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Review: Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse by Christopher ~cliff~ Reichard

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 20, 2023March 18, 2023Reviews, The Comic VaultAngels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse, Christopher ~cliff~ Reichard, Columns, Joshua Gage, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse by Christopher ~cliff~ Reichard
Self-Published via Kickstarter
191 pages; $21.99 hardcover
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Chris ~cliff~ Reichard is the writer and creator of the Angels of Hell comic book and poetry series. Their dark writing style has been influenced by various horror, Gothic and religious media that has only been darkened further from the worldly experience of being a combat veteran and a social activist. They successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign to get the comic series started. Chris is a simply, complicated person that lives and breathes in his Midwest American roots, the Greater St. Louis area of Missouri. Their newest collection is Angels of Hell: Poetic Tales of the Apocalypse. Continue Reading

Review: Sister, Maiden, Monster, by Lucy A. Snyder

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 15, 2023March 12, 2023ReviewsAnton Cancre, Lucy A. Snyder, Reviews, Sister Maiden MonsterLeave a comment

cover of Sister, Maiden, Monster Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder
Tor Nightfire (February 2023)
272 pages; $14.99 paperback; $12.99 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

Admittedly, I’m a Lucy Snyder fan. Ecstatically so. Still, I’ve been found wanting of her longer fiction for awhile now. Thankfully, I now have Sister, Maiden, Monster to shove into my brainmeat.

A new virus has found itself among and within humanity. It changes us in ways we don’t really understand. We follow three women, Erin, Savanna, and Mareva as they find their place in this new world of murder, brain devouring, and grotesque teratomas. Unfortunately, there isn’t much more I can say without giving away the fun.Continue Reading

Review: What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 13, 2023March 12, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Kate Alice Marshall, Reviews, What Lies in the WoodsLeave a comment

What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Flat Iron Books (January 2023)
336 pages; $26.09 Hardcover, e-book $14.99
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Little girls follow adventure. There’s a wilderness to them, as Kate Alice says in What Lies In The Woods. The local woods was the heart of Naomi, Cass, and Olivia’s childhood fantasies…and nightmares. Among the trees, they created a mystical game, “The Goddess Game,” which guided their lives, fate, and friendship. It was their secret, one they only shared with someone who could never speak the truth. Continue Reading

Review: Dead Dudes by Christopher Sebela and Ben Sears

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 10, 2023March 5, 2023Reviews, The Comic VaultBen Sears, Christopher Sebela, Columns, Dead Dudes, Joshua Gage, Oni Press, Reviews, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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cover of dead dudes Dead Dudes written by Christopher Sebela, illustrated by Ben Sears, colored by Ryan Hill and Warren Wucinich, lettered by Crank!
Oni Press (September 2020)
126 pages; $19.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Trev, Kent, and Brian, collectively known as Ghostbros, are three struggling television paranormal investigators. Their show is about to be cancelled due to low ratings. Their competitors, Parawarriors, are stealing their audience with their new gadgets and their ability to not just investigate ghosts, but actually fight them. To save their show, Trev forces Kent and Brian to go to the most haunted place he can imagine: Edgeway Penitentiary in rural Montana. The team gets there and, within hours, discover that not only are ghosts real, but they are willing to kill. That’s when the problems really being in the young adult graphic novel, Dead Dudes.Continue Reading

Review: Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films by Nina Nesseth

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 8, 2023March 5, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Nightmare Fuel, Nina Nesseth, ReviewsLeave a comment

Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films by Nina Nesseth
Tor Nightfire (July 2022)
304 pages; $20.49 hardcover, $13.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“Do you like scary movies?”

Ghostface asks this as he stands outside an unsuspecting Casey Becker’s (Drew Barrymore) house. Becker entertains the raspy voice on the other end of the line and plays horror movie trivia. But the game turns deadly when she wrongfully answers Jason Vorhees as the killer in the 1980 slasher film Friday the 13th instead of Mrs. Vorhees.

Cut to Barrymore strung up on a tree in her front yard, disemboweled. And to make it worse, the killer escaped.

