Haley Newlin Archives - Cemetery Dance Online

Interview: Viggy Parr Hampton

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 30, 2025December 14, 2025InterviewsA Veritable Household Pet, Haley Newlin, Interview, Viggy Parr HamptonLeave a comment

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photo of author Viggy Parr Hampton — Viggy Parr Hampton

Viggy Parr Hampton, MPH is an epidemiologist, host of the podcast “Horror Humor Hunger,” and the author of A Cold Night for Alligators, Much Too Vulgar, The Rotting Room, and A Veritable Household Pet. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. She is also a member of the Purgatory Media team, producing the popular YouTube segment “Tag Team Tales of Terror,” where she challenges fellow horror authors to create a progressive story with her.

Hampton sat down with Cemetery Dance to talk about feminist horror, lobotomies, and A Veritable Household Pet. Continue Reading

Review: A Veritable Household Pet by Viggy Parr Hampton

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 29, 2025December 14, 2025ReviewsA Veritable Household Pet, Haley Newlin, Reviews, Viggy Parr HamptonLeave a comment

A Veritable Household Pet by Viggy Parr Hampton
Horror Humor Hunger Press (January 2026)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Viggy Parr Hampton is a force to be reckoned with in her medical-body horror novel, A Veritable Household Pet. It’s a blistering indictment of patriarchal power and a tragic story of the nightmare that is the theft of autonomy and identity, a quiet and constant terror women know all too well.Continue Reading

Interview: Erika T. Wurth on The Haunting of Room 904

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 24, 2025December 18, 2025InterviewsHaley Newlin, Interviews Erika T. Wurth, The Haunting of Room 904Leave a comment

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photo of author Erika T. Wurth — Erika T. Wurth

Erika T. Wurth is an urban native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent. She is the author of the New York Times editor’s pick, White Horse. She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow. She’s published in Buzzfeed and The Writer’s Chronicle, and is a native artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation. Her most recent release, The Haunting of Room 904, has garnered national attention and received praise from some of the biggest names in horror, including Paul Trembly, S.A. Cosby, and Phillip Fracassi. She also has a short story in the recently published and highly anticipated Howl: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-In-Horror alongside Gwendolyn Kiste, Christina Henry, Ai Jiang, Katrina Monroe, and so many other incredible women from the genre.

Wurth sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss The Haunting of Room 904, religion and lore in horror, Howl, and more.

You can find Erika T. Wurth on Instagram @erikatwurth or on her website. Continue Reading

Review: The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 23, 2025December 18, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, The Haunting of Room 904. Erika T. WurthLeave a comment

cover of The Haunting of Room 904 The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth
Flatiron Books (March 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

What is it that horror readers love about a haunted hotel?

Is it the haunted house feel but with more witnesses? The hauntings that vary from floor to floor as though specters and entities take the elevator themselves? The idea of a place that has seen such tragedy, death after death, that it shines like a ghoulish beacon for spirits and curses? It’s really all the above. The isolation, the secrets and hidden history, the absorption and spiritual/paranormal preservation of human suffering have popularized stories like Stephen King’s The Shining, Psycho by Robert Bloch, and The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. Continue Reading

Review: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 15, 2025November 30, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Play Nice, Rachel Harrison, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Play Nice Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Berkley (September 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“The world will drive a woman insane, then point and laugh.”

In Rachel Harrison’s new gothic and paranormal horror novel, Play Nice, a stylist and influencer named Clio returns home following her mother’s sudden death. Alex left the house to Clio and her sisters who immediately wish to sell it. After all, it’s where their mother lost her mind. Continue Reading

Review: The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 19, 2025October 26, 2025ReviewsDanielle Valentine, Haley Newlin, Reviews, The Dead Husband CookbookLeave a comment

cover of The Dead Husband Cookbook The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine
Sourcebooks Landmark (August 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine is a worthy follow-up to the author’s motherhood-horror and debut novel, Delicate Condition. Delicate Condition inspired season twelve of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story: Delicate, starring Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian.

