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Review: Mouth Full of Ashes by Briana Morgan

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 8, 2023May 7, 2023ReviewsBriana Morgan, Haley Newlin, Mouth Full of Ashes, ReviewsLeave a comment

Mouth 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineMay 3, 2023May 1, 2023ReviewsBrandon Baker, Haley Newlin, Reviews, Whatever Remains of Us in the EndLeave a comment

Whatever 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 19, 2023April 17, 2023ReviewsAll the Living and the Dead, Haley Newlin, Hayley Campbell, ReviewsLeave a comment

All 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineApril 12, 2023April 11, 2023ReviewsA Lovely Girl, Deborah Holt Larkin, Haley Newlin, ReviewsLeave a comment

A 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 24, 2023March 23, 2023ReviewsAshley Saywers, Haley Newlin, Human Monsters, Mother Horror, Reviews, Sadie HartmannLeave a comment

cover of Human Monsters Human 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 13, 2023March 12, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Kate Alice Marshall, Reviews, What Lies in the WoodsLeave a comment

What 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 8, 2023March 5, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Nightmare Fuel, Nina Nesseth, ReviewsLeave a comment

Nightmare 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 24, 2023February 23, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Daughter of Doctor MoreauLeave a comment

The 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 22, 2023February 19, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Reviews, Ron Franscell, Shadowman, True CrimeLeave a comment

Shadowman: 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

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

Cemetery Dance OnlineFebruary 1, 2023January 29, 2023ReviewsCaitlin Marceau, Haley Newlin, Reviews, This is Where We Talk Things OutLeave a comment

This 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 25, 2023January 22, 2023ReviewsHaley Newlin, Krampus, Lucky Girl, M. Rickert, ReviewsLeave a comment

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

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 19, 2023January 16, 2023ReviewsGrady Hendrix, Haley Newlin, How to Sell a Haunted House, Reviews1 Comment

How 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineJanuary 12, 2023January 11, 2023ReviewsAdam L.G. Nevill, Haley Newlin, Reviews, The VesselLeave a comment

The 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

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 28, 2022December 18, 2022ReviewsBela Lugosi's Dead, Haley Newlin, Reviews, Robert GuffeyLeave a comment

cover of Bela Lugosi's Dead Bela 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

Review: We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca

Cemetery Dance OnlineDecember 21, 2022December 18, 2022ReviewsEric LaRocca, Haley Newlin, Reviews, We Can Never Leave This PlaceLeave a comment

We Can Never Leave This Place by Eric LaRocca
Trepidatio Publishing (June 2022)
106 pages; $19.95 hardcover; $12.95 paperback; $5.95 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin

In perhaps his bleakest, most grisly tale yet, Eric LaRocca challenges gothic horror’s most visceral and twisted minds, namely The Brothers Grimm.

We Can Never Leave This Place is a screeching, bloody curtain that will hang over readers from start to finish. On the first page, Mara says, “From baby teeth to virginity, to live is to regularly suffer loss,” and it’s here where LaRocca offers a hint of the bloodshed to come. Continue Reading

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