Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Exposed Nerves by Lucy A. Snyder Review

Today Alex recommends EXPOSED NERVES poetry by Lucy A. Snyder. We hope you'll check it out! 




Exposed Nerves poetry by Lucy A. Snyder

"Exposed Nerves continues the explorations into dark poetry by Stoker Award winner and Shirley Jackson Award nominee Lucy A. Snyder, pairing the author's sly wordplay and imagery with grim introspection. By turns challenging, wryly amusing and gut-wrenching, Snyder's work plumbs bittersweet catharsis and maps a survivor's path through dangerous worlds, both the real and the horrifically imagined."

Amazon | Goodreads  Bookshop


Alex's Review

Lucy Snyder's collection of poems, EXPOSED NERVES, is another example upon many of how talented she is with wordsmithing and phrasing. This collection is full of biting examples on social commentary and the daily horrors we face. Something doesn't have to be dripping with blood or chasing you with a knife to be scary. We face terror every day in seemingly mundane ways. Snyder's social commentary and raw approach to a lot of topics and themes will resonate with so many in this collection.

Some of my favorites include: "Scary," "Employee Recognition Day," "Salty," "It Only Hurts When I Dream," "October," "Chronic," "Romantic Overture 6," and "The Disney Gap."




Thank you for joining us today! Please share your thoughts in the comments about Exposed Nerves and/or any recent reads you've been enjoying.

We are currently accepting horror fiction and horror adjacent fiction written by diverse authors in print and epub format ONLY. If this is you, please visit our review submission page here.




Alex is a Horror Spotlight contributing reviewer. You can find Alex on Goodreads, on Twitter as @finding_montauk and on Instagram as @findingmontauk1.


Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Spotlight on New Releases: November 29

 Welcome to Spotlight on New Releases where we shine a spotlight on a few recent horror releases!

Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are by Kathryn Foxfield

Welcome to the reality game show that'll scare you to death! Have you got what it takes to last the night?

On the reality show It's Behind You!, five contestants competing for prize money must survive the night in the dark and dangerous Umber Gorge caves, rumored to be haunted by the Puckered Maiden, a ghost who eats the hearts of her victims. But is it the malevolent spirit they should fear, or each other?

As the production crew ramps up the frights, tensions rise and the secrets of the cast member start coming to light. Each of these teenagers has hidden motives for taking part in the show. But could one of them be murder?

Expected publication: November 29th 2022 by Sourcebooks Fire | Goodreads | Amazon


House of Yesterday by Deeba Zargarpur

Taking inspiration from the author's own Afghan-Uzbek heritage, this contemporary YA debut is a breathtaking journey into the grief that lingers through generations of immigrant families, and what it means to confront the ghosts of your past.

Struggling to deal with the pain of her parents’ impending divorce, fifteen-year-old Sara is facing a world of unknowns and uncertainties. Unfortunately, the one person she could always lean on when things got hard, her beloved Bibi Jan, has become a mere echo of the grandmother she once was. And so Sara retreats into the family business, hoping a summer working on her mom’s latest home renovation project will provide a distraction from her fracturing world.

But the house holds more than plaster and stone. It holds secrets that have her clinging desperately to the memories of her old life. Secrets that only her Bibi Jan could have untangled. Secrets Sara is powerless to ignore as the dark truths of her family’s history rise in ghostly apparitions -- and with it, the realization that as much as she wants to hold onto her old life, nothing will ever be the same.

Told in lush, sweeping prose, this story of secrets, summer, and family sacrifice will chill you to the bone as the house that wraps Sara in warmth of her past becomes the one thing she cannot escape…

Expected publication: November 29th 2022 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) | Goodreads | Amazon



Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister

In a world that has become treacherous and desiccated, Magdala has always had to fight to survive. At nine years old, she and her father, Xavier, are exiled from their home, fleeing through the Sonoran Desert, searching for refuge.

As violence pursues them, they join a handful of survivors on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Las Vegas, where it is said the vigilante saints reside, bright with neon power. Magdala, born with a clubfoot, is going to be healed. But when faced with the strange horrors of the desert, one by one the pilgrims fall victim to a hideous sickness—leaving Magdala to fend for herself.

After surviving for seven years on her own, Magdala is sick of waiting for her miracle. Recruiting an exiled Vegas priest named Elam at gunpoint to serve as her guide, Magdala turns her gaze to Vegas once more, and this time, nothing will stop her. The pair form a fragile alliance as they navigate the darkest and strangest reaches of the desert on a trip that takes her further from salvation even as she nears the holy city.

With ferocious imagination and poetic precision, Desert Creatures is a story of endurance at the expense of redemption. What compromise does survival require of a woman, and can she ever unlearn the instincts that have kept her alive?

