Tag: horror

Kate’s Review: “The Hunger We Pass Down”

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Book: “The Hunger We Pass Down” by Jen Soofong Lee

Publishing Info: Erewhon Books, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: Single mother Alice Chow is drowning. With a booming online cloth diaper shop, her resentful teenage daughter Luna, and her screen-obsessed son Luca, Alice can never get everything done in a day. It’s all she can do to just collapse on the couch with a bottle of wine every night.

It’s a relief when Alice wakes up one morning and everything has been done. The counters are clear, the kids’ rooms are tidy, orders are neatly packed and labeled. But no one confesses they’ve helped, and Alice doesn’t remember staying up late. Someone–or something–has been doing her chores for her.

Alice should be uneasy, but the extra time lets her connect with her children and with her hard-edged mother, who begins to share their haunted family history from Alice’s great-grandmother, a comfort woman during WWII, through to Alice herself. But the family demons, both real and subconscious, are about to become impossible to ignore.

Sharp and incisive, The Hunger We Pass Down traces the ways intergenerational trauma transforms from mother to daughter, and asks what it might take to break that cycle.

Review: Thank you to Erewhon Books for providing an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

I know that there are probably a fair number of people who are getting a bit tired of horror that acts as metaphors for trauma and grief, but I do not share their concerns. I’m still all about horror being used to tell stories about the human experience in creative ways, and I don’t see myself getting bored of it any time soon. This is one of the reasons I was definitely interested in reading “The Hunger We Pass Down” by Jen Soofong Lee, a new ghost story that examines a couple generation of Chinese-Canadian women who have been dealing with a lot of tragedy and loss, possibly because of a family curse that has been passing down since World War II. I was excited to read it, but I can also tell you that I wasn’t prepared for the emotional wallop it was going to bring.

The idea of a cursed family standing in for generational trauma is always going to be catnip for me, and “The Hunger We Pass Down” is a solid example of that. We have the Chow Family, with mother Alice still dealing with the fallout of her divorce as she tries to care for her kids Luna and Luca while also running a successful online business. She feels stretched thin, but starts to find the house tidied up and her online orders ready to go though she has no memory of doing any kind of work towards any of it. We also follow up the family line, going all the way back to World War II Hong Kong where her great grandmother Gigi was being used as a comfort woman for Japanese soldiers, abused, held against her will, and raped. Which is where the family curse starts. As a horror story we have ghosts, we have doppelgangers, and we have lots of loss, violence, and tension. Lee handles the dread well, and the descriptions of the various spirits and spectres were pretty unsettling, even terrifying at times. I kept thinking of myths of vengeful spirits who take out rage on anyone in their way, and Lee really creates something truly scary here.

And as mentioned above, I do like the metaphor we have at hand, and I found that to be a strong element of this book as well. The trauma of captivity and sexual abuse and rape is something that Gigi has to endure as a ‘comfort woman’ in Hong Kong, and the generational trauma passes down throughout the generations from mother to daughter. What really struck me is that this is also a very heavy family saga, and the bleakness of the way that violence can rewire a persona and keep cycles going just oozes off the page. It’s deeply emotional and it just works, even if I found it a very hard read at times. It’s a well done story to be sure, but man you really need to steel yourself for it. I also found the ending a little bit abrupt, and while it absolutely made sense for what the overall theme was, it still kind of felt like there could have and maybe should have been more. These aren’t bad things, but I was a LITTLE unsatisfied, and had I realized this was more literary I probably could have better prepared myself for it, emotionally.

“The Hunger We Pass Down” is emotional and creepy, and it’s filled with lots of real world terrors to round out the ghostly ones. I found it to be well done, and very, very sad.

Rating 7: A bleak and emotional family saga about multiple generations of women and curse passing from mothers to daughters, “The Hunger We Pass Down” is scary, but more sad than anything else.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Hunger We Pass Down” is included on the Goodreads list “She’s Not Feeling Good at All: Sad Female Characters”.

Kate’s Review: “The Mean Ones”

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Book: “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

Publishing Info: Creature Publishing, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: So what if Sadie hears talking dead animals and a strange, comforting male voice in her head? The therapist insists these are just symptoms of PTSD. It makes sense considering that she hid under the bed and watched as her best friends were slaughtered.

But the murders were seventeen years ago, back when her name was Sabrina. Now, she’s Sadie: a perfectly normal 29-year-old. She works as a physical therapist assistant and lifts weights with her boyfriend, Lucas, who’s the sweetest, most considerate man—as long as he’s not angry. But when Lucas spontaneously agrees to join a couples trip to a cabin in the woods, the visions get worse, a strange figure stalks her during the night, and that male voice in Sadie’s head keeps calling, asking her to do things she’s never fathomed.

Sadie’s not sure if it’s her paranoia or something else entirely . . . But she is sure of one thing—this time, she’s not going to sit idly by as everything starts to unravel.

