Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls by Adam Bolivar

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 5, 2025September 8, 2025ReviewsAdam Bolivar, Joshua Gage, poetry, Reviews, Tales by FirelightLeave a comment

Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls by Adam Bolivar
Jackanapes Press (September 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Adam Bolivar is the author of The Lay of Old Hex (Hippocampus Press, 2017), The Ettinfell of Beacon Hill (Jackanapes Press, 2021), Ballads for the Witching Hour (Hippocampus Press 2022), and A Wheel of Ravens (Jackanapes Press, 2023). A marionette-maker as well, he has written a multitude of original puppet-plays which have been performed in a wide variety of peculiar venues. A native of gambrel-roofed Boston, Massachusetts, he currently resides in the gloomy dreamlands of Portland, Oregon with his golden-haired wife and son. His newest collection is Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls. Continue Reading

Review: Moonflow by Bitter Karella

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 2, 2025August 31, 2025ReviewsBitter Karella, Elizabeth Broadbent, Moonflow, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Moonflow Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Run For It (September 2, 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Among other things, Bitter Karella’s Moonflow promises “fungus gods, trans feels, haunted forests, weird rituals, lesbian hippies, fat sex, humongous gahungawungas, and raccoons.” It certainly delivers. Moonflow is a magnificently queer magical mystery trip into the darkly bizarre heart of Pamogo Forest. A psychedelic-fueled, rainbow trip of a novel, this book is everything you’d hope for from Bitter Karella: wickedly funny, bracingly bizarre, frequently off-color, and yet, somehow, heartfelt. Continue Reading

Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #242

Bev VincentSeptember 1, 2025August 31, 2025Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Columns, Hansel and Gretel, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, the end of the world as we know it, The End Times, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Institute, The Long Walk, The Running Man, The Stand, Welcome to DerryLeave a comment

A new book! A NY Times bestselling anthology inspired by The Stand! Two feature films coming before the end of the year, along with a streaming series! A new Talisman novel! Another collaboration forthcoming! A miniseries renewed for a second season! New interviews, including a Reddit AMA! Buckle up!

Interview: Breathing In, Bleeding Out with Brian McAuley

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 28, 2025August 21, 2025InterviewsBreath In Bleed Out, Brian McAuley, Haley Newlin, InterviewsLeave a comment

photo of author Brian McAuley — Brian McAuley

Brian McAuley is a WGA screenwriter and HWA author. His debut novel, Curse of the Reaper, was named one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of 2022. His novellas, Candy Cain Kills and Candy Cain Kills Again: The Second Slaying, are essential holiday horror reads and dubbed “A masterclass in slasher fiction” by FanFiAddict. This fall, McAuley returns with a bloody-good slasher called Breathe In, Bleed Out.

McAuley’s upcoming novel has already garnered praise from some of the biggest names in Horror. Upon reading Breathe In, Bleed Out, Nat Cassidy, author of When The Wolf Comes Home and Mary: An Awakening of Terror, said McAuley is “the crown prince of slasher literature.” Continue Reading

Review: Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 27, 2025August 21, 2025ReviewsBreathe In Bleed Out, Brian McAuley, Haley Newlin, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Breathe In, Bleed Out Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley
Poison Pen Press (September 2, 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Brian McAuley’s slasher novel Breathe In, Bleed Out is an absolute scream and an instant classic.

In this fast-paced and shocking horror novel, Hannah, a woman haunted by the ghosts of grief, and her friends are invited to a secluded healing retreat in the desert. With constant nightmares and a drug dependency, Hannah thinks this trip could be just what she needs: a chance to heal.Continue Reading

Bev Vincent reviews Wreckage, Peter Straub’s final, unfinished novel

Bev VincentAugust 25, 2025August 21, 2025ReviewsA Dark Matter, Hello Jack, Henry James, Peter Straub, The Process (is a Process All its Own), WreckageLeave a comment

The Gathered Hayward Clan

Reviewed by Bev Vincent

The appearance of a new Peter Straub novel has always been a cause for celebration. During his 50-year career, he published only seventeen others, including two co-written with Stephen King, and there were several lengthy gaps between books. Even though Wreckage is incomplete, it represents a major addition to his oeuvre.Continue Reading

