Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Bestial Mouths by Brenda S. Tolian 
Bestial Mouths by Brenda S. Tolian
Raw Dog Screaming Press (November 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Dr. Brenda S. Tolian, DA, MFA, lives and writes New Orleans and is the author of Blood Mountain, published by Raw Dog Screaming Press. As an active member of the Horror Writers Association and the Angela Carter Society, Brenda’s work blends haunting narratives with deep literary insights. Her newest collection of poetry is Bestial Mouths.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: At Summer’s Wistful End by K. A. Opperman 
At Summer’s Wistful End by K. A. Opperman
Jackanapes Press (September 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
K. A. Opperman is a poet of the Gothic and the grotesque hailing from Southern California. He has been published in a wide array of contemporary horror and dark fantasy magazines, journals, and anthologies, including Weirdbook, Skelos, Ravenwood Quarterly, The Audient Void, The Weird Fiction Review, Spectral Realms, and many others. His debut book-length collection, The Crimson Tome, is available from Hippocampus Press, and a second collection, The Laughter of Ghouls is available from PS Publishing. While not drinking a fine ale or writing morbid poems, he can often be found tending to his pumpkin patch. He has a religiously zealous, year-round devotion to Halloween, and some people have called him “The Pumpkin King.” Since 2020, he has been amassing a collection of conversational verse related to Halloween. This collection has been published over three books on Jackanapes Press, culminating in At Summer’s Wistful End.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Ignited Melodies by Emberly Lily Summers 
Ignited Melodies by Emberly Lily Summers
Independently Published (March 2021)
128 pages; $7.24 paperback, $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Emberly Lily Summers (Lauren Adele) is native to Baltimore, Maryland, and has been writing for the last ten years. She is a blind author and writes poetry, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. Her debut novel HUNTED: The Immortal’s Kiss cowritten with Luna Nyx Frost is available on Amazon. She has had several poems featured in Maryland’s Best Emerging Poets 2019 by Z Publishing and Fae Thee Well: An Anthology and Rogues and Rebels: An Anthology both published by Dreampunk Press. Her inspiration comes from nature, the fantasy and paranormal literature, classic musicals such as The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked and of course, her favorite music ranging from showtunes to punk rock. Emberly also loves reading about magic, mythology, faeries, witches, and dragons. Her newest collection is Ignited Melodies.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Shadows Abyss by L. N. Frost 
Shadows Abyss by L. N. Frost
Independently Published (December 2020)
116 pages; $10.24 paperback, $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Luna Nyx Frost (Nicole) is a native to Baltimore, Maryland, and has been writing for the last twenty years. She is a blind author and writes poetry, urban fantasy, and paranormal. Her debut novel HUNTED: The Immortal’s Kiss cowritten with Emberly Lily Summers is available on Amazon. After publishing her poetry book. Shadow Abyss: A Book of Poetry, she has had other poems featured in anthologies such as Maryland’s Best Emerging Poets by Z Publishing and in Fae Thee Well by Dreampunk Press. Her passion for writing and reading doesn’t stop at sonnets and novels. Her inspiration mostly comes from nature, ancient history, and classic literature. Luna has also looked up to the magnificent work of poets such as Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickens. She has also read many works by Shakespeare and fables by The Brothers Grimm. Luna has also been intrigued by the great ancient civilizations. Her collection, Shadows Abyss, is available now. Continue Reading
Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection, Vol II edited by Lindy Ryan and Lee Murray
Black Spot Books (November 7, 2023)
200 pages; $14.95 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Songs in the Key of Death by JG Faherty 
Songs in the Key of Death by JG Faherty
Lvp Publications (October 3, 2023)
148 pages; $16.99 hardcover; $9.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
A life-long resident of New York’s haunted Hudson Valley, JG Faherty is the author of 19 books and more than 85 short stories, and he’s been a finalist for both the Bram Stoker Award (2x) and ITW Thriller Award. Songs in the Key of Death arrives ready to entertain horror poetry readers.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: anOther Mythology by Maxwell I. Gold 
anOther Mythology by Maxwell I. Gold
Interstellar Flights Press (September 4, 2023)
72 pages; $14.99 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Maxwell I. Gold, in his end author’s note, argues that his purpose in writing this book was that “it didn’t matter how we as queer people were seen, but it mattered how we saw ourselves…” and “These are myths that are meant for us.” It is understood that the target audience for this book is specifically the queer community, written almost as a triumphant reclaiming of thousands of years of heteronormative patriarchy. This energy permeates the poetry in this collection, and anyone reading it will thoroughly enjoy it.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Price of a Small Hot Fire by E. F. Schraeder 
The Price of a Small Hot Fire by E. F. Schraeder
Raw Dog Screaming Press (July 2023)
72 pages; $13.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Beautiful Malady by Ennis Rook Bashe 
Beautiful Malady by Ennis Rook Bashe
Interstellar Flight Press (June 2023)
72 pages; $14.99 paperback; e-book $9.99
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Numinous Stones by Holly Lyn Walrath 
Numinous Stones by Holly Lyn Walrath
Aqueduct Press (April, 2023)
98 pages, $10 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Numinous Stones is a collection of speculative pantoums, a form derived from the Malay verse pantun berkait, which is a form of interwoven verses of alternating lines. This is a difficult form to accomplish, as the repeated lines need to seem fresh each time the reader encounters them, but also echo back to the previous stanza. The tightly entwined stanzas, when executed well, create a rhythmic and incantatory experience for the audience, hypnotizing them in a sonic spell.
