The Sleeping Dead was unfortunately a novella I just couldn’t get into, it’s one of those books that tells a story as it happens, much in the same way as a soap opera and that for me shoves character depth flailing out the window. The story is told through the eyes of Jackson Smith who …Read More

The third edition of the Darkfuse anthology series is out and there’s a big difference this time, namely that I haven’t heard of any of the 6 authors that have contributed. Superbly edited by the Darkfuse commander in chief Shane Staley we have 6 riveting tales of terror. First up is Ritual by Lauren Gallo …Read More

Set in Southern Colorado in a land once ruled by the Anasazi Indians, it was the Navajo that called them Anaasází or Ancient Enemy and this story is born in a land rich with history, and the mysteries surrounding a population that simply disappeared. The story centres on Sani Natonaba, a young man of Ute …Read More

‘C’mere, kid. Daddy’s gonna play a game.’ Michaelbrent Collings is a master at instilling sheer and unadulterated terror into a story, I’ve never known an author be able to twist the tension and your emotions so capably and so bloody easily. The first chapter immediately makes you sit up and narrow your vision, kids in …Read More

The Last Mile is a post-apocalyptic novella in a time called The World After, Dan is a thrall to his master and is in the process of delivering a female sacrifice, when disaster strikes. We then go back in time to explore the initial outbreak or attack, from both parties point of view, while at …Read More

As bizarre goes this is pretty fucking weird in places but it’s all held together with the glue that is laughter and it’s hilarious in places. And what a spooky cover but it soon becomes apparent as to what’s going on amid the imagination of someone who must have had something slipped into his drink …Read More

The Disassembled Man was my third read from author Jon Bassoff and his debut novel, from his other two stories the darkly disturbing Corrosion and the instantly forgettable Factory Town it would be interesting to see where this one would go. The Disassembled Man is told in a brash, maniacal first person narrative in true …Read More

Skinner is a supernatural overcoming the monster horror story from David Bernstein. A simple premise with three couples on their way to a cabin retreat, they attempt to drive over a mountain during an inexplicable storm. First filling up with gas at a rather creepy ‘last fuel stop’, they encounter an old man surrounded by …Read More

Last days by Adam Nevill is easily one of the best modern day horror novels I’ve read this year. This story will suck you in, devour your feelings of safety and comfort as you sit reading and nonchalantly spit you out with a wry evil grin, leaving you begging for more. I haven’t been gripped …Read More

Journalist Daniel Finley goes undercover in Boston to study the lost and forsaken, the homeless and destitute hoping that he could inspire people to help get them off the streets. To become like them he entered a nightmare, one where he would forget his name every night and had to remind himself every day, who …Read More

Finders Keepers is the second book of the Mr Mercedes trilogy and also the name of the private detective agency formed by Bill Hodges and his new assistant Holly Gibney. Along with Jerome Robinson, all responsible for catching the killer Mr Mercedes, they agree to investigate a new case from a most unlikely origin in …Read More

Corrosion is the masterfully written debut by Jon Bassoff, it reminded me of both No Country for Old Men and Sin City, an illegitimate love child if you like, but a hell of a lot darker and dirtier. Written in first person from three perspectives the author mixes tough narrative with disturbing thought and it’s …Read More

In 1979 Hollers Hill just on the outskirts of Eckert was the site of one of the most unique UFO eye witness accounts in history. A saucer like craft was observed hovering over the hill emitting a wondrous blue beam that caused the ground to shake, now 30 years later the tremors have returned and …Read More

First off, I was really looking forward to this, I thought Corrosion (Jon Bassoffs previous novel) was excellent and recommended it to several friends. First thoughts I had to agree with the surreal voyage bit from the synopsis, my only problem, it just got weirder and weirder to the point where 40% in I’d lost …Read More

Ceremony of Flies by Kate Jonez was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award 2014 and kicks off with an intrigued meeting and argument. The story is told in an almost quirky first person point of view through the eyes of waitress Kitty, after an argument with her boss, she quits and thrusts her head piece …Read More

