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Review: Sarafina by Philip Fracassi

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 28, 2024August 25, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, Philip Fracassi, Reviews, SarafinaLeave a comment

Sarafina by Phillip Fracassi
Earthling Publications. (September 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

Phillip Fracassi has emerged as a force in horror over the past few years, as his Boys in the Valley rocked the genre, and rightfully so. After a pair of solid follow ups (Gothic and A Child Alone with Strangers), he’s hit another home run with Sarafina.

Review: A Glimpse of Fear: A Small Collection of Short Stories by B.S. Miller

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 26, 2024August 19, 2024ReviewsA Glimpse of Fear, B.S. Miller, Joshua Gage, ReviewsLeave a comment

A Glimpse of Fear: A Small Collection of Short Stories by B.S. Miller
Page Street Publishing (August 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

B.S. Miller is a horror writer and teacher who lives with her husband and children in a somewhat secluded area south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, surrounded by critters, crows, and coyotes. Miller earned her MA in Literature from the University of New Orleans and is a member of the Horror Writers Association. Her newest collection is A Glimpse of Fear, a collection of short stories and two poems, currently available for less than a dollar on Kindle. Continue Reading

Review: Hide: The Graphic Novel by Scott Peterson and Kiersten White

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 21, 2024August 18, 2024Reviews, The Comic VaultHide, Joshua Gage, Kiersten White, Reviews, Scott Peterson, The Comic VaultLeave a comment

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cover of Hide: The Graphic Novel Hide: The Graphic Novel by Scott Peterson and Kiersten White
Ten Speed Graphic (September 2023)
240 pages; $24.95 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning, and critically acclaimed author of many books, including The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, the And I Darken trilogy, the Slayer series, the Camelot Rising trilogy, and her adult debut, Hide. Kiersten lives with her family in San Diego, where they obsessively care for their deeply ambivalent tortoise, Kimberly. Her novel, Hide, was recently adapted to graphic novel format by Scott Peterson. Continue Reading

Review: Through The Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 19, 2024August 18, 2024ReviewsHaley Newlin, Katrina Monroe, Reviews, Through the Midnight DoorLeave a comment

cover of Through the Midnight Door Through The Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe
Poisoned Pen Press (August 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Who doesn’t love a good jump scare? While some dismiss jump cares as a cheap element in horror, others know that those quick, intense scares can set the stage for complete emotional collapse when done well.

Remember the car scene from Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House? It was shocking, memorable, and effective. This scene opened the floodgates of the family’s shared trauma and revealed what the lack of communication has since conjured.

Katrina Monroe’s latest release, Through The Midnight Door, accomplishes this several times.Continue Reading

Review: Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self-Destructions by Maxwell I. Gold

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 14, 2024August 11, 2024ReviewsJoshua Gage, Maxwell I. Gold, Reviews, Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self-DestructionsLeave a comment

cover of Tiny Oblivions Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self-Destructions by Maxwell I. Gold
Raw Dog Screaming Press (August 22, 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American cosmic horror poet and editor, with an extensive body of work comprising over 300 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genre. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies such as Spectral Realms, Weird Tales Magazine, Startling Stories, Space and Time Magazine, Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Chiral Mad 5, and many more. Maxwell’s work has been recognized with multiple nominations including the Eric Hoffer Award, Pushcart Prize, and Bram Stoker Awards. His newest collection of prose poetry is Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self-Destructions.Continue Reading

Review: Drencrom by Hamelin Bird

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 12, 2024August 12, 2024ReviewsDrencrom, Haley Newlin, Hamelin Bird, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Drencrom Drencrom by Hamelin Bird
Piper House (May 2023)
144 pages; $12.95 paperback; $5.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Hamelin Bird’s Drencrom is a graphic and poetic love letter to Lynchian horror and A Clockwork Orange.