Published November 8th 2022 by Erewhon | Goodreads | Amazon



Jen is one of our Horror Spotlight admins. Jen manages the technical side of the Horror Spotlight website. She also keeps a spotlight on new diverse horror releases, middle grade horror, and young adult horror each month.

You can also find Jen on her blog Book Den, Twitter as @bookden, Instagram as @bookdenjen, on Goodreads, and Letterboxd.

Friday, November 25, 2022

December 2022 Horror Spotlight Readalong

In December we will be reading The Family Game by Catherine Steadman for the readalong on the Horror Spotlight discord.  Won’t you join us?


A rich, eccentric family. A time-honored tradition. Or a lethal game of survival? One woman finds out what it really takes to join the 1% in this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Something in the Water, Mr. Nobody, and The Disappearing Act.

Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward's eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they've dominated headlines and pulled society's strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . .

After all, even though he's long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession which sets the inevitable game in motion.

What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks' savage Christmas traditions all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.

Goodreads | Amazon

The readalong begins December 1, and discussions will take place throughout the month of December on the Horror Spotlight discord server. Everyone is welcome to join!


Additional Buddy Read

There will also be a buddy read of The Turnout by Megan Abbot going on in December as well.

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott's exquisite new novel, "dark and juicy and tinged with horror" (The New York Times Books Review), set against the hothouse of a family-run ballet studio.

With their long necks, sheer tights, and taut buns, Dara and Marie Durant have only known the course of a well-bred dancer. Not much changes when their parents face death in a tragic accident. As Dara and Marie take over their mother's duty of running the Durant School of Dance, along with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student, the sisters perfect a fine dance, circling around one another, six days a week, keeping the studio thriving.

But when another eerily suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of The Nutcracker--a season of tense competition, provoked anxiety, and wild exhilaration--an interloper arrives and threatens the sisters' delicate balance.

With its uncanny insight and writing that haunts, The Turnout is Megan Abbott at the height of her game--a sharp and strange dissection of family ties and sexuality, femininity, and power, and a sinister tale that is both alarming and irresistible.

Goodreads | Amazon

If you have any questions, please let us know. We look forward to reading with you! 


Teresa creates the Shelf Edition posts and is a contributing reviewer at Horror Spotlight. You can find Teresa on Goodreads, on Twitter and at Divination Hollow.

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Blood & Dirt by Corey Niles Review

Today Teresa is here to recommend BLOOD & DIRT by Corey Niles.



Blood & Dirt by Corey Niles

Vincent depended on his boyfriend, James, to stand up for him—until a violent hate crime results in James’s murder.

Weeks after his funeral, James reappears, perfectly healthy but changed in ways that neither of them can quite understand. Now, Vincent must uncover what truly happened on the night they were attacked.

In the face of an apathetic police force and a growing number of missing gay men, Vincent and James work to identify the criminals who attacked them.



Teresa's Review


Blood & Dirt starts with a hate crime.  And the pages that follow are blood soaked and pain filled. But, the story takes turns that I was not expecting and I enjoyed the ride.  Much of this book deals more with Vincent coming to terms with the loss of James, the confusion when James comes back, and the fallout of realizing that being yourself still isn’t always safe or accepted.

This is another of those books that I don’t want to give too much away since following the trail along with Vincent is what makes this read so appealing, so I am not going to say much more. However, Blood & Dirt does deal with the terror of being a marginalized person in a world still brimming with hate for “the other” and that can be a brutal awakening.   




Thank you for joining us today! Please share your thoughts in the comments about Blood & Dirt and/or any recent reads you've been enjoying.

We are currently accepting horror fiction and horror adjacent fiction written by diverse authors in print and epub format ONLY. If this is you, please visit our review submission page here.




Teresa is a contributing reviewer and runs our Shelf Edition feature each month. You can find Teresa on Goodreads, on Twitter as @teresa_ardrey, when she's not hiding in a corn maze.


Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Spotlight on New Releases: November 22

Welcome to Spotlight on New Releases where we shine a spotlight on a few recent horror releases!

Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm, Saskia Vogel (Translator)

Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm, Saskia Vogel (Translator)

Powerfully inventive and atmospheric, a modern gothic story of nine young women sent to work at a remote Alpine hotel and what happens when one of them goes missing

With toiletries, hairbands, and notebooks in her bag, and at her mother's instruction, nineteen-year-old Rafa leaves her parents' home and the seaside town she grew up in. Out the train window, she sees the lit-up mountains and perfect trees--and the Olympic Hotel waiting for her perched above the small village of Strega. There, she and eight other young women receive the stiff black uniforms of seasonal workers and move into their shared dorm. But while they toil constantly to perform their role and prepare the hotel for guests, none arrive. Instead, they contort themselves daily to the expectations of their strict, matronly bosses without clear purpose and, in their spare moments, escape to the herb garden, confide in each other, and quickly find solace together. Finally, the hotel is filled with people for a wild and raucous party, only for one of the women to disappear. What follows are deeper revelations about the myths we teach young women, what we raise them to expect from the world, and whether a gentler, more beautiful life is possible.

