HORROR BOOK REVIEWS

Grace by A.M. Shine: Beautifully Built Dread That Never Quite Takes Hold Ever notice how a horror novel can make you feel two things at once? Like when you’re admiring the perfectly crafted, bone-chilling gloom of a setting, but your fingers are just… turning pages, not exactly racing to the … Grace by A.M. Shine: Beautifully Built Dread That Never Quite Takes HoldRead more

The Flesh King leaves you wanting more. That’s the point. Kadrey deepens his world, complicates his characters, and serves up a villain nasty enough to justify the whole enterprise. It’s fast, bloody, and weirdly warm in ways that shouldn’t work but absolutely do. Blood, Banter, and Bad Decisions: Why The … The Flesh King by Richard Kadrey Review: Blood, Banter, and Bad DecisionsRead more

The Denizens by Brennan LaFaro: Southern Supernatural Gothic Grief Living with ghosts isn’t a metaphor here. It’s the town policy. That’s the first thing you learn in Brennan LaFaro’s The Denizens, a southern-tinged slice of grief horror that settles in your bones like a damp chill. Forget haunted houses. Maylene’s Hollow … The Denizens by Brennan LaFaro: Southern Supernatural Gothic GriefRead more

When a Prank Goes Wrong: Look at Stephen Graham Jones’ Award-Winning Horror Novel Night of the Mannequins Night of the Mannequins lands as a potent, memorable shock to the system. It’s the kind of story that sparks debate. Was it real? What exactly happened? Who was the monster? It’s a story … Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones, When a Prank Goes Wrong.Read more

Let’s get one thing straight from the jump. This isn’t a story about brooding aristocrats in velvet coats sighing from castle balconies. Forget that. Maria the Wanted grinds its fangs on the cracked asphalt of Juarez, in the claustrophobic sweat of a maquiladora, where the monster isn’t some ancient curse but the … Fangs and Fury: How V. Castro’s Maria the Wanted Reinvents Vampire HorrorRead more

The story of a witch past her prime, proving that the most compelling magic is the stubborn will to protect what you’ve built. A Forest Darkly by A.G. Slatter: A Witch’s Story for Grown-Ups Walking the same path every day, you stop seeing the individual trees. They blur into a … A Forest Darkly by A.G. Slatter: A Witch’s Story for Grown-UpsRead more

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