I’ll say this right off the bat: Tome is dark and brutal horror done right. I’ve had several conversations recently about the use of highly disturbing or taboo subjects in horror, and how poorly things can go when they’re not handled properly. Anything that values shock over substance is a hard pass from me. However, it is possible to weave traumatizing scenes involving rape, gore, rancid racism, and so on into a story, but those scenes certainly must exist for a reason beyond just triggering a reaction.

I want to be honest with you when I say that, for me, Tome was an emotionally heavy and distressing read. Not just because of the rape scenes and not just because of the abhorrent racism, but also because of how depressing it all is. It’s a dark and grimy story about dreadful people who do unspeakably awful things. There were several times I had to set the book aside for a bit to decompress after a specific chapter or event. And yet, I always returned eager to dive back in. The story, in spite of its ugliness, is also utterly compelling.

The book is set almost entirely in Juniper Correctional, a decaying prison full of despicable inmates and corrupt guards led by the truly atrocious Warden Fleming. A recent string of suicides inside the facility prompts a visit from two black U.S. Marshalls, who believe (correctly) that there is something more going on behind the scenes of JC. This is a place of dark secrets and there are those, both human and demonic, who will do anything to keep certain information covert. Like I said, this is a book full of terrible people. We expect the guards and ruinous spirits to be evil, but even the Marshall Dolores Fink has her own less-than-benevolent motivations. The only slim beacon of purity is Frank, a prison guard who lives his life right but will eventually have his light put to the test by the darkness.

Don’t get me wrong though, I loved this book! If this is sounding like a negative review it’s definitely not. The characters, though immensely flawed, are all fascinating and multifaceted. In fact, I think the reason they were so upsetting is because of how realistically they were written. The story line is full of twists and scenes I will never forget. Even though a certain twist I could see coming from a long way off, the revelation is still shocking. It felt like staring down an oncoming train, wanting to move but unable to look away.

The excellent writing in general is what really elevates this story for me. The descriptions and imagery are incredibly powerful and vivid. I could feel the damp, cold of the cells, sense the dreariness of the constant storms, see the festering rot in certain scenes, and smell every bit of cigarette smoke, perspiration, and whiskey on Warden Fleming. All of the details are graphic and disgusting, but that’s the nature of the story that author Ross Jeffery has written.

If you like the perverse mystery of Fincher’s Se7en (but with demons), the violent prison setting of Brawl in Cell Block 99, or the literary quality and bleak humanity of much of Cormac McCarthy’s writing, then you will absolutely enjoy this! I know this book is set in a series all based around the town of Juniper. And though Juniper is a place I desperately don’t want to visit, I will absolutely be checking out more books from this author!

When @addamsastrid asked me if I wanted to read her story “Zombie Santa Claus: Axe Murderer Edition” I said yes without hesitation. With a title like that, how could you not? Oh man, I had no idea what I was getting into!

This story is short, brutal, and all kinds of disturbing. It’s set post-zombie invasion, and focuses on two kids whose parents are part of church that believes abuse is the best way to exorcise sin. All of the kids this Christmas are wishing for the new Zombie Santa Claus toy...and for better or worse they get what they wished for!

This story is unsettling from the get-go, but it takes a few pages before revealing just how messed up it is. This story is twisted! It also has a great ending. It’s certainly not what I expected to read on Christmas, but if you’re looking for more Christmas horror then I’d say give it a shot! Oh, and all proceeds are going to benefit Bacchus Residents Rescue (local animal rescue and sanctuary). How cool is that?

Wow, I’m blown away by this little story! I know my account trends toward horror predominantly, but I swear I like all kinds of stories. THE HOUSEPLANT is more of a drama, but it manages to capture a wide range of emotions in very few pages. I laughed, I empathized, and I may have even shed a tear.

Who knew a story told solely through the lens of a plant could be so entertaining and sincere?! It’s focus on personification and heartfelt storytelling reminds me of the best of the Pixar movies. It’s about a plant whose owner has rescued it from the plant store and lovingly cared for it over the years. No spoilers, but there is dramatic tension when something happens to the owner. Though the plant is the protagonist of the story, we also get to see how the humans in the story interact with and are affected by him (his owner-given name is George).

Again, to say more would be to ruin the experience for you. Just know that this story packs a lot into a little, and is very much worth your time! I will certainly be looking forward to reading more of what this author puts out in the future!!

Thank you to @jeremyraystories for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

Basically this book blends together the best parts of Doom, The Thing, Aliens, Event Horizon, Dead Space, and Stranger Things (all of which I love so much). Maybe I should knock off points for copying some, but I was just having too much FUN to care! Really though it manages to still stand alone as it’s own exciting entity, full of exhilarating action sequences, grotesque monsters, and great character development.

