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Best Horror Book Review Blogs in 2024

Showing 74 blogs that match your search.

karl's book blog

https://www.karlcalagan.com/

Karl's book blog features reviews of mostly horror, historical, mystery, thriller, and queer literature. All are welcome!

Blogger : Karl Khumo Calagan

Genres : Horror

🌐 Domain authority: 5

👀 Average monthly visits: 100 p/mo

💌 Preferred contact method: Website contact form

⭐️ Accepts indie books? No

Indie Reader

http://indiereader.com/

There were over 391,000 books self-published in 2012. That's a lot of company (and competition!) for any author.åÊIndieReader offers the best value for reviews, bar none. IR's reviewers & some of the best in the field & will let you know if you've achieved what you set out to do. Charges may apply. IR also recommends titles to the HUFFINGTON POST and USA TODAY.

Blogger : The IndieReader Team

🌐 Domain authority: 49

👀 Average monthly visits: 15,000 p/mo

⭐️ Accepts indie books? Yes

The LitBuzz Hive

https://www.thelitbuzz.com/

A book review site featuring a diverse Hive of voices reading and sharing, we have a vast palette. We welcome both indie and traditionally-published authors - at no charge for reviews, ever.

Blogger : The LitBuzz Hive

🌐 Domain authority: 7

👀 Average monthly visits: 300 p/mo

💌 Preferred contact method: Email

Fantasy Book Critic

http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/

Please keep in mind Fantasy Book Critic receives dozens of review requests every week, so it is not always possible to respond immediately. If you do not hear from someone after 21 days, then feel free to send a follow-up query. Should your request interest one of our reviewers, you will be contacted regarding coverage on Fantasy Book Critic. Thank you for your interest in Fantasy Book Critic.

Blogger : The FBC Team

🌐 Domain authority: 47

👀 Average monthly visits: 9,000 p/mo

Kirkus Reviews

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/

Book reviews and recommendations from the most trusted voice in book discovery. We've reviewed the nation's top publishers' books since 1933. Our coverage includes the big 5 houses, small presses, genre publishers & more.

Blogger : Kirkus Reviews Team

🌐 Domain authority: 79

👀 Average monthly visits: 880,000 p/mo

💌 Preferred contact method: Submission manager

What Jamie Read

https://whatjamieread.com/

What Jamie Read is a book review blog focused on uplifting the voices of diverse authors and stories.

Blogger : Jamie Schultz

🌐 Domain authority: 2

👀 Average monthly visits: 1,500 p/mo

Bite into Books

http://www.biteintobooks.com/

Hi there! My name is Esther, I'm a 25 year old teacher from The Netherlands. Since I started this blog, I've been getting requests to review books. I've made you a Q&A to be sure we speak the same language.

Blogger : Esther

🌐 Domain authority: 23

👀 Average monthly visits: 3,000 p/mo

The Creative Muggle

https://www.thecreativemuggle.com/

The Creative Muggle is a place for anyone who wants to read books. You can find fascinating reading lists to have a productive reading time in your busy life. From charming romance novels to propulsive thrillers, you are in for a literary treat!

Blogger : Stephy George

🌐 Domain authority: 20

👀 Average monthly visits: 20,500 p/mo

Heyit'sCarlyRae Book Club

http://www.heyitscarlyrae.com

I'm an Instafamous Book Blogger who loves all genres of novels. Reading is my passion!

Blogger : Carly-Rae London

🌐 Domain authority: 12

👀 Average monthly visits: 8,000 p/mo

Anu Reviews

http://www.anureviews.com/

Anu Reviews is open to receiving review copies of the books from publishers and authors. I use images from the publisher or author websites. In case someone had objection to use of images from their websites, please let me know, I will click my own picture of the book cover which may not be as good as yours.

Blogger : Anu

🌐 Domain authority: 32

Fueled By Chapters

https://fueledbychapters.com/

Fueled By Chapters mainly features reviews and discussions about books, lifestyle, and other pop-culture topics.

Blogger : Inah

🌐 Domain authority: 3

👀 Average monthly visits: 1,600 p/mo

Books In Brogan

http://booksinbrogan.com/

I enjoy reading somewhat eclectic range of book, but I especially enjoy reading paranormal, science fiction, fantasy and contemporary romance in both adult and YA books. I'm not a huge fan of horror I also don't read much erotica or anything overly graphic, abusive or with a blatant amount of excessive violence.

Blogger : Brogan

🌐 Domain authority: 11

The Chrysalis BREW Project

https://thechrysalisbrewproject.com/

The Chrysalis Books, Reviews, and Everything Written (BREW) Project is an up-and-coming platform that aims to help content creators and audiences to grow, thrive, and soar through reviews, interviews, features, news, press releases, podcasts, and promotions. BREW hosts the monthly and annual BREW Readers' Choice Awards, the annual BREW Book Excellence Awards, and the quarterly and annual BREW International Blog Awards.

Blogger : Esperanza Pretila

🌐 Domain authority: 18

Booklover Book Reviews

https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/

WELCOME BOOKLOVERS! I’m Jo, an Aussie book reviewer. I started this website in 2009 and quickly realised I enjoy writing and blogging about books almost as much as reading them. Hope you enjoy browsing my book reviews & following my reading adventures.

Blogger : Joanne

🌐 Domain authority: 36

👀 Average monthly visits: 4,000 p/mo

I'm All Booked Up

https://imallbookedup.com/

We write book reviews, list posts and author interviews. We're open to guest posts.

Blogger : Christy and Claire

🌐 Domain authority: 21

So you want to find a book blog?

If you’re a voracious reader, you might think of a book blog as an oasis in the middle of the desert: a place on the Internet that brims with talk about books, books, and more books.

Well, good news — we built this directory of the 200 of the best book blogs  to satiate your thirst. Take a walk around, use the filters to narrow down your search to blogs in your preferred genre, and feel free to bookmark this page and come back, as we do update it regularly with more of the best book blogs out there. 

If you’re an aspiring author, you might see a book blog more as a book review blog: a place where you can get your yet-to-be published book reviewed. In that case, you’ll be glad to know that most of the book blogs in our directory are open to review requests and accept indie books! We expressly designed this page (and our book marketing platform, Reedsy Discovery ) to be useful to indie book authors who need book reviews. If you’re wondering how to approach a book blog for a review request, please read on. 

You’ve found a book blog. Now what? 

Let’s say that you’re an author, and you’ve found a couple of book blogs that would be perfect fits to review your book. What now? Here are some tips as you go about getting your book reviews:

• Be sure to read the review policy. First, check that the book blog you’re querying is open to review requests. If that’s the fortunate case, carefully read the blog’s review policy and make sure that you follow the directions to a T.  
• Individualize your pitches. Book bloggers will be able to immediately tell apart the bulk pitches, which simply come across as thoughtless and indifferent. If you didn’t take the time to craft a good pitch, why should the blogger take the time to read your book? Personalize each pitch to up your chances of getting a response. 
• Format your book in a professional manner before sending it out. Ensure that your manuscript isn’t presented sloppily. If the book blogger asks for a digital ARC, you might want to check out apps such as Instafreebie or Bookfunnel. 
• Create a spreadsheet to track your progress. Wading through so many book blogs can be troublesome — not to mention trying to remember which ones you’ve already contacted. To save yourself the time and trouble, use a simple Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your progress (and results). 

Looking to learn even more about the process? Awesome 👍 For a detailed guide, check out this post that’s all about getting book reviews . 

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Horror Palace

The Best in Horror - You have everything to fear!

Horror Book Reviews

Horror Palace provides honest succinct horror book reviews.  Each is a concise summary of the book providing a description, critical analysis, and evaluation of its significance as a horror book.  Importantly, our evaluation will help you determine if you would appreciate and enjoy reading it.

Latest Horror Book Reviews

• Never DEAD (Book Review) Never –DEAD has a very interesting origin. Typically, a book will inspire a film or TV program, but here the reverse is true. Never – DEAD was inspired by a short television program screened at the 2016 MystiCon Independent Film Festival. Furthermore, Never-DEAD Author Ann Greyson was a leading actor in the program portraying ...
• I Wish (Book Review) Editor’s Note: Horror Palace has reviewed more books by author Lex Sinclair than any other horror writer. Needless to say, he holds a special place in our horror literature heart. As his books continued coming thru the office for review, I would think to myself that I would like to review the book. Something seemed to ...
• Abhorrent (Book Review) After finishing this collection of short horror stories, entitled Abhorrent, I had one distinct thought; Michelle Merz is a talent waiting to explode into great things. So, if you can appreciate a fresh voice, in the process of finding its calling inside the world of horror, give Merz a shot at keeping you up at ...
• Ancient Illusions (Book Review) Ancient Illusions is the third book in the Ancient Secrets series, and the hero of the story will be facing a challenge that is more personal than anything he has faced before. More importantly, Joanne Pence has added another great adventure to a collection that was impressive from the start. Her experience shines through the ...
• The Slime (Book Review) The Slime is a book by Lex Sinclair that does not disappoint, and it gives “deadly infestations” a whole new shape and form. With the unique style I have come to recognize from Sinclair, I got swept away fairly quickly by the ordeal he places in front of his characters. And on top of always ...

Reviews are sorted alphabetically by title, with an excerpt from each book linked to the complete horror book review.