Sounds intense, maybe even offensive to some. So that leaves the question: why do we like scary movies? Why subject ourselves to this kind of distress?Continue Reading

Review: Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica by Susan Snyder

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 6, 2023March 5, 2023ReviewsAnton Cancre, Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica, Reviews, Susan SnyderLeave a comment

cover of Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica by Susan Snyder
Madness Heart Press (June 2021)
312 pages; $12.95 Paperback; $4.99 ebook
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

I ADORE SUSAN SNYDER. Like, seriously. My girl has so much personality clawing its way through these pages. You don’t even know.

But, fine. Let’s back up a tick.

Encyclopedia Sharksploitanica is a movie guide book. You know the type. Movies are listed. Reviews are given. Yawn. We’ve been here a thousand times.

What makes the difference here is the abject joy and love Susan has for sharks in general and these stupid movies that have taken up so much video, TV, and streaming space in our consciousness. Have you seen her Sharksploitation Sunday YouTube channel? You should. She is cute and fun and a great time to hang out with while she talks about sharky stuff. This book has all of that same personality and exuberance, but in a more compact and oddly more silly format.Continue Reading

Review: Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 1, 2023February 25, 2023ReviewsDave Simms, Lone Women, Reviews, Victor LaValleLeave a comment

cover of Lone Women by Victor LaValle Lone Women by Victor LaValle
One World (March 28, 2023)
304 pages; $27 hardback; $13.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Some books, special books, have a narrative style that grab the reader by the throat while whispering the words of angels in the ear. When that writing connects with a story so mesmerizing, the result is a reading experience that whisks away the hours.

When attempting to explain the plot of Lone Women, one might find themselves a bit tangled. Victor LaValle has been know to accomplish this before. The Changeling, The Ballad of Black Tom, and The Devil in Silver all exemplify this in stories that meld genres, the fantastic with the grotesque, the beautiful with the grittiest of settings.Continue Reading

Review: Scream Vol. 1: Curse of Carnage by Clay McCleod Chapman and Chris Mooneyham

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 27, 2023February 25, 2023Reviews, The Comic VaultClay McLeod Chapman, Curse of Carnage, Joshua Gage, Marvel Comics, Reviews, Scream, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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cover of Scream Vol. 1: Curse of Carnage

Scream Vol. 1: Curse of Carnage by Clay McCleod Chapman
Marvel (August 25, 2020)
120 pages; $15.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

For those unaware of the Marvel Universe, specifically Earth-616, the Klyntar are a race of conscious symbiotes. While Klyntar are fully sentient creatures, in their natural state they are predators who feed on the darkest emotions of their hosts, compelling their hosts to violence and corrupting them. Scream: Curse of Carnage, written by Clay McCleod Chapman and illustrated by Chris Mooneyham, focuses on one of these symbiotes, Scream, and its host, Andi Benton. For fans of the Marvel Universe, this is a really compelling tale, and for fans of horror, the allusions to classical myth and horror will be entertaining as well.Continue Reading

Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 24, 2023February 23, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Daughter of Doctor MoreauLeave a comment

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Del Rey (Hardcover – July 2022) (Paperback – April 11, 2023)
320 pages; $16.60 hardcover; $18 paperback
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Horror icon Vincent Price once said, “Science is frighteningly impersonal.”

What if the scientist’s work becomes his family, his children, in a way? Some argue this is evolution, a matrimony of a creator and his work. Others argue ethics.

But in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s reimagination of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, Carlota, the doctor’s only daughter, lives in a static and balanced world in the jungles of Yucatan alongside the human-animal hybrids. She is happy to assist her father with his research and befriends most hybrids, but despite the idyllic scope Moreno-Garcia introduces, there’s a lingering dread. Dr. Moreau punishes the hybrids for “losing control,” yet Carola believes her father would never truly harm anyone. He is reclusive and sometimes spends days mourning a lost love. This emotional side, however, is kept behind closed doors and never relayed to others.Continue Reading

Review: Shadowman: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of Criminal Profiling by Ron Franscell

