Book Review: Inheritance of Scars, by Crystal Seitz
The word-pictures she paints of Astrid’s childhood memories and the forest journey are immersive, the creatures encountered along the way are creepily described and often quite chilling, and conversations feel convincing.
Book Review: The Cost of Power: Return, by Joyce Reynolds-Ward
Gabe and Ruby’s story is the heart of The Cost of Power: Return, by Joyce Reynolds-Ward. Their story in this iteration, looking at the oeuvre of the author, is to be one of a series of futures/worlds in a multiverse of stories revolving around the Martinieres in general and Gabe and Ruby as well.
Book Review: HOLLOW TONGUE by Eden Royce
… Known for her Southern Gothic horror writing, Royce writes with the same genre vibes in Hollow Tongue, but approaches the field in unexpected ways that emphasize the psychological horror of trauma and symbolism…
Book Review: DIAVOLA by Jennifer Thorne
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
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thus represents an opportunity for new readers to discover that story while also being treated to another previously unpublished story born from the horrors of pandemic isolation.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.
