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Review: The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 30, 2025April 26, 2025ReviewsErika T. Wurth, Flatiron Books, Reviews, Rowan B. Minor, The Haunting of Room 904Leave a comment

The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth
Flatiron Books (March 2025)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Erika T. Wurth, a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, lives in Denver, Colorado and is an urban Native of Apache, Chickasaw, and Cherokee descent. She has published in The Kenyon Review, Buzzfeed, and The Writer’s Chronicle. She is a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation and has been a guest writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Wurth’s horror novel White Horse is a New York Times editor’s pick and a Good Morning America buzz pick. Her most recent novel is The Haunting of Room 904. Continue Reading

Review: The Night Birds by Christopher Golden

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 29, 2025April 28, 2025ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Christopher Golden, Reviews, The Night BirdsLeave a comment

cover of The Night Birds The Night Birds by Christopher Golden
St. Martin’s Press (May 6, 2025)
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

It is, as they say, a tale as old as time.

Someone seeking power and purpose joins a group centered around an ancient evil — in this case, something called an Ur-Witch, with followers known as weavers who practice its mysterious rituals. When the hideous truth of their involvement comes to light, a couple of women break away and seek shelter with an old acquaintance, unwittingly bringing danger and death to his door.Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Erica Ruppert

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 25, 2025April 24, 2025Night Time LogicColumns, Daniel Braum, Erica Ruppert, Interviews, Night Time LogicLeave a comment

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Weird Horror,” “Fairy Tales,” and “Folklore”

photo of author Erica Ruppert — Erica Ruppert

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 and over on my YouTube channel.

Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.

My short story collections with Cemetery Dance are full of the kind of stories that operate with Night Time Logic. My latest is called Phantom Constellations and is coming in Autumn 2025.

I spoke to Erica Ruppert, author of Seven Stars: Collected Stories about her work, about fairy tales and folklore, including her favorite stories by Tanith Lee and Angela Carter.

We began our conversation with why a mix of genres operates well with horror fiction.Continue Reading

Review: Symphony for Walpurgis: A Collection by Rami Ungar

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 23, 2025April 17, 2025ReviewsJoshua Gage, Rami Ungar, Reviews, Symphony for WalpurgisLeave a comment

Symphony for Walpurgis by Rami Ungar
May 1, 2025
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Rami Ungar is the author of Rose, a novel about a woman who turns into a plant, and the collection Hannah & Other Stories, which includes the tale of a carnivorous horse. He is the Ohio chapter coordinator for the Horror Writers Association. His newest collection of novelletes is Symphony forrWalpurgis.

Novellettes are a strange beast. Many publishers and readers find them difficult because they’re such an in-between style of writing. They’re too short to build real suspense, some readers will tell you. Others will insist that they’re too long, and that they’re just short stories that need more editing. However, as the novelette is Ungar’s chosen form, he’s done his best to prove naysayers wrong, and what a job he has done!Continue Reading

YOUR CHANCE TO BE ON THE COVER OF CEMETERY DANCE MAGAZINE!

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 22, 2025April 24, 2025Breaking NewsLeave a comment

YOUR CHANCE TO BE ON THE COVER OF CEMETERY DANCE MAGAZINE!

Frame it for your personal library! Send it out as a holiday card! Use it as your profile pic!

TREAT YOURSELF…or GIVE IT TO SOMEONE SPECIAL AS A GIFT!

YOU PICK THE HEADLINE: “Constant Reader of the Year!” Or “Writer of the Year!” Or…?

This once-in-a-lifetime FREE bonus item is available to anyone who pre-orders Richard & W.H. Chizmar’s WIDOW’S POINT: THE COMPLETE HAUNTING before midnight on Friday, April 25.

HOW? It’s easy!
* Just email your pre-order confirmation to [email protected] along with the photo you wish to use AND what you want the headline to say… and our designer will do the rest!

* We will email your customized Cemetery Dance cover in 5-10 days.

* You may pre-order up to 5 copies to receive 5 covers.

Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #239

Bev VincentApril 22, 2025April 21, 2025Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Carrie, Columns, Cujo, Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream, Hansel and Gretel, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, the end of the world as we know it, The Institute, The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, The Monkey, The Running Man, Welcome to Derry1 Comment

There’s a lot going on in the Stephen King Universe in the next six or seven months, so you should get a calendar and fill in all the important dates. Or you could just refer to all the information in this column, which has you covered!

Review: Blood On Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 21, 2025April 17, 2025ReviewsBlood on Her Tongue, Haley Newlin, Johanna Van Veen, ReviewsLeave a comment

Blood On Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen

Poison Pen Press (March 2025)

Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Blood On Her Tongue is a vividly violent and sapphic, good-for-her horror story with a strong appetite and ferocious bite. Johanna Van Veen has repeated her success; Blood On Her Tongue is every bit as unputdownable and shocking as her 2024 novel, My Darling Dreadful Thing.

