It's the off-season in the seaside resort town of Blackpool, where Tommy never imagined he would return. His relationship has broken down, so he returns home to keep an eye on his widower father. While counting down the hours before attending the funeral of a well-loved friend, a mysterious group turns up on the seafront. One by one, the locals are entranced by their presence until Tommy and his father can no longer resist the allure. Tommy soon discovers a secret desire his father has been harbouring for his entire life.

Very good slow unraveling of a subtle horror. I loved the distant, dreamy tone. No quoteation marks, everything blending into the other. It really lends itself to the ambiguity of the situation. Not ageism either, in assuming older people need to die because they're all used up. I liked the locale and the theme of tides. It's very chronological. Even the title, the off season, is perfect. It's refreshing to see horror about the end of life stage. Usually is younger people running around, scooby dooing mysteries of cursed artifacts, or trying to escape supernatural monsters.

Interesting in its own way. Not mediocre but acceptable like a decent summer movie. DiLouie can write a fun, coherent novel. But that doesn't mean it's automatically amazing.

That the story is being relayed in super quick cuts to different characters is a little tiring. I get that it's a documentary, but I wish there was more an epistolary element to it. Include reddit reviews, fan forums, tweets, album reviews, anything. Hell, have some fake newspaper stories of the fucked up shit happening as a result of concerts.

Maybe it's bc it's only 200 pages into a 300 page book but the horror is still a bit too subtle. I rather liked Todd Keisling's Yellow King inspired band horror better. Maybe the conclusion of this book would change my mind, idk., FAKE EDIT: No, but I recognize both authors are doing something entirely different and it's not fair to compare them. Still, if you want occult horror about bands, check out Keisling's novella, 'The Final Reconciliation'. [small disclaimer: it is terrible about romani people and repeatedly using the word g*psy.]

Also the horror stops being subtle. But not in a good way.

Maybe I happens later in this novel but I wish there was more of the relationship between Emily and drake. So far there's nothing to indicate turmoil? FAKE EDIT: Ok no. Not really. The most toxic a relationship gets is with Eric and Valeria. I was expecting and hoping for something more dramatic. More upsetting. All we get is a handful of brief spats about how he's acting just like her dad about controlling her. You know who had a amazing horrible toxic relationship between the Holy Bride and Evil God characters? The Once Yellow House by Gemma Armor. That woman also did not want to be the Holy Bride person that the cult made her into. That relationship was stunningly awful, very heartbreaking. This book does not even have a inch of that.

Honestly, I don't see much of a relationship between them. Granted it's not the first time a man decided his obsession with a woman was love and not objectification of a human being. I just don't see the romance. So what, they took some shrooms together and did a couple jam sessions. That could be platonic love just as much as romantic love. There's nothing particular that set them apart as doomed lovers. Hey, that Lisa Frankenstein movie had some pretty good Doomed Romance plot. This book? Notsomuch.

While it wasn't about the musician, much less concerts or their fans, Matthew Coffin from Rosson's Fever House duology made for a better antichrist. And I don't think he was specifically the antichrist as much as he was one devil of many who wanted hell on earth. Not armageddon, just hell on earth.

This Drake character, I don't know. I don't care about any of these characters and don't even care to know more of them. But he just feels underdeveloped. And when he does appear developed it's.... Hm. Presses lips together. It's stupid. Not cool stupid like an action movie with cheesy lines and obviously bad stunts. Like the old robocop movie. This was like fanfic to josh whedon. So like at the first climax to the book, Drake has finally leveled up and evolved into the antichrist. There's a showdown at a church with gun toting church people--nuns, priests, clergy-peoples, etc. They open fire and he just makes them explode like those fruit gushers commercials. Bear in mind the last time we saw him he was making a handful of people go whacko at pub / bar shows. Someone fed this bitch 50 rare candies, that's for sure. We're told he doesn't know he's the antichrist for reals no lies, but that he has to grow into it. Ok sure. But we don't see that, so it's really jarring to get this scene out of nowhere.

[I know this is america but where the fuck did they get automatics? Maybe it's different in other us states, but even modding your gun to make it automatic is basically a black bag, straight to federal high max prison teleportation spell.]

Actually that kinda irritated me as well. The fake out climaxes. Which sure maybe it worked to the books advantage, it offered growing tension in the fight between good and evil. It avoided a stale plot line. But I didn't enjoy the book so it left me feeling like I was offered an end to this tedium and was denied.

And now that I think about it, I'd rather see this from Ramona's point of view. She had a decent character arc, and had more struggle than Lillian. Or even the pov of someone affected by the Drake magic shit. We do get one, but that's it. And it was, like the rest of the book, underwhelming. I feel the author leans more towards tell and not show, fairly often. Not often enough it becomes unreadable, though.

Man, I know I have a lot of gripes. But if you like the concept, this isn't a terrible book. It's decently plotted out and executed. It's fun action horror, but not comedy horror. Basically the opposite of Pesshl's Night Film.

A biotech company is poised to release its highly anticipated new product, a revolutionary swimming pool cleaning system that depends on an unlikely mix of exotic microorganisms. But when the president of the company's son dies unexpectedly in his own private pool, the company's product launch is thrust into uncertainty.Determined to salvage his company and make a fortune in the process, CEO Dr. Harry Stone races around the world to collect hard-to-find microbes literally from the ends of the Earth in an attempt to meet the launch deadline with a secretly modified product. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, those closest to Harry search for their own way to survive under extreme conditions.

It's a novella at 182 pages but feels like a full novel. I do congratulate the author on getting the tech bro silicon valley capitalist ceo mind set perfectly correct. Yes, he would cover up a wrongful death to save his paycheck. There is nothing noble or human about ceos or tech bros. You need to be not human or lacking morals to be a tech bro ceo. He's a decently subtle unlikeable character. You're not supposed to root for him, but man it is fun to watch this dickhead scramble his way through his very real problems.