• “Beasts Shall Reign Over the Earth!” by Michael and Danny D’Agostino (Book Review) Beasts Shall Reign Over the Earth! is a detective thriller/horror novel by two brothers, namely Michael and Danny D’Agostino. Their combined efforts aim to bring you into a story that unfolds in downtown Manhattan, and they use quite a distinct style doing it. In fact, it puts a very light spin on what would be ...
• “Big Smoke” The Apocalypse Virus Trilogy – Book 1 by R.F. Blackstone (Book Review) R.F. Blackstone is the debut author of Big Smoke, the first book in a fast-paced action novel series entitled The Apocalypse Virus Trilogy that goes from political to apocalyptic in one smooth motion. With a style that is likely to keep your attention right up until the last page, Blackstone creates a female hero that ...
• “Dark: a collection” by Michelle Merz (Book Review) For readers looking to take a journey into the darkest part of your soul, Michelle Merz has put together the perfect selection of stories. The title of the collection, Dark, is definitely appropriate once you finish the first short nightmare, and you probably won’t forget about it for a while. With an amazing style and ...
• 2 pm on a Black Summer’s Day V1 (Book Review) 2 P.M on a Black Summer’s Day is the debut horror book by IP Spall. The plot involves enemies working together to fight the greater evil. It is a mixture of popular horror genre topics, such as witchcraft and demons, but is not as dark as one would expect. Instead, there’s always a silver lining ...
• A Collection of Short Horror Stories (Book Review) Horror stories combined into one text. The leading tale is about a man who is practically brainwashed to kill. He murdered his wife, parents, and 52 others.
• A Dark and Winding Road (Book Review) The collection of short stories entitled “A Dark and Winding Road”, written by Matthew Weber, is refreshing to say the least. It’s great to find a writer that is able to complement his original ideas with a superb talent for writing. He has truly breathed new life into a genre that has been lacking creatively ...
• A Demon Lies Within (Book Review) This story is based on an abusive husband and father who gets murdered. In the depths of hell he discovers the ability to possess and torture the living, which turns into a quest for revenge against his family. Great book for those who like tense exorcisms and demonic possession.
• A Life of Death (Book Review) A Life of Death is not your typical horror novel, but it can definitely pass as a very suspenseful and sometimes gruesome read. Weston Kincade is the author of the series, A Life of Death being the first book in the trilogy captivates his audience by tapping into a slightly old-school style of writing. Kincade ...
• A Pack Of Wolves (Book Review) A werewolf pack known as “The Family” tries to keep their intentions good and moves away from over-population. However, they run into problems with mercenaries that want them dead and a rogue family member who goes an apocalyptic mission. A unique mixture of Western action and Fantasy storytelling.
• A Psycho’s Medley by Terry West A true perspective from the minds of 6 serial killers, separated into 6 different short stories. The first story, which also shares the title of the book, is mostly written in a diary format. It explores the motivation and details of killing from a man who is waiting for his trial to start.
• Ancient Shadows (Book Review) An Archeologist finds himself pitted against ancient demons and modern conspirators where one by one, a horror film director, a judge, and a newspaper publisher meet brutal deaths. A link exists between them, and the deaths have only begun…
• Antitheus (Book Review) G.A. Minton, award winning author of the book Trisomy XXI, delivers his second supernatural horror novel entitled Antitheus. The stage is set in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and it focuses on a group of clergymen who get slaughtered while attending a conference. Minton does not take very long to get the action started, and from ...
• Arcane (Book Review) An angel called Arcane defends the human race against an onslaught from Arioch, the president of Hell. Arcane only has willing mortal humans on his side while Arioch enjoys the full arsenal of demons spawned from Hell. Will the human race manage to survive this reign of terror?
• As the Blade Cuts (Book Review) For extremely dark poetry lovers, this collection by Eric Kapitan should soothe the aching beast. It’s called “As the Blade Cuts” and the poems within the pages are nothing short of stylishly gruesome. Kapitan goes on a journey with his internal struggles, passionate about everything associated with pain and mutilation. In fact, this collection allows ...
• Ascendance (Book Review) C. Jones makes her debut with the short story entitled “Ascendance”, and what a debut it is. It’s graphical and dark nature is enough to make veterans like Stephen King take another look at true horror. Within the pages of this book is a story that is very difficult to read. Not because it doesn’t ...
• Barrow of The Damned (Book Review) Barrow of the Damned is a young adult novel by Jonathan J. Drake, and it introduces a plot you will not typically read about. Live Action Role Playing (LARP) is the engine that drives the book into a dark place underneath the ground, where life is anything but a game. It is the first time ...
• Blackstone (Book Review) Blackstone Penitentiary is well-known for being haunted due to its source of existence. Now the seemingly lifeless and deserted prison will welcome a caretaker called Anthony Creighton and his team, which has taken on the mission to find life after death. Getting out alive is the tricky part.
• Bled Out (Book Review) An 18 year old Kenny Arthur has a near death experience, only to return with the message that an unnatural plague is going to strike. His desire to save the world without a real clue on how to do it takes him through a couple of difficult and painful situations.
• Bray Road (Book Review) Scott Newman is a new author on the horror scene, and he makes his debut with Bray Road, a re-take on some classic werewolf horror. While Newman was quite brave to take on this particular theme out of the shoot, he did a good job of keeping the story fresh and interesting. Therefore, along with ...
• Burning Down Paradise (Book Review) Burning Down Paradise is a poetic story by Eric Kapitan, and it’s a tale the reaches the depths of hell. My first thoughts as I write this review is that sensitive readers should steer clear of this title because it’s really as gruesome as the title suggests. With a good handle between telling a story ...
• Burning House (Book Review) The fire is unlike anything anyone has ever seen. With one poor soul still trapped inside, a group of firefighters suit up and head into the flames on a rescue mission. But an ancient evil has awoken. As the walls burn around them, the crew soon find themselves trapped and prey to a shape-shifting force ...
• Cicada Summer (Book Review) Readers who appreciate the outdoors and a good dose of horror, will find Cicada Summer a very entertaining book if you are scouting for something good. Written by Jeff Dosser with a clear love for nature and all the things that crawl in it, Dosser’s knowledge and research really help to provide a deeper level ...
• Cirque Du Mort (Book Review) Cirque Du Mort by Anastasia Catris isn’t just a collection of flash fiction horror stories. It’s a visual and literary journey into a freak show circus that will leave chills running down your spine. The combination of illustrations along with the dark tales makes this book a collector’s item every horror fan should own. With ...
• Class Four: Those Who Survive (Book Review) Class Four: Those Who Survive is the latest novel by Duncan P. Bradshaw in a continuous apocalyptic story. It picks up where Class Three left off and it explores several different storylines, but the main focus comes down to a man and his mission to find safety for the boy within his care. With a great ...
• Class Three (Book Review) Duncan P. Bradshaw is the author of the new book entitled “Class Three” and he delivers somewhat of a different spin on a zombie apocalypse. With rather colorful characters the reader is thrown into a world where a typical day turns into something nobody expected, except for one particularly eager character called Phillip. Bradshaw starts the ...
• Cobra Z (Book Review) Sean Deville delivers a different perspective on what it could be like if a zombie outbreak occurs in modern day London. His novel, entitled “Cobra Z”, is the first of three books that take a serious look at a very popular epidemic. The biggest challenge staring Deville in the face is to stand out in ...
• Come As You Are: A Short Novel and Nine Stories (Book Review) Come As You Are: A Short Novel and Nine Stories is a collection, featuring a short novel and several short stories. Steven Ramirez is the capable voice behind the supernatural gloom and thrills, and you will quickly learn that this author has a very subtle skill. His target audience for the short novel and I assume ...
• Crogian (Book Review) As Crogian, a top secret military operation in Speaker (Alaska) takes a turn for the worst; the residents are forced to journey to Houston in order to find sanctuary. The only problem is that the journey involves abominations that want to kill them and very harsh forces of nature.
• Dark Shadow of Babylon (Book Review) Dark Shadow of Babylon is a paranormal/horror book written by Julian Speed. The cover is a clear indication that readers will encounter a series of gruesome events, but there is also a great adventure awaiting. The first chapters look at the origin of the evil that creeps into modern times and Speed adds a nice ...
• Dark Teardrops (Book Review) Catherine Tramell is the voice behind the horror novel entitled DarkT eardrops, a story that is fuelled by a classic inspiration, namely “The Exorcist”. Although it bears a striking resemblance to this cult classic thanks to the eerie atmosphere and relatively slow pace, Dark Teardrops can easily be separated as a contemporary piece. It is disturbing ...
• Dead Rage (Book Review) Dead Rage: A Zombie Apocalypse is the third book from Nicholas Ryan and it sees him building on the zombie stories he has written so far. Ryan has been compared to writers such as Max Brooks and many of his readers appreciate his descriptive style. His choice of genre is definitely daring, given it has ...
• Dead Religion (Book Review) A hotel explosion in Mexico that seems to be connected to an American citizen causes something much more sinister to surface. FBI agent James Allison is sent to investigate, but only finds that religion has deeper dimensions than he originally thought, especially the religion of the accused Alex Valdez.
• Dead! Dead! Dead! (Book Review) From the collaborative efforts of Paul Mannering and Bill Ball comes the zombie novel entitled “Dead! Dead! Dead!” Given the popularity of the genre it’s not the easiest challenge to come up with something that is truly original. But it has to be said that Mannering and Ball have delivered a solid story with enough ...
• Desert Flower (Book Review) Two girls are thrown together by fate. One, an unwilling vampire, and the other a victim of infant marriage. Both are alone, scared and lost. Their paths cross and their sisterhood strengthens their ability to overcome the odds. However, some of the decisions they have to make are simply too difficult.
• Devil Let Me Go (Book Review) A collection of thirteen short stories covering numerous elements all based on fear and horror. The tales are varied as they are interesting and it promises to entertain readers from all types of horror genres. Some of the stories have been published before and some are new editions.
• Devils Maintenance (Book Review) Thaxson Patterson II is the author of Devils Maintenance, a psychological thriller based on a very interesting concept. It’s an all-out war of the minds with the trickiest creature in all creation, namely the Devil. The most attractive element of the book has to be the original plot. It gets the reader thinking and inspires ...
• Don’t Fear The Reaper (Book Review) Don’t Fear the Reaper: Vol. 1, is the latest horror novel by Lex Sinclair. His experience in the genre shines through a story that ventures into the supernatural world of death. In fact, Sinclair mixes up a few elements we’ve seen before, creating something unique to his style and taste. With an obviously high-quality standard of ...
• Don’t Fear the Reaper Part 3 (Book Review) This is it. This is Lex Sinclair’s final book for the “Don’t Fear the Reaper” trilogy, and it’s everything I thought it’d be…and then some. Sinclair puts his distinct skill and style to the test when he offers you an ending you won’t quickly forget, to a trilogy you probably won’t want to put down. ...
• Don’t Fear The Reaper Part 2 (Book Review) Lex Sinclair’s nightmare continues with Don’t Fear the Reaper Part 2. It picks up where the first book ended, and you can be sure that you’ll be getting that distinct Sinclair style with it. This is a man who will stay true to his precise way of writing, and he’s not showing any signs of ...
• Double Barrel (Book Review) From six different writers come a collection of twelve horror stories, entitled “Double-Barrel”. Does it do justice to the rather picturesque name? It definitely does, and it’s good to know there are upcoming writers who can perfectly measure shock value. There’s just something brilliant about the indie writing scene regarding the horror genre, which is ...
• Evil Among Us (Book Review) This book is based on facts gathered by the author regarding a man called Kleason who butchered two young men from Texas. The strange part is that these murders took place in the same year as the Chainsaw Massacre killings. Ultimately it builds the case leading to his execution.
• Frozen: A Short Story of Horror (Book Review) An archeology adventure becomes a nightmare when an expedition party sets out to investigate the findings of a perfectly preserved creature. When the party reaches the half human creature, terrifying events start to occur. For some it means death and others permanent emotional damage.
• Hell’s Shadows (Book Review) The first thing to notice about Hell’s Shadows is the sophisticated style translated through a simplistic choice of words. Dean Klein, the author, has no intentions of confusing his readers. Instead, he wants to tell them a tale of horror, within a fashion that will leave them bound till the end. Klein really got the ...
• HouseBroken (Book Review) From the author simply known as The Behrg comes the twisted tale entitled “Housebroken”, and it is sadistic as it is haunting. Horror and thriller fans that pick up this book will have to ready themselves for an experience that will affect them mentally and physically. Even though it’s not the most original plot, it ...
• In The Mind of Revenge (Book Review) In the Mind of Revenge is the first book in Liv Hadden’s new series entitled The Shamed, and she’s definitely off to a good start. Don’t expect a typical hero and don’t expect anything less than brutal honesty. Through the eyes of the main character the reader gets caught up in a mass of emotional ...
• Inheritance: The House Pledged to Evil (Book Review) Inheritance: The House Pledged to Evil is the first book by debut author Randolph Lord, and it comes with a rather dark twist. Unlike most of the books that have gone through this review process, Lord’s story is based on personal experience. Although this can be considered a novel, there are elements of a manuscript ...
• Island of the Dolls (Book Review) Island of the Dolls is a thriller/horror novel by Jeremy Bates and it’s based on an actual island covered with dolls. The story takes the reader on a special trip to that mysterious, strange, and most of all, terrifying place. A very engaging Bates introduces an entertaining cast of characters while giving them life in ...

