Tag: horror

Kate’s Review: “Molka”

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Book: “Molka” by Monika Kim

Publishing Info: Erewhon Books, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at PLA 2026 from the publisher!

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: molka (n): the Korean term for spy cameras secretly and illegally installed, often to capture voyeuristic images and videos

Dahye can’t believe her luck when she finds herself in a whirlwind romance with handsome, charismatic Hyukjoon, the heir to a multi-million dollar fortune.

But then a shocking revelation threatens: the couple has been caught on a spycam amid Korea’s growing molka epidemic, and the video is all over the internet. When Hyukjoon flees the country to avoid the intense public scrutiny, Dahye is left to grapple with the ramifications on her own; and the demons from her childhood, long dormant, begin to surface.

Amid the chaos, she catches the attention of Junyoung, a nerdy, introverted IT tech at work. Junyoung harbours a dark secret: he has been spying on the women at work with his own hidden cameras. As Dahye’s life begins to unravel, she unknowingly becomes the sole target of Junyoung’s perverse obsession.

When the facts surrounding the invasion of her privacy come to light, Dahye is faced with the humiliating truth. Her pain and hurt turn to rage as she faces her past. Her desire for vengeance is insatiable, and she will not rest until the men who have wronged her have paid in blood…

Review: Thank you to Erewhon Books for giving me an ARC at PLA 2026!

Okay, before I even go into my introduction to my review, I want to let people know that this review is going to be covering some triggering topics like rape/sexual assault, and sexual exploitation. So just be aware that it’s going to get heavy.

As I was reading “Molka” by Monika Kim the disgusting revelations of a so called online ‘Rape Academy’ broke in the news cycle, where men would drug their partners, rape them, film it, and then upload it for other users to see. It was horrifying but not all that surprising, and it just made me shake my head because the book I was reading was unfolding in real life in a lot of ways. “Molka” is a horror story to be sure, with a good majority of the horrors being completely man made, and Kim doesn’t hold back in her storytelling even if it makes for an incredibly triggering read. But a necessary one, as evidenced by the fact this shit is happening off page and in reality.

Our story takes place in Seoul and has two main POVs. The first is of Dahye, a young woman who has been swept off her feet by Hyukjoon, the son of a millionaire who showers her with gifts and incredible experiences… until footage of them having sex pops up online, seemingly filmed without their knowledge. While Hyukjoon has the wealth and privilege to ride the storm (being a man also helps… more on that in a bit), Dahye does not, and finds herself spiraling as the footage is everywhere, bringing up memories of her sister Euhnye, who killed herself years ago at seventeen after being impregnated by an older man and being terrified of the fallout. Our second POV is that of Junyoung, one of the IT guys at her work who has installed his own hidden cameras, or molkas, in the women’s restrooms so he can spy on unsuspecting women and see their privates, with Dahye catching his eye. Both POVs are so upsetting, whether it’s getting into the head of a predator like Junyoung, or seeing how absolutely wrecked Dahye is because of the violation and because of how women in molka cases are blamed, ignored, and shamed. And seeing them both escalate in their own ways, whether it’s Junyoung’s obsession becoming more dangerous, or Dahye’s mental health spiraling and her rage building, makes for such suspense and tension. Especially when it seems like Eunyhe’s ghost may be manifesting more and more as Dahye becomes more and more frenzied. I loved the bits with Eunyhe, with little hints of water and fleeting glances turning into a full on vengeful ghost egging Dahye on.

But potential supernatural themes aside, the really scary aspect of “Molka” were the real life themes of violent misogyny, sexual exploitation, and gender double standards within societies when it comes to sexuality. For characters like Dahye and Eunhye, as women who experience violence because of their sexuality (whether it’s the assault and exploitation in Dahye’s case or Eunhye killing herself after her out of wedlock teen pregnancy is revealed) are shamed and shunned and driven to the brink. But for people like Hyukjoon and Junyoung, who are men, they can either be wholly unaffected by scandal, or even be abusers either out in the open or hidden in the shadows, and even if their nastiness becomes known they are excused because boys will be boys. There were so many infuriating moments in this book that had to do with the disgusting ways Dahye was sexualized and violated, and Kim makes sure to tread a very fine line that makes sure the reader knows exactly what’s going on without making it feel all the more exploitative of, even worse, titillating. It is a VERY difficult read at times, especially when we see how objectified and dehumanized women are in the eyes of their abusers, but it’s also a searing and unflinching portrayal of feminist rage that has moments of catharsis to balance out the incredibly triggering moments.

“Molka” is a dark and upsetting horror novel, but it also feels like a very timely read, unfortunately. I definitely recommend it to any reader who likes a ‘good for her’ story.

Rating 9: A dark and difficult but unfortunately timely horror story about misogyny, violence against women, and the double standards between the treatment of genders in sexual situations. “Molka” is filled with content warnings, but the message is cathartic and the feminist rage burns bright.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Molka” is included on the Goodreads list “2026 Women in Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “The Caretaker”

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Book: “The Caretaker” by Marcus Kliewer

Publishing Info: Atria/Emily Bestler Books, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Follow the Rites…

Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake.

