I was so excited to see this line up of authors in the Table of Contents of The Best Of Indie Horror presented by Kevin J Kennedy! And many of these titles really sparked my interest.

This collection is another 5 star read for me!

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way. I also purchased a copy!

Okay, first things first… I’m OBSESSED with this cover. How amazing is that?! I need a print copy of this one ASAP.

Per usual, here are my quick thoughts on each tale:

Another Warrior in Paradise by Calvin Demmer – 5/5
Oh the promise of Paradise… It just never seems to work out, does it? The second our main character entered the cave, I dreaded seeing what would happen next. Absolutely terrifying!

Refuge by Lee Mountford – 5/5
What a twisted tale! After a group go on the run after a robbery gone wrong, this tale takes a brutal and horrific turn!

Misdiale by Mark Lukens – 5/5
Goodness… the number of times I have accidentally called a wrong number. What a terrifying plot!

Over the Precipice by J.C. Michael- 4/5
My goodness, the anger in this man! Phew!!

Making a Difference by Mike Duke- 5/5
Phew! First of all, what a conversation to have with a bunch of six year olds! That was insanely brutal! Second, what an intense and scary world they all live in!

Martina’s Gelato by John R. Little – 4/5
This poor girl! What a way to spend a birthday…

Cold Blooded by Tim Curran – 4/5
Phew, what an intense tale! I loved not knowing what creature we were dealing with up until the very end.

The Suicide Shagger by David Owain Hughes – 4/5
This guy…. I was so glad to see that he was about to finally change his mindset, but by then it was too late.

On Set with North by Mark Cassell- 4/5
Phew. This one reminded me of Color Out Of Space a bit, but technology based. What a bizarre and creepy tale!

The Black Rock by Andrew Lennon – 4/5
Yessss I loved the path this one took!

The Dark Sign by Christina Bergling – 4/5
Good lord this one was messed up! This poor teenager…

Love on a Rooftop by Christopher Motz – 3/5
My god the anger in these two! I hate them both! What a scary tale to read on a rainy day…

Into the Mystic by Steven Stacy – 3/5
Oh no! Well, that Valentine’s Day certainly took a turn!

The Duffle Bag by Douglas Hackle –
Not one for me.

Gobstopper by Kyle M. Scott – 5/5
My goodness!! I loved this one so much. It was absolutely brutal with the bullying, but that candy shop and the candy the kid walked away with was amazing!

Out of the Strong by Shaun Hutson – 4/5
Go bees! I loved the payback here.

Dreamtime by Lee Murray and Nichola Lombardi – 4/5
What a heartbreaking and terrifying tale! This one started out in such a normal, everyday life scene. I definitely couldn’t have guessed where it was going!

The Edge of the World by Lex H Jones – 5/5
Ah! Another heartbreaking and terrifying tale! This one made me tear up!

My Final Thoughts
Another amazing collection of tales that I would be happy to return to time and time again! I don’t know how Kevin J. Kennedy does it, but he always includes so many killer stories that I just love!

We Are Wolves: An Anthology compiled by Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower, and Cynthia Pelayo is an absolutely horrifying and gut-wrenching collection of tales that cover a broad range of topics. But what ties them all together is the power of women who have been pushed too far for too long and what they will do to rise up.

This collection will make you want to hug the special women in your lives extra tight the next time you see them. Post-COVID of course! I cannot wait to see my grandma and my mom when it’s safe to do so again.

Proceeds from the sale of this collection will be donated to causes that help survivors of abuse and assault.

Trigger Warnings:
Abuse, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse and other harm to children, self-harm, child death, rape, and more.

Per usual with collections like this, I have added my quick thoughts about each story or poem. In some sections, I have pulled some my favorite lines from the story. Those passages will appear in italics.

Forward by Gemma Amor
This forward is the single most incredible forward I have ever come across. It was honest, it was brutal, it gave readers a heads up with content warnings, and it was also a warrior cry.

Our capacity to minimize the severity of Bad Things is limitless, it seems. I wonder where that comes from, that instinctive need to gloss over the terror or the hurt, to pull up the smile-curtains tight across our faces and upon questioning, lie, endlessly lie: ‘I’m fine!’ We say, over and over, but many of us aren’t.