Published November 15th 2022 by Riverhead Books | Goodreads | Amazon


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60018645-a-sliver-of-darkness by C.J. Tudor

A Sliver of Darkness by C.J. Tudor

The debut short story collection from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man, featuring ten bone-chilling and mind-bending tales

Timeslips. Doomsday scenarios. Killer butterflies. C. J. Tudor's novels are widely acclaimed for their dark, twisty suspense plots, but with A Sliver of Darkness, she pulls us even further into her dizzying imagination.

In Final Course, the world has descended into darkness, but a group of old friends make time for one last dinner party. In Runaway Blues, thwarted love, revenge, and something very nasty stowed in a hat box converge. In Gloria, a strange girl at a service station endears herself to a cold-hearted killer, but can a leopard really change its spots? And in I'm Not Ted, a case of mistaken identity has unforeseen, fatal consequences.

Riveting and explosively original, A Sliver of Darkness is C. J. Tudor at her most wicked and uninhibited.

Published November 8th 2022 by Ballantine Books | Goodreads | Amazon


The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber Logan

The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber Logan

Cracked doesn’t always mean broken.

Grieving her mother’s death, Mari Lennox travels to Kyoto, Japan to take photographs of Yanagi Inn for a client. As she explores the inn and its grounds, her camera captures striking images, uncovering layers of mystery shrouding the old resort—including an overgrown, secret garden on a forbidden island. But then eerie weeping no one else in the inn seems to hear starts keeping her awake at night.

Despite the warnings of the staff, Mari searches the deep recesses of the old building to discover the source of the ghostly sound, only to realize that her own family’s history is tied to the inn, its mysterious, forlorn garden . . . and the secrets it holds.

Published November 15th 2022 by CamCat Books | Goodreads | Amazon



Jen is one of our Horror Spotlight admins. Jen manages the technical side of the Horror Spotlight website. She also keeps a spotlight on new diverse horror releases, middle grade horror, and young adult horror each month.

You can also find Jen on her blog Book Den, Twitter as @bookden, Instagram as @bookdenjen, on Goodreads, and Letterboxd.

Monday, November 21, 2022

Shelf Edition: Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi

Shelf Edition: Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi

Note: I just want to point out about my photos that I have a lot of books in storage currently and stacked around unorganized because we are moving things around. I didn’t have time to take the most excellent photos on a bookshelf, but I still wanted to get this interview done so it was easy to use the stacks in front of me! If I inadvertently left anyone out in photos or answers below, it was not intentional. There are many more books I could list or photo!


Do you have any recent favorite Horror Spotlight books?

This year in July I really enjoyed The Hacienda by Isabel Canas. It will be my favorite or one of top favorites of the year! It was all gothic goodness with its haunting plot ripe with suspense, forbidden romance, the supernatural, and had a wonderful historical element as its set in the time directly after Mexico’s War of Independence. It also legitimately scared me!

So far in 2022 I’ve read only women (as far as pleasure reads, I do have male editing clients, so I’ve read their work in some way, too), which is cool. I enjoy a lot of genres, so I have read a good bit of adjacent horror books, or those that cross genres. One of those recently read is the dark thriller You’re Invited by Sri Lankan author Amanda Jayatissa, which crosses into the horror and mystery realm as far as its sinister obsession themes.

I also really enjoyed What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, which is a re-telling of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” I like gothic reads, as you can see – probably a top reading choice for me in horror, and though What Moves the Dead rides the expected gothic line, The Ruins by Phoebe Wynne was an excellent, what I will call, modern gothic. The trend of modern gothic is new enough it’s feeling its feet in construct I think with editors and authors and redefining things, taking risks. There are growing pains because the gothic has always been so succinctly definable, but evolution is necessary. If anyone decides to read The Ruins, they should understand there are triggers because it deals with child abuse and is very emotional, but it’s a good study into the horror that is family, so again it’s gothic, domestic horror. And I have her first novel, Madam, on my shelf, so I need to go back and read that one now (I had checked out The Ruins from the library).

I also read The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which was a unique take on Island of Doctor Moreau and is one of those cross genres since it encompasses horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. It was a lovely book full of horror, you know? Because it found the beauty in what most common humans would consider grotesque.

I also recently read Boneset and Feathers, by Gwendolyn Kiste and from Broken Eye Books, which had been on my TBR forever. I wanted to get it read before I started her next one. As always, she writes with lush, poetic, and lyrical prose and you can get lost in her words very easily. It was also a wonderful story of women’s empowerment and I love those witch-based tales!




