Spectral Snacks & Haunted Heartlands: This Week’s Spine-Tingling Horror Book Stack
Another week, another teetering stack of books by the door. You know the drill. The mail carrier has that look again, a mix of pity and suspicion, as I haul the parcel inside. It’s not the weight, it’s the psychic heft. These things whisper from their cardboard tombs. Anyway, let’s cut the fluff. Here’s what slithered in.
Four new reasons to sleep with the light on. Funny thing about reviewing horror, you’re basically getting paid to have the bejesus scared out of you. A weird gig when you think about it. But someone’s gotta do it.
First up, a book that feels like autumn decay. Chris Sorensen’s The Haunting of Sorrow’s Leap. Contemporary Gothic, it says. Story of Ellen Marx, a psychic who’s lost her touch, reduced to selling junk at spooky conventions until a washed-up author drags her to a haunted Hudson Valley mansion. You can feel the damp chill coming off the blurb. A ragtag crew of misfits, a crumbling estate, and personal ghosts. Sorensen knows his way around a creaky floorboard, doesn’t he? Classic setup, but it’s all in the telling. The promise of a darkly humorous journey into a haunted heart. We’ll see if it delivers the chills.
Then, a sudden shift in tone. Consumed. An anthology. Twenty-eight stories about food and drink, which is frankly a terrifying premise all by itself. Makes you look at your lunch a bit sideways. A sentient barrel that knows the taste of human flesh? Werewolves and mystery meat and lawyers. Good lord. It’s a full-course meal of the macabre, exploring consumption and bodily autonomy. The table of contents is a wild roll call of authors, some names you might know, many waiting to become your new nightmare. This one’s for the short story fiend, the one who likes their terror in bite-sized, unsettling portions.
The third book has a different weight. Literally. Into Wrack and Ruin by Benjamin Kurt Unsworth. Thirteen stories pinned to a single, wretched corner of the universe: Little Hodbury. A haunted tree, mutations in the hedgerows, mythological creatures slouching through the British countryside. Unsworth traffics in grief and devastation, says the blurb. Ramsey Campbell’s quote calls it “enthusiastically gruesome, viscerally vivid.” High praise from the master. This feels less like a casual scare and more like a sustained, chilling exploration of place as a character. A slow, creeping kind of dread. The kind that gets under your nails.
And finally, a wild card. Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo. Latin American dark horror-fantasy. Brutal political regimes and monstrous creatures called ‘guls’. Our protagonist, Ariadne, knows guls intimately, as she lost half her body to them. Now a tattooed gul shows up, talking about her missing mentor and a conspiracy buried in an elite club in Rio. It’s a riot of genre fusion. Body horror, political thriller, a possible romance with a monster? It promises a labyrinthine plot and a setting that sizzles for fans of the strange and the beautifully grotesque.
So that’s the haul. A psychic in over her head, a feast of fears, a town rotting from the inside out, and a cabaret burning in Brazil. My week is booked. Let’s hope my nerve holds.
The Haunting of Sorrow’s Leap: a Contemporary Gothic Ghost Thriller by Chris Sorensen
Ellen Marx used to talk to the dead. Now they’re ghosting her…
With her psychic gifts on the fritz, she’s been demoted to hawking discount crystals at third-rate paranormal conventions. But when she inadvertently solves a supernatural challenge at New Jersey’s Hooky Spooky Convention, she catches the eye of the event’s reclusive sponsor: a washed-up horror author with a haunted mansion in need of a serious cleansing.
Reluctantly, Ellen joins his ragtag crew of psychic misfits (a near-death survivor, a paranormal tech bro, and a woman who may or may not be possessed) to investigate the mystery lurking inside his crumbling Hudson Valley estate.
But as the haunting escalates, Ellen realizes that to uncover the truth behind the manifestation, she must first confront some ghosts of her own…
From the bestselling author of The Nightmare Room comes a darkly humorous journey into a haunted heart.
Consumed: a horror anthology, twenty-eight stories. One terrifying book!
One deliciously deadly desert. A family Christmas interrupted by a game of trick-or-treat. A sentient barrel that knows the taste of human flesh. These are just a few of the macabre tales in Consumed, a food-themed horror anthology.