From Marcus Kliewer, a new “titan of the macabre and unsettling” (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), comes a supernatural horror about a young woman who accepts a caretaking job from Craigslist, only to discover the position has consequences far greater—and more dangerous—than she ever could have imagined.

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY:
Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY.

Macy Mullins can’t say why the job posting grabbed her attention—it had the pull of a fisherman’s lure, barbed hook and all—vaguely ominous. But after an endless string of failed job interviews, she’s not exactly in the position to be picky. She has rent to pay, groceries to buy, and a younger sister to provide for.

Besides, it’s only three days’ work…

Three days, cooped up in a stranger’s house, surrounded by Oregon Coast wilderness.

What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property—and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it, and the rest of humanity.

Follow the Rites… Follow the Rites… Follow the Rites… ..— / ….. / —..

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

I somehow missed the book “We Have Always Lived Here” by Marcus Kliewer when it came out, and I still haven’t worked it into my reading schedule in spite of the fact basically all of the praise it has received. Like not just from reviewers or influencers, but also people in my life who like horror. It entered my mind that I hadn’t read it yet as I started Kliewer’s newest book “The Caretaker”, as I had a fleeting thought of ‘oh I wonder if I should get to that eventually’. And as I was reading “The Caretaker”, I realized why everyone was praising “We Have Always Lived Here”. Because “The Caretaker” is TERRIFYING.

I did not read this book at night for a reason. (source)

I will reiterate: this was a scary read for me. It read really fast even though it’s a pretty average length of a book, and Kliewer has the pacing and vibe down pat. It starts with a terrifying bang and then cycles back down to a level that has time to build the dread and tension, and BOY does it build. We are following Macy, a woman who finds herself down on her luck and desperate for employment as she has to try and care for herself and her sister in the wake of their father’s tragic death. So a strange ad for a caretaker needed sounds like a good deal, and she applies and gets the job for a LOT of money…. but the instructions seem odd. I loved how strange and out there the rules were, which sound crazy and innocuous, but as Macy fails to follow them (oh my GOD, MACY, GET IT TOGETHER!) things go from weird to horrifying. There were so many moments of just absolute DREAD for me as the tension builds and builds, and I found myself putting the book down a couple of times because I was so stressed out. I don’t want to spoil any of it for people who want to check it out, but let me tell you, the rules may sound innocuous (to a point), but they are anything but. Especially as they all start to fall apart. I also enjoyed how ambiguous things are in this book. I know that sometimes ambiguity or a lack of explanation of supernatural or magical systems are frustrating in books (I find myself irritated from time to time with this kind of thing), Kliewer’s ambiguity adds to the story because it means that the reader can see themselves in Macy’s shoes when the really strange things start happening. And the really strange and weird things REALLY messed with my head.

And Macy herself is an interesting heroine because she is such a mess, but a mess whose messiness makes sense as we find out about her thanks to flashbacks to her childhood, and the loss of her dad. She is clearly struggling with depression and grief, and has to try and pull herself together because of her desperation to keep herself and her sister Jemma (who is a mess in hew own way) afloat. It makes for a lot of her choices and decisions as the story progresses to be believable for the most part. I definitely had a lot of anxiety as she continued to mess up the instructions, though I will fully admit that once we got into some of the late stage ones they do seem a bit impossible or COMPLETELY insane, and a lot of that was because of how much I empathized with her. Kliewer did a great job fleshing her out and making it both easy to root for her and easy to get so frustrated (while fully recognizing I’d probably also mess up like she did).

“The Caretaker” is so incredibly scary and engrossing. I really enjoyed it and if you want something weird and terrifying definitely check it out.

Rating 9: High intensity, a slow building dread, and an overall unsettling and WEIRD vibe that turns into abject horror. “The Caretaker” is scary as hell.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Caretaker” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.

Joint Review: “Japanese Gothic”

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Book: “Japanese Gothic” by Kylie Lee Baker

Publishing Info: Hanover Square Press, April 2026

Where Did We Get This Book: NetGalley;

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds.

October, 2026: Lee Turner doesn’t remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge—his father’s new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn’t always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls.

October, 1877: Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father’s face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window.

One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie.

Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it.

Kate’s Thoughts

Given how much I adored Kylie Lee Baker’s previous novel “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” I knew that I wanted to get my hands on “Japanese Gothic”. Baker really has a solid grasp on how to craft a well done horror story that not only reflects her cultural background, but also universal fears across many different people. Reading about “Japanese Gothic” had me excited, and when Serena asked if we wanted to do a joint review I was in because I really wanted to see how our two different perspectives of the genres involved (fantasy and horror) would meld. It’s always fun to see how we approach the same book through these lenses.

