Continuing my series of reviews that fell victim to my darkest depression days, today I bring back from the dead Tamika Thompson’s Unshod, Cackling, and Naked. In time for the release of her excellent debut novel, The Curse of Hester Gardens. And on the day we publish a fascinating interview … Unshod Cackling and Naked by Tamika Thompson: 13 Short Stories That Refuse to BehaveRead more
horror book review
Nowhere Burning Review: Catriona Ward’s Brilliant Premise, But Blurry Execution
The concept burns bright. The novel, unfortunately, smoulders. The prose is beautiful. The thematic ambition is undeniably massive. The execution simply falls flat. Some sanctuaries demand a price in blood, and this one simply asks for too much of your patience. Nowhere Burning Review: Catriona Ward’s Brilliant Premise, But Blurry … Nowhere Burning Review: Catriona Ward’s Brilliant Premise, But Blurry ExecutionRead more
Gothic Shadows and Stolen Voices: The Brides by Charlotte Cross.
A stunning debut of atmosphere and raw empathy. Cross understands that the deepest darkness often isn’t supernatural at all. It’s in the human capacity for cruelty, in the societal cages that predate any castle, and in the fragile, fierce love that fights to glow within them. She has written a … Gothic Shadows and Stolen Voices: The Brides by Charlotte Cross.Read more
The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru: A Novel of Ghosts and Exile in 1920s Paris
A ghost story about exile, family secrets, and the things we leave behind. Olesya Salnikova Gilmore’s third novel, The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru, trades epic mythology for something quieter and more potent: a ghost story about exile, a grandmother’s buried secrets, and a young woman learning that the dead … The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru: A Novel of Ghosts and Exile in 1920s ParisRead more
The Shetland Witch by Kate Macdonald: A Calm, Confident Debut of Myth and Sisterhood
The Shetland Witch by Kate Macdonald: A Calm, Confident Debut of Myth and Sisterhood When a book arrives that promises to mix Shetland folk magic with the Greek Fates and a dash of Norse mythology, you have every right to brace for impact. The Shetland Witch by Kate Macdonald is … The Shetland Witch by Kate Macdonald: A Calm, Confident Debut of Myth and SisterhoodRead more
Bless Your Heart Review: The Cozy Horror Novel That Serves Blood and Sweet Tea in Equal Measure
Forget what you think you know about vampire fiction. The Evans women run a funeral parlor, bury the dead, and handle the ones that won’t stay down. The thing about small towns is that they all have a family people whisper about. The ones who’ve been there forever, who run … Bless Your Heart Review: The Cozy Horror Novel That Serves Blood and Sweet Tea in Equal MeasureRead more
The Memory Shades Review: David Watkins’s Best Yet Blends Ghosts and Worms
What haunts you when you can’t remember what you did? That question drives The Memory Shades, the latest sci-fi horror novel from Devon-based author David Watkins. In this The Memory Shades review, we examine a story that blends creature feature terror with psychological depth. Prisoners on a distant planet, their … The Memory Shades Review: David Watkins’s Best Yet Blends Ghosts and WormsRead more
Cabaret in Flames, Consent, Consumption and Chattering Teeth: Hache Pueyo’s Return to the Monstrous
Some monsters wear sequins. Some wear scalpels. Hache Pueyo writes about both. We carry our childhood horrors in the strangest places. In the hitch of a prosthetic limb. In the way we flinch when someone touches us too fast. In the quiet acceptance that the monsters who broke us might … Cabaret in Flames, Consent, Consumption and Chattering Teeth: Hache Pueyo’s Return to the MonstrousRead more
David Scott Hay on The Butcher of Nazareth: A Biblical Horror Masterpiece
What happens when two righteous men face off? A journey into the heart of biblical horror. It’s a rare and thrilling event when a novel arrives that defies easy categorisation, demanding to be felt as much as read. David Scott Hay’s latest release, The Butcher of Nazareth, is precisely such a … David Scott Hay on The Butcher of Nazareth: A Biblical Horror MasterpieceRead more
A Review of Kirsten Kaschock’s An Impossibility of Crows: Motherhood, Monsters, and the Crows of Letort
What if love, pushed to its limits, creates the very thing it fears most? What does it mean to love someone so completely that you would reshape the natural world for them? And what happens when that reshaping becomes its own kind of violence? These questions sit at the heart … A Review of Kirsten Kaschock’s An Impossibility of Crows: Motherhood, Monsters, and the Crows of LetortRead more
A Gothic Burrows into the Brain: Inside T. Kingfisher’s Upcoming Horror, Wolf Worm
Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods—and it has a taste for human flesh. ‘Wolf Worm is going to burrow straight into your brain‘ – Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of The Library at Hellebore Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in Wolf Worm, an original … A Gothic Burrows into the Brain: Inside T. Kingfisher’s Upcoming Horror, Wolf WormRead more
I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movie, Heidi Honeycutt Rewrites Horror History
The definitive history of female horror directors that reads like a late-night conversation with your favourite film programmer Here’s the thing about horror film histories. They tend to circle the same corpses. A few familiar names surface in every conversation: Whedon, Craven, Carpenter, the usual suspects, and we’re supposed to … I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movie, Heidi Honeycutt Rewrites Horror HistoryRead more
Review, The Curse of Hester Gardens by Tamika Thompson: A New Classic of American Gothic
The Curse of Hester Gardens will haunt you twice: once for the ghosts, and again for the terrible recognition that you’ve been living alongside this horror your whole life without ever really seeing it. There are haunted houses, and then there are haunted places, those geographical wounds in the American landscape … Review, The Curse of Hester Gardens by Tamika Thompson: A New Classic of American GothicRead more
Beyond the Monster: Richard Dansky on Family, Dread, and the Horrors That Wake Us Up
The haunted house story is a time-honoured tradition. But for acclaimed author and video game narrative designer Richard Dansky, the true source of terror isn’t always the monster in the basement; it’s the family living upstairs. In our exclusive Richard Dansky interview, the writer behind cult-classic TTRPGs and blockbuster franchises like Assassin‘s Creed and Far … Beyond the Monster: Richard Dansky on Family, Dread, and the Horrors That Wake Us UpRead more
Short Story, Heaven Is Hungry by Michael Botur: A Hellish Vision of the Afterlife
Short Story, Heaven Is Hungry by Michael Botur: A Hellish Vision of the Afterlife Introduction Michael Botur’s award-winning short story, Heaven Is Hungry. This piece of dark religious horror, which secured second place in the Australasian Horror Writers Association Robert N Stephenson Short Story Award 2024, is far more than a simple … Short Story, Heaven Is Hungry by Michael Botur: A Hellish Vision of the AfterlifeRead more