I also loved the not quite antagonist, the grieving mother. She's a lot more complex than you'd expect, and she's a good moral balance to the tech bro's immorality. Hell, combined with her sister in law, she's one thirds the Furies for the protagonist.

Despite the summary the plot is much more complex than it appears. The drilling platform, for example, has technical discussion which lends credence to the desperation of their desires. It really lends credence and depth to the plot.

The submarine rape attempt felt clumsy. In the context of his other novels: military propaganda, christian leaning plots, and general sexist characters, yeah that makes sense. I get the vibe he knows enough about writing not to fall into ancient misogynistic or sexist tropes, but everything else still has that flavor.

I don't rec his other books, despite not reading them. The summaries look... like they were meant for a different audience. An audience of middle aged white dudes who consider Top Gun their religion.

Not horror aside from one paranormal thing. It's a 99 percent murder mystery. It's basically suspense / murder mystery, then mildly slasher genre, a split second of paranormal horror, and then back to suspense / murder mystery. Largely disappointing, the summary led me to believe there was some supernatural shenanigans going on at the original film site.

That said, the murder mystery was alright. You could kinda see the outlines on where it would go based on the few hints at the start: something bad happened and there's a pact to never speak of that night again. Clearly someone died, everyone could be implicated a la Clue movie, and thus I Know What You Did Last Summer Time Y'all Made A Film. The horror genre element gave it a touching plot twist but not even to elevate it from a standard murder mystery.

I sound really down on it. It's a good film. It touches on the serial sexual abuse / general abuse of the hollywood film industry, the trauma resulting from it, rape culture, and how standing up for survivors is important for everyone. Not in a cheesy after school special kind of way, nor is it a traumaporn rape fest. [See Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe if you want that]. It's a well written book with good prose and characterization. I have no complaints beyond being heavily misled on the amount of horror genre this mystery novel contains.

An ingenious novel of suspense about sisterhood, innocence, murderous games, and how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love.
In a tight-knit town in the 1980s, a child-killer is on the loose. And Topaz’s parents are on edge. At ten years old, Topaz is so vulnerable. But she has nothing to worry about. Her eldest sister, Ruby, has made sure of that. Swearing Topaz to secrecy, Ruby reveals she has trapped the monster in their root cellar.
Bound and bloodied in the cold space is kindly Brother Johnson from the Church. Pleading with Topaz to cut him loose, he says her reckless sister is a liar. Brother Johnson is right about that: Ruby does lie. She also likes to scare people. Still, even Ruby wouldn’t lie about this. Would she? The game—and the secret—is in her hands. But Topaz just wants to do the right thing.
Let Brother Johnson die in the cold space? Or try to set him free—and then see what happens next?

Sometimes a novel is marketed as horror when it's simply not. It's a mystery, it has implied supernatural elements with the plot twist of 'nope! the man behind the curtains did it!'. This is and isn't that sort of novel. And the ambiguity both works for it and further compels the dread.

Who is the liar? Well. Everyone. No one. Nobody lied and everyone lied and nobody told the truth as much as everybody told the truth. This novel questions morality and social ties as amazingly as any court room thriller or crime suspense novel.

You may imagine by the summary that there is some sort of abuse going on, particularly with the religious figures in the community. That's true. What is or isn't true, is irrelevant. Except it isn't.

Yes the main protagonist(s) are children, teens and tweens, but they're not the pseudo immature caricatures. They feel genuinely like children, which adds another nacreous layer of dread. Many people forget what it's like to be a child. It's helplessness tied to your age and abilities. You can't physically fight back. You can't verbally fight back. Your safety is paramount of everyone around you choosing not to hurt you. And not everyone chooses that.

This is not trauma porn or torture porn. But it is a heartrending examination of rape culture and to a degree, purity culture. If Ruby didn't act out so much, would she have been seen as more innocent, more needing protection? But then again, that didn't save Topaz.

While there is no explicit csa [aside from one scene] on screen, this does contain the topic of grooming and csa. I do highly recommend this, but it's reasonable to choose a different book to read if the content is not to one's taste.

And if one does want something else in this vein, try A Step Past Darkness by Vera Kurian.

Left alone for the weekend while her husband and two children are visiting her in-laws, the narrator of KILLING STELLA recounts the addition of her friend's daughter, Stella, into their already tense and tumultuous household. Staring out the window at her garden, she worries about the baby bird in the linden tree, about her husband, Richard, who flits from one adulterous affair to another, about her son's gloomy demeanor and her daughter's obliviousness to everything, and, most of all, she worries about Stella, a confused teenager who has just met a sudden and disastrous end.
A domestic horror story that builds to an apocalyptic ending, KILLING STELLA distills many of the themes of Marlen Haushofer's acclaimed novel THE WALL into a claustrophobic, gothic, shattering novella.

Not horror, not paranormal or supernatural . Gothic, I guess. Domestic psychological. Suspense. Certainly dated, a product of its time and a interesting time capsule of the norms back then. Well, truthfully, the norms of today. Rape Culture has never gone away. And it is interesting to see such a thing, and such a mindset. Such justification is absent from my own thoughts. It would be interesting to see this from Stella's point of view, but that's the point of the novel, isn't it? Stella never has a voice. Abandoned and neglected, manipulated and groomed into sexual situations. The MC grieves that Stella died, but does she really regret her part? Or does she regret the inconvenience Stella causes with her existence in the domicile, with her suicide?
This reminds me of Amanda Palmer and Ghislaine Maxwell and while it's fictional and their actions have never been proven in a court of law [for Palmer] this feels very much like a trafficker procuring victims for their serial rapist husband man friend. Honestly a very deep and subtle novella. Like a knife wrapped in gauze. Brutal.

