Crazy.

Warning: This is mostly a character piece. It moves incredibly slow at first while Satifka builds up the character and life of Emmaline Kahlberg. People that want to jump into a book running breakneck right from the start will not be happy. That’s sad, though, because the time spent establishing the day-to-day reality of Em pays off once everything falls off the rails and the crazy promised in the title hits home. The ride from there isn’t what I would call fun, but it’s a hell of a powerful one.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror’

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 7, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Bad Apples 3, Featured, Reviews, Seven Slices of Halloween HorrorLeave a comment

Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror by Various
Corpus Press (August 2016)
242 pages; $14.99 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Halloween is fast approaching. Don’t believe me? Just stop by your local big box store or visit any super drug store. Candy and costumes and decorations are popping up everywhere. Good news is, it’s also time for Halloween anthologies and scary stories to appear on bookshelves and in your news feeds. One such collection is from Evans and Adam Light, co-creators of the Bad Apples anthology series.

Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror is a delicious concoction of tales which are much more fun than bobbing for apples. Plus, you’re much less likely to suffer accidental drowning reading this book, unless you like to read in the tub. Then you’re on your own.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Tales from Valleyview Cemetery’ by John Brhel and Joseph Sullivan

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 6, 2016ReviewsFeatured, John Brhel, Joseph Sullivan, Meredith Durfy, Reviews, Tales from Valleyview CemeteryLeave a comment

Tales from Vallyeview Cemetery by John Brhel and Joseph Sullivan
Cemetery Gates Media (November 2015)
158 pages; $10.00 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Meredith Durfy

“Angel Music”— The first story in the anthology is about a woman who walks into a graveyard after hearing music coming from there, and then bad things happen to her. I found it painful to read at times. I felt it was poorly written and not scary. I didn’t identify with the main character, I didn’t feel I knew her. All I know about the main character is that her name is Brenda and she is not from Lestershire (the town) originally. It seemed as though the author was more interested in describing everything in detail than setting up the main character. The monster was a problem as well, as creepy children are just cliché at this point. Continue Reading

Review: ‘Wind Chill’ by Patrick Rutigliano

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 1, 2016ReviewsCrystal Lake Publishing, Featured, Patrick Rutigliano, Reviews, Wind ChillLeave a comment

Wind Chill by Patrick Rutigliano
Crystal Lake Publishing (January 2016)
206 pages; $5.42 paperback; $1.99 e-book
Reviewed by John Brhel

Bundle up and find a warm hiding spot before you crack open Patrick Rutigliano’s latest, Wind Chill. In terms of both atmosphere and sheer scares, this novella from Crystal Lake Publishing delivers chills of Arctic-level proportions. Rutigliano has penned an ice-cold monster story that explores family dynamics, in this case that of a mentally damaged father and his confused and bitter daughter.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Night Parade’ by Ronald Malfi

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 31, 2016ReviewsFeatured, Kevin Lucia, Reviews, Ronald Malfi, The Night ParadeLeave a comment

The Night Parade by Ronald Malfi
Kensington (July 2016)
384 pages; $9.37 paperback; $7.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

For the most part, I’m not an avid reader of post-apocalyptic fiction. I loved The Stand (of course), Brian Keene’s The Rising, and I enjoyed One by Conrad Williams. That’s about it. But, as with everything else he writes, Ronald Malfi is able to mine the core of the human experience, elevating what could be just another exercise in a well-worn horror trope to a powerfully affecting story. As always, his prose is tight, powerful, and he has the same capacity as Stephen King to breathe life into three-dimensional, fully-realized characters.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Jersey Devil’ by Hunter Shea

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 29, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, Hunter Shea, Reviews, The Jersey DevilLeave a comment

The Jersey Devil by Hunter Shea
Pinnacle (August 30, 2016)
352 pages; $7.99 paperback; $5.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Hunter Shea’s latest is a romp through the Pine Barrens of New Jersey with multiple twists, layers, and additions to the mythos of The Jersey Devil.

I’ve lived in Southeastern Pennsylvania most of my life. It’s close enough to South Jersey that I’ve grown up fascinated by the tall tales of The Jersey Devil. As a result, I come to Hunter Shea’s new book with a firm grasp on all of the hearsay from over the years. While Hunter keeps the history of the legend intact, he really uses those stories as a starting point for his own tale, which makes anything you may have heard before look like a child’s bedtime story.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Quick Shivers About Bugs’ edited by James Leach and Janice Leach

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 24, 2016ReviewsFeatured, James Leach, Janice Leach, Joshua Gage, Quick Shivers About Bugs, ReviewsLeave a comment

Quick Shivers About Bugs edited by James Leach and Janice Leach
Cosmonomic Multimedia (March 2016)
80 pages, $15.00 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Quick Shivers About Bugs is a horror anthology based on articles published at Daily Nightmare. Each piece focuses on bugs in one way or another, though that term is taken as broadly as possible. Most of the pieces are short, one-hundred-word stories or poems, but there are a few longer non-fiction pieces interspersed between the short pieces to give some balance to the anthology. Overall, it’s an entertaining collection.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Dead Souls’ by J. Lincoln Fenn

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 22, 2016ReviewsDead Souls, Featured, J. Lincoln Fenn, Jonathan Reitan, ReviewsLeave a comment

Dead Souls by J. Lincoln Fenn
Gallery Books (September 20, 2016)
352 pages; $10.16 paperback; $7.99 e-book
Reviewed by Jonathan Reitan

How J. Lincoln Fenn’s first novel Poe escaped my radar I don’t know, for it won a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, but after finishing her upcoming second novel, Dead Souls, she’s created a new dedicated fan in this reviewer.

It’s a wonderful thing when a new writer comes out of seemingly nowhere to offer up such a mesmerizing and truly hypnotic work of fiction. When you’re knocked on your ass with its quality…even better. Continue Reading

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