Cemetery Dance Reviews

Review: ‘The Kraken Sea’ by E. Catherine Tobler

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thekrakenseaThe Kraken Sea by E. Catherine Tobler
Apex Book Company (June 2016)
128 pages; $11.95 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms

If reading YA has gotten a little cliché for readers, the same old dystopian plots and angst-ridden ghosts, there’s a new wave coming. Back to the intelligence of what made the genre strong, some new authors have decided to push back and take a chance.The Kraken Sea is one such entry. E. Catherine Tobler has given the YA world something it may not have seen before.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!)’ by Mark Sheldon

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sarahkillian (1)Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!) by Mark Sheldon
Crystal Lake Publishing (July 2016)
216 pages; $13.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I want to love every book I read, I really do. Regrettably, it’s just not possible. There are times when you pick up a title that grabs your interest, but doesn’t quite live up to your expectations. Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!) is such a tome.Continue Reading

Review: ‘I Am Providence’ by Nick Mamatas

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ProvidenceI Am Providence by Nick Mamatas
Night Shade Books (August 2016)
256 pages; $10.66 paperback; $15.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I can’t say I read a lot of Nick Mamatas, but what I have read, I’ve certainly enjoyed.  

Nick’s most recent work is dissimilar from anything I’ve read before. Set at the fictional, annual Summer Tentacular—“Providence’s premiere literary conference about pulp-writer, racist, and weirdo Howard Philips Lovecraft”—the book is an inside look at the craziness such an event would give rise to.

The attendees at said conference seem to be based on a combination of real writers and an amalgamation of the writers and fans who frequent such a happening.

The story is told from two separate points of view: that of first-time attendee and recently published Lovecraftian writer, Colleen Danzig; and the other, her roommate, a writer know as Panossian who spends most of the book in the morgue, lying on a slab.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Sinister Stitches’ by Mark Cassell

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stichesSinister Stitches by Mark Cassell
Herbs House (October 2015)
128 pages; $6.99 paperback; $1.99 e-book
Reviewed by Josh Black

Mark Cassell’s The Shadow Fabric (2014) was a fast-paced and entertaining romp through a mythos involving the extraction of evil, a unique take on the living dead, and the encroachment of primordial darkness into the modern world. Sinister Stitches collects twelve stories (thirteen in the paperback version) that expand on or relate to the mythos, and an extract of the novel.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Fisherman’ by John Langan

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thefishermanThe Fisherman by John Langan
Word Horde (June 2016)
352 pages; $11.03 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms

Imagine, if you will, a dark tale co-written by Peter Straub and Thomas Ligotti, filtered through the whimsical sensibilities of Neil Gaiman and spoken to a friend over beers at a campfire. If that image conjures up something quite different than what you’ve read lately, John Langan’s The Fisherman might just be what a jaded reader craves this year.  

The term “literary horror” is often misunderstood, sometimes turning away the casual fan and other times focusing more on the writing than the story itself. Fear not, this intriguing novel dispels the misconceptions as it is a smooth read, almost begging to be read on the porch with feet up and a drink in hand.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Shadow Fabric’ by Mark Cassell

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shadowfabricThe Shadow Fabric by Mark Cassell
Herbs House (September 2014)
340 pages; $12.99 paperback; $1.99 e-book
Reviewed by Josh Black

Leo remembers little of his past. Desperate for a new life, he snatches up the first job to come along. On his second day, he witnesses a murder, and the Shadow Fabric—a malevolent force that controls the darkness—takes the body and vanishes with it.

Uncovering secrets long hidden from humankind, Leo’s memory unravels. Not only haunted by his past, a sinister presence within the darkness threatens his existence and he soon doubts everything and everyone… including himself.

Now Leo must confront the truth about his past before he can embrace his future. But the future may not exist.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Odd Adventures with Your Other Father’ by Norman Prentiss

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OddAdventuresOdd Adventures with Your Other Father by Norman Prentiss
Kindle Press (May 2016)
217 pages; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

Norman Prentiss immediately distinguished himself from average horror fare with his debut novella Invisible Fences. A brilliant character study about the fears we inherit from our parents, and also about the guilt we carry deep inside us, it embodied the best of the “quiet horror” sub-genre with powerful, creeping atmosphere and an exploration of the human psyche.

Invisible Fences won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in long fiction (as a novella), an award well-deserved. Norman followed this up with his mini-collection Four Legs in the Morning, another brilliant exercise in quiet horror, about the machinations of Dr. Sibley, Chair of the English Department at Graysonville University, and the unpleasant fates of those who try to oppose him. Personally, I can’t to read about this mysterious (maniacal?) character again.

