Horror Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Blood on the Trailhead by Charlotte Zang & Alex J. Knudsen

A gripping third chapter of their Lost Grove Mystery series, Blood on the Trailhead by Charlotte Zang and Alex J. Knudsen weaves a modern gothic tapestry of supernatural suspense.

When a young boy is killed in an apparent animal attack at Devil’s Cradle State Park, the troubling case falls to Seth Wolfe, the newly promoted Chief of Police in the enigmatic town of Lost Grove. Given his recent experiences with the unnatural and the inhumane, the town sleuth suspects that there may be more to this tragic death, and possibly more bodies to come. A shadowy horror is stalking the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-11-06T11:15:38+02:00November 6th, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Horror Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Oh F*ck! Dinosaurs! by Dave Bruno

Sardonically echoing Jurassic Park, Alien, and other classic stories of predatory monsters, Oh F*ck! Dinosaurs! by Dave Bruno is an amusing escape that also doubles as a character study of survival during times of absolute chaos.

A dozen post-collegiate friends with a whole trunk of tangled baggage embark on a weekend in the remote mountains of northern California. Rumors of savage animal attacks in the area and their own interpersonal conflicts already threaten their peaceful plans for hiking, camping, and some tipsy debauchery, but when this mismatched crew mistakenly enters a restricted government area, they wander their way […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-08-18T16:11:31+02:00August 18th, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Horror Book Reviews, Science Fiction Book Reviews|

House of Desolation by Alex Webster

An eerie supernatural thriller set against a haunted Regency backdrop, House of Desolation by Alex Webster is a chilling portrait of secrets, sanity, and the resiliency of family love.

When Sir Thomas Hargrave inherits a crumbling family manor, the unexpected windfall seems like an ideal foundation for him and his wife Eleanor to begin their new life together. Along with the financial burden of renovation, however, the young couple must weather mysterious occurrences and accidents on the estate, as well as the looming sense that a tragic specter of innocence remains trapped within the walls. As their marriage begins to […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-08-13T13:31:03+02:00August 13th, 2025|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Horror Book Reviews, Paranormal Book Reviews|

Review: Brood 17: The Grooming of Misty Dawn by SE Reynolds

A haunting spree of psychological horror, Brood 17: The Grooming of Misty Dawn by SE Reynolds is a visceral and graphic plunge into psychosexual trauma.

Misty Dawn McCafferty is being held in a mental institution after ritually sacrificing her boyfriend, claiming that an insidious infection was to blame for her burst of brutal violence. Although Misty was discovered by the police in a pool of her partner’s blood after a halfway successful murder-suicide, she insists that her cicada-derived infection is what drove her to homicide. Ivan, a forensic psychologist working on the case, has two weeks to decide between insanity […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-04-11T19:19:42+02:00March 25th, 2025|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Horror Book Reviews|

Review: Divine in Essence by Yarrow Paisley

An irreverent and boundary-pushing collection of short stories, Divine in Essence by Yarrow Paisley is a burst of radical creativity with a heavy dose of darkness.

Playing artfully on the edge of perverse and profound, these tales descend into the casually macabre and disturbingly real, teetering between horror fiction and supernatural sci-fi. Each page brims with unearthly tales: a fever-afflicted daughter recounting visions from Hell to her mother, the soul of a young boy imprisoned in the dead eye of his father’s vexatious lover, the existential musings of a comedian’s corpse as it takes one more spin through the world, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2025-01-31T15:21:46+02:00November 25th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Horror Book Reviews, Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Lost Grove by Charlotte Zang & Alex Knudsen

A wickedly twisted thriller with a gritty gothic edge, Lost Grove: Part One by Charlotte Zang and Alex Knudsen is a dark dream for fans of contemporary horror.

The sleepy coastal town of Lost Grove, with more secrets than people, is a classically ominous setting for a supernatural whodunit, including a stubbornly determined prodigal sleuth with a big city reputation, and a bizarre link to the murder victim. The appearance of a pale corpse on Mourner’s Beach sends Sergeant Seth Wolfe down a rabbit hole of memory into unsettling visions and dreams from his youth that began after a near-death […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2024-09-03T10:38:58+02:00February 28th, 2024|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Horror Book Reviews, Thriller Book Reviews|

Review: Things That Go Bump in the Night by JC Bratton

A collection of slow-burning psychological horror, Things That Go Bump in the Night, Volume One: Urban Legends by JC Bratton holds four chilling and unpredictable stories, originally published separately.

In “Who’s At the Door?” a young woman named Jamie is left at home while her parents go on vacation, but two weeks of enjoying an empty house quickly turn terrifying. Whether it’s a cruel prank or something even more sinister, bizarre things keep happening at 3:33 AM, from invisible front door visitors to ghastly appearances on empty country roads. With the help of Mark the heartthrob, Jamie continues peeling back […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-11-29T19:35:15+02:00November 29th, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Horror Book Reviews, Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: Jitters by Chris Harmon

Sampling from the truly strange world of Chris Harmon’s imagination, Jitters is an aptly named spook-fest of tales from a promising young writer.

A scary series of gritty snapshots and long-form stories, this is a collection that feels like it could be read around a campfire. From zombies in the basement and ravenous tigers to dangerously depressed wizards and cannibalistic substitute teachers, these fast-moving stories take childhood fears and blow them into extraordinary and entertaining proportions.

The frustrations, irritations, stressors, and paranoid delusions of teenagers are on proud display, along with a dastardly catalog of axe murderers, aliens, terrifying ice […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-03-17T16:17:04+02:00February 2nd, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Horror Book Reviews|