Review: Thank you to Creature Publishing for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

Back in June when Serena and I were in Philadelphia for the ALA Annual Conference I found myself circling and flagrantly stalking the Creature Publishing table, as they only had the table for a limited time, and I was DETERMINED to seek them out. Specifically for the book “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, as not only had it been getting some pretty solid hype, it also promised to have “Midsommar” and “Yellowjackets” vibes. True, I didn’t really like “Midsommar”, and I haven’t watched “Yellowjackets”, but the vibes of both? I’m INTO THOSE VIBES! It took a few awkward circles (as well as a few polite ‘no, I’m looking for this specific publisher, thanks’ to a few well meaning reps at tables surrounding the area) but I finally got my hands on a copy, and had high, HIGH hopes that it would be as awesome as I was hoping it would be. And whaddaya know? It was even MORE awesome!

Oh I just loved this. I’m appreciating folk horror more and more as time goes by, and weird entities in the woods and cult horror really tick off so many boxes for me. “The Mean Ones” definitely has both at hand, and I thought that Schlote-Bonne was great at building up a slow suspense both in the present with Sadie (though when she was a child her name was Sabrina) as an adult on a camping trip with her dodgy boyfriend Lucas and his friends, and also in the past with Sadie/Sabrina as a tween at camp with her best girl friends who are also not terribly kind to her. But both in the past and present she has been hearing things and seeing things, and while she tries to ignore it and just be normal it just keeps building up until something horrifying happens. Like friends Allie and Blakely being brutally murdered in front of Sadie/Sabrina by something sinister. The mysteriousness of what is going on in the woods, what Sadie/Sabrina is seeing and hearing, and what really happened to her friends and herself at camp is so well done and so well paced, and some of the moments of horror really unnerved me. There’s just something about a oh so wrong looking deer in the distant brush that just FREAKS me out in the best way. I’m trying to be vague because this is so good and it’s best to go in with as little info as possible, but at the end of the day if you like folk horror, this will surely be up your alley.

But it’s also the very real, relatable human aspects of Sadie/Sabrina and the way that she is pushed and mistreated by the people who are supposed to care about her that will probably resonate with readers. I really liked her as a protagonist, finding her to be relatable in a lot of ways as lord knows I’d been the odd girl out or picked on in my adolescent female friendships, and Sadie/Sabrina was REALLY familiar in her choices, anger, and pain. She has suffered from so much trauma that she has tried to mold herself into someone normal, but in doing so has become a people pleaser not unlike her time as a third wheel in her friendship with only friends Allie and Blakely, who treated her pretty poorly in ways that tween and teenage girls can sadly fall into when it comes to clique behavior. It makes for a protagonist you want to root for, and as we learn more about her and how she has been coping and twisting herself up, we also see a woman that could be so much more… though perhaps in a ‘good for her’ kind of way that we have seen in films like “The Witch” and “Midsommar”. Feminine rage has its moment along with the folk and cult horror aspects, and Schlote-Bonne pulls it off handily. I loved every bit of Sadie/Sabrina’s character arc.

“The Mean Ones” is one of the best horror novels I’ve read this year. I am so glad I stalked the publisher’s table at ALAAC, and I will absolutely be checking out Tatiana Schlote-Bonne’s other books.

Rating 10: Spectacular folk and cult horror with shades of feminine rage, “The Mean Ones” is a knock out.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Mean Ones” is included on the Goodreads list “God Forbid Women Do Anything”.

Joint Review: “What Stalks the Deep”

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Book: “What Stalks the Deep” by T. Kingfisher

Publishing Info: Tor Nightfire, September 2025

Where Did We Get This Book: Netgalley!

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

Book Description: Alex Easton does not want to visit America.

They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do…

Previously Reviewed: “What Moves the Dead” and “What Feasts at Night”

Kate’s Thoughts

I have found myself repeatedly charmed by T. Kingfisher’s stories. I think that once I figured out that they’re less scary (though there are certainly some scary beats to some of them!) and more cozy in their horror-esque elements and just embraced it it clicked into place, and because of that I was interested to see what she was going to do with another “Sworn Soldier” novella. I like Alex Easton as a protagonist, I like the world that she has built that is of our own but with some tweaks and differences, and I was curious to see what kind of horror theme we were going to get this time. And she had me at caves, because MAN do caves freak me out.

It’s not the monsters in “The Descent” that scare me, it’s the caving stuff (source)

“What Stalks the Deep” is another kinder gentler horror tale from Kingfisher, and while I think it’s probably the weakest of the series for me thus far I still found it to be enjoyable and at times tense. Alex Easton has fought in wars and seen strange and dreadful things over the years while being a Sworn Soldier for Gallacia, but they still have their personal anxieties, and going to America to look for a missing person in a remote cave system in Appalachia is one of them. It was interesting seeing Easton in a wholly new environment and culture, as The U.S. and Europe are certainly filled with differences, and I thought it was a really cool choice to have Appalachia with its mysteries and general otherworldliness adding to it.

I don’t want to spoil much here, as I think Kingfisher deserves to have the build up and the reveals, so when talking about the horror bits I’m going to be as vague as I can be. In terms of the supernatural, this felt a bit like a spin on John Carpenter’s “The Thing” but maybe by way of “E.T.” as opposed to the body horror scares of that film. I liked Easton and their new compatriots trying to figure out where the missing man Oscar ended up, be it lost in a cave or perhaps something worse, and I liked that we had some pretty claustrophobic moments in the cave itself. Much like what I referenced above with “The Descent”, the true horrors in this book are more about the perils of mining and caves and the unpredictability of both.