Since getting kicked out of her home, Coda has indulged in a hippie-soul existence without much direction. All of that changes when she scours the dark web for an allegedly “mythical” drug called Drencrom, a crimson-colored liquid with unimaginable power. Continue Reading

Review: When You Leave I Disappear by David Niall Wilson

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 7, 2024August 6, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, David Niall WIlson, Reviews, When You Leave I DisappearLeave a comment

When You Leave I Disappear by David Niall Wilson
Shortwave Media (August 20, 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

When can a novella be accurately described as a mindf**k? One can imagine David Niall Wilson arching his fingers and giggling like a cartoon villain, just waiting for readers of When You Leave I Disappear to have their heads explode. It’s likely best as a one-sitting read, but slowing it down accentuates the fine lines and threads which weave their way through this nesting doll of horror mystery. It’s that good.Continue Reading

Review: Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 31, 2024July 30, 2024ReviewsChisel the Bone, Dave Simms, Encyclopocalypse, Renee S. DeCamillis, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Chisel the Bone Chisel the Bone by Renee S. DeCamillis
Encyclopocalypse (July 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

When I first read The Bone Cutters by Renee S. DeCamillis a few years ago, I was impressed by the brutal talent of the author in a way that knocked my psyche out of my comfort zone — in a very cool way.

Now, she returns to that world in a full novel that allows her story to breathe, expand, bleed, and chisel itself into the reader’s primal fears.

Chisel the Bone is beautifully vicious, both in story and writing. Dory, the main character from the novel, returns. She’s damaged from her stay in the mental hospital, but safe from her attackers. Living with a friend who watches her back, she’s almost able to put the nightmares behind her.

The nightmares? A good cult almost always makes a novel fun. DeCamillis does that here with her “Dusters,” a sick group who are addicted to chiseling the bones of their victims. They grind the slivers of bones into a fine dust and, well, snort them like cocaine. Disturbing? Definitely. Yet the story is so much more than that. Dory barely escaped the hospital the first time but burns for revenge. Her friends who helped her stick with her; a father and daughter, both who bring out the best in the main character while becoming strong elements themselves.

On the flip side, there’s a cast of baddies who range from the head doctor who organizes the movement, hoping to grow his movement of dusters, to the addicted and unhinged members both within and outside the hospital.

What resonates here is how the DeCamillis imbues all of her characters with distinct personalities. Each rocks their scenes and punctuates the horror in a way that speaks of a talented hand. The writing is as cutting as the tools the cults utilize. The words dig deep, and her prose is electric. For those expecting “quiet horror,” look elsewhere. This is “loud horror,” if that term actually exists. That doesn’t mean it isn’t quality — it holds plenty, but this is metal in style: beats pumping, staccato rhythms with smooth breakdowns, and lyrics that bounce off the page.

Recommended.

Review: Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 29, 2024July 28, 2024ReviewsDiavola, Haley Newlin, Jennifer Thorne, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Diavola Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
Tor Nightfire (March 2024)
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

In 2022, I reviewed Jennifer Thorne’s debut novel, Lute, a folk horror story compared to Ari Aster’s Midsommar, where the town’s adults were impressively desensitized to occult traditions. (Are you thinking of the murderous ritual for the elderly? I can still see Florence Pugh’s face.) The execution of this element lends itself well to an unnerving mystery and a sense of outrage in Lute that made readers devour the pages and does so, once again, in Thorne’s latest release, Diavola.Continue Reading

Review: Assorted Malignancies by Dale W. Glaser

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 26, 2024July 18, 2024ReviewsAssorted Malignancies, Dale W. Glaser, Joshua Gage, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Assorted Malignancies Assorted Malignancies by Dale W. Glaser
LVP Publishing (June 2023)
234 pages; $20 paperback; $5.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Dale W. Glaser is a lifelong collector, re-teller and occasional inventor of fantasy tales. His lifelong love of written words has manifested as a devotion to the English language almost exclusively, which is probably just as well because if he were to master any of the dead tongues that conceal ancient mysteries and invoke malevolent forces, we’d all be in trouble. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife, their three children, and a rotating roster of pets. Six is a good estimate of how many animals cohabit with the family at any given time. His first book, Assorted Malignancies¸ was recently published and is available.Continue Reading

