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Review: Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 24, 2026April 24, 2026QuoteReviewsA. Rushby, Haley Newlin, Reviews / Leave a commentLeave a comment

Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby
Berkley (September 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“I am the mistress of my own fate.”

Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby is a sophisticated gothic feminist horror novel laced with rage and history told through dual timelines: Alys, an antique dealer in present day who is related to Eleanor–one of the Venuses–and Eleanor, an eighteenth-century sex worker taken in by a beautiful and powerful courtesan, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s previous recruitment, Emily. Eleanor believes she has found her savior at last but things never come easy to women. Being a woman means fighting tooth and nail for agency and peace only to have it stolen again and again. And for this, in this story, anyway, men will burn.

Bev Vincent Explores Monsters in the Archives

Bev VincentApril 20, 2026April 20, 2026Stephen King News from the Dead Zone'Salem's Lot, Bev Vincent, Carrie, Columns, Monsters in the Archives, News from the Dead Zone, Night Shift, Pet Sematary, Stephen King, The Dead Zone, The Institute, The Shining2 Comments

Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King is very much my jam! “His Works” appears first in the title of my book Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Works, Life, and Influences for a reason. I’m fascinated by process, and this new book takes a deep dive into some of King’s earliest novels, revealing previously unknown facts and details about Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, and Pet Sematary.

Discussing Reincarnate and the Ugly Side of Heroes with Barry Hoffman

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 15, 2026April 13, 2026InterviewsBarry Hoffman, Interviews, Reincarnate, Rick HipsonLeave a comment

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cover of Reincarnate — My beautiful picture

If you’ve read any of the numerous works written by Barry Hoffman, then you already know there’s a few boxes you can count on checking off when reading him. Ruthless, complex villain with at least a few sympathetic qualities? Check. Spotlighting controversial issues in today’s society that demands the attention they seldom get? Check. A page-turning thriller fueled by relatably flawed main characters committed to the justice they seek despite the risks? Check again.

You can also expect a modest infusion of the supernatural sprinkled throughout Hoffman’s work, which he uses to syphon the inner most thoughts and fears of characters to the surface, adding to the intensity of the already dangerous games they’re forced to play. Reincarnate, published by Cemetery Dance Publications, is a worthy addition to Hoffman’s library of work, and can easily be considered among his best.Continue Reading

Review: Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 13, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsDead Weight, Hildur Knútsdóttir, Mary Robinette Kowal, Reviews, Rowan B. MinorLeave a comment

cover of Dead Weight Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir (translated by Mary Robinette Kowal)
Tor Nightfire (May 26, 2026)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Hildur Knútsdóttir, born in Reykjavík, Iceland, has lived in Spain, Germany, and Taiwan. She has written fiction, as well as plays and screenplays, for both adults and teenagers. Knútsdóttir has studied literature and creative writing at The University of Iceland and her work has received various awards and nominations including: The World Fantasy Award, The Icelandic Women’s Literary Prize, The Reykjavík Children’s Literature Prize, and The Icelandic Bookseller’s Prize. In 2016, she won the Icelandic Literary Prize for children’s books for her novel Vetrarhörkur. The Night Guest, her first book translated into English, was named one of the best thrillers of 2024 by The New York Times. Knútsdóttir’s most recent book, also translated into English, is a 160 page novella titled Dead Weight that is to be released from Tor Nightfire in May 2026.Continue Reading

Review: The Build-a-Monster Workshop by Pedro Iniguez

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 10, 2026April 12, 2026ReviewsJoshua Gage, Pedro Iniguez, poetry, Revews, The Build-a-Monster WorkshopLeave a comment

The Build-a-Monster Workshop by Pedro Iniguez
Raw Dog Screaming Press (May 7, 2026)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Pedro Iniguez is a Mexican-American Bram Stoker, Elgin, and Dwarf Stars Award-winning science-fiction and horror writer from Los Angeles. He has also been a Rhysling finalist and Puschart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. He is the author of Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future, Fever Dreams of a Parasite, Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories, Sythetic Dawns & Crimson Dusks, and the SF novel Control Theory. His newest collection is The Build-a-Monster Workshop.Continue Reading

Review: Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own by Maxwell I. Gold

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 8, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsJoshua Gage, Maxwell I. Gold, Reviews, Songs of Enough An Inferno All My OwnLeave a comment

Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own by Maxwell I. Gold
Hippocampus Press (September 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American prose poet, author, and editor, with an extensive body of work comprising over 300 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genres and his work has garnered nominations for multiple awards including the Pushcart Prize, the Eric Hoffer Awards, Rhysling Awards, and the Bram Stoker Awards. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies such as Weird Tales Magazine, Startling Stories, the recent Horror Writers Association anthology Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Chiral Mad 5, and many more. His newest collection is Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own, an epic prose poem based on his Cyber Gods mythos.Continue Reading

Review: Dancing Before Azathoth by Darrell Schweitzer

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 6, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsDancing Before Azathoth, Darrell Schweitzer, Joshua Gage, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

Dancing Before Azathoth by Darrell Schweitzer
Hippocampus Press (November 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

For more than half a century, Darrell Schweitzer has been contributing poems of fantasy, horror, and the supernatural to countless venues. Dancing Before Azathoth is a major retrospective of Schweitzer’s verse over the past two or three decades, selecting the best poems from earlier collections — including Groping Toward the Light (2000) and Ghosts of Past and Future (2008) — with uncollected poems that have appeared in Weirdbook, Spectral Realms, Asimov’s, Space and Time, and other periodicals.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Jo Kaplan

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 3, 2026March 1, 2026Interviews, Night Time LogicColumns, Daniel Braum, Interviews, Jo Kaplan, Night Time LogicLeave a comment

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

Music and Horror, Embracing Tropes, and the Midnight Muse

Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance online and over on my YouTube channel where we explore the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror, dark fiction, and more.

