Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Island X by Marissa Yarrow Island X by Marissa Yarrow
Mad Axe Media (July 2026)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool
A thousand celebrities and influencers are invited to an island music festival and have to commit quickly or they will lose an opportunity of a lifetime. Imagine being invited to a party no one has ever heard of to really amp up your status in the online world and pump up those numbers! How could you refuse? You simply CANNOT.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Summer Camp for Werewolves by Damien Casey Summer Camp for Werewolves by Damien Casey
Squirm Books (April 2026)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool
Welcome to Summer Camp for Werewolves, a young adult horror-comedy starring Marsha. Marsha is a teen reporter who is going through the typical angst of growing up. She is invited to a summer camp where she thinks she can get her first major scoop. Little did she know that this camp is dedicated to helping teens become their best werewolf selves.Continue Reading
Doe by Rebecca Barrow
Minotaur Books (June 2026)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool
Meet Maris. She is the captain of the West Eaton High cheer team, who has an unstable home life. As such, she loves the power that she wields over her team…until Genevieve shows up. Genevieve is a force to be reckoned with and, as an elite gymnast, threatens the very life Maris holds dear. This rivalry quickly ramps up as Maris begins dreaming of a supernatural beast, Doe, who promises her a way to defeat her nemesis. But at what cost?
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw 
The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw
Tor Nightfire (July 22, 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
I FREAKIN LOVE THIS BOOK! I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to read Cassandra Khaw. I have 3 other books of theirs on my shelves and I don’t know why I kept skipping over them.
Welcome to The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted — the “premiere academy for the dangerously Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.” DONE. SOLD. TAKE MY MONEY. Here we meet Aleesa — she’s been kidnapped and forced to go to Hellebore but is told this is a place where she will find acceptance and a “normal life” after graduation. However, on graduation day, the faculty decides to eat the class. One must be sacrificed every night or everyone will be killed. There can only be one survivor. Or can there?Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima 
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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Nightmarchers by J.Lincoln Fenn 
The Nightmarchers by J.Lincoln Fenn
Gallery Books (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
The Nightmarchers is a “bone-chilling novel where a mysterious island holds the terrifying answers to a woman’s past and future.” We start in the past, circa 1939, via journal entries from Irene Greer. We learn that her fall from a waterfall is to try and join her husband and daughter who she believes have “joined the nightmarchers — ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights.”Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Model Home by Rivers Solomon 
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
MCD (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
I don’t even know where to start with this one! I decided to go with audio on this one and I’m glad I did as the narrator, Gabby Beans, was FANTASTIC. As the first sentence of the synopsis states: “Welcome to Rivers Solomon’s dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel.” And that, it surely is!
“Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.”Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce 
Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce
Minotaur Books (February 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
Doesn’t this cover just call to you? In this book we meet Mina who is still grieving the death of her brother. In a bereavement group, she meets Sam, a journalist, who thinks she should investigate Alice Webber. Alice is a teen who says she is being haunted by a witch. As her behavior becomes more and more disturbing, they delve into the town’s history and evil traditions. Exploring grief, loss and faith, this book also explores whether or not supernatural things are actually real or just a reflection of our own human darkness. This is a great read for those who love folk horror mixed with cults, curses and of course, witchcraft. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Alex’s Escape by L. Andrew Cooper 
Alex’s Escape by L. Andrew Cooper
Horrific Scribblings (February 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
“Fourteen-year-old psychopath Alex Packard has his own house, a shadow version of his parents’ house that THEY help him build.” That alone caught my attention immediately. Alex takes his victims there to kill them in the most entertaining of ways with his final victims in his hometown being his own parents. Police can’t catch him because there’s no physical evidence to tie him to the crimes. What happens in his house, doesn’t happen the exact same way in the real world.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: American Rapture by C.J. Leede 
American Rapture by C.J. Leede
Tor Nightfire (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin.
Let me just say that I’ve heard about C.J. Leede from just about everyone I know who reads the same genres that I do. First, it was about Maeve Fly (which is on my to-be-read list) and then this beautifully covered read, American Rapture. After turning the last page, not knowing my breath had been held for so long, I can certainly see why this book has become so popular, so quickly.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Wake Up And Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman 
Wake Up And Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
Quirk Books (January 2025)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
Holy smokes, folks! What did I just read?! Readers, oh readers. This is a hard review to write because there is just so much to say but I’ll keep it as simple as possible. Let’s take a look at this “fast-paced supernatural horror novel about a mass demonic possession epidemic that spreads through the internet.”Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: Grim Root by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam 
Grim Root by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
Dark Matter INK (October 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
Touted as a “humorous gothic horror novel pitched as The Bachelor meets The Haunting of Hill House,” this novel definitely delivered on the first part and somewhat on the latter. In this novel, a “group of women on a reality TV dating show must compete for the hand of an eligible bachelor by spending a week in a haunted house.” Sign me up! I absolutely love this idea for a plot. Reality shows are a great setting for some devious and illicit things to occur. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Ill-Fitting Skin by Shannon Robinson 
The Ill-Fitting Skin by Shannon Robinson
Press 53 (May 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
Twelve stories about women navigating their everyday situations, each a unique story covering different areas of a woman’s life. We get tales of a mother whose baby bites a lot and how she tries to handle the situation. A woman who gives birth to rabbits and instead of this being a strange thing, it’s a tale of misunderstanding. There’s even a story that gives you that “choose your own adventure” feel where you have to shuffle through pages to see what may come up. The best part of this is where the author sometimes chastises you for making a decision — or at least it feels this way. I found this to be very humorous and a lot of fun. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: The Axe Remembers: A Redwood Ripper Story by Marcus Hawke 
The Axe Remembers: A Redwood Ripper Story by Marcus Hawk
Hawke Haus Books (July 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
Welcome to Vancouver Island, where the crew of a timber mill gathers. Unbeknownst to them, the urban legend of The Redwood Ripper is all too real and they’re about to get the sharp end of the axe. The legend is that this vengeful spirit “haunts the wild and hunts those that take more from it than they give.” The trees remember, and so does The Redwood Ripper’s axe.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons 
A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons
Tor Nightfire (August 2024)
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
Let’s meet Anne Heller. The opening of this book places her in a bank heist gone wrong. She is caught literally in the crossfire. But Anne isn’t quite the killer and instead injures a police officer who she then takes hostage because hey, witnesses and all that. From here we get thrust into a crazy world that starts at her family’s cabin that she decides to hole up in. We soon learn that this abode isn’t quite as deserted as she thought it would be and the presence that also resides there is not to be messed with.Continue Reading
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