It was early 2006. Before Instagram. Before Goodreads. Horror fiction fandom was a very different thing than it is today. I had been heavily involved in message board moderation, and extraordinarily successful at it, but I wanted something more.Continue Reading
Dead Air: The Company of the Mad – The Stand Podcast
2020 was a hell of a year to be reading Stephen King’s 1978 novel, The Stand….never mind devoting an entire podcast to it.
Jason Sechrest thought the same thing — in fact, he was reading it when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. He took to Twitter with his thoughts about the book, and with a dream about examining it in detail in a podcast, and before he knew it he’d assembled an amazing lineup of co-hosts: director Mike Flanagan, author Tananarive Due, and journalist/author Anthony Breznican. The result is a six-episode podcast that is entertaining, informative, and incredibly timely. (You can WATCH The Company of the Mad: The Stand Podcast at TheStandPodcast.com, or LISTEN on Apple Podcasts here.)
With the final episode set to go live on January 20, Sechrest took a few moments to talk to Cemetery Dance about the origins of the project, and what he and his mad company learned along the way.Continue Reading
Dead Air: Unboxing Jeff Terry

I was waiting on my copy of the Gift Edition of The Shining from the Cemetery Dance “Stephen King Doubleday Years Set” to arrive, so I thought I’d search for some unboxing videos so I could see what people thought about it — and to get a closer look at the finished product. One of the first ones I found was by a guy named Jeff Terry.
I hit the play button, and was greeted by some dude in what appeared to be a basement. The wall behind him was of grey brick, and a poster of Pennywise the Dancing Clown leered over the guy’s shoulder. The guy was wearing a black jacket, a set of enormous skull rings, and had a skull-shaped bottle of liquor on the table in front of him. He talked for a minute or two, and then proceeded to open the box containing the book, using one of the biggest damn knives I’ve ever seen.
I was hooked.Continue Reading
Review: Velocities by Kathe Koja
Velocities by Kathe Koja
Meerkat Press (April 2020)
200 pages; $13.69 paperback; $7.49 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Kathe Koja has long been regarded as one of the true artists in dark fiction, weaving horror into stories and novels that blur the lines of genres and realities. From her Stoker winning The Cipher back in 1991, she has upended what’s to be expected from the genre. Of course, she’s also diverted on occasion into historical fiction, young adult, suspense, and simply plain weird fiction over the years. In Velocities, some of her best has been collected, ranging from “Pas De Deux” from 1995 to “Urb Civ” from 2019 — a stunning array of styles and stories that, while accessible, reach into surreal corners of our reality and others, almost as if creeping down into the hole in The Cipher itself.Continue Reading
Review: Velveteen and Mandala by Jiro Matsumoto
Velveteen & Mandala by Jiro Matsumoto
Vertical (August 2011)
344 pages; $16.99 paperback; $13.99 digital e-book
Reviewed by Danica Davidson
Velveteen & Mandala opens with a young woman named Velveteen waking up in the crowded tank where she lives. With her is another young woman named Mandala. They live in a dystopian Japan, where fighter planes fly overhead and zombies (called corpses or deadizens) roam. It’s never fully explained how the world came to be this way, though there are some references to how humans have messed up the environment. At any rate, these two young women have a job to do: kill the zombies.Continue Reading
Horror Drive-In: Preserve Our Heritage: Collect Physical Media!
I have a bad habit of thinking that the things I love will always be there. Like drive-in theaters. We had three of them in my hometown. I went as much as I could, but I thought they were forever. I should have been out there every damned weekend.
It seemed that the cool bookstores would always be there. I had no idea Amazon and their Kindle would tear the guts out of our communities.
It wasn’t that long ago when I used to see great old VHS tapes at the thrift stores. I’ve been buying a lot of genre stuff up as interest in them has risen. Mostly I find later things from the latter half of the ’90s and first half of the 2000 decade.Continue Reading
Review: The Masque of the Red Death (Fine Art Edition) by Edgar Allan Poe and Steven Archer
The Masque of the Red Death (Fine Art Edition) by Edgar Allan Poe and Steven Archer
Raw Dog Screaming Press (January 13, 2021)
72 pages; $26.95 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Anton Cancre
I know what you are thinking: we can all get this story for free. At the very least, we can get it in a collection with plenty of other stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. Why would anyone want to pay $27?Continue Reading
Review: Last Case at Baggage Auction by Eric J. Guignard
Last Case at Baggage Auction by Eric J. Guignard
Harper Day Books (August 2020)
156 pages; $24.95 hardcover; $9.95 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms
Eric Guignard has fast become one of the most reliable “new” writers in horror and other speculative genres in recent years. His Doorway to the Deadeye and a ultra-cool anthology Pop the Clutch cemented his reputation, not to mention his more academic studies of authors plus the 5 Senses of Horror study/anthology.
Last Case at Baggage Junction is a weird bird but a fine read that demands to be read carefully, although it can easily be devoured in one sitting. Part noir, part horror, it burrows deep into the reader’s psyche as it weaves a deceptive tale that lingers long after the final page.Continue Reading
Submitting books for possible review
If you have a soon-to-be-published book that you’d like to have considered for review on Cemetery Dance Online, you’re on the right page.
