Cemetery Dance Online

Review: The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 17, 2025October 7, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Isabel Canas, Reviews, The Possession of Alba DiazLeave a comment

cover of The Possession of Alba Diaz The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
Berkley (August 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Isabel Cañas is a gothic horror revivalist who would appease and astonish the founding mothers of the genre and excite the readers they continue to lure in today. What makes Cañas stand out is her use of classic Gothic tropes — such as isolation, family turmoil, claustrophobic settings, and hauntings —but she re-centers them in Mexico. She symbolizes historical trauma, evangelization, colonization, generational violence, and misogyny throughout her work in a way that’s accessible and impactful.

In her latest genre-defying release, The Possession of Alba Díaz, Cañas conjures an unforgettable, wicked tale so compelling and cinematically evocative that readers will talk about it for years to come. It’s haunting and gory. Fierce and uncanny.Continue Reading

Mark Russell on finding the horror in the Thanksgiving holiday

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 15, 2025October 4, 2025Interviews, The Comic VaultAhoy Comics, Columns, Danica Davidson, Interviews, Mark Russell, Previews, Thanksgiving, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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cover of Thanksgiving graphic novel The holiday Thanksgiving is getting a one-shot horror comedy comic from writer Mark Russell and artist Mauricet, named, simply enough, Thanksgiving. Russell describes it as a “metaphor for what our nation is in danger of becoming” and it will hit bookshelves on October 22. Meanwhile, Cemetery Dance spoke to Russell about why he chose to write a horror comic about Thanksgiving, its three covers, and what he hopes readers take away.Continue Reading

Review: Feral and Hysterical by Sadie Hartmann

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 13, 2025October 7, 2025ReviewsFeral and Hysterical, Mother Horror, Reviews, Rowan B. Minor, Sadie HartmannLeave a comment

cover of Feral and Hysterical Feral and Hysterical by Sadie Hartmann
Page Street Publishing (August 2025)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Sadie Hartmann, also known as Mother Horror, is a writer and editor from the Pacific Northwest. She is the co-owner of the horror fiction subscription company Night Worms and has been the editor-in-chief of her own horror fiction imprint, Dark Hart Books. Hartmann is a 2023 Bram Stoker Awards Winner for her book 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered from Page Street Publishing. Her most recent book is Feral and Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction by Women, also from Page Street Publishing.Continue Reading

Cover Reveal: True Believers #3 by Stephen Graham Jones

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 10, 2025October 7, 2025The Comic VaultBit Bot Media, Columns, Cover Reveal, Danica Davidson, Preview, Stephen Graham Jones, The Comic Vault, True BelieverLeave a comment

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The comic True Believers: Issue #3 — Slashfest by Stephen Graham Jones and Josh Viola takes place at a real horror convention and is coming out on October 13 thanks to Bit Bot Media. One of its variant covers is of Klayton (Celldweller), a musician and cofounder of Bit Bot Media, by artist Matthew Therrien. Cemetery Dance gets to reveal it exclusively here before the comic’s official launch.Continue Reading

Review: The Witch of Willow Sound by Vanessa F. Penney

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 10, 2025October 7, 2025ReviewsReviews, Rowan B. Minor, The Witch of Willow Sound, Vanessa F. PenneyLeave a comment

Cover of The Witch of Willow Sound The Witch of Willow Sound by Vanessa F. Penney
ECW Press (September 2025)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Vanessa F. Penney is a new author who was born in northern Newfoundland and raised in rural Nova Scotia. Currently living in Dartmouth, NS, she is most inspired by “the coal-black ocean depths and bone-buried shorelines of the East Coast.” The Witch of Willow Sound is her debut novel. Continue Reading

Matt Wagner, Kelley Jones, and the Brides of Dracula

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 8, 2025October 7, 2025Interviews, The Comic VaultColumns, Danica Davidson, Dracula, Interviews, Kelley Jones, Matt Wagner, The Comic Vault, The CountLeave a comment

