Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Wrathbone and Other Stories’ by Jason Parent 
Wrathbone and Other Stories by Jason Parent
Comet Press (October 2016)
160 pages; $12.95 paperback; $3.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
Jason Parent’s new collection, Wrathbone and Other Stories, includes some wonderfully original tales of horror. There may be only 5 stories in this collection, totaling 160 pages, but each tale is deserving of your attention. If you have yet to discover Jason’s work, this book will serve as a worthy introduction.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Vyrmin’ by Gene Lazuta 
Vyrmin by Gene Lazuta
Bloodshot Books (October 2016)
360 pages; $13.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
Before I get to the review, just a quick comment about the publisher, Bloodshot Books. I really admire the effort being made to find books that either had a limited print run or have gone out of print over the years and giving them new life in the digital age by releasing them in paperback and e-book formats. Earlier this year, they gave this treatment to The Awakening by Brett McBride, a wonderful coming of age story and one of the best books I’ve read in 2016.Continue Reading
Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror edited by Ellen Datlow
Tachyon Publications (November 2016)
432 pages; $12.79 paperback; $7.99 e-book
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
Ellen Datlow has been charting the course of horror fiction for over 35 years. In that time, she has maintained a balanced perspective in her numerous anthologies and collections, always casting an appreciative eye toward the established masters of horror while shining a light on the talent tasked with carrying the genre forward.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘The Last Firefly of Summer’ by Robert Ford 
The Last Firefly of Summer by Robert Ford
CreateSpace (July 2016)
64 pages; $5.95 paperback; $1.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia
Over the past few years, Robert Ford has become the go-to writer when it comes to emotionally-wrenching fiction. Give him a little bit of your time and eventually, without fail, he’ll have your heart on a platter. The Last Firefly of Summer is no exception. With lean prose and and a powerful voice, Ford spins a tale about summer love gone wrong, and a vengeful adoration which must be satisfied. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Dream Woods’ by Patrick Lacey 
Dream Woods by Patrick Lacey
Sinister Grin Press (October 2016)
318 pages; $16.99 paperback; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
I love amusement parks, especially the old ones from my youth. The local ones were the best, where sometimes it seemed the rides were likely to fall apart while you were still riding them. The ones within an hour’s drive from where I grew up—Lakewood Park, West Point Park, and Willow Grove Park, all in Southeast Pennsylvania. In its dying days, the later was known as Six Gun Territory. I remember they used to have a small wooden coaster, The Scenic; exciting not because of it’s speed or height, but because of the way it always seemed like it could leave the track at any moment.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘The Angel of the Abyss’ by Hank Schwaeble 
The Angel of the Abyss by Hank Schwaeble
Cohesion Press (October 31, 2016)
306 pages; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by David Simms
Jake Hatcher is one badass character. He’s been to hell and back, fought for his country only to be put in prison, watched people he cares for die at the hands (or other deadly appendages) or demons and other creatures. In Damnable and Diabolical, Hatcher fought off hell and survived—barely—but has returned with a vengeance in The Angel of the Abyss. If readers aren’t familiar with the Stoker-winning first book, it’s okay. Catching up can be done afterwards. Each works somewhat as a standalone but are best served to be read in order.Continue Reading
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”: The Authorized Graphic Adaptation by Miles Hyman
Hill and Wang (October 25, 2016)
160 pages; $30.00 hardcover; $16.00 paperback
Reviewed by Danica Davidson
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is one of the most famous—and infamous—short stories of all time. People reading it for the first time aren’t prepared for the twist ending, and when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948, it offended some people so much that they wanted their subscriptions canceled. Those not so easily offended, though, were riveted to the story, and those who couldn’t keep it out of their minds realized they’d been swept up by its power. Seventy years later, the story continues to haunt, and now it’s been adapted into graphic novel format, done by Jackson’s own grandson, Miles Hyman.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life’ by Ruth Franklin Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin
Liveright (September 2016)
624 pages; $25.14 paperback; $16.05 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
Admittedly, I don’t read a lot of biographies. Not my thing. Nothing against them, I just prefer to spend my time reading fiction. That being said, when I saw there was going to be a Shirley Jackson biography, I decided to get out of my comfort zone just a bit.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Last Train from Perdition’ by Robert McCammon Last Train from Perdition by Robert McCammon
Subterranean Press (October 2016)
181 pages; $35 hardcover
Reviewed by Blu Gilliand
Sometimes, horror is the perfect genre for exploring universal themes such as loss, isolation, or grief.
Sometimes, horror is the perfect genre for exploring how humans react to adversity, loneliness, temptation or, naturally, fear.
And sometimes, horror is the perfect genre to take a group of people, strand them on a train in the dark frontier, and unleash a siege of bloodthirsty creatures upon them.Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Children of Lovecraft’ edited by Ellen Datlow Children of Lovecraft edited by Ellen Datlow
Dark Horse Books (September 2016)
384 pages; $12.81 paperback; $10.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington
Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over thirty years. She has won numerous awards for her work and is certainly one of the best in the business. As a result, she attracts some of the best writers when she puts together a new project, and Children of Lovecraft is a fine example of this effect.Continue Reading
Mysterion: Rediscovering the Mysteries of the Christian Faith edited by Donald S. Crankshaw and Kristin Janz
Enigmatic Mirror Press (July 2016)
300 pages; $16.99 paperback; $9.99 e-book
Reviewed by Kevin Lucia
Writers grappling with faith through the trappings of speculative fiction isn’t new. George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J. R. R. Tolkien, Madeleine L’Engle, Russell Kirk, William Peter Blatty and others did it long before now. There are many industry greats—such as Dean Koontz, Anne Rice and Stephen King, only to name a few—who have also written powerful works which address both the inspirational and also terrifying aspects of the Christian faith.
It’s a tricky balance, however, honestly grappling with these questions without proselytizing in the fashion of a preachy “Sunday School Lesson Wrapped Up in a Story.” All too often, “Christian” fiction errs too much on the side of “doctrinal correctness,” “proper theology” and an almost Puritanical “cleanliness,” completely missing out on the transformational power fiction has to impact humanity by sharing deep tales of the human experience and what it means to believe, hope, grieve, sacrifice, and trust in a higher power. Continue Reading
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Stranded’ by Bracken MacLeod 
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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Savages’ by Greg F. Gifune 
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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Hunter of the Dead’ by Stephen Kozeniewski 
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
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories ReviewsLeave a comment on Review: ‘Stay Crazy’ by Erica L. Satifka 
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
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