Horror

Blending together Japanese samurai culture, time-travel speculative fiction, tense horror ambiance with mystery thriller intrigue, Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker is as ambitious of a novel as it is graphic and violent. One of the most anticipated horror releases of the year, like her inspirations and goals, this book crossovers between genres, storylines, and realities, telling a compelling and gripping story in just over three hundred pages. Steeped in Japanese folklore and culture but presented in a way that’s accessible, Japanese Gothic is an excellent mystery thriller/horror novel that’s powerfully written and creatively conceptualized. There’s a lot that could be said about Japanese Gothic’s story, but this is one book that’s best experienced on its own with minimal overview given the tension, mysterious intrigue, and unexpected narrative elements benefit from the reader being left in the dark. The book features a split POV and timeline perspective that’s similar to Lee’s presentation, a meeting of the East and West. In 2026, Lee Turner escapes to his father’s house in Japan following the murder of his college roommate that he can’t remember how or why he killed. Racked with anxiety and paranoia, his chapters follow his descent into borderline psychosis as…

What do a legendary cryptid, gods, angels and demons, the Hundred Year’s War, an immortal arcanist and his succubus housekeeper have in common? Ordinarily nothing at all unless it’s Cameron Sullivan’s novel The Red Winter. An ambitious book mixing together fantasy and historical fiction elements across the board heightened with touches of paranormal horror, the Red Winter is as entertaining as it is imaginative with a unique and quirky tongue in cheek tone. Unexpectedly humorous and endearing while describing French countrymen being viscously torn apart, Sullivan’s storytelling is an incredible vibe made all the more impressive as a debut novel. While its far-reaching story, slow pacing, and complex split timeline approach can make it a challenging read for some, this is otherwise a really fun and off-beat historical fantasy book. At its core, the story behind the Red Winter is one of French turmoil that cleverly provides plausible fantasy origins to mysterious historical events. Presented as a written recollection or memoir of the events by the immortal arcanist Sebastian Graves, the book follows Sebastian and his demon possession “guest” Sarmodel returning to impoverished province of Gévaudan after the deadly events around the famed beast nearly twenty years ago. In addition…

A queer M/M take on the classic haunted mansion with a historical forbidden love premise, Ben Alderson’s the Haunting of William Thorn is a paranormal romance book that has a lot of great ideas and concepts. Featuring a gothic and eerie setting, a layered multi-generational mystery, and light horror elements that aren’t overly graphic, with its attractive cast of male characters and pining attraction, by all accounts this book should be an appealing and accessible read. Unfortunately, like its hallmark mansion, despite its good bones and a promising start, the execution leaves a lot to be desired across the board and despite giving it my best effort, I struggled to finish this book only to arrive at an eyebrow-raising ending. Set in a rural small-town village of Stonewall, the story follows William Thorn who has been gifted the decrepit Hanbury Manor by his late boyfriend Archie. Not long after arriving, what was meant to be a weeklong stay of isolation is intruded upon by an overly friendly man named Edward who has his own connection to the Hanbury Manor and its past. The book’s strongest element for me was the intrigue behind the manor’s history and presumed death of Robert…

What if it was just you and me, in an eerie library, with a demon haunting our hopes and dreams, not two but three? More successful than my poor excuse for poetry, the Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino is a YA fantasy book that mixes and matches a variety of inspirations from across various genres. Part dark academia fantasy, part psychological suspense thriller, part paranormal horror, this book blends together its different elements to tell a story about two private academy lone wolves who accidentally unleash a demonic presence while navigating the challenges of their family life. Set at a prestigious private academy, the overall story revolves around the unexpected release of a demon-like entity from the depths of an academy library that Tess and Eliot work and study at respectively. When taken at face value, the Devil Makes Three sounds like it’s going to be about occultic research and evading said devil. While the book certainly follows this expected storyline to a certain extent, the rest of the book revolves around Tess and Eliot’s personal struggles, conflicted home environment, and familial difficulties that had led to their attendance at the school. For Tess, her story is about her…

This review is based on a complimentary Advanced Reader Copy provided by St. Martin’s Press. Love, guilt, judgement, and paranoia, all within the four walls that may or may not be alive and angry, You Did Nothing Wrong is psychological thriller and explores Elodie’s twisted descent into madness. C.G. Drews’s adult novel debut, rather than simply serving as a straightforward haunted house narrative, this book instead is a horror story of an entirely different monster. Compared to Drews’s past books that had a more paranormal and fantasy angle to their stories, You Did Nothing Wrong instead plays off the monsters in our head and the horrifying ways love and devotion can spiral into something dark and unrecognizable. While featuring Drews’s signature macabre metaphors and stylistic prose, this book is very different from past YA books for those that enjoyed their past books. Marketed as a pulse-pounding and clever take on the haunted house novel, I went into this book expecting something along the lines of Drews’s past books that mixed elements of paranormal horror with fantasy flair. As a strong cautionary disclaimer upfront, You Did Nothing Wrong is very different and was not at all what I was expecting. While…