Reviews are continuously added so please check back often or subscribe to keep up to date on all the latest in horror literature.

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Reviews :: Book Genre :: Horror

This archive contains links to all of the Fiction Book Reviews we've written over the years. Creepy, and scary, and icky, and sticky, and the more it makes you want to squeal, the better the thing is. If you've come here looking for something in that realm, you're in luck! We just happen to have more than a few suggestions lying around the place waiting for your perusal.

If you're looking for something else, say a book in another genre or maybe just any book that we happened to think was awesome-sauce, browse around the site for a bit and check out our reviews.

Just don't forget to let us know what you thought of a book you've read or if there's a suggestion you have for something we'd like to read! We're always looking for something to scare us into last week, and we hope that you are too!

Blood Countess

If you haven’t heard of Countess Elizabeth Bathory ( Wikipedia ) you’ve missed out on a fascinating true story from history. Because she was born in 1560, our understanding of the events that surrounded her life are a little sketchy, but we do know she was beautiful, well-educated, rich, and well-connected. And she was accused of killing 600 girls.

Lana Popovic decided it was a story worthy of trying to tell in BLOOD COUNTESS. Read the rest of this review »

The Girl in Red

I have a thing for constancy. When I drive somewhere I usually take the same route. When I’m feeling down, I like to hit the used book store. Things I do on a regular basis are safe and known quantities. But I also have a thing for new stuff. Surfing YouTube for new music. Trying out some new kind of food. I may or may not really like to find new breakfast cereals, despite the fact that I know pretty much anything else would be better for me in the mornings. When it comes to books and stories, I also like to see new things. All the sequels that Disney puts out frequently annoy me. Although it seems as if Pixar can do no wrong. So when I come across a story that is a “re-telling of a classic fairy tale”, I’ll typically pass. For whatever reason, the third time I picked this book up off my EBR-TBR shelf, I decided that I’d read it. Must have been my “constancy” having a surge of strength that day or something. Whatever. I picked this one up, and boy am I glad that I did. Read the rest of this review »

Well, here I am again at the tail end of the reading experience for a book that has left me absolutely stymied. Sometimes it surprises me just how different my opinion can be from other readers, not just around the world, but from those in my own backyard as well. Finishing this book has brought me to the conclusion that I am completely oblivious when it comes to understanding the “literary” merit of a story. I just don’t get it. Like, at all. In fact, I think I can safely say that any literary aspects of a story come across as 100% transparent to me. Not only do I not understand them, I don’t even see them when I read a story. A Google search for the term “literary merit” currently brings up a 2017 article from Medium.com . It seems to do a fairly decent job of relaying the main ideas of what literary fiction is about. My take is that a literary story’s primary concern will be to try to relay a “theme” or “well-posed question” dealing with society or humanity… or something else equally boring and, for me, pointless. As such, they typically make lots of mistakes along the way when it comes to telling a story that is actually engaging and worth being told. Read the rest of this review »

The Last Astronaut

First contact is the kind of experience that’s ripe for miscommunications and misinterpretations that can literally reshape the world. From more traditional hard sci-fi stuff, like Clarke to Reynolds, to the more literary offerings of LeGuin or Russell (she wrote THE SPARROW), first contact is a recurring theme in speculative fiction. While there’s a million different ways to parse and taxonomize this (sub) genre, you can trace a big divide between texts that explore first contact with aliens who share fundamental premises of existence with humans (in psychology, if not in size or number of eyes) and texts in which the aliens are really, really… alien (think “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, which is portrayed in the movie Arrival). David Wellington’s THE LAST ASTRONAUT belongs to the latter category. Let’s just say that there are no little green moon men here. Sunny Stevens knows something that no one else does. There’s an object heading […] Read the rest of this review »

Into the Drowning Deep

INTO THE DROWNING DEEP ( Amazon ) is the kind of book I would normally recommend as a beach read. First, I guess I should clarify that by beach read, I don’t mean trash. A good beach read is straightforward enough that you can pick it up and put it down whenever you need to take a dip in the water or reapply that sunscreen. Ideally, beach reads also have enough forward motion that I can while away the hours with ease. INTO THE DROWNING DEEP meets those criteria–it’s engaging and fun with a good dose of horror and an embrace of the absurd.

It’s also about killer mermaids. Read the rest of this review »

Every Dead Thing

I forget when or how I first came across this book, and I’ve been wanting to read it again for quite some time now so that I could write up a coherent review of it. Just never got around to it. Well, the 17th book in the series that grew from the roots of this book was recently released in the UK (US release coming mid-October), and so I figured this was as good a time as any to dive back into this one, and find out if it would be just as good this time around as I remembered it being the first time. Read the rest of this review »

The Empty Grave

Arriving at the final book of the Lockwood & Co series, THE EMPTY GRAVE, leaves me with mixed emotions: so happy to see our gang of heroes find the answers they’re looking for, but also sad to see this fantastic series come to an end. Over this series we’ve watched as Lockwood, Lucy, and George have navigated the dangerous and mystifying world of ghosts and ghost hunting. They may only be kids, but this small and independent company has uncovered secrets small and large, fought dangerous ghosts, and dealt with the frustrating politics of being the little guy in a big industry.

Now we get to see the fruition of all their hard work. THE EMPTY GRAVE ends the series in a way that won’t let you down. Read the rest of this review »

Mockingbird

I’ve been waffling for a long time over whether to read these books or not. I don’t know why. You see, there’s this moment when you’re reading a review–even when it’s a review from the very site that you write for–that you just know you’re going to read the book. That happened to me when our illustrious reviewer, Nickolas, reviewed BLACKBIRDS by Chuck Wendig ( EBR Review ). Because, you see, I go in pretty hard for a good character. Especially a good tortured character, and once you’ve read Nick’s review and the actual book, you can almost see the torture spread across that skein of words. They rend you and twist you, and after you leave those pages behind, they haunt you with the understanding that not only is Ms. Miriam Black a real person under all of that grime and grit, but she also might as well be you, or me, or anyone else for all the good it does her. Because Miriam’s life is like none you’ve ever seen, and anyone, given her life, might have understandably made the same choices as she. Read the rest of this review »

Terror Is Our Business

I have a confession to make. I’ve never read any Lansdale before. I know, I know . Withhold the tomatoes. I blame Steve for always taking them when I was a newbie here at EBR. Now I realize what I was missing and will quickly remedy this failing.

Because if you love horror, mysteries, thrillers…. heck, anything well written, you should be reading Lansdale. Read the rest of this review »

The Creeping Shadow

I suppose I should be embarrassed for the squees involved in a series meant for middle grade readers. Certainly I am an Elitist, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give recognition where it is due. And Johnathan Stroud is due recognition for a smart, well-written, engaging horror series known as Lockwood & Co.

In THE HOLLOW BOY Lucy’s ability to talk to ghosts changes everything, and she learns that if she stays with the company her presence may be the result of Lockwood’s death. So, out of loyalty and love for her friend and co-worker, she leaves to become a freelancer. In the opening of THE CREEPING SHADOW we see how Lucy is handling her new life–and learning the hard way how much more competent Lockwood and Co. is than other ghost hunting groups. Sure she misses her old team, but is determined to never go back.

She sticks to her plan until the day Lockwood shows up at her little apartment to hire her for a job that the famed Penelope Fittes wants them to do–and it requires Lucy’s special listening skills. How can she say no? Read the rest of this review »

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Category: Book reviews

Minor hauntings: chilling tales of spectral youth review.

• Post author By Daniel Pietersen
• Post date 24/07/2021
• No Comments on Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth review

The figure of the child has been a perennial presence in horror. Whether it’s the harrowing grief of losing a child – losing a part of ourselves, one intended to continue after our own deaths – that suffuses Don’t Look Now to the use of the child as an avatar of uncanny otherness in The Midwich Cuckoos – where the secret rituals and curious logic of children, often opaque to adults, take on a sinister aspect – children are continually depicted in their role as a threat to the supposed certainties of adulthood.

Absorbed by Kylie Whitehead review – ‘a tremendous debut’

• Post author By Dan Carpenter
• Post date 04/07/2021
• No Comments on Absorbed by Kylie Whitehead review – ‘a tremendous debut’

A tremendous debut novel by Kylie Whitehead, Absorbed is at once a nightmarish body-horror story, the kind of which Cronenberg would be impressed with, and an intimate and often very funny examination of female friendship and modern relationships. 

• Tags Absorbed , Kylie Whitehead

The fiction of Joel Lane – ‘To read Lane is to enter into an unforgettable, beautifully ambiguous landscape’

• Post author By Blair Rose
• Post date 06/04/2021
• No Comments on The fiction of Joel Lane – ‘To read Lane is to enter into an unforgettable, beautifully ambiguous landscape’

Joel Lane (1963–2013) was surely one of the UK’s best and most distinctive, not to mention underrated, writers of weird fiction. Now, thanks to Influx Press, two of his short story collections – The Earth Wire and Scar City – are back in print, allowing his singular work to reach a whole new audience.

Later by Stephen King review – new yet comfortingly familiar

• Post author By Caitlin Duffy
• Post date 25/03/2021
• No Comments on Later by Stephen King review – new yet comfortingly familiar

There’s a particular sort of magic felt by any Constant Reader who gets their hands on a new Stephen King novel. It’s a hard feeling to describe precisely, but it’s akin to coming home after a long time away. The writing style and characters housed within the novel’s covers amplify this comforting vibe by being completely new yet profoundly familiar. 

Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics by Julia Round review

• Post date 07/03/2021
• No Comments on Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics by Julia Round review

Let’s get an admission out of the way before we begin: I never read Misty as a child. In my defence, I was barely three years old when it was merged into rival comic Tammy , effectively ending its run, but it was also, as the title of this cultural history of the comic defiantly reclaims, “for girls”. In the Lancashire of the late 70s and early 80s that, unfortunately, made it very much “not for boys”.

• Tags Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics , Julia Round

Queens of the Abyss review – an insight into the forgotten lineage of weird fiction

• Post date 28/02/2021
• No Comments on Queens of the Abyss review – an insight into the forgotten lineage of weird fiction

In his introduction to this anthology editor Mike Ashley reminds us that “although the history of the ghost story often emphasises the role of male writers … it is all too easily overlooked that the development of the field, helping the weird tale to progress, was as much the territory of women. And that was true from the very start”.