The Black Wall Paper by Cynthia Pelayo – 5/5
Oh my gosh. I related to how this woman felt so much at the beginning. I totally feel the push to always be productive, to do more, to BE more. I loved how this story was set up with the quick little bursts that hinted that all was not well here. The ending was quite a shock.

Everything and everyone demanding more of time than I could ever provide. I was always needed. By someone. By something. And I was very tired.

Though Your Heart is Breaking by Laurel Hightower – 5/5
HOLY. What a tale! Anyone who has ever had someone tell them to smile… this one will resonate with you. I absolutely loved the set up and pacing of this one! Such an awesome ending too!

Angel by Gemma Amour – 5/5
This one is brutally heartbreaking! My gosh, I can’t even imagine being sent on calls where children are in danger, let alone to this extent.

Trouble With Fate by Sarah Read – 3/5
Fate is certainly a fickle thing!

A Key For Any Lock by S.H. Cooper – 5/5
It’s so upsetting to see the victim blaming and nastiness that random people spew after sexual assaults. I just can’t wrap my head around it. But this tale… what a beautifully poetic kind of revenge.

The Curse of She, Part 6: The Final Girlfriend by Hailey Piper – 5/5
What would happen if film character archetypes could cross decade and jump films? I loved this story and how unique it was! It also made me really sad to see the jealousy and loneliness.

The Mutation of Almost Beautiful Things by Sara Tantlinger – 3/5
This was intense!

By the Throat by J. Danielle Dorn – 4/5
Yikes! What a tale! And so refreshing for a character that’s potentially in danger to LISTEN and get out of there.

Where A Witch Goes When She Burns by Eve Harms – 4/5
Woah, I was not expecting where this one ended up!

Extra Weight by Laurel Hightower – 5/5
Another incredibly powerful tale. I loved how this was written in a format of short bursts of narrative that almost flowed like poetry.

And this line, oofh. Such a gut punch-
She knows now that she is the only thing standing between her students and the possibility of some thing very bad. Today it is disease, but yesterday it was bullets.

The Parrot by Sonora Taylor – 5/5
I loved the smart home element of this one! And phew what a nasty man Charles is!

The Silence of Sarah Cross by Beverley Lee – 4/5
Yessss! I love the ending of this one. A story that began so proper sure took a fun turn!

Lobster Trap by V. Castro – 4/5
I loved the opening of this one with the beautiful description of the coastline and the ocean. It made me so homesick! But then the tale took a turn from peace and beauty to terror!

Doll House by Red Lagoe – 5/5
Woah, this one was brutal and so sad. This poor girl… I loved this one! It made me want to go watch House of Wax again!

Ruthie’s Garden by Cassie Daley – 5/5
I love how this tale was laid out; starting in the present, flashing back to provide context, then finishing up not by actually taking action, but leading the reader to know exactly what is about to happen. Go Ruthie!

There was nothing that could be done well enough or throughly enough to turn her husband into a better man, and it wasn’t her responsibility to keep trying. She could see that now.

Playing with Gods and Dolls by Erin Al-Mehairi – 3/5
Woah! This one was heartbreaking and filled with horrific scenes of a brutal childhood, but what a tale! I loved the ending!

Room Seven by Gemma Amor – 4/5
Woah!

Water Babies by Sadie Hartmann – 3/5
That scene by the cross!! So unsettling.

Woman. Mother. Goddess. Death. by Lily’s George – 5/5
My goodness. This was horrific and brutal. While my heart broke for this family, I counselor help but want to jump up and cheer as we watched our main character make her way toward her goal.

Poke, Stir, Flesh, Bone by Amanda McHugh – 5/5
Brutal! What a pack!

Colors can’t be hidden, but people can blind themselves to what they don’t want to see. Choice is a powerful thing.

A Marriage of Dust and Blood by Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason – 4/5
Yikes, what an angry man! I loved the setting and the haunting elements of this one!

Welcome Home by Jessica Guess – 4/5
I loved tales like this, when you can tell something is up, but you don’t know for sure until it’s all laid out.

The Body You Loved by Gemma Amour – 4/5
What a wonderful poem to end this collection.

My Final Thoughts
Reading this collection was such a rollercoaster of emotions. So many of these stories had my blood boiling, while others had me feeling like I could jump up and cheer.

Dead Meat Day 0 is a heartbreaking tale of love and the determination to do whatever can be done to save a loved one.

I was SO excited when the email came out about this one. I dove in immediately!

