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Review: ‘Stranded’ by Bracken MacLeod

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 20, 2016ReviewsBracken MacLeod, David Simms, Featured, Reviews, StrandedLeave a comment

Stranded by Bracken MacLeod
Tor Books (October 4, 2016)
304 pages; $24.99 hardcover; $11.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms

Stranded is the kind of book which generates plenty of hype and high expectations—like many others every year. This one delivers on all that’s promised, and more, in a genre-hopping blockbuster which draws immediate comparisons to The Terror, The Thing, and even The Twilight Zone. Strong comparisons, yet in this case, apt words. A tour-de-force of claustrophobic thrills which places the book in the same field as Simmons, Koontz, and Golden.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Savages’ by Greg F. Gifune

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 19, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, Greg F. Gifune, Reviews, Savages, Sinister Grin PressLeave a comment

Savages by Greg F. Gifune
Sinister Grin Press (September 2016)
168 pages; $17.00 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Reminiscent of the pulp fiction stories of the ’30s through the ’50s, or perhaps the B-Movies popular at drive-ins in the ’70s and ’80s, Greg F. Gifune’s new novel, Savages, is every bit as good as the best of those sub-genres. Prior to the start of the book, the author quotes the 1920 film “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”:

A man cannot destroy the savage in him by denying its impulses. The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it…

The story which follows is about a group of friends and acquaintances, shipwrecked, adrift for days, and washed ashore on a seemingly uninhabited island…and that’s the good news.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Hunter of the Dead’ by Stephen Kozeniewski

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 14, 2016ReviewsFeatured, Reviews, Stephen Kozeniewski, The Hunter of the DeadLeave a comment

Hunter of the Dead by Stephen Kozeniewski
Sinister Grin Press (August 2016)
402 pages; $17.59 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Hunter of the Dead is a sprawling, epic tale of vampire houses, the Inquisitors who seek to destroy them, and the one both vampires and Inquisitors fear the most, simply known as The Hunter.

Kozeniewski wastes no time setting the bloody tone for the tale which follows. I have never read anything like this. At times mesmerizing and breathtaking, Hunter of the Dead is every bit as entertaining as The Strain, but dissimilar in many ways. Multiple story-lines are woven together in a complex tapestry of blood and violence. No sparkly vampires here, these undead are definitely hardcore.Continue Reading

Review: ‘They Say a Girl Died Here Once’ by Sarah Pinborough

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 13, 2016ReviewsBlu Gilliand, Earthling Publications, Halloween Series, Sarah Pinborough, They Say a Girl Died Here OnceLeave a comment

They_Say_a_Girl_Died_Here_Once_by_Sarah_Pinborough They Say a Girl Died Here Once by Sarah Pinborough
Earthling Publications (October 2016)
202 pages; $35 signed & numbered hardcover; $400 lettered edition
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand

Every year for the last 11 years, Earthling Publications has played Santa on our “Horror Christmas,” a/k/a Halloween. Their gift to us each year: a new entry in the Halloween Series, a collection of short novels written by some of the best the horror genre has to offer. We’re talking your Peter Crowthers, your Gary McMahons, your Glen Hirshbergs, your James A. Moores, etc. The cream of the crop.

You’re forgiven if you haven’t heard of this series or read any of them—they are published in extremely limited quantities of 500 copies plus a smaller run of deluxe editions (the series starter—Mr. Dark’s Carnival by Glen Hirshberg—was only offered as a run of 15 handmade hardcovers), so they tend to disappear quickly. I fully expect that to be the case with this year’s entry, They Say a Girl Died Here Once, written by soon-to-be-an-overnight-success Sarah Pinborough.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Stay Crazy’ by Erica L. Satifka

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 12, 2016ReviewsErica L. Satifka, Featured, Reviews, Stay CrazyLeave a comment

Stay Crazy by Erica L. Satifka
Apex Book Company (August 2016)
254 pages; $14.67 paperback; ebook $6.99
Reviewed by Anton Cancre

If you knew that your brain made up its own narrative sometimes, how would you know what to believe? Beset by manipulative self-help gurus, religious cults, corporate brainwashing and other-dimensional beings that might want to destroy our entire universe, you have to decide what you will believe. That’s where we find Em in the course of Stay Crazy.