Which Horror Spotlight books do you currently have on your TBR?

I’m currently finishing reading The Crow Witch by author Catherine Cavendish, which is a collection of her stories (and her first collection after publishing many books!) published by Weird House Press. I’ve been reading Cat’s work for many years, and even had the pleasure of acquiring and editing one in the past for an anthology. She is a gothic go-to for me.

I’m also reading Lute by Jennifer Thorne from Tor Nightfire, which is a folklore/cult novel and I’m enjoying it, and Unnatural Creatures from Kris Waldherr, which is ‘a novel of the Frankenstein women.’ Kris has been a favorite author of mine for many years— though she’s been identifying as being in the historical fiction genre, she’s had some of her work include supernatural elements, and even in this book, she is inspired by one of the most classic and well-loved horror authors and books in the world. So, with this new publication, she is dipping her toe over to the horror genre to say hello.
Upcoming reads for me are Nightmare Sky: stories of astronomical horror anthology created and edited by Red Lagoe, full of stories inspired by the skies and stars and a whole cast of authors I love or are new to me, which is good, as I love to find new authors to read. She did a good job offering a diverse line-up in the anthology. I also love that I can read short stories a bit at a time in a week while continuing to read longer form as well. I’m also currently ready to start Penobscot Nation author Morgan Talty’s new collection from Tin House, called Night of the Living Rez – it’s not typical horror, but it does have supernatural stuff like old curses and some domestic horror. I’m in a new online Insta Gothic book club and we’re going to read A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers which is a gothic mystery that seems fun!

Also, on my short list is horror book This is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau and from DarkLit Press, The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean and from Tor (which is dark horror and fantasy), Hell Hath No Sorrow Like a Woman Haunted by R.J. Joseph and from Seventh Terrace (horror collection), and Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura, and translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel, which is magical realism and fantasy, but to me it’s horror with a fairytale vibe as it includes an evil wolf queen that will eat a child that enters the castle if they don’t leave each day by a certain time. It has been published several times but a new hardcover from Erewhon Press just came out and it’s lovely. Also, A Manual for How to Love Us by Erin Slaughter (she sent me an advanced copy; it comes out in 2023).

I have Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste from Gallery/Saga Press on my list and so many other books (and this list is just diverse horror and adjacent)! I’d also like to finally read my copies of The Fervor by Alma Katsu and The Retreat by Sarah Pearse, as well as purchase, borrow, or receive review copies for House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson, Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison, No Gods for Drowning by Hailey Piper, and Below by Laurel Hightower, The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne.

I tend to be a go with what I’m feeling I’m needing emotionally when choosing what to read so I don’t keep to a strict outline or genre.



Where do you find recommendations? Are there any Horror Spotlight books that have been recommended to you that you loved?

I usually find book recs on Twitter or Instagram from reviewers or authors or from a few horror book groups on Facebook, though I do feel the latter groups are barely, if ever, recommending diverse work. And to make matters worse, sometimes produce posts hating on certain successful Indigenous or Latina horror authors. I’ve thought about making one over there for diverse works

Book Page is a huge resource for me, and I always get a free copy at my library and peruse it, plus look at their stuff online. Also, newsletters and website and blog links of your Horror Spotlight, Tor, Tor Nightfire, Book Riot, Booklist, NPR, Library Journal, my emails from my Cuyahoga Valley Public Library, and its various libraries, as well as various Cleveland area CleveNet consortium libraries. Looking at what’s new on NetGalley (on their site direct or their emails) also shows me what’s new. All do a good job of showing books by women and diverse authors. I enjoy author and publisher newsletters and blogs as well and when they highlight books of others they’ve read or recommend.

Also, book recommendations come to me in the form of when an author or publisher asks me to check out a book for review consideration. Sometimes I’ve already heard about it and am excited but other times it’s an introduction to a book that might not have crossed my radar yet, so I always welcome review request emails and receive quite a few books for review.

Where do you prefer to shop for books?

Gosh, I am buying books anywhere and everywhere. I am a huge book thrifter and hunter and often scour shelves at library sales, thrift stores and charity shops, and when exchanging with Little Free Libraries. The thrill I get when I find something different or exciting is unmatched. This early November we went to a huge Friends of the Library book sale so big it’s in a barn!

I also like to shop at indie bookstores both those in my Cleveland area, like Mac’s Backs on Coventry or Loganberry or Visible Voices, or Fireside Bookshop in Chagrin Falls, or if we travel down the other way towards Columbus, The Book Loft, which has 30+ rooms of books (!!), as well as on any road trips or travels. It’s amazing how many unique and fun ones are out there! When my son was going to college in downtown Washington DC, I hit up all the bookstores on our trips there – there are so many bookstores and open so late. Now, my daughter has gone off to college in Maine, and so, I’m making a list of bookstores to visit there in the future or along the way. I love they are so unique and homey and make book lovers feel special.

