Rating: 8.5/10 Synopsis  Four friends unearth a unique VHS tape that, when viewed, causes short-distance teleportation with euphoric after-effects, inadvertently launching a perilous trend.    As copies of the original tape are made, the results become less predictable and ultimately gruesome due to analog generational decay. Despite the danger, some will risk everything for just one more trip.  Review   A huge thank you to the publisher for the eARC!   It’s no secret that Shortwave Publishing’s Killer VHS Series is a romping good time. Most recen ..read more

Rating: 8.5/10 A whale of a good time… Synopsis The whaling vessel Merciful has just made its strangest catch yet: a massive whale containing a still-living man secreted within its stomach lining. Sailor Isaiah Chase is tasked with keeping the enigmatic man alive. As their relationship grows, a series of accidents, injuries and deaths quickly befall the ship and its crew. Isaiah is plagued by strangely prophetic dreams, even as the crew continues their endless quest for whale oil under the command of an increasingly unhinged captain. As events spiral further out of control, the mys ..read more

Rating: 8.5/10 Synopsis Are you ready to get put into the Naughty Corner? Three uniquely fresh novellas in one collection, including Towse’s wildest old-people horror yet, ‘The Generation Games.’ Also includes, ‘The Naughty Corner’ and ‘My Name is Brian.’ The Generation Games. The population crisis is out of control. Earth’s resources are close to depletion. A mandate has been put into effect condemning people to death when they hit the age of seventy. Only A lucky few will have the opportunity to compete for a passport to the latter years. It’s about to get savage. My Name ..read more

Rating: 8.5/10 Synopsis When you’ve received a death threat, who else would you turn to but Einarr “Sledge” Laukkanen? That’s what Sledge’s former lover, Kiira, does. Only Sledge soon finds that Kiira’s caught up in a dark web-based network of sadism and assassins called the Labyrinth. As Sledge breaks his way through the depths to save Kiira, the cycle of violence only gets deadlier. Review Holy shit. This book. Have you ever happened across a protagonist who’s just an out-and-out real mean sonofabitch? Sledge is the angry lovechild of John Wick and The Mountain. This guy makes Kr ..read more

Hello again dear reader or listener, I hope you’re enjoying your Sunday! I once again have literary appetizers for you. Since I recently received a (very amusing) spam bot comment on one of my old list posts, I thought I might as well make a part 2 given it’s been three years! As you can guess from the title, I felt like listing the very first (or first few) lines from books currently on my shelves, that I found especially captivating for one reason or other. Maybe they’re particularly ominous, or amusing, or intriguing, but in each case, they set the tone incredibly well. Here you can also f ..read more

Rating: 6/10 Synopsis: You move to a new area, hoping for a fresh start.You bury yourself in a new career, hoping for an identity.But the new area has roads no one travels down if they can help it, and the people stare at you with secrets behind their eyes that were old before you were born. But the new career has responsibilities that no one warned you about, and the duties weigh on your soul.Charlie Brooks, a man with a painful past, is about to learn that not even a symbol of law and order can maintain control when forces beyond comprehension want to break through. In a time bef ..read more

Rating: 6/10 Synopsis: A woman searching for her birth-parents unlocks the secrets of her horrific past, as she tries to stop the goblin within in this kaleidoscopic dark psychological horror about identity and belonging, with a dread-inducing climax you will never forget. Perfect for fans of Eric LaRocca, Daphne du Maurier and Catriona Ward. Myrrh has a goblin inside her, a voice in her head that tells her all the things she’s done wrong, that berates her and drags her down. Desperately searching for her birth-parents across dilapidated seaside towns in the South coast of England ..read more

Rating: 8.5/10 Synopsis  Last summer, sixteen-year-old Will Burgess lost many of the people he loved most. Now he’s imprisoned in the Sunny Woods Rehabilitation Center, a facility for troubled youths. Separated from his surviving loved ones and terrified of a change inside him, Will is tormented by a new group of bullies and a sadistic government doctor. When his only ally, an orderly named Pierre, tells him there have been sightings of winged creatures with glowing red eyes, Will believes him. Because Will has seen the Night Flyers too. Even worse, he learns the monstrous Chi ..read more

Rating: 8/10 Synopsis: The Old Mayor’s Mansion sits just a few miles outside the town of Cemetery. When best friends Sean and Devon want to increase views on their ghost investigation channel, they know the mansion is the perfect spot to film. Armed with a slew of new equipment, the buddies set out to capture the paranormal hotspot that will make them famous—just maybe not in the way they were hoping. Review: How many people remember the GhostFacers from the TV show Supernatural? A pair of inept bros who go hunting ghosts and end up in trouble serious enough they need rescuing by t ..read more

Rating: 7.5/10 Synopsis: When 14-year-old Mitch Graves, bored with festivities at a Memorial Day block party in 2006, decides to ride his BMX to a set of train tracks near his home, he discovers something that would tattoo the fear of God into any ordinary child’s memory-a wayward drifter hiding in the shadows of an abandoned railcar in the midst of taking another man’s life. Where most kids would be terrified beyond belief, Mitch finds himself intrigued. Taking the young boy under his wing, the drifter unlocks something horrifying deep within Mitch that he never knew existed. Toge ..read more