As I was reading it I kind of found myself feeling like this book was more dark fantasy than horror (only because while it had spooky elements it didn’t really invoke dread in me), but given that I love dark fantasy as well that wasn’t a detriment. The suspense was there and as we follow two different perspectives (that of murderer Turner in our modern timeline, and that of ambitious would be samurai Sen in a timeline centuries before, who both live in the same house), Baker creates a time bending and mysterious story with murder, mystery, and two damaged people making a connection. We don’t really know why they are having this overlap, but as we learn more about the both of them I found myself getting more attached even though both of them, especially Lee, seem pretty menacing. I also liked how Baker carefully peels the layers back of both Lee and Sen, letting them learn about each other and letting us see how they could be drawn to one another through a weird dreamlike connection that feels otherworldly and strange. I liked both of them and all of their trauma, be it Lee’s mother who disappeared and who he thinks was kidnapped for human trafficking purposes, or Sen trying so desperately to impress her uncompromising samurai father. All of it worked for me and kept me on edge.

I will say, though, that if you are a little squeamish around violence and gore, this book has it’s moments. I still don’t really think it’s horror, but others may disagree due to some of the story beats and violent moments.

I enjoyed “Japanese Gothic”! It’s unique and weird and it will surely satisfy horror and dark fantasy fans alike.

Serena’s Thoughts

It’s always fun when we can find authors that cross over between our two genres. I had read Baker’s YA duology, “The Scarlet Alchemist,” a few years ago and really loved it. Her next book, “Bat Eater,” I saw was more horror-focused and left to Kate. But when I saw this one coming down the pike, the mentions of “dark fantasy” and “gothic” sounded more up my alley, so a joint review was definitely in order!

And it really came through in that way! I’d agree with Kate that this felt much more like a dark fantasy than a horror novel. I’ve read and enjoyed a few horror novels here and there, and as Kate identified, a feeling of dread is key to that genre. And while this had spooky elements, it didn’t have that lingering feeling in the back of your mind that something terrible was right around the corner. That said, it’s definitely not a book for the faint of heart; Baker doesn’t back away from some of the more gruesome moments and depicts them quite starkly on the page.

Part of the darkness came down to the two main characters, each with their own simmering issues. They are the sorts of characters that you catch yourself rooting for, and then take a step back and look at them objectively and start questioning whether you really should be supporting them so fully. It’s an interesting dynamic and one that had me sucked into each of their stories, perhaps even despite myself at times.

I also really liked the way she used the two timelines and wove them together. There were plenty of twists and turns throughout, and I was on the edge of my seat for much of it to see how it was all going to come together in the end. Towards the end, some of these twists and turns began to feel a bit overwhelming as characters were dropping left and right, but I found the end itself satisfying.

Overall, I enjoyed this one and definitely think it’s a great read for dark fantasy fans!

Kate’s Rating 8: A suspenseful and time bending dark fantasy with two complicated protagonists and a hell of a hook.

Serena’s Rating 8: Dark in just the way like: full of twists and turns and grounded in two protagonists that you’re not quite sure what to do with at times.

Reader’s Advisory

“Japanese Gothic” is included on the Goodreads lists “Weird Lit”, and “2026 Women in Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “Bodies of Work”

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Book: “Bodies of Work” by Clay McLeod Chapman

Publishing Info: Titan Books, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: At sixty-six years old, Winston Kemper has always been a nonentity. No one notices him. His simple existence barely registers for those who come into contact with him. Some call him feeble-minded. He is a janitor at the local church, a groundskeeper by default, and that’s it. No friends, no family. When he’s done with work, he returns home—a remote, single room apartment located above a garage—and that is where his true work begins.

Winston Kemper is a collector of voices, and his magnum opus—The Butterfly Girls—is a sprawling epic of untapped imagination. It has no single canvas, no particular frame. It is everywhere—scribbled on the walls, the floor, and countless notebooks.

Winston is creating a fantasia which exists in words, images and blood. As part of his ‘art’ he has been murdering forgotten women. Poor souls who slip through the cracks of society, who no one’s looking for. Mothers, sisters, daughters to someone, but no more.

Winston takes their lives, their voices.

But now he can hear them. They whisper to him. They talk of revenge.

Winston Kemper might not believe in ghosts, but he is about to learn they are very real. And they are very, very angry.

Review: Hooray! A new Clay McLeod Chapman book is out! Chapman’s books have been some of the most unsettling, disgusting, and fun books that I’ve read in recent years, his horror style being WAY out there and at times uncompromising while never feeling like it’s trying to be too edgy. I reminded myself of this when I read the description for his new novella “Bodies of Work”, as a book about a serial killer who takes ‘artistic inspiration’ from the women that he brutally murders. Because when a story like this is handled by a less talented author, it could very easily feel in bad taste or exploitative. But I’m happy to say that “Bodies of Work” didn’t feel that way to me, and it ended up being a quick and gripping horror tale.