Bridgit Connell: Making Monsters in the Mignolaverse

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 18, 2025April 13, 2025The Comic VaultBridgit Connell, Christopher Golden, Columns, Danica Davidson, Dark Horse Comics, Interviews, Lady Baltimore, Mike MignolaLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

Lady Baltimore: The Daughters of Medusa, the latest in the Outerverse Universe of books, is a two-part comic by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, with art by Bridgit Connell. Connell told Cemetery Dance about her early (elementary school) horror artwork, working with Mignola and Golden, and why this is one of her favorite monster stories. Continue Reading

Review: Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 16, 2025April 13, 2025Reviews, The Comic VaultAnna Meyer, Columns, Joshua Gage, Reviews, Saint Catherine, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer
23rd St. (April 29, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Anna Meyer is an author, designer and comic artist living in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from the Midwest, Anna went to a two-year design school in Lakewood, Ohio, where she received her associate degree in graphic design. She has over eleven years of professional design experience as both a senior designer and a design manager. She has been drawing and making comics ever since she could hold a pencil. Anna’s debut graphic novel is Saint Catherine. Continue Reading

Review: This Cursed House by Del Sandeen

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 14, 2025April 13, 2025ReviewsDel Sandeen, Haley Newlin, Reviews, This Cursed HouseLeave a comment

This Cursed House by Del Sandeen
Berkley (October 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Jemma Barker needs a fresh start, and it appears in a strange letter offering her a position with the Duchon family in New Orleans. It promises the highest pay she’s ever earned.

The author, Del Sandeen, wastes no time settling readers into the gritty anticipation of horror and mystery. When Jemma arrives in New Orleans, a woman in a café urges Jemma to return home. The driver ices her out, not wanting to speak of the Duchon place, much less see it.

This Cursed House was unputdownable from the get-go. Continue Reading

Review: Old Monsters Never Die by Tim Waggoner

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 11, 2025April 10, 2025ReviewsChandra Calypool, Old Monsters Never Die, Reviews, Tim Waggoner1 Comment

cover of Old Monsters Never Die Old Monsters Never Die by Tim Waggoner
Winding Road Stories (May 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

“18 provocative tales of terror that explore the darkest corners of the human mind.. concluding with an unforgettable metafictional story on what it takes to be a horror writer.” Yes, please!Continue Reading

Review: The Nightmarchers by J.Lincoln Fenn

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 9, 2025April 5, 2025ReviewsChandra Claypool, J.L. Fenn, Reviews, The NightmarchersLeave a comment

The Nightmarchers by J.Lincoln Fenn
Gallery Books (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

The Nightmarchers is a “bone-chilling novel where a mysterious island holds the terrifying answers to a woman’s past and future.” We start in the past, circa 1939, via journal entries from Irene Greer. We learn that her fall from a waterfall is to try and join her husband and daughter who she believes have “joined the nightmarchers — ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights.”Continue Reading

Review: Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 7, 2025April 5, 2025ReviewsDanielle Valentine, Delicate Condition, Haley Newlin, ReviewsLeave a comment

Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine
Sourcebooks Landmark (August 2023)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Welcome to pregnancy. As you grow your bundle of joy, you’ll experience discomfort. That’s just part of it.

But why?

In Delicate Condition, Danielle Valentine mounds a tower of dread with every dismissive doctor and sacrifice Anna makes for her child, all before she’s pregnant. Early on, this book reminded me of Ira Levine’s Rosemary’s Baby, where the spouse, neighbors, and doctors view the woman more as a vessel than a person. There’s a simplicity in how Valentine conveys this, so familiar, yet still so horrific. Misogyny needs no ghost. Gaslighting needs no demon.Continue Reading

Review: The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 2, 2025March 30, 2025ReviewsCassandra Khaw, Haley Newlin, Reviews, The Salt Grows HeavyLeave a comment

cover of The Salt Grows Heavy The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Tor Nightfire (May 2023)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Cassandra Khaw is known for their evocative prose, intensely dark and stunning worlds, masterful acts blending genres and lines of reality and fiction, and humans and monsters. In their fantasy-horror novella, The Salt Grows Heavy, a mermaid’s daughters unleash death upon the kingdom. Bodies line the streets, stacked in towering piles. They’ve gorged themselves on townspeople.Continue Reading

Review: Model Home by Rivers Solomon

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 31, 2025March 30, 2025ReviewsChandra Claypool, Model Home, Reviews, Rivers SolomonLeave a comment

cover of Model Home Model Home by Rivers Solomon
MCD (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

I don’t even know where to start with this one! I decided to go with audio on this one and I’m glad I did as the narrator, Gabby Beans, was FANTASTIC. As the first sentence of the synopsis states: “Welcome to Rivers Solomon’s dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel.” And that, it surely is!

“Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.”Continue Reading

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