Elizabeth Broadbent Archives - Cemetery Dance Online

Review: Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 27, 2026February 22, 2026ReviewsDecomposition Book, Elizabeth Broadbent, Reviews, Sara Van OsLeave a comment

Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os
HarperCollins (May 19, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Loneliness and desperation ooze from Sara van Os’s Decomposition Book: A Novel. Os paints a compelling, bleak, and darkly humorous portrait of two women in crisis: Ava, hopelessly lost in the Adirondacks during a weekend hiking trip with two work friends, and Savannah, a Gen Z college student desperate to call herself “on a break” from school. Holed up in a secluded lake house after the stunning betrayal of her best friend, Savannah finds Ava’s corpse during a walk in the woods. Continue Reading

Review: The Curse of Hester Gardens by Tamika Thompson

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 25, 2026March 1, 2026ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, Reviews, Tamika Thompson, The Curse of Hester GardensLeave a comment

cover of The Curse of Hester Gardens The Curse of Hester Gardens by Tamika Thompson
Erewhon Books (March 31, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Tamika Thompson’s The Curse of Hester Gardens is an urgent novel. Set in the Michigan projects, it’s a novel about gun violence, and if you suspect that makes for a rough emotional ride, you’d be right. It’s a novel about poverty, and it’s a novel about racism.

The Curse of Hester Gardens is a novel about America.Continue Reading

Review: Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For by P.M. Raymond

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 20, 2026February 22, 2026ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, P.M. Raymond, Reviews, Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die ForLeave a comment

cover of Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For by P.M. Raymond
Uncomfortably Dark Horror (April 26, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

As a fellow Southern author, I read P.M. Raymond’s Things Are As They Should Be and Other Words to Die For with particular relish. An interconnected book of short stories with recurring characters, families, and settings? Give it to me in the vein. Southern Gothic horror fans buckle up: this is the kind of collection you won’t want to miss. Continue Reading

Review: The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own by Gwendolyn Kiste

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 16, 2026February 22, 2026ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, Gwendolyn Kiste, Raw Dog Screaming Press, Reviews, The Haunted Houses She Calls Her OwnLeave a comment

cover The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own by Gwendolyn Kiste
Raw Dog Screaming Press (April 14, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Raw Dog Screaming Press releases another banger with Gwendolyn Kiste’s The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own. Containing the Bram Stoker Award-winning “The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westerna’s Diary),” it’s a feminist howl of a collection that takes a hard look at the ways family and society can trap women. Continue Reading

Review: Oversight: Erasure Poetry by Carina Bissett and Lee Murray

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 4, 2026March 8, 2026ReviewsCarina Bissett, Elizabeth Broadbent, Lee Murray, Oversight: Erasure Poetry, poetry, ReviewsLeave a comment

Oversight: Erasure Poetry by Carina Bissett and Lee Murray
Running Wild Press (March 8, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Poetry is a difficult beast. We authors often say that it’s harder to write a great short story than a good novel. If that’s true, great poetry is more difficult by far. Not only does condensation of theme and economy of language winnow to the level of a single word, but the limits of theme and the necessity of rhythm further force the writer’s hand. Good poetry is hard. Great poetry is a life’s work. Continue Reading

Review: The Tryst by L. Marie Wood

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 13, 2026February 6, 2026ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, L. Marie Wood, Reviews, The TrystLeave a comment

cover of The Tryst The Tryst by L. Marie Wood
Mocha Memoir Press (February 14, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

L. Marie Wood’s new novel, The Tryst is the first book in her five-installment Red Thread Saga, and it’s not horror, but slipstream. For those unfamiliar (and I counted myself among them), slipstream is a catch-all term for works that blend elements of different genres to create something new. When I asked Wood about it, she told me that The Tryst blends elements of “romance, horror, sci-fi, action, mystery, thriller, and suspense.” The blend creates a novel that defies expectations — it’s romance, but with a sci-fi bent; it’s horror, but with thriller and mystery thrown in. But slipstream also uses elements of those genres to defy and remix their typical conventions. Continue Reading

Review: Dollface by Lindy Ryand

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 2, 2026January 14, 2026ReviewsDollface, Elizabeth Broadbent, Lindy Ryan, Minotaur Books, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Dollface Dollface by Lindy Ryan
Minotaur Books (February 24, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

In a publishing landscape that loves to hand us blonde, virginal final girls, Lindy Ryan’s Dollface gives us something different: a forty-something mother.