Shortly after the Second World War, war veteran Philipp Hawkins mans the remote St. Matthews lighthouse off the storm-tossed coast of Scotland. What begins as a simple mission increasingly turns into an exhausting nightmare.
Countless dead fish are washed up, a ship runs aground off the coast and Hawkins learns from old records that the disreputable building has been the scene of eerie occurrences for decades. And he is not the first keeper on the trail of the island's sinister secret - but he may be the last.
For something has awakened in the depths of the sea.

I don't read much lovecraft. He's racist, and much like vampires, Cthulhu et al are simply overdone for me. But I can appreciate this excellent Lovecraftian horror novella. While gods are not named, the subtle approach does remind me of lovecraft's intentional vagueness. We brave the MC's viewpoint, as ignorant as he is meant to be. There is no urgent rush to namedrop cthulhu or blurt out mentions of tentacles. Death is terrifying, but the symptoms can be moreso horrifying than death itself. It embraces the grimy part of death omens. To see the evidence of doom approaching and be helpless to the fact. We're given gorgeous writing that really brings to life the dingy little island and the isolation and xenophobia of the locals. Not that it's a singular POV. There are brief rotations into other POVs, such as previous lightkeepers, that serves well to flesh out this speck of the world. It greatly helped with building tension.

There are some disappointments. Being a man author or product of its time period or very generic horror trope one can't help but tread, the woman dies. Yawn, I know. And in this sausage fest of a book, too! Surely there could've been space for a women? A strange nun, a innkeeper sprinkling ominous remarks to the MC, anything? Hell, have the MC comment he tried to greet a girl child and she dismissed him, saying something like 'we don't speak to pledges'. Something vague that might correlate to his lightkeeper duties, but has the double entendre of sacrifice. What do I know, I'm just a feminist, smiles.

I also didn't care for the first half of the ending. It felt dated, very mens action magazine where all the dames need rescuing and all the men are manly saviors of the gentler sex. But I do give kudos to the author for that finale. Absolutely terrifying; I can now understand thalassophobes.

Seven authors enter the manor Can they survive the story within? When legendary horror author Mortimer Queen passes, a group of writers find themselves invited to his last will and testament reading expecting a piece of his massive fortune. Each have their own unique connection to the literary icon, some known, some soon to be discovered, and they've been waiting for their chance to step into the author's shoes for some time. Instead, they arrive at his grand manor and are invited to play a game. The rules are simple, solve the riddle and progress to the next room. If they don't, the manor will take one of them for itself. You see, the Queen estate was built on the bones of Mortimer's family, and like any true horror story, the house is still very, very hungry. With the clever, locked-room thrills of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone with the ghostly horror of The Fall of the House of Usher, How to Survive a Horror Story is a bright, biting, thrill-ride that begs us to contemplate how the best horror stories come to be.

Very tedious. Retread of better concepts before it. Racist as well. Like Clue movie but with none of the heart or humor. A purgatory plot minus the death of the characters prior, and also zero interesting catholic imagery. Honestly more christian. Thou Shalt Be Punished for Thy Sins and such. It's hard to say anything about this because it's largely forgettable. Not even the death scenes are interestingly gorey. I don't like that the one man of color character is brutally murdered. Can we stop with the token brown person dying for white people to learn something? Like seriously, why was he singled out as a South Asian man, does the author have a grudge against someone in real life? I mean, that's honestly never my first thought but still. Why single out this specific race, which is often ignored as far as general Asian nationalities go? Also we have a Mary Sue for a final girl. Like... Cmon. Ms Wilting griege girl with the aspirations of authorhood except she has zero confidence until a man helps her. A MAN??? REALLY?. Author, that's just embarrassing.

A former superhero, cast down from glory, finds himself stuck in a town whose gaze remains fixed toward the past.

A priestess in another realm journeys onward, uncovering troubling secrets about both her world and her summoned champion.
A camp for newly turned meta-humans must cope with a siege from a nigh-endless army of unusual creatures, as a handful of campers battle their way toward the source of the danger.
Between grand adventures, what mishaps may occur in the world of the Villains’ Code? These are the smaller selections, short sagas within the greater story.
These are the Villains’ Vignettes.

Disappointed there's not more Hephaestus but at the end of the anthology I was happy about this. It expanded other characters and locales and it felt beneficial in the long run to this world setting and series. I think if you liked the series, this is something to check out.

Per Story Content Warnings:

◆ HH
Major animal death, body horror, animal attacks,

Medium violence, police, alcohol use, body weight,

Minor vomit,

◆ TPaTP:P2

Major violence, animal attacks, animal death, gore, death, violence, mass death,

◆ CM

Major asphyxiation, death, mass death, gore,

Minor vomit,

An experiment gone wrong. A survivor under suspicion. A teen searching for the truth.

Ostracized by her friends, Nala finds solace creating true crime content for her YouTube channel. When she breaks into her mother's private investigator files and finds evidence of multiple teen deaths during a sleep experiment in the 2000s, she's shocked to see the sole survivor is her schoolteacher. She creates a sensationalist video, outing him as a suspect.

Josh is tormented by what happened during The Fovea Experiments. He gets through the days by throwing himself into his job as a teacher, and survives the nights with a little liquid courage. Nala's video puts him under suspicion once more, and the trauma he experienced as a teen takes him to breaking point. As he fights to clear his name, he discovers his worst nightmare is unfolding.

Because The Fovea Experiments are happening again. And, this time, the people behind it are determined to see it through to the end.

Some say the eyes are the window to the soul. Or are they a doorway to something far worse?

First impressions from the summary. OK Russian sleep experiment creepypasta but with a wrapper gimmick of scooby doo tcc Stan. FAKE EDIT: I was wrong! Despite the summary it's not entirely about a teen girl and her weird gross bad tcc obsession. The story is a lot more varied than that, thankfully. It's a rotating POV.