The events of this novella took place on Friday, July 25th.

When we dive into the story, we meet Dennis, a nineteen year old with developmental delays that were caused by a fever he had as a child. Dennis is racing down the road on his bike to deliver eggs to their neighbor, Esther.

When he arrives, Esther doesn’t come to the door. Dennis thinks she may be in her garden, so he heads to check there. On the way, he hears crying and sees Esther sitting next to a bed. When he softly calls to her, she hardly registers that it’s him. Dennis decides to enter the home.

Once inside, Esther comes around and tells Dennis that her granddaughter has died from a sickness. Not knowing what to do, Dennis calls his mother. Next, we find out that the mother and Esther were in a coven, and there’s one more thing that they can try…

Of course, this doesn’t exactly go as they had hoped.

This was SO much fun to read! Day One gave the readers a quick glimpse into what may have happened, and let’s them try to think up what had happened. In Day Zero, I was so excited to learn what actually happened in the old woman’s house.

My Favorite Passages:
Of course, he trusts Mom when she says it will work – but still it seems to Dennis some things are better the way they are, even if they make you sad.

It all sounds like something out of a nightmare, or maybe one of those bloody horror movies on Netflix Dennis can never bring himself to watch. Things like this simply don’t happen in real life.

My Final Thoughts:
This novella was wonderful! It started off a bit sad, but the horror quickly began and then just got more and more spooky! I highly recommend checking this one out!

This is a novella that can definitely be read either before you dive into the series, or anytime after Day One.

To obtain a copy of this book, you can sign up for Nick Clausen’s readers club on his website.

Calling all fans of 80’s pop culture and video games, Ready Player One is such a fun read to get totally lost in when you need a pick-me up!

This was my third read of this one, I believe. This time around I picked up the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton and listened along while I read. I had an absolute blast!

This book is just a fantastic and fun read! When I first picked it up, I was immediately hooked and had a very hard time putting it down. The second time around, I had just as much fun.

I love the main character, Wade, and always enjoy seeing him grow over the course of the novel. While he had a rough upbringing, he comes into his own pretty quickly when faced with even more difficulty than he had already been through.

This CNN review nails it: “An addictive read…part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance and all heart.” —CNN.com

I would recommend this book to gamers and non-gamers alike. Also, to fans of 80’s movies and music, you will LOVE all of the references thrown around!

My Favorite Passages
My mom once told me that my dad had given me an alliterative name, Wade Watts, because he thought it sounded like the secret identity of a superhero. Like Peter Parker or Clark Kent. Knowing that made me think he must have been a cool guy, despite how he’d died.

When I first open the door and gazed into the van’s darkened interior, I knew right away that I found some thing of immeasurable value: privacy.

When I was in the zone on a high-speed classic like Defender, I feel like a hawk in flight, or the way I thought a shark must feel as a cruises the ocean floor. For the first time, I knew what it was to be a natural at some thing. To have a gift.

My Final Thoughts
This is an absolute blast to read! I will definitely be retuning to this story time and time again.

If you haven’t read this one yet, I highly recommend the novel or the audiobook! I absolutely loved both formats.

Clown In A Cornfield by Adam Cesare is a brutal tale set in a small town where the only people suffering worse than the local economy, are the teenagers that have been targeted by angry townsfolk.

Tensions are rising, and everyone is fed up. But just how far are people willing to go to bring the town back together?

I had heard so many great things about this book. Per usual, I bought it, and then let it sit on my TBR stack for far too long… But I’m so happy that I was able to get to this one before the end of the year. It’s definitely one that jumped to the top of my favorites list from 2020!

I picked this one up one afternoon and could not put it down. It was a classic- Eh, I can struggle through my Monday at work. I just HAVE to finish reading this!

Readers, it was totally worth it.

The prologue really set the dark tone of the book. Scenes like this really spook me. It’s so terrifying how real-world events like this are. Especially as teenagers, always seeming to think that they’re above harm until an accident like this happens.

In Chapter one, we meet our main character, Quinn. I loved her immediately. She was so thoughtful and full of empathy! Of course, she also had a few of the usual teenage angsty quirks, but that just made her jump off the page even more.

Overall, I really enjoyed all of the characters. Each of them were perfectly developed for their roles, and I loved seeing how various characters interacted with others over the course of the story.

