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Review: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 2, 2023October 1, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Isabel Canas, Reviews, Vampires of El NorteLeave a comment

cover of Vampires of El Norte Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
Berkley (August 2023)
371 pages; $19.58 hardcover; $14.99 e-book; $20.25 audiobook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Some things are too precious to lose.

Nena and Nestor were inseparable as children. They even shared their first kiss. To Nena, Nestor’s voice is like coming home, but her father wishes to marry her to a wealthy rancher’s son to acquire more land for the family.

She didn’t always dread the idea of marriage, not when she envisioned it with Nestor.Continue Reading

Review: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 29, 2023September 24, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-GarciaLeave a comment

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Del Rey (July 18, 2023)

336 pages; $19.99 hardcover; $25.94 paperback; $22.05 audiobook; $13.99 e-book

Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Silvia Moreno-Garcia makes her much-anticipated return to horror (after Mexican Gothic) with her latest release, Silver Nitrate. It wasn’t just the Twilight Zone and Psycho-reminiscent imagery on the cover that pushed me to read Silver Nitrate; it was also because of its emphasis on oldies horror in the same vein as Hammer films and the rare chance to learn about Nazism in Mexico.

Review: The Unhallowed Horseman by Jude S. Walko

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 9, 2023August 5, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Jude S. Walko, Reviews, The Unhallowed HorsemanLeave a comment

The Unhallowed Horseman by Jude S. Walko
Blue Falcon Productions LLC (Oct. 2021)
319 pages; $25.67 hardcover; $14.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue” – Washington Irving

Jude S. Walko’s The Unhallowed Horseman scrupulously reimagines the infamous tale of a silent secluded valley, a place laced with superstition and scandal, called Sleepy Hollow. Continue Reading

Review: Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 24, 2023July 23, 2023ReviewsCatriona Ward, Haley Newlin, Looking Glass Sound, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Looking Glass Sound Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
Tor Nightfire (August 8, 2023)
352 pages; $25.19 hardcover; $20.53 paperback; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Catriona Ward lures readers with charming coming-of-age humor and strife in her latest novel, Looking Glass Sound, reminiscent of Stephen King’s “The Body.”

Those who’ve read Ward’s previous work, Little Eve and The Last House on Needless Street (favorites of mine), know the loveable and exciting are a facade. And the truth, particularly a harsh one, leaves readers black with poison, bitten by the spider, trapped in her intricate web. Twitching with metaphysical dread, desperate for answers.Continue Reading

Review: Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 10, 2023July 9, 2023ReviewsDarcy Coates, Dead of Winter, Haley Newlin, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Dead of Winter Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates
Poisoned Pen Press (July 11, 2023)
352 pages; $14.39 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Darcy Coates upholds her reputation as a deft storyteller with a knack for conjuring atmospheric page-turners in her latest release, Dead of Winter, “an icy homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.” Continue Reading

Review: Graveyard of Lost Children by Katrina Monroe

Cemetery Dance OnlineJune 14, 2023June 13, 2023ReviewsGraveyard of Lost Children, Haley Newlin, Katina Monroe, ReviewsLeave a comment

Graveyard of Lost Children by Katrina Monroe
Poisoned Pen Press (May 2023)
368 pages; $15.17 paperback; e-book $6.49
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Katrina Monroe has done it again.

Much like in her debut, They Drown Our Daughters, Monroe’s latest release, a modernized and stylish gothic grim, Graveyard of Lost Children doesn’t just scare. It lurks, prods, then manifests into a hellish dreamscape where reality bends and breaks. And it all starts with the skull-splitting cry of life of a baby.Continue Reading

Review: Mothered by Zoje Stage

Cemetery Dance OnlineJune 7, 2023June 4, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Mothered, Reviews, Zoje StageLeave a comment

Mothered by Zoje Stage
Thomas & Mercer (March 2023)
318 pages; $19.15 hardcover; $12.78 paperback; e-book $2.49
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Zoje Stage’s latest release, Mothered, festers with feverish delirium.

Paper dolls can’t speak for themselves. They can’t escape the shears slicing through their limbs nor the violent grasp of their manipulator. That’s what life was like for Grace. Her chronically ill twin sister, Hope, was sickly pale with a delicate dust of warm freckles across her cheeks. Her smile fooled their mother, Jackie, and just about everyone else, but Grace knew that a glee-ridden Hope spelled trouble. Continue Reading

Review: Mouth Full of Ashes by Briana Morgan

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 8, 2023May 7, 2023ReviewsBriana Morgan, Haley Newlin, Mouth Full of Ashes, ReviewsLeave a comment

Mouth Full of Ashes by Briana Morgan
Independently Published (October 2021)
158 pages; $9.99; $2.99 ebook; $14.95 audiobook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“Dear Diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count.” – Heathers

I’m not typically into vampire stories, except for Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and Bela Lugosi’s performance in Dracula.

