Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Down The Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi by Susan Hendricks

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 16, 2025May 12, 2025ReviewsDown the Hill, Haley Newlin, Reviews, Susan HendricksLeave a comment

cover of Down the Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi Down The Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi by Susan Hendricks
Hachette Books (September 2023)
288 pages; $19.58 hardcover; $15.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

As a child, I spent summers in Delphi, Indiana. I remember sycamores and cottonwood trees climbing the blue sky and the churn of gravel as we sipped on McDonald’s sweet teas, approaching “the farm.”

Reading Down The Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi was nostalgic, hopeful, and tragic. I naively believed McDonald’s sweet tea and car rides through the small town were unique to my childhood. But I was wrong. Many kids in Delphi did the same — like 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German on the day they disappeared. Continue Reading

Review: Hospital of Haunts edited by Heather Daughrity

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 14, 2025May 12, 2025ReviewsHeather Daughrity, Hospital of Haunts, Reviews, Rowan B. MinorLeave a comment

cover of Hospital of Haunts — Version 1.0.0

Hospital of Haunts edited by Heather Daughrity
Watertower Hill Publishing (October 2024)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Hospital of Haunts, edited by Heather Daughrity, is the second installment in a unique horror anthology series. The first book in this series focuses on a haunted house; the current book is set in a hospital; and the forthcoming installment will be in a hotel. Although part of a series, these books also stand alone as individual anthologies. Hospital of Haunts includes twenty-three stories by twenty-three authors. All stories in this book were written for and are set in Lychhurst, a fictional hospital set in the mountains of West Virginia, and are sectioned off into different “triage levels.” Not only does Hospital of Haunts include interactive passages that break the fourth wall, but readers get floor plans and a history of the hospital as well. Continue Reading

Review: The Harrowing Game by Antoine Revoy

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 13, 2025May 12, 2025The Comic VaultAntoine Revoy, Columns, Joshua Gage, Reviews, The Comic Vault, The Harrowing GameLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

The Harrowing Game by Antoine Revoy
23rd St. (May 27, 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Antoine Revoy is an award-winning French writer, artist and designer, raised in Tokyo, Japan and Mexico City, Mexico. Revoy has created illustrations for clients such as The New York Times, Der Spiegel and Harvard University. He teaches visual storytelling and comics-making courses at the Rhode Island School of Design and is a thesis mentor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Revoy lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife, author-illustrator Kelly Murphy, and their many animal companions. His newest graphic novel is The Harrowing Game.Continue Reading

Dead Trees: Cold Blood

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 9, 2025April 26, 2025Dead TreesCold Blood, Columns, Dead Trees, Mark Sieber, Richard ChizmarLeave a comment

banner reading Dead Trees by Mark Sieber

Horror didn’t die in the nineties. It pulled back its reins, regrouped, and emerged as something different than we had in the eighties.

The market was flooded with weak product that eclipsed the truly worthy books being published. Those inferior books have ironically become more valuable collector’s items than most of the better titles of the time.Continue Reading

Review: Haint Country: Dark Folktales from the Hills and Hollers edited by Matthew R. Sparks and Olivia Sizemore

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 7, 2025April 26, 2025ReviewsHaint Country, Matthew Sparks, Olivia Sizemore, Reviews, Rowan B. MinorLeave a comment

Haint Country: Dark Folktales from the Hills and Hollers edited by Matthew R. Sparks and Olivia Sizemore
University Press of Kentucky (October 2024)
Reviewed by Rowan B. Minor

Haint Country: Dark Folktales from the Hills and Hollers is a new book of over 50 chilling short stories adapted, collected, and edited by Matthew R. Sparks and Olivia Sizemore. These local legends center around haints, boogers, UFOs, and supernatural happenings within the Appalachian region. Separated into five sections, the otherworldly retellings in Haint Country are accompanied by unsettling watercolor illustrations by co-author Olivia Sizemore. These beautifully eerie designs are reminiscent of those by Stephen Gammell in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the legends and lore will remind you of an adult version of the Short and Shivery series. Haint Country also corrects misinformation and harmful stereotypes about rural folklore and Appalachia as a whole. Authors Sparks and Sizemore have expanded the traditions within Appalachian storytelling and invite their audience to participate in its culture. Continue Reading

Review: Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 5, 2025April 26, 2025ReviewsAnanda Lima, Chandra Claypool, Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima
Tor Books (June 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)

Imaging meeting the Devil at a bar and they convince you that you’re kindred spirits because you both crave stories and you’re just drunk and heartbroken enough to let them in. This book has a unique format in that there’s stories within the main story. We follow the main character and her several encounters with the Devil as we get a peek into the stories she is writing for them. I absolutely love the cover for this as it shows this concept so well.Continue Reading

Exclusive Preview: Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 2, 2025April 21, 2025The Comic VaultFantagraphics, Lost Marvels, marvel, Preview, The Comic Vault, Tower of ShadowsLeave a comment

banner that reads The Comic Vault

cover of Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows The Tower of Shadows anthology series from 1969, which includes the work of such comics bigwigs as Stan Lee, Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson and more, is being published by Marvel and Fantagraphics together as Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows on April 29. Cemetery Dance gets to show this exclusive preview of Gary Friedrich and George Tuska’s story. And don’t forget to check out the following Lost Marvels volumes:

Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle
Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales

These will be out in July and November, respectively.Continue Reading

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

FREE email updates!

Categories