The Dead Husband Cookbook is another exploration of the daily horror of the female experience. However, it’s less body horror than you might expect. It’s a gritty mystery, each reveal more twisted than the last. I had a really tough time putting this one down.Continue Reading

Interview: Crafting Horror with Jenny Kiefer

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 28, 2025October 9, 2025InterviewsCrafting for Sinners, Haley Newlin, Interviews, Jenny Kiefer, This Wretched ValleyLeave a comment

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photo of author Jenny Kiefer — Jenny Kiefer

Jenny Kiefer is an award-winning author of spine-tingling, fierce, and cathartic horror. Her debut novel, This Wretched Valley, was a 2024 Bram Stoker Award Nominee and named a Library Journal Best Horror Book of the year. Readers have been anxiously awaiting her second release, Crafting for Sinners, a survival horror story about a queer woman trapped in a craft store run by religious fanatics. It is all over BookTok and Bookstagram as one of the most anticipated horror book releases of 2025.

Together with her mother, Kiefer owns and manages Butcher Cabin Books, an all-horror bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky.

Kiefer sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss her debut novel, This Wretched Valley, her new release, Crafting for Sinners, survival horror, her favorite reads of the year, and of course, crafts.

You can find the author on Instagram @_jennykiefer and on her website. Continue Reading

Review: Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 27, 2025October 9, 2025ReviewsCrafting for Sinners, Haley Newlin, Jenny Kiefer, ReviewsLeave a comment

Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer
Quirk Books (October 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

In Jenny Kiefer’s latest release, Crafting for Sinners, Ruth walks the aisles of a craft store in Kill Devil, Kentucky. There’s fall decor from floor to ceiling, but no sign of ghosts, witches, or black cats for Halloween, the holiday omitted entirely. Emblazoned glass jars read: Be Pure, for those who give themselves to immortality will suffer the punishment of eternal fire. A placard with two vintage handguns forming an X, barrels overlapping, declares: Righteous judgment will be revealed on the day of His wrath – Romans 2:5. Continue Reading

Review: The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 17, 2025October 7, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Isabel Canas, Reviews, The Possession of Alba DiazLeave a comment

cover of The Possession of Alba Diaz The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
Berkley (August 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Isabel Cañas is a gothic horror revivalist who would appease and astonish the founding mothers of the genre and excite the readers they continue to lure in today. What makes Cañas stand out is her use of classic Gothic tropes — such as isolation, family turmoil, claustrophobic settings, and hauntings —but she re-centers them in Mexico. She symbolizes historical trauma, evangelization, colonization, generational violence, and misogyny throughout her work in a way that’s accessible and impactful.

In her latest genre-defying release, The Possession of Alba Díaz, Cañas conjures an unforgettable, wicked tale so compelling and cinematically evocative that readers will talk about it for years to come. It’s haunting and gory. Fierce and uncanny.Continue Reading

Nick Medina on Native lore, The Whistler, and more

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 26, 2025September 24, 2025InterviewsHaley Newlin, Interviews, Nick Medina, The WhistlerLeave a comment

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photo of author Nick Medina — Nick Medina

Nick Medina is a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, and he drew on his heritage and stories passed down by his paternal grandmother, along with research into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) epidemic, as inspiration for his novels including Sisters of the Lost Nation, which earned a Junior Library Guild Standard Selection Award, and Indian Burial Ground. He has degrees in organizational and multicultural communication, and has worked as a college instructor. He also enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock, and exploring haunted cemeteries and all sorts of spooky stuff.

Medina’s new release, The Whistler, takes readers back to the reservation for a thrilling blend of Native folklore, mythology, and horror. Much like the paranormal investigators the author writes about, Medina has gone in search of Resurrection Mary, the “Italian Bride,” and the “Devil Baby,” and other spirits of Chicago’s ghost lore.

