Bark At The Ghouls

This one will give you the creepy crawlies! Leech by Hiron Ennes Released September 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction  |   Goodreads   | Amazon In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies. For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed. In the frozen north, the Institute’s body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron’s castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body....

This was a very well-written collection of speculative fiction. Chasing Whispers by Eugen Bacon Released September 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction  |   Goodreads   | Amazon Chasing Whispers is a unique Afro-irrealist collection of Black speculative fiction in transformative stories of culture, longing, hybridity, unlimited futures, a collision of worlds and folklore. It contains 13 stories, 11 of which are original, with a commanding introduction by D. Harlan Wilson. The collection is aligned with the themes of Eugen Bacon’s other fiction, and her recognition in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for “doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction.” Chasing Whispers casts a gaze at mostly women and children haunted by patriarchy, in stories packed with affection, dread, anguish and hope. The connecting theme is a black protagonist with a deep longing for someone, someplace, something… and a recurring phrase in each st...

Like short and weird? I've got a recommendation for you! Departures by Scott Cole Released July 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads  | Amazon A new homeowner finds a large, inexplicable egg behind a door... A traveler seeks a bizarre creature from folklore... An abused spouse takes matters into their own hands... A stranger tempts passersby with a mystery in the trunk of his car... A man discovers a cemetery walled off from the rest of town... A family finds out what the vacation of a lifetime really entails... And a sleep aid wakes up. These are just some of the strange tales within, as Scott Cole returns with a new collection featuring his unique brand of unusual horror stories. My 2 Cents for Free! Scott Cole has a gleefully dark imagination and his books are always a wild time. This collection of short stories has a lot of body horror which always gets my attention. I don’t know why I like the gross stuff but sometimes, af...

Hello, everyone! I am reviving my book spotlights because as much as I'd LOVE to have the time to read and review everything generously submitted for review in a timely manner, I simply don't live in that world but I can share new books that look amazing, and that I plan to read once caught up.  I'm also going to share snippets of selected reader reviews that catch my attention because reviewing can be such a thankless job sometimes. Today I'm sharing ONE NIGHT STAND AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Jacy Morris. Horror, humor, apocalypse? Yep, that's my thing. There's no more football, no more TV, no more cell phones. All that's left now are the ruins of a civilization that thought itself indestructible and the sad people living out the string of their lives in this horrid new world where even the trees seem hellbent on making humanity extinct. In this inhospitable environment, the comedian struggles to survive the only way he knows how… with humor. Get your ticke...

Guys can be so gross, eh?  Mandy by Stephanie Sparks Released August 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   | Bookshop Mandy Fisher is not like other girls… Awoken one night by a stranger at her door, Mandy reluctantly lets him in. The stranger begs for help for his friend Robbie, recently killed in a drunk driving accident. To make the pushy, distraught stranger go away, Mandy taps into her secret gift to bring Robbie back from the dead. Her gift is more like a curse when Robbie turns out to be anything but the golden boy Mandy expected. Corrupt and violent, Robbie has an insatiable hunger for death and destruction — and he will stop at nothing to exploit Mandy’s secret for his own gain. But Robbie soon discovers that when you mess with the weird girl, you get more than you bargained for. My 2 Cents for Free! Mandy is alone in the home attached to the mortuary where she works with her dad, it’s the middle of the night, and...

  Recent Reads & Listens  Hello, everyone! I hope you've been reading some good stuff. I'm working on these this week. Soul Eater is a delightful monster-romance that I'm reading just for me on KU - I am determined to get some use out of KU, Leech is a received-for-review consideration book (and it's a little slow right now but I'm getting through it) and I'm listening to Just Like Home on audio for the Horror Spotlight chat . Link Ups In an effort to actually be social again in the book blogging world, I'm going to be linking this post up to  Caffeinated Reviewer's Sunday Post ,  The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz  and  It's Monday! What Are You Reading at Book Date .  Link yourself up and make some new blogging friends! Additions to the TBR This surprise ARC showed up in my mailbox from TorNightfire and it sounds amazing! Recent Watches These were so much fun 😄    I have useless reviews up at letterbxd if you're dying to learn mor...

  Hey bookish friends! Today's TTT prompt is Series I’d Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish and boy do I have a bunch. I am the absolute worst at seeing a series through to its very end. I only have 9 here because I need to get this scheduled before my laptop dies and I forget but there are probably 20 more I could add. Yikes. The Anita Blake Series I have a love/hate relationship with the series. I absolutely adored the first several books and I've stopped and started the series three times on audio getting maybe to book #9 and then I got aggravated with Anita and all of her boy toys and I quit it. There was also that time when the author was publicly extremely rude to many of her fans and it sorta turned me off things as well. I hate when that happens.  The Sookie Stackhouse Series I also fell in love with series ages ago but I lost track of it when the tv series came out and never went back to them. I think I might've made it to book #3. Why am I like this? The In Death Ser...

This was so cozy!  Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree Released February 2022 Source: Library Borrow Audiobook   |   Goodreads   | Amazon High Fantasy with a double-shot of self-reinvention Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen. However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve. A hot cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth.  My 2 Cents for Free! This was such a cozy read. If you're in need of something comforting and aren't expecting (or wan...

Hi everyone! It's been ages but here's a monthly reading wrap-up. Can I just say UGH. How disappointing is it when your most highly anticipated read turns out to be your least favorite of the month? I'm so sad about Toad but I did find some fantastic reads so it all evens out. This is what October looked like. I'll eventually get all of the reviews up over here but for now, I linked up the rating to the Goodreads review. If you want to learn more about any of the books just give the book a click.  ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2 ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ I hope you're reading some fabulous books!