Interview: Isabela Livino on Gothic Horror and An Immaculate Deception

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 4, 2026November 4, 2026InterviewsHaley Newlin, Isabela LivinoLeave a comment

Isabela Livino writes fiction with a dark, speculative twist. She studied philosophy at the University of Rochester before receiving a Master’s from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. When she is not writing, you can find her riding horses, designing apps, gardening, or watching horror films while cuddling with her fur babies. A native of Pernambuco, Brazil, she currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, their two Caribbean-born adopted coconut retrievers, and the river ducks. You can connect with her on Instagram – @isabelalivino – and her website – isabelalivino.com

Livino sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss her breakout novel, An Immaculate Deception, weird horror, the author’s early influences, and the exploration of human psychology in gothic fiction. Continue Reading

Review: An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 2, 2026ReviewsHaley Newlin, Isabela LivinoLeave a comment

An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino
Dutton (September 2026)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

I could come up with a dozen comp titles for Isabela Livino’s An Immaculate Deception, including Mexican Gothic, Rebecca, Rosemary’s Baby, The Hacienda, Psycho, Blood on Her Tongue, Carrie, and The Woman in Black. That doesn’t mean this story isn’t original; rather, there’s something here for every gothic fiction and horror fan. There’s black magic, ritualistic practices, the overbearing and controlling mother trope, and a box full of ghastly, bloody secrets. Continue Reading

Review: Anna So Knows Ya by Todd Brown

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 1, 2026ReviewsDave Simms, Todd BrownLeave a comment

Anna So Knows ‘Ya by Todd Brown
Robbins Publishing (October 13, 2026)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

What’s with that title? It throws the reader for a loop as they try to figure out what the heck it means, but Todd Brown knows how to mess with his audience. In his second novel, this quickly rising author knocks it out of the park. The subject of mental illness can be tricky in horror and thrillers, but when done well, as in Shutter Island or A Head Full of Ghosts, the result is a mind-screw that rewards the reader with a story that leaves a scar.Continue Reading

Interview: Philip Fracassi on Traps and Specters & the Art of Short Fiction

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 30, 2026InterviewsAbby Wolf, Philip FracassiLeave a comment

Philip Fracassi is the USA Today bestselling author of The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre and a Bram Stoker Award and British Fantasy Award nominee. His other novels include A Child Alone With Strangers, Gothic, The Third Rule of Time Travel, Sarafina, and short story collections No One Is Safe!, Beneath a Pale Sky and Behold The Void.

He is also a screenwriter and his feature films have been distributed by Disney Entertainment and Lifetime TV, with several projects in various stages of development. His short story “Altar” has been adapted by film studio A24 for a feature film, as well as his story “Fail Safe,” which is being adapted by Sony Pictures, starring Oscar Winner Brie Larson. You can connect with him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@philipfracassi).

Fracassi sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss his recently released short story collection Traps and Specters: Stories and the art form of building a collection of diverse short stories that is impactful and well-balanced.Continue Reading

Review: Traps and Specters: Stories by Philip Fracassi

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 27, 2026ReviewsAbby Wolf, Philip FracassiLeave a comment

Traps and Specters: Stories by Philip Fracassi
Shortwave Publishing (September 2026)
Reviewed by Abby Wolf

Traps and Specters: Stories is a collection of macabre tales that proves horror can be both vicious and deeply human. Philip Fracassi (USA Today bestselling author of The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre) arrives with fourteen stories that include themes such as haunted objects, the restless dead, body horror, possession, and the ways technology can turn against us. The appeal of Traps and Specters is not only its variety. It is also the confidence with which Fracassi moves between these modes, finding fresh ways to make familiar fears feel all the more dangerous.Continue Reading

Review: The Witching House by John Everson

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 23, 2026October 25, 2026ReviewsJohn Everson, W.D. GaglianiLeave a comment

The Witching House by John Everson
Flame Tree Publishing (October 20, 2026)
Reviewed by W.D. Gagliani

Making a sharp U-turn from his last two giallo-inspired thrillers, veteran author John Everson (Covenant, NightWhere, Voodoo Heart, Siren, The Devil’s Equinox, Five Deaths for Seven Songbirds, The Bloodstained Doll, and numerous others) returns to the supernatural with his new novel, The Witching House. And it’s a quick ride down the slippery slope of grievance and resulting despair, spiced with sweet revenge. As in most tales of vengeance, it’s a case of the joy of serving that “cold dish,” blended seamlessly with a healthy serving of “be careful what you wish for.”Continue Reading

Review: Octobertown by Mia Dalia

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 22, 2026October 22, 2026ReviewsDave Simms, Mia DaliaLeave a comment

Octobertown by Mia Dalia
Earthling Publications (October 31, 2026)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

The best month of the year is now here. With that turn of the calendar, readers awaiting Earthling Publications’ Halloween Series are in for a treat.

Octobertown takes place on Halloween, which is the best thing ever, but if one is familiar with Earthling, one thing is certain: no entry is cliché, no story is a boring retread of tired tropes.

Enter Mia Dalia, one of the best talents in the business, a writer who can immerse herself in many styles and genres with ease. She set the novel in a real town in New Jersey, where neighbors on an idyllic street compete to design the best Halloween decorations in the most suburban way possible. Continue Reading

Review: American Crow by Ryan Burruss

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 21, 2026ReviewsJanelle Janson, Ryan BurrussLeave a comment

American Crow by Ryan Burruss
Counterpoint (October 6, 2026)
Reviewed by Janelle Janson

American Crow was such an interesting read, even if it didn’t completely hold me all the way through.