The Elementals by Michael McDowell was first released in 1981 and then re-released in 2014 by Valancourt Books with an introduction by author Michael Rowe. The story begins with the funeral of Marian Savage, the matriarch of an old and opulent family from Alabama with an intriguingly peculiar and disturbing burial rite. The Savage family …Read More

‘It’s a terrible thing to know terrible things.’ Devils Breath is the literary equivalent of a man lost in a nightmare, drifting toward insanity, unable to escape, whilst at the same time amassing the precarious attention of shady figures that revel in the darkness. The first line of this review is the first line of Devils …Read More

Animosity is one of those books that no matter your preferred genre, should definitely be read. An incredibly powerful story that will leave a lasting impression. James Newman proves he is a master storyteller with a tale that builds the tension in a slow, measured fashion, bordering on torture until an almost surreal explosion of …Read More

Skinner is a supernatural overcoming the monster horror story from David Bernstein. A simple premise with three couples on their way to a cabin retreat, they attempt to drive over a mountain during an inexplicable storm. First filling up with gas at a rather creepy ‘last fuel stop’, they encounter an old man surrounded by …Read More

Richard Heinz is a psychopath, a convicted killer and he’s escaped from a secure mental hospital, or the nut house if you prefer. This guy’s highly dangerous so who do we have to recapture him, MCU agents Howard Hopkins and rookie Dr Jessica Bennett and he’s hiding in a forest. So what’s the plan, we’ll …Read More

To unwittingly become a part of this deadly game, you must have secrets, things that can never be known, something that can destroy your life and there’s only one chance for redemption, you must confess. A family suffering the loss of a son, drift through life growing further apart by the day, come the anniversary …Read More

I read Bleedovers completely unaware that it is the second novella in the Crossfades Dystopian novella series and my first read from William Todd Rose. Mental note: must start the headache inducing drag known as research. That said I didn’t really feel like I’d missed much concerning the premise of a Crossfade but maybe a …Read More

Next up in Iain Rob Wright’s horror fuelled adventure through the alphabet is J and the subject matter is of course Jaws. Now I really had high hopes for this one, sharks and the like fascinate me, Jaws is a top film and there really is no answer to combat creatures of the deep. Unless …Read More


Carlton Mellick III is one of the leading authors of bizarro fiction and in his own words ‘pumps out some of the weirdest, trashiest, most imaginative books’ you’ll ever admit to being a guilty pleasure. A prolific author with over 40 books in print, freakily surreal titles such as The Haunted Vagina, Clusterfuck, Adolf in …Read More

‘And what will I do if I turn the light on and someone is standing there?’ In No One Gets Out, Alive Adam Nevill explores the plight of a lonely desperate young woman, she takes a room at 82 Edgehill Road in Birmingham because it’s cheap as chips at 40 quid a week. She’s got …Read More

The Brains of Rats by Michael Blumlein was originally released in 1989 and then re-released by Valancourt books with an introduction by Michael McDowell in May 2015. The author uses his medical background to stunning effect in twelve stories that certainly give pause for thought, chilling in its entirety, intelligent and horrifically memorable. The second …Read More

Iain Rob Wright is hammering his way through the alphabet with a short tale of horror for every letter, not sure if he’s already done this but he should run a competition and let some of the readers pick a title for him. My votes N for Nail gun or S for Scythe, this will …Read More

The Library of the Dead is an anthology edited by Michael Bailey and containing one of the last stories written by the late JF Gonzalez. There are fifteen stories by various authors including Brian Keene, Kealan Patrick Burke, Michael McBride, Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, Gary Braunbeck and an afterword remembrance by Mary Sangiovanni with an …Read More

Stage Whispers contains the first four novella’s and the concluding novel covering the life of Timmy Quinn, from the young boy cursed to look on the dead to the man fated to stop the vengeful deceased from rising. In The Turtle Boy, Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete Marshall encounter a strange boy at …Read More

Sam West’s Dreamworld is another novella marketed as extreme horror and centres on a Halloween tour of an abandoned theme park. It’s Jim’s stag night, he only has one friend so his brothers bought a mate and the four of them embark on a pretty poor excuse for a man’s last night of freedom. Instead …Read More