Speaking of the story… that plot was INTENSE. I loved the set up before the big event where things started to go wrong. After the very first scene where you realize the girl isn’t just stumbling because she is drunk, just forget about trying to put the book down.

Ah, this is one of those books that I could just go on and on and on about! I loved it so much! The writing style was easy to read, realistic, and it really painted a picture in your mind. The plot was perfectly paced; it was wonderful when things were calm though unsettling, and then action-packed and absolutely terrifying. The characters were either lovely, wicked annoying, or horrifyingly awful.

Do yourself a favor and go snag this one if you haven’t already. If you have, but it’s in your TBR pile, start it right away!

My Favorite Passage
Cole wasn’t going to point out that was fiction. And that Romeo and Juliet hadn’t beheaded anyone with a circular saw.

My Final Thoughts
If Clown In A Cornfield by Adam Cesare were a movie, you would be curled up in your seat watching through your fingers, nervous about what would happen next!

This is a must read for fans of intense slashers! This novel is sure to keep you totally hooked from page one right up through the very end!

I cannot wait to reread this one again soon, it’s definitely one that I can see myself returning to time and time again.

This needs to be made into a horror film ASAP!

Antioch by Jessica Leonard is a gripping tale about a paranoid and sleep deprived woman who is obsessed with a local serial killer case.

Will she be able to solve the mystery that has stumped local detectives, will she get too close to the source, or is there something even more sinister going on here?

I have been interested in the disappearance of Amelia Earhart for ages. The first time I learned about her in elementary school, I was amazed with her story and heartbroken that she disappeared.

When I heard about this book and learned that the main character was interested in conspiracy theories about Earhart’s disappearance, I knew I had to check this one out.

When the story began, I was hooked immediately. Jessica Leonard’s writing style is very easy to read and she was able to quickly set the reader in a state of unease. I loved that we followed the main character as she dives in deeper with the case, but at the same time, starts to unravel physically and mentally.

While reading, I kept asking myself if this was paranormal or if we have an unreliable narrator on our hands. After all, poor Bess was drinking a lot and not getting enough sleep… Even after hitting the last page, I still wasn’t sure!

I LOVE books like this. They make me want to shout “WHAT?!” as soon as I hit the last word.

My Favorite Passages
Bess dropped the phone. Her hands clasped at her chest as if to catch her heart before it could escape. Her mouth was open, but no sounds made their way out.

It was a routine, but damn it, sometimes routines were real nice. Sometimes they could be the absolute nicest.

Bess smiled and made her way over to the coffee. She poured some into one of the disposable cups stacked next to the pot and smiled down at the beautiful caffeinated cup of something to do with her hands.

My Final Thoughts
From start to finish, I was hooked. I’m still not sure what I think was real here vs. what had me believing something that maybe wasn’t real. If you’ve read this one, I would love to hear your thoughts!

If you haven’t picked this up yet, I highly recommend doing so! This is another that I would recommend picking up over the weekend or a day off so you don’t have to put it down.

What a debut! I cannot wait to read more from Jessica Leonard!

Wormwood by Chad Lutzke & Tim Meyer is a coming of age tale filled with your usual dose of teenage angst, but also some brutal revenge.

This was such a twisted ride! This story made me queasy, and of course, I mean that as a compliment.

When the story began, it all seemed pretty innocent. I loved that early on, one of the girls bailed on a trip to the mall to play video games with the boys. I had high hopes that this crew were going to be great friends. And well, you can definitely say they were bonded together…

As the story continued, little things started to pop up here and there that made the read go from happy to uneasy very quickly for me. The first was realizing the age gap between the older girl, Cass, and the younger Baker and Seb. While it was just a couple of years, when you’re a teenager, that gap matters.

Next was seeing how blindly the boys bent to Cass’s every whim. You could clearly see our main character, Baker, struggling internally. But there was something that kept pushing him to go along with whatever they were pushing him to do.

When both boys began wanting to be more than friends with Cass, I had a feeling this would end very poorly. After one specific scene in the woods, things took a major turn and things spiraled from there… but I definitely couldn’t have seen what happens next coming.

When I finished reading, I had to get up and take a lap around my house. Phew.

My Favorite Passages
It all feels like the beginning of something very wrong.

Hellspawn in human flesh. His presence inspires a spike of uneasiness in Baker’s gut, a studded worm that slithers through his intestines.

