Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Unwelcome Guests by David Kopaska-Merkel 
Unwelcome Guests by David Kopaska-Merkel
Weird House Books (June 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
David C. Kopaska-Merkel is the editor and publisher of Dreams and Nightmares magazine, and was for six years the editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Thirty-two books and thousands of poems and stories have been published in over a thousand venues since the early 1980s. The latest poetry collection is Unwelcome Guests.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper 
Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper
Bad Hand Books, LLC (April 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
Hailey Piper creates a haunting atmosphere and writes with stunning prose in her Bram Stoker Award-winning novella Cranberry Cove.
In the desolate halls of the Cranberry Cove Hotel, there’s an evil once called upon but abandoned. Even rodents didn’t dare enter. No one did until Emberly’s boss, Ricard, sent she and her partner, Conner, on a mission after his son was s*xually assaulted. What stands out here is: one, the victim is male, and two, there’s a lot of nuanced information. He didn’t see his attacker. There don’t appear to be secret passages to allow someone to sneak in and out unseen. Still, Richard’s son is instantly believed, a privilege both cisgender and transgender women fight tooth and nail for. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Blood in the Cut by Alejandro Nodarse 
Blood in the Cut by Alejandro Nodarse
Flatiron Books (June 2024)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
Ignacio “Iggy” Guerra returns home, fresh off a three-year stint in prison, to find nothing but turmoil. His mother has passed away in a tragic accident. His father is angry with Iggy for the mistakes that sent him to prison. His family’s business is struggling, and his neighborhood is being reshaped through a series of unwanted changes.
Iggy, just 23, is standing at a crossroads, and everywhere he turns, there’s another bit of trouble waiting, idling, hoping for the chance to gun the engines and run him down.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Scribe by Michael R. Goodwin 
Scribe by Michael R. Goodwin
Dark Pine Publishing (September 2023)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
In Michael R. Goodwin’s Scribe (the Smolder prequel), an ancient force prowls and feeds in the woods, hungry for women, children, hunters, and whoever should be misfortunate enough to enter the shadows. The Penobscot natives lost several to the evil of the woods, with nothing left of the bodies, only scorched patches of earth.
Finally, an elder arranges a deal, trading sacrifice for immunity.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Gathering by C.J. Tudor 
The Gathering by C.J. Tudor
Ballantine Books (April 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Full disclosure here: not a vampire fan, because most fiction and movies aim for the tried and true tropes rather than injecting new blood into the subgenre. Once in a while, a novel changes that view. The Gathering is one of those, an enjoyable, left turn of a blood-sucking story that can make the reader forget about the bad stories.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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Necrotek by Jonathan Maberry 
Necroteck by Jonathan Maberry
Blackstone Publishing (May 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Military science fiction crossed with Lovecraftian horror with a cast of offbeat characters in an adventure that begs for a film adaptation? Yes please!
Jonathan Maberry has conquered a bit of everything in his career, from the straight-up horror that won him a Bram Stoker award to the popular weird adventure series starring Joe Ledger to resurrecting the Weird Tales franchise in style. His style combines Matheson and Bradbury, a pair of giants he knew as a child, along with the fun adventure tales that filled drugstore spinner racks. This is all strong praise, especially for this new novel, which promises to be the start of another successful series.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Hellweg’s Keep by Justin Holley 
Hellweg’s Keep by Justin Holley
Flame Tree Press (November 2023)
256 pages; $16.77 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Horror in space has always held a special place in many readers’ hearts. However, for the most part it’s been more prevalent on the screen than on the page. Thankfully, the subgenre has been making a comeback in the past few years, striking a fine balance between science fiction and dread.
Justin Holley has added an interesting entry into this canon with Hellweg’s Keep. a novel that brings to mind several elements of well-known and well-loved stories, including The Thing, the worlds of Philip K. Dick and H.P. Lovecraft — all while keeping it grounded, no pun intended.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Ink Vine by Elizabeth Broadbent 
Ink Vine by Elizabeth Broadbent
(April 2024)
118 pages
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen 
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
Poisoned Pen Press (May 2024)
384 pages
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen exceptionally invokes gothic tropes such as unearthing buried secrets at a dire cost, and relics of her predecessors to craft a chilling, sapphic love story that is possessive, haunting, and beautiful.Continue Reading
The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories by David Small
Liveright (March 2024)
192 pages
Reviewed by Danica Davidson
The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories is a haunting triptych of tales about “the dread of things internal.” Done in an illustrated format, it’s kind of like a picture book for adults, and it shows the depth and artistic aesthetics possible in graphic storytelling. This is a book to stay with readers long after they’ve finished the last page, and I’ve never seen anything else quite like it.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay 
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
William Morrow (June 11, 2024)
288 pages
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
In his classic, fatalistic tone, Bram Stoker Award-winner Paul Tremblay cleverly assembles a haunting level of empathy between readers, the narrator, and characters in Horror Movie. At times the story felt all-too real, which will appease fans of Tremblay’s previous work like A Head Full of Ghosts (2015) and The Pallbearers Club (2022). Down the road, maybe even a few weeks from now, the characters’ names from Horror Movie may evade you but you’ll never escape the reality-bending and unsettling “horror void.” Continue Reading
“Lack of belief is the curse of intelligence”
It’s a short story collection. No, it’s a novella collection. No, it’s two…two…two things in one! OK, you have to be really old to get that reference to an old Certs commercial. They don’t even make Certs anymore, I’m displeased to discover.
Anyhow, You Like It Darker is a hybrid of two types of books we’ve come to expect from Stephen King. It’s a collection of the seven short stories published since The Bazaar of Bad Dreams but it also contains five brand-new long works ranging from a novelette (“The Dreamers”) to novellas (“The Answer Man,” “Two Talented Bastids” and “Rattlesnakes”) to a story long enough to be considered a novel by the SFWA and other awards criteria (“Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream”).
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Where the Worm Never Dies by Quinn Hernandez 
Where the Worm Never Dies by Quinn Hernandez
Swann + Bedlam (June 1, 2024)
114 pages; $18.00 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Quinn Hernandez loves the full spectrum of speculative fiction, and he is currently working on expanding his fiction universe. His poetry collection Life and Other Unfortunate Horrors is available from Madness Heart Press, and his short story collection Viva La Muerte! is available from Nightmare Press. His second poetry collection Where the Worm Never Dies is forthcoming from Swann and Bedlam Press.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Where the Dead Wait by Allie Wilkes 
Where the Dead Wait by Allie Wilkes
Atria (December 2023)
400 pages; $20.49 hardcover; $11.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms
What do you get when gothic horror goes to the arctic? Pure poetry with a fiendish dark heart.
For those who read the pitch-dark All The White Spaces from Allie Wilkes two years ago, this is a worthy follow-up. It’s not a true sequel, meaning readers can start with this novel and enjoy it, as Wilkes covers the backstory in a manner that isn’t overkill with infodumps. Instead, readers are treated to another great study in character building and setting.Continue Reading
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