I am very pleased that the “Sworn Soldier” series is continuing! T. Kingfisher continues to have really creative stories for a really charming protagonist.

Serena’s Thoughts

I completely agree with Kate’s assessment that much of the true horror to be found in this book comes from the cave itself. There is plenty of time and focus devoted to the many ways that a coal mine can kill you. And that’s not even getting into the sheer claustrophobia-induced terror that comes with vivid descriptions of crawling through tight spaces, not knowing what’s ahead and without the ability to turn around.

Beyond that, I continued to enjoy Alex as a main character. Endlessly practical with many believable foibles (such as the instinct to volunteer to do what we least want to do just to prove something to… someone…), Alex is a sympathetic and hilarious narrator. This one was all the funnier for the snide observations of American behavior. (Alex has strong feelings about our propensity to shake the hand of everyone around us.)

The monster in this one wasn’t quite as terrifying as the ones found in the first two books, perhaps. That said, it did follow a trend seen in many of Kingfisher’s horror novels—that is, the ability she has for creating creatures that are at once horrific and terrifying, but who, through some combination of childlike ignorance and sadness, are also bizarrely sympathetic. It creates this odd emotional state in the reader where you both want Alex to succeed in getting rid of this horrible thing, but are also slightly sad that it had to come to this in the first place. Without getting into spoilers, I was happy with the direction one aspect of this took in this book in particular!

Overall, I very much enjoyed this latest entry in the series! I think I enjoyed it a bit more than Kate, so I’ll bump this one up in my rating!

Serena’s Rating 8: It’s so weird to both be terrified by the monster but also kind of wanting to pat it on the back and tell it “it will be ok??” Another excellent entry!

Kate’s Rating 7 : With echoes of “The Thing” but without the dread (though the claustrophobia is scary on its own) and another strange mission for our charming protagonist, “What Stalks the Deep” is a fun entry in the “Sworn Soldier” series.

Reader’s Advisory

“What Stalks the Deep” is included on these Goodreads lists: Novella Length Fantasy & Sci-Fi and Perfect Reads for All Hallows’ Eve.

Kate’s Review: “The October Film Haunt”

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

Book: “The October Film Haunt” by Michael Wehunt

Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Press, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: Horror Movie meets the scope and emotion of Stephen King in this heart-pounding, magnetic tour de force about a woman pulled into a cult horror film that is determined to have a sequel, by critically acclaimed author Michael Wehunt.

Ten years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt – a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons – perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Hélène Enriquez – everything unraveled.

Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. In the devastating wake of her viral, truth-stretching Proof of Demons blog entry — hysteria, internet backlash, and the death of a young woman — Jorie has put it all, along with her intense love for the horror genre, behind her.

Until a videotape arrives in the mail. Jorie fears someone might be filming her. And the “Rickies” – Enriquez obsessives who would do anything for the reclusive director – begin to cross lines in shocking ways. It seems Hélène Enriquez is making a new kind of sequel…and Jorie is her final girl.

As the dangers grow even more unexpected and strange, Jorie must search for answers before the Proof of the movie’s title finds her and takes everything she loves.

This riveting and layered horror novel unleashes supernatural terror in a world where truth can be manipulated, and nothing is as it seems. Beautiful and horrifying, with an unforgettable cast of characters, The October Film Haunt will shock and delight readers all the way to its breathless final page.

Review: Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

Before I head out to the Annual American Library Association Conference every year I make a list of titles that I am going to keep an eye out for. Usually it’s from authors that I love, or hyped up titles that I keep seeing across my feeds, but there are also dark horse selections of books that may not be getting much attention, but I still keep stumbling upon. “The October Film Haunt” by Michael Wehunt was one such book, as it’s a debut and I hadn’t seen MUCH about it around the time I was plotting out my searches. But the premise of a horror film aficionado content creator getting too involved in a cursed film urban legend (that may actually be a REAL creature lurking in some woods) was tantalizing to say the least. It only sweetened the deal when the rest of the plot involved a zealous and potentially dangerous cult following radicalized by Internet lore and connection. Scary AND a bit timely? Oh yes, I was interested, and was stoked when I snagged a copy at the conference.

I love a cursed film urban legend, and the foundation of “The October Film Haunt” has a really well developed and creepy one to hold up the rest of the tale. It feels a little like “Slenderman” meets the original “Blair Witch Project” (at least with it’s wild ‘this may have actually happened’ marketing), with a cult horror film rumored to be real inspiring a tragedy with people who were too engrossed with the lore, as well as questions about culpability of content creators who feed into the mythos and hysteria for their own gains only for it to spin completely out of control. Our former horror content creators Jorie and Beth are brought back together after a falling out due Internet backlash in the wake of their content about the cult film “Proof of Demons” by mysterious director Hélène Enriquez, possibly contributing to a girl’s death, mostly because they feel like someone or someones are watching them, stalking them, and coming after them. The slow dread as they are stalked and harassed is effective and chilling, as is the slow build up of the “Rickies” who are after them. I also just loved the creep factor of the way that Wehunt explores the way that the Internet can stir up an almost shared psychosis and cult-like mentality that can make people do scary and murderous things (something that has felt all too relevant as of late). And hey, I really enjoyed the lore of the Pine Arch Creature. I was a Slenderman fan back during the Marble Hornets days so it’s kind of fun to see how much he has endured as a modern folk legend, even if he feels played out by many at this point.

