Bark At The Ghouls

"I'm going to carve my name into his soul." Sadie by Courtney Summers Dark Fiction Released September 2018 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.  But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meagre clues to find him. When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late. My Thoughts: Sadie is only...

A theme-park filled with nightmares! The Terror At Turtleshell Mountain by Sean McDonough Horror Fiction Released November 2015 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books Turtleshell Mountain is supposed to be the Most Joyous Place on Earth. That’s what Tess Cameron is counting on when she invites all of her friends there for the weekend. Tess has a secret, a good secret, and she can’t think of any better place to share it with the people she loves most. But Turtleshell Mountain has its own secrets. Something has awakened inside of the park. Something scarier than any ride. It won’t be long before Tess and her friends are the only people left alive in Turtleshell Mountain… And that’s when the nightmare will really begin.  Here's What I Thought: Turtleshell Mountain is a theme park where people go to spend too much money and have the time of their lives. But there is a sinister underbelly beneath the happy façade and it is ready to come ou...

I love Chuckles Book Cave's feature  "Around the Blogs with Chuckles"  so much that I'm going to do one too. There are never enough hours in the day to be a creeper on all the blogs so here's a recap of some great posts and articles you may have missed while you were out living your life. Are you a Creature Feature fan? Check out this list of books from Chuckles that you've got to read HERE BookerT's Farm Created A New Feature for You Bookstagrammers Get your camera and booze ready and check it out here . Char's Horror Corner reviews "The Haunting of Hill House" Netflix Adaptation Have you seen it? Read Char's review here. The Rebecca Readalong at Ladies of Horror Fiction Starts November 1st Are you ready?  Read all about it here. The Nightworms Bookclub Are Curating A Bookbox! Find out more at the Nightworms Website

Hmmm, perhaps I was expecting too much. Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough Dark Fiction Released September 2018 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job, and her best friend Marilyn, but when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him too. Maybe she’s ready now. Maybe she can trust again. Maybe it's time to let her terrifying secret past go. Then her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see. Lisa's world explodes, and she finds everything she has built threatened. Not knowing whom she can trust, it's up to her to face her past to save what she holds dear. My Thoughts: Behind Her Eyes by this same author was a five star read for me (and yep, I LOVED that ending) but this one was not. I’m giving it a three and that makes me sad because I was so looking forward to another amazingly nasty little ...

This is my least favorite Clive Barker book. Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker Horror Fiction Released October 2007 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   Mister B. Gone marks the long-awaited return of Clive Barker, the great master of the macabre, to the classic horror story. This bone-chilling novel, in which a medieval devil speaks directly to the reader, claims to be a never-before-published demonic memoir penned in the year 1438. The sole copy was, so the story goes, created by the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg himself. But this historic piece of writing immediately vanished without a trace. Until now... A demon known as Jakabok has embedded his very self inside each word of this meticulously printed tale of autobiographical terror. The reader is taunted and teased by his pleas for release from the confines of the very ink and paper that provide the vehicle for his life story. Little do they know, the depths of horror the...

Carole @ Carole's Random Life In Books  has created a fun feature called Books from the Backlog to spotlight neglected and unloved books that have been sitting on your bookshelf for too long. If you would like to join in, click the pic above to find out more. My Neglected Book of the Week is  The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale .   I needed this one so desperately that I bought it twice. Once at a library sale and once from a bookswap. I hope I love it but I'm pretty certain I will. The Goodreads Blurbage: The narrator of The Bottoms is Harry Collins, an old man obsessively reflecting on certain key experiences of his childhood. In 1933, the year that forms the centerpiece of the narrative, Harry is 11 years old and living with his mother, father, and younger sister on a farm outside of Marvel Creek, Texas, near the Sabine River bottoms. Harry's world changes forever when he discovers the corpse of a young black woman tied to a tree in the forest ...

Here's another oldie that belongs on your bookshelves! Swan Song by Robert McCammon Horror Fiction First Released 1987 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   Facing down an unprecedented malevolent enemy, the government responds with a nuclear attack. America as it was is gone forever, and now every citizen—from the President of the United States to the homeless on the streets of New York City—will fight for survival. Swan Song is Robert McCammon’s prescient and “shocking” (John Saul) vision of a post-Apocalyptic nation, a grand epic of terror and, ultimately, renewal. In a wasteland born of rage and fear, populated by monstrous creatures and marauding armies, earth’s last survivors have been drawn into the final battle between good and evil, that will decide the fate of humanity: Sister, who discovers a strange and transformative glass artifact in the destroyed Manhattan streets…Joshua Hutchins, the pro wrestler who takes refuge from the nucle...