This is a novella, so Chapman has less pages to work with, but he uses the pages effectively. We jump between the story of a serial killer named Winston Kemper who murders women (generally who fall under the ‘lesser dead’ umbrella who won’t be as obviously missed due to their circumstances) and is trying to implement them into a broader artistic vision, recreating them as butterfly women in a fantasy world that he has been obsessing over for many, many years. Our story is a combined narrative of the voices of the women he has killed acting as something of a Greek chorus, who act as muses as well as victims, as well as the fantasy story that is being created in his mind of butterfly women going to battle. It combines creepy serial killer scares with a strange dream-like whimsy, and it is such a weird and unsettling but also ethereal tale. There is gore, there are some very triggering aspects to it (violence towards women, child abuse, as well as other content warnings), but there is also an undercurrent of the bonds of friendship and the slow build up to revenge that balance out the very disturbing things. I quite enjoyed getting the perspectives of the victims as they tell the story in a flowing train of thought kind of way along with a straight forward narration. It blended well.

There is also a pretty brutal examination of how traumatic childhood combined with other uncontrollable factors can combine to create a dangerous predator of a human being who will go on to do unspeakable crimes. We get some insight into not only the women he has killed and their backstories (at least a bit; the voices have been losing their memories or blending together as time has gone on), but also into Winston’s background. I know that some people are burnt out of completely over stories where we learn about the back stories of the villain, and I also know that some people see such things as apologia for these characters. And while I can definitely understand this line of thinking and won’t tell people otherwise if that’s how they feel, I, myself, find these kinds of character studies to be interesting and, honestly, kind of important. Because in so many cases monstrous human beings they aren’t born monsters, and are instead created, and it’s so much easier to just say that it doesn’t matter and to not acknowledge it as opposed to confronting it. But Chapman also makes sure not to be making excuses for Kemper and his crimes, as he makes sure to give just as much weight and attention to the women that he kills to remind us that while Kemper’s victimization as a child due to trauma, abuse, and implied neurodivergence is tragic, it doesn’t excuse what he does later in life. I felt like Chapman balanced the realities pretty well.

It’s another winner from Clay McLeod Chapman, just in a shorter format this time around. I found “Bodies of Work” to be as tragic as it is visceral.

Rating 8: A surreal and brutal story about a serial killer who considers himself an artist, a chorus of victims who want their stories to be told, and an examination of trauma turning victims into monsters.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Bodies of Work” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “Yesteryear”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke

Publishing Info: Knopf, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening,  Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

I remember when the announcement for the book “Yesteryear” by Caro Claire Burke hit the publishing news, and the very concept completely had me hook line and sinker. A tradwife homesteader influencer being possibly transported to the early 1800s (aka a time where women had no power or choices in their lives) that she has always claimed to want to experience? And tries to sell it as something that all women SHOULD want to experience? Only to find it to be ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE?

Oh the sweet sweet irony (source)

So yes, I had pretty high hopes for “Yesteryear”. And “Yesteryear” blew them out of the water.

“Yesteryear” keeps a lot of its secrets hidden away, slowly unveiling them through a couple of unfolding narratives. We start on a typical day on Yesteryear Ranch, with tradwife influencer Natalie Heller Mills going through the motions of content creation for her millions of followers. She presents a front of traditional Christian values, rustic and ‘natural’ living, and a perfect family of multiple children, a perfect husband, and a ranch she runs herself (no one has to see the multiple nannies, the fact husband Caleb is an aimless dolt, or the fact they have MULTIPLE hired hands). You get the sense that something on this day is off, with tension building between Natalie, Caleb, and one of her producers. Then, Natalie awakens to find herself in a dank ranchhouse that looks like Yesteryear but is far more dilapidated, with children that aren’t the children she knows, and a husband who seems like Caleb but is violent and controlling. Not to mention it seems like she has really been transported back in time to the early 1800s, a time she claims to long for where women were submissive to their husbands and eager to fulfill their gendered duties, but is in actuality a nightmare. So the narratives become going to the past to see Natalie’s journey from devout Christian gal to the mogul of an empire that seems to be on the brink, and then the new reality that has her feeling trapped and desperate to escape. I loved the framing of this as they slowly start to converge, and the building tension and questions about what the HELL has happened to Natalie to get from Ballerina Farms-esque wealth and status to actual tradwife hell. It kept me guessing the whole time, presenting not only nightmare scenarios of Natalie’s new normal and her seeking out of answers, but also a clear villain story of how she got to her dream and the people she stepped on to get there. All will be revealed, and done so nearly perfectly, but the slow burn of it all crackles and kept me so hooked I read this in two days.

