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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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Curfew by Kev Harrison
My first foray into Kev Harrison’s work was with his debut novella, The Balance. Since then, I have been obsessed not only with his ability to spin a bloody got horror story but also with his character work, which in my opinion, is one of the biggest hard hitters in the genre. Not only do you get a sense of place, but his main characters always have something you can resonate with. He’s only got better with every piece of work he’s released, The Warding and Below being favourites also. I’ve been slowly working my way through Demain Publishing’s Short Sharp Shocks! Series and I was delighted to find that…
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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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The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens – BLOG TOUR
The Girls in the Cabin is every parent’s worst fear. Cancel everything because this is one of the hard hitters of the summer. The definition of a page turner. After a chilling opening, meeting Clara Carver was like a double-edged sword. You knew there was something quite off about her, but you couldn’t help but feel the darkest recesses of her pain. The undercurrent was dark and dangerous, and I felt queasy with the implications. That feeling never once left me and I walked straight in, blind to the repercussions, dazed when they hit me like a bullet ricocheting past me at all angles. The Girls in the Cabin was…
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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…
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The Exeter Incident by David Watkins
The Exeter Incident felt fresh and exciting. It was otherworldly and gripping. Watkins genius is his ability to strip away the veil, unleashing the horror contained within. The Exeter Incident was a fantastic foray into creature feature/cosmic horror. Have you ever questioned why life is so boring? Why nothing interesting ever happens? Well, The Exeter Incident might just make you thankful for your nice dull life. You can’t buy excitement from Amazon, but you can buy The Exeter Incident and it equates to the same thing. At the heart of this novel is hope. If humanity does nothing else right, it’s their blind faith that everything will turn out well…