Review: Come What May by Lindsey Goddard and Suzie Lockhart

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 22, 2025August 17, 2025ReviewsCome What May, Joshua Gage, Lindsey Goddard, Reviews, Suzie LockhartLeave a comment

Come What May by Lindsey Goddard and Suzie Lockhart
Independently Published (July 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Convinced she was destined to be an artist, Suzie Lockhart attended The Art Institute of Pittsburgh after graduating high school, but the gnawing urge to write continued to challenge her. Originally, her desire was to write romance novels, but after discovering the innate ability to tell chilling tales, Suzie embraced her inner creepiness. Her middle son, Bruce, realized the same passion for the macabre, so it was a natural progression to team up. Over a decade later, they have published enough short stories that they can no longer remember all of them! Co-author Lindsey Goddard is an author of dark fiction, poetry, and true crime, living in Missouri, whose short stories have been published in e-zines such as Gamut Magazine and Carnage House, as well as in anthologies such as Error Code (Riverfolk Books). Her work has been performed on popular podcasts like Creepy Podcast and Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. She is the author of four short story collections, two poetry books, and a novel, Ashes of Another Life. Their newest collection is Come What May, a collection of short stories and poems. Continue Reading

Nat Cassidy on When the Wolf Comes Home

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 19, 2025August 10, 2025InterviewsHaley Newlin, Interviews, Nat Cassidy, When the Wolf Comes HomeLeave a comment

photo of author Nat Cassidy Nat Cassidy is a USA Today bestselling horror author. He’s received wide acclaim for his work, including his supernatural, perimenopausal horror novel, Mary: An Awakening of Terror, and his Bram Stoker-nominated contemporary horror novella, Rest Stop, that explores historical trauma and reads like a bloody slasher leaping from the page.

He was named one of the “writers shaping horror’s next golden age” by Esquire and his recent release, When The Wolf Comes Home, has been praised by THE KING of horror, Stephen King, who said:“It’s terrific…a classic.”

Cassidy is infamous for bringing the angst and dread, but especially the feels, and his fairytale-inspired horror novel, When The Wolf Comes Home promises all of that and more.

You can find the author on Instagram and TikTok – @catnassidy and on his website.Continue Reading

Review: When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 18, 2025August 10, 2025ReviewsHaley Newlin, Nat Cassidy, Reviews, When the Wolf Comes HomeLeave a comment

cover of When the Wolf Comes Home When The Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
Tor Nightfire (April 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

After reading Mary: An Awakening of Terror, I swore Nat Cassidy had written his magnum opus, not realizing it was his debut novel. And then I read Rest Stop from Shortwave, which is absolutely stellar with its exploration of historical trauma and triggers amongst the political state of things. And it was UNHINGED. So, I was certain that the novella was my new favorite. But, man, Cassidy came to the plate swinging with When The Wolf Comes Home and he knocked it out of the park. In his fairytale-inspired story Cassidy once again proves he’s one of the strongest voices in modern horror. His work is thoughtful, compelling, and fiercely chaotic as hell. I will devour EVERYTHING this man writes.Continue Reading

Review: The Invisible Woman By James P. Blaylock

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 15, 2025August 10, 2025ReviewsJames P. Blaylock, PS Publishing, Reviews, The Invisible Woman, W.D. GaglianiLeave a comment

The Invisible Woman By James P. Blaylock
PS Publishing (February 2025)
Review by W.D. Gagliani

Because The Invisible Woman is a sequel to James P. Blaylock’s Pennies From Heaven (2023), I’ll first need to weave some threads from a review of that novel here.