This was more literary than I was anticipating. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you, as I love it when horror stretches beyond the genre limits than is usually expected (hell, I absolutely loved the book “Reprieve” which was SUPER literary with a horror backdrop). And I do like that it kind of matched the surrealistic and disjointed paranoia that Jorie and Beth are experiencing as they are getting more and more engulfed in their past actions catching up to them and being possibly targeted by a group of zealous fans. But I will also acknowledge that sometimes it made for the story hard to follow, or could throw off the pacing, especially when we would jump to perspectives of other characters and get snippets of their actions and motivations within the same surrealistic and disjointed style. I think that had there been a faster pace with the story in general when we were in the Jorie and Beth sections (or even the interludes, which I almost always really enjoyed) it could have been easier to swallow, but as it was I found the book a bit trickier to get through because of the choppy pacing and weirdness as a whole. And for horror fans who aren’t as into a literary style when it comes to reading, I could see this being a very cumbersome read. It’s just good to have expectations managed going into it, I think.

“The October Film Haunt” is dark and strange, and it probably won’t be for everyone. I appreciated what it was trying to do, and if you like some experimental literary edge to your horror stories, it may be worth checking out.

Rating 6: A strong premise, well done lore building, and some great introspection about groupthink has the makings of a creepy literary horror tale, but be warned that sometimes it gets in the weeds a little bit. Overall, an interesting horror story that is sure to spark debate!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The October Film Haunt” is included on the Goodreads list “Lost Films & Cursed Movies”.

Kate’s Review: “Play Nice”

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

Book: “Play Nice” by Rachel Harrison

Publishing Info: Berkley, September 2025

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 woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house.

Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parent’s messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.

After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.

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

I remember being a teenager and reading about The Amityville Horror case, not the actual book itself (though I DID read that years later), but in some random haunted house book. For the unfamiliar, the run down is that a young family moved into a house on Long Island that had been the site of a mass murder years before (committed by the oldest son of the Defeo family, Ronny). The Lutzes started experiencing horrible things, then moved out after not even a month because it was SO HAUNTED. I also remember renting the original film with Margot Kidder and James Brolin and watching it on the tiny TV in the basement of my childhood home, eating take out tacos and banished away because I was the only horror fan in the family.

And I remember finding out as an adult that it was all bullshit, made up by the Lutz Family as well as the lawyers for Ronnie Defeo. It’s a fun story, but it’s built on lies. “Play Nice” by Rachel Harrison clearly has some influences from and shades of “Amityville”, and the description made me REALLY excited to read it, especially since I have genuinely enjoyed every horror novel that Harrison has written. And “Play Nice” is now my favorite of her books, because not only does it have shades of “Amityville”, it is also a very emotional story about unpacking family trauma and long festering family dysfunction.

This basically sums up a solid chunk of the problems this entire family has in this book (source)

Our main character is Clio, a free spirited influencer who has tried to build a carefree and adventurous life after a difficult childhood, where she and her sisters Lena and Daphne and mother Alex moved into a house after her parent’s divorce that Alex claimed to be haunted by a demon. She even wrote a book about it that became a cult hit. The problem is that Clio and her sisters remember it differently, with an abusive alcoholic mother terrorizing them until she lost custody, and they cut off contact. Until her death. Clio, being the youngest, remembers the least, and while her sisters refuse to attend the funeral, Clio does, and then inherits the house from her childhood. She thinks fixing it up would be a good content opportunity and moves in. And then it all starts to unravel. So this could very easily be solely a haunted house story, as Harrison gets back to her early horror roots with “Play Nice”. It has genuinely horrifying moments, descriptions, and a slow building up dread that makes the reader want to keep reading… while also being very, very unnerving and creepy. I loved having both Clio’s present day experiences as well as the excerpts from the book (with personalized annotations from Alex for Clio, exposing the untrue things with a bitter commentary). As a straight up horror story it works really well.

But Harrison has always been someone who likes to tap into the messiness of being a woman in modern society and the way they aren’t allowed to be imperfect without scrutiny, and in “Play Nice” we REALLY dive into imperfect women who are complicated, maddening, but so well rounded because of it. This is not only a haunted house story, it’s also a story about childhood trauma, unclear memories, deep familial dysfunction, and trying to parse out truth from lies that others tell and that we tell ourselves. Clio is such a fascinating main character because I genuinely had a difficult time with her, but wholly understood why she is the way she is. Harrison has created an honest and sometimes painful story about a woman trying to uncover darkness within her family, and there are few clear answers and a whole lot of nuance, which I really appreciated. Alex is monstrous in a lot of ways, but it’s also not as simple an explanation as, say, a demonic presence that would explain everything. I thought that at times it was a very raw story, and it packs a wallop because of it.

“Play Nice” is Rachel Harrison’s best horror novel yet. It’s scary and deeply emotional, and I highly recommend it for Halloween.