Review: Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness by Gerri Leen

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 24, 2024July 18, 2024ReviewsGerri Leen, Joshua Gage, Reviews, Unwilling PoemsLeave a comment

Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness by Gerri Leen
Gerri Leen (May 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Gerri Leen spent her childhood and early adult years in the Seattle area but moved to Northern Virginia in the late eighties and has stayed there ever since. She began writing in her forties and credits fanfic over the public school system for teaching her how to punctuate and plot. She prefers writing speculative prose and poetry. She also writes romance under the pen name Kim Strattford. She is a full member of SFWA and HWA. Gerri follows horse racing avidly, is big into single-origin tea, and collects art, focusing on encaustic (especially mixed media) and raku pottery. Her newest collection of poetry is Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness.Continue Reading

Review: The Upwelling by F. Paul Wilson

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 22, 2024July 18, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, F. Paul Wilson, Reviews, The UpwellingLeave a comment

The Upwelling by F. Paul Wilson
Crossroads Press (July 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

F. Paul Wilson has been a grandmaster of horror, thrillers, science fiction, and medical mysteries, but it somehow feels natural when he slips into this mythos that he’s built for decades. Beginning with The Keep, and through the Adversary series, which launched the iconic Repairman Jack series, the tales of the Otherness thread through novels, sometimes peripherally, sometimes head-on.

While recent novels have been entertaining and well-written, it’s in this novel, The Upwelling, that Wilson reclaims the throne of what he has built — awesome storytelling with interesting characters that readers root for and wish for future adventures to enjoy.

Review: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 17, 2024July 16, 2024ReviewsDave Simms, Incidents Around the House, Josh Malerman, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Incidents Around the House — Version 1.0.0

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
Del Rey (June 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

The early buzz about Josh Malerman’s newest novel was high. Yet, an eight-year-old narrator? How is that scary? How could he pull off detailed, intense scenes with a sense of dread through an entire novel? I wish I knew, but all doubts fell by the wayside after a few chapters. Incidents Around the House is a stunning achievement in the most fascinating ways.

Review: Ignited Melodies by Emberly Lily Summers

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 12, 2024July 11, 2024ReviewsEmberly Lily Summers, Ignited Melodies, Joshua Gage, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Ignited Melodies Ignited Melodies by Emberly Lily Summers
Independently Published (March 2021)
128 pages; $7.24 paperback, $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Emberly Lily Summers (Lauren Adele) is native to Baltimore, Maryland, and has been writing for the last ten years. She is a blind author and writes poetry, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. Her debut novel HUNTED: The Immortal’s Kiss cowritten with Luna Nyx Frost is available on Amazon. She has had several poems featured in Maryland’s Best Emerging Poets 2019 by Z Publishing and Fae Thee Well: An Anthology and Rogues and Rebels: An Anthology both published by Dreampunk Press. Her inspiration comes from nature, the fantasy and paranormal literature, classic musicals such as The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked and of course, her favorite music ranging from showtunes to punk rock. Emberly also loves reading about magic, mythology, faeries, witches, and dragons. Her newest collection is Ignited Melodies.Continue Reading

Review: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 10, 2024June 29, 2024ReviewsAll the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker, Dave Simms, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of All the Covers of the Dark All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
Crown (June 2024)
Reviewed by Dave Simms

This novel just might be this year’s Whalefall, a story which defies true categorization but is full of darkness, mystery, and enough emotion to bring a lumberjack to tears.

2024 is shaping up to be even better than last year, which was astounding for dark fiction. Making a best-of list is going to be a tough one, and it’s only July.Continue Reading

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