• Tags British Library Tales of the Weird , Queens of the Abyss

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi review – ‘a sharp critique of modern epistemology and a cutting-edge reworking of a classic horror tale’

• Post author By Brontë Crawford
• Post date 16/02/2021
• No Comments on Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi review – ‘a sharp critique of modern epistemology and a cutting-edge reworking of a classic horror tale’

It’s almost a decade since Ahmed Saadawi wrote and published Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013). Yet with its English translation by Jonathan Wright only published in 2018, its impact has been felt belatedly in many Anglo-centric literary circles. One can’t help but wonder at the conjunction of the novel’s publication with the two hundredth anniversary of its predecessor. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was first published in 1818, and it’s tempting to think that the introduction of English-speaking readers to Frankenstein in Baghdad was deliberately timed, however unlikely that may be. In any event, Saadawi’s novel functions not only as a fascinating retelling, but also as a darkly funny and moving story about war, loss, and vengeful bodies.

• Tags Ahmed Saadawi , Frankenstein , Frankenstein in Baghdad

The Golem (Dedalus European Classics) by Gustav Meyrink review – ‘grotesque, opulent detail’ in a Prague ‘viscerally evoked’

• Post date 14/02/2021
• No Comments on The Golem (Dedalus European Classics) by Gustav Meyrink review – ‘grotesque, opulent detail’ in a Prague ‘viscerally evoked’

There are some cities that are entirely transformed by the writers who reproduce them. Dickensian London is a unique entity entirely distinct and yet strangely akin to the real city that spawned it. Dostoevsky’s St Petersburg is a dark mirror of its more tangible yet no less monumental counterpart, filled with strange characters that channel the warped, often fantastical spirit of their surroundings. James Joyce’s Dublin is made up of multiple, unique voices and their own experiences of the city, a tapestry of individual spaces.

• Tags Dedalus European Classics , Gustav Meyrink , The Golem

Near Dark (BFI Film Classics) by Stacey Abbott review – ‘a rare piece of work…a masterclass’

• Post date 12/02/2021
• No Comments on Near Dark (BFI Film Classics) by Stacey Abbott review – ‘a rare piece of work…a masterclass’

Embarrassingly, I’d never seen Near Dark before I started writing this review. I don’t know why, it just seemed to pass me by. I take some comfort in the fact that, at least on initial release, this vampire-noir-western hybrid passed a lot of other people by as well.

• Tags BFI Film Classics , Near Dark , Near Dark (BFI Film Classics) , Stacey Abbott

Where We Live by Tim Cooke review – the splendour of the natural world collides with urban decay

• Post date 09/02/2021
• No Comments on Where We Live by Tim Cooke review – the splendour of the natural world collides with urban decay

Where We Live , the debut collection from Tim Cooke, fits into an emergent tradition of writing that blends evocative depictions of landscape with a harder edge: harsh reminders of urban corrosion, intimations of horror.

• Tags Tim Cooke , Where We Live

101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED Is Essential

Aug 14, 2023 | 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU'RE MURDERED , book review , Book Reviews , Horror , Sadie Mother Horror Hartmann , Spoiler-Free

101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED is essential reading for all of the fictioneers out there that either love speculative fiction, or want a curated introduction to the phenomenal horror fiction that has come out since the year 2000.

As Josh Malerman writes in his foreword to the book: “Welcome to modern horror.”

Sadie Hartmann’s 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED adds urgency to the hunt for new great reading, as the renowned writer of a gargantuan amount of horror book reviews excitedly offers up the very best she has come across in the last 23 years.

There are horror indie books, self-published titles, and best-selling novels too.

Sadie Hartmann provides accessible literary criticism for the bevy of books in 101 that are clearly near and dear to her heart, even if some of them were so terrifying they made her sleep with the lights on.

My To-Be-Read (TBR) list grew by dozens, as I perused Hartmann’s meticulous work and found exciting insight tailored to my interests.

I could not put 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED, or my Goodreads app, down!

There is a book for everyone in here and the way 101 is organized and explained makes for both fascinating and illuminating reading.

Each book falls under one of five categories: Paranormal, Supernatural, Human Monsters, Natural Order Horror, and Short Story Collections.

Each category is explained thoroughly with wit, knowledge, and relatable candor.

Paranormal is for Hartmann, “freaky shit that defies explanation,” and she is one-hundred percent right.

And then there are subcategories, like Supernatural’s Demons and Possession.

Two brilliant sections are given to each book review and were pivotal for me: the “At A Glance” section to the right of the review and the “Quote” section at the top of the review.

I LOVE quotes, even just one line in a work of literature, be it horror, non-fiction, or poetry; I find they are so revealing as to the book’s voice and the author’s writing.

Hartmann painstakingly searched for not just a good quote, but an impactful one that represented what the work and its author’s writing are about. It is genius.

On top of the Quote, Hartmann gives us the At A Glance map to the novel where you can read about the work’s specific Themes, Tone, Style, Setting, and the Publisher; and all of which I find very helpful when determining what might interest me to delve further into a book or to run shrieking into the night, because there are clown dolls in the tale, combining two of my worst fears.

Readers, authors, horror experts and novices alike will revel in learning so much from Sadie Hartmann’s 101+ horror books.

Wait, did I just say 101+ horror books ?! What is with the +?

Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann’s 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED goes above and beyond analyzing the books themselves and hits on the very genres, tropes, triggers, and myriad nuances that give such books so much power to move, thrill, and scare the hell out of us.

And yes, though Hartmann states that this is a book of the modern age of great horror and that she is not reviewing foundational figures such as Mary Shelley, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, or Bram Stoker, but, and I mean BUT, you may find a wonderful surprise as you go along and read about each of the 101, because many of the featured authors and genres lend themselves to what these classic authors have done in literature and so, for example, there may be a few mentions of THE EXORCIST by Blatty that slip past Hartmann’s portcullis before the book is closed.

And though the 101 book is limited to 101 reviewed titles, there are also ten author spotlights throughout the book, because all of these authors’ works need to be read (so we have a plethora of great titles), and each of them, from Adam Nevill, Alma Katsu, Ania Ahlborn, Christopher Buehlman, Grady Hendrix, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones, Tananarive Due to V. Castro pick their own their three all-time favorite horror books for 101!

There also essays from other exceptional authors in the modern genre that feature their books too: Cassandra Khaw, Hailey Piper, Eric LaRocca, R.J. Joseph, and  Daniel Kraus give their own thoughts on important aspects in horror.

So, what are some examples of the 101 modern horror gems in the book?

I am not telling.

Go and discover what graces the shadowy pages inside 101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED for yourselves. Ideally, do it before you’re murdered.

Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann is an author, is the Bram Stoker-nominated editor-in-chief of publisher Dark Hart Books , the owner/publisher of the horror fiction subscription service Night Worms (which is sooo much fun), and she is an epic reviewer of books .

The Forgotten Fiction Grade: YEA (read it!)

Want to buy a book & support a local bookseller click here.

“101 HORROR BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU’RE MURDERED Is Essential” Was Written By R.J. Huneke .

Catch Sadie Mother Horror Hartmann on her book tour NOW!

Sadie hartmann was kind enough to give tff an extra copy of 101 and we are giving it away after we see philip fracassi at an upcoming signing in nyc and he signs his own book review in 101 you can enter the giveaway free on any of tff’s social media or fb here ..

Speaking of Mr. Fracassi’s Book Tour, TFF’s own R.J. Huneke will be interviewing Philip Fracassi prior to his stop at the Mysterious Bookshop in New York LIVE on Facebook (the video will be on Youtube the next day), so be sure to tune in!

Couldn’t agree more! Also looking forward to the Fracassi interview.

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Book review: so close | author sylvia day.

Kevin Nickelson 03/21/2023 0

So Close (2023) Book by Sylvia Day It is not a scientific fact but I will swear that it is after my recent experience. A person can get a mental concussion just from the sheer, blunt trauma power from something they view on television or read electronically or in print. Certainly it has happened to me as I completed reviewing …

Book Review: Insomnia | Author Kelly Covic

Dave Gammon 02/25/2023 0

Insomnia By Kelly Covic Smashwords Publishing 58 Pages A collection of ethereal and macabre short stories to ponder- what could have been the thing that went bump in the night? SILENT SIGHS: A young couple visits a haunted house when an unanticipated melee unleashes. THE ATTIC: A young teenager realizes moving into a new house with a fresh start does …

Book Review: Burrows of Blood and Shadow | Author Rebekah L. Webb

Dave Gammon 11/30/2022 0

Burrows of Blood and Shadow By Rebekah L. Webb 246 Pages “The Dream Surfer has no past or memory and can only experience life through the dreams and memories of others. He is stuck in a world of doors and windows leading to quiet lives, where pain and tragedy flow like the inevitable path of gentle streams.” * Burrows of …

Book Review: Return of the Living Elves | Author Brian Asman

Dave Gammon 11/29/2022 0

Return of the Living Elves By Brian Asman Mutated Media 156 Pages “All I want for Christmas is…..a gift for my girlfriend…?” Tommy has just started a new job within a Christmas supply warehouse and has an epiphany. He’s completely forgotten to not only check his list twice but make a list at all where gifts and his girlfriend are …

Book Review: Symposium of the Reaper | Author Andrew Adams

Dave Gammon 10/13/2022 0

Symposium of the Reaper By Andrew Adams 151 Pages A collection of thirteen dark, macabre tales to tantalize terror and spine-tingling tension for readers from all levels of society. Symposium of the Reapers marks the inaugural stroll through the valley of darkness taken with author Andrew Adams. The vivid imagery and astounding descriptions found within this collection places the reader …

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Andrew Hawnt 03/15/2022 0

CONFESSIONS OF A PUPPETMASTER Author: Charles Band with Adam Felber Publisher: William Morrow

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Dave Gammon 02/02/2022 0

LIAR: MEMOIR OF A HAUNTING By: E.F. Schraeder Omnium Gatherum Publishing 187 Pages When young couple Alex and Rainey strive for a new beginning in a sleepy hollow town, all their dreams have come true. While there is initial reluctance, buying a rustic, fixer upper of a home seems to be the calling the binds the two even deeper. Not …

Book Review: Generation Ex-D | Edited by: Rebecca Rowland

Dave Gammon 12/07/2021 0

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Dave Gammon 11/19/2021 1

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Dave Gammon 10/23/2021 0

Night of the Undead Whores By Eric Kapitan 65 Pages The ballad of Aaron and the symphony of destruction orchestrated from the most hideous of composition. His unrelenting lust for carnal mayhem and blood knows no bounds. When his darkened mentor Bob begins to eclipse his own reality, Aaron soon realizes his evil deeds come with unfathomed consequences. Night of …

Book Review: Helminth – Author S. Alessandro Martinez

Dave Gammon 10/19/2021 0

Helminth By S. Alessandro Martinez Omnium Gatherum Media 273 Pages When young grieving widow Abby struggles to cope with the loss of her husband she succumbs to the inevitable feeling of perpetual sorrow. Attempting any and all provisions to endure the journey of bereavement, she also has to grapple with the haunting flashbacks of witnessing the love of her life …