Rating 9: Harrison effortlessly creates a haunted house story that tackles family dysfunction, childhood trauma, and the demons that haunt us, not matter what kind that may be.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Play Nice” is included on the Goodreads lists “Ultimate Female Horror Authors”, and “Horror Books 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “Acquired Taste”

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

Book: “Acquired Taste” by Clay McLeod Chapman

Publishing Info: Titan Books, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: They’re feeding on you too.

A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terrifying addiction; a man removes something horrifying from his fireplace, and becomes desperate to return it; and a right-wing news channel has its hooks in people in more ways than one. 

From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemic to small-town Chesapeake USA, Clay McLeod Chapman takes universal fears of parenthood, addiction and political divisions and makes them uniquely his own. 

Packed full of humanity, humour and above all, relentless creeping dread, Acquired Taste is a timely descent into the mind of one of modern horror’s finest authors.

Review: Thank you to Titan Books for giving me an ARC of this book and to Clay McLeod Chapman for signing it (and the delightful conversation)!

Happy October, readers!!! It’s my first post in the new month, and that month is October, and you all know what that means!! It’s time for Horrorpalooza 2025!!!

It’s the mooooost wonderfuuul tiiiiiiime of the yeaaaaaar! (source)

Horrorpalooza is my favorite time on the blog, when I devote all of my reviews to horror stories, sometimes delaying my reviews of books that came out earlier so that they can come out during this celebrated blogging time (celebrated by ME, anyway). And it made perfect sense to devote the first of those reviews to Clay McLeod Chapman’s new collection of short stories, “Acquired Taste”. I had the opportunity to attend a panel with Chapman during ALAAC25 where he talked about horror in general and this book, and had an even cooler opportunity to chat with him for awhile between panels, which only solidified how cool he is as a person in spite of the fact he concocts some of the most fucked up horror that I read these days. So I eagerly dove in recently, ready to be wholly disturbed. And I was.

As I am wont to do with short story collections, I will highlight the three stories that stood out the most, then talk about the collection as a whole.

“Stowaway”: Ah the horrors of being a teenage girl in a world where there could be predators at any turn. A girl and her family are on a family roadtrip, but whenever they stop at a motel, the same mysterious man is there, waiting for her to talk to him. While it’s implied that there is something supernatural potentially going on in this one, the way that it made me SO uncomfortable because of the very real implications of what this guy wants with her just had me on the edge of my seat.

“Psychic Santa”: I think this was POSSIBLY my favorite story in the collection (though the next one gives it a run for its money)? But there’s just something about a Christmas ghost story that really gets me. A department store Santa haunted by some parts of his past can see the ghosts of dead children, who come to ask him for what they really want for Christmas in hopes he can help them. So when I talk about Chapman being so good with the emotional beats of a grief horror story, this is the kind of story I’m talking about. I was so, so saddened by the thought of dead children, but then heartened at the idea of a man looking to repent being able to help them with their unfinished business so they can move on. Get the tissues for this one, it’s less scary and more bittersweet.

“Stay on the Line”: This is the one that may beat out “Psychic Santa”, and big surprise! It’s grief horror again! But with a little more dread. After her husband dies during a hurricane, a widow finds out that the old pay phone in her small town by the sea can actually make calls to dead loved ones. As she and the townsfolk try to make connections with those they lost, she starts to think that maybe it isn’t her husband she’s speaking with after all. The raw sadness of this story was palpable, and I wholly understood the reasoning as to why our protagonist with cling to the hope that she is actually speaking to her husband, even as terrible tragedies start to occur. This one is incredibly sad and also terrifying as the unease builds and builds.

And as a whole, it’s pretty much exactly what I would expect from Chapman, in that it’s outlandish, out there, supremely gross at times, incredibly upsetting, but also so incredibly emotional. And sometimes quite funny. The thing about his stories is that I almost can’t look away from how WILD they get, even when they make me supremely uncomfortable, as there is just something about this way with words, his imagination, and his uniqueness in the stories he tells. He’s definitely not for everyone and I can see how some people would be repulsed, but his stories almost always work for me. And the ones that don’t (there were a few here, but that can be said of basically any short story collection) would very easily work for others who like the more gross out and extreme stuff.

“Acquired Taste” is a fun and unhinged (in a good way) collection of short stories from Clay McLeod Chapman. I’m glad I saved it for the kick off of Horrorpalooza 2025!

Rating 8: A totally outlandish, nasty, and at times bittersweet collection of short stories from a horror author I have come to really appreciate.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Acquired Taste” is included on the Goodreads list “All the New Horror, Romantasy, and Other SFF Crossover Books Arriving in September 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Captive”

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

Book: “The Captive” by Kit Burgoyne

Publishing Info: Hell’s Hundred, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC and a finished copy from the publisher.

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

Book Description: A darkly comedic, cinematic horror about a revolutionary group who kidnap an heiress, only to discover she’s pregnant with the antichrist, and she’s about to give birth.

From Ned Beauman, the Man Booker Prize longlisted author of The Teleportation Accident and Clarke Award winning author of Venomous Lumpsucker. Perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix and Joe Hill.