Readers, if you read Numinous Stones, be prepared to be hypnotized. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Black Widow by Louise Worthington 
The Black Widow by Louise Worthington
Self-published (October 2022)
116 pages; $10.44 paperback; $4.23 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Louise Worthington started writing psychological thrillers and horror in 2019 after studying for a postgraduate diploma in psychology and reading true crime non-fiction. Her degree is in literature, and she taught English in secondary schools for many years. The emotional pull of a story is very important to her, both as a reader and a writer. She is a member of the Society of Authors and the Horror Writers Association (HWA). Her latest work-in-progress, a psychological horror novel, recently won the top spot on Litopia with agent Peter Cox. Her family lives in Shropshire, a rural, historic county in the UK. Her day job is tutoring and running a farm with her husband. Their newest collection of dark poetry is the independently published The Black Widow. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Dear Ted by Kim Vodicka 
Dear Ted by Kim Vodicka
Really Serious Literature (June 2022)
202 pages; $19.95 paperback
Reviewed by Anton Cancre
In 2020 Kim Vodicka gifted us with The Elvis Machine, one of the most compelling, and honest collections of the year. This time, she is focusing on Ted Bundy. It would be easy to go with straight depictions of the murders. Instead, Kim pictures herself as both the fangirl obsessed with Bundy and as his victim. She delves deep into the squishy desire to be both a dehumanized thing of flesh to be used and an object of adoration.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Crows of After by Exsanguine Hart 
The Crows of After by Exsanguine Hart
Specimen SandWitch Press (October 2022)
86 pages; $17 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Exsanguine Hart is a scribbler with an obnoxiously pretentious pseudonym living somewhere in Canada with two cats, an assemblage of dolls and a number of dragons. Hart can be found online either doodling on instagram @exsanguine_hart
or lurking on exsanguinehart.com. Their newest collection of poems is The Crows of After.Continue Reading
Messengers of the Macabre by LindaAnn LoSchiavo and David Davies
Audience Askew (October 2022)
54 pages; $9.99 paperback; $2.99 ebook
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
LindaAnn LoSchiavo is a dramatist, writer, and poet. A native New Yorker, LoSchiavo has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Rhysling Award, Best of the Net, and Dwarf Stars. She is a member of Science Fiction Poetry Assoc., The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild. David Davies left Wales under baleful circumstances for The Lone Star State. “Have sonnets, will travel,” announces his business card. His Pushcart- and Bram Stoker-nominated poems and stories have been known to appear in: Granfalloon, Green Lantern Press, MacroMicroCosm, Moon Shadow Sanctuary, Ripples in Space. Together, LoSchiavo and Davies have written the Halloween-themed collection Messengers of the Macabre. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Breaking NewsLeave a comment on Review: Spirit by Helle Gade 
Spirit by Helle Gade
Butterdragons Publishing (May 10, 2022)
94 pages; $14.99 hardcover; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Helle Gade lives in Denmark. She is a book blogger, poet, photographer, nocturnal creature, avid reader and chocolate addict. She has been writing poetry since 2011 and published four poetry collections since then. She has been fortunate to work with a bunch of brilliant authors and photographers on The Mind’s Eye series. Her book Nocturnal Embers won the Best Poetry Collection with eFestival of Words. Her newest collection is Spirit, a series of dark and painful poems about feeling lost.Continue Reading
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