The monsters are a little lackluster. Unless there's a big reveal, laying down and focusing on some blurry shapes shouldn't produce monsters tearing through your corneas. The author shows restraint and talent for subtle gory horror. Quite impressive for something based vaguely on the same concept as Russian Sleep Experiment. Though granted, the author nor summary mentions it's even based on that creepy pasta. It's my own assumptions.

There's certainly a lot more intelligence and thought put into this than the usual knock off of the RSE creepy pasta. While that doesn't mean it's on par with Langan's 'Fisherman' mythos or Pesshl's 'film auteur Cordova' unfiction, it is still an enjoyable medium step above the usual beach reads. I can easily see this as a movie.

Kudos to the author for an atypical ending. It was fantastic action and perfect culmination of the little clues sprinkled in prior. I can appreciate an author that ties things together with a neat, satisfactory bow. I would like to read more from this author. I think they did a really good job of pulling off this concept.

A depressed sociopath explores a spooky abandoned building, contemplating his attempted murder of his cheating girlfriend and wondering if she's dead yet.

Not horror at all. General fiction. Short story not novella. Competent but feels excised from a larger work. I don't feel especially compelled to seek out author's other works. Unremarkable, largely forgot I read this until I checked my caliber records to make this book review page.

Buried secrets only spread. Erin's brother Bryan has been missing for five years. It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mt. Hood where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn't the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved. When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces—from this world and beyond—hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

The Summary: "Girl in the Creek is a pulse-pounding story about the horrors growing all around us, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and T. Kingfisher"

So this is a lie. I wouldn't call it comparable to the Southern Reach tri-quad-rilogy. The tones and themes are much too different. SR is weird fiction and this is fungi horror, straight up. Well, mostly. Yes, it's horror genre but it feels more like mystery. Maybe it's that there's a group investigating? Thus, it feels like a slow paced investigation due to the rotating POV. I also wouldn't compare it to the other author, who is more cozy horror, imo.

This is the most fascinating and scientifically informed piece of fungi horror I've ever read. There is actual science involved, something I haven't seen much in fungi horror. It's not particularly scary. There's definitely some tense scenes, and there's real gross body horror involving fungal infections. For me it never quite reaches that level of gross out or fear. It's still a good book.
Side Note: Moonflow by Bitter Karella also involves some scientific knowledge of fungi but not to the level of this book. I still recommend Moonflow as another fungi horror genre novel. Very excellent.

The mystery is great. It wasn't a Scooby and the Gang scenario, there was plenty of tension and doubt which contributed to the underdog characterization of the MC. There was some TCC aspect to it that I felt was cringey. Particularly the part where multiple people died, but they were only focusing on certain people who fit certain types. Yeah, that's predatory TCC alright. Other than that, it did portray TCC freaks as some sort of ameteur, goodly detectives who will solve the case through shear pluckiness and stubbornness and care for the victims. Which is bullshit, cmon, it's a modern day freakshow albeit via podcasts. Let's not pretend TCC has ever been good.

▪ She wondered what it was like going through life full of rizz instead of self-doubt.

I don't think you know what that word means? Nonblack people need to stop using aave.

I appreciate the bluntness to the plot. Yes there is fungi fuckiness here, and this is the front row seats to what its doing. I'm not sure I was ever scared. Or grossed out. Yeah it's weird, but I've read enough fungi horror that not much was shocking. Maybe a 'me' problem and not a 'novel' problem. In any case, I was fairly entertained by the mystery.

ps: Authors don't always do diversity well, but this author knock it out of the park with the rarest representation: adults who were scene kids. [This is a joke]

Two New York artists’ tumultuous friendship gets turned on its head when one of them goes missing and the other may be to blame. A riveting debut novel for readers of Bunny, Luckiest Girl Alive, and “Who Is the Bad Art Friend?”

Anna had never met anyone like Willow. Entering art school with lofty ideas about Art and her role in it, Anna was wholly unprepared for someone as mysterious, moody—and cool—as Willow. Here was Anna’s muse and collaborator all in one, ready to bring her in on Art’s great secrets.

Now, five years later, Anna is weary. Where art school was boundless creativity and collaboration, the New York art scene is all about survival. Worse: Willow’s true nature as a muse only to herself has become nakedly apparent, as has her cruelty.

So the mugging Anna has staged for Willow this morning? It’s supposed to send Willow running back to her true friend. The knife is supposed to be a mirror in which this ‘artist’ can finally see the monster she’s become. It’s supposed to give Anna her power back.

But this morning isn’t just any Tuesday. It’s September 11, 2001. And as the city reels from the seismic events of that day, Willow never returns home. Anna keeps quiet about the prank and her growing panic that she’s to blame for Willow’s disappearance. But as the hours and days tick by, Anna begins to question whether she’s the mastermind she thought she was, or the pawn.

Alternating between the friends’ art school tenure and their lives in 2001 New York, Tell Them You Lied reveals how difficult the search for answers is when you’d rather have anything but the truth.

Good book. Well written. Not to my taste. Sorry but rich white people and their rich problems is boring to me. And I know how tactless this is because it's a book about sexual abuse.

Reading this after Huang's Immaculate Conception makes this feel so lacking. Which I know isn't the fault of the author or the novel. It's about an entirely different time period and world setting. But I just think there isn't much said about abuse of power, rape culture, csa, that hasn't been done but others. Not necessarily better or worse than this book. It's a good book, well written, plotted, tense and suspenseful. I just don't think I'm in the right mindset to enjoy yet about poor rich abused white people novel. Especially after reading Immaculate Conception.

I'd rec it, nonetheless. But maybe choose this / other of similar sort, or to read Immaculate Conception instead.