Underground revolutionary group, The Nail, and their newest member, Luke have kidnapped 23-year-old heiress Adeline Woolsaw, whose wealthy parents run the Woolsaw Group, a vast outsourcing company. They run everything from prisons and hospitals to military bases – quietly suffocating the country with the help of powerful friends in government.

The Nail’s to use the kidnapping to draw attention to the Woolsaw Group and their terrible practices. But with Adeline bundled into their van, The Nail discover two things. The first is that she’s just about to give birth. And the second is that this isn’t a normal baby. In fact, it has devastating supernatural powers. Because the father of this baby wasn’t a man, it was… something else. Something that her parents make human sacrifices to on an altar in the basement of their Highgate mansion. And all this time the Woolsaw Group has been preparing the ground for the Woolsaws’ real an infernal new kingdom that will rise with Adeline’s son sitting on its throne.

Review: Than you to Hell’s Hundred for sending me an ARC and a finished copy of this novel!

When I was in tenth grade, one of my friends and I watched “The Omen” during a sleepover the night of the Halloween Dance. Ever since it’s been a horror movie I enjoy, and it along with “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Exorcist” brought the idea of the antiChrist and demonic children to the forefront of horror storytelling (there is a whole argument to be made about these sorts of stories being told at this time due to people freaking out about Vatican II, as there is an argument to be made about movies like “The First Omen” being made in response to reproductive rights being under attack and more awareness of religious institution corruption, but that’s a different TED talk for a different time). It’s not a sub- genre I really seek out, but I do like checking it out every once in awhile if the opportunity presents itself. Fast forward to receiving “The Captive” by Kit Burgoyne as book mail! Looking it over it sounded like it could be a lot of fun, so I added it to the TBR pile!

I feel like this is less of a straight up ‘horror’ novel and more of a dark fantasy thriller, as I don’t think there were any moments of true dread or terror. But that didn’t make it any less fun to read for me, as I do love dark fantasy, and this one had not only fun world building, but also interesting satirical elements. We follow a leftist/anti-Capitalist group called The Nail, that is trying to expose the abuses and corruption of a sleek billionaire family with its fingers in many damaging pies, whether it’s poorly run mental facilities, detainment centers, or other places that cause harm (that can be easily ignored by the greater public all in the name of lining their pockets but under the radar). Their big plan is to do a Patty Hearst-esque sting in which they kidnap the heiress, Adeline, hoping to use her to get people to look into the Woolsaw Family and start asking questions. But two things catch them by surprise: 1) she is more than happy to go with them, and 2) she gives birth to a baby they had no clue existed, and who seems to have strange powers. It’s been a bit of a pattern when it comes to ‘antiChrist’-esque stories that it’s a religious or political group or cult or what have you behind it. So what fun to see it being a billionaire family that just keeps wanting more, more, MORE for themselves. Not that it shocks me that we’re seeing this kind of shift, given that we’re living in a new Gilded Age with billionaires getting richer and more powerful and influential as others struggle more and more. I enjoyed how Burgoyne developed that narrative with that context. I also liked that The Nail was in WAY over its head, specifically idealistic Luke to has his own reasons for wanting to take the Woolsaw Family down, but then starts questioning his compatriots actions when a postpartum woman and her child, dangerous as he may be, are being used as pawns not just by her family, but by his group as well.

But I think that what connected most with me (and I’m such a sap for this, but eh, this is me now!) was the way that Burgoyne portrayed Adeline’s relationship with her children, specifically her six year old daughter Mia…. who was a first attempt at a magical/demonic heir but then cast aside because she was a girl. While Adeline was forced to be a vessel for these children against her will due to her parents ambitions, I thought that her conflicted but also protective feelings towards her kids was very interesting, as it would have been easier for her to be portrayed as either ‘a mother’s love conquers all’ or ‘I have no connection at all to these things!’ With Mia especially I found myself teary as she wants to save her daughter at all costs.

I enjoyed “The Captive”. It wasn’t as scary as I had hoped, but it was a fun dark fantasy nevertheless. And timely in its own way!

Rating 7: Fast paced and, interestingly enough, topical in a way! “The Captive” is a pretty fun dark fantasy story that plucked at my heartstrings more than I anticipated.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Captive” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Silenced”

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

Book: “The Silenced” by Diana Rodriguez Wallach

Publishing Info: Delacorte, September 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC25

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

Book Description: Welcome To The Farm

Hazel Perez thought her school project on the abandoned Oakwell Farms School for Girls—or “The Farm” as it’s known to locals—would be just another assignment. But when a late-night research trip ends with her falling unconscious, she reawakens with a desire for revenge that isn’t her own. Desperate to free herself from these sudden violent urges, Hazel begins to investigate.

As she delves deeper into Oakwell Farms’ past, Hazel discovers the harrowing experiences of the girls who were once forced to live within its walls—under the eyes of sinister men—and the spirits who still linger.

With the help of some unlikely allies, Hazel must navigate a treacherous path of corruption, history, and the supernatural to bring peace to the restless spirits and uncover the truth about her family’s involvement.

The Silenced delves into the Trouble Teen Industry through a riveting exploration of a reform school’s haunted past colliding with the traumatized present.