Of course, I still love browsing bigger Barnes and Nobles, but I don’t buy stacks of books from there, only a few from time to time because of my budget these days, but do love to roam around. Half Price Books is somewhere else I go to get books or good deals. I also shop various online stores as well like BookShop.org since it gives back to indie bookstores too, but also, I admit, I will buy some on Amazon due to price occasionally, especially YA paperbacks for my daughters that are not ones they’d keep forever. I also have bought e-book and print both direct from author or publisher, so I guess I do an array of it all.

However, the best place I bring home most of my reads from are my surrounding libraries. I visit libraries all over the upper part of Ohio. I like to walk among the books, see their unique displays and books, their art exhibits and historical architecture and reading rooms. I work in them a lot, too. There is something about editing and doing PR work in publishing that feels nice surrounded by books, and often, they are so quiet and inviting allowing me inspiration to work when work from home gets boring. I always bring books home. And when my whole family goes, we are at checkout for like one hundred hours – I’m kidding. But really, we are a family of readers on a limited budget, so libraries are life blood to us. And I really do think all our time spent in libraries over the years has allowed my first two out of three kids to do so well with college work and be lifelong readers and travelers in body, mind, and spirit.  


Are there any upcoming Horror Spotlight releases you're excited about?

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder, The House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher, Pinata by Leopoldo Gout, Out of Atzlan and The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro, The Shoemaker’s Magician by Cina Pelayo, Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett, Chrysalis by Anuja Varghese (maybe adjacent fantasy but with mythological beasts!), and anything by Stephen Graham Jones also always gets me happy though I still need to read My Heart is Chainsaw so I can’t be pining for his 2023 sequel just yet. I could list tons and tons of more books!

In regards to your own work, tell our readers a little bit about what’s new and/or coming up for you.

In my personal writing, it’s been a year full of publishing work and barely any writing for me. I did write a short story at the end of 2021, which released in an anthology from Brigid’s Gate Press this past 2022 Spring called Musings of the Muse. I also wrote a familial horror poem this year that will be an anthology that’s yet to be announced so I am not sure when it’s publishing.

I hope that in 2023 I can figure out what to do for myself for a better balance so I can put out more of my own work. I have two poetry collections almost done – the writing is pretty much finished, but I write in pencil and paper sometimes, so I need to type many of them to my computer and edit and formulate both collections. I will see if I will query or self-publish. I might also be republishing my first dark fiction collection of poetry and short stories, Breathe. Breathe., because it’s now out of print – but yet to decide on self-pub or to query small press since it’s a reprint. In the end, I will have at least three poetry collections I’m working on for publication, a short story collection, and long term, a non-fiction essay collection and I hope to get busy working on my novel again.

Focusing on last year, and this year, I edited and promoted a wealth of diverse works and that makes me so happy. I have several male editing clients, but I’m happy to say that I have worked with so many women of various backgrounds at all levels of their writing career that probably the ratio was 85% women to men. I have worked with many writers of diversity of all angles, and I can’t begin to tell you how rewarding that is – most are talented, creative, and most of all, willing to learn and grow and collaborate. They are alive with passion. As well this year, I have been able to watch astounding books come out from Bizarro Pulp Press/Journalstone that I edited last year such as House of Pungsu by K.P. Kulski, who is an author everyone should have on their shelves and mark to watch for more from, a body horror called Consume by Kourtnea Hogan, and the strangest book I think I might have ever read called The Taxidermied Man by Indigenous author Jacy Morris. If you like bizarre, this is definitely bizarre but also widely fun.

This year also saw publication of The Coven of Retribution by author Stephanie Evelyn, the second book in the Sophia Rey series, which I enjoyed editing because the lead is such a wonderful strong female who’s fighting back for herself and family against a cult. In that vein of strong female leads tracking down a case of a cult, I had the pleasure of hearing that Kristin Dearborn’s Faith of Dawn, which I edited just before we rang in 2022, was picked up for publish by Cemetery Dance as well as their nabbing of Hollow Girls by Jessica Drake-Thomas, which I also edited, and features a strong feminist and retribution plot like the others. These last two will be coming out in 2024. I am sensing a theme and I love it. There are many more I edited, and many I edited this year - or am now - I can’t speak about yet.

I also do book PR, both as freelance for individual authors such as EV Knight, who is such an empowering woman author and I had such a meaningful year promoting her Three Days in the Pink Tower novella, as well as for various publishers. I also do PR work for Raw Dog Screaming Press, as their PR person for their authors. It’s been great to work with Jennifer Barnes, managing editor and co-owner, and so many women and authors of diversity through them, who are really blazing the trail and lighting things on fire like Cina Pelayo, Lucy A. Snyder, Donna Lynch, Christina Sng, Eugen Bacon, and more. I don’t review or add them to reading lists since I work to help promote their books, as ethically I don’t want it read as advertising, but truly, they are putting out some stellar work and are amazing writers and poets. I hope to continue to work with them or support them or collaborate with them, and women like them, in the future as well.

