BOOK REVIEWS

A House That Remembers: The Ambitious Haunt of In the House of In Between Let’s talk about the house for a minute. Not as a setting. Not as a backdrop for spooks. But as the main character. The Backlund House doesn’t need a violent past. No murders, no suicides, no tragic … In the House of In Between by J.D. Buffington An Ambitious HauntingRead more

Trapped in the Abyss: A Review of Chris Butera’s Claustrophobic Debut ‘The Darkest Deep’ Ever wonder what would actually happen to your mind if you got stuck, alone, in a long, dark tube under the ocean? Not a pleasant thought, is it. That unsettling, squirming feeling in your gut is … Trapped in the Abyss: A Review of Chris Butera’s Claustrophobic Debut ‘The Darkest Deep’Read more

Some stories don’t just want to be read. They want to be felt in your bones, a visceral tremor that resonates long after the last page. This is the unsettling territory of Yah Yah Scholfield’s debut, On Sundays She Picked Flowers. A Southern Gothic horror novel that’s equal parts bloody and lyrical, it … On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield, Review: Sapphic Horror & Generational TraumaRead more

Review: The Rise by Alan Baxter – The Gulp Swallows Readers Whole Again The truly great fictional places, the ones that stick with you, aren’t just backdrops. They’re characters with their own pulse and their own dirty secrets. Think about it. Stephen King’s Maine isn’t just pine trees and lobster … Review: The Rise by Alan Baxter – The Gulp Swallows Readers Whole AgainRead more

Healing is Messy: A Review of Jim Butcher’s Twelve Months Let’s be honest, after a war, you don’t just get a weekend off. You get a long, hard year. That’s the brutal, brilliant pivot Jim Butcher makes in Twelve Months. Forget the “worst weekend” formula. This is about the 365 days after. … A Review of Jim Butcher’s Twelve Months, Healing is MessyRead more

She’s not just telling scary stories; she’s writing works of unease. She understands that the deepest fears are the ones that feel both foreign and familiar, the stranger in the woods, the lover in your bed who turns cruel, the ancient ritual in your modern town, the terrifying thought that … Itch! by Gemma Amor Review: A Folk Horror Novel of Trauma and TerrorRead more

The Bones Remember: A.G. Slatter’s Grief-Chilled Tale of Haunting and Heritage, The Cold House You know that feeling. Not the jump scare, not the gory bit. It’s the slow seep of cold. The kind that starts behind your ribs, a dull ache that has nothing to do with the weather. … The Cold House Review: A.G. Slatter’s Folk Horror Novella Chills to the BoneRead more