Everything Dead & Dying by Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips is a collection of all five issues of the comic, which I had never read before, and I’m glad I read it as a collection because I don’t know how I would have done it if I’d had to wait between issues.

Monika Kim has done it again. Molka has the same "good for her", viscerally satisfying, eat the patriarchy vibe as her first novel (The Eyes Are the Best Part).

Like a lot of people - including Caroline Bicks, author of Monsters in the Archives, I have been reading Stephen King since I was 11 or 12 years old, and I loved reading about her time studying his archives and the connections she draws between not only his work and Shakespeare but also his work and her own life, especially some childhood fears. 

Sarafina is the fourth book I have read by Philip Fracassi, and it is definitely my favorite so far.  Unlike many from my part of the United States (the "South"), I have never been a big Civil War buff, but the promise of supernatural witchiness encouraged me to read this, and now I encourage you to do so.

We Call Them Witches by India-Rose Bower is an interesting mix of post-apocalyptic coming-of-age story with pagan mythology and a touch of romance. 

Curse you, Clay McLeod Chapman! I really wanted to feel nothing but contempt for Winston Kemper, and while his victims remind each other that he does not deserve our compassion, in so doing, they remind us why he does.

Cruelty Free by Caroline Glenn takes a satirical look at Hollywood, fame, beauty standards, paparazzi and anyone in the sphere around fame, including bloggers and podcasters, but it’s also a tale about how grief can break someone and how far one will go just to relieve that ache, however temporarily.

X Marks the Haunt by Lindsay Currie is exactly the kind of book I wish existed when I was in middle grade, and it was a ton of fun - and a little scary! - as an adult.

This debut is tightly written and fast paced, even with so many threads and the psychological heft. It doesn’t sacrifice character for its sharp look at a true crime and fame obsessed society.

Anyone who writes anything for any reason has experienced the dead stare of a blank page at some point, and some of my favorite fiction has explored that feeling.

Though comparisons to Stephen King will surely be made by any horror fan - Philip Fracassi himself peppers allusions to King and his works within the novel - Gothic is more than a “man with writer’s block becomes unhinged” story which is obvious right away when the opening chapter is dedicated to the search for the artifact which is the catalyst for said writer’s madness.

Like Peyton Place, like Derry, there is something dark under the surface of the seemingly idyllic small town of Wilson Island.

Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World by Cullen Bunn is an engrossing thriller and cosmic horror novel that follows the inhabitants of Wilson Island as the community is terrorized by a serial killer - until they realize that’s the least of the horrors that they face.

Every neighborhood has a haunted house, and in thirteen-year-old Jessie’s neighborhood, that’s the McIntyre place, and like any teenager, she just wants her eight-year-old brother Paul to go away so she can listen to her music, so she dares him to go into the McIntyre place just to get him out of her hair for a few hours. She had no way of knowing she would never see him again or that it would destroy her family.

The 31st Trick-or-Treater by Ben Farthing was intended to be read as a Halloween advent, one chapter a day - passing as if in real time, and, as such, it was very effective.

Herculine by Grace Byron is a funny, sad, horrific story about friends, family, and being sacrificed to or otherwise ripped apart by demons.

And bonus points for the reference to the dark Americana popularized by shows like Twin Peaks. I don’t even like pie, but, thanks to Dale Cooper, I always want to have pie in diners.

Margaret Culpeper is desperate. She has a rare autoimmune disorder whose symptoms - especially the pain - and the impact they have on her make it hard to keep a job or relationships; even her family doesn’t understand, and she’s struggling to stay afloat. So when she gets an opportunity to join a highly experimental study at Graceview Memorial Hospital - which includes a stipend along with complete coverage of all treatment expense - that could cure her, she is quick to accept, in spite of an urgent warning she receives from Isabel, one of the nurses, who urges her to leave.

One of Us by Dan Chaon explores themes of the self, otherness, found family, and what it means to live and die in the trappings of a thrilling adventure novel.

The novella and the short stories all seem to have a nod to folklore or urban legends but (mostly) from a slightly different angle than I’ve seen before, and overall some were more my taste than others.

Why did I do this to myself?! Or, more to the point, Gemma Amor, why did you do this to me?! I guess the new way Gemma Amor fans will recognize each other is by the squirming and scratching. I only made it about half a dozen chapters into ITCH! before the creepy-crawlies commenced, and I haven’t stopped itching since. 

There are moments where I felt my stomach drop as I realized what was happening to someone, moments where I felt my stomach tighten in grief as the women lost loved ones, and moments where I felt my stomach heave at the descriptions bordering on body horror of how the ghost/demon manifested.

Perfect Happiness by Jeong You-Jeong is dark, tense, sad - and I could not stop reading it. Twelve hours later, and I still have a knot in my stomach thinking about Yuma Shin. 

It’s not as lyrical, but Perfect Happiness could have been called, “It’s Yuma’s World, and We’re All Living In It”.