Book Review: Dark Country | Author Monique Snyman

Dave Gammon 10/01/2021 0

Dark Country By Monique Snyman Vesuvian Books 294 Pages Published May 17, 2022 “Too often people mistake monsters for gods.” Esme Snyder is an occult crime expert conjured to investigate the latest spree of killings within the South African city of Pretoria. Spiralling deeper and deeper within the abyss of a cat and mouse game with the macabre slayer, she …

Book Review: Under Worlds, After Lives | Author Dan Fields

Dave Gammon 08/20/2021 0

Under Worlds, After Lives By Dan Fields 180 Pages A collection of ten short stories containing the dark, sinister, eerie, and macabre, from Do Not Resuscitate to Old Man Winter and everything and anything imaginable in between. I’ll be the first to go on record that I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Under Worlds, After Lives at first. …

Book Review: The Ragged | Author Brett Schumacher

Dave Gammon 08/10/2021 0

The Ragged By Brett Schumacher 172 Pages Upon the passing of his grandfather Corvus, Andrew and his wife Celeste attend his funeral while chartering along the inevitable journey of grievance. Not long after returning to the locale of his upbringing Andrew learns the farmhouse in which he was raised was left to the couple in Corvus’s will. Sorting through the …

Book Review: Evil Eye: A Slasher Story | Author April A. Taylor

Adrian Halen 08/02/2021 0

Evil Eye: A Slasher Story By: April A. Taylor Midnight Grasshopper Books 178 Pages St. George Island, Florida is the perfect, sleepy getaway for virtually any and all walks of life. That is of course until everyone is forced to evacuate with a hurricane in sight with enough vengeance to obliterate all within its path. Six strangers are trapped on …

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4 New Horror Novels That Are as Fresh as They Are Terrifying

New books by Emily Ruth Verona, Jenny Kiefer, Christopher Golden and Tlotlo Tsamaase riff on classic tropes and deliver thrilling scares.

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By Gabino Iglesias

Gabino Iglesias is a writer, editor, literary critic and professor. He is the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson award-winning author of “The Devil Takes You Home.”

Emily Ruth Verona’s MIDNIGHT ON BEACON STREET (Harper Perennial, 195 pp., paperback, $17.99) is a lot of things. It’s a taut thriller about a babysitter and two kids surviving one weird night. It’s a celebration of classic horror movies. It’s a creepy narrative that involves a ghost and late night home break-ins. And, most important, it’s a lot of fun.

The story takes place in October 1993. Eleanor Mazinski has a date, so she calls Amy, her regular babysitter, to look after her two children. Mira, age 12, is defiant and opinionated, and Ben, who’s 6, is sweet and shy. Both are grappling with larger family struggles, including a recent move, Eleanor’s financial stress and their father’s absence after their parents’ split. Amy’s evening with Mira and Ben starts like normal, but a visit from some surprise guests, followed by an unwanted appearance by the children’s father, derails the night, which ends with a body in the kitchen and a lot of blood on the floor.

In “Midnight on Beacon Street,” Verona plays with home invasion tropes by delivering a tale with multiple breaches, each offering differing types of frights. Verona also keeps the spirit of horror present through Amy’s obsession with movies like “Halloween,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Exorcist.” With its feverish pacing and startling plot twists, this is an impressive debut.

Another great debut is Jenny Kiefer’s THIS WRETCHED VALLEY (Quirk Books, 302 pp., paperback, $18.99) , a hallucinatory nightmare of a novel that blends adventure, horror and historical fiction, and isn’t shy about violence or strangeness.

The story follows a geology researcher, his assistant, a rock climber and her boyfriend as they explore a newly discovered cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness. The rock wall could mean good things for everybody’s careers, but what begins as an exciting expedition full of promise soon turns into a desperate race to escape the wilderness and the ancient evil it holds.

The novel opens at the story’s end, as the authorities find three bodies in varying states of decay in the woods. One of them, inexplicably, is just a skeleton with no flesh on it at all. Responders are baffled by the discovery, but the forensic investigation that follows generates more questions than answers. Then the novel jumps to the past to delve into what happened. Kiefer injects so much tension and fear into the story of this group’s mysterious demise that you can’t help getting lost in this creepy tale.

Putting a new spin on a demonic possession narrative is no easy task, but that’s exactly what Christopher Golden has done in THE HOUSE OF LAST RESORT (St. Martin’s Press, 292 pp., $29) .

The story follows a young American couple, Tommy and Kate Puglisi, who buy an old house in Becchina, Italy, for a single euro through a special town revitalization initiative. The move seems great — the town is full of flowers and cozy cafes, and it allows them to work from home and enjoy free health care. It also gives Tommy the opportunity to reconnect with his grandparents, who live in Italy, and whom Tommy’s father stopped visiting for reasons that were never clear.

The Puglisis want to help enliven Becchina, and they believe the catacombs under the town might be the perfect tourist attraction to do that. Unfortunately, it isn’t only mummified bodies and bones that lurk in the tombs. The Puglisis learn that their home, which the locals call the House of Last Resort, was used by the Vatican to house possessed people when exorcisms failed to help.

This novel shines. Golden’s frenzied tale of demons and exorcisms is fast-paced, his portrayal of the insidiousness of possession is unsettling and it all comes together in a thrilling closing act.

Tlotlo Tsamaase’s WOMB CITY (Erewhon Books, 405 pp., $28) is a fearless novel that probes ideas of surveillance, misogyny and class.

The story takes place in a technological dystopia in which consciousnesses are regularly downloaded into new bodies. Nelah is an entrepreneur who is married to a man with a good job, and she’s about to become a mother, after her daughter, who is developing in an artificial womb in an expensive government lab, is born. That’s not to say Nelah’s life is perfect: She’s in love with a man who’s not her husband and her business is struggling. Also, she’s not living in her own body, and she’s one of the “microchipped” because her body used to belong to a criminal.

Because Nelah is a microchipped person, the government can see and hear everything she does, and she must regularly pass tests to make sure she’s behaving and won’t commit crimes. When she does eventually violate the law, her life changes, and in the aftermath she’s haunted by the angry ghost of her victim and worried that those she cares about will suffer repercussions.

Despite a few instances of clunky writing and repetition, Tsamaase brilliantly tackles ideas of motherhood and autonomy. The author seamlessly blends a body-hopping ghost story about revenge with a narrative about the importance of memory. It’s such an original first novel, and I’ll be reading whatever comes next.

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Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Latest Reviews

See the latest book and film reviews from an array of genres including horror, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, biographies, paranormal, and true-crime book reviews.

Category: Reviews

Book review: terrortome by garth marenghi.

January 13, 2023

• 7 mins to read

“TerrorTome might read as though Robert Rankin or Jasper Fforde penned an amalgamation of Shaun Hutson, James Herbert, and Guy N. Smith books. With maybe a dash of Rick and Morty in there. But it is its own thing, with its own distinctive voice.”   Once upon a time, a show was made that was …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-terrortome-by-garth-marenghi/

Book Review: To Drown in Dark Water by Steve Toase

October 12, 2021

• 8 mins to read

“There are enough ideas in each story to fill dozens of novels, but the most impressive aspect is each one feels complete and whole, rather than a snippet or fragment.”   Here at This is Horror, we’re always excited when Undertow Publications release a new book. Always beautifully put together, from cover to contents, the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-to-drown-in-dark-water-by-steve-toase/

Book Review: Rooster by John C. Foster

September 8, 2021

• 6 mins to read

“With more twists and turns than a high-speed car chase through the gloomy city streets of NYC, readers may well be surprised by the revelation, but will be exhilarated by the ride.”   A brief look at the back catalogue of John C. Foster’s published books will reveal something interesting about his work; he excels …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-rooster-by-john-c-foster/

Book Review: The Derelict by Neil Williams

August 19, 2021

“… unfolds at the perfect pace with not a wasted scene. He mounts the dread perfectly, filling the pages with atmosphere, with a fully-realised, dark world.” There are some story settings which seem to come pre-loaded with atmosphere. Post-apocalyptic worlds, for example. Or ice- and snow-locked stories. Then there are ocean-going tales, which, when done …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-the-derelict-by-neil-williams/

Book Review: Near the Bone by Christina Henry

August 18, 2021

“Henry shows a deep imagination, and an ability to sustain terror, even if that’s mainly of the human variety.”   Christina Henry is a name which will be familiar to many who read dark, fantastical books. For a number of years, she has carved out a career reinventing and reimaging classic works of fantasy. Peter …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-near-the-bone-by-christina-henry/

Book Review: The Samaritan by Dave Jeffery

August 11, 2021

“The A Quiet Apocalypse series has become must-read fiction for horror fans everywhere, one of those stories that deserve to be enjoyed for many generations to come.”   Always an incredibly supportive and generous voice in the online horror community, Dave Jeffery truly took us all by surprise with the creation of the A Quiet …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-the-samaritan-by-dave-jeffery/

Book Review: Bayou Whispers by R.B. Wood

July 21, 2021

• 5 mins to read

“A very rewarding read, full of the mysterious and mystical history of the bayou—both established and original to Wood’s creation—as well as naturally secretive characters and action aplenty.”   R.B. Wood is a recent MFA graduate from Emerson College and writes speculative and dark thrillers. His work has appeared in volume six of Crystal Lake …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-bayou-whispers-by-r-b-wood/

Book Review: Beneath a Pale Sky by Philip Fracassi

July 14, 2021

• 9 mins to read

“Fracassi’s publishing history is jam-packed with quality quicksand fiction that seems serene on the surface, innocently drawing readers in, until we cannot escape its devilish clutches, and this collection is no exception.” Horror fans are by now so familiar with his name that he ought to need no formal introduction but, with so much horror …

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Book Review: I Would Haunt You If I Could by Sean Padraic Birnie

July 6, 2021

“Quietly emotional, offbeat, and subtly disturbing, I Would Haunt You If I Could should stand proud amongst the best of quiet, literary horror, while carving out its own, unique space.”   It’s always a cause for celebration when premier Canadian independent press, Undertow Publications, releases a new book. Many times, This is Horror has praised …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-i-would-haunt-you-if-i-could-by-sean-padraic-birnie/

Book Review: Matryoshka by Penny Jones

June 30, 2021

“ This novella is adept at putting the reader into the mind of someone who may or may not be suffering from some kind of schizophrenia. It manages to successfully treat mental health and illness with deep sympathy, yet also craft an affecting horror story.” One of the greatest boons to the horror genre was …

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-review-matryoshka-by-penny-jones/

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52 Best Horror Books from the Past 200 Years

We know you love a good scare.

From the truly terrifying to the horrifically gruesome, the best horror comes in all shapes and sizes. We've scoured the shelves—from the classics to modern masterpieces—to bring you 52 of the best horror books of all time. Beware ... and settle in for a night of frighteningly good tales.