Review: Thank you to Delacorte for giving me an ARC of this novel at ALAAC25!

One of the many horrible and tragic topics that has grabbed my attention over the past few years is the Troubled Teen Industry, in which parents send their kids to ‘reform schools’ or programs in hopes of turning their ill behaved ways around… Though ultimately it’s rarely actually a helpful experience, and a terribly abusive an traumatic one (especially since so many kids that have been sent to these programs for being ‘bad’ aren’t actually bad, but behaving in ways that their parents are embarrassed by or don’t approve of). I’m always on board to read books about this, fiction or non-fiction, so when I saw that Diana Rodriguez Wallach had written a horror novel called “The Silenced” that focused on the Troubled Teen Industry as a backdrop I knew that I HAD TO READ IT. I was thrilled to get a copy at ALAAC25, and when I finally jumped into it I found myself fully invested. And fully horrified.

First the supernatural elements. Our protagonist Hazel, after having an accident at the abandoned property of the now closed reform school The Farm, is finding herself haunted by an angry spirit who may or may not be taking over her body. Hazel keeps having images of a ghostly girl hanging on her back, and feels her body being overrun by the rage and anger of this ghost that won’t leave her alone. I really, really liked the creepy imagery of this book, and the building suspense of Hazel becoming more and more unhinged as she investigates what is happening to her, and what the history of The Farm has to do with it. I also loved the strange and suspenseful moments at The Farm and the scary beats. I was unfamiliar with Wallach’s game, but now that I’ve been introduced I need to check out other books she’s written because this one was really fun.

But it’s the far more realistic horrors of the Troubled Teen Industry that really made this read a winner. I’ve mentioned before that I have a dear dear friend who was sent to a wilderness reform school, and as more horrifying stories have come out about these kinds of places in the past few years it has become VERY clear that these so called ‘helpful’ schools have caused so much damage and trauma to children who were sent to such places. And “The Silenced” doesn’t shy away from how awful and abusive these schools and programs could be. Wallach doesn’t shy away from it, and I found myself completely on edge as we see not only Hazel’s investigations, but also the dual perspective of a girl who was sent to The Farm in 1995 and the horrors that she endured all in the name of ‘help’ and ‘healing’. Even though the ghost that has attached herself to Hazel is terrifying, her rage and despair is fully explored and fleshed out in the narrative, and it’s so, so heartbreaking and haunting. I’m so glad that Wallach decided to be frank and honest with the awfulness, even if it made for a very emotional and upsetting read at times.

“The Silenced” was a fantastic and gripping read. I can’t recommend it enough for the upcoming Halloween season. Just steel yourself for the really bleak aspects.

Rating 9: Gripping, haunting, creepy and all too relevant, “The Silenced” may be a supernatural horror tale, but the real life horrors of the Troubled Teen Industry play the biggest part in this novel.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Silenced” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Novels of 2025”.

Joint Review: “The House of Quiet”

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

Book: “The House of Quiet” by Kiersten White

Publishing Info: Delacorte Press, September 2025

Where Did We Get This Book: ARC from ALA!

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

Book Description: To save her sister, she must enter the House.

In the middle of a deadly bog sits the House of Quiet. It’s a place for children whose Procedure triggered powers too terrible to be lived with—their last hope for treatment. No one knows how they’re healed or where they go afterward.

Birdie has begged, bargained, and blackmailed her way inside as a maid, determined to find her missing sister, Magpie. But what she discovers is more mysteries. Instead of the destitute children who undergo the Procedure in hopes of social advancement, the house brims with aristocratic teens wielding strange powers they never should have been burdened with.

Though Birdie wants to ignore them, she can’t help being drawn to stoic and silent Forest, charmed by clever River, and concerned for the youngest residents. And with fellow maid Minnow keeping tabs on everything Birdie does, danger is everywhere.

In her desperate search for Magpie, Birdie unearths terrifying threats and devastating truths, forcing her to confront just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save her own sister. Because in the House of Quiet, if you find what’s lurking beneath . . . you lose everything.

Unravel the mystery. Ignite the rebellion.

Serena’s Thoughts

Long time readers of the blog may remember the last joint review Kate and I posted of a Kiersten White book….Suffice it to say, we didn’t love it. So I went into this one with trepidation. However, I’m happy to report that this one worked much better for me!

For one thing, it had a lot going for it with themes and tropes that play well into my preferences. I’m curious to see how Kate felt, because unlike another recent joint review (“The Library at Hellebore”), this one felt like it more closely aligned with the fantasy genre than with horror. Though it definitely still had its creepy moments, particularly in some of the other POV chapters highlighting the kids’ powers. Most strongly, however, this read as a gothic mystery, which I gobbled up. I think this sort of slow-burn, highly atmospheric story plays well to White’s strengths as an author which left me much more satisfied with it than with her last.

I will say that while I enjoyed the sibling relationship at the heart of the story, it took me a while to become too invested in our main character, Birdie. There was nothing wrong with her, per see, (other than the fact that she missed what were some fairly obvious clues), but I never felt strongly connected to her as a character. The story is also on the slower side, so readers looking for a more fast-paced read may struggle a bit here.

