[Wake Up and Open Your Eyes] perfectly matched my dark Gen-X sense of humor and as a satire of our literal current existence is spot-on. I have never felt a sentence more in recent years than, “Seems like a strange time to be out for some exercise, what with the world ending” because everything every day feels like that.

The initial description I saw of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is that it is a murder mystery - a genre that done well has me speed-reading to get to the solution - but in this case, the characters, their lives, and their relationships to each other were so rich and drew me in so much, I forgot that I was waiting to identify a body (though the payoff was worthy of a Coen brothers film). 

It is rare to find an anthology where every story is better than the one before - and the one after. Somehow, this one does it.

Withered Hill is a folk horror novel that provides an intriguing answer to the question, Can people change? 

The dual timeline is still a relatively interesting approach, and overall the story was well-paced, but at times, it felt bloated, like a student using a thesaurus to pad the word count so they didn’t get marked down on an assignment.

If you can read this without hearing the voices of their television counterparts, I can only assume you’ve never seen the Golden Girls.

It is not every writer than can make me literally hold my breath during a game of 1:1 pick-up basketball, but Jones achieved this is one of the final scenes.

Filled with background on some of the most popular murder ballads, including potential historical inspirations and different versions and accompanied by Horan’s gorgeous folk horror illustrations, Murder Ballads is a must-have for any fan of this song style (or music history or folk horror in general).

The Book of Witching was “stay up until almost 2 am to finish it” good.

Filled with Kingfisher’s trademark humor and horror, Sorceress was another fun listen. The audiobook changed narrators between the primary POVs and made it easy to follow. 

The story of this family from the perspective of the gender-fluid Ezri, who narrated most of it, was heart-felt and not short on horrors of several kinds. 

When listening to the audiobook version, how much weight do you give the text vs, the production? If you’re lucky, they will roughly match, so you don’t have to feel like one is dragging down the overall rating.

Haunt Sweet Home was a quick, fun listen. Imagine if your favorite ghost hunting show hosts encounter an actual ghost - now add a relatable main character and an unexpected explanation.

I was excited to read a mystery set in the Appalachians, but I was a little disappointed with this one because the place and people didn’t seem distinctly Appalachian.

If you’re looking for a theory on the lost colony of Roanoke full of witches and spice which is also well-researched and a fun read, this is the book for you.

The Haunting of Room 904 was an enjoyable listen. Part supernatural investigation, part historical and current experience of indigenous Americans, with plenty of humor and just enough romance.

With settings as far ranging as Alaska to Florida and even to the Old World, main characters with a variety of motivations and morals, and drawing out fear, tears, laughter, and an occasional WTF? the stories in Never Whistle at Night shine a light on indigenous Americans and their folklore, traditions, and lives.

Overall, as a fan of haunted and “sick” houses, it was an enjoyable reminder of the houses I’ve read about and seen in film and was fun to learn a little more about those and others I wasn’t aware of.

This is a book to have hand to turn to for one’s own horror writing inspiration through imagery (Forum & Void), to be reminded that everyone suffers in their day job (Monday Shutdown), or even for a mad kind of hope (Lost Traveler).

In Old Soul, Susan Barker does a masterful job of introducing each piece of the puzzle in the form of “testimonies” from characters spread across the globe and many years, building up to a very satisfying conclusion.