Spooktacular Limited-Time Offer: Download a FREE copy of Edgar Allan Poe's creepy collection The Complete Short Stories when you sign up for The Lineup's newsletter!

Frankenstein

By Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein isn't just a great horror story—it's also arguably the earliest true science fiction novel. Shelley's mad scientist/horror monster mash-up laid the groundwork for everything from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Alien .

By J. Le Fanu

One of the earliest works of vampire fiction, this Gothic horror novel was originally serialized in the magazine The Dark Blue and tells the story of Laura, her father, and the mysterious young visitor—Carmilla—who comes to stay with them.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

By Robert Louis Stevenson

Gothic horror is known as the good stuff for a reason. This late 1800s effort from one of the founding fathers of genre fiction is a great early example of how insightful and personal horror can be. Is there a monster in all of us? Well, there’s one in Dr. Jekyll, at any rate.

Related: 17 Award-Winning Horror Books You Need to Read Now  

The King in Yellow

By Robert Chambers

This collection of supernatural horror stories gets its name from a forbidden play that causes madness upon anyone who reads it. Chambers’ book contains 10 stories, spanning from ghost tales to sinister evil.

By Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker's Dracula drew on folklore to create its titular monster, but it also established the tropes that would define vampire fiction for hundreds of years to come. As an epistolary novel (that is, told in letters), Dracula is also arguably a forerunner of the found-document horror trope.

The Turn of the Screw

By Henry James

Horrifying enough to scare you out of ever wanting to be a governess, this classic novella follows a young woman who cares for two children at their summer home … and begins to see strange people in the yard.

Related: The Scariest Books You’ve Ever Read  

The Phantom of the Opera

By Gaston Leroux

The tortured Phantom that stalks the Palais Garnier opera house in Leroux's novel is one of the great characters in horror fiction. The inspiration for multiple adaptations, including the famous musical, this novel still holds up more than a hundred years after it was first published.

The Call of Cthulhu

By H.P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft’s horrifying story is about an underwater monster that comes to life and threatens the human race. One of the author’s most terrifying short stories, it was originally published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales .

Related: 11 Books for Fans of H.P. Lovecraft  

The Werewolf of Paris

By Guy Endore

Endore's classic werewolf story is a horror novel that doubles as historical fiction. Endore sets his story in the early 1870s, during the Franco-Prussian War—an event that was pretty distant history even in Endore's time.

I Am Legend

By Richard Matheson

A classic work of speculative fiction, Matheson's novel I Am Legend is also one of the greatest vampire novels ever written. Set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by vampires, I Am Legend is clever and unforgettable.

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The October Country

By Ray Bradbury

While Bradbury may be best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, he’s also a fantastic horror writer. This macabre short story collection will give you plenty of sleepless nights.

The Haunting of Hill House

By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson is one of the greatest horror novelists of all time. In The Haunting of Hill House , she starts with a classic haunted-house setting and a Gothic horror mood and builds a compelling narrative full of delightfully terrifying set pieces.

Related: 13 Female Horror Writers You Should Be Reading  

Rosemary's Baby

By Ira Levin

A bestseller in its day, Levin's novel Rosemary's Baby is a disturbing horror tale that turns the excitement and fears of pregnancy into truly dark horrors. This was the inspiration for the film of the same name, which is also a classic.

The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

By Harlan Ellison

This collection of short stories from horror master Harlan Ellison includes his most famous work, "A Boy and His Dog," which you might remember from the film adaptation of the same name. Ellison's work blends science fiction and horror.

The Exorcist

By William Peter Blatty

Sometimes overshadowed by the all-time classic film adaptation, William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist is a classic in its own right. Blatty drew the inspiration for his novel from Roland Doe, a terrifying real-life case of alleged satanic possession.

Related: 13 Witchcraft and Occult Books to Get You in the Spirit of the Season  

The Sentinel

By Jeffrey Konvitz

The book that inspired the 1977 film of the same name centers on Alison Parker, a young woman with a troubling reclusive Catholic priest for a neighbor in her New York City brownstone. When she hears strange, loud noises coming from upstairs, she’s horrified to find that no one lives there besides the creepy priest.

Related: Satan at the Door: The Sinister Events Surrounding Jeffrey Konvitz's 1974 Cult Horror Novel The Sentinel  

First Love, Last Rites

By Ian McEwan

In this early effort from literary giant Ian McEwan, the author is still finding his voice—and is experimenting quite a bit with genre fiction in general and horror fiction in particular. This short story collection is worth a read for McEwan fans and horror fans alike.

Related: 51 SCARIEST Books of the Last 200 Years  

The Shining

By Stephen King

Stephen King's reign as the king of horror began in earnest with his third novel. The Shining is weighty and powerful, and it showcases King's ability to tie his stories' horrors to his characters and their flaws in a way that gets readers thinking about more than just the scares.

Related: Master of Horror: 10 Best Stephen King Books  

Ghost Story

By Peter Straub

Straub is one of horror's greats, and Ghost Story was the turning point in his career. In Ghost Story , a group of aging men find themselves haunted—literally—by a terrible crime that they committed when they were still young boys.

We can't stop at just one! The line between magic and horror is blurred in Peter Straub’s novel. When two young boys begin to learn magic from one of the boy’s uncle, they realize that this terrifying evil is more than just a trick.

Related: Shadowland: 9 Best Peter Straub Books for a Night of Horror  

The Elementals

By Michael McDowell

In The Elementals , two vacationing families are plagued by a horror in a third nearby house. The Elementals is arguably the best work from an author beloved by horror fans and writers alike—no less a talent than Stephen King, among others, has sung McDowell's praises.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

By Alvin Schwartz

This now-infamous collection of short stories was intended for children, but between its terrifying illustrations and bone-chilling tales based on urban legends and folklore, it’s sure to terrify readers of any age.

Related: 14 Horror Books for Fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark  

Dark Companions

By Ramsey Campbell

Featuring what Stephen King called “one of the three finest horror stories I have ever read,” this collection of horrifying tales brings readers face to face with their worst nightmares—in the form of sinister “companions.”

The Woman in Black

By Susan Hill

When solicitor Arthur Kipps is sent to settle the affairs of Mrs. Drablow, things take a horrifying turn for the worse as he is haunted by mysterious occurrences in her home.

By Octavia E. Butler

Printed alongside other stories, this novella (which was first published in 1984) stands as one of Butler's greatest works. It's an unsettling piece of speculative fiction set in a universe where humans are bound to and abused by alien overlords.

The Damnation Game

By Clive Barker

This cautionary Faustian tale involves a man who made a pact with a devilish man, and the horrific events that ensue as he’s pressured to complete his end of the bargain.

Related: Hellbound Heart: The Best Clive Barker Books  

Song of Kali

By Dan Simmons

Journalist Robert Luczak travels to Calcutta to locate poetry of the allegedly deceased M. Das. There he finds a terrifying cult devoted to Kali, the goddess of death.

The Light at the End

By John Skipp and Craig Spector

Skipp and Spector team up to deliver a vampire novel with a twist: this story is set within the punk community of New York City. The weird and wild world of 1980s New York makes the perfect backdrop for this strange and spooky tale.

While most of Stephen King’s works could be included in this list, we’re highlighting Misery for its sheer, realistic terror. When fictional writer Paul Sheldon is in a car crash, he’s rescued by his biggest, psychotic fan … who proceeds to imprison and torture him.

Related: 11 Nightmare-Inducing Authors to Check Out After You've Read Everything by Stephen King  

By Robert R. Mccammon

A young psychic, Swan, is at the center of a nuclear wasteland. This post-apocalyptic novel is a terrifying look at the destruction of war.

By Neal Stephenson

Zodiac is a thriller with a touch of horror and an environmentalist bent. Stephenson's novel sees its environmentalist protagonist uncover a disturbing truth about pollution in Boston Harbor.

Related: 13 Best Horror Podcasts to Give You the Chills This Halloween  

The Girl Next Door

By Jack Ketchum

Ketchum’s novel is loosely inspired by real events. The story tells of two sisters, Meg and Susan, who are put into the custody of their horrifyingly abusive aunt after their parents are killed.

Songs of a Dead Dreamer

By Thomas Ligotti

This collection of horror stories has been compared to the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. If you’re a fan of supernatural horror, this anthology is a must-read.

Dracula Unbound

By Brian W. Aldiss

Aldiss' take on the vampire novel is creative and daring. In Dracula Unbound , a time-traveling man tries to save mankind from the undead by heading to the 1800s to find Bram Stoker, author of the original Dracula .

By Robert R. McCammon

Robert McCammon is a titan of genre-bending fiction, and Boy's Life is considered by some fans and critics to be his very finest work. Broad in scope and character-oriented, this novel is every bit as good as Swan Song.

Related: 12 Creepy Robert McCammon Books That Will Keep You Awake At Night  

Naomi’s Room

By Jonathan Aycliffe

This gripping tale follows parents Charles and Laura after the disappearance and death of their four-year-old daughter Naomi. But Naomi doesn’t rest in peace—haunting her parents as other murders follow.

American Psycho

By Bret Easton Ellis

This infamous work gives readers a peek inside the mind of a psychopath. The story is narrated by Patrick Bateman—a man who spends his days earning his fortune on Wall Street, and his nights torturing victims as a serial killer.

Summer of Night

This thrilling novel is the first in a series written by acclaimed author Dan Simmons, winner of the Hugo Award for his book Hyperion . Set in small town Illinois, five boys must band together to fight the evil that threatens to destroy everyone they know.

Related: 14 Underrated Paranormal Books That Will Get Under Your Skin  

The Bell Witch

By Brent Monahan

Based on a true story, The Bell Witch follows the Bell family, who come to be haunted by a relentless spirit living in their Tennessee home.

Related: 20 Ghost Books to Haunt Your Days (and Nights)  

House of Leaves

By Mark Z. Danielweski

In a mysterious house, doors and passageways appear with no apparent destination, and measurements that don’t match that of the house’s exterior. The family that moves in must contend with the mysterious evil festering inside their new home.

By Chuck Palahniuk

This winner of the 2003 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award follows a reporter investigating Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. When he uncovers the source of the deaths, he gains the power to kill, and sets out to prevent others from using it.

Related: 46 Gripping True Crime Books from the Last 54 Years  

Let the Right One In

By John Ajvide Lindqvist

This Swedish horror novel follows the story of a young boy and his friendship with an enchanting but strange little girl. It's a creepy and thrilling read about friendship, trust, and secrets.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

By Max Brooks

If your favorite part of speculative fiction is the speculation, then you should check out this sweeping look at a fictional war against zombies. In contrast to the fun but dumb movie adaptation, there are no quick fixes and simple plot arcs here: the book really reads like a historical document.

Dan Simmons' The Terror mashes up the horror and historical fiction genres. Using Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition through the Northwest Passage as a jumping-off point, Simmons creates a creepy story set in the Arctic.

