I haven't been on a rollercoaster since I was diagnosed with sciatica in my early 20s when stabbing pains hit me on The Big Bad Wolf in Busch Gardens Williamsburg, but reading Chuck Tingle's Fabulous Bodies was an equally (well, almost...RIP BBW) thrilling ride.

Marion is a modern reimagining of Psycho - at least the first part up to the point that Norman attacks Marion and the concept of his relationship with his mother - but this time, Marion fights back and keeps fighting back. And it is awesome.

The Children bounces between Guinevere's adult self and her child self - really her two child selves - the self from the "real" world and the one from the pages of the Ninth City books, a series of bestselling children's books her mother wrote in which she and her brother Ennis were the stars.

Hunger by Choi Jin-young is one of the most beautiful and depressing horror novels I’ve read in a while, and “worrying” was a constant emotion, as it is when your existence is all about figuring out how to afford to keep living. 

I’ve had several of Victor Lavalle’s novels on my TBR for a long time, but I wanted when I heard the third season of The Terror was going to be based on The Devil in Silver, I knew it was time to move it to the top of the queue so I could read it before watching the show.

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.