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The Hill by Iain Rob Wright
The Hill is like The hulk on Crack, like all the crack. Like if he went to crack mountain consumed all the crack and came back again then you would have The Hill book 1 in The Spread series. The Hill is book 1 in The Spread series of books by notorious British horror author, Iain Rob Wright. Now, I’d been meaning to get to these books for some time and with spooky season almost upon us, I thought I’d grab the bull by the horns and dig in. One thing I loved about this first instalment was the character development. The idea of a bunch of mates having an…
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Jump Cut by Helen Grant
Jump Cut is a story that will stay with you. Emotionally tense and gloriously hypnotic, it is a story that is sure to enclose you in its tight embrace. Jump Cut is Helen Grant’s next novel and lord is it a throat punch. I absolutely adored her last novel, Too Near the Dead and this one emitted similar feelings. The impending sense of dread, brilliant character development, a sense of place. I love the gothic nature of her tales; you really appreciate the blend of history and the present time coming together to create a hugely compulsive read. Even if you’ve never read a Helen Grant book before, I 100%…
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That Night in the Woods by Kristopher Triana
That Night in the Woods by Kristopher Triana is a story reminiscent of The Losers Club from IT, in that a group of five friends meet up after twenty years to celebrate and mourn the loss of one of the group, Steven. I’m afraid that’s where the comparison ends. This unfortunately wasn’t a book that worked for me. It was a real slog to get through it and I did think about DNF’ing it at several points. The story starts off extremely slow and the POV’s alternating without warning and did find myself getting frustrated. That Night in the Woods follows Jennifer, Traci, Corey and Mark coming back to Redford…
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Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca
Everything the Darkness Eats fizzles with tension, the pages just turn of their own volition. A fierce exploration of grief and power. LaRocca hits you with yet another viscerally compulsive story. You can trust Eric LaRocca to hit that fucked up o’metre and turn your quiet reading day into a bubbling cauldron of angst and apprehension. Everything the Darkness Eats is like LaRocca’s other books, in that, the titles are designed to make you think. His presence is everywhere and with a unique writing style all his own I am his ultimate fan. He’s an auto buy author because well, where else can you indulge in your intrusive thoughts because…
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A Moonlit Path of Madness by Catherine McCarthy
A Moonlit Path to Madness builds and builds to an ending so satisfying that I couldn’t pick anything up for days. A story like a poignant poem, its elegance leaving you stunned. Let’s be very clear from the offing – A Moonlit Path to Madness is a phenomenal book. McCarthy has captured everything I love about Gothic Horror. It’s quietly disconcerting and wholly compulsive. It’s a story that will not leave you, its imprint etched into he chambers of your heart, a permanent marking from a long-ago era. Catherine McCarthy’s writing is both eloquent and devastating. She has a firm reputation within the horror community for being supportive of other…
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Hum by Rob Ulitski
Hum is bruisingly brutal. A short, sharp shock to the nervous system, it makes you realise that depraved individuals hide in plain sight. Rob Ulitski is one of my favourite short story horror writers. It’s fucked up, its mental but you are guaranteed to have a good time reading it. The visuals and the narrative take you on the biggest trip to the point if you imagine it all happened in a dream. Hum is no different, in the fact that you say holy shit a lot. Hum is a short story that leaves you traumatised. The horror as always is freaking fantastic. Descriptions of bones being stripped clean with…