Medina sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss his new release, The Whistler, Native lore, and his favorite reads of the year. Continue Reading

Review: The Whistler by Nick Medina

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 25, 2025September 24, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Nick Medina, Reviews, The WhistlerLeave a comment

The Whistler by Nick Medina
Berkley (September 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

For fear of summoning evil spirits, Native superstition says you should never, ever whistle at night.

Henry Hotard was about to hit the big time. He’d gained a huge online following with his ghost-hunting videos. But things changed one day, a day he wishes he could forget, and now he’s navigating a new reality — life in a wheelchair and back on the reservation where he grew up, and relying on his grandparents’ care.

Growing up on the reservation, one hears all sorts of stories, cautionary tales with wicked creatures and anecdotes. Myths. But some superstitions shouldn’t be ignored. Continue Reading

Interview: Breathing In, Bleeding Out with Brian McAuley

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 28, 2025August 21, 2025InterviewsBreath In Bleed Out, Brian McAuley, Haley Newlin, InterviewsLeave a comment

photo of author Brian McAuley — Brian McAuley

Brian McAuley is a WGA screenwriter and HWA author. His debut novel, Curse of the Reaper, was named one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of 2022. His novellas, Candy Cain Kills and Candy Cain Kills Again: The Second Slaying, are essential holiday horror reads and dubbed “A masterclass in slasher fiction” by FanFiAddict. This fall, McAuley returns with a bloody-good slasher called Breathe In, Bleed Out.

McAuley’s upcoming novel has already garnered praise from some of the biggest names in Horror. Upon reading Breathe In, Bleed Out, Nat Cassidy, author of When The Wolf Comes Home and Mary: An Awakening of Terror, said McAuley is “the crown prince of slasher literature.” Continue Reading

Review: Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 27, 2025August 21, 2025ReviewsBreathe In Bleed Out, Brian McAuley, Haley Newlin, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Breathe In, Bleed Out Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley
Poison Pen Press (September 2, 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Brian McAuley’s slasher novel Breathe In, Bleed Out is an absolute scream and an instant classic.

In this fast-paced and shocking horror novel, Hannah, a woman haunted by the ghosts of grief, and her friends are invited to a secluded healing retreat in the desert. With constant nightmares and a drug dependency, Hannah thinks this trip could be just what she needs: a chance to heal.Continue Reading

Nat Cassidy on When the Wolf Comes Home

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 19, 2025August 10, 2025InterviewsHaley Newlin, Interviews, Nat Cassidy, When the Wolf Comes HomeLeave a comment

photo of author Nat Cassidy Nat Cassidy is a USA Today bestselling horror author. He’s received wide acclaim for his work, including his supernatural, perimenopausal horror novel, Mary: An Awakening of Terror, and his Bram Stoker-nominated contemporary horror novella, Rest Stop, that explores historical trauma and reads like a bloody slasher leaping from the page.

He was named one of the “writers shaping horror’s next golden age” by Esquire and his recent release, When The Wolf Comes Home, has been praised by THE KING of horror, Stephen King, who said:“It’s terrific…a classic.”

Cassidy is infamous for bringing the angst and dread, but especially the feels, and his fairytale-inspired horror novel, When The Wolf Comes Home promises all of that and more.

You can find the author on Instagram and TikTok – @catnassidy and on his website.Continue Reading

Review: When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 18, 2025August 10, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Nat Cassidy, Reviews, When the Wolf Comes HomeLeave a comment

cover of When the Wolf Comes Home When The Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
Tor Nightfire (April 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

After reading Mary: An Awakening of Terror, I swore Nat Cassidy had written his magnum opus, not realizing it was his debut novel. And then I read Rest Stop from Shortwave, which is absolutely stellar with its exploration of historical trauma and triggers amongst the political state of things. And it was UNHINGED. So, I was certain that the novella was my new favorite. But, man, Cassidy came to the plate swinging with When The Wolf Comes Home and he knocked it out of the park. In his fairytale-inspired story Cassidy once again proves he’s one of the strongest voices in modern horror. His work is thoughtful, compelling, and fiercely chaotic as hell. I will devour EVERYTHING this man writes.Continue Reading

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