Book Review: DIAVOLA by Jennifer Thorne

Cover of Diavola, by Jennifer Thorne. Features a woman with a distorted, misty face, blonde hair, and an off-the-shoulder red dress, reading a book. Tagline: "Welcome to Villa Taccola. She's been waiting for you."

Diavola is interesting as a gothic horror through the inclusion of modern-day family vacation chaos and emotion. But it also follows a unique path from the setup and haunting and predictable responses to an original take on consequences and after-effects.

Book Review: BLEAK HOUSES by Kate Maruyama

Cover of Bleak Houses by Kate Maruyama (Safer & Family Solstice)

Bleak Houses, by Kate Maruyama, represents the debut of this line, consisting of two novella-length stories: Safer and Family Solstice. The small independent press Omnium Gatherum previously published Family Solstice in 2021, when Rue Morgue Magazine named it Best Fiction Book of the year. The release of Bleak Houses by RDSP thus represents an opportunity for new readers to discover that story while also being treated to another previously unpublished story born from the horrors of pandemic isolation.

Horror Review: Penny Reeve on Victor LaValle’s The Changeling

“When you believe in things you don’t understand you suffer” Stevie Wonder’s words serve as the epitaph to Victor LaValle’s The Changeling; accurately summing up the ensuing 431 pages wherein we’re introduced to a genre-defying novel that mixes horror with the fantastic and monsters both real and imagined come a-knocking.

Bedtime Stories: Sleep Well, Siba & Saba

Bedtime Stories is a new column that will highlight Children’s Books with a diverse, global perspective. Forgetful sisters Siba and Saba are always losing something. Sandals, slippers, sweaters — you name it, they lost it. When the two sisters fall asleep each night, they dream about the things they have lost that day. Until, one […]