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Review: Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods by Murewa Ayodele and Dotun Akande

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 10, 2025March 9, 2025Reviews, The Comic VaultAkogun, Brutalizer of Gods, Dotun Akande, Joshua Gage, Murewa Ayodele, Reviews, The Comics VaultLeave a comment

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Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods by Murewa Ayodele and Dotun Akande
Oni Press (March 18, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Recipient of the (Lagos Comic Con 2023) Fist Award for Writer of the Decade, Murewa Ayodele is the writer of the Nommo-nominated comic book series New Men, the critically acclaimed webcomic series My Grandfather Was a God, and several Marvel comics. He is also the co-founder of Collectible Comics NG, a Nigerian comic book studio founded with artist Dotun Akande that was nominated in the Comic Studio of the Year category at the 2018 Fist Awards. Dotun Akande is an award-winning comic book cover artist and graphics designer who has worked with some of the biggest brands in Nigeria. He was the recipient of the (Lagos Comic Con 2018) Fist Award for Best Cover Artist and has created comic covers for comic book series like I Am Iron Man, Vengeance of the Moon Knight, Black Panther, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and Heirs of Apocalypse. Their newest collaboration is the mythic adventure tale, Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods.Continue Reading

Review: The Get Off by Christa Faust

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 3, 2025February 24, 2025ReviewsAngel Dare, Blu Gilliand, Christa Faust, Hard Case Crime, Reviews, The Get OffLeave a comment

cover of The Get Off The Get Off by Christa Faust
Hard Case Crime (March 18, 2025)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

In 2008’s Money Shot, former porn star Angel Dare was introduced to readers…and then promptly shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car. It wasn’t a flashback, and it wasn’t the end…not of the book, and not of the character.

Dare showed up next in 2011 in Choke Hold, emerging from a witness protection program to help out the son of a former co-star. At that point it felt like author Christa Faust was gearing up for an entire series of Angel Dare books, something I and a lot of other pulp/noir readers would have been ecstatic to have.

That’s not how things ultimately played out, and for a while it felt like we’d just have to be happy with two excellent entries. Luckily, Faust wasn’t done, bringing us to 2025 and the last of the Angel Dare trilogy, The Get Off.Continue Reading

Review: The Wages of Belief and Other Stories from the Dark Side by Elizabeth Massie

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 28, 2025February 23, 2025ReviewsDave Simms, Elizabeth Massie, Reviews, The Wages of Bellief and Other Stories from the Dark SideLeave a comment

cover of The Wages of Belief and Other Stories from the Dark Side The Wages of Belief and Other Stories from the Dark Side by Elizabeth Massie
Macabre Ink (February 2025)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

The skill involved in creating top shelf short fiction is an elusive one. The number of writers who can pull it off with relative ease is very small, no matter the genre. To be able to succeed at both the short form and novel length exists as a tier that is much, much more exclusive. Yet Elizabeth Massie has always been able to pull that off, time and time again.

Review: Black Magick: 13 Tales of Darkness, Horror & the Occult Paperback edited by Raven Digitalis

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 26, 2025February 23, 2025ReviewsBlack Magick, Joshua Gage, Raven Digitalis, ReviewsLeave a comment

Black Magick: 13 Tales of Darkness, Horror & the Occult Paperback edited by Raven Digitalis
?Moon Books (March 1, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Black Magick is an anthology compiled and edited by occult author Raven Digitalis. Each story uniquely integrates occultism and magick, deepening the mysteries of the shadow. Raven Digitalis himself is an award-winning author best known for his “empath’s trilogy,” consisting of The Empath’s Oracle, Esoteric Empathy, and The Everyday Empath, as well as the “shadow trilogy” of A Gothic Witch’s Oracle, A Witch’s Shadow Magick Compendium, and Goth Craft. Originally trained in Georgian Witchcraft, Digitalis has been an earth-based practitioner since 1999, a Priest since 2003, a Freemason since 2012, and an empath all of his life. He holds a degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Montana, co-operated a nonprofit Pagan Temple for 16 years, and is also a professional Tarot reader, editor, card-carrying magician, and animal rights advocate.Continue Reading

Review: The House At Black Tooth Pond by Stephen Mark Rainey

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 19, 2025February 17, 2025ReviewsDave Simms, Reviews, Stephen Mark Rainey, The House at Black Tooth PondLeave a comment

The House at Black Tooth Pond by Stephen Mark Rainey

Crossroads Press (February 2025)

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Stephen Mark Rainey is one of the greatest unsung masters of the genre and has churned out solid, entertaining work for decades. From Deathrealms magazine in the eighties and nineties to several dozen short stories to many novels that both embraced the classics and pushed the envelope, he has carved out his own piece of horror history.

Review: Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 12, 2025February 5, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Victorian Psycho, Virginia FeitoLeave a comment

cover of Victorian Psycho

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Liveright (February 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Victorian Psycho is soon to be a feature film from the horror fan-favorite A24, starring Margaret Qualley (The Substance). I heard the news before picking up Virginia Feito’s psychological and gothic horror debut, so I enjoyed envisioning Qualley as the bloodthirsty Ensor governess, Winifred Notty. This read was one of those rare instances where every responsibility of life feels like an interruption. I could not get back to it quickly enough. Continue Reading

Review: Alex’s Escape by L. Andrew Cooper

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 10, 2025February 2, 2025ReviewsAlex's Escape, Chandra Claypool, L. Andrew Cooper, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Alex's Escape

Alex’s Escape by L. Andrew Cooper
Horrific Scribblings (February 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