By Brian Evenson

Brian Evenson is a dark prince of modern horror, and this award-winning tale stands as one of his most visceral nightmares. To apprehend a cult leader's killer, a former detective must sacrifice everything: his mind, his sanity, and his body one part at a time. 

By Adam Nevill

Winner of the 2012 August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel, this story follows four old college friends whose efforts to reconnect get them lost in the Scandinavian wilderness. When they stumble upon what appears to be the remains of a sacrificial ritual, they discover they are not alone.

Related: 21 Underrated Horror Books That Have Been Waiting to Fuel Your Nightmares  

By Dathan Auerbach

A kindergarten class ties letters to balloons and lets them go in hopes of getting a penpal in return. When one falls into the hands of an obsessive stalker, every mother’s worst nightmare ensues.

By Joe Hill

Spanning several decades, Vic is tormented by her past—and the child abductor, Manx, who tried to take her years ago. But Manx is on the loose again, and is determined to get even by taking Vic’s own son.

Related: From 20th Century Ghosts to NOS4A2 : Where to Start with Award-Winning Horror Author Joe Hill  

By Josh Malerman

When you see it, you’re driven to deadly violence … but the only problem is no one knows what ‘it’ is. Five years after the madness begins, Malorie and her two young children flee, blindfolded, to a place that might be safe—setting out on a terrifying journey.

Wylding Hall

By Elizabeth Hand

Presented as an oral history, Hand's 2015 novel tells the story of a British psychedelic folk group that holes up in an old country house to work on their next album. Things get weird fast, and not just because of the acid.

The Doll-Master

By Joyce Carol Oates

Genre-hopping literary master Joyce Carol Oates has written more than her fair share of genre fiction, and she shows her skills in the horror space with this excellent collection of six imaginative and scary short stories.

The Fisherman

By John Langan

A modern marvel from John Langan, this novel is about desperation and dark dealings. Set in Upstate New York, Langan's novel introduces a rural creek that is rumored to hold some impossible secret. His characters set out to find it.

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Horror Book Reviewers

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Top Horror Book Reviewers

Horror has been described as “a piece of fiction… which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing.” Whether it’s just around Halloween or all year long, many readers eagerly seek out the scares, spooks and paranoia that only a piece of horror fiction can provide. Horror authors spend countless hours developing, writing, revising and rewriting their stories to create the perfectly fright-inducing book. Additionally, time and money are often required to get a book edited, proofread, formatted, and the cover designed. Once a book is complete, however, comes what many authors feel is the hardest part: Marketing. While there are many options available for marketing, the success of your book is largely dependent upon having plenty of positive book reviews, as these are heavily relied upon by readers to determine the quality of your book. Thus, you no doubt wonder “How do I get book reviews? And who are the best reviewers for horror books?”

Book reviews come in various forms. A few examples of the review options available are Amazon customer reviews, Goodreads reviews, book blogger posts and editorial reviews, and sometimes these options overlap. For instance, many book bloggers, in addition to posting their reviews on their blog, will post their reviews on platforms such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads or Librarything. Similarly, while most editorial reviewers only post their reviews on their websites, Amazon and other retailers allow authors to prominently share editorial reviews of their books.

Whether your book is gothic horror, psychological horror, slasher, zombie, monster, alien, paranormal, or any other horror subgenre, you’ll need to discover the best horror book reviewers to submit your book to. At Indies Today, we have taken the time to consider hundreds of book reviewers to identify the top book reviewers for your book’s genre. Listed below are the current top reviewers for horror books. In addition to these reviewers, make sure that you search for “horror” in our complete list of indie book reviewers to find dozens of other great options for getting your book reviewed.

TOP HORROR BOOK REVIEWERS

• GingerNutsOfHorror.com Ginger Nuts of Horror specializes in all things horror, including film and literature. They regularly post book reviews that are thorough, and are posted on their blog, Amazon and Goodreads. As with all of the sites mentioned on our site, Ginger Nuts of Horror allows independent authors to submit their works.
• FangFreakinTasticReviews.com Using a standard 1 to 5 scale, Fang-Freakin-Tastic rates and reviews horror books, along with a few other related genres. Their book reviews are posted regularly to their blog, Amazon and Goodreads.
• KendallReviews.com Kendall Reviews focuses exclusively on horror, and they post book reviews regularly. Their reviews are honest and are shared on Amazon and Goodreads in addition to their blog.
• IndiesToday.com Okay, listing ourselves may seem like a bit of self-promotion, but it’s true that our reviewers love reading indie authors and many of them also love reading horror. Besides that, we offer by far the lowest price in the industry for an editorial review and book award contest entry. Our editorial reviews include quotable phrases that you can add to Amazon or other retailers to influence potential customers.
• ScifiAndScary.wordpress.com As their name suggests, Sci-Fi and Scary focuses on science fiction and horror novels and movies. They have multiple reviewers in the US, Canada and UK. Their ranking system is simply Starred Reviews and Unstarred Reviews to let you know whether or not a book is recommended. In addition to their site, their reviews are shared on Goodreads.
• SpookyKidLit.com Spooky Kid Lit doesn’t post reviews as frequently as the other horror book reviewers mentioned here, but if you have a horror book written for a younger audience (children up through middle grade) then they are a site not to be overlooked. Their reviews are rated on a 1 to 5 coffin scale, and are shared on their blog, Amazon and Goodreads.

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Breaking News

Celebrating the midnight movie, plus the best films to see in L.A. this week

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Hello! I’m Mark Olsen . Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

One of the most exciting events at last weekend’s Los Angeles Festival of Movies was a talk between musician Kim Gordon and author Rachel Kushner on Los Angeles and how the city is depicted in the movies.

As guests entered the space — 2220 Arts + Archives — where the talk was to take place, the 1969 movie “Model Shop” played on a white-painted brick wall. Once Gordon and Kushner settled in, a revolving carousel of movie stills came on behind them: “Zabriskie Point,” “The Exiles,” “Car Wash,” “The Loved One,” “Body Double,” “Foxes,” “The Long Goodbye,” “A Woman Under the Influence,” “My Brother’s Wedding,” “American Gigolo,” Play It as It Lays” and “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” Kushner noted how they had each chosen six titles.

As they talked their way through most of the movies on the list (they never did get around to “Zabriskie Point”), both Kushner and Gordon referenced Thom Andersen’s exhaustive 2003 essay film on Los Angeles and the movies, “Los Angeles Plays Itself.”

Gordon’s own L.A. childhood was a throughline. In talking about 1980’s “Foxes,” which depicts a group of San Fernando Valley teens who become involved in the world of Hollywood nightlife, Gordon noted, “I empathize with people who grew up in the Valley. I grew up in boring West L.A., so I always wanted to go up to Laurel Canyon or to Hollywood Boulevard, to hang out.”

Kushner noted that the street she now lives on in Angelino Heights has been a filming location for both “Chinatown” and the “Fast and Furious” movies.

“In thinking about movies in L.A. I started thinking about my own relationship to the city,” she noted. “The way that I talk about it is often meant to be a correction to people’s cliches of it.”

At one point Gordon added, “I feel like now, the whole myth of L.A. and California — it’s all been exported through streetwear and surf-skate culture and that it kind of lives a life outside of L.A. and California.”

A new doc festival, ‘This Is Not a Fiction’

Already underway, “This is Not a Fiction” is a new festival launched by the American Cinematheque. The lineup of documentary films and attending filmmakers is quite impressive, showing both classics of the form as well as boundary-breaking newer works.

The series will also feature a number of fiction films that are documentary-adjacent, including Harmony Korine’s “Trash Humpers” and Christopher Guest’s mockumentary “Waiting for Guffman.” The outrageous action of Jeff Tremaine’s “Jackass: The Movie” should be a highlight of the program.

Among the events still to come are a panel talk on the 15th anniversary of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, Terry Zwigoff’s “Crumb,” Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s “Leviathan” and “Sweetgrass,” Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s ’ “Brother’s Keeper” and “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills,” Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County, USA” and “American Dream,” Sandi Tan’s “Shirkers” and “Gourmet Baby,” Yance Ford’s “Power” and “Strong Island,” and Bill Morrison’s “Dawson City: Frozen Time.”

Many of the filmmakers will be present for their screenings. (I’m moderating a talk with Kirsten Johnson on Tuesday after a screening of “Cameraperson” and Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf will be speaking with Tan after “Shirkers.”)

“It feels like it’s exploding and we have quite a big team now,” said Chris LeMaire, senior film programmer at the American Cinematheque, who put the series together with programmer Cindy Fernanda Flores. “And it all feels like in keeping with the goal that the Cinematheque has had for many years, which is to put on a year-round film festival.”

LeMaire added, “We approached it like we do every day at the Cinematheque, which is finding ways to bring repertory programming, the history of cinema, into kind of a collision course with what’s going on in the industry today.”

On Saturday night audiences will need to choose between heading to the Aero to see “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg,” a portrait of the one-time Rolling Stones muse, or driving to the Egyptian for “Gimme Shelter,” the devastating chronicle of the Stones’ ill-fated free concert at Altamont.

Though “Gimme Shelter” is now widely accepted as one of the greatest documentaries of all time, in his initial 1971 review, Times critic Charles Champlin wasn’t convinced, writing, “Their view, I think, is that the documentarians’ role is to have the cameras in the right place at the right time, but otherwise not to suggest the filmmakers’ presence or shaping intelligence. … The fact is that ‘Gimme Shelter’ — insofar as it is a shaped documentary rather than a newsreel — is merely OK. Its strength is the Altamont debacle itself.”

Champlin added, “‘Gimme Shelter’ is both repellent and important, and its audience shouldn’t be limited to the chanting faithful.”

In putting together this ambitious program of documentary films and filmmakers, the Cinematheque’s LeMaire said, “Really our starting point was this idea of nonfiction filmmaking as its own art form.” He added that he hopes the program can “expand the concept and the way people think about documentary.”

Among the most exciting events of the festival is Sunday’s screening of Frederick Wiseman’s debut feature 1967’s “Titicut Follies,” a devastating look at the deplorable conditions in a mental hospital that the state of Massachusetts long sought to hide from public view. The screening will include a prerecorded Q&A with Wiseman, now 94 and still very much an active filmmaker winning awards .

In a 1981 interview with The Times, Wiseman gave a statement of purpose that likely still holds true today. He said, “My films are about pockets of life about which the audience has strong impressions but perhaps no first-hand experience. These films try to bring experiences to people who haven’t had them so they can participate and think through their own relationship to what they’re seeing and hearing. What I’m doing is a natural history of how we live — normal, everyday life — over a period of time.”

15 years of the American Genre Film Archive

Beginning on the 15th, the USC School of Cinematic Arts will be presenting a tribute to 15 years of the American Genre Film Archive , the nonprofit that has rescued over 100 feature films from becoming lost.

The series will be able to take advantage of an Imax venue at USC for some shows, so movies such as Joe Dante’s notorious “The Movie Orgy” and works by Sarah Jacobson, Jon Moritsugu and Doris Wishman will be presented on likely the biggest screen they have ever been seen on.

