Review: Daphne Byrne by Laura Marks, Kelley Jones and Michelle Madsen

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cover of the graphic novel Daphne ByrneDaphne Byrne by Laura Marks, Kelley Jones and Michelle Madsen
DC Comics (November 2020)
160 pages; $24.99 hardcover
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

14-year-old Daphne Byrne lives in a world where she doesn’t belong. Her father was the only person who understood her, but he died in a disgraceful way, a way that gives gossips plenty to talk about. This is 1886 in New York, and Daphne’s morbid, literate, precocious personality doesn’t fit well in a time and place where women are expected to be docile and obedient. The other girls at school all make fun of her, so she doesn’t fit in anywhere.Continue Reading

Review: Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner

cover of your turn to suffer by tim waggonerYour Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner
Flame Tree Press (March 2021)
256 pages; $21.74 hardcover; $14.16 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann

Lori suffers from stress-induced migraines. She is enjoying a pain-free day shopping for groceries when she is approached by a woman crowding her personal space. Lori notices the woman has peculiar eyes… a slit instead of a round pupil.

“Confess and atone-or suffer.”Continue Reading

The Cemetery Dance Interview: Max Booth III

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photo of author Max Booth III
Max Booth III

Max Booth III is the editor-in-chief of Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, the managing editor of Dark Moon Digest, and the host of two podcasts: Ghoulish and Castle Rock Radio. He’s the author of We Need to Do Something, Touch the Night, Carnivorous Lunar Activities, and several other novels. Bylines include LitReactor, CrimeReads, the San Antonio Current, Fangoria, and Film 14. Follow him on Twitter (GiveMeYourTeeth) or visit him at TalesFromTheBooth.com. He lives in Texas.Continue Reading

Review: We Need to Do Something by Max Booth III

We Need to Do Something by Max Booth III
Perpetual Motion Machine Press (May 2020)
12cover of we need to do something by max booth III2 pages; $12.95 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Max Booth III is carving a niche out for himself as the king of premises that should not, in any way whatsoever, work. Yet, somehow, he does it. Every frickin’ time. Even with that anthology that every editor on the planet curses him for. I’ll be damned if he doesn’t pull it off again with We Need to Do Something.Continue Reading

Review: Take Your Turn, Teddy by Haley Newlin

cover of Take Your Turn, Teddy by Haley NewlinTake Your Turn Teddy by Haley Newlin
New Degree Press (December 2020)
382 pages; $18.04 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann

Haley Newlin’s Take Your Turn, Teddy is a dark, psychological horror story exploring the manifestations of early childhood trauma. Newlin uses themes of domestic violence, anxiety, and isolation to create a provocative landscape, The Shadow, for her characters to encounter and battle. A disturbing glimpse of how a broken spirit can unleash powerful demons of the soul. Absolutely captivating, I couldn’t put it down.Continue Reading

Exhumed: “Little Precious” and “Anka”

banner reading Exhumed - The Fiction of Cemetery Dance by K. Edwin Fritz

Don’t you hate it when online columnists start a post by explaining why they haven’t posted in a while?

Me too. Me too.

Anyway, here’s a bullet list explaining why I haven’t posted in a while:
2019:

  • Moved
  • New job
  • Had a baby

2020:

  • COVID
  • Moved again
  • Another new job
  • Baby is a toddler now, & as much as I love her, she’s exhausting

So, since it’s obviously been a while…
*checks watch
*frowns
*checks calendar
Eh-heh.
*smiles
…let me remind everyone what this column is all about.Continue Reading

Review: A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng

cover of A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina SngA Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng
Raw Dog Screaming Press (April 2020)
169 pages; $14.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Christina Sng’s collection A Collection of Nightmares won the Bram Stoker award for best poetry collection in 2017. Her follow-up book, A Collection of Dreamscapes, has all the promise of her previous successes. It’s already been listed as one of Reading Vicariously’s Must-Reads from 2020, Tor Nightlife’s Ten Best Horror Poetry Collections of 2020, and Well Read Beard’s Top Five 2020 Poetry Collections, as well as being short listed for the 2021 Stoker Award. Reading the collection, it is obvious why it is receiving so many accolades. It’s a very strong collection of mythic horror poetry that readers will enjoy.Continue Reading

Review: The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard

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cover of The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard

The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard
Iron Circus Comics (February 2021)
320 pages; $18 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Abby Howard is a cartoonist whose interests include dinosaurs, horror, and Spoons, her beautiful cat. She’s been drawing comics since she first discovered there was such thing, eventually putting them online and gaining a following of over 30,000 fans. Her newest collection is The Crossroads at Midnight, a teen horror collection of five short comic stories.Continue Reading

Revelations: Kristi DeMeester

Banner for Revelations, the column written by Kevin Lucia for Cemetery Dance

photo of author Krist DeMeester
Kristi DeMeester

As many of you know, I began this column (almost five years ago, which is a little mind-blowing) with the intention of chronicling the writers who impacted me during a very transitional period in my writing career. Writers who exposed me to new things, new kinds of horrors and writing styles. However, a year or so ago I realized this column should evolve and start featuring newly discovered contemporary writers right alongside the masters of years gone by. The first of these newly discovered writers was Peter Laws. Today’s featured writer is Kristi DeMeester, author of the amazing, beautifully bleak novel Beneath, and the powerful short story collection Everything That’s Underneath.Continue Reading

Chart of Darkness by Kevin Quigley: Surprise In-Stock Limited Edition Already 90% Sold Out!