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 22, 2023February 19, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Ron Franscell, Shadowman, True CrimeLeave a comment

Shadowman: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of Criminal Profiling by Ron Franscell
Berkley (March 2022)
304 pages; $23.19 hardcover; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“Assertive, confident women unnerved the UnSub– (…) his emotional reaction had shown, a strong woman might disarm him.” – Ron Franscell

Review: Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower by Ronald J. Murray

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 20, 2023February 19, 2023ReviewsCries to Kill the Corpse Flower, Joshua Gage, Reviews, Ronald J. MurrayLeave a comment

cover of Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower by Ronald J. Murray
Bizarro Pulp Press (June 2020)
64 pages; $12.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Ronald J. Murray is a fiction writer and poet living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His short fiction has appeared in various anthologies. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, he can be found drinking entirely too much coffee and staying awake far too late. His newest dark poetry collection is Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower, a collection of visceral mythic and grisly body horror poetry.Continue Reading

Review: Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 13, 2023February 13, 2023Reviews, Spotlight on Cemetery Dance eBooksDon't Fear the Reaper, Gabriel Hart, Reviews, Stephen Graham JonesLeave a comment

cover of Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
Gallery/Saga Press (February 2023)
464 pages; $23.99 hardcover; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Gabriel Hart

The slasher flick genre, and perhaps horror literature in general, isn’t likely to be the same after Stephen Graham Jones concludes his Indian Lake Trilogy; the way he’s blown it apart and reassembled it, using its well-worn tropes as trap doors to cavernous and kaleidoscopic subplots, rubbing its masked face in its own fake blood without disrespecting its vital primitive idiocy we’re unabashedly attracted to. In fact, Jones has intellectualized a genre many attempt to dismiss as trash, begging the question why so many of us intelligent, inquisitive people can’t stay away from it? The answer is simple: we cannot survive unless we go through something.Continue Reading

Review: Delevan House by Ruthann Jagge and Natasha Sinclair

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 8, 2023February 9, 2023ReviewsDelevan House, Natasha Sinclair, Reviews, Ruthann JaggeLeave a comment

cover of Delevan House Delevan House by Ruthann Jagge and Natasha Sinclair
Independently Published (February 2023)
240 pages; $21.95 hardcover; $14.95 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Folk horror tends to be an intriguing subgenre. It runs deep in our veins and roots in our DNA, no matter what the setting. Collaborative novels are always a mixed bag as the stylistic mix between two minds walks the artistic tightrope.

Yet these two authors forge something special here, as Ruthann Jagge and Natasha Sinclair — the former a Texan/NY hybrid, and the latter hailing from Scotland — have produced a story that is both gorgeous and vicious. The mystery surrounding the story is intoxicating as the question is posed: what is Delevan House? The answer to that is labyrinthine in construction.Continue Reading

Review: Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 6, 2023January 12, 2023Reviews, The Comic VaultColumns, Joshua Gage, Norman Shurtliff, Reviews, Skull Cat and the Curious Castle, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff
IDW Publishing (February 21, 2023)
112 pages; $14.99 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Scully the Cat’s father was injured hunting gold on a mountain, so Scully has to get a job with a local garden crew. His first job is at Le Dark Chateau, a haunted mansion rumored to have a hidden treasure, but it’s protected by unknown evil. When Scully’s new crew goes missing and he catches the lady of the manor drinking red liquid from a mug, surely she has murdered everyone and is drinking their blood! Will he have the same courage as his father? Will he find the treasure of Le Dark Chateau, or will he find a different type of treasure, instead?Continue Reading

Review: This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 1, 2023January 29, 2023ReviewsCaitlin Marceau, Haley Newlin, Reviews, This is Where We Talk Things OutLeave a comment

This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau
Dark Lit Press (September 2022)
114 pages; paperback $13.00; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Imagine that every event in your life is unwound, beaten down to bones, and restructured from top to bottom. The funereal routine repeats again and again until you can’t tell your truth from the rescript. That’s how life was for Miller — growing up with a narcissistic mother who was MIA most of the time and emotionally manipulative whenever present. Continue Reading

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