I love sci-if action/horror in general, but it’s that last point that really stood out to me (although these monsters are freaky!). I really appreciate how much I cared for this cast of characters. They felt fully realized, even the minor ones, and there’s some fantastic banter between them (the kind that can come across as cheesy in movies often, but here it’s done very well).

This book is the definition of a page-turner, and I tore through it in one sitting. Thankfully it’s just book one in a full series called Reality Bleed, and this dynamic duo of authors just released book five! Now excuse me while I stare anxiously into the void until I can read the next book.

This story immediately drops you into conflict and gives you a protagonist you can really empathize with. I truly feel the guilt and sorrow Natalie carries after her brother's accident, as well as the emotional weight that increasingly burdens her as the story progresses. She faces a lot of tragedy and death throughout, including an unbelievably difficult decision in the later half, and I was rooting for her the entire time!

Baba Yaga has always been a fascinating character to me, and I like the twist this story takes on her mythology. There are also a lot of horrifying scenes where nature is reclaiming the town and its people, often in gruesome and disgusting ways. Those were a lot of fun, and they added narrative punches that kept the story clipping along at a good pace.

I'm a big fan of creepy folktales, curses, and eco-horror so this story really found its mark with me! Other things I found fascinating include: the time period and setting, the lore for the backstory, and the dramatic tension between Christianity and paganism. My only complaint is that I feel like the story ends in a very abrupt manner, but otherwise it's great and I can't wait to read more from the author!

Fun apocalyptic cosmic horror!

If that doesn't catch your attention, then I can't help you. But seriously, this book is a fast-paced, wild little ride that throws you right into the story and builds to an ending of seismic, reality-shattering proportions.

I absolutely love the set up of a modern doomsday cult traveling cross-country to recover the body of their late mentor, who is seemingly calling to them from beyond the grave. I like that the story is written from perspective of the cult members, giving their presence and mission an empathy and emotional weight that may have otherwise been missing. Also their character traits and actions are well-written, though their exact motivations are a little underdeveloped.

Cults (including doomsday ones) have always fascinated me, and I found their beliefs about cosmic vibrations (Transit Frequencies) and energy to be intriguing, if a little confusing. Honestly though I wanted a little more of that in the story, especially how the cult was started and how our current characters joined. There were hints towards all that in the book, but I still wanted to know more.

I also liked the combination of real life threats (danger of being black in racist, rural Arkansas), as well as the otherworldly creatures that show up in the second half of the book. It's a testament to the author that this novella manages to pack so much into so few pages. Lots of drama and tension, heady ideas, and again THAT ENDING. The writing is also pretty good, despite some awkward phrasing and dialogue. Overall a very impressive debut from an author that I desperately hope writes more in this sub genre (being a professor whose research focuses on apocalyptic rhetoric and doomsday cults, this is obviously his wheelhouse).

EIGHT CYLINDERS is a high-octane blast of adrenaline, guns, cars, and tentacles!

The story makes no pretenses about it's desire for fast-paced action, dropping you immediately into a gunfight in the opening scene. After losing his best friend to a bullet, Seb barely makes it out of the firefight alive, bleeding profusely as he speeds down the interstate in his Charger. Trusting his directions to a magic eight ball, he eventually passes out and awakes several days later in a barren desert surrounded by mountains on all sides. Seb can't understand why the motley crew living there would want to stay, but, in another near-death experience, he quickly learns that there is something living in the mountains and underground that doesn't want them to leave. Something tentacled and massive on a mind-bending scale.

Being a novella, and judging from the cover, I expected this story to move quickly. And boy does it! I would guess approximately 50% of the book is characters driving fast, shooting guns, and desperately trying to avoid the giant tentacles. It's a lot of fun and the story has a lot of interesting elements, but unfortunately many aren't fleshed out enough and raise more questions than answers (how did they get there, what is this place, where did the monster come from, what's going on with time, who the heck is the young/old scabbed up girl Mary, etc). And then it ends up a twist that, again, is intriguing but perplexing.

If a Lovecraftian/Mad Max mashup sounds good to you (as it did to me), then this is probably for you! I don't for writing that does into the weeds on technical details, and it started to do that a little with the cars and guns. Plus there's SO much more I want to know about this world that the author has created. Maybe there will be a sequel? Either way it's a fun ride and certainly worth the 100 pages and quick hour's read.

This collection features 20 poems of vivid imagery and raw emotion. Each one feels intensely personal, as though Eric is pouring his heart into the page (and I believe he may very well have been). There’s also lot of ambiguity and metaphor at play, and I loved trying to figure out the various interpretations/meanings behind each. These are certainly ripe for multiple reads!

