Maxie Dara’s third grim reaper mystery sends a dead thief into the body of an elderly grim reaper and then into one last job. This A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Living Twice review weighs a warm, funny supernatural heist novel against a middle stretch that loses its pace. A strong cosy paranormal mystery, and the boldest book in the series so far.
Bill Wood closes the Let’s Split Up trilogy by sending the Sanera Four to Chillshore, a frozen island theme park that sells its own dark past. This One Last Scare review explains why the YA slasher novel is the darkest and best of the three, and how Wood turns Scream meets Scooby-Doo into a sharp look at the true crime trade.
Jacob Steven Mohr’s Samanthas sends a teenage essay writer after a missing swimmer and three new girls who share one name. This horror novella blends hard-boiled teen noir with sad, strange body horror, plus three bonus stories that widen its world. Read the full Samanthas review on Ginger Nuts of Horror.
George Daniel Lea’s Thirteen for Halloween tour reaches Medusa and the Gorgons, the monsters he met first in a childhood Ladybird book. He reads the Medusa myth through Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Ray Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans, and asks how a creature built to terrify became a feminist icon.
Alex Goyette’s Breeder sends a broke geneticist to dinner with a dog breeder who thinks he would make the perfect stud. Hope Madden finds this dark comedy horror uncomfortable, smart and often funny, with Dot-Marie Jones giving a masterful performance that holds firm even when the third act falters.
Dani Soncasie spent much of her childhood at Shriners Hospital for Children, afraid of being left behind and of being different. In this guest feature, she traces how those childhood fears in horror form found their way into Blood of the Forsaken, her vampire graphic novel about a family home that stops being safe.