As you can see, people I work with and for, I think of their success as my success. I am there to help them cope with the long and sometimes painful processes that come with publishing, cheer them on to goal lines, and be there for their successes or an ear for their down times. I want to make a difference with what I do, and I hope that shows. If I can help authors of diversity in whatever form that takes, I am so thrilled to do and honored to do my part to raise them above the fold.




Where can people find you on social media and/or find your work?

You can find a lot out at my website Oh, for the Hook of a Book!, my author page on Amazon or GoodReads, and on social media platforms of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or with search under my first and last name. I also have started a strictly about books Insta and that is Hook_of_a_Book_Reads.

Thanks so much for having me and picking my brain! I appreciate all everyone on the Horror Spotlight team does to promote women, diverse, and marginalized authors!



Bio


Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi is an author, poet, editor, journalist, advocate, PR and marketing professional, and advocate for human rights with over twenty-five years of experience in her fields in various arenas. She’s also been putting pen to paper for over thirty years as a writer. She received Bachelor of Arts degrees in English, Journalism, and History all, and has since, continuously raised children and worked while fighting multiple autoimmune disorders.

Breathe. Breathe. was her debut collection of dark poetry and short stories that was published in 2017, but is currently out of print, and had themes of horror, domestic violence, terror, and other heavy content that was partially her way of healing from trauma through writing. She also has numerous pieces of poetry and short stories featured in many anthologies, online magazines, and was co-editor of a Gothic anthology.

For over ten years she has run her Hook of a Book business doing editing and PR for authors and publishers and still has her Oh, for the Hook of a Book! blog/website where she sometimes houses various reviews, interviews, and feature articles.

Born in England, she mothers three busy teens/young adults and six spoiled rescue cats in a forest near the Cleveland area. She enjoys Lake Erie, treasure hunting whether for books or beach glass, nature trails, and travel among other things. Find Erin at her website Oh, for the Hook of a Book!, Amazon, GoodReads, or several of the main social media sites.



If you would like to be featured on a future Shelf Edition please leave a note in the comments. We'd love to see your shelves!



Teresa creates the Shelf Edition posts and is a contributing reviewer at Horror Spotlight. You can find Teresa on Goodreads, on Twitter and at Divination Hollow.




Friday, November 18, 2022

Man-Beast by Deborah Sheldon Review

Like cryptids?! Do we have a book for you! Alex and Laurie review MAN-BEAST by Deborah Sheldon. 


Man-Beast by Deborah Sheldon

Taylor’s Travelling Troupe of boxers has set up its tent at an isolated sheep station: bored farmers always bet to excess. Headlining the bare-knuckle fighters is Bluey, marketed as ‘The Man-Beast’, a Sasquatch-like monster, chained and kept drunk enough to fight punters without killing them. But the troupe has returned to where Bluey was first captured. Recognising the mountains, he calls again and again. And when his call is answered, all hell breaks loose.



Alex's Review


MAN-BEAST by Deborah Sheldon takes a different approach to the "sasquatch/bigfoot" tropes in that it's not some psychotic creature in the middle of nowhere picking off humans one by one. In this novella, a traveling club of fighters kidnap and control a beast and keep it so drunk that it can't really ever kill but can still fight. And humans are going to be humans... and make a profit wherever they can. Humans really are the worst. And in a lot of cases they are the real monsters. All hell breaks loose. The story goes wild in the best way. There are some great scenes, true friendships, and devastating betrayals. I don't know a single cryptid fan who will not devour this novella and then run off and tell all their friends.


Laurie's Review


A traveling fight club decides to kidnap a beast, keep him drunk enough so he can't kill anyone and force him to fight so they can profit. What a bunch of dicks, omg. Anyhow, some humans get eaten and let me tell ya they almost all deserved it!

There's adventure, action, and even a few tender moments. If you like stomp and chomps I think you're going to love this wild novella.




Thank you for joining us today! Please share your thoughts in the comments about Man-Beast and/or any recent reads you've been enjoying.

We are currently accepting horror fiction and horror adjacent fiction written by diverse authors in print and epub format ONLY. If this is you, please visit our review submission page here.





Alex is a Horror Spotlight contributing reviewer. You can find Alex on Goodreads, on Twitter as @finding_montauk and on Instagram as @findingmontauk1.




Laurie is one of our Horror Spotlight Admins. Laurie creates our review posts and coordinates review requests.

You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads.



Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Death in the Mouth: Original Horror by People of Color Review

  Today Heather recommends Death In The Mouth: Original Horror by People of Color. 


