Hope Madden’s Roost is a literary folk horror novella that follows twin sisters Joy and Hope across four Easter birthdays in a slowly dying Ohio town. With Catholic dread, small-town American gothic atmosphere, and a winged shadow that keeps coming home, this 2026 Lacandon Jungle Press reissue proves Madden’s gift for restraint. Here is why this coming-of-age horror sits with you long after the final page.
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The Hands That Make You Flinch: Furry Puppet Studio, Why Horror Loves Puppets
Puppets in horror work because someone built them to be loved first. Furry Puppet Studio, the NYC custom puppet maker behind work for Apple, Casper, and Missy Elliott, shows why practical-effects horror keeps reaching for handmade faces. From Puppet Master to Dead Silence to Longlegs, the craft that delights is the same craft that frightens.
Slasher Summer by E. L. Chen: A Bloody Love Letter to ’80s Slashers
E. L. Chen’s Slasher Summer drops seven friends back at the cabin where their favourite 1980s slasher was filmed, then lets the masked killer arrive on schedule. My horror book review digs into the Final Girl twist, the meta-slasher structure, and why this throwback belongs beside books like The Final Girl Support Group.
Mark Morris: Bad Things Happen Here and a Life in Horror
Mark Morris has been writing British horror fiction since 1989, and Bad Things Happen Here may be his most emotionally precise novel yet. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks about intergenerational fear, the Nordic folklore that shaped That Which Stands Outside, and what it actually takes to survive four decades in a genre that has buried far bigger names. Essential reading for anyone who takes UK horror seriously.
Pam Kowolski Is a Monster! by Sarah Langan Review: And I Thought I Held Grudges!
Sarah Langan’s Pam Kowolski Is a Monster! (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2025) is a 119-page psychological horror novella about failed journalist Janet Chow, who attempts to expose her high school nemesis — now “Madame Pamela,” America’s favourite doomsday psychic — and uncovers a version of their shared past she’s spent twenty years getting wrong. Langan builds horror from the inside out: bitter, funny, and structurally precise, this is one of the most accomplished novellas published in horror this year. Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror.
Cymera Book Haul: Nine Books, One Ghost Cat, and a Water Heater Closet That Goes Nowhere Good, and Loads of the Uncanny
Ginger Nuts of Horror’s Jim McLeod reviews his book horror haul from Cymera Book Festival: Stephen Graham Jones x2, Sunyi Dean, Charlotte Cross, Amy Jane Stewart. Dread, ghosts, and a water heater closet to nowhere. Full roundup at GNOH.
Sunyi Dean’s The Girl with a Thousand Faces: A Gothic Ghost Story
Sunyi Dean’s The Girl with a Thousand Faces (Tor/HarperVoyager, May 2026) is a structurally daring gothic horror set in an alternate 1975 Kowloon Walled City, where fifty-three-year-old triad ghost talker Mercy Chan is forced to confront a powerful new spirit and the past she cannot remember. Drawing on Chinese ghost lore, the real history of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, and a bold four-timeline narrative, Dean’s second novel is a deeply personal, formally ambitious work that confirms her as one of the most interesting voices in the genre today. This is Jim McLeod’s full review for Ginger Nuts of Horror.
Cynthia Gómez: On Muñeca, Queer Gothic Horror, and Writing Oakland’s Magic
Cynthia Gómez discusses her debut novel Muñeca, a surreal queer Gothic set in 1968 Oakland, and why working-class witches make the most compelling horror protagonists.
Cruising by Dean Cade, Review: The Summer of 1973 Never Felt so Terrifying
Dean Cade’s debut horror novel Cruising sets a closeted gay teenager’s summer against the real historical backdrop of the Houston Mass Murders, the worst serial murder case in American history. Published by Slashic Horror Press in March 2026, the first book in the Summer 1973 trilogy earns its horror through patience, historical precision, and a portrait of queer vulnerability in 1973 Texas that is both formally controlled and genuinely devastating. Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror.
3 Masterpiece Horror Games That Unknowingly Subverted the Law to Turn Your Soul Into a Playable Currency
3 Masterpiece Horror Games That Unknowingly Subverted the Law to Turn Your Soul Into a Playable Currency Modern gaming is built around currency systems. Every major game asks players to spend something valuable to progress. Sometimes that currency is obvious, like gold, experience points, loot, or crafting materials. Other times … 3 Masterpiece Horror Games That Unknowingly Subverted the Law to Turn Your Soul Into a Playable CurrencyRead more
The Journey of Mastering Poker: A Strategic Tale
The Journey of Mastering Poker: A Strategic Tale Poker isn’t just luck. Sure, you might win a hand or two on pure chance, but the real masters are weaving strategic stories that’d make Sun Tzu jealous. I’ve watched countless players think they can waltz into a casino and dominate the … The Journey of Mastering Poker: A Strategic TaleRead more
Georgia Summers’ Trollheim: Nordic Folk Horror Done Right
Georgia Summers’ Trollheim: Tale of Sýstir announces itself in its opening pages as something different from the usual Nordic-flavoured fantasy. This is folk horror rooted in genuine Huldra mythology, the figure from Scandinavian folklore whose name derives from the Old Norse huldr, meaning “covered” or “secret.” When Sýstir’s mother is accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake, Summers is not using the witch trial as backdrop decoration. She is placing her story inside a specific, historical horror that resonates because it never entirely stopped being present. Sýstir, half-human and half-Huldra, escapes into the Dark Forest known as Trollheim, taken in by the rogue troll Agagkantor and accompanied by a wildcat companion named Fulgir, building a found family from the materials of loss and displacement.
The Gothic Puzzle Box, A Conversation with Ande Pliego
What Pliego builds in The Library After Dark is less a locked-room mystery and more a labyrinth where the architecture itself remembers, each corridor a mirror reflecting the protagonist’s buried history and the lies she has told herself to survive.
Femme Feral Review: Sam Beckbessinger’s Feminist Werewolf Novel
Some horror novels make you check under the bed. Sam Beckbessinger’s Femme Feral makes you check your own reflection for teeth. This feminist body horror novel about a queer photographer’s lycanthropic liberation is a howl of feminine rage you won’t forget.
S.A. Barnes Interview: From Space Horror to Dark Academia Romantasy
Claustrophobic space stations. Corporate corruption bleeding into deep space. A doomed luxury cruiser lost for decades, its halls still wet. S.A. Barnes built a devoted readership on sci-fi horror that traps you in the dark with nowhere to run.
Now she’s swapped the wreckage for a dusty university library. But don’t mistake the change of clothes for a change of temper.