Review: Invasive by Cullen Bunn, Jesús Hervás, and Federico Sabbatini

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 14, 2024September 29, 2024ReviewsColumns, Cullen Bunn, Invasive, Joshua Gage, ReviewsLeave a comment

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Invasive by Cullen Bunn (Author), Jesús Hervás (Illustrator), Federico Sabbatini (Illustrator)
Oni Preess (October 22, 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Cullen Bunn is the writer of comic books such The Sixth Gun, Shadow Roads, The Damned, and Helheim for Oni Press. He has also written titles including Harrow County (Dark Horse), Uncanny X-Men, and Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe (Marvel). Cullen claims to have worked as an alien autopsy specialist, rodeo clown, pro wrestling manager, and sasquatch wrangler. He has fought for his life against mountain lions and performed on stage as the world’s youngest hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime and he’ll tell you all about it. His newest graphic novel is Invasive, illustrated by Jesús Hervás and Federico Sabbatini.Continue Reading

CJ Leede, Pray for Us

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 11, 2024October 14, 2024Interviews, ReviewsAmerican Rapture, CJ Leede, Cynthia Pelayo, Interviews, ReviewsLeave a comment

Cemetery Dance is proud to present this special review/interview combo from Bram Stoker Award & 6x International Latino Book Award winning author Cynthia Pelayo.

“Well, we don’t know everything. I mean, we know basically nothing,” a character says in American Rapture, and in a way this is the major question explored by CJ Leede’s main character in her highly anticipated sophomore novel — “What do we know?”Continue Reading

Review: Meet Me in the Flames by Greg Jones

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 8, 2024October 7, 2024ReviewsGreg Jones, Joshua Gage, Meet Me in the Flames, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Meet Me in the Flames Meet Me in the Flames by Greg Jones
Wild Ink Publishing LLC (October 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Born in 1970, Greg Jones grew up, in his opinion, in the pinnacle of all things. The best films, music, comic books and those fantastic ’80s horror novels. No matter where his mind wandered, it eventually found it’s way back to something with a monster in it. He spent his adolescence hunched over a drawing table, occasionally writing and living his life in pursuit of personal creative goals. In his current role at the local library, he is surrounded by books all day and inspired daily to keep creating his horror inspired poetry. Meet Me in the Flames is his first published work.Continue Reading

Review: Into the Green Wild Yonder by Peter Crowther and Tim Lebbon

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 3, 2024October 1, 2024ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Into the Green Wild Yonder, Peter Crowther, PS Publishing, Reviews, Tim LebbonLeave a comment

cover of Into the Green Wild Yonder Into the Green Wild Yonder by Peter Crowther and Tim Lebbon
PS Publishing (August 2024)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Acclaimed authors Peter Crowther and Tim Lebbon have joined forces to produce this nightmarishly surreal novella about a young couple, a rundown old garden, and an ancient evil.

Gordon and Sally Kenney are house hunting when they visit a rundown old home with a wildly overgrown garden. They find themselves both repulsed by, and strangely drawn to, the old-fashioned decor, the creepy old lady who shows them around, and the untamed thicket that bears a sign saying, “Beware of the Garden.” Continue Reading

Review: The Exorcist’s House: Genesis by Nick Roberts

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 30, 2024September 29, 2024ReviewsCrystal Lake Publishing, Nick Roberts, Reviews, Rowan B. Minor, The Exorcist's House: GenesisLeave a comment

The Exorcist’s House: Genesis by Nick Roberts
Crystal Lake Publishing (September 2024)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Writer and educator Nick Roberts is a West Virginia native who currently resides in South Carolina. He holds a doctorate from Marshall University and is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and the Horror Authors Guild. Roberts has had work featured in several publications, such as The Fiction Pool, The Blue Mountain Review, Falling Star Magazine, Stonecrop Magazine, and Haunted MTL. His books include one self-published novel: Anathema (2020), and four titles from Crystal Lake Publishing: Mean Spirited (2024), It Haunts the Mind & Other Stories (2023), and The Exorcist’s House (2022), for which the sequel, The Exorcist’s House: Genesis (2024), has just been published. Continue Reading

Bev Vincent explores ‘Salem’s Lot (2024)

Bev VincentSeptember 27, 2024September 26, 2024Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead Zone'Salem's Lot, Bev Vincent, Christine, News from the Dead Zone, Reviews, Stephen King, Stephen King News2 Comments

The Show Begins at Sundown

Back in 2011, Screem magazine commissioned me to write an article about ‘Salem’s Lot and its adaptations. (1) That led me to revisit the 1979 miniseries, starring David Soul, that had so terrorized me at the time. I had just started reading King a couple of months earlier, and two scenes in particular—ones that will be familiar to anyone who’s seen it—haunted me for a long time thereafter. Even though the original miniseries doesn’t stand the test of time—even in 1979, Soul didn’t have the gravitas required of the role and I find the adaptation almost painful to watch now—those scenes do hold up. I would say that the miniseries is better as a memory than as an actuality. I found a lot of flaws in it when I wrote about it for Screem and I doubt I could make myself watch it again today. (2)

Review: Self-Made Monsters by Rebecca Cuthbert

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 25, 2024September 7, 2024ReviewsJoshua Gage, Rebecca Cuthbert, Reviews, Self-Made MonstersLeave a comment