Death in the Mouth: Original Horror by People of Color edited by Sloane Leong & Cassie Hart

"What is horror to those living in the margins?

Where terror is systematized and in the very air everyone happily breathes?

A misheard word.

The thud of boots.

An impossible color.

A foreign growth.

Death in the Mouth is a collection of horror stories and art showcasing BIPOC and ethnically marginalized storytellers from around the world. You’ll read stories featuring grotesque manifestations of dread, the enveloping sludge of grief, and the insectoid itch of deep-seated fear. Embodiments of mania and displacements of faith. Harrowing ecstasy and debilitating hope. Transgressions of the body, the spirit, and the community. Unique and terrifying alien mythology from the future. Quiet, creeping absurdities. Weird urban legends from secondary worlds.

In this anthology, Sloane Leong and Cassie Hart bring you an incredible range of stories and illustrations that celebrate the voices of those overlooked to show you the terrifying and exquisite scope of what horror can be.

Heather's Review


Can horror be beautiful?

I guess horror can be anything we want. I guess horror looks different when some of us come from backgrounds where we can be outcast due to the color of our skin. Or maybe horror looks the same because it's a binding agent and it can hold us all together.

This horror story is beautiful. The artwork was spectacular and I spent so much of my time looking at art for clues of what was to come, maybe a hint of the stories ending was waiting to be found. I'm not good at art so that never happened, but I did enjoy the work.

The stories were so well written and had so many different things to offer. There was body horror, sad horror, and everything in between.

It's one of those where you need to pick it up and find the story that pulls on your soul the most.




Thank you for joining us today! Please share your thoughts in the comments about Creatures of Passage and/or any recent reads you've been enjoying.

We are currently accepting horror fiction and horror adjacent fiction written by diverse authors in print and epub format ONLY. If this is you, please visit our review submission page here.





Heather is a contributing reviewer and will be helping out with various projects. Find her online at Goodreads, Twitter as @HSquared_13, and on Instagram as @h.hellion.


Friday, November 11, 2022

Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide Review

 Today Teresa recommends CREATURES OF PASSAGE. Let us know if you've read it!



Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejide 

"Nephthys Kinwell is a taxi driver of sorts in Washington, DC, ferrying ill-fated passengers in a haunted car: a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River.

Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, ten-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash--reeling from having witnessed an act of molestation at his school, but still questioning what and who he saw--has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the "River Man," who somehow appears each time he goes there.

When Dash arrives unexpectedly at Nephthys's door one day bearing a cryptic note about his unusual conversations with the River Man, Nephthys must face both the family she abandoned and what frightens her most when she looks in the mirror.

Creatures of Passage beautifully threads together the stories of Nephthys, Dash, and others both living and dead. Morowa Yejidé's deeply captivating novel shows us an unseen Washington filled with otherworldly landscapes, flawed super-humans, and reluctant ghosts, and brings together a community intent on saving one young boy in order to reclaim themselves.

 Goodreads  |  Bookshop 


Teresa's Review


I read Creatures of Passage for the Horror Spotlight readalong in October 2022. It had been on my list for awhile, ever since watching an author panel (virtual) where Zin E. Rocklyn recommended it, stating that it was some of the best prose they had read. What was the panel?  No idea. When was it?  Don’t remember that, either. I could easily be misremembering who recommended it, but I don’t think so. I am pretty sure I was fresh off of reading Flowers for the Sea and it was a panel for that, with other creators, but don’t quote me on any of this. Time still has no meaning. ANYWAY.

I picked up Creatures of Passage several months ago, when it came into paperback, based on this recommendation that I may or may not be remembering correctly. I was excited to be able to read it as part of the readalong. Because, like so many other books that accumulate on my shelves, sometimes I need the motivation to start it. Not that I don’t want to read it, but there is always something else that I want to read, or something else that “has” to be read for book clubs, etc.

I am babbling mostly because I am still trying to put my feelings for this book into words. I am fond of talking about narratives that make me want to snuggle into the prose, to live in these words. This is one of those books. The subject matter is tough in some places, no doubt, but the way it is written is lush and tender and glorious and gorgeous.  The best I can come up as analysis is that it blends Egyptian myths with a Supernatural, semi-alternate reality in 1977 Washington DC to force us to discover how we, as humans, gloss over reality to cope. There is a section on how children of the Ghetto learn how to take in trauma in bits and pieces to process it in the only way they know how to process things because they do not have the tools to fully process the events at one time.  I would quote it here, but I think it needs to be experienced with the rest of the book.  But, this is how the whole narrative is presented; in bits and pieces that are easier to digest instead of trauma as a whole. We are allowed to come to it from the side, not forced to see it straight on. On the surface, it seems like too much of the trauma is being glossed over, but I think it actually forces us to recognize how we are prone to doing it in our own lives. But also, we are shown how lives intersect, sometimes without our knowledge. How one decision on our part, or someone else’s, has a ripple effect within our communities. Be it communities of our own making or communities forced through proximity and history. And there is hope here in these pages.