But the heart of this story (even if it’s a bit of a rancid one, and I mean that in a good way) is Natalie and her trad wife influencer ambitions and how far she will go to achieve them. In other trad wife books I’ve read in the past year, we have protagonists who are definitely complex and are seeking out fame and status with this highly damaging platform and influence, but ultimately they have learning moments and kind of see the error of their ways, or came to their positions through means that are ultimately empathetic and give them some grace. This isn’t a bad thing, really, and I did enjoy the ability to give them grace with the context that we get as the tale goes on. But Natalie? Natalie is also a well rounded character who doesn’t feel like a moustache twirling villain, but she is smug, she is a hypocrite, she is judgmental and cruel, and she is a sly and subtle monster who knows how to hide behind a veneer of piety in order to achieve her goals. Sure there is a Ballerina Farms vibe to her, but there is also a very clear undercurrent of Ruby Franke in her cruelty and her thirst for power at any cost. I was thrilled to see Burke take her places that others haven’t, like the fact that she is more than willing to cozy up with white supremacists and spew bigoted talking points (but in a gentle way) if she can feel superior to everyone else, especially the ‘angry women’ who she feels incredibly victimized by even though she’s hardly a victim. She’s just venomous, and it felt like it was epitomizing the darkest realities of the trad wife movement and its ties to Christo-fascism and white supremacy, and how it gets enmeshed with far right political movements. It’s the harshest critique of the movement I’ve seen and it is spectacular, even if it is deeply, DEEPLY uncomfortable.

“Yesteryear” is phenomenal. It kept me guessing, kept me engaged, and is sure to be a favorite read of the year for me. I’m blown away.

Rating 10: Mind blowing. A fantastic critique of the performance of conservative (to far right) femininity that trad wife content bolsters that is rife with suspense and building dread.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Yesteryear” is included on the Goodreads list “Tradwife Thrillers”.

Serena’s Review: “Wolf Worm”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Wolf Worm” by T. Kingfisher

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, March 2026

Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: The year is 1899 and Sonia Wilson is a scientific illustrator without work, prospects, or hope. When the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use. But soon enough she finds that there are darker things at work than the Carolina woods. What happened to her predecessor, Halder’s wife? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thiefs?”

With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a dark road full of parasitic maggots that burrow into human flesh, and that his monstrous experiments may grow to encompass his newest illustrator as well.

Review: Here I am, back with another T. Kingfisher review! Honestly, this one might have fallen better under Kate’s genres, but I got here first! Seems like every other month I’m reviewing a book by this author, but that’s the great thing about prolific authors, especially when they always deliver.

There was a lot to enjoy about this one for sure. Most especially, I enjoyed the combination of the time period of history alongside the classic gothic trappings of a mysterious house hidden away in the woods and under the care of an even more mysterious owner. But unlike the typical gothic story, there’s no romance to be found here, just body horror galore.

I wouldn’t say that I’m the sort of person who is squeamish about bugs. If anything, my husband is always busy squashing them on first sight while I quietly work behind the scenes to simply transport them to safety outside. All my protestations about spiders being useful bugs seem to fall on deaf ears. THAT SAID, Kingfisher may have turned me around on all things creepy crawly. I don’t live in the south (obviously), but after reading this book, I pretty much never want to visit there again. Bot flies?? No thank you! Forget the creepy mushrooms that reanimated the dead, this thing takes body horror to an entirely new level and man, was it gross at times. Even thinking about some of the scenes now gives me a major ick. That said, it was definitely successful in being creepy for this very same reason. Your fear factor will likely greatly depend on your relationship to bugs, but, like I said, even the most hardened are likely to be grossed out here.

As for the rest of it, we have many of the staples of Kingfisher books. A solid, sympathetic, yet funny, leading lady character. A cast of assorted quirky side characters. And a villainous presence lurking behind it all. Of these all, I think the main character stood out the most. I enjoyed the side characters and villain (such as it was), but they also felt fairly familiar at this point. The main character also felt familiar, but her experiences as a woman working in a male-dominated world and her struggles with imposter syndrome were a compelling personal arc to follow.

I will say that this book is on the slower side. While the characters are the true heart of the story and were enough to pull me in right away, the story takes a while to truly set its scene. There’s a lot of slow buildup as Sonia begins her work and only gradually begins to suspect that all is not right around her. Once the midpoint of the book hits, things pick up from there. But it does create a situation where readers really need to stick with it through some of the quieter moments in the beginning to get to the payoff in the end. For my part, I feel that a lot of this slow buildup is a staple of gothic horror, slowly ratcheting up tension and atmosphere before building to a crisis point. However, it does leave for a bit of an uneven reading experience.

Overall, this was an excellent horror, gothic novel. The bug stuff was truly horrifying, and there are more than one scenes that I wish to scrub from my memory permanently. I have been missing the romance in the last few Kingfisher books I’ve read, but this one is a solid entry in the gothic genre and well worth checking out, especially for those who enjoy body horror.

Rating 8: Bugs have never been more gross, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Wolf Worm” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Horror to Look Forward to in 2026 and Nature Horror.

Kate’s Review: “We Call Them Witches”

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Book: “We Call Them Witches” by India-Rose Bower

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, April 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Most people have been devoured by the eldritch creatures, but Sara and her family have been fighting for survival, armed with their knowledge of folklore and pagan rituals – the only weapon that seems to work against these monsters.