The stories in Consumed explore themes of consumption, bodily autonomy, and the monstrous by putting a unique spin on the familiar and essential act of eating. These spine-tingling tales introduce you to werewolves, mystery meat, murderers, cannibals, monstrous entities, and even lawyers! Consumed is an imaginative anthology of gruesome stories that celebrate food, drink, life, and death.
Need a new spine-tingling read?
Consumed is our first horror & dark fiction anthology, featuring 28 macabre tales on the theme of food and drink, with stories from:
U.M. Agoawike • Ed Ahern • K.G. Anderson • Evan Baughfman • Hannah Baxter • Cedric Bell • Jackson Bell • Tim Brown • Theo Carr • Tom Coombe • Marcus Field • Warren Frey • Gene Gallistel • Zach Gearey • E. Florian Gludovacz • Emma Hampp • Sarojshree Janaki • Hope Madden • Colin Matthews • Rick McQuiston • Rae Patterson • Stacy Schonhardt • Johanna Stumpf • Gordon Sun • Alex C. Telander • Mark Towse • Fendy S. Tulodo • John Ward
Into Wrack and Ruin by Benjamin Kurt Unsworth
There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things – and one such corner is Little Hodbury.
With a haunted tree, mutations in the heart of the British countryside, mythological creatures, and even menaces which plumb the depths of humanity’s worst instincts – nobody said living here was easy.
Benjamin Kurt Unsworth’s Into Wrack and Ruin presents thirteen stories which detail the various shades of the town and its inhabitants’ grief, devastation, chaos and anger – the question is who (or what . . . ) shall survive to tell the tale?
“Enthusiastically gruesome, viscerally vivid, invigoratingly weird, Unsworth’s collection offers an enviably varied feast to nourish the imagination.”
—Ramsey Campbell,
author of The Incubations
and Ancient Images
Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo
A riveting Latin American dark horror-fantasy about two survivors finding one another amidst monstrous creatures and a brutal political regime, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and T. Kingfisher
Guls can be brutal. Few people know this better than Ariadne, who lost half her body to their appetites, but she finds their brutality a predictable constant amid the political chaos of Brazil. Now she treats them in the specialized clinic she inherited from Erik Yurkov—the mentor who rescued her from captivity as a child, trained her in medicine, built her prostheses, and then disappeared without a trace.
Ariadne’s routine is disturbed when a dapper gul covered in tattoos knocks on her door, introducing himself as Quaint and claiming to be Erik’s oldest friend. As unsettling as the presence of a healthy adult gul can be, there is something familiar—almost intimate—about him. Quaint suspects foul play in Erik’s disappearance, and his suspicion proves real when they discover Erik sought asylum at Cabaré, an infamous club in Rio de Janeiro frequented by the gul elite.
Together, Ariadne and Quaint will unravel the conspiracy behind their friend’s disappearance, navigate the labyrinthine world of Ariadne’s memories, and discover what Erik means to them—and what they are starting to mean to each other.
Horror Features on Ginger Nuts of Horror
If you’re a fan of spine-chilling tales and hair-raising suspense, then you won’t want to miss the horror features page on The Ginger Nuts of Horror Review Website. This is the ultimate destination for horror enthusiasts seeking in-depth analysis, thrilling reviews, and exclusive interviews with some of the best minds in the genre. From independent films to mainstream blockbusters, the site covers a broad spectrum of horror media, ensuring that you’re always in the loop about the latest and greatest.
The passionate team behind The Ginger Nuts of Horror delivers thoughtful critiques and recommendations that delve into the nuances of storytelling, character development, and atmospheric tension. Whether you’re looking for hidden gems to stream on a dark and stormy night or want to explore the work of up-and-coming horror filmmakers, this page is packed with content that will ignite your imagination and keep you on the edge of your seat.
So grab your favourite horror-themed snacks, settle into a cosy spot, and immerse yourself in the chilling world of horror literature and film. Head over to The Ginger Nuts of Horror and embark on a journey through the eerie and the extraordinary. It’s an adventure you won’t soon forget!