Eric has a fantastic writing style; one that I’ve really enjoyed in his longer works and that shines just as bright with his poetry. Plenty of evocative descriptions (at one point an egg yolk is described as an “oily corpse”) and intriguing phrases, such as “candied viscera,” “velveteen sunlight,” “teeth of the moon,” “cannibal priests,” and of course the titular “fanged dandelion”.

The imagery is so visceral and powerful, and each poem is a gut punch of emotive memories and experiences. While there’s language like seed, breath, and tender the diction trends much heavier with rot, torture, blood, cut, maggot, coffin, etc. There are also lots of scenes with bad things happening at night and characters devouring one another (in various ways). It’s clear Eric is focusing on the darker and more painful sides of relationships, self-perception, identity, and the human condition.

I enjoyed all of the poems and I appreciate the brutality and honesty present, though one of my favorites is “A Mother is a Kind of God” which seems to be from the perspective of the earth and about a serial killer who delivers victims into her “body”. I’m likely way off

Man, I really wanted to like this book. I loved the setting and all the descriptive imagery made it easy to picture myself strolling on that black sand beach or cowering in fear in those dark underground tunnels. I also thought the "creature" design was compelling and it had some cool moments. And that one jolting, brutal massacre scene? *chefs kiss*

With its emphasis on cults and cosmic horror, this book should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, I found myself struggling to enjoy it. Sure there's flat, cliche dialogue and various plot holes, but I can overlook those to some degree if I care about the characters. And I think that's where the book lost me the most. I didn't like or empathize with anyone in the story. They're just too much like cardboard cutouts from other sci-fi/action stories and that, along with the stilted dialogue and nonsensical decision-making, is why even when the story ramps up in the second half I found it hard to get excited.

Honestly, I enjoyed the book more in the second half for sure, especially when I began to re-frame it as a cheesy B-movie flick. I kept wanting to yell at the screen/page "why are you doing that?" and "why are you saying it that way?". So in that way it was kind of fun, but I also don't think that's what the author was going for. There's definitely a good story outline and character types here, but for me the execution just didn't make them any more than that.

First of all, I really resonated with the introduction from Sadie Hartmann (aka Mother Horror). Meyer's The Switch House and Lutzke's Of Foster Homes and Flies were the first books I read from these respective writers, and they had a huge impact on my love for and exploration of the indie horror scene (which literally began just last year and is continuing to thrive). I'm excited to read more from each of these authors and to continue to mine the horror scene.

Now, on to the book itself. I received the Night Worms/Thunderstorm Books exclusive edition in November of last year, but I didn't get around to reading it until a couple weeks ago. I'm late in writing my review, but this is actually the very first book I read in 2021 and I was so happy to start the year with such a good one!

There's so much to love here, from the fleshed out characters, to the immaculate pacing and suspense, to the thrilling, jaw-dropping final act. I already had a soft spot for this type of story because I'm a big fan of (dark) coming-of-age tales, and I'm pleased to report that the Lutzke-Meyer duo knocked it out of the park. Baker Gray is an authentic and fully realized protagonist, whose burgeoning hormones are fully smitten by the older Cass and yet who still questions his own actions even as he sinks down the well of moral dilemma. I may not have been caught up in the same dark web as Baker when I was young, but many of his thoughts and feelings are strikingly relatable. I think this speaks to the success of the writers in capturing the fears and yearnings of an adolescent male whose loss of innocence begins early in the book and continues on to the shocking finale.

In addition to the characters of the book, I also really enjoyed the pacing. You know, just based on the tone and mood early on, that something is going to go horribly wrong as Baker falls head-over-heels for Cass, but the book is patient enough to wait until the end to reveal the its full horror. Plus the increasing infatuation/sexual tension, growing rivalry with Baker's best friend Seb, and escalation of Cass's demands are plenty engaging and help carry the story along at a brisk, worrisome step. Oh and the countdown in the chapters is a nice touch, clearly spelling out that we're heading towards something bad. I loved every single chapter in this book, but that ending is just amazing. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say I'm a sucker for home-invasions-gone-wrong. Also there is a twist that, honestly, I should have seen coming but I was so enraptured by the story that it still caught me by surprise.

There are a couple of references to William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and this seems an appropriate connection. In addition to the cruel realities of human nature and the inevitable loss of innocence, there's also a story here about three teens at odds with the world wanting to create new rules in a home they can call their own. And there's something beautiful and inspiring about that, even if it ends up being a home built on mistrust and duplicity.

This is a horror book where the monsters are all too real. There is deviance, violence, and brokenness, but there's also moments of joy and truth (even if that truth is written in blood). To say more would be to spoil the experience. Go, and read it for yourself. You won't be disappointed.