And then a young woman, Parsley, comes out of nowhere into Sara’s life. Found in their garden, they have no idea where she is from.

Sara and Parsley begin to fall in love, but disaster strikes when Sara’s brother Noah is taken by the creatures. They set out to find him, across a landscape of merciless terror, haunted by death.

But can Parsley truly be trusted in a world where humanity is as scarse as humans themselves?

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!

It’s been a bit since I read a post-apocalyptic horror tale. It wasn’t really a purposeful decision to do that, and it’s not like I’ve been having the same anxieties about it as I did during COVID (though I will say this war in Iran hasn’t exactly been giving me confidence about global stability at the moment). It just hasn’t been on my radar as much. But when “We Call Them Witches” by India -Rose Bower ended up in my mailbox I realized it had been some time, and that this one sounded like it was going to tell an end of the world story that felt different from previous ones I’ve read as of late.

It’s such a unique take on the end of the world and a post-apocalyptic life, and some of the ways that it is presented felt like “28 Days Later” just in how the environment and the survivors are coping and living a more unstable life by necessity. Our family at the heart of the story is close knit but stressed to the bone, with Sara feeling connected but the constant worry bearing down on all of them. We are seeing the tensions by the time the mysterious Parsley arrives, and while Sara gets closer to her, it causes strife between her and some family members, especially oldest sibling Danny. Sara is a pretty straight forward protagonist, and while in some ways her characterization read a bit more ‘young adult’ to me I liked the hints of tension of a family that has been pushed to the brink, and how that pushes her more towards a new and seemingly open person like Parsley. I don’t know if I bought the insta-love that Sara and Parsley fell into, but I do believe the way that Sara could be looking for that connection given how dangerous the world is and how her family has been buckling under the pressure.

It was the mystery and body horror/folk horror elements of the ‘witches’ that worked best for me in this book. We aren’t given a full on explanation as to what exactly happened to bring these creatures forth, but their menace is intense from the jump, opening with their arrival and a particularly brutal massacre that sends Sara and her family on the run to try and stay alive in a new dangerous world. Some of the descriptions were really nasty, and I really enjoyed the differences between some of the creatures and how we never really get big answers about why they function the way they do. I also liked the use of folklore and mythologies and how it does tend to work as a weapon against them to some degree. As mentioned above, it’s a fun way to explore an end of the world scenario that we haven’t seen as much before in the sub-genre.

“We Call Them Witches” was entertaining and strange. I liked the unique take on the end of the world and the monsters that lurk within.

Rating 7: A creative take on a post apocalyptic world with some interesting folk horror elements.

Reader’s Advisory:

“We Call Them Witches” is included on the Goodreads list “Folk Horror” .

Kate’s Review: “The Curse of Hester Gardens”

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Book: “The Curse of Hester Gardens” by Tamika Thompson

Publishing Info: Erewhon Books, March 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publicist via NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: We Need to Talk about Kevin as if written by Jason Reynolds and Tananarive Due meets Model Home by Rivers Solomon in an innovative twist on the haunted house about a mother desperate to protect her sons from the twin specters of gun violence and otherworldly menace in their public housing project.

Nona McKinley raised three boys in the Hester Gardens section of Medford, Michigan, an impoverished community divided by those who follow their faith in God and those who turn to crime to survive. With her drug dealer husband behind bars and her eldest son shot to death at eighteen, Nona has devoted herself to ensuring her other children escape their brother’s fate.

Her second son Marcus is on the right path. He’s a valedictorian heading to an Ivy League school. He can get out.

But then, strange things start happening to Nona and other mysterious footsteps are heard when she’s alone, people have phantom encounters in the streets, unattended appliances go off at all hours. Even more concerning is the state of Nona’s living sons. Her youngest, Lance, is hanging around with a bad crowd, and Marcus becomes moody and secretive. Sometimes he even seems to act like a different person entirely.

Nona has her secrets too. Her affair with the married church pastor has been weighing on her conscience, but that’s not the only guilt haunting her. She fears that someone—or something— is seeking revenge for an act she made in a moment of weakness to protect her family. And now everyone in Hester Gardens must pay the price…

Review: Thank you to Sparkpoint Studio for sending me an eARC of this novel via NetGalley!

I read Tamika Thompson’s short story collection “Unshod, Cackling, and Naked” a few years ago and really enjoyed it. There were so many horror tales that she had in it that were so well done and so compelling, and when I was asked to read her debut novel “The Curse of Hester Gardens” I was really eager to take a look. After all, she had some really strong short stories, and I wanted to see what she could do with a full length novel. And once I started reading, it became quite clear quite quickly how special of a book it was I was reading. I was hooked immediately, knowing that it was going to destroy me.

