Review: Octobertown by Mia Dalia

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 22, 2026October 22, 2026ReviewsDave Simms, Mia DaliaLeave a comment

Octobertown by Mia Dalia
Earthling Publications (October 31, 2026)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

The best month of the year is now here. With that turn of the calendar, readers awaiting Earthling Publications’ Halloween Series are in for a treat.

Octobertown takes place on Halloween, which is the best thing ever, but if one is familiar with Earthling, one thing is certain: no entry is cliché, no story is a boring retread of tired tropes.

Enter Mia Dalia, one of the best talents in the business, a writer who can immerse herself in many styles and genres with ease. She set the novel in a real town in New Jersey, where neighbors on an idyllic street compete to design the best Halloween decorations in the most suburban way possible. Continue Reading

Review: American Crow by Ryan Burruss

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 21, 2026ReviewsJanelle Janson, Ryan BurrussLeave a comment

American Crow by Ryan Burruss
Counterpoint (October 6, 2026)
Reviewed by Janelle Janson

American Crow was such an interesting read, even if it didn’t completely hold me all the way through.

Set in 1952 in Brookshire, Maryland, the story follows a newly built suburb full of World War II veterans and their families. On the surface, it’s the postwar American dream: new houses, families, stability, and a chance to start over. Underneath all of that are people carrying trauma, anger, nightmares, violence, and things they’d much rather keep buried.Continue Reading

Review: This B Just Won’t Die! by Tanya Pell

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 18, 2026ReviewsAdam Allen, Tanya PellLeave a comment

This B Just Won’t Die! by Tanya Pell
Gallery Books (October 13th, 2026)
Reviewed by Adam Allen

Tanya Pell has established herself as a brilliant writer of different types of horror, and with This B Just Won’t Die!, she showcases her mastery of the slasher. This book works as a classic slasher, following the familiar beats but still has twists and surprises that will keep veterans and new readers alike shocked and delighted. Some truly gnarly kills, an iconic villain, and some fantastic set pieces make this an instant classic of the subgenre.Continue Reading

Interview: Kelly McWilliams on American Nightmare, Hidden Figures and Historical Horrors

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 15, 2026October 15, 2026ReviewsHaley Newlin, Kelly McWilliamsLeave a comment

Kelly McWilliams is a mixed-race novelist whose work examines white passing, American history, and the uncanny. She is also the author of several acclaimed novels for young adults, including Mirror Girls, a Junior Library Guild Selection. American Nightmare is her adult fiction debut. She lives in Seattle with her family. You can connect with her on Instagram – @kellymmcwilliams.

Kelly McWilliams (photo credit: Bill Mullen)

McWilliams sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss American Nightmare, hidden figure, Walter F. White, and historical horrors. Continue Reading

Review: American Nightmare by Kelly McWilliams

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 15, 2026ReviewsHaley Newlin, Kelly McWilliamsLeave a comment

American Nightmare by Kelly McWilliams
Crown (September 15, 2026)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Kelly McWilliams has disrupted my prematurely curated list of top reads of the year. In fact, American Nightmare is in the running for the number-one spot, alongside Markus Redmond’s Blood Slaves, Tamika Thompson’s The Curse of Hester Gardens, and Del Sandeen’s These Walls Remember. Continue Reading

Review: Incarnate by Alma Katsu

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 9, 2026October 6, 2026ReviewsAlma Katsu, Dave SimmsLeave a comment

Incarnate by Alma Katsu
G.P. Putnam’s (Sept. 2026)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

AI – there’s no bigger concept in publishing right now, and the evils of it keep growing. Writers are having their work stolen, chewed up, and spit out something terrible. Leave it to Alma Katsu to spin a tale that absorbs the current issue and births something unique, yet still relevant to the classics.

Incarnate combines body horror with AI along with the wondrously saccharine world of influencers. What makes a Katsu novel different is that she never writes in the same realm twice (well, other than her dark fantasy/horror trilogy that jump-started her career). Continue Reading

Bev Vincent explores Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Bev VincentOctober 6, 2026Reviews, Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Black House, News from the Dead Zone, Other Worlds than These, Reviews, Stephen King, Stephen King News, The TalismanLeave a comment

I See What You Did There

There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” It’s also the thematic statement used by the British documentary series that began with Seven Up!

While we know some things about Jack Sawyer from when he was seven, we first really got to know him when he was twelve, in 1981. We spent a few exciting months with him that fall/winter, ending with his thirteenth birthday.