His eyes are wide and bloodshot. He’s acting very unlike himself. His behavior reminds Baker of a werewolf under a full moon before the transformation. But the full moon here is vodka.

My Final Thoughts
If you enjoy coming of age tales that are deeply unsettling, then I highly recommend this one to you!

While I did enjoy the read very much, I’m wicked sensitive to tales with any form of cheating in it, and this story had that element. It was light, and wasn’t focused on too much, but just be careful there if you’re triggered by that.

Standalone by Paul Michael Anderson is a slasher read with a nod to other slashers, that will leave you feeling haunted.

In this sci-fi horror novel, our main character kills people in order to keep a balance in the multiverse. But of course, that balance is fickle, and it’s about to be tested.

Right on page one, the first kill occurs. From there, it’s an all out massacre. While reading, I thought that this situation seems pretty familiar… And then we meet the last kill, and I became very curious to see where things would go from there.

As a reader, we soon learn that our main character, who has just slaughtered a group of teenagers at a summer camp, does this a lot. But it’s not just him. There’s a group of four men that are each sent out on assignments where they kill people based on very specific assignments they are given.

They were told that they need to do this in order to keep the balance and protect their homes. But why do things have to be done this way? Well, that is something that one character is about to learn when everything doesn’t go quite as planned…

I really enjoyed that we were totally thrown into the predicament on the first page, but then take a step back to learn more about what was going on. I also really enjoyed the slasher element of this novel paired with our characters that were clearly struggling, but were just trying to do their jobs.

I didn’t read the book description before diving in, so the sci-fi elements threw me a bit. Some scenes also seemed to drag a bit for me and I found myself losing interest, and I just wanted to jump back into the action. (I think this could very well be due to the state of the world right now. I will be returning to this book again at a later date to see if I still feel that way.)

All in all, I thought that the premise of this book was really interesting and quite spooky when you let yourself think about this really happening! Paul Michael Anderson is definitely an author that I will be keeping an eye on. I’d love to read more of his work soon!

My Final Thoughts
If you enjoy slashers paired with a heavy dose of science-fiction, then you’ve gotta check this one out!

This is a read that I would like to return to again down the road. While I enjoyed it very much, I think some of the sci-fi elements just threw me for a loop.

Small Walt Spots Dot by Elizabeth Verdick, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal is an adorable and fun tale to read during the long winter season!

If your child, or a child you know, loves trucks/cars and dogs, this is a must buy for them!

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

While Walt and Gus are just going about their work one snowy day, they spot a pup on the loose in a parking lot that they’re trying to clear. They call in reinforcement and try to catch the dog before she runs off, but she keeps giving them the slip!

When they finally catch her, they realize she doesn’t have a collar. Will the pup find her home?

Oh my goodness, everything about this little book is perfect. I mean, the endpapers are a beautiful blue and show a little trail of footprints that Dot made!

The artwork is so colorful and fun! The town reminded me of a snowy, softer, and quieter version of The Busy World of Richard Scarry. Young readers will love trying to spot Dot on various pages!

This book is just adorable all around! I loved that it was written with lots of sounds that were added in italics that will make reading this out loud even more fun!

If you’re looking for a heartwarming story for the winter months, I highly recommend snagging this one!

Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer is a twisted tale about the dark secrets that are being covered up in a failing publishing house.

When our main character, Lussi Meyer, arrives to the dark and spooky building for an interview, she is hoping this goes well as she’s on her last lets. But she’s immediately put off when the man interviewing her dismisses her without asking any questions. As she goes to leave the office, her temper flares and she ends up tripping and catching herself on a bookshelf, knocking free a very creepy doll.

But of course, this isn’t just any doll. From there, the story takes off and my gosh…

This author created a very eerie atmosphere early on that set the tone for the rest of the read for me. It felt a bit like watching a movie with a lot of dark scenes during the day time, where everything was a bit hard to make out, but you still strained to see into the shadows as you anxiously awaited a jump scare.

On top of that, I also really enjoyed the fact that I could never quite pinpoint a single one of the characters. I really wanted to trust them and see things work out. One second I would think that a specific person was all right, but the next, they were pulling a gun or drugging someone!

This story had many twists and turns and I had so much fun as I kept trying to guess what was going to happen next. Of course, I was never correct!

If you’re looking for a spooky tale set in an office around Christmas that will keep you on your toes, then this is the book for you!