“Fourteen-year-old psychopath Alex Packard has his own house, a shadow version of his parents’ house that THEY help him build.” That alone caught my attention immediately. Alex takes his victims there to kill them in the most entertaining of ways with his final victims in his hometown being his own parents. Police can’t catch him because there’s no physical evidence to tie him to the crimes. What happens in his house, doesn’t happen the exact same way in the real world.Continue Reading

Review: Night People by Barry Gifford, Chris Condon, Brian Level, and Alexandre Tefenkgi

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 31, 2025January 26, 2025The Comic VaultBarry Gifford, Chris Condon, Comics, Joshua Gage, Night People, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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Night People by Barry Gifford, Chris Condon, Brian Level, and Alexandre Tefenkgi
Oni Press (February 11, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Barry Gifford’s novel Night People was awarded the Premio Brancati, established by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alberto Moravia, in Italy. He has won awards for fiction from the writers guilds in America and the United Kingdom, a BAFTA, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, among others. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages. His film credits include Wild at Heart (winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival), Lost Highway, City of Ghosts, and The Phantom Father.

Chris Condon is the low-down dirty scoundrel behind the ongoing Image Comic series That Texas Blood and its acclaimed Wild West spinoff, The Enfield Gang Massacre, both with artist Jacob Phillips. He waded deep into bayou waters to adapt Barry Gifford’s Night People for Oni Press and has not been the same since.Continue Reading

Review: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 29, 2025January 26, 2025ReviewsBury Your Gays, Chuck Tingle, Haley Newlin, ReviewsLeave a comment

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Tor Nightfire (July 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Bury Your Gays was my first Chuck Tingle read. The cover features Hollywood’s bright colors, palm trees, and a bloodied sledgehammer to break apart the pretense of glamor. The imagery reminds me of Ti West’s characters, Maxine and Pearl, and their fierce fight for fame.Continue Reading

Review: American Rapture by C.J. Leede

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 27, 2025January 26, 2025ReviewsAmerican Rapture, Chandra Claypool, CJ Leede, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of American Rapture American Rapture by C.J. Leede
Tor Nightfire (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin.

Let me just say that I’ve heard about C.J. Leede from just about everyone I know who reads the same genres that I do. First, it was about Maeve Fly (which is on my to-be-read list) and then this beautifully covered read, American Rapture. After turning the last page, not knowing my breath had been held for so long, I can certainly see why this book has become so popular, so quickly.Continue Reading

Review: Wake Up And Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 20, 2025January 19, 2025ReviewsChandra Claypool, Clay McLeod Chapmen, Reviews, Wake Up and Open Your EyesLeave a comment

Wake Up And Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
Quirk Books (January 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

Holy smokes, folks! What did I just read?! Readers, oh readers. This is a hard review to write because there is just so much to say but I’ll keep it as simple as possible. Let’s take a look at this “fast-paced supernatural horror novel about a mass demonic possession epidemic that spreads through the internet.”Continue Reading

Review: Grim Root by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 15, 2025January 13, 2025ReviewsBonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Chandra Claypool, Grim Root, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Grim Root Grim Root by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
Dark Matter INK (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

Touted as a “humorous gothic horror novel pitched as The Bachelor meets The Haunting of Hill House,” this novel definitely delivered on the first part and somewhat on the latter. In this novel, a “group of women on a reality TV dating show must compete for the hand of an eligible bachelor by spending a week in a haunted house.” Sign me up! I absolutely love this idea for a plot. Reality shows are a great setting for some devious and illicit things to occur. Continue Reading

Review: Shadowplay (Book 1): Midnight School by Samuel Fonseca

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 14, 2025January 13, 2025ReviewsColumns, Joshua Gage, Reviews, Sam Fonseca, Shadowplay, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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Shadowplay (Book 1): Midnight School by Samuel Fonseca
Top Shelf Productions (February 11, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Sam Fonseca has been drawing comics since he discovered that the anime he watched on TV as a child came from manga — and that it was possible to create all that stuff by himself using paper and pencil (still his tools of choice). Nowadays, he alternates duties between art direction, storyboard art, script writing for animation and TV projects, and creating comics. His comic project Age of Rust was nominated three times for the HQMix Prize, and his other title, Dynamite & Laser Beam, won in the “best webcomic” category. Sam also has the strange hobby of creating soundtracks for his comics. His newest collection is the dystopian nightmare, Shadowplay. Continue Reading

Review: The Ill-Fitting Skin by Shannon Robinson

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 8, 2025January 5, 2025ReviewsChandra Claypool, Ill-Fitting Skin, Reviews, Shannon RobinsonLeave a comment

cover of Ill-Fitting Skin The Ill-Fitting Skin by Shannon Robinson
Press 53 (May 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

Twelve stories about women navigating their everyday situations, each a unique story covering different areas of a woman’s life. We get tales of a mother whose baby bites a lot and how she tries to handle the situation. A woman who gives birth to rabbits and instead of this being a strange thing, it’s a tale of misunderstanding. There’s even a story that gives you that “choose your own adventure” feel where you have to shuffle through pages to see what may come up. The best part of this is where the author sometimes chastises you for making a decision — or at least it feels this way. I found this to be very humorous and a lot of fun. Continue Reading

Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 6, 2025January 5, 2025ReviewsGrady Hendrix, Haley Newlin, Reviews, Witchcraft for Wayward GirlsLeave a comment

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Berkley (January 14, 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Great horror reflects the societal fears of its time. In the 1950s, fear of the unknown and the atomic age inspired classics like Richard Matherson’s I Am Legend and Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. In the 1960s, distrust in the government worsened, and many feared mental illness and occultism, giving birth to Robert Bloch’s Psycho and Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby. In Witchcraft For Wayward Girls, Grady Hendrix speaks to the evolution of these social anxieties and unrest but prioritizes an often suppressed point of view: women’s.Continue Reading

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