Tag: Haley Newlin

Review: Mothered by Zoje Stage

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cover of Mothered by Zoje StageMothered by Zoje Stage
Thomas & Mercer (March 2023)
318 pages; $19.15 hardcover; $12.78 paperback; e-book $2.49
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Zoje Stage’s latest release, Mothered, festers with feverish delirium.

Paper dolls can’t speak for themselves. They can’t escape the shears slicing through their limbs nor the violent grasp of their manipulator. That’s what life was like for Grace. Her chronically ill twin sister, Hope, was sickly pale with a delicate dust of warm freckles across her cheeks. Her smile fooled their mother, Jackie, and just about everyone else, but Grace knew that a glee-ridden Hope spelled trouble. Continue Reading

Review: Mouth Full of Ashes by Briana Morgan

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cover of Mouthful of AshesMouth Full of Ashes by Briana Morgan 
Independently Published (October 2021)
158 pages; $9.99; $2.99 ebook; $14.95 audiobook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

“Dear Diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count.” – Heathers

I’m not typically into vampire stories, except for Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and Bela Lugosi’s performance in Dracula.

However, Briana Morgan’s Mouth Full of Ashes dismembers supernatural horror and dark, campy teen film to conjure something scheming and bloody. Continue Reading

Review: Whatever Remains Of Us In The End by Brandon Baker

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cover of Whatever Remains of Us in the EndWhatever Remains Of Us In The End by Brandon Baker
Independently Published (March 2023)
132 pages; $10.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Power comes at a price in Brandon Baker’s Whatever Remains Of Us In The End, a supernatural thriller looming with feverish occult practices, the classic horror trope of “how far will you go to save those you love,” and lucid imagery reminiscent of the pulp horror era. Continue Reading

Review: All The Living And The Dead by Hayley Campbell

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cover of All the Living and the DeadAll the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell 
St. Martin’s Press (August 2022) 
288 pages; $21.49; $19.00 paperback; $14.99 e-book 
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

None of us are born with the knowledge of death. We have to stumble upon a fallen bird fluttering its wings, desperate to live. Or we lose a grandparent, a sibling, a classmate, and someone breaks the news: the deceased, those “in a better place,” won’t, can’t, ever come back.

The author of All the Living and the Dead, Hayley Campbell, couldn’t pinpoint the moment she learned of death. She tells readers she can’t recall a time before death, stating, “Death was just there, everywhere, always.”Continue Reading

Review: A Lovely Girl by Deborah Holt Larkin

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cover of A Lovely GirlA Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California’s Most Notorious Killers by Deborah Holt Larkin
Pegasus Crime (October 2022)
528 pages; $21.60 hardcover; $18.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

From the iconic mothers in horror fiction, like Norman Bates’ tormenting, ever-invasive mother, Norma, and Stephen King’s evangelically evil Margaret White from Carrie, to real-world terrifying tales of mommy dearests, motherhood captivates audiences. Continue Reading

Review: Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology edited by Sadie Hartmann & Ashley Saywers

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cover of Human MonstersHuman Monsters: A Horror Anthology edited by Sadie Hartmann & Ashley Saywers
Dark Matter INK (October 2022) 
376 pages; $19.99 paperback; $6.99 ebook
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

There’s something incredibly profound about horror anthologies. Organizers and editors decide on one bloodied but beating heart that thrums aching, booming life into stories. But it is the minds of the authors — those who conjure the devilish indulgences, the unquestioned yet morally gray, ahem, black methods of group leaders, and the deceiving nature of the desperate, and who reveal the snapping jowls of humanity — that give collections such as Human Monsters breath and mobility. Continue Reading

Review: What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

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cover of What Lies in the WoodsWhat 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: Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films by Nina Nesseth

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cover of Nightmare FuelNightmare 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: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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cover of The Daughter of Doctor MoreauThe 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

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cover of ShadowManShadowman: 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

Continue Reading

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

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cover of This is Where We Talk Things OutThis 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

Review: Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer: A Krampus Story by M. Rickert

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Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer: A Krampus Story by M. Rickert
Tordotcom (September 2022)
108 pages; $13.69 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

The holiday season screams merriment and cheer, a time for friends and family, and a time to compartmentalize evil. But what if something far more sinister than an old family spat is at work? We’ve heard its name and feared its wicked horns, obscene tongue, and fiendish fangs: Krampus.Continue Reading

Review: How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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cover of How to Sell a Haunted HouseHow to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 
Berkley (January 2023) 
432 pages; $19.60 paperback; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Grady Hendrix’s new release, How To Sell A Haunted House, looms over the haunted house trope with puppets, gore, and restless spirits, but the family lies and sheer shock of how it unfolds will make readers eat this story up right down to the bone.Continue Reading

Review: The Vessel by Adam L. G. Nevill

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cover of The Vessel by Adam L.G. NevillThe Vessel by Adam L.G. Nevill 
Ritual Limited (October 2022) 
170 pages; $10.99 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

In his eleventh book, The Vessel, Adam L.G. Nevill summons readers with another eerie folk horror story with his usual ethereal atmosphere, creative conjurings of terror, and family at the heart of it all. Only this time, Nevill offers a cinematic approach — removing access to the character’s inner dialogue.Continue Reading

Review: Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Robert Guffey

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cover of Bela Lugosi's DeadBela Lugosi’s Dead by Robert Guffey
Macabre Ink (April 2021)
264 pages; $17.99 paperback; $4.99 ebook 
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

Universal monsters Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf Man and others, primarily produced between the 1930s and 1950s, still stand today as not only icons of horror but pop culture.

And yet, so many of the horrifically haunting films featuring these creatures, including Bela Lugosi’s infamous bloodthirsty Count Dracula, have been buried away and forgotten. Continue Reading