Warning: This is mostly a character piece. It moves incredibly slow at first while Satifka builds up the character and life of Emmaline Kahlberg. People that want to jump into a book running breakneck right from the start will not be happy. That’s sad, though, because the time spent establishing the day-to-day reality of Em pays off once everything falls off the rails and the crazy promised in the title hits home. The ride from there isn’t what I would call fun, but it’s a hell of a powerful one.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror’

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 7, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Bad Apples 3, Featured, Reviews, Seven Slices of Halloween HorrorLeave a comment

Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror by Various
Corpus Press (August 2016)
242 pages; $14.99 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Halloween is fast approaching. Don’t believe me? Just stop by your local big box store or visit any super drug store. Candy and costumes and decorations are popping up everywhere. Good news is, it’s also time for Halloween anthologies and scary stories to appear on bookshelves and in your news feeds. One such collection is from Evans and Adam Light, co-creators of the Bad Apples anthology series.

Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror is a delicious concoction of tales which are much more fun than bobbing for apples. Plus, you’re much less likely to suffer accidental drowning reading this book, unless you like to read in the tub. Then you’re on your own.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Tales from Valleyview Cemetery’ by John Brhel and Joseph Sullivan

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 6, 2016ReviewsFeatured, John Brhel, Joseph Sullivan, Meredith Durfy, Reviews, Tales from Valleyview CemeteryLeave a comment

Tales from Vallyeview Cemetery by John Brhel and Joseph Sullivan
Cemetery Gates Media (November 2015)
158 pages; $10.00 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Meredith Durfy

“Angel Music”— The first story in the anthology is about a woman who walks into a graveyard after hearing music coming from there, and then bad things happen to her. I found it painful to read at times. I felt it was poorly written and not scary. I didn’t identify with the main character, I didn’t feel I knew her. All I know about the main character is that her name is Brenda and she is not from Lestershire (the town) originally. It seemed as though the author was more interested in describing everything in detail than setting up the main character. The monster was a problem as well, as creepy children are just cliché at this point. Continue Reading

Review: ‘Wind Chill’ by Patrick Rutigliano

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 1, 2016ReviewsCrystal Lake Publishing, Featured, Patrick Rutigliano, Reviews, Wind ChillLeave a comment

Wind Chill by Patrick Rutigliano
Crystal Lake Publishing (January 2016)
206 pages; $5.42 paperback; $1.99 e-book
Reviewed by John Brhel

Bundle up and find a warm hiding spot before you crack open Patrick Rutigliano’s latest, Wind Chill. In terms of both atmosphere and sheer scares, this novella from Crystal Lake Publishing delivers chills of Arctic-level proportions. Rutigliano has penned an ice-cold monster story that explores family dynamics, in this case that of a mentally damaged father and his confused and bitter daughter.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Night Parade’ by Ronald Malfi

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 31, 2016ReviewsFeatured, Kevin Lucia, Reviews, Ronald Malfi, The Night ParadeLeave a comment

The Night Parade by Ronald Malfi
Kensington (July 2016)
384 pages; $9.37 paperback; $7.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia

For the most part, I’m not an avid reader of post-apocalyptic fiction. I loved The Stand (of course), Brian Keene’s The Rising, and I enjoyed One by Conrad Williams. That’s about it. But, as with everything else he writes, Ronald Malfi is able to mine the core of the human experience, elevating what could be just another exercise in a well-worn horror trope to a powerfully affecting story. As always, his prose is tight, powerful, and he has the same capacity as Stephen King to breathe life into three-dimensional, fully-realized characters.Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Jersey Devil’ by Hunter Shea

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 29, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, Hunter Shea, Reviews, The Jersey DevilLeave a comment

The Jersey Devil by Hunter Shea
Pinnacle (August 30, 2016)
352 pages; $7.99 paperback; $5.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

Hunter Shea’s latest is a romp through the Pine Barrens of New Jersey with multiple twists, layers, and additions to the mythos of The Jersey Devil.