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After the graphic novels Dracula: Book I — The Impaler and Dracula: Book II — The Brides, writer Matt Wagner and illustrator Kelley Jones are back with Dracula: Book III — The Count. The third book is currently on Kickstarter, and it’s told from Dracula’s point-of-view. Cemetery Dance spoke with Wagner and Jones about building on the previous books, what research went into this, and how their feelings about Dracula have been affected. Continue Reading

Review: The Widows of Winding Gale by Kealan Patrick Burke

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 7, 2025October 6, 2025ReviewsDave Simms, Earthling Halloween Series, Earthling Publications, Kealan Patrick Burke, Reviews, The Widows of Winding GaleLeave a comment

Cover of The Widows of Winding Gale The Widows of Winding Gale by Kealan Patrick Burke
Earthling Publications (October 2025)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

For those readers who have read Kealan Patrick Burke, a familiarity with gorgeous writing is a given. The stories themselves are varied, the voices far-ranging, but no matter how far the author stretches his wings, somehow, it all comes back to his style and craft. Like Peter Straub and Gwendolyn Kiste, one knows they are in the midst of a singular voice that entrances. For musicians, the tone of a famous saxophone player or blues guitarist can be unmistakable once the song begins.

What Screams May Come: Creatures of Liminal Space by Daniel Braum

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 3, 2025October 4, 2025What Screams May ComeColumns, Creatures of Liminal Space, Daniel Braum, Interviews, Rick Hipson, What Screams May ComeLeave a comment

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Creatures of Liminal Space by Daniel Braum
Jackanapes Press (June 2025)

The Synopsis

Daniel Braum’s Creatures of Liminal Space explores the spaces in between places and the strange, weird, and numinous encounters you might have there. In this collection, you will find three short story length selections of Braum’s hallmark strange tales (including one original to this book), interspersed among twelve dark and wondrous flash fiction length selections. Braum and illustrator Dan Sauer invite you to traverse these labyrinths of the liminal, and join them on a phantasmagoric journey replete with dark and ethereal denizens haunting exotic borderlands far-flung and shadowy corners just next door.

Discover the heartbreaking secrets of a Loch Ness Monster sighted in the lush jungles of Central America.

Learn who or what the enigmatic Jaguar King is protecting with the wild cats of a remote swath of tropical forest.

Traverse patterns of love and loss and time—and learn if our friendships and truths, like constellations of stars, are real or perceived.

Ghosts. Hauntings. Monsters. Creatures. Cryptids. Fear. Darkness. Loss. Wonder. Heartbreak. Mystery. The Strange. The Uncanny. The Liminal. The Interstitial. Labyrinths of time. Love and Desire. The edges of civilization. Longings for the lost.Continue Reading

Review: When Shadows Burn by Todd Brown

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 1, 2025October 4, 2025ReviewsReviews, Rowan B. Minor, Todd Brown, When Shadows BurnLeave a comment

When Shadows Burn by Todd Brown
Köehler Books (October 14, 2025)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Todd Brown is a neurodivergent computational sociologist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, National Geographic, Forbes, USA Today, and other publications. He currently lives in Virginia, and has spoken in seven countries and at dozens of venues, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, Harvard, and more. His debut novel, When Shadows Burn, is a southern gothic haunted house story.Continue Reading

George Northy and Rachele Aragno Unleash YULETIDE’S Christmas Creatures

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 29, 2025September 21, 2025The Comic VaultColumns, Danica Davidson, George Northy, Rachele Aragno, Reviews, The Comic Vault, YuletideLeave a comment

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George Northy, a writer/producer whose credits include Charmed for The CW, is launching Yuletide, a horror comic about the darker side of the holiday season. While the comic won’t be published until October (by Oni Press), it’s already been acquired by Valhalla Entertainment to develop into a movie. Cemetery Dance spoke with writer Northy and artist Rachele Aragno about working together, what’s going on with Valhalla Entertainment, and how to mix horror with a holiday not generally associated with horror.Continue Reading