The Cold creeps in… All her life, Sally Washington has kept a dark secret: every half-century, her family is summoned by a disturbing entity known as the Visitor and forced to endure a cruel ritual. Two decades since her last encounter and contentedly married in her twilight years, Sally believed she would never experience such horrors again—until, unannounced, a new ritual begins. The Door takes shape… Herbert, Sally’s devoted husband, knows nothing of the rite that has been passed down like a curse through his wife’s bloodline, but must now face the grim truth. The Static gathers… As the ritual intensifies, malign influences transform the couple’s home into a frozen nightmare, fraught with danger and dreadful revelations. The Visitor grows near… Terrified but united by the love they share, time ticks closer to the ritual’s crescendo, when Sally and Herbert will finally confront the Visitor…and face the most hideous decision imaginable. The Cold Visitor marks a departure for Jonathan Butcher, and sees him moving capably away from the extreme and into the cosmic.

The layers are fascinating. Herbert, the husband, was a survivor of female on male domestic violence. And yet he still finds him in a similar situation. Granted, Sarah the wife and MC, isn't committing physical abuse. But it feels like the start of such an abuse cycle. Bullying and manipulating. Emotional abuse. And in the larger scale if we draw back is the generational abuse cycle that is Sarah's family and the visitor. Somehow they've fallen into a abusive relationship with a entity and cannot quite escape. Perhaps it's symbolic of society and the world at large that they cannot find the resources or something to fully escape a cycle of abuse. I'm surprised to see such themes and thought from a splatter punk genreist.

The idea of paying self harming reparations for an offense generations ago is interesting.... I can't help but link it to racial reparations. Not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing. Not that it was an intention of this author, just something that came to my mind.

The immediate belief in the supernatural is refreshing, in this circumstance. Not retread of the usual montage-esque plot points. Going to the library, microfiche a friend of a friend who knows something, a previous victim, etc.

Despite its endearing charm, the author manages to bring a fresh take on the husband who does not believe his wife when it comes to haunted houses slash paranormal or supernatural. I like that we're given a second character to root for. And when the ultimate betrayal arrives, it will be all the more devastating.

The ending was, well. Not disappointing but slightly unexpected. It's a good plot twist, and perhaps I should have expect it from a primarily splatterpunk genreist. Vague but significant finale spoilers: it's the bad ending. I can applaud authors for choosing such a way to end their novels. Not many authors do, and can pull it off in a satisfactory manner.

I also liked the supernatural, cosmic horror aspect. It was fairly original and well done without overexplaining or being jarringly cheesy.

Book one of The Chronicles of Fid Trilogy

For more than two decades, the sight of the Doctor Fid's powered armor has struck fear into the hearts of hero and civilian alike. And yet—despite his hard-earned experience and the length of his criminal career—Doctor Fid can still be surprised by the depths to which his enemies might sink. Follow Doctor Fid's adventures as he investigates crimes so heinous that even the veteran supervillain is taken aback. With every unearthed atrocity, it becomes increasingly apparent that the world is in peril...and that the public's faith in their super-powered protectors is sadly misguided. Fid's Crusade is a supervillainous tale of rage, grief, guilt and violence. Also, of humanity rediscovered.

Surprisingly intellectual. Dare I say, better than Drew Hayes's Villains Code series. If only because there's no fucking KKK Klansman superhero that, for some dumbass reason, gets an onscreen appearance at least once so far. But I'm not here to compare or shit on other series. How tactless. This trilogy has self awareness of tropes and takes care not to stumble into them blindly. There is heart to the underdog character of the MC. Yes, I'd call them an underdog. For all the wealth he has, there is still the lingering tinge of underpriviledged, poor boy. He doesn't have the brain damage that being born to and raised in wealth will cause. But he is nonethless a piece of shit who uses wealth as an ends to his means. Which does make sense, he's a villain. And I'm here to cheer him on! Because, like underdogs, he has a keen sense of morals.

The writing is fantastic. The action scenes are fun to read. The plot is often interspersed with heart wrench backstory which never feel like info dumps, or poorly paced excuses for the MC's crimes. There is balance between identities, as well. Heroes aren't one dimensional Good Guys, and neither is the MC. There is conflict between heroes and where their personal moral lines are. The MC flickers between friendly CEO with relationships and the lone wolf villain, all the while the desperation to make human connection haunts them both.

I read much less in this month, and much less horror genre too, simply because this trilogy captured me. I wish the author would write more. Either of this universe, or anything else. I would liken this to Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.

Madness echoes in the canyon, and if you listen closely, you might hear your own scream.

Step into the shadows of the human psyche, where reality blurs and the familiar turns menacing. In Screaming into the Canyon, nightmares don't simply lurk in the dark—they seep into the cracks of everyday life.

With prose as sharp as a scalpel and an unsettling intimacy, this collection drags you through surreal horrors, psychological unraveling, and the quiet terror of being truly seen.

These are stories that haunt, linger, and whisper long after the final page. You may think you're safe, but the canyon is deep—and it's listening.

TOC

Floater

Silver Leaves

Something Ain’t Right with Dinah

Nice

Albion Spring

Filth

Hunger Pangs

Cantharus

This Device Needs Your Attention

Sweet Tea

While it's nothing to write home about, that the author bothers to include and feature LGBT people in stories is a kindly consideration. I have no particular faves.

