It’s Weird to Think of the World Not Being Solid, Isn’t It? Melanie Tem’s Prodigal

In the early 1990s, Jeanne Cavelos spearheaded a new enterprise over at Dell. It was a horror themed line that tried to move away from the expectations associated with the term horror fiction and zero in on newer, darker visions. “It’s not about haunted houses or evil children or ancient Indian burial grounds,” the statement […]

A Macabre Scavenger Hunt: Tim Waggoner’s Lord of the Feast

Some time ago, a cult tried to bring their filthy god to life. They sought the destruction of the Omniverse, whatever that might mean, and through the gruesome grimoire Liber Pravitis Itineribus (The Book of Depravity), found a means of doing so. But when the god was nothing like what they thought it would be, […]

Parable of the Bloodsucker: Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling

When Shori attains consciousness, she has no memory of who she is, where she is, or what she is. She knows only the unrelenting hunger. It is satisfied at first by a surprisingly docile and self-sacrificing animal. Later, it is a human being who gets too close, who whispers words not of warning or fear […]

The Creep Next Door: Mary Downing Hahn’s The Thirteenth Cat

Mary Downing Hahn has been composing chilling examples of middle grade horror and thriller since 1979. Since their release, some of those earlier books have seen awards as well as adaptations as graphic novels and a film or two. However, she has not rested on her laurels. Hahn is still going strong forty-five years on. […]

Five Tales of Dread and Gory Humor: Satanic Hispanics (2022)

When the police raid a safe house in El Paso, Texas, they find the place has become home to a blood bath. Among the many corpses, they find one survivor who goes by the name The Traveler (Efren Ramirez), and he has quite a story to tell. Several stories, in fact, and he desperately hopes […]

Just Me and the Forever Dead: Linda Addison’s How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend

Linda Addison is one of the best kept secrets in speculative poetry, bar none. She has a terrific sense for language, a playfulness that veers into the darkest pockets of human experience and back out again into the realm of surreal whimsy. Who can fashion a punchline that also serves as a revisionist fairy tale […]

A Modern Prometheus: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes) has a lot to deal with. Her teacher Mrs. Kempe (Beth Felice) can’t get her name right and refuses to listen to her ideas about death, her father Donald (Chad L. Coleman) is fighting both grief and a controlled substance addiction, her brother Chris (Edem Atsu-Swanzy) has been killed due to […]

Of Death, Of Love: Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)

Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the caretaker of the surprisingly well-named Resurrecturis Cemetery. His assistant Gnaghi (Francois Hadji-Lazaro) might only speak in one word phrases (“Nyah”), but he’s helpful with a shovel and a generally good bloke to have around and watching your back. This is especially useful because, unfortunately, seven nights after the bodies […]

A Delicious Stew of Anxiety, Suspense, and a Dollop of Romance: Whitney Hill’s Eldritch Sparks

Just after finding a way to embrace her feared heritage and join the society of Otherworld creatures hidden outside of normal human interactions, Arden Finch became a Christ-like figure, a unifier of the djinn, werewolves, vampires, elves, and whatnot. It is not a role she wants, but it’s one she has accepted. Unfortunately, she still […]

All True Knowledge Requires Sacrifice: Barbara Cottrell’s Darkness Below

Ellen Logan is a student at the prestigious, possibly wicked, and undeniably dangerous Miskatonic University in shadow haunted Arkham, Massachusetts. Her Fall semester is kicking off with a bang: Best friend Stephanie Lansdale has thrown herself off of the campus clocktower, Stephanie’s paranoid boyfriend Joey Richards has left a mysterious and possibly stolen book for […]

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