If you are already a fan you know Blaylock was one of the pioneers of the Steampunk genre (along with Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter) and later produced a notable series of unrelated “California Gothics.” Anyone who hasn’t read, at the very least, Homunculus, Lord Kelvin’s Machine (and the related St. Ives steampunky adventures), The Digging Leviathan, The Last Coin, The Paper Grail, Knights of the Cornerstone, All the Bells on Earth, and especially Night Relics, The Rainy Season, and Winter Tides, should go and do so right now. These novels form the backbone of his corner of the fantasy field, the one that’s magic realism, fantasy, horror, and SF adjacent. Because they have given me much pleasure over these many years, I confess to some bias up-front.Continue Reading

Daphne Fama talks Monstrous Women

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 12, 2025August 10, 2025InterviewsDaphne Fama, Haley Newlin, House of Monstrous Women, InterviewsLeave a comment

photo of author Daphne Fama — Daphne Fama

Daphne Fama’s gothic debut, House of Monstrous Women, is rich with Filipino folklore, female rage, ritual cannibalism, and matriarchal horror. It has been described as Silva Moreno-Garcia’s infamous novel Mexican Gothic — which this interviewer agrees solely based on the brilliant execution of the theme of generational trauma — meets the campy horror film Ready or Not, starring Samara Weaving.

When she’s not writing about monsters and the women who love them, she’s writing about video games or adoring her partner and pup. Her favorite horror games are the Fatal Frame series (minus Maiden of Black Water) and Silent Hill. She loves found footage and folklore drenched horror movies.

Fama’s social media is a celebration and dissection of Filipino folklore including the aswang — an umbrella term that refers to a wide array of monsters, from vampire-like creatures to shapeshifters. These entities became the key inspiration for House of Monstrous Women. You can find her on Instagram at @daphnefamawrites.Continue Reading

Review: House of Monstrous Women by Daphne Fama

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 11, 2025August 10, 2025ReviewsDaphne Fama, Haley Newlin, House of Monstrous Women, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of House of Monstrous Women House of Monstrous Women by Daphne Fama
Berkley (August 12, 2025)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Every culture has a boogeyman, a shapeless entity that eats children, such as El Cuco in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, or a shadowy, witch-like figure that eats and imprisons children, like Baba Yaga in Russia, Iraq, and Syria. In Daphne Fama’s Filipino Folk and Gothic Horror novel, House of Monstrous Women, it’s the aswang. Some declare the aswang monsters; others say they were people cursed “with a vicious hunger” and “who spent their lives like wolves cloaked in the fleece of lamb.”Continue Reading

Night Time Logic with Joshua Rex

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 8, 2025August 3, 2025Night Time LogicColumns, Daniel Braum, Interviews, Joshua Rex, Night Time LogicLeave a comment

Night Time Logic with Daniel Braum

“Ghost Stories,” “Haunted Victorian America,” and “Historical Fiction”

cover of Haunted Victorian America 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 November 2025.

In June 2025, Joshua Rex was one of my guests as part of the Summer of Liminal Space series. You can hear him in conversation with the panelists as well as hear him read his story “The Caretaker” here.

We began our conversation here with a question about Joshua’s work as a historian.Continue Reading

The Comic Vault: Simon Bournel-Bosson’s Trumpets of Death

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 7, 2025August 5, 2025The Comic VaultColumns, Danica Davidson, Interviews, Previews, Simon Bournel-Bosson, The Comic Vault, Trumpets of DeathLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

cover of Trumpets of Death French creator Simon Bournel-Bosson, who has a background in graphic design and artistic creation, is releasing his first comic book in America, Trumpets of Death. Trumpets of Death is about the conflicts that continue to cycle through generations as well as the broken connection people have with the world around us. Bournel-Bosson spoke to Cemetery Dance about his inspiration, why he likes magical realism, and what he hopes readers take away from his work.

(Interview conducted by Danica Davidson)Continue Reading

Review: October Dark by Ron Terranova

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 6, 2025August 5, 2025ReviewsOctober Dark, Reviews, Ron Terranova, Rowan B. MinorLeave a comment

October Dark by Ron Terranova
Outskirts Press (July 2024)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Ron Terranova is a writer of novels, short stories, and poetry from Huntington Beach, California. His work has been published in Chiron Review, and he is author of two novels: The Red Wing Chronicles and I, Polyphemus. Terranova’s most recent book, October Dark, is a book of short horror stories that center around nihilism, dark noir, absurdism, and macabre humor. October Dark, which follows books October Light and October Twilight, is the third book in Terranova’s dark fiction trilogy. The stories in October Dark are 3 to 17 pages long and are all set in the month of October. Continue Reading

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