Self-Made Monsters by Rebecca Cuthbert
Alien Buddha Press (October 5, 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Rebecca Cuthbert writes dark fiction and poetry. Readers of Cemetery Dance will be familiar with her work Creep This Way: How to Become a Horror Writer with 24 Tips to Get You Ghouling and her debut collection, In Memory of Exoskeletons. In the meantime, readers can enjoy Cuthbert’s work in her newest hybrid collection Self-Made Monsters. Continue Reading

Review: Pay the Piper by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 24, 2024September 23, 2024ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Daniel Kraus, George A. Romero, Pay the Piper, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Pay the Piper Pay the Piper by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus
Union Square & Co. (September 2024)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

What a gift it turned out to be when George A. Romero’s estate allowed Daniel Kraus (recently of Whalefall fame) to complete Romero’s novel The Living Dead, released back in 2020. Kraus worked his way through tons of notes and ideas and chapters to put together what would have been Romero’s final, masterful word on the zombie genre. In my review, I called it “… a crowning achievement, serving as the fond farewell that George Romero deserves.”

Not so fast, my friend.Continue Reading

Review: Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems by LindaAnn LoSchiavo

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 23, 2024September 23, 2024ReviewsAlways Haunted, Joshua Gage, LindaAnn LoSchiavo, ReviewsLeave a comment

Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems by LindaAnn LoSchiavo
Wild Ink Publishing LLC (October 1, 2024)
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, the IPPY Award, CLMP’s Firecracker Award, Balcones Poetry Prize, and Dwarf Stars. She is a member of Science Fiction Poetry Assoc., The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild. Her newest collection is Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems.Continue Reading

Review: Lexie by F. Paul Wilson

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 16, 2024September 14, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, F. Paul Wilson, Lexie, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Lexie Lexie by F. Paul Wilson
Crossroad Press (September 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Recommending an F. Paul Wilson novel is akin to saying oxygen might be good for you. Over the course of his career, there hasn’t been a bad book in his vast catalog. Lexie is no different — it’s the stunning second book of his duology that began last spring with The Upwelling and a fitting conclusion to a tale that holds all the tenets of a classic Wilson story. The characters are intriguing and fully fleshed out, the plot twists and turns yet plays fair with the reader, and the mythos he’s created is on full display.

Review: The Damage Done by Tony Tremblay

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 11, 2024September 7, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, Reviews, The Damage Done, Tony TremblayLeave a comment

cover of The Damage Done The Damage Done by Tony Tremblay
Haverhill House Publishing (July 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Old-school horror. It’s a term that’s tossed around lightly these days but many are unfamiliar with that entails (save for those who lived through the first golden age of paperbacks). What it truly means to many is a solid scary story with real people — just full bore ahead without stopping for subtleties, which is refreshing if the reader craves pure entertainment. There’s enough deep tomes in the dark realm to rip hearts and morals apart. Sometimes, a good story is just a good story.

Tony Tremblay knows how to spin a good — and great — story. The Damage Done is 100% great storytelling that makes the reader strap in, thrill ride style, and produces a smile that doesn’t let up until long after the final page.

Review: Highway Thirteen by Fiona McFarlane

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 10, 2024September 9, 2024ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Fiona McFarlane, Highway Thirteen, ReviewsLeave a comment

Highway Thirteen by Fiona McFarlane
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (August 2024)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Is it really a serial killer book if the serial killer is absent from the book?

That’s the question I had in mind when I picked up Highway Thirteen to review. I’d been led to believe — by the jacket copy, by the press materials, and by a few advance reviews — that the focus was not on the killer, but instead on the victims, family members, acquaintances, and curious parties caught in his orbit. That was all true. It was my assumption that the killer was absent that was incorrect.Continue Reading

Review: Obscene Folklore by Mer Whinery

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 9, 2024September 7, 2024ReviewsMer Whinery, Obscene Folklore, Reviews, Rowan B. MinorLeave a comment

Obscene Folklore by Mer Whinery
Watertower Hill Publishing (July 2024)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Mer Whinery is a folk horror author who was born and resides in Oklahoma. He is the author of two collections of short fiction: The Little Dixie Horror Show (Literati Press, 2012) and Phantasmagoria Blues (Literati Press, 2015); as well as the weird western novel Trade Yer Coffin for a Gun (Muzzleland Press, 2018) and the coming-of-age horror novel The Country Girl’s Guide to Hexes and Haints (JournalStone, 2022). Several pieces of his short fiction have appeared in various anthologies, including the forthcoming Hospital of Haunts (Watertower Hill Publishing, 2024). Continue Reading

Review: Sarafina by Philip Fracassi

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 28, 2024August 25, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, Philip Fracassi, Reviews, SarafinaLeave a comment

Sarafina by Phillip Fracassi
Earthling Publications. (September 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Phillip Fracassi has emerged as a force in horror over the past few years, as his Boys in the Valley rocked the genre, and rightfully so. After a pair of solid follow ups (Gothic and A Child Alone with Strangers), he’s hit another home run with Sarafina.

Review: A Glimpse of Fear: A Small Collection of Short Stories by B.S. Miller

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 26, 2024August 19, 2024ReviewsA Glimpse of Fear, B.S. Miller, Joshua Gage, ReviewsLeave a comment

A Glimpse of Fear: A Small Collection of Short Stories by B.S. Miller
Page Street Publishing (August 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

B.S. Miller is a horror writer and teacher who lives with her husband and children in a somewhat secluded area south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, surrounded by critters, crows, and coyotes. Miller earned her MA in Literature from the University of New Orleans and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. Her newest collection is A Glimpse of Fear, a collection of short stories and two poems, currently available for less than a dollar on Kindle. Continue Reading

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