Category: Horror

Folk Horror in Literature

Something ancient has been awakened in the woods…. This premise encapsulates the essence of many folk horror stories. I have briefly touched on folk horror before in my review of the YA folk horror anthology The Gathering Dark, but as this deeply rooted subgenre of horror experiences another wave of popularity, I figured it was time to dive into it more deeply and give you a few recommendations through which to explore the genre.

Scene from The Wicker Man (1973)

In my earlier post, I defined folk horror as “any horror tale that draws on regional folklore,” but this is a bit of a simplification. As with the Gothic, folk horror is difficult to nail down and define. Works in this category tend to deal not just with folklore but also with folk religion, customs, and rituals. In Western literature, this often involves elements of some pre-Christian pagan practice that has persisted in isolated communities despite the pressure to Christianize. Works of folk horror may draw on real life folklore, beliefs, and practices from a particular culture or region, or they may feature a fictional community with lore of the author’s own creation. Common themes and tropes in works of folk horror include a rural setting, a supernatural entity associated with the natural environment, and worship of or sacrifice to this entity. Continue reading Folk Horror in Literature

Review of Piñata—Possession in Mexico

Pinata coverIt’s good to get in touch with your roots, but sometimes those roots don’t want to stay buried… Apocalyptic Aztec gods and the vengeful spirit of a murdered Nahua woman threaten to enact a bloody vengeance for the horrors of colonialism in Piñata by Leopoldo Gout, a Mexican horror novel that came out last month. Continue reading Review of Piñata—Possession in Mexico

Review of Tell Me I’m Worthless

Tell Me I'm Worthless coverToday I want to take a deeper dive into one of the books I read for the Trans Rights Readathon the other week: Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. This debut haunted house story came out in the U.S. earlier this year and showcases how examples of real-world horrors can be transformed and explored with nuance in fiction. Continue reading Review of Tell Me I’m Worthless

Review of Sister, Maiden, Monster—Pandemic Horror

Sister, Maiden, Monster coverAt times during the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like the world was ending. But what would a virus that could end civilization as we know it really look like? Lucy A. Snyder explores pandemic horror on a cosmic scale in Sister, Maiden, Monster, which came out from Tor Nightfire last month.  Continue reading Review of Sister, Maiden, Monster—Pandemic Horror

Review of She Is a Haunting

She Is a Haunting book cover“This house eats and is eaten.” The hunger of a haunted house is encapsulated in this stunning opening line of Trang Thanh Tran’s debut YA horror novel, She Is a Haunting, which comes out tomorrow, February 28. The novel is an innovative take on the haunted house genre, combining the coming-of-age story of a queer teen from an immigrant family with infestational horror that functions to critique colonialism, much like in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic. If either of those themes sound up your alley, you do not want to miss this debut! Continue reading Review of She Is a Haunting

Review of The Weight of Blood—A Modern Homage to Carrie

The Weight of Blood coverIf there’s one piece of advice you need to survive a YA horror novel, it’s this: Stay home on prom night. Stephen King can probably be credited with kicking off the trope of blood-soaked proms in his 1974 debut novel Carrie, which famously ends with a massacre when a gory prom prank drives a bullied teenager to unleash her psychic powers upon her classmates and the surrounding town. In The Weight of Blood, which came out back in November, Tiffany D. Jackson takes the bones of Stephen King’s Carrie and reimagines the story for the twenty-first century, updating its themes for a modern audience.  Continue reading Review of The Weight of Blood—A Modern Homage to Carrie

Review of An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales

An Unholy Thirst coverVampire stories were some of my first reading loves, and I still have a soft spot for them today. Which is why I can never turn down a new anthology of vampire tales—especially when it includes some of my favorite authors! An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales, edited by Cliff Biggers and Charles R. Rutledge, came out back in 2021 and I’ve been sitting on it for a while, waiting for the right moment to sink my teeth in. I’m quite happy it turned out to be my first finished read of 2023, as it makes a great start to my reading year. Continue reading Review of An Unholy Thirst: Fifteen Vampire Tales

Review of The Lost Son—Gothic Audio Drama

A man’s frantic breathing is suddenly interrupted by a low, ominous growl… Before the words of the story even begin, these sounds paint a picture at the beginning of The Lost Son. Sound has a peculiar ability to immerse you in dread and terror in a way that I find harder to accomplish through the other senses. Perhaps that is why we’re seeing such a boom right now of horror stories being produced through audio fiction. These days, I devour audio fiction at a rate about five times faster than any other format. I started reading audiobooks around the same time I launched this blog and then reluctantly branched out into fiction podcasts. But I’ve been delighted over the past couple of years to see a rise in a new kind of audio fiction: the audio drama mini series. Often hosted on podcast platforms, these stories blend the best of both audiobooks and podcasts, with a bit of a throwback to old radio dramas, as well. They are self-contained stories, limited to a small number of episodes, and they revel in the audio format through the use of sound effects, background music, and talented voice actors. I’ve been venturing into this format through the shows produced by Realm, such as Beatrix Greene. And now there’s a new show coming out by a small group of independent creators that seems especially created for my tastes: The Lost Son.  Continue reading Review of The Lost Son—Gothic Audio Drama

Review of What Moves the Dead—More Mushroom Horror

“The dead don’t walk.” Alex Easton repeats this line as a mantra even as all evidence seems to point to the contrary in What Moves the Dead. This latest novel by horror and fantasy writer T. Kingfisher is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story “The Fall of the House of Usher” and came out back in July. This is the first of Kingfisher’s works I have read, despite having had her books and short stories recommended to me for years. She finally lured me in with a Poe retelling, and I’ll definitely be checking out more from this author! Continue reading Review of What Moves the Dead—More Mushroom Horror

Review of Lacrimore—A Monstrous Mansion

Lacrimore cover“It feeds on the horrors we commit….” A malevolent, sentient house serves as the lively setting of Lacrimore, a debut Gothic novella by S. J. Costello. The book came out in 2020 and was a winner of the Independent Publishers Book Awards. Continue reading Review of Lacrimore—A Monstrous Mansion