J.R. Blanes discusses Portraits of Decay, Southern Gothic horror and the New Orleans art community that shaped the novel. He talks voodoo, zombies, creative discovery, setting and the real fear of losing control.
You See It Too by AJ Malachite: A Queer Gamebook Horror Where No One Walks Out Whole
A.J. Malachite’s debut You See It Too turns the choose-your-own-adventure format into a body-horror trap, sending three queer students into a bayou preserve after a will-o’-the-wisp that turns out to have larvae. It is folk horror, eco-horror and Southern Gothic at once, with old money farming the swamp for generations. Four stars for a gamebook that refuses to let you save everyone.
An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino: A Gothic Debut That Traps You in the House
Isabela Livino’s debut An Immaculate Deception traps a pregnant, devout woman in an isolated 1870s Brazilian estate where a family’s bargain with the devil has gone wrong. A Latin American Gothic of vanishing mirrors and disbelieved women, sitting alongside Mexican Gothic and Rosemary’s Baby, held back only by a slow middle third.
All Her Beautiful Deaths by A. Rushby: A Gothic Built on Victorian Death Photography
A. Rushby follows Slashed Beauties with All Her Beautiful Deaths, a dual-timeline gothic that turns Victorian death photography into a mystery about grief, art and ownership. It is atmospheric, queer and quietly hopeful, held back only by a present-day strand that crowds out its richer 1865 half.
Mazywood by Tananarive Due: The Wish That Grew Teeth
Tananarive Due’s Mazywood turns a child’s wish in 1926 Old Hollywood into a monster that waits fifty years for the family to come home. This creature feature and historical saga is her first novel since the multi-award-winning The Reformatory, and it confirms Gracetown as one of horror’s great haunted maps. A big, ambitious, occasionally overstuffed four-star return.
Scott Hawkins Interview: Blacktail and The Library at Mount Char
Scott Hawkins returns with Blacktail, and in this interview for Ginger Nuts of Horror he explains why he still calls it dark fantasy rather than horror, alongside The Library at Mount Char. He talks through the craft lessons of three unpublished novels, the mechanics of building a villain worth hating, and what he wants a revenge story to leave behind.
The House Always Wins In Horror, Until It Doesn’t
The House Always Wins In Horror, Until It Doesn’t Horror has been telling gambling stories longer … The House Always Wins In Horror, Until It Doesn’tRead more
Gothic Horror Cover Reveal: Iseult Murphy’s Suffer Their Going
Iseult Murphy turns a widow’s grief into a door that opens both ways. Irish author Iseult … Gothic Horror Cover Reveal: Iseult Murphy’s Suffer Their GoingRead more
