Horror Book Reviews

Review: Wyrd, TX by David Shawn

★★★★½ Wyrd TX

Wyrd, TX by David Shawn is a terrifying, stylish thriller.

Balancing humor, wit and terror is an ability that few authors ever master, but David Shawn releases a macabre tour de force in Wyrd, TX, a city that time seems to have forgotten, but demons have not. Shawn marvelously sets the tone for readers within the first few chapters – a supernatural first scene to cleanse the palette for fantasy, followed by patient, thorough introductions of the major characters populating this bizarre world.

Chief Butler is the perfect antihero for this type of setting; a good man with […]

Jacob’s Odyssey By Russ Melrose

Jacob's Odyssey By Russ MelroseJacob’s Odyssey By Russ Melrose is an engrossing zombie novel in which a virus has decimated the country, and Jake, a fifth grade teacher, must travel across the Salt Lake Valley in Utah to survive – all the while haunted by more than world events. Jake has a troubled past, and he’s on a quest for redemption. When a woman and child are in need of help, Jake has found a way to redeem himself, just when the zombie apocalypse becomes even more dangerous.

While the set-up of Jacob’s Odyssey is not exactly new, the depth of Jake’s voice is. […]

Review: Ghosts of Mateguas: A Mateguas Island Novel by Linda Watkins

★★★★ Ghosts of Mateguas: A Mateguas Island Novel by Linda Watkins

Karen Andersen could be envied. She has a loving husband, wonderful children with a new arrival to light up her life, and a home near the coast to ease her mind on days when the gray sets in. Yet there’s a secret pain that Karen carries with her, carried from another coast of a place she can never forget: Mateguas.

After the terrifying ordeals of her time there, Karen knows she has to return; it’s the only way to put down her torments for good. Will Karen do what must be done? Is her son doomed to be cursed […]

2018-10-16T09:21:56+02:00March 22nd, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: The Little Scary Book by Kevin Duncan

★★★★½ The Little Scary Book by Kevin Duncan

The Little Scary Book by Kevin Duncan is a horror story collection, with ten stories for “anyone who was ever young.” This extremely brief description is surprisingly effective at summarizing the piece; the collection is meant for the slightly younger scare-fans out there, though with just as much for an older reader to enjoy. Slip back into the shoes of your younger self for a whole bunch of frights.

It’s very simple book in look and form, though frankly quite terrifying at first glance with its text-less black-and-white depiction of a warped skull. Even as an adult, readers could […]

Review: Seasons of Pain by Imowen Lodestone

★★★½ Seasons of Pain by Imowen Lodestone

Content warning for violence, sexual and partly graphic; general sexuality; abuse, substance use, and some forms of self-harm.

Jesse M. Lelrick is a Witch; well, she was a Witch. To anyone who asks, who has any right to ask, she’ll tell them flatly that she doesn’t do that anymore, she gave up her powers, and now she’s just your average college girl. She knows it’s a lie; she was cast out by her kuven and her personal struggles merely pushed her to distance herself from the practice, yet it’s still inside her, pushing for space between depression, self-destruction, and […]

2016-03-09T08:10:07+02:00March 4th, 2016|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

Review: End Time (The End Time Sage Book 1) by Daniel Greene

★★★★½ End Time by Daniel Greene

A savage, unforgettable zombie thrill ride.

From the very first scene of Greene’s gruesome, entrancing thriller, readers know that they are in for one hell of a ride. When a deadly virus begins to spread in the DRC, one might think that all the petty rivalries, policies, and ambitions of people would be put to the side for the sake of survival, but this novel takes readers not only through the brutal gore of an imagined zombie apocalypse, but also into some truly dark corners of human nature.

Readers are initially led to believe that this is a slowly […]

Review: Kai by Derek Vasconi ★★★★★

Kai by Derek VasconiThe disconcerting tale of Kai by Derek Vasconi follows the harbored Satsuki Takamoto, a girl living through a downward spiral of social exclusion, universal envy and ever-deepening depression; in comparison, Seul Bi Rissiello – a resident of Evanston, Illinois – is caring for the mentally ill as she strives for meaning in her life after the brutal loss of her parents in gruesome circumstance. Although unaware of each others existences, both girls live a seemingly poetic tandem of suffering as an unexpected thread ties their tortures together.

This book is quite an eloquent, yet biting read: the slow, creeping, eventually […]

2015-12-29T09:35:27+02:00December 1st, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Rotville by Bryce Bentley Summers ★★★★

Rotville by Bryce Bentley SummersIn the year 2030, humanity is devastated by a terrifying plague that forces survivors into a life of cloistered fear. A quarantine is built into a city, known as Colloseo, where Colloseo Super Max Prison houses some of the worst examples of the surviving human race. When a military genius comes up with a new super-soldier program using these violent outcasts, twenty-year-old Dylan is inducted into a series of experiments to enhance his body and replace his mind. The plan goes awry, forcing one doctor to gift the former Dylan a chance at free will in order to save the […]

2019-01-21T09:38:04+02:00November 19th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |
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