◆ Floater

Major drug use, drugs smoking tobacco, hoarding, unsanitary, kidnapping, confinement,

◆ Silver Leaves

Major abortion, medical content,

◆ Something Ain’t Right with Dinah

Major death,

◆ Nice

Major bullying, violence, child abuse, burns, injuries, , pregnancy, , child abuse,, , domestic violence,,

Medium animal cruelty, dogs,

◆ Albion Spring

Major suicide,

◆ Filth

Major medical content, self harm, , child abuse, physical abuse, , self harm, amputation,

◆ Hunger Pangs
Major drugs, drug abuse, addiction, sexual content, trafficking,

Medium homophobia,

◆ Cantharus
Major vomit, unsanitary, grief, dental trauma,

◆ This Device Needs Your Attention
N/A

◆ Sweet Tea
Major murder, mass death, child death,

A fast-moving, futuristic caper about a thief who has planned a job that he hopes will set him up for life by stealing a few biosculptures from a rich couple's mansion.

I personally dislike the climate change horror scifi subgenre. While it was well written, nothing about it interests me to return to this worldsetting. There were some endearing qualities, but again, slightly predictable. I read Breathing Constellations this month but won't list it here. I mention it so I can confirm he's a consistently decent writer. I just don't think he's written anything I would be interested in, personally.

Roy Holland and the crew of the Poseidon were tasked with bringing home the scientists aboard the unresponsive research vessel Athena II. But as the Poseidon approached the ship resting near the event horizon of black hole V616, they discovered something truly terrible.

Fast paced. Not entirely terrible.. Undercooked perhaps. I can see bones of a decent story here. Maybe the prose needs to get more purple or more weird. Actually maybe the architecture needs to get weird. Switch it up a little from random dead bodies to random wrong space ship interiors. Otherwise it's just one dead body after another. Not that such a thing couldn't be horrifying. But I wasn't really sold on it. It didn't feel like they were being hunted down one by one. One downside is that the gore isn't really mentioned. Which undercuts the growing madness. I'm not looking for splatter punk, but the consequences of intrusive thoughts made real. Rather self explanatory, leans more on the tell instead of show. Superficial. Not an event horizon movie rip off because it never gets to the level of horror. Not the best space horror out there. I think it could be reworked but eh. It is what it is. I guess if you're looking for a quick novella that's not too challenging, this would do to scratch a space horror itch.

Transience has come to the undying lands of Amelbaran.

A plague of blood disables the once-immutable kingdom of Kelcarosa, replacing beauty with decay.

The advent of this calamity, like nothing the immortal kingdom has ever known before, distorts even the incontrovertible Nobles of the Scarlet Court, stealing away the righteous instincts of these great custodians, warping their sensibilities and making shambling monsters, debauched and dangerous, of those who had once been hailed as heroes.

Only the New King seems to remember the grandeur that once was theirs, and in reverence to all that was, he seeks to undo all that is.

This is the King’s requiem; the legend of the end of that which had been undying, the corruption of that which had been consecrated, the fall of that which had stood most high.

Very cool. I can see the king in yellow influence but it can stand on its own ye old historical Gothic horror. Disease horror? Vaguely? Oddly abrupt ending. Not sure if it's a series? I'd read more from this series(?) or author, though searching for them is a little difficult. The hazards of sharing names with other notable figures.

Nerds could call this similar to Bloodborne but I wouldn't. Definitely King In Yellow influence, but again, does not lean on it too heavily. I'd almost consider it a playthrough of the Yellow Play, as if it's a variation trying something new in order to.... survive? change the outcome? Who knows.

Still, it has an excellent plot outside of the Yellow Play, and the characters are unique to it.

My only suggestion is the author change their published name to something more unique, or to publish more. Ok it's the fault of search engines, but I honestly cannot find henri levi of this novella versus some old dead white guy.

When a group of cross-country skiers find themselves trapped by a freak snowstorm on a desolate mountain, they seek refuge in an old mining cabin. But what starts as a harrowing blizzard soon descends into a nightmare. Within the cabin's confines, they discover a hidden trapdoor leading to a sinister network of tunnels.Their desperate exploration takes them through hazardous passageways, revealing the secrets of the mountain's past. As they delve deeper into the abyss, they stumble upon a colossal cavern inhabited by horrifying, ravenous creatures with an insatiable appetite for their flesh.But that's not the end of their terrors, for something even larger, more sinister, and infinitely more dangerous lurks in the shadows. In this heart-pounding tale of survival and terror, the cross-country skiers must battle the elements, their own fears, and unimaginable foes in a terrifying battle for their lives. Do you dare to venture into the depths of 'The Mine'?

Reminds me of some 1960s b movie. Not a bad thing. It's fast paced, flat but practical characters, and OK writing. A popcorn movie of a novella.

Perfect for fans of Paul Tremblay and Carissa Orlando, a gripping psychological horror debut exploring grief and betrayal as a haunted widow confronts her husband’s ghostly torment in a society unhinged by supernatural fears.

Anita Walsh, still reeling from her husband's sudden death, finds herself haunted not only by grief, but his Negative Image, a new phenomenon where the deceased prey on those they loved in life, turning intimate memories into nightmares. This spectral figure uses their shared past as a weapon, systematically dismantling her friendships, career, and self-worth. Desperate for escape, Anita plunges into a quest to sever the ghostly bonds that tie her to her tormentor.

As society grapples with the rising terror of NIs, a charismatic extremist proposes a radical solution to isolate the haunted from the unafflicted, gaining dangerous followers. Anita, alongside another victim of this spectral affliction, must navigate their personal hauntings and societal threats to prevent the breakdown of their community.

With its gripping narrative and eerie exploration of love and betrayal, Negative Images marks Rebecca Schier-Akamelu as a powerful new voice in horror. This novel delves deep into the psychological horrors of grief and the supernatural, making it a must-read for fans of horror and ghost stories alike.

Interesting take on a Poltergeist concept. I don't often see poltergeists that aren't very similar to the basic premise. Violent ghost, sometimes the plot twist being it was psychic powers all along. They also tried to take on the eugenic concentration camp topic. Which, you know, was done in an ok manner. It's not to the depths the summary claims, which I know isn't the words of the author. It's not something I enjoy seeing from nonblack or not white authors, personally. Mostly because they do they whole 'maybe racism IS actually justified' thing WAY too often. Or it's just insulting to see racism, antisemitism, homophobia, etc reduced to fantasy bigotry.