We’re extremely pleased to announce we’re publishing Chart of Darkness by Kevin Quigley as a “surprise in-stock” Limited Edition, and thanks to the booming market for all things Stephen King, this special edition is already 90% sold out!

About the Book:
Stephen King’s unprecedented career has yielded him more than thirty #1 New York Times bestselling books. He is the only writer to have ever reached the top slot of that list in five different decades. And in 1996, the Times changed their policies regarding bestsellers because King had too many at the same time. But how did it all happen? And why?

From Stephen King expert Kevin Quigley comes a fascinating journey through King’s unprecedented career by way of the charts that helped define it. Chart of Darkness is the first book that navigates King’s popular success through the odd and tempestuous world of The New York Times Bestsellers List.

What was King’s first novel to hit #1? (Hint: It wasn’t Carrie.) What happened when King went up against Harry Potter, and how did the showdown end? How did Joyland break King’s decade-long streak of no #1 paperbacks?

It’s all charted here in a fun, narrative look at the sweep of Stephen King’s amazing body of work!

Cover

Read more and place your order while our supplies last!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!

Review: The Wind in My Heart by Douglas Wynne

cover of The Wind in My Heart by Douglas WynneThe Wind in My Heart by Douglas Wynne
Crystal Lake Publishing (January 2021)
362 pages; $8.75 paperback; e-book $3.99
Reviewed by Janelle Janson

Douglas Wynne’s The Wind in My Heart has a fun premise and is a quick read! This story kept me engaged with its touch of mystery and quirky characters.

Miles Landry is the private detective at Insight Detective Agency. Known around the local bar scene as “Dirty Laundry,” he tends to handle extramarital affairs. Immediately after a scorned woman shows up at his office to teach him a lesson, he receives a call for an unusual job. A Buddhist monk named Jigme Rinpoche wants to hire him to find a former student’s reincarnated soul. A series of murders against gang members have popped up in Chinatown, and he believes this former student is responsible. Even though Landry thinks this monk is wasting his time, he’s curious nonetheless and heads to the temple for the meeting.Continue Reading

Review: There Comes a Midnight Hour by Gary A. Braunbeck

cover of There Comes a Midnight Hour by Gary A. BraunbeckThere Comes a Midnight Hour by Gary Braunbeck
Raw Dog Screaming Press (March 2021)
226 pages; $17.95 paperback; $6.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Gary Braunbeck is back! Many horror and dark fantasy fans have been anticipating this day for a long time. Raw Dog Screaming Press, a stellar entity, rarely misses on producing something special for readers. There Comes a Midnight Hour is one of their greatest achievements, from the stunning (and warped) cover to the arrangement of stories which first grasps the reader by the hand with the apocalyptic “We now pause for station identification” to the stylish closer “Down in darkest Dixie where the dead don’t dance.”Continue Reading

Review: The Writing Life: Reflections, Recollections, and a Lot of Cursing by Jeff Strand

cover of The Writing Life by Jeff StrandThe Writing Life: Reflections, Recollections, and a Lot of Cursing by Jeff Strand
Independently Published (December 2020)
276 pages; $11.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

If you’re a horror writer or even just a Stephen King fan, you’ve probably read his treatise on the writing biz, On Writing, multiple times. And for good reason, because it’s one of the best books on writing there is, imparted in that casual storyteller way only King has mastered. If I were to recommend only three writing books to prospective writers, On Writing would be the first book I’d recommend. A close second would be Zen in the Art of Writing, by the venerable Ray Bradbury.Continue Reading

Review: Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

cover of Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod ChapmanWhisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman
Quirk Books (April 6, 2021)
307 pages; $19.99 hardcover; $11.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

It’s the early 1980s, and Satan is everywhere. He’s lurking in the lyrics of heavy metal music. He’s hiding among the marshmallows in your Lucky Charms. He’s capering through our neighborhoods, our basements, or churches, our schools.

Welcome to the era of Satanic Panic.Continue Reading

Dissonant Harmonies by Bev Vincent and Brian Keene: New Surprise In-Stock Trade Paperback!

Dissonant Harmonies
by Bev Vincent and Brian Keene

New Surprise In-Stock Trade Paperback!

We’re extremely pleased to announce we’re publishing the world’s first trade paperback edition of Dissonant Harmonies by Bev Vincent and Brian Keene, and our copies will be arriving this week, so this is a “surprise in-stock” announcement!

About the Book:
Inspired by specially curated mixtapes, Bev Vincent and Brian Keene present two new spine-chilling novellas…

As a blizzard descends upon the sleepy town of Bayport, Rhode Island, brothers Joey and Frank Shaw investigate the mysterious disappearances of several townsfolk. After the discovery of strange tunnels, tunnels that only Joey can see, the trio suspect something is lurking beneath the snowbound town. Something burrowing. Something hungry. And it looks like Joey might be next in The Dead of Winter.

Did you imagine the world vanishing to a flood or a comet, the hand of God or nuclear war? What if it started with something as innocuous as the Berenstain Bears, and something known as the Mandela Effect? Barricaded in a seedy motel room, one man makes sense of love, loss, and life as the end of the world looms. Do you see what he sees? Do you know what he knows?

Special Note for Readers:
There’s a Spotify playlist featuring many of the songs that inspired this book. The first 24 tracks are the songs Bev Vincent gave to Brian Keene (plus his B-sides), although there are a few substitutions because not all the songs Bev Vincent picked are on Spotify. The last 16 tracks are the ones Brian Keene sent to Bev Vincent.

Cover

Read more and place your order while our supplies last!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and enthusiasm!