Review: How to Escape a Tiger Cult by Briana Morgan

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 1, 2026ReviewsBriana Morgan, Chandra ClaypoolLeave a comment

How to Escape a Tiger Cult by Briana Morgan
Independently Published (October 6, 2026)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool

Remember all the rage of Tiger King during the pandemic? I certainly watched it and was fascinated by the entirety of this weird industry. Then I learned about Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, a figure from Tiger King who ended up with his own documentary because of his isolated, manipulative, cult-like tendencies at his wildlife park. Obviously, when given the opportunity to read How to Escape a Tiger Cult, it was an automatic YES. Plus, it is Briana Morgan, and I’ve loved her other work so win-win!
Continue Reading

Review: Worry Box by Chris Panatier

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 29, 2026ReviewsAbby Wolf, Chris PanatierLeave a comment

Worry Box by Chris Panatier
Angry Robot (September 2026)
Reviewed by Abby Wolf

There is something notably cruel about a haunted house story when the house is not the only thing the characters have to fear. Chris Panatier’s (Daytide, The Redemption of Morgan Bright) Worry Box shows us that the scariest monsters don’t always break down the door. Sometimes they live inside your head. Sometimes they are the things you are afraid you might do. And, maybe, the place you call home is listening.Continue Reading

Review: Nightjars by Michael Wehunt

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 24, 2026September 23, 2026ReviewsBriana Morgan, Michael WehuntLeave a comment

Nightjars by Michael Wehunt
St. Martin’s Press (September 29, 2026)
Reviewed by Briana Morgan

“Does the nightjar remember the night?”

Michael Wehunt has become an auto-buy author for me. Fans of his previous release, The October Film Haunt, will be thrilled to hear that Nightjars also features found-footage elements, this time in the form of terrifying photographs.Continue Reading

Review: Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 23, 2026ReviewsAdam Allen, Deena HelmLeave a comment

Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm
Tor Nightfire (September 22nd, 2026)
Reviewed by Adam Allen

Our Cut of Salt marks the debut of a fierce new voice in literary horror. This is not only one of the best horror novels of the year, but one of the best books you’ll ever read. It is haunting, tragic, very entertaining, and it will make you do the most important things a book can do: think and feel. Horror is the genre that looks at the world and asks why, digs deeper, and doesn’t turn away from the darkness. Deena Helm’s debut is a brilliant example of how much can be accomplished by a horror novel.Continue Reading

Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 17, 2026September 16, 2026ReviewsAlex Grass, Danica DavidsonLeave a comment

Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass
Dickinson Publishing Group (July 2026)
Reviewed by Danica Davidson

Infernal Tramps is a fascinating, morbid, and hallucinatory collection of seventeen short stories. Reading them is a bit like reading something that combines nightmares, surrealist paintings, and an extra shot of weirdness, all into a cocktail of well-written, genre-defying tales of horror. Continue Reading

Review: Ghost in the Grove by Frank Reddy

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 16, 2026ReviewsAdam Allen, Frank ReddyLeave a comment

Ghost in the Grove by Frank Reddy
Shadeland House Modern Press (July 14th, 2026)
Reviewed by Adam Allen

If you enjoy your horrors filled with sweltering heat, religious frenzy, and generational trauma, Frank Reddy has created a Southern Gothic that fits perfectly on the shelf alongside Flannery O’Connor and Del Sandeen. This is a book that seeps into your consciousness, presenting a mystery that brings in all of the things that fascinate us about the genre. Swamps, Antebellum estates, and horror that echoes through decades all converge into one deeply disturbing and mesmerizing novel that is a true must-read.

Review: Poems to Be Afraid of by Pixie Bruner

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 12, 2026ReviewsJoshua Gage, Pixie BrunerLeave a comment

Poems to Be Afraid Of by Pixie Bruner
Authortunities Press (September 3, 2026)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Poems to Be Afraid Of is a detailed exploration of fear and phobia. Each poem is dedicated to one type of fear, detailing those fears intimately and artfully, forcing the reader to be as afraid as the speakers of these poems are. Some of these are simple detailing of lists, such as in the Chroma series.

Chroma 9 (8.1) begins with the lines:

The endless dark mouth of the sky

the interstices on the pool deck

where no light can pry beams down into.

Bituminous asphalt, sulfured night terrors,

Rottweilers and labs, sleek shadow cats

that absorb sunlight like event horizons. Continue Reading

Review: Blood Rising (The Blood Saga #2) by Markus Redmond

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 8, 2026September 8, 2026ReviewsHaley Newlin, Markus RedmondLeave a comment

Blood Rising (The Blood Saga #2) by Markus Redmond
Dafina (August 2026)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“If Blood Slaves is about the cost of freedom, Blood Rising is about the cost of power.”

Markus Redmond introduces both installments of the Blood Saga with a letter to the readers. In the Blood Slaves opening, Redmond describes wanting to write a “badass vampire book,” which was what he was in the middle of writing in May 2020, right before George Floyd was murdered. And while Floyd’s murder was tragic, Redmond reminds us that it was not a new or unique occurrence. This kind of violence, with little to no consequence, has been happening since slavery in colonial America.

Feeling infuriated and powerless, Redmond returned to his vampire book, wishing he could be one, imagining how that kind of power could right so much wrong, unleash revenge, settle scores, and change culture, society, and history. That’s when the author’s vampire book became something more. That’s when it became Blood Slaves, and much to this reader’s delight, the Blood Saga.Continue Reading

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