ANY ways. Good book, interesting paranormal theme which I've never seen before. I'd definitely recommend.

Weird fiction icon and award-winning author Michael Cisco's Black Brane, begins with the physical pain of a bad foot and later voyages into absurdity, mad science, occultism, and existential dread.

A man lying in a bed of pain flees from physical torment into his own memories, and into speculations about life and reality. He was, once, employed by the Temporary Institute for the Study of Holes, a think tank pursuing research that ranges from occult studies to advanced physics, including black holes—or, as they are known in string theory, black branes.

He meets and interacts with the various other members of the institute. Its founder, Dr. Marilyn Shitansky, a formerly homeless woman who claims to have a thinking hole in her brain; its resident occultist, the chain-smoking Daladara with his magic abacus; Ernie Allegre the engineer, who designed and built a decoherence reactor to power the institute; Dr. Liu, the string theorist; the linguist Dr. Corngholm, who can't sit still; and Dr. Shitansky's secretary, Renbrui, who seems to carry a mystery with her wherever she goes.

In memory, the speaker finds them again, in a story of physical and emotional pain, of social and quantum entanglement, that turns comic, speculative, and nightmarish. Echoing the work of Blake Crouch and Thomas Ligotti, Michael Cisco shows in Black Brane why he’s beloved by weird fiction and horror readers.

Well that was neat. I don't know how Weird this Weird Fiction was but it was interesting enough. Honestly my only encounter with Weird Fiction is the Southern Reach Quad-Tri-logy so this novel wasn't really... WEIRD. It's straightforward philosophical scifi shenanigans about a bizarre phenomenon. It's very prettily written, very philosophical and such. Not dense purple prose. Thankfully the author isn't inclined to run on sentences that make my adhd eyes skip off it like rocks off a ducks back.

And I would say this is weird fiction, not horror. Probably scifi. There's a fair amount of background dread and some tension. But nothing that qualifies it as horror genre, to me.

I did enjoy a chronically ill main character. Complete with all the aches and pains and how society reacts to such a illness. I don't see it too much in the books I read. Maybe I should change that.

By the way, the MC is a man. I hadn't realized that. I always associate the abyss with woman so it was a fun surprise to find she's supposed to be a man. Whoa. Accidental depth? No not really. I just forgot that men can get married to women. LOL.

The ocean called her home. Avonlea Carrillo is a scientist, a Harvard professor, and the estranged daughter of a lighthouse keeper on Nova Scotia’s forgotten coast. She returns to the crumbling town of Rockcrest Harbour only to scatter her father’s ashes and sell what’s left of his life. But when a cryptic radio signal interrupts the silence, Avonlea is pulled into a mystery that began decades earlier far beneath the surface of the sea. In the ocean trench beyond the lighthouse, something waits. Something old. Something intelligent. And it has chosen her. Waking Waters is a haunting, atmospheric science fiction short story about legacy, contact, and connection. Perfect for fans of Annihilation, Arrival, and Children of Time.

Interesting concept. Rather abrupt for a short story. Feels more like a scene excised from a novella. Or a novella heavily condensed. Not a bad or good thing, just what it is. Nothing like Southern Reach series, so please don't in expecting that. Holy shit not every Weird Thing in the Ocean / Forest / Other is fucking Southern Reach. Also this is nothing like Arrival. Probably not Children of Time either, though I've never read that.

Caleb and Marley's first mistake was stumbling into the gruesome sacrifice to the grinding wheel and its gods. Their second was enjoying the benefits it gave them. Now, one of them can't get enough, and the other just can't get out. With horrifying realism and a compelling narrative, Feeding the Wheel is for anyone who has survived the abuse and fallout that comes from a toxic relationship with a narcissist or incurred damage maintaining childhood relationships long after they've run their course. Can you see it? Can you hear it thrumming at the top of the hill? The wheel is waiting for you there.

I saw the bit about narcissists in the summary and rolled my eyes. TikTok is to blame, but a lot of the internet has diluted the mental illness of narcissism to something unrecognizable. Fortunately the author has a decent head on his shoulders, and does understand abusive relationships that involve someone with narcissism. Or at least, a vast amount of selfishness. I wouldn't recommend this for people who have narcissism or other such disorders because it's not that nice about the mental illness. At all.

The MCs. Sausage fest, unfortunately. It works thematically, I suppose. Two friends who are like brothers bond via coming of age involving a weird, gruesome grinding wheel. Which, by the way, is totally not a metaphor for life in general. Winky face!

The entity doesn't get much of an explanation. It's weird, it's alien, the end. For what I'm glad because going into litrpg type Tables of Power Levels would be tedious. It gets explained enough so you can understand what's going on. But it's obviously not the main point of the book.

The conclusion. Yeah it really does feel like that? Getting out of an abusive relationship and learning hey, all the behaviors created and reinforced by the abuser? Not real. Not consequences. Not even part of standard interpersonal relationships. It is like living in an entirely new world, populated by familiar strangers.