(This page is only for books that are already being published that you want us to consider reviewing here on Cemetery Dance Online. This is NOT how you submit manuscripts for publication consideration. )
To have your book considered for review, please contact [email protected] for more information.
Materials cannot be returned and we cannot confirm receipt due to the overwhelming amount of material we receive.
We receive hundreds of review copies every month, and although the editors wish we could review them all, we have a very limited number of slots.
Review: Horror Fiction from Gothic to Post-Modern – Critical Essays edited by Michele Brittany and Nicholas Diak
Horror Fiction from Gothic to Post-Modern – Critical Essays edited by Michele Brittany and Nicholas Diak
McFarland and Company (February 2020)
236 pages; $45 paperback; $20.99 e-book
Reviewed by R.B. Payne
Horror fiction is a popular genre for millions of readers, but are these tales of terror and fear worthy of academic analysis? Of course they are! And, under the sheltering wings of StokerCon®, the Ann Radcliff Academic Conference brings literary scholarship to gruesome and terrifying horror books, comics, art, cinema, music, poetry, television, and video games.Continue Reading
Review: Aftermath of an Industrial Accident by Mike Allen
Aftermath of an Industrial Accident by Mike Allen
Mythic Delirium Books (July 2020)
238 pages, $15.95 Hardcover
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Anyone familiar with horror and dark fantasy knows the name Mike Allen. He’s been a Nebula, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy Award finalist. He’s won three Rhyslings from the SFPA. He’s edited a number of award winning books and anthologies. It’s no surprise, therefore, that his newest collection, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, is an incredible read. This collection of horror and dark fantasy poetry and short fiction needs to be on the shelf of any horror reader.Continue Reading
Review: Behemoth by HP Newquist
Behemoth by HP Newquist
Bloodshot Books (October 2019)
362 pages; paperback $16.99; e-book $3.99
Reviewed by Janelle Janson
Nothing freaks me out but also intrigues me more than a cult. They are just so fascinating. What kind of cult? Is it murderous? Doomsday? Is it polygamist? How do they brainwash people? Or better yet, is it a religious cult with the most insane secret I’ve ever read? Well folks, buckle up because this one is a doozy.Continue Reading
Review: The Cipher by Kathe Koja
The Cipher by Kathe Koja
Meerkat Press (September 15th, 2020)
236 pages; $17.48 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann
There’s kind of this unofficial debate among readers concerning those who enjoy unlikable characters and those who need protagonists to be tolerable in order to invest in their story.
I like despicable, flawed people. I think protagonists should be as varied as the people we encounter in real life. I don’t need to like people in order to emotionally invest in their stories — sometimes, hating them is just as fun as loving them.Continue Reading
Review: Fishing for Dinosaurs by Joe R. Lansdale
Fishing for Dinosaurs by Joe R. Lansdale
Subterranean Press (November 2020)
378 pages; $40 limited edition hardcover; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
In his introduction to this, his latest collection, Joe R. Lansdale writes, “It’s no secret that I like to write a variety of stories in a variety of genres, and my favorite of those is the Lansdale genre.”
Lansdale goes on to explain what that genre is, but all you really need to do to understand the “Lansdale genre” is to read the stories that follow the introduction. Reading these stories is like taking a peek into Lansdale’s mind, a one-of-a-kind universe where cowboys fire six-shooters at Tyrannosaurus Rexes; where apes don space helmets and fly to the moon; where one-eyed space aliens tend bar in an old mining town saloon.Continue Reading
Review: Boinking Bizarro edited by Brian Asman and Danger Slater
Boinking Bizarro edited by Brian Asman and Danger Slater
Death’s Head Press (December 2020)
138 pages; $9.99 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Anton Cancre
Porn parodies. We know ’em. We love ’em. Except maybe Porn of the Dead. I don’t think anyone was asking for someone to go that far with it. Maybe Joe D’Amato. Look, I got a bit sidetracked. Point is: why the heck didn’t anyone think of doing porn parodies of classic literature before now?
Take Autumn Christian’s “The Thottery, by Shirley Jacksoff.” That title alone should print solid gold bricks that fall like rain from its moistened nethers. Or “The Martian Cumsicles by Ray Fatberries (Charles Austin Muir).” And “A Bird Came Up My Walk and I Put It in my Vagina by Emily Getta Dickinson.” That last one deserves an award.
But it isn’t all just the titles. Stories here range from the pure goofball oddity of Max Booth III’s “Tit, by Stephen Kink” to the satire of a satire that is “American Sly-ho by Breast-Eatin Ellis” from our dear friend Jessica McHugh. Then there is the raw heartache and fury we all have come to expect from Betty Rocksteady encapsulated in “Pinnochio’s Big Dick Energy, by Cucko Cuccoldi.” The less said about Johnwayne Comunale’s “The Receiving Tree, by Shell Silversteen” the less prepared for that particular ball of what-did-I-just-experience you will be.
Point is, Boinking Bizarro is exactly what it says on the tin, with just that smidge more to make for a special surprise. I liked it so much that I bought a physical copy just so the pages could get stuck together.