The haunting was always real. Thompson just gave it a name. Social horror has always worked best when the monster points somewhere. At something. At us. Tamika Thompson’s debut novel, The Curse of Hester Gardens, published by Erewhon Books in March 2026, does exactly that, and it does it with … The Ghost Is the System: Tamika Thompson on The Curse of Hester Gardens and the Horror America BuiltRead more
horror fiction review
Unshod Cackling and Naked by Tamika Thompson: 13 Short Stories That Refuse to Behave
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
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
The Butcher of Nazareth Review: David Scott Hay’s Violent Theological Masterpiece
What if saving the world meant killing its saviour? What happens when a man convinced he’s hearing the voice of God sets out to murder Jesus Christ before the ministry can begin? David Scott Hay’s The Butcher of Nazareth (check out our interview with David here) takes this provocative premise and … The Butcher of Nazareth Review: David Scott Hay’s Violent Theological MasterpieceRead 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
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
Hysterical by Amber Dean: When Obsession Eats Itself Alive
She’s Not the Final Girl. She’s Why There Isn’t One. Amber Dean’s debut burns with the kind of dark energy that doesn’t ask for permission. This is not a book for everyone. It will bother some readers. It should. The kind of female rage explored here is not the kind … Hysterical by Amber Dean: When Obsession Eats Itself AliveRead 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
Truth & Reconciliation: A Short Story of Apartheid’s Ghosts and a Marriage Built on Lies
Her past was buried. Their marriage was the grave. In Michael Botur’s gripping new short story, Truth & Reconciliation, a couple’s attempt to save their marriage through therapy uncovers a secret tied to South Africa’s darkest days. Vaughn lives in fear of his wife Serena’s violent mood swings, born from a … Truth & Reconciliation: A Short Story of Apartheid’s Ghosts and a Marriage Built on LiesRead 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
Cover Reveal: CRONE by Keith Rosson– The New Horror Novel From The Author of Fever House
Crone by Keith Rosson First print run signed by the author with block-sprayed edges Keith Rosson, the author Stephen King hails as “exciting, suspenseful, [and] horrifying,” is set to return with a new novel that promises to be his most haunting work to date. For fans eagerly awaiting his next … Cover Reveal: CRONE by Keith Rosson– The New Horror Novel From The Author of Fever HouseRead 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