Writer Stephen Graham Jones has quite a following. He is highly regarded by reviewers and readers for his prose and application of his Native American background into his works. His novella Mapping the Interior helped to put him on the map, so to speak, courtesy of a Bram Stoker Award in the category of Long Fiction. First published in 2017, the Tor Publishing Group has just reissued it under its Nightfire banner. That gave me the opportunity to read the book for the first time and rectify a past omission. In its 96 pages, there is much psychological and sociological insight about American Indian culture. But at its heart, the…

White Line Fever by KC Jones is an ode to Stephen King. There are multiple references in the novel to several of King’s works, ranging from a vehicle referred to as “The Silver Bullet” to Stanley Kubrick’s film version of The Shining. Thematically, White Line Fever is primarily a love letter to King’s classic It, a book that focuses on a group of friends traumatized by events that happened in their youth. In Jones’s narrative, four gal pals in their thirties embark on a road trip aimed at bolstering the spirits of the brokenhearted protagonist. She carries the most emotional baggage, but each of the friends has unresolved personal demons.…

Recently, I saw two films that fall into the hybrid horror category. Both The Substance (2024) and Companion (2025) weave satire and searing social commentary into their very graphic over-the-top horror narratives. The novel Follow Me, written by Elizabeth Rose Quinn, reminded me of those movies. The book is similar in tone and snark. Its plot zeros in on the rabid desire to be a social media presence. The focus is on pressured young mothers, who feel isolated and undervalued, succumbing to the allure of being deemed an influencer. Like the two films I mentioned, things get taken to extremes. Author Quinn serves up so many quotable quips that it…

For those who have wondered about having a sensual tryst with a vampire, here’s a literary taste: “Along the contours of his ribs she felt knotted places, hollows — old healings, the tracks of time. The tension of his muscles under her touch and the sharp sound of his breathing stirred her. She lived the fantasy of having sex with an utter stranger; there was no one in the world so much a stranger as he. Yet there was no one who knew him as well as she did, either. If he was unique, so was she, and so was their confluence here.” That eloquently seductive prose is from Suzy…

Ambiguity in horror fiction must be handled deftly to be effective. If not, the narrative dissatisfies and frustrates. Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce mixes folk horror with a dollop of the supernatural in what is predominantly a character study. Mina, the novel’s first-person narrator, is a conflicted woman. She’s soon to marry to a man with whom she is not compatible. In contrast to her, he is highly organized and science oriented. When Mina expresses her belief that a person standing behind her in one of their vacation photos is her long dead brother, her fiancé strongly encourages her to resume attending grief counseling sessions. At the venue…

What would the horror genre do without Ellen Datlow? Her wealth of experience as an editor and anthologist gives her unique access to a plethora of material. In addition to producing a multitude of themed anthologies, for over a decade and a half she has edited The Best Horror of the Year compilations. It never ceases to astound me that the “summation” section in the annual volumes encompasses so much about the writing in the field. The attributed publications run the gamut from the well-known to indie publishers. I had to smile at the mention of a small press compilation titled No Trouble at All, published by Cursed Morsels Press edited by Alexis…

Joe R. Lansdale is a treasure. His writing in and out of the horror field is a delight to read. He is quite a chameleon, not only in his ability to shift from genre to genre, but in terms of style and literary voice. His abundant talent is on full display in In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, published by Tachyon. The handsome trade paperback features eye-catching cover art by Mike Mignola and cover design by Elizabeth Story, along with interior design by John Coulthart that has a nice geometric Lovecraftian feel. All eight stories in the collection were previously published, the oldest in 2009 and the…

I’ll Be Waiting (St. Martin’s Press) by Kelley Armstrong is problematic. Like many other novels I’ve recently read, it rivets in its first half. Then comes the inevitable letdown. Labored twists and turns of plot. Characters whose actions become contrived. A protagonist, who veers from appearing shrewdly analytical and self-aware, to being a possibly unreliable first-person narrator whose evolving paranoia may have merit. Sigh. To accentuate the positives, the protagonist has a warped sense of humor that most horror readers will find accessible. Nicola Laughton is a 38-year-old survivor. She’s lived beyond the predicted lifespan of someone who was diagnosed at a young age with cystic fibrosis. She had adapted to…

The supernatural is a mainstay of horror fiction. Yet in the reality of the darkest recesses of our hearts, we know that lots of fears stem from the potential of human perpetrated horrors. Be it the concern of our chances of being gunned down by an anonymous shooter at a public venue or awareness of horrific genocides, fear of dangerous human beings quietly lurks in our subconscious. Editor Ellen Datlow explores this in the aptly named Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror. The anthology contains 21 previously published stories that focus on deadly aberrations of character. Serial killers are well represented, and revenge is a thematic staple in some of the yarns. The…

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is a crafty collection. It is a tapestry of tales that have subliminal links to each other while gleefully playing with meta and the metaphysical. Even before opening the unconventionally structured book, there’s a thematic hint of what’s inside. The brilliant jacket design by Jamie Stafford-Hill informs the reader that author Ananda Lima’s stories which await within are part of a larger whole. Lima incorporates her Brazilian background and time spent in New York City into the into the narratives, often fusing the experiences with phantasmagoria. Any attempt to categorize this holistic amalgamation of yarns is futile. With adroit precision, the volume presents a…