My latest book, Phantom Constellations: Strange Tales and Ghost Stories, out now from Cemetery Dance Publications, is full of these kind of subtle, strange, and intentionally ambiguous tales the operate with Night Time Logic.

Author Jo Kaplan is an author whose work uses Night Time Logic and she is a repeat guest on the Night Time Logic YouTube series. Her latest novel is called The Midnight Muse. I recently had a chance to speak with her about the new book.Continue Reading

Review: Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 1, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsEden Royce, Psychopomp & Circumstance, Reviews, Rowan B. MinorLeave a comment

cover of Psychopomp & Circumstance Psychopomp & Circumstance by Eden Royce
Tordotcom (October 2025)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Eden Royce, a Shirley Jackson Award winner, is a writer and member of the Gullah-Geechee nation from Charleston, South Carolina, who is now living in Southeast England. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including: Nightmare, Strange Horizons, The Horn Book Magazine, Writer’s Digest, and Western Colorado University. Her debut middle grade novel, ROOT MAGIC, is a Walter Award honoree, a Nebula Award finalist, a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner, and an Ignyte award winner for outstanding children’s literature. In 2024, Royce was the joint winner of the Middle Grade Bram Stoker Award for her third YA book, The Creepening of Dogwood House. Her debut adult fiction horror novella, Psychopomp & Circumstance, was released in October 2025. Continue Reading

Review: Monumental by Adam L.G. Nevill

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 30, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsAdam L.G. Nevill, Dave Simms, Monumental, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Monumental Monumental by Adam L.G. Nevill
Ritual Limited (April 2, 2026)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Adam Nevill is a force of writing that combines the literary aspects of Ramsey Campbell and Peter Straub with the approachability of Tim Lebbon or Michael Marshall Smith. Monumental is a “big” novel in that its reach stretches beyond the folk horror he has mastered but also returns to his deep, dark dive into characterization that transforms what could be just another entry into the cultish, elder god culture into something modern and relevant.Continue Reading

Review: Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 27, 2026February 22, 2026ReviewsDecomposition Book, Elizabeth Broadbent, Reviews, Sara Van OsLeave a comment

Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os
HarperCollins (May 19, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Loneliness and desperation ooze from Sara van Os’s Decomposition Book: A Novel. Os paints a compelling, bleak, and darkly humorous portrait of two women in crisis: Ava, hopelessly lost in the Adirondacks during a weekend hiking trip with two work friends, and Savannah, a Gen Z college student desperate to call herself “on a break” from school. Holed up in a secluded lake house after the stunning betrayal of her best friend, Savannah finds Ava’s corpse during a walk in the woods. Continue Reading

Review: The Curse of Hester Gardens by Tamika Thompson

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 25, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, Reviews, Tamika Thompson, The Curse of Hester GardensLeave a comment

cover of The Curse of Hester Gardens The Curse of Hester Gardens by Tamika Thompson
Erewhon Books (March 31, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Tamika Thompson’s The Curse of Hester Gardens is an urgent novel. Set in the Michigan projects, it’s a novel about gun violence, and if you suspect that makes for a rough emotional ride, you’d be right. It’s a novel about poverty, and it’s a novel about racism.

The Curse of Hester Gardens is a novel about America.Continue Reading

Review: Artificial by Maria Llovet

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 23, 2026February 22, 2026Reviews, The Comic VaultArtificial, Columns, Joshua Gage, Maria Llovet, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

Artificial by Maria Llovet
Image Comics (April 28, 2026)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Maria Llovet is a comics author and Illustrator from Barcelona. As a complete author, she has published numerous graphic novels in Europe and the US, such as Luna, Loud, Heartbeat, Eros/Psyche or Porcelain, among others. As an artist, she has collaborated with Brian Azzarello in Faithless for Boom! Studios and with James Tynion IV in Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country and Thessaly for DC. Her newest graphic novel is Artificial.Continue Reading

Review: Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For by P.M. Raymond

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 20, 2026February 22, 2026ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, P.M. Raymond, Reviews, Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die ForLeave a comment

cover of Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For by P.M. Raymond
Uncomfortably Dark Horror (April 26, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

As a fellow Southern author, I read P.M. Raymond’s Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For with particular relish. An interconnected book of short stories with recurring characters, families, and settings? Give it to me in the vein. Southern Gothic horror fans buckle up: this is the kind of collection you won’t want to miss. Continue Reading

Review: Bury My Heart Under the Martian Sky by Juan Manuel Pérez

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 18, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsBury My Heart Under the Martian Sky, Joshua Gage, Juan Manuel Perez, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

Bury My Heart Under the Martian Sky by Juan Manuel Pérez
Interstellar Flight Press (April 6, 2026)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of indigenous descent and the current Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of Another Menudo Sunday (2007), O’ Dark Heaven: A Response to Suzette Haden Elgin’s Definition of Horror (2009), WUI: Written Under the Influence of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. (2011), Live From La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume 1 (2014), Sex, Lies, and Chupacabras (2015), Space In Pieces (2020), and Screw The Wall! And Other Brown People Poems (2020), as well as, the co-editor of The Call Of The Chupacabra (2018). He is the 2011-2012 San Antonio Poets Association Poet Laureate and the Lone Star State’s only El Chupacabras Poet Laureate (For Life). The former Gourd Dancer for the Memphis Tia Piah Big River Clan Warrior Society is also a Pushcart Prize Nominee as well as a SEATTAH Scholar (Striving For Excellence And Accountability In The Teaching Of Traditional American History) through the University Of Dallas. His newest collection is Bury My Heart Under the Martain Sky.Continue Reading

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