Given that this is a horror story, I will talk about the supernatural and slow burn dread first. In a similar vein to the film “Candyman” (it’s not a one to one comparison but I was thinking about its themes as I read), we have a housing project that is not only dealing with violence and poverty and being left to the wayside, but is also dealing with hauntings and ghosts of those who once lived there, and an escalating presence. It starts with a bang right from the start, with our protagonist Nona getting ready for her son Marcus’s graduation from high school, and believes that someone, or something, has entered her home, only to be alone. I was hooked from the start, and the creep factor slowly builds and builds with occurences that seem ghostly, but could also be explainable by the realities of living at Hester Gardens. But Thompson does a great job with the kind of weird to the all out terrifying, with resident ghosts making their presences known, and a potential possession of Marcus as he starts acting strange and out of character. There were so many beats with ghosts that could either just be straight forward realities (like a little boy ghost who just pops in and out and the residents are used to it), or something that seems to be growing in malevolence, and Thompson was able to pull different vibes from the various kinds of hauntings and they all worked. There is also some really quiet beats of creepiness, like a stove that keeps turning on, or a voice that could be a family member in the hallway but may NOT be, or straight up nightmare fuel, like a ghost climbing out of a wall to try an grab someone. I loved EVERY level, and the tension builds and builds until it’s unbearable and in need or release.

But the most impactful aspect of this book is the way that Thompson has taken a haunted house and ghost story theme and made it more explicitly about the spectre of American Racism, bringing in aspects of poverty, housing projects that fall to the wayside and become run down and left behind, gun violence and gang violence and the desperation of the residents who feel there is no other way to survive, and the infighting between people who have similar experiences but can’t get past their trauma that just keeps on cycling. Nona has experienced so much loss, whether it’s her husband who has been incarcerated (and whom she has a great anger towards), or her son Kendall who was murdered in a senseless drive by shooting. She is desperate to hold onto Marcus and Lance, and tries to do everything right by pushing Marcus to pursue his education, leaning into the Church (and getting too close to the married pastor), and looking down at Lance’s choices with who he’s hanging out with (which alienates him all the more), as if she has control in a situation where all of the odds are stacked against her and her sons because of their race. So much of my anxiety in this book was directly related to the seemingly insurmountable circumstances that Nona and her boys had to deal with, and as Marcus seems to be come possessed by a rageful spirit, there is also just the stark reality that systemic racism has built these traps for the Black community that directly lead to tragedy and more cycles of violence and loss and trauma, ghost involvement or not. It’s a devastating aspect of this book and I thought that Thompson captures the complicated natures of these things. I loved how complex so many of these characters were, even those who would so easily just be moustache twirly evil in the hands of other authors (such as a local gang leader who is violent and scary, but also adores his baby son and cares for his kind and well loved grandmother). Thompson really shows the pain and also the sense of community of the people at Hester Gardens, and decries the racist systems that keep these traumatic cycles going. It’s stunning work. I was weeping openly by the end.

“The Curse of Hester Gardens” is an incredible debut novel from Tamika Thompson. It’s scary and sad and kind of hopeful and just so, so well done. Horror fans, get your hands on this book.

Rating 10: Haunting, evocative, devastating, and powerful, “The Curse of Hester Gardens” is a haunted house story, but is also the story of racism, gun violence, cyclical trauma, and a woman desperate to keep her sons safe in a world in which they are constantly in danger, ghosts or not.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Curse of Hester Gardens” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Fordward to in 2026”.

Kate’s Review: “Nothing Tastes As Good”

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Book:”Nothing Tastes As Good” by Luke Dumas

Publishing Info: Atria Books, March 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.

Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

I’m an elder millennial, so I was a teenager around that Y2K time when heroin chic bodies were in and they were calling Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson fat when they had perfectly svelte bodies. And yeah, it absolutely affected me. Story time! When I was a freshman in college I had to go to the student health center for positional vertigo, and while I was being examined the doctor told me that I was at 140 pounds (probably due to not having lunch in my meal plan, not really having snacks, and walking around the U of MN Duluth campus basically all day). This was the lightest I had been in years, and the doctor said that at 5’9″ and with my frame I was actually bordering towards underweight. And in my mind I was like ‘AWESOME!!! Underweight!!!!’ instead of ‘hmm, that may be an issue’. I’m still not really at peace with my body (decades later, hitting perimenopause, and after having a kid), but I’m trying to be at least more neutral about it. Especially since I now have a six year old daughter who has already told me that she didn’t want to wear her winter jacket because it makes her ‘look fat’. I had a lot of these thoughts swirling in my head as I read “Nothing Tastes As Good” by Luke Dumas, which takes diet culture, corporate greed, a little bit of MAHA ideals about body presentation, and throws it in a “The Substance” flavored blender. It’s gross, it’s upsetting, and it’s a really good horror read. More so given that we’re starting to see these really thin trends coming back.