With his first full-length novel, Odd Adventures with Your Other Father, Prentiss has once again distinguished himself from others in the horror/weird fiction field. Continue Reading

Review: ‘Growing Dark’ by Kristopher Triana

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growingdarkGrowing Dark by Kristopher Triana
Blue Juice Books (May 2015)
188 pages; $14.95 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Josh Black

Kristopher Triana isn’t a writer with a big back catalog. Nearly half of this debut collection is new material, the rest of it having been published within the past six years. Going by the strength of these stories, it’s a safe bet we’ll be seeing his name a lot more in the years to come.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Wrath and Ruin’ by C.W. Briar

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wrathandruinWrath and Ruin by C.W. Briar
Splickety Publishing Group (July 2016)
302 pages; $22.95 Hardcover; $12.45 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

A highly satisfying mix of genres, C.W. Briar’s debut short story collection Wrath and Ruin offers a voice reminiscent of George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis, with a healthy sampling of Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. With a clear moral compass, Briar has crafted several speculative tales which target demons of the human soul: lust, greed, obsession with fame and power, and pride.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Puppet Skin’ by Danger Slater

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PuppetSkinPuppet Skin by Danger Slater
Fungasm Press (July 2016)
126 pages; $8.95 paperback; $4.95 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Adolescence is its own kind of horror show, as anyone that lived through it can attest. I’m quite a few years removed from it myself, but reading Danger Slater’s Puppet Skin served as a striking, less-than-fond look back at that time—albeit through a warped and cracked lens.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Floaters’ by Kelli Owen

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FloatersFloaters by Kelli Owen
CreateSpace (July 2016)
270 pages; $10.99 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Two quotes at the start of Floaters set the tone perfectly for the story which follows:

America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil. Before the settlers, before the Indians…The evil was there…Waiting. — William S. Burroughs

Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. — Mary Shelly, Frankenstein

Kelli Owen’s new book starts out looking like a police procedural involving flood waters causing a riverside graveyard to lose a number of its residents, including several Native Americans. It’s all fairly straightforward, until BAM…tentacles.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Jedi Summer with The Magnetic Kid’ by John Boden

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jedisummerJedi Summer with The Magnetic Kid by John Boden
Post Mortem Press (July 2016)
76 pages; $10.00 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

There’s something about coming-of-age stories that resonate with the child we used to be. The nostalgic longing for a simpler time allows us, just for a little while, to escape the often maddening grownup world we live in. When a writer is able to balance that nostalgia with a clear eye, avoiding romanticizing or demonizing the past, you’ve got something special indeed.

That’s what John Boden has done with Jedi Summer with the Magnetic Kid. He’s offered us a clear view to a simpler time which wasn’t without its own complications, but it isn’t a bitter, depressing tale either. It’s simply what it is: a story about childhood, a time which can never be again.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Deadsville’ by T.D. Trask and Dale Elster

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deadsvilleDeadsville by T.D. Trask and Dale Elster
Downtown Books Publishing (September 2015)
200 pages; $22.49 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Josh Black

1 TOWN. 2 AUTHORS. 13 TALES OF HORROR.

That’s the short and sweet pitch for Deadsville, the first anthology from authors T.D. Trask and Dale Elster. The fictional upstate New York town of Rock Creek is host to some strange and horrible things. Being a big fan of Kevin Lucia’s Clifton Heights mythos, I was intrigued by the idea and eager to get lost in another town full of stories to explore. Trask and Elster alternate tales here, their styles ranging from subtle to slapstick to gore-drenched, and all this from moment to moment rather than story to story. You never know what you’ll get next, and it’s done in a way that won’t push away readers who lean hard toward any particular aspect of the genre.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Booking’ by Ramsey Campbell

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booking-cover-mockupThe Booking by Ramsey Campbell
Dark Regions Press (2016)
75 pages; $13.00 paperback; ebook $3.99
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

The Booking is a tight little yarn about Keifer, a man flailing to find his place in a new job. Simple enough idea. Of course, that new job is putting together a website for a bookstore that seems as reclusive and crotchety as its owner. A mess of disjointed words cloistered in shabby isolation from the surrounding world that seems to drag Keifer deeper into itself as he tries to bring its contents out to the public.

Though quite short, this is a very slow moving story. For most of it, very little occurs and much of that is quite mundane. Personally, I like how long Campbell took setting up the character and the situation and really cementing the atmosphere of Books Are Life. We spend so much time in the head of Keifer and in the abode of Mr. Brookes that they begin to feel as if they have wrapped themselves around us. The whole bears the feeling of Campbell slowly, meticulously setting up an array of dominoes, full or whorls and loops and inwardly spun spirals. The process is dizzying, but fraught with anticipation.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Psychopomp & Circumstance (Books of Nethermore #1)’ by Adrean Messmer

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psychopompPsychopomp & Circumstance (Books of Nethermore #1) by Adrean Messmer
A Murder of Storytellers (April 2016)
186 pages; $9.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Josh Black

Psychopomp & Circumstance, the first in a series of standalone books, is Adrean Messmer’s first novel.

It follows a group of friends and “frenemies” somewhere between the carefree world of high school and the uncertainty of what comes next. Unfortunately for them, what’s going on in the present—and whether they’ll even live long enough to see college or careers take off—is just as uncertain. After one of them posts a Facebook update she has no recollection of, things get weird. People are missing. People are dying. Lurking somewhere around the periphery of it all is the Sewercide Man, a mysterious figure glimpsed only occasionally, but whose mere presence seems to bring chaos and have a disconcerting effect on the recently deceased.Continue Reading