In the case of Anne River Siddons’s 1978 novel The House Next Door, I was actually first turned on to it through Stephen King’s nonfiction classic Danse Macabre, in which he chose it as one of his ten best “modern” horror novels (as of 1980) and devoted an entire chapter to discussing its themes. I’ve … More Book vs Movie: The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
Grady Hendrix is an author who gets recommended a lot by reviewers on YouTube, and it’s really easy to see why: his books are not only immensely winning and heartfelt horror stories laced heavily with comedy, but he also usually has the books designed in such a way that there’s a whole gestalt going on … More Books: Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
I came across the 2017 novel The House on Rectory Lane by British author Stuart James randomly, while browsing through my suggestions on Kindle Unlimited. Since it had an intriguing title, numerous four- and five-star reviews, and was free to read, I decided to give it a shot. I thought I had never read anything … More Books: The House on Rectory Lane by Stuart James
I first got interested in reading this book after seeing NUMEROUS recommendations for it on various horror book review channels on YouTube, and the fact that it was described as a Southern gothic further piqued my interest. The funny thing is, when I ordered my paperback copy off Amazon, I didn’t realize that the novel … More Books: The Elementals by Michael McDowell
I chose today to focus on childhood books I loved and that helped to shape my writing identity, books that I still remember fondly decades later. These ten books, among the hundreds I read growing up, have stuck with me for various reasons over the years, and I would recommend any of them unreservedly to … More Favorite Creepy Books from My 70s Childhood
British author Gemma Amor first came to the horror community’s attention back in 2018, with her collection of short stories, Cruel Works of Nature. She also frequently writes for the NoSleep and Calling Darkness podcasts, and has published a couple more books in the last few years: a novel called White Pines and an illustrated … More Books: Dear Laura by Gemma Amor
Russell C. O’Connor is yet another author who has published numerous horror novels in the past several years, and has served as president of the DFW Writers’ Workshop in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, but who had somehow slipped beneath my radar. Browsing through the recommended offerings on Kindle Unlimited, I decided to rectify … More Books: The Jackal Man by Russell C. O’Connor
I came across Patrick Reuman’s 2022 novel The Adirondack Witch during a random scroll through my Kindle Unlimited recommendations, and because I love stories about witches, I checked it out and jumped right in. While I enjoyed it overall, and it was fairly well-written with some creepy, lost-in-the-woods vibes, I had a couple issues with … More Books: The Adirondack Witch by Patrick Reuman
Scott Smith has only published a couple of novels in his writing career, but luckily for him (and us), they’re both fantastic. I read and reviewed his 2006 novel The Ruins not too long ago (he also wrote the screenplay for the solid 2008 film adaptation), but I had never read his debut, the 1993 … More Books: A Simple Plan by Scott Smith
Published in the summer of 2020, Stephen Graham Jones’s novel The Only Good Indians immediately started garnering lots of buzz, and ended up winning several awards, including the Ray Bradbury Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. I had read a couple of Jones’s books before, including his 2020 novella Night of … More Books: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Scare Salon 