I’ve lived in Southeastern Pennsylvania most of my life. It’s close enough to South Jersey that I’ve grown up fascinated by the tall tales of The Jersey Devil. As a result, I come to Hunter Shea’s new book with a firm grasp on all of the hearsay from over the years. While Hunter keeps the history of the legend intact, he really uses those stories as a starting point for his own tale, which makes anything you may have heard before look like a child’s bedtime story.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Quick Shivers About Bugs’ edited by James Leach and Janice Leach

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 24, 2016ReviewsFeatured, James Leach, Janice Leach, Joshua Gage, Quick Shivers About Bugs, ReviewsLeave a comment

Quick Shivers About Bugs edited by James Leach and Janice Leach
Cosmonomic Multimedia (March 2016)
80 pages, $15.00 paperback
Reviewed by Joshua Gage

Quick Shivers About Bugs is a horror anthology based on articles published at Daily Nightmare. Each piece focuses on bugs in one way or another, though that term is taken as broadly as possible. Most of the pieces are short, one-hundred-word stories or poems, but there are a few longer non-fiction pieces interspersed between the short pieces to give some balance to the anthology. Overall, it’s an entertaining collection.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Dead Souls’ by J. Lincoln Fenn

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 22, 2016ReviewsDead Souls, Featured, J. Lincoln Fenn, Jonathan Reitan, ReviewsLeave a comment

Dead Souls by J. Lincoln Fenn
Gallery Books (September 20, 2016)
352 pages; $10.16 paperback; $7.99 e-book
Reviewed by Jonathan Reitan

How J. Lincoln Fenn’s first novel Poe escaped my radar I don’t know, for it won a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, but after finishing her upcoming second novel, Dead Souls, she’s created a new dedicated fan in this reviewer.

It’s a wonderful thing when a new writer comes out of seemingly nowhere to offer up such a mesmerizing and truly hypnotic work of fiction. When you’re knocked on your ass with its quality…even better. Continue Reading

Review: ‘The Kraken Sea’ by E. Catherine Tobler

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 17, 2016ReviewsDavid Simms, E. Catherine Tobler, Featured, Reviews, The Kraken SeaLeave a comment

The Kraken Sea by E. Catherine Tobler
Apex Book Company (June 2016)
128 pages; $11.95 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms

If reading YA has gotten a little cliché for readers, the same old dystopian plots and angst-ridden ghosts, there’s a new wave coming. Back to the intelligence of what made the genre strong, some new authors have decided to push back and take a chance.The Kraken Sea is one such entry. E. Catherine Tobler has given the YA world something it may not have seen before.Continue Reading

Review: ‘Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!)’ by Mark Sheldon

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 16, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, Mark Sheldon, Reviews, Sarah Killian: Serial Killer for HireLeave a comment

Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!) by Mark Sheldon
Crystal Lake Publishing (July 2016)
216 pages; $13.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I want to love every book I read, I really do. Regrettably, it’s just not possible. There are times when you pick up a title that grabs your interest, but doesn’t quite live up to your expectations. Sarah Killian: Serial Killer (for Hire!) is such a tome.Continue Reading

Review: ‘I Am Providence’ by Nick Mamatas

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 15, 2016Reviews- Frank Michaels Errington, Featured, I Am Providence, Nick Mamatas, ReviewsLeave a comment

I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas
Night Shade Books (August 2016)
256 pages; $10.66 paperback; $15.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

I can’t say I read a lot of Nick Mamatas, but what I have read, I’ve certainly enjoyed.

Nick’s most recent work is dissimilar from anything I’ve read before. Set at the fictional, annual Summer Tentacular—“Providence’s premiere literary conference about pulp-writer, racist, and weirdo Howard Philips Lovecraft”—the book is an inside look at the craziness such an event would give rise to.

The attendees at said conference seem to be based on a combination of real writers and an amalgamation of the writers and fans who frequent such a happening.

The story is told from two separate points of view: that of first-time attendee and recently published Lovecraftian writer, Colleen Danzig; and the other, her roommate, a writer know as Panossian who spends most of the book in the morgue, lying on a slab.Continue Reading

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