That shouldn’t be rare. It is. Continue Reading

Review: The Night Ship by Alex Woodroe

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 28, 2026January 24, 2026ReviewsAlex Woodroe, Elizabeth Broadbent, Flame Tree Press, Reviews, The Night ShipLeave a comment

cover of The Night Ship The Night Ship by Alex Woodroe
Flame Tree Press (January 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

For Americans, it’s difficult to conceptualize what living under a truly authoritarian government means: the snitching, the pressure to conform, the everyday minutiae of life controlled by the state. Alex Woodroe captures these quandaries in The Night Ship. While it’s a wild ride of a cosmic horror novel, the setting and characterization of life under Ceau?escu are the real stars in this one. Continue Reading

Review: ITCH! by Gemma Amor

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 15, 2026January 14, 2026ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, Gemma Amor, ITCH!, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of ITCH! ITCH! by Gemma Amor
Hodder & Stoughton (January 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

With a title like ITCH!, you know Gemma Amor’s bringing the bug horror. I was prepared to spend this read feeling like something was biting me — and I did. I wasn’t prepared for the real soul-crushing heart of this LGBTQIA2+ novel. ITCH! led me to expect bugs and body horror. I never expected to cry. Continue Reading

Review: Unworthy by L. Marie Wood

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 17, 2025December 18, 2025ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, L. Marie Wood, Reviews, UnworthyLeave a comment

cover of Unworthy Unworthy by L. Marie Wood
Mocha Memoirs Press (September 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Fans of psychological horror, rejoice: Unworthy, L. Marie Wood’s “novel in stories,” has dropped. Wood is a recognized virtuoso of the subgenre, her list of awards as long as it is genre-spanning, and readers craving true literary terror will find the fix they need. Continue Reading

Review: The Pulse Remains by Rob Grimoire

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 24, 2025October 26, 2025ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, Reviews, Rob Grimoire, The Pulse RemainsLeave a comment

cover of The Pulse Remains The Pulse Remains by Rob Grimoire
Undertaker Books (August 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

In a Southern Gothic novel, the past returns to haunt the present. Emphasizing moral bankruptcy and degeneracy, particularly of the upper classes, the genre has traditionally been dominated by white people and white stories — William Faulkner, Flannery O’Conner, and Michael McDowell.

That tradition often omits or elides the contributions of Black authors: Toni Morrison, Zola Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, S.A. Cosby, Tananarive Due, and Alexis Henderson. Like their white counterparts, these stories usually include traditional Southern Gothic tropes: the past intruding on the present, the moral and spiritual corruption of the elite, an emphasis on landscape and setting. Continue Reading

Review: White Flight by Peter O’Keefe

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 20, 2025October 4, 2025ReviewsElizabeth Broadbent, Peter O'Keefe, Reviews, White FlightLeave a comment

White Flight by Peter O’Keefe
Uncomfotably Dark Horror (October 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Everyone loves a good haunted house story. Make it short and quick, throw in some serious tension, stir in a few vivid characters, add a dose of disorientation — you’ve probably got a hit. Peter O’Keefe does this one better in White Flight, out October 21 from Uncomfortably Dark. His fast-paced, nail-biting little gothic novella delivers something unexpected: a seriously squirm-worthy look at American racism. Continue Reading

Review: Hank Flynn: The Return by Candace Nola

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 22, 2025September 21, 2025ReviewsCandace Nola, Elizabeth Broadbent, Hank Flynn The Return, ReviewsLeave a comment

Hank Flynn: The Return by Candace Nola
Uncomfortably Dark (July 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

I’m generally not a fan of Western horror, though it’s an interesting subgenre. I’m revising that idea after Candace Nola’s Hank Flynn: The Return. Haven’t read the original Hank Flynn? Don’t stress. I hadn’t either. In Hank Flynn: The Return, Nola pulls off an incredibly difficult trick: a sequel with familiar characters and storylines that can still be read solo (though it will spoil the first Hank Flynn, so reader beware). Continue Reading

Review: Moonflow by Bitter Karella

Cemetery Dance OnlineSeptember 2, 2025August 31, 2025ReviewsBitter Karella, Elizabeth Broadbent, Moonflow, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Moonflow Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Run For It (September 2, 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Among other things, Bitter Karella’s Moonflow promises “fungus gods, trans feels, haunted forests, weird rituals, lesbian hippies, fat sex, humongous gahungawungas, and raccoons.” It certainly delivers. Moonflow is a magnificently queer magical mystery trip into the darkly bizarre heart of Pamogo Forest. A psychedelic-fueled, rainbow trip of a novel, this book is everything you’d hope for from Bitter Karella: wickedly funny, bracingly bizarre, frequently off-color, and yet, somehow, heartfelt. Continue Reading

Review: Pushing Daisy by Christopher O’Halloran

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 19, 2025May 18, 2025ReviewsChristopher O'Halloran, Elizabeth Broadbent, Pushing Daisy, ReviewsLeave a comment

cover of Pushing Daisy

Pushing Daisy by Christopher O’Halloran
Lethe Press (May 23, 2025)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Broadbent

Christopher O’Halloran’s Pushing Daisy has a simple premise: a grieving widower begins to suspect that his recently departed wife has returned from the great beyond. Roger Darling is the type of man women tell their girlfriends to dump immediately. He’s bitter and manipulative, self-centered and cruel. Daisy martyred herself to assure his happiness. Continue Reading

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