Overall, however, I was happy to see return to form for White. While this wasn’t my favorite book of hers, I think it was successful for what it set out to do, especially for readers looking for gothic YA fiction.

Kate’s Thoughts

Hooray! After not enjoying the previous Kiersten White book that we joint reviewed on the blog I’m happy to report that “The House of Quiet” was a return to form! This was an anticipated read for me this year, though I was feeling a bit nervous after the last of her novels, but overall I found this one to be much more enjoyable.

I do agree with Serena that this is more of a Gothic Fantasy, or perhaps Dark Fantasy, tale as opposed to the horror-esque cover, but that was fine for me! I enjoyed the world building that White did, with different regions having different cultural touchstones, and different characters from different areas having different motivations depending on what their life experience was like. I enjoyed Birdie enough as one of our main characters, as her trying to find her sister Magpie in The House of Quiet by pretending to be there strictly as a maid, but actually looking for information.

But I think that the character I enjoyed even more was the mysterious and acerbic Minnow, who was also hired on as a maid, but who is clearly hiding her cards and has other motivations that she is trying to fulfill. White is always quite skilled when it comes to creating characters that you can’t quite suss out at first, peeling back layers to reveal interesting truths, and Minnow was a good example of that. I also enjoyed the mystery at hand as Birdie finds herself in a dangerous web with more questions popping up as she gets deeper and deeper into her investigations.

“The House of Quiet” was a fun Gothic tale from Kiersten White! Set this one aside for the upcoming spooky season, I’d say!

Serena’s Rating 8: Perhaps a bit slow at times, but a nice option to scratch that gothic YA fantasy itch!

Kate’s Rating 8: I’m so glad that I’m back on the Kiersten White bandwagon! “The House of Quiet” is strange, layered, and a well pieced together Gothic mystery!

Reader’s Advisory

“The Library at Hellebore” is included on these Goodreads lists: Twisted Tales for Beautifully Damaged Minds and 2025 Dark Academia Releases.

Kate’s Review: “Body of Water”

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

Book: “Body of Water” by Adam Godfrey

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, September 2025

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: Don’t let the water drag you down…

It’s been six years since Glen Masters lost his wife in a tragic accident. In hopes of reconnecting with his grieving teenage daughter, Lauren, he decides to take her on a road trip through the Appalachian mountains, where he has fond memories of their past as a family. But what was supposed to be a quick diner pit stop suddenly transforms into a nightmare when armed men stumble in, ranting about a mysterious and deadly “living water” that attacked several people up the road. The story the men spin seems to be the rantings of drunken lunatics, but soon Glen, his daughter, and the other diners find themselves hostages to both the gunmen and the inexplicably terrifying entity. 

Because there’s truly something wrong with the water, and it has no mercy.

Panic grows as the diners play witness to a nature-defying being that seeks only to swallow everything in its path. With help nowhere in sight, the group of strangers must work together to devise an escape, and ultimately, Glen will have to face his worst fears to reconcile with the past or risk losing everything.

A chilling story from a brand-new voice in fiction, Body of Water explores the complicated nature of grief, terror, and the ghosts we must confront to survive.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I am someone who has always been drawn to water. I love visiting the ocean, I love going up to Lake Superior and just vibing by the shore, and I have been known to really luxuriate in a bath, sometimes a couple times a day! I love water, but because I love it I ALSO love the idea of water becoming a villainous and carnivorous entity in a horror novel. Because I mean, how fun! So when I was sent “Body of Water” by Adam Godfrey, I was very, very amped to read it, as the idea of a bunch of people being trapped by a dangerous and hungry water-like being was just such a fun premise! And for awhile it lived up to my expectations!…. Until it kind of didn’t.

But first the good! “Body of Water” reminded me a lot of a few different things. The first is “The Mist”, which seems to be a big comparison that is being used by lots of people, but hey, if the shoe fits! We have a group of people, Glen and daughter Lauren at the forefront, stuck in a rural diner while a strange type of water lurks outside, killing and sucking the life out of anything that gets in its path. I was also thinking a lot about another Stephen King story “The Raft” as I read, as well as “The Blob”, with the viscous water entity doing a LOT of nasty body horror to anything that gets in its way much like those two stories. Throw in rising tensions between the trapped survivors in the diner (again, “The Mist” is an apt comparison) and you have a very suspenseful and dread filled story that had me on the edge of my seat as I was reading.

But we have to talk about the reason that this book has a lower score than one might assume with my previous paragraph’s praise. I won’t spoil anything here because I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s fun when this could very well be a ‘me’ thing. BUT. There is a crazy, CRAZY twist in this book that completely reframes basically the entire plot within the last couple of chapters of the story, negating basically everything before it. This one is particularly out there, as while looking back the seeds were certainly planted throughout the narrative, it still felt like whiplash. And as someone who has recently had a very difficult time abiding nutty twists for the sake of twists and shock value, this one really didn’t work for me.

But that won’t necessarily apply to everyone! And until that moment, “Body of Water” was, indeed, a suspenseful horror novel that I was enjoying. Just because it didn’t work for me, it doesn’t mean that it won’t work for you!

Rating 6: A really suspenseful and solid horror novel was derailed a bit by a very random twist.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Body of Water” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2025”.