The nitty-gritty: An ambitious writer experiences the dark side of publishing in Revenge Plot, a twisty, fast-paced thriller with plenty of unexpected surprises. “We’re in the storytelling business,” Claudia is saying. “There’s the story inside the book but also the story about the book. Like it or not, they’re of equal importance these days. Every […]
The nitty-gritty: The Hungry Hare is back in this fast-paced, bloody conclusion to Craig DiLouie’s folklore-based horror duology. Craig DiLouie wraps up his Slasher Season duology with plenty of slashery action in The Yule Day Slaughter. Take heed of the title: this book is full of slaughter, but it’s balanced out by great characters who […]
The nitty-gritty: Sumptuous prose, body horror and complex relationships make up a heady mix in Milkteeth, Caitlin Starling’s outstanding take on the vampire trope. “You will lose your own needle teeth soon enough. In your maturity, your teeth will be all but identical to your prey’s. Just sharpened, lengthened canines, the better to slice, your […]
The nitty-gritty: Get ready for monster karaoke, exploding cows and more in Monsters of Ohio, an absurd but heartfelt story about change. “There are monsters here, and they’re going to wreck our town. They’re just not us.” John Scalzi excels at a certain brand of humor, and once again he’s brought that humor to his […]
The nitty-gritty: Multilayered and full of shocking twists, J.H. Markert tackles the cult subgenre in his latest, an intricately plotted thriller with plenty of surprises. Once again, I’ve been blown away by a new-to-me author, and this time it’s J.H. Markert and his new book The Chain House. This has everything I love in a […]
The nitty-gritty: Ghosts, curses and tarot cards combine in this Halloween-centric cozy paranormal romance. Entities to Lovers is the perfect cozy/spooky book to read leading up to Halloween, especially since the story itself takes place around the holiday. I loved the characters (especially the ghosts!), and the romance is the nice slow burn kind that […]
The nitty-gritty: Monsters both human and supernatural inhabit the pages of It Looks Like You in the Dark, a thoughtful and sometimes frightening Indigenous horror story. “I understood it, her, whatever the monster was. Her hunger was my hunger, as familiar as it was horrifying.” Based on the dark, moody cover, I was excited to […]
The nitty-gritty: A fun mash-up of murder mystery, time travel and 1990s culture, Night of the Mallrats is an entertaining blast from the past. I thought this was going to be a time travel story, and it is, sort of. But the time travel element is much smaller than I expected, so I think my […]
The nitty-gritty: Dark secrets abound in The Porcelain Sisters, a laugh-out-loud funny and heartfelt story about two sisters trying to uncover their weird family history. Daryl Gregory is one of my favorite authors, and I firmly believe more people should be reading his books. His latest is a novella revolving around two sisters, but the […]
The nitty-gritty: A surreal, hallucinogenic road trip to repatriate the old bones of a Blackfeet boy takes a deadly turn in Stephen Graham Jones’ latest, a terrifying—and sometimes confusing—tale of redemption. “This RV was a rolling circus, a nightmare unfolding at sixty shaky miles per hour.” That quote pretty much sums up Off the Reservation, […]