Set in 1952 in Brookshire, Maryland, the story follows a newly built suburb full of World War II veterans and their families. On the surface, it’s the postwar American dream: new houses, families, stability, and a chance to start over. Underneath all of that are people carrying trauma, anger, nightmares, violence, and things they’d much rather keep buried.Continue Reading

Review: This B Just Won’t Die! by Tanya Pell

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 18, 2026ReviewsAdam Allen, Tanya PellLeave a comment

This B Just Won’t Die! by Tanya Pell
Gallery Books (October 13th, 2026)
Reviewed by Adam Allen

Tanya Pell has established herself as a brilliant writer of different types of horror, and with This B Just Won’t Die!, she showcases her mastery of the slasher. This book works as a classic slasher, following the familiar beats but still has twists and surprises that will keep veterans and new readers alike shocked and delighted. Some truly gnarly kills, an iconic villain, and some fantastic set pieces make this an instant classic of the subgenre.Continue Reading

Interview: Kelly McWilliams on American Nightmare, Hidden Figures and Historical Horrors

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 15, 2026October 30, 2026InterviewsHaley Newlin, Kelly McWilliamsLeave a comment

Kelly McWilliams is a mixed-race novelist whose work examines white passing, American history, and the uncanny. She is also the author of several acclaimed novels for young adults, including Mirror Girls, a Junior Library Guild Selection. American Nightmare is her adult fiction debut. She lives in Seattle with her family. You can connect with her on Instagram – @kellymmcwilliams.

Kelly McWilliams (photo credit: Bill Mullen)

McWilliams sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss American Nightmare, hidden figure, Walter F. White, and historical horrors. Continue Reading

Review: American Nightmare by Kelly McWilliams

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 15, 2026ReviewsHaley Newlin, Kelly McWilliamsLeave a comment

American Nightmare by Kelly McWilliams
Crown (September 15, 2026)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Kelly McWilliams has disrupted my prematurely curated list of top reads of the year. In fact, American Nightmare is in the running for the number-one spot, alongside Markus Redmond’s Blood Slaves, Tamika Thompson’s The Curse of Hester Gardens, and Del Sandeen’s These Walls Remember. Continue Reading

Review: Incarnate by Alma Katsu

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 9, 2026October 6, 2026ReviewsAlma Katsu, Dave SimmsLeave a comment

Incarnate by Alma Katsu
G.P. Putnam’s (Sept. 2026)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

AI – there’s no bigger concept in publishing right now, and the evils of it keep growing. Writers are having their work stolen, chewed up, and spit out something terrible. Leave it to Alma Katsu to spin a tale that absorbs the current issue and births something unique, yet still relevant to the classics.

Incarnate combines body horror with AI along with the wondrously saccharine world of influencers. What makes a Katsu novel different is that she never writes in the same realm twice (well, other than her dark fantasy/horror trilogy that jump-started her career). Continue Reading

The Road to OFF THE RESERVATION: An Obsessive’s Fiction Review

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 6, 2026Spencer Hamilton's Road to Stephen Graham Jones' OFF THE RESERVATIONSpencer Hamilton, Stephen Graham JonesLeave a comment

ROAD TO STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES’ OFF THE RESERVATION: An Obsessive’s Fiction Review Column

by Spencer Hamilton

Stephen Graham Jones via stephengrahamjones.com

We’ve come to the last stretch of road. In just one week, the new novel from award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones, Off the Reservation, will be out there waiting for you. And if you’ve hitched along this six-column road trip I’ve been taking, you’re more than ready for it.

Bev Vincent explores Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Bev VincentOctober 6, 2026Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Black House, News from the Dead Zone, Other Worlds than These, Reviews, Stephen King, Stephen King News, The TalismanLeave a comment

I See What You Did There

There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” It’s also the thematic statement used by the British documentary series that began with Seven Up!

While we know some things about Jack Sawyer from when he was seven, we first really got to know him when he was twelve, in 1981. We spent a few exciting months with him that fall/winter, ending with his thirteenth birthday.

13 Halloween Book Recs From Your Favorite Horror Authors

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 3, 2026October 3, 2026Editor's PicksDaphne Fama, Del Sandeen, Erika T. Wurth, Gwendolyn Kiste, Haley Newlin, Isabel Canas, Markus Redmond, Mona Kabbani, Nat Cassidy, Nick Medina, Nick Roberts, RJ Joseph, Tamika Thompson, Tananarive DueLeave a comment

13 Halloween Book Recs From Your Favorite Horror Authors

by Haley Newlin

It’s officially October and readers, myself included, are eagerly assembling their spooky season TBR. I scrolled Goodreads, Instagram, the usual, looking for recommendations but then thought, why not ask authors who have written some of the most terrifying and memorable horror stories I’ve ever read? So, dear readers, with your cravings for wickedry and menace, ghosts and vampires, grab a pen, because these recommendations, from the likes of Tananarive Due (author of Mazywood and The Reformatory), Daphne Fama (author of House of Monstrous Women), Nat Cassidy (author of When the Wolf Comes Home), Isabel Cañas (author of The Possession of Alba Díaz), and more, are not to be missed.

I See What You Did There

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