“We feel these are shining examples of American indie filmmaking, regardless of genre,” said AGFA’s Bret Berg in an email. “If AGFA doesn’t preserve these movies in particular, there may not be anyone else who will.”

Berg also noted, “Another through line which greatly satisfies us is the preservation of important subcultures through film. With ‘Gay Girls Riding Club,’ it’s about the legacy of drag. The punk underground is represented by Jon Moritsugu, Sarah Jacobson and Dave Markey. ‘She Freak,’ ‘Indecent Desires’ and ‘Boardinghouse’ are all ace examples of the grimy drive-in circuit vibe.”

Other highlights will include Andy Sidaris’ “Hard Ticket to Hawaii” with a Q&A with producer Arlene Sidaris, and the world restoration premiere of Dave Markey’s “Desperate Teenage Lovedolls.” (I’ll be moderating a Q&A with Markey and cast members Jennifer Schwartz, Tracy Lea Nash and Stephen Macdonald.)

Other points of interest

‘Eraserhead’ at the Academy

The Academy museum has launched a series celebrating the midnight movie . As outlined in J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum’s book “Midnight Movies,” this is about more than just seeing a movie in the middle of the night, but a whole sensibility and countercultural mind-set.

On Monday will be a 35mm screening of one of the ultimate midnight movies, David Lynch’s feature debut, 1977’s “Eraserhead.”

The program will also include Suzan Pitt’s 1979 animated film “Asparagus,” which was specifically acquired to play before “Eraserhead,” including during multiyear runs at New York’s Waverly Theater and Los Angeles’ Nuart Theatre.

I am reluctant to try to describe “Eraserhead” except to say that few filmmakers arrive as fully formed as Lynch. In 1977, reviewing the film’s midnight screening at L.A.’s Filmex festival, The Times’ Linda Gross wrote, “In his first feature, the talented young American filmmaker David Lynch successfully merges black comedy, kitchen sink reality and avant-garde obscurity and provides superior special effects, but ‘Eraserhead,’ about extremely nebbish young couple who have a monster baby, is not for the squeamish.”

Other titles still to come in the museum’s midnight program include “Up in Smoke,” “Donnie Darko,” “Glen or Glenda,” “House” in 35mm, “Hellbound: Hellraiser II” in 35mm and, of course, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

‘The Raid: Redemption’ and ‘The Raid 2’

On Monday the New Beverly will show the pulverizing double bill of Gareth Evans’ 2011 “The Raid: Redemption” and 2014’s “The Raid 2.” Both films star Iko Uwais as an Indonesian cop who finds himself facing seemingly insurmountable odds; both also feature truly dazzling close-quarters fighting and stunt choreography.

I spoke to the Welsh-born Evans for “The Raid 2,” a film on which he was was credited as director, writer, co-editor and action choreographer.

“For me it has to work as a story first,” Evans said. “It doesn’t work if the action is just kind of thrown in.... What I wanted to try to do in this one is make sure each action scene, each beat, would be in response to the plot and push the plot forward. There would be character arcs within the fight scenes.”

In other news

‘The People’s Joker’

After a prolonged fight to clear the movie for release, Vera Drew’s “The People’s Joker” is finally in theaters. The movie transforms the saga of the comic book character of The Joker into an absurdist, deeply personal, unabashedly queer tale of self-actualization and making it in the comedy world.

Back when the film premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Drew described the film’s sensibility to Jen Yamato by saying, “My movie is about complicated relationships with your mom, which I think a lot of trans women have. But I also really wanted to make a movie that Joel Schumacher would like.”

The movie is playing now at the Nuart in L.A., with Drew in person for some showings. Starting on the 19th, it will be at the Alamo Drafthouse DTLA and Vidiots.

Reviewing “The People’s Joker” for The Times, Manuel Betancourt wrote , “Equally brazen and ambitious, Drew’s film is committed to embracing the zany undertones that have always bubbled under the surface of a comic book tale in which secret identities, arch performances and fabulous outfits (all worn in the dead of night, no less) have always felt like lifelines for queer and trans kids worldwide.”

‘Sasquatch Sunset’

Nathan and David Zellner have been among the most eccentrically creative filmmakers working on the fringes of Hollywood for some time, always marrying an outsider’s sensibility with a touching, human heart.

Their latest film is “Sasquatch Sunset,” a startlingly emotional look at a year in the life of a family of Sasquatch, played by Nathan Zellner, Christophe Zajac-Denek, Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough, all rendered unrecognizable under their makeup and hairy costumes.

I sat down with the Zellners for a story that we’ll be publishing soon. As David told me, “From the script stage, we didn’t want anything to be winky or sensational. Even though absurd stuff happens in it, we wanted to normalize it in the same way that if you see an animal you wouldn’t be shocked that it was not wearing clothes. We just wanted to normalize it at all as though you’re seeing a pack of wolves or something like that.”

‘Civil War’

Last week I included my interview with Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny about Alex Garland’s “Civil War.” The movie, about a near-future America torn apart by violence, opens this week and Joshua Rothkopf declares in his review that, “regardless of what may come ahead — at the movies and beyond — there won’t be a more important film this year.”

Rothkopf also says, “It’s the nowness of ‘Civil War’ that will be much discussed. ... For the most part, what Garland is after is less accusatory and more provocative, detached from the kind of red-state-blue-state binary that would trap ‘Civil War’ in amber before it had a chance to breathe. Do we deserve a democracy if we can barely speak to each other? This is a film set in a future when words no longer matter. Even the final words of power-grabbing leaders disappoint.”

Complete your Hollywood bookshelf

This week, the LAT published a list of the 50 best books on Hollywood , compiled from a survey of experts in the worlds of publishing and entertainment. Topping the list was Joan Didion’s 1970 novel “Play It as It Lays.”

As Matt Brennan wrote in the introduction to the list, “It’s been said that Hollywood is more an idea than a place, and no task punctuates the notion quite like asking people to choose the best Hollywood book of all time: ‘What do you mean,’ they inevitably ask, ‘by “Hollywood?’”

There are also essays on specific books, including “Play It as It Lays,” Julia Phillips’ “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again,” Carrie Fisher’s “Postcards From the Edge,” Pauline Kael’s “Raising Kane,” Steven Bach’s “Final Cut,” Donald Bogle’s “Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” and Peter Biskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.”

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The Story of O.J. Simpson’s Controversial Book, If I Did It , And Why It Was Canceled And Later Released

Simpson’s hypothetical account of how he would have killed his ex-wife and her friend was published by one of the victim’s family in 2007

Ethan Miller/Getty; Beaufort Books

O.J. Simpson died on April 10 from cancer. He was 76. The contentious figure, who was an actor, broadcaster and Hall of Fame football player, is now arguably best-known for his arrest, trial and acquittal for the 1994 murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Following an hours-long televised police chase — which garnered 95 million viewers — Simpson's trial lasted for months before jurors declared him not guilty of the killings in 1995.  In 2007, Simpson was arrested on non-related felony charges for armed robbery and kidnapping . At that point, he was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison following a 2008 trial, and was released in Oct. 2017 after serving nearly nine years.

Simpson’s alleged involvement with Brown and Goldman’s murders was the subject of a highly controversial book. If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer , Simpson’s hypothetical account of how he would have murdered Brown and Goldman, had a rocky road to its eventual 2007 publication. 

Beaufort Books

Prior to If I Did It , Simpson published I Want to Tell You: My Response to Your Letters, Your Messages, Your Questions in 1995, while he waited to appear before the jury for his hearing. Per the book’s description , I Want to Tell You was intended to be “an emotional and factual self-portrait of O. J.'s mind at this critical time,” and included letters that Simpson had received since his incarceration.

In 2006, publisher Judith Regan announced that she would publish a book by O.J. Simpson through ReganBooks, a former imprint of HarperCollins. Regan claimed that Simpson’s legal team contacted her in a 2006 interview, which became public in 2018. “I received a phone call from an attorney who said that O.J. was ready to confess,” Regan said in the interview. “And actually, I thought it was some kind of a scam and didn’t believe him, and I thought, ‘This guy’s a lunatic,’ but I took his number and said I’d call him back.”

Isaac Brekken-Pool/Getty

“The next day, I called him back and he said he was willing to do it, and the only condition that he had was that he didn’t want to call the book I Did It," Regan claimed. “He wanted to put an ‘if’ in front of it, so he would have deniability with his children . He couldn’t face his children and he couldn’t tell them that he had done it. That was the way it was portrayed to me. That was his only condition.” The book sold for a reported $3.5 million and was set to publish on Nov. 30, 2006. However, outrage from both the public and the victims' families led to the book’s publication being canceled. Regan was also fired by HarperCollins on the heels of the controversy.

“I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” Rupert Murdoch, then-News Corp. chairman, said in 2006. “We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.”

In the wake of his 1995 acquittal, Simpson was sued by both the Brown and Goldman families in civil court. The court ruled in the families' favor in 1997, and awarded them a $33.5 million liability judgment, though Simpson only paid a fraction of the initial amount.

Following the cancellation of the book, however, a battle for the rights to If I Did It ensued. Lorraine Brooke Associates, a company run by Simpson’s daughter, Arnelle, with the Simpson children as the main shareholders, had negotiated the original book deal with HarperCollins. However, after a California judge ordered the rights sold to benefit the Goldman family, Lorraine Brooke Associates filed for bankruptcy.

In 2007, rights were awarded to the Goldman family, CBS reported at the time , to satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson. The judge presiding over that case found that Lorraine Brooke Associates was founded in an attempt to hide O.J. Simpson's involvement with the book, which led them to award the rights to the Goldmans, CBS reported.

Jason Bean-Pool/Getty

The Browns, who won a $24 million wrongful death case against Simpson, were awarded a 10% cut of the book’s first gross proceeds. The Goldmans were tasked with bearing the burden of finding the book a publisher, as well as its marketing efforts.

With the rights secured, the Goldman family published a revised edition of If I Did It in 2007. The new book included Simpson’s original text, as well as additional commentary from the Goldman family, the book’s original ghostwriter Pablo Fenjves and journalist Dominick Dunne. The new edition also covered the bankruptcy case and the court proceedings that led to Simpson’s conviction, per the book's description.

"After 13 years of trying to get some justice, today is probably the first time we had any sense of seeing light at the end of the tunnel," Goldman’s father, Fred, said at the hearing after the book rights were awarded. "It's gratifying to see."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

According to Amazon , all royalties from the book's sales are currently awarded to the Goldman family.

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• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes

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About this game.

• In-game handheld working video camera
• 2-4 player online coop
• ASCII face customisation
• Make and save in-game recordings
• Your friends looking and acting silly
• Scary animated physics monsters
• Cursed artefacts
• Flashlights (many)
• Fame (maybe)

System Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 2.5 GHz or equivalent
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 ti or AMD R9 380
• DirectX: Version 11
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 4 GB available space
• Additional Notes: Only runs on 64 bit systems
• Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 3.0 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 or equivalent
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD RX 470 or equivalent
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 6 GB available space

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