Small-town Minnesota teenager Basil ''The Brute’ Thorson—a shy, reluctant wrestling star and ‘special’ tracked into special education classes—vows to make his family whole again in the wake of multiple tragedies, during a year in which his community is roiled by strange religious and mythological events. Another perceptive and empathetic novel from the author of Indie Next and All Iowa Reads selection Little Wolves, blending myth, history, and religion with a nuanced look at contemporary rural life, perfect for fans of Marilynne Robinson, Richard Russo, and Paul Harding.
When the ashes from an Ash Wednesday service in the prairie town of Andwhen, Minnesota, refuse to wash off, members of a small congregation are left wondering whether they’ve been blessed or cursed. For Basil—a ‘gentle giant’ of a teen reeling from a farming accident that shattered his family and haunted by his mother’s decade-long confinement in a state mental hospital—the ashes become a sign. He embarks on a secret ritual of fasting and prayer, seeking meaning in his unraveling world. Meanwhile, Basil and his friends, Lukas and Morgan (who self-identify as ‘a gay, a goth, and a giant’), stumble upon what may be the centuries-old remains of a Viking explorer in a local meadow, a find that brings its own complications, as folk history clashes with the agendas of online racists. As Basil’s relentless fasting warps his grip on reality, the danger he poses to himself and his family escalates. Blending the fragments of a Norse saga with a finely observed portrait of rural Midwestern life at the start of the pandemic, Thomas Maltman delivers a novel of narrative daring and profound empathy—his most inventive and compassionate work yet.

Not horror genre, per se, but enthralling nonetheless. Small town Gothic. Like Ronald Malfi's non horror genre suspense novels. That's a compliment. Albeit slightly different tones.

While the POV rotates around the younger characters, it doesn't feel like a YA genre, even though it's certainly a coming of age flavored plot. There is vague slivers of supernatural, but nothing concrete enough to consider this a entry to the horror genre.

I enjoyed it for what it is, despite being mislead about the genre. If the summary interests you, give it a go. If you want horror genre set in the midwest, check out the podcast, Darker Pastures.

8114 is a terrifying horror novel investigating the mysterious death of a high school friend through an embattled podcast and hallucinatory hauntings at the abandoned house of his childhood.

After returning to his hometown, Paul, the beleaguered host of a small-time podcast, discovers a longtime friend committed suicide in the dilapidated ruins of Paul's childhood home. Desperate to find answers, Paul interviews friends and locals hoping to find closure. He finds himself in a chilling downward spiral of his memories and the land he grew up on. Has his past caught up with him or is there something far more sinister at play?

Joshua Hull, screenwriter of Glorious, brings an edge of horror film expertise to this story of small-town haunting, trauma, and grief that just won't let go. 8114 roots out the rot of a small town's past and unravels the memories we must face to survive the present.

The about the author page: Joshua Hull is an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker based out of Indiana.

Well that explains some.... everythings. Like why some words are randomly BOLDED for EMPHASIS. Or the random speech in italics.

I think this would've worked better as a film. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. Well not that bad. My standards for bad is not that high.

The novel feels like water and oil. All these plots and ideas and concepts and not quite melding together. In the novella, Mouth, it wasn't as egregious. Mouth was intentionally black humor. This is black humor but not well done, to me.

It's fairly realistic you have this absolute tactless tcc dipshit bumbling his way through an investigation as if it's real life scooby doo.

Book tone: cheesy B-Movie but with heart not quite comedic action horror, emphasis on unseriousness.

This is sort of slasher genre except not slasher as there's no solo murderer and everyone dies off screen. Literally why the fuck did I write that. Ok. It has the tone of slasher genre, the lighthearted, goofy, 'the blood is obviously watered down ketchup' tone. People die but you don't have any particular emotional connection to them, so who cares? the point is the spectacle. Albeit not in the book because most of the murders happen off screen.

Superficial but not in a bad way. It's enjoyable. A beach read but above that just a little.

I just didn't like it. Maybe I'm not the audience for it. Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations and couldn't pivot fast enough to enjoy it. Maybe this is actually high concept disassembly of the horror genre and I just don't get it. Well. Someone else can enjoy this.

Love is a dangerous game when your clients are killers. When Lexie’s fiancé runs off with her so-called best friend on her birthday, her carefully crafted fairy-tale life shatters. Having survived horrors in her past, she was determined to finally get her happily-ever-after—and she’s not giving up yet.

To distract herself, Lexie throws herself into her unusual job: matchmaking psychopaths (a specialty her clients are blissfully unaware of). But the loneliness is crushing. So when a gorgeous, overprotective new client named Aidan insists they’re soulmates, and another intriguing client, Rebecca, seems perfect to fill the best-friend-shaped hole in her life, Lexie can’t help but find the attention comforting—despite her own professional boundaries.

Then a human heart appears on Lexie’s doorstep. As more threatening packages arrive and her fiancé mysteriously disappears, she must confront a terrifying question: did she inadvertently match herself with a killer? Between Aidan’s claims that her fiancé will never return, Rebecca’s growing presence in her life, and her own dark past resurfacing, Lexie’s matchmaker instincts are being tested like never before.

Because someone is determined to ensure her story ends with a funeral.

There's no TCC type stuff. There are the serial killer groupies but it's a few paragraphs and a couple mentions and that's it. The main story is about a woman aiming to move up in the managerial strata of her workplace while working her job as a match maker. The psychopath love interest isn't the stereotypical dark romance stalker you might find in some TikTok romance [loud question mark] novels. Yes he's persistent but not he's not over the top Gaston of Beauty and the Beast movie levels of possessive. It's fairly well balanced between dodging this love interest, heading off her very violent stalker, and navigating between her present life and her past life as the child of serial killers. And it's ever present tcc groupie drama that pops up whenever she tries to find love.

It's surprisingly tactful, and charming to boot. If I had any faith that Hollywood would treat it well, I'd love to see this as a romcom. Just for its atypical plot and characters.

While it's never called that by name, there is some biphobia. Specifically, slut shaming the victims of the serial killer couple for having group sex, with the implication of bisexuality. It's a shame biphobia isn't directly stated but I suppose it's still too much to ask for in a heterosexual romance novel. We don't exist unless we're the sassy gay man with the inner black woman I mean snarky gay man side kick character.

Anyways, for a thriller / romance combo, it's pretty good. Go read it.