I already feel like I have said too much; I never really seem to know what are spoilers and what aren’t.  This book will most likely challenge you, for its content, but also for its prose and structure.  It challenged me. But it is a challenge I would accept again because it is lyrical and beautiful and unlike anything I have read in awhile.    




Thank you for joining us today! Please share your thoughts in the comments about Creatures of Passage and/or any recent reads you've been enjoying.

We are currently accepting horror fiction and horror adjacent fiction written by diverse authors in print and epub format ONLY. If this is you, please visit our review submission page here.




Teresa is a contributing reviewer and runs our Shelf Edition feature each month. You can find Teresa on Goodreads, on Twitter as @teresa_ardrey, when she's not hiding in a corn maze.


Wednesday, November 9, 2022

The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco Reviews

Heather and Laurie review Rin Chupeco's newest release THE SACRIFICE. Check it out!

 

The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco

An island oasis turns deadly when a terrifying legend threatens to kill off visitors one by one in this haunting novel from the highly acclaimed author of The Girl from the Well and the Bone Witch trilogy.

Pristine beaches, lush greenery, and perfect weather, the island of Kisapmata would be the vacation destination...if not for the curse. The Philippine locals speak of it in hushed voices and refuse to step foot on the island. They know the lives it has claimed. They won't be next.

A Hollywood film crew won't be dissuaded. Legend claims a Dreamer god sleeps, waiting to grant unimaginable powers in exchange for eight sacrifices. The producers are determined to document the evidence. And they convince Alon, a local teen, to be their guide.

Within minutes of their arrival, a giant sinkhole appears, revealing a giant balete tree with a mummified corpse entwined in its gnarled branches. And the crew start seeing strange visions. Alon knows they are falling victim to the island's curse. If Alon can't convince them to leave, there is no telling who will survive. Or how much the Dreamer god will destroy...

Creepy and suspenseful, The Sacrifice is perfect for readers looking for:

* Spooky, scary books for young adults

* Horror novels

* Ghost story books for teens

* East Asian folklore

Goodreads  |  Bookshop 


Heather's Review


That was an awesome read. I wasn't expecting to read it so quickly but I just couldn't stop reading once I started.

The action kicks in quickly and you a have a mysterious island with creepy ghost, creepy trees, and people who just don't want to listen to the warnings.

The characters were well written and you are rooting for them to survive or to get what they deserve.

The ending! Oh the ending left my heart unsure because I wanted it to end differently.

Definitely check it out and always remember to listen to the locals!



Laurie's Review

  
“It is believed that when people hear the screaming someone is about to die.”

The Sacrifice is a fun read set on a very haunted island with a stoic and intelligent lead character and their loyal and lovely dog Askal who are asked to guide a bunch of dimwitted, stubborn Hollywood types as they film a comeback show for a washed-up and shamed Ghosthunter dude. Well, you might find it “fun” if you enjoy seeing awful dumbasses get what they deserve. I know I did.

Alon, the young guide, grounds this story of horror, sacrifice and murder, always dispensing hard truths and honest advice which is constantly ignored by the disrespectful men who have inhabited the island looking for power and wealth. When a sinkhole opens up and the creepiest tree ever erupts from its bowels, these people should’ve taken the hint and high-tailed it back home but that wouldn’t make a very thrilling book, I guess! Instead, they stick around ignoring all common sense as bad thing after worse thing happens. It’s all quite amusing and very entertaining to witness.

Not all of these people are horrid. There’s a sweet budding romance that occurs naturally and adds to the tension, fear and mounting dread inhabiting the island - instead of taking away from it. I loved the way it was done. It was very subtle, very real. And there’s also Askal. I always appreciate a dog character that is a true character and not one squished into a story for that cheap emotional gut punch so many writers insist on throwing into horror novels.

Filled with creepy imagery, ghostly apparitions, deadly fauna, caves filled with the darkest of secrets, short chapters, tons of action, and even a few moments of humor, this story is near impossible to put down.



Thank you for joining us today! Please share your thoughts in the comments about The Sacrifice and/or any recent reads you've been enjoying.

We are currently accepting horror fiction and horror adjacent fiction written by diverse authors in print and epub format ONLY. If this is you, please visit our review submission page here.





Heather is a contributing reviewer and will be helping out with various projects. Find her online at Goodreads, Twitter as @HSquared_13, and on Instagram as @h.hellion.





Laurie is one of our Horror Spotlight Admins. Laurie creates our review posts and coordinates review requests.

You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads.



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