A Robin Knabel review | 29 November 2023 Morbidologies is a collection of thirteen horror pieces. Edited by Shane D. Keene and John F.D. Taff, it was released on October 24, 2023 by Bleeding Edge Books and weighs in at 234 pages. Spoiler alert: I love this book. There. I got it out of my system. Now I can gush over the stories and tell you why, though I will keep the crux of each story to myself so everyone can enjoy the surprises and twists. When I started the book, I got through the first five stories and realized something. These are the types of stories that you read and enjoy, b ..read more

A Dairlirious Review | 22 November 2023 During a time of year that tends to be off the chain, I’m drawn to collections like this that offer thrills in (pun intended here) bite-sized options. The Amazon Collections always draw heavy hitters, no matter what genre they’re organized around. Amazon Original Stories: Creature Feature is no exception, serving up six short stories by some of the genre’s most acclaimed authors. It’s a smorgasbord of terror. Even the most seasoned horror aficionados should find things they are happy to gobble up. This is a spoiler-free review site, so I won’t go into a ..read more

A Robin Knabel review | 15 November 2023 Thylacines by Deborah Sheldon is a science fiction horror novella with a focus on genetic engineering. Published January 8, 2018 by Severed Press, this action-packed story is another winner from Sheldon. This book sadly sat in my TBR pile for a while, and I am thrilled to have finally gotten a chance to read it. The story begins in the Resurrection Lab in Australia on the campus of Fraser University. We start out meeting Professor Rosie Giuliani, the leader of a lab group of sixteen individuals whose jobs are hanging in the balance. They’re anxiously ..read more

A Dairlirious Review | 7 November 2023 Sometimes a book comes along that has you saying to yourself as you eagerly turn the pages, “This isn’t just a good book. This is something that stands apart.” While the adage, "There’s nothing new under the sun” remains true, there’s something fresh about Ainslie Hogarth’s Motherthing. I feel like I did when I first read Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh or Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (two very, very different books from each other, but both are spectacular). They all zig when you think they’re going to zag in one way or another. There’s a layering of element ..read more

  A Robin Knabel review | 1 November 2023 Below is an occult horror novella by Kev Harrison. It was published on May 27, 2022 by Brigids Gate Press and weighs in at 151 pages. The front cover was designed by Kealan Patrick Burke. Below takes us on a trek into a collapsed and abandoned gold mine in California. We follow Dr. Nick Jones, a PhD in mining engineering, on an adventure to film a documentary. Decades before, his twenty-eight-year-old grandfather was believed to have perished when the mine collapsed. Jess, a social media vlogger, is hired by Adventure Travel TV to tag along and ..read more

A Dairlirious Review | 25 October 2023 It’s no surprise that Rachel Hawkins would knock it out of the park, but her newest novel, The Villa is an absolute masterclass on how to weave together dual timelines and multiple perspectives with seamless ease. The novel's twin storylines—one set in the present day and the other in the 1970s—are perfectly mirrored, exploring the complexities of female friendship, creativity, and the dark side of gender relations. And, oh, by the way, she did it all while tipping her hat to the origin story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In the 1970s timeline, Mari Go ..read more

A Robin Knabel review | 18 October 2023 Bishop by Candace Nola is a supernatural horror thriller. It was published on April 1, 2022 by Uncomfortably Dark Horror and weighs in at 158 pages. This story takes you on a chilling journey through Alaska. Troy Spencer will stop at nothing to locate his thrill-seeking sister and niece who’ve gone missing in the Alaskan wilderness for five days. A winter storm complicates things. Troy is determined to help find them himself and is willing to pay anything to get the best guide in the area, a loner named Bishop. It’s a race against time, and Troy isn’t ..read more

A Dairlirious Review | 11 October 2023 Former child stars on Mister Magic, a defunct children’s TV series with a cult-like following reconnect and travel to an eerie outpost somewhere in the Utah desert to record a long-awaited “reunion” podcast. Bonds formed in childhood trauma (not unlike those found in many of Stephen King's gripping stories like The Institute and Stand by Me) are tested, as the now adults are subjected once more to the place where the show was filmed—and where it came to an abrupt and tragic ending. Val, the main character, grapples with her own shifting and emerging memo ..read more

A Robin Knabel review | 4 October 2023 Cretaceous Canyon is a horror, action adventure book by Deborah Sheldon. It was published August 28, 2023 by Severed Press. This creature feature weighs in at 191 pages. I’ve loved every book of Sheldon’s I’ve read so far, but this one might have nudged its way to the top for me. I’m an avid and longtime fan of the Jurassic Park book series and movies, of course the original always being the favorite. Anytime I see a book cover with a gorgeous and dangerous dinosaur, my mind goes to that storyline. Cretaceous Canyon’s only similarity is a cast of chara ..read more

A Dairlirious Review | 27 September 2023 The central mystery in One in Three by Tess Stimson grips the reader from the get-go. It opens with the bloody murder of a man. His wife, Caz, and ex-wife, Louise, both present at the scene, point accusatory fingers at each other. From there, Stimson guides readers on a suspenseful journey backwards, through the seven weeks leading up to the murder from the alternating perspectives of both Caz and Louise. It wraps up back where we started, with everything seen through different lenses and just enough new information to provide a satisfying solution to ..read more