Nick Medina on Native lore, The Whistler, and more

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 26, 2025September 24, 2025InterviewsHaley Newlin, Interviews, Nick Medina, The WhistlerLeave a comment

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photo of author Nick Medina — Nick Medina

Nick Medina is a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, and he drew on his heritage and stories passed down by his paternal grandmother, along with research into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) epidemic, as inspiration for his novels including Sisters of the Lost Nation, which earned a Junior Library Guild Standard Selection Award, and Indian Burial Ground. He has degrees in organizational and multicultural communication, and has worked as a college instructor. He also enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock, and exploring haunted cemeteries and all sorts of spooky stuff.

Medina’s new release, The Whistler, takes readers back to the reservation for a thrilling blend of Native folklore, mythology, and horror. Much like the paranormal investigators the author writes about, Medina has gone in search of Resurrection Mary, the “Italian Bride,” and the “Devil Baby,” and other spirits of Chicago’s ghost lore.

Medina sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss his new release, The Whistler, Native lore, and his favorite reads of the year. Continue Reading

Review: The Whistler by Nick Medina

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 25, 2025September 24, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Nick Medina, Reviews, The WhistlerLeave a comment

The Whistler by Nick Medina
Berkley (September 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

For fear of summoning evil spirits, Native superstition says you should never, ever whistle at night.

Henry Hotard was about to hit the big time. He’d gained a huge online following with his ghost-hunting videos. But things changed one day, a day he wishes he could forget, and now he’s navigating a new reality — life in a wheelchair and back on the reservation where he grew up, and relying on his grandparents’ care.

Growing up on the reservation, one hears all sorts of stories, cautionary tales with wicked creatures and anecdotes. Myths. But some superstitions shouldn’t be ignored. Continue Reading

Review: Hank Flynn: The Return by Candace Nola

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 22, 2025September 21, 2025ReviewsCandace Nola, Elizabeth Broadbent, Hank Flynn The Return, ReviewsLeave a comment

Hank Flynn: The Return by Candace Nola
Uncomfortably Dark (July 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

I’m generally not a fan of Western horror, though it’s an interesting subgenre. I’m revising that idea after Candace Nola’s Hank Flynn: The Return. Haven’t read the original Hank Flynn? Don’t stress. I hadn’t either. In Hank Flynn: The Return, Nola pulls off an incredibly difficult trick: a sequel with familiar characters and storylines that can still be read solo (though it will spoil the first Hank Flynn, so reader beware). Continue Reading

Ben Wickey on More Weight: A Salem Story

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 19, 2025September 14, 2025Interviews, The Comic VaultA Salem Story, Ben Wickey, Columns, Danica Davidson, Interviews, More Weight, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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cover of More Weight Artist, writer and animator Ben Wickey has turned the infamous Salem Witch Trials into a graphic novel, titled More Weight, concentrating on the life of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death during the trials. While working on it, Wickey learned that he was the descendant of one of the people hanged as a witch. Cemetery Dance spoke to Wickey about his personal connection to this story, how he did his research, and how he approached adapting history into graphic novel form.

Stick around after the interview for a couple of preview pages from More Weight.

Review: If You Knew Me by S.P. Miskowski

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 17, 2025September 14, 2025ReviewsDave Simms, If You Knew Me, Reviews, S.P. MiskowskiLeave a comment

cover of If You Knew Me If You Knew Me by S.P. Miskowski
Thomas & Mercer (September 23, 2025)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Move over Annie Wilkes — there’s a new ultra fan in horror-thriller literature: Ann Mason (yes, the first name checks but the author goes way beyond the iconic character here). If you’ve never read S.P. Miskowski, this is a fine place to start. If you’re a fan of the Skillute cycle of stories, this is a step up in storytelling, which is quite a high bar to jump. She wields the exquisite skills to marry the best of horror with the razor wire tension of thrillers.

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