One thing I love about Gemma Amor: she does not give a f@#! as evidenced by the opening paragraphs of First Date.
In as many words as I’m taking for this review, she subverts sex, beautiful sunsets over the water, and even good old-fashioned run of the mill serial killing. But she does it using language (for the most part) that lulls you into believing you’re reading classical literature. Don’t fall for it! She’s here to take us on a delightfully disturbing ride.
I was never a big Peter Pan fan; I could never really understand the desire not to grow up; that’s all I ever wanted. But the homage to the Peter Pan story in Catriona Ward’s Nowhere Burning is effective and evocative, as we are introduced to Riley and her little brother Oliver, who are wards of a relative they call Cousin. He forces them to live a meager existence, under feeding them and enforcing punishment on them lest they should succumb to demons.
I have read most, if not all, the published books in A. G. Slatter’s Sourdough Universe, and A Forest, Darkly is my favorite so far.
As a cranky middle-aged lady with witchy tendencies of my own, I felt a kinship with Mehrab, and her honesty (with us, at least, through the first-person narration) about her negative as well as positive traits made her likable (probably against her will).
A Veritable Household Pet by Viggy Parr Hampton is one of the saddest horror books I’ve read in a while, but, like all of her works, is beautifully written and filled with characters who are complex and imperfect and feel like real people.
Humboldt Cut by Allison Mick is a beautifully written horror book that combines elements of eco-horror with some body and folk horror. "A million-million imperceivable eyes barely registered the goldenshine pollen dancing through the forest air." This is how the main character - the forest - of Humboldt Cut is introduced.
The first wave of an alien invasion coincides with a New Years Eve party in a Welsh valley.
A group of friends take refuge in an island hotel decorated for New Year's. The problem is, it's early summer, and soon enough, even the walls themselves are striking out against them.
During a live punk-rock New Year's Eve TV programme, the presenter gets a phone call from a psycho calling himself "Evil" saying that when New Year's strikes in each US time zone, he will murder someone.
A group of three friends on a snowmobiling trip find themselves stranded at an abandoned lodge isolated in the mountains. They discover that an old woman resides in the hotel, along with an evil entity that she is keeping in the basement.
Six young adults struggle with their personal demons while staying at a secluded mansion during a dark and stormy night where a seemingly innocent game of 'taboo' brings out their inter-most secrets which soon leads to murder.
The 2026 Women's Writing Symposium (presented by "Scares That Care!") is a two-day event for women in the speculative fiction field.
A three-day charity event focusing on some of the best and brightest authors in the business.