However, Briana Morgan’s Mouth Full of Ashes dismembers supernatural horror and dark, campy teen film to conjure something scheming and bloody. Continue Reading

Review: Whatever Remains Of Us In The End by Brandon Baker

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 3, 2023May 1, 2023ReviewsBrandon Baker, Haley Newlin, Reviews, Whatever Remains of Us in the EndLeave a comment

Whatever Remains Of Us In The End by Brandon Baker
Independently Published (March 2023)
132 pages; $10.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Power comes at a price in Brandon Baker’s Whatever Remains Of Us In The End, a supernatural thriller looming with feverish occult practices, the classic horror trope of “how far will you go to save those you love,” and lucid imagery reminiscent of the pulp horror era. Continue Reading

Review: All The Living And The Dead by Hayley Campbell

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 19, 2023April 17, 2023ReviewsAll the Living and the Dead, Haley Newlin, Hayley Campbell, ReviewsLeave a comment

All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell
St. Martin’s Press (August 2022)
288 pages; $21.49; $19.00 paperback; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

None of us are born with the knowledge of death. We have to stumble upon a fallen bird fluttering its wings, desperate to live. Or we lose a grandparent, a sibling, a classmate, and someone breaks the news: the deceased, those “in a better place,” won’t, can’t, ever come back.

The author of All the Living and the Dead, Hayley Campbell, couldn’t pinpoint the moment she learned of death. She tells readers she can’t recall a time before death, stating, “Death was just there, everywhere, always.”Continue Reading

Review: A Lovely Girl by Deborah Holt Larkin

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 12, 2023April 11, 2023ReviewsA Lovely Girl, Deborah Holt Larkin, Haley Newlin, ReviewsLeave a comment

A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California’s Most Notorious Killers by Deborah Holt Larkin
Pegasus Crime (October 2022)
528 pages; $21.60 hardcover; $18.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

From the iconic mothers in horror fiction, like Norman Bates’ tormenting, ever-invasive mother, Norma, and Stephen King’s evangelically evil Margaret White from Carrie, to real-world terrifying tales of mommy dearests, motherhood captivates audiences. Continue Reading

Review: Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology edited by Sadie Hartmann & Ashley Saywers

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 24, 2023March 23, 2023ReviewsAshley Saywers, Haley Newlin, Human Monsters, Mother Horror, Reviews, Sadie HartmannLeave a comment

cover of Human Monsters Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology edited by Sadie Hartmann & Ashley Saywers
Dark Matter INK (October 2022)
376 pages; $19.99 paperback; $6.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

There’s something incredibly profound about horror anthologies. Organizers and editors decide on one bloodied but beating heart that thrums aching, booming life into stories. But it is the minds of the authors — those who conjure the devilish indulgences, the unquestioned yet morally gray, ahem, black methods of group leaders, and the deceiving nature of the desperate, and who reveal the snapping jowls of humanity — that give collections such as Human Monsters breath and mobility. Continue Reading

Review: What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 13, 2023March 12, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Kate Alice Marshall, Reviews, What Lies in the WoodsLeave a comment

What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Flat Iron Books (January 2023)
336 pages; $26.09 Hardcover, e-book $14.99
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Little girls follow adventure. There’s a wilderness to them, as Kate Alice says in What Lies In The Woods. The local woods was the heart of Naomi, Cass, and Olivia’s childhood fantasies…and nightmares. Among the trees, they created a mystical game, “The Goddess Game,” which guided their lives, fate, and friendship. It was their secret, one they only shared with someone who could never speak the truth. Continue Reading

Review: Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films by Nina Nesseth

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 8, 2023March 5, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Nightmare Fuel, Nina Nesseth, ReviewsLeave a comment

Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films by Nina Nesseth
Tor Nightfire (July 2022)
304 pages; $20.49 hardcover, $13.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“Do you like scary movies?”

Ghostface asks this as he stands outside an unsuspecting Casey Becker’s (Drew Barrymore) house. Becker entertains the raspy voice on the other end of the line and plays horror movie trivia. But the game turns deadly when she wrongfully answers Jason Vorhees as the killer in the 1980 slasher film Friday the 13th instead of Mrs. Vorhees.

Cut to Barrymore strung up on a tree in her front yard, disemboweled. And to make it worse, the killer escaped.

Sounds intense, maybe even offensive to some. So that leaves the question: why do we like scary movies? Why subject ourselves to this kind of distress?Continue Reading

Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 24, 2023February 23, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Daughter of Doctor MoreauLeave a comment

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Del Rey (Hardcover – July 2022) (Paperback – April 11, 2023)
320 pages; $16.60 hardcover; $18 paperback
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Horror icon Vincent Price once said, “Science is frighteningly impersonal.”

What if the scientist’s work becomes his family, his children, in a way? Some argue this is evolution, a matrimony of a creator and his work. Others argue ethics.

But in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s reimagination of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, Carlota, the doctor’s only daughter, lives in a static and balanced world in the jungles of Yucatan alongside the human-animal hybrids. She is happy to assist her father with his research and befriends most hybrids, but despite the idyllic scope Moreno-Garcia introduces, there’s a lingering dread. Dr. Moreau punishes the hybrids for “losing control,” yet Carola believes her father would never truly harm anyone. He is reclusive and sometimes spends days mourning a lost love. This emotional side, however, is kept behind closed doors and never relayed to others.Continue Reading

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