As a body horror book, this one has a lot of nasty and stomach churning moments. I already have a fair amount of squick when it comes to body horror (I actually still haven’t seen “The Substance” outside of clips here and there before I feel like I may barf), and it’s not just because of the weird thing Emmett Truesdale’s body is doing whilst participating in a drug trial for a product called Obexity. It sure seems like a miracle drug as the pounds start to fall off in record time, and Emmett is more than happy to ignore the side effects because of his new body making his self perception and the perception of others so much more positive. But I’m sure that you can imagine that the side effects get worse and worse and crazier and crazier, and there is gore, there are weird body moments, and I was squirming a bit as I kept reading and the pounds kept dropping. I enjoyed the slow burn suspense, with the story being told through a fairly typical narrative, but also through Emmett’s body transformation discovery blog, through interviews after SOMETHING happens, and through notes and other hints from news articles and the pharmaceutical notes as the study goes on. And some descriptions were just so gross, but it’s exactly what I would expect from this kind of horror tale.

Dumas also has some really interesting and pointed commentary about how society views fat people and fat bodies, and clearly has a lot to say about how Emmett is treated throughout the narrative, be it while he is dropping pounds while on Obexity (with the aforementioned side effects wreaking havoc but being brushed away), or how he is treated during his time as a child whose disordered eating can be mapped due to trauma cycles done to him or even to his caregivers before him (specifically his stepfather), or even when he is yo-yoing and reminiscing about losing weight then gaining it all back and then some before the drug trial. I imagine that a lot of this is familiar to those who have struggled with disordered eating or body image issues, and Dumas doesn’t really mince words when showing how dehumanized Emmett feels when he is fat, and how the very fact he is actually seen and treated as a human being when he is thinner propels his desperation to stay on a drug that is making him do horrifying things out of his control. It’s scathing and a clear indictment on fatphobia from ALL fronts, be it family, friends, lovers, strangers, or even medical professionals, where someone is more comfortable being monstrous if they are at least treated like a human. Oof. It was rough.

“Nothing Tastes As Good” is an effective commentary and doesn’t hold back with the squirmy bits you want in a body horror tale.

Rating 8: A nasty and unnerving body horror tale that has a lot of insightful points about fatphobia in society.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Nothing Tastes As Good” is included on the Goodreads lists “Beauty Parlor of Horror”, and “Weird Lit”.

Kate’s Review: “The Darkness Greeted Her”

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Book: “The Darkness Greeted Her” by Christina Ferko

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, February 2026

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Penny’s abusive father is dead…but she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can’t go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewood—an exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.

She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can’t possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor…a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it’s clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn’t all in her head.

As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an ARC of this novel!

I had a LOT of emotional issues when I was a teenager. I had three separate therapists addressing different parts of my mental health, was on medication for a couple of years, and have been in therapy throughout most of my life (and I am incredibly grateful to have had all that access to these things over the years). I never got to the point where I was in need of intensive in patient therapy, and I certainly never found myself shipped off to a wilderness therapy camp that has secrets and perhaps a roving monster in the woods. So while THAT aspect of “The Darkness Greeted Her” by Christina Ferko wasn’t super relatable, the mental health aspects were (at least to some degree, it was NEVER as all encompassing for me as it was for main character Penny).

The biggest theme of his horror novel, as so many horror tales have done in recent years (and I’m not mad about it!), is how people who have gone through traumatizing childhoods are shaped and haunted by said trauma. For Penny and her camp mates, they all come to Camp Whitewood with the hopes of finding peace and psychological help, but instead are being tormented and in some cases eaten by a monstrous entity in the woods that takes the shape of their fears and pain. Old hat? Sure. But for me it’s still effective, and I think that it’s always something to be talked about for YA readers and a message I probably could have used as a depressed teenager back in the day. But not only did we get insight into our first person protagonist’s trauma, I also liked getting some chapters that would lay out the formative moments that brought that other girls to this therapy camp. So we do have a shadow creature living in the woods that is a threat, but at the same time we have a number of teenagers who have dealt with all too real horrors, like abusive alcoholic fathers, guilt over horrible mistakes that have become internalized to a dangerous degree, and other traumas that have festered and caused these girls to be susceptible to the monster’s appetites.

In terms of the suspense and dread, I will say that some of the pacing felt a bit off, and perhaps at times a bit too drawn out. It wasn’t a particularly scary story to me, but that is almost assuredly a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation because there are definitely some creepy and suspenseful aspects, especially with the worries about whether or not Penny was going to be overcome by her Harm OCD tendencies and hurt someone else or herself. The monster was interesting in that it shifts its form to reflect the different campers fears, mixing in folk horror with “Nightmare on Elm Street” to a degree (it also got a little close to Wendigo mythology, but didn’t use the term or the specific background so I feel like it wasn’t fully treading into appropriative territory, correct me if I’m wrong though!). The metaphors of trauma and mental illness bolstered it up quite a bit.

So all in all, “The Darkness Greeted Her” is another solid horror story that makes monsters out of real life horror stories. I think that teenage horror fans will probably enjoy it.

Rating 7: A creepy story about trauma and monsters, of the supernatural and all too human kind, though it felt a bit laggy at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Darkness Greeted Her” is included on the Goodreads list “Queer Fiction Set at Camp”.