Review — Dreaming Darkly by Caitlin Kittredge

A skull made of smoke hovering over a manison Dreaming Darkly
By: Caitlin Kittredge
Release Date: April 9, 2019
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Rating:


Gothic horror holds a special place in many people’s hearts. Examples of the genre can be found everywhere, from popular TV shows to classic literature and, of course, young adult fiction. Caitlin Kittredge’s Dreaming Darkly is a great example of young adult gothic horror. All of the staples of the genre are present—an old house that’s both huge and spooky, family secrets, odd happenings that could be either natural or supernatural occurrences, and old mysteries that haunt the present.

Review — Road of Bones by Christopher Golden

A road lines with snow-covered, frozen trees. Road of Bones
By: Christopher Golden
Release Date: January 25, 2022
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Rating:


Award-winning author Christopher Golden’s newest horror novel depicts a cold, frozen landscape that mimics the January landscape of its release date. Road of Bones follows a two-man filming crew as they traverse the Siberian landscape in order to make a documentary about the most northern place still inhabited by humans. However, the only road there is Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones, for those who died during the road’s construction were simply laid down and buried in the permafrost beneath it.

Review — The Haunted Forest Tour by James A. Moore and Jeff Strand

A bus being grabbed by tree roots that look like a hand The Haunted Forest Tour
By: James A. Moore and Jeff Strand
Release Date: October 1, 2007
Publisher: Indie
Rating:


Horror novel The Haunted Forest Tour was co-written by James A. Moore and Jeff Strand, two authors with significant writing skill and a plethora of novels to each of their names. Moore is an award-winning author of more than forty novels. Strand has also written upwards of forty novels and has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award ten times. Here, the pair come together for a creature feature of epic proportions.

Blog Tour — The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning

The Shadow Glass
By: Josh Winning
Release Date: March 22, 2022
Publisher: Titan Books
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


New standalone fantasy novel The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning is a surefire hit for fans of The Dark Crystal, stories that explore loss, and high-stakes adventures. This novel is, first and foremost, a love letter to fantasy movies involving puppets, with The Dark Crystal at the top of the list. Yet, this is a case of a story being so much more than the sum of its parts, the sort of story that comes to life, leaps off the page, and lingers long after you’ve read the final page.

Review Pennyblade by J.L. Worrad

Banner showing the front cover of Pennyblade and blog tour dates and blogs Pennyblade
By: J.L.Worrad
Release Date: March 15, 2022
Publisher: Titan Books
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Pennyblade is a new standalone novel from author and screenplay writer J.L. Worrad. This is a low fantasy, a story definitively set in a world that is not our own but one with little of the intense, formal magic systems so often found in the genre. Instead, what we have is a plot driven by politics, old families vying for power, and whispers of an old, terrifying being that may be all too real.

Review — The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

scenes outside airplane-style windows The Midnight Library
By: Matt Haig
Release Date: August 13, 2020
Publisher: Viking
Award: Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction 2020
Rating:


Matt Haig is well-known for his nonfiction and self-help books. New to his repertoire is fiction, this time in the form of the international bestseller The Midnight Library. This standalone novel is a cross-section of contemporary fiction, fantasy, self-help, and multiple world line theory.

Review — Hope Island by Tim Major

A lighthouse surrounded by ocean waves Hope Island
By: Tim Major
Release Date: June 8, 2020
Publisher: Titan Books
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


Tim Major’s novel Hope Island is a slow-burning, introspective horror novel with elements of gothic literature. The story follows Nina Scaife and her daughter Laurie. Nina’s husband, Rob, has recently walked out on her, and the pair have just arrived at Hope Island to visit his parents. However, the island isn’t all it seems. The children are eerily silent, the islanders act oddly, a newly discovered archaeological site is drawing attention, and to top it off, a body is found lying on the beach.

Review — Lacuna by Fiona Snyckers

The front cover of the book Lacuna by Fiona Snyckers, featuring the image of a dog Lacuna
By: Fiona Snyckers
Release Date: January 11, 2022
Publisher: Europa Editions
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
Rating:


If author J.M. Coetzee’s award-winning novel Disgrace is mentioned in a room full of people, it will certainly become the topic of hot debate, despite it being released several decades ago. Literary responses to this work aren’t short in number, but standing out among them is Fiona Snyckers’s novel Lacuna.

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawabura

Man and a cat sitting on a bench with their backs turned to the viewer. If Cats Disappeared from the World
By: Genki Kawamura
Illustrator: Leeann Falciani (Jacket Design); Henry Sene Yee (Jacket Illustration)
Translator: Eric Selland
Release Date: March 12, 2019
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Rating:


Genki Kawamura’s first novel, If Cats Disappeared from the World, has sold over two million copies worldwide, and it isn’t difficult to see why. A storyteller in all forms, Kawamura isn’t simply a novelist. He has also produced movies such as the famed Your Name as well as done work as a screenwriter and showrunner. All of these myriad of storytelling techniques leak into the novel, if not in method it was crafted, then in our nameless main character, his hobbies, and his loves.