I read this one awhile ago but there's no better time than now to make the rest of you read it! The Mourning House by Ronald Malfi Horror Fiction Released December 2012 Amazon  |  Goodreads   Devastated by tragedy, Dr. Sam Hatch is a shadow of his former self. He travels the byroads of America, running away from a past he cannot escape. There is no salvation for him. And then he sees the house. Like a siren, it calls to him. Yet the house is not what it appears to be. Is it a blessing, a gift...or a curse? My Thoughts: I often find something to bitch about when reading short stories and novellas because usually something is missing or lacking or characterization gets shafted in exchange for less words. Or, perhaps the worst sin of short stories, the ending is rushed. Don’t you hate that? The Mourning House is an example of how to do the novella the right way. It has a very small cast of characters, doesn’t attempt more than it should, builds wit...

Which female has the strongest survival instinct? Predators by Michaelbrent Collings Horror Fiction Released September 2018 Amazon  |  Goodreads SHE IS ONE OF THE ONLY ANIMALS  WHO CAN CHASE A LION FROM HIS KILL...  Evie Childs hoped the all-expense-paid trip to Africa would give her a chance at adventure. Maybe it would even let her forget a past that haunts her, and find safety from a husband who abuses her.  HER JAWS CAN CRUSH BONE TO POWDER...   But when a group of “freedom fighters” kidnaps her safari tour group, intent on holding them for ransom, the adventure turns to nightmare.  SHE KNOWS NO MERCY, ONLY HUNGER...  Now, Evie and the rest of the survivors must travel across miles of the harshest, most dangerous environment on Earth. No food. No water. No communications.  And they’re being hunted.  SHE IS THE ONLY ANIMAL ALIVE  WHO LAUGHS AS SHE HUNTS...  A pack of Africa’s top predators have s...

I love Chuckles Book Cave's feature "Around the Blogs with Chuckles"  so much that I'm going to do one too. There are never enough hours in the day to be a creeper on all the blogs so here's a recap of some great posts and articles you may have missed while you were out living your life. This was a crappy blog hopping week for me and a crappy week in general but here are a few bright spots that I stumbled across: Fuonlyknew reviews PREDATORS by Michaelbrent Collings It's a nail-biter of a read. Read Laura's review here. Books, Bones, Buffy Shares Some Joyland Covers  Who knew there were so many and that they were so striking? Check 'em out here. Chuckles asks for Gothic, Classic & Historical Horror Recs Go give her some here   Because, like the rest of us, I'm sure she needs to buy more books :) Need some horror recommendations for October? Gingernuts recommends five books that are almost guaranteed to give you the...

Carole @ Carole's Random Life In Books  has created a fun feature called Books from the Backlog to spotlight neglected and unloved books that have been sitting on your bookshelf for too long. If you would like to join in, click the pic above to find out more. My Neglected Book of the Week is  WOMB 8 Tales of Maternal Mayhem by Megan Hart  which has a 3.33 rating on Goodreads. There are only two reviews, however, so that's not saying much. The Goodreads Blurbage: The bond between mother and child is supposed to be sacred, but what happens when it becomes something else? Some mothers will do anything to for their children…even give (or take) their lives. Featuring the stories  Rising Waters  Mother's Milk  Over Hill  The Killing Point  A Cheap Gold Chain  Cockles and Mussels  The Annual Grandchild Reunion  Blood Born  Why did I add this book to my tbr pile? Author M...

This review is spoiler-free (unlike the blurb on goodreads) Rotters by Daniel Kraus, narrated by Kirby Heyborne Horror Fiction Released April 2011 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books   Daniel Kraus's masterful plotting and unforgettable characters make Rotters a moving, terrifying, and unconventional epic about fathers and sons, complex family ties, taboos, and the ever-present specter of mortality. My Thoughts: Do yourself a favor and do not read the synopsis for this book. I deleted all of the spoilers so you are safe here. For some reason, marketing decided to spoil the first part of the book in the very first words of their blurb. I can only guess at why they did it (to hook people in? to lure them with the taboo?) but for me it spoiled much of the mystery surrounding the first few chapters of the book. I would’ve liked to have figured things out myself. I don’t usually whine about spoilers because I forget things easily but this is ...

Creepy cemetery, creepy house, creepy people? It's that wonderful time of year . . . The House by the Cemetery by John Everson Horror Fiction Released October 2018 Amazon  |  Goodreads  | Better World Books  | Flame Tree Press   Rumor has it that the abandoned house by the cemetery is haunted by the ghost of a witch. But rumors won’t stop carpenter Mike Kostner from rehabbing the place as a haunted house attraction. Soon he’ll learn that fresh wood and nails can’t keep decades of rumors down. There are noises in the walls, and fresh blood on the floor: secrets that would be better not to discover. And behind the rumors is a real ghost who will do whatever it takes to ensure the house reopens. She needs people to fill her house on Halloween. There’s a dark, horrible ritual to fulfill. Because while the witch may have been dead... she doesn’t intend to stay that way. My Thoughts: This is another book I read with a group of book buddies. I ...