Bark At The Ghouls

Hello! I hope you're all doing well out there. It's been a bit since I've blogged and blogger went and fiddled with every one of my review photos and the whole thing looks wonky and it's going to have to stay that way because I CANNOT BE BOTHERED. I'm sticking with the bare bones and sticking the synopsis at the end because if I start fixing things I know I'll never blog again. So here I am back with a mini review of a good book I read last week. Have you read it? My 2 Cents for Free! Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen Released March 25, 2025 Source: Bought with my own $ Get it at your local library or see more @  Goodreads I thought this was a very good gothic story about how women had to tread carefully or fear being locked away by the men who claimed to love them but really only wanted to own them. Why can’t we lock up hysterical men? There’s a lot of them out there walking around and being a-holes who could do with a padded room and a daily dose of lau...

Just in case you haven't heard of this one, I decided to post a retro review 😀 I reread this in 2017 or around then, I think. My GR dates are all out of wack since they did that facelift ages ago. Anyhow, I never did get around to posting it here so here it is. About the Book It by Stephen King Released September 1986 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real. They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lu...

If you like creepy crawly B movie horror comedies (and why wouldn't you?!) give this one a go. Bee Tornado by Chris Sorensen Released July 2023 Source: Received for review consideration Goodreads  | Amazon Derek Stratton, a broke and widowed storm chaser, is trying his best to support his daughter Mel. Their lives take a dangerous turn when a colossal tornado releases a swarm of prehistoric bees from the Colorado soil, plunging them into a treacherous fight for survival. Derek finds an unexpected partnership with an eccentric bee expert and his sister-in-law, a local cop. Together, they embark on a harrowing race against the clock to rescue Mel from the Bee Tornado. My 2 Cents for Free! Please keep these wild creature features coming! Sometimes a reader (me, okay, it’s me) wants something creepy crawly, sorta ridiculous but maybe completely plausible too . . . Bee Tornado is all of these things and just like Suckerville , the pages fly! Things start off when two young dudes decide ...

This is a great addition to your gothic fiction collection! The September House by Carissa Orlando Released September 2023 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel. When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. Margaret is not most people. Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her miss...

This was fantastic on audio! It almost made me look forward to housework.   Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison Released September 2023 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon A cynical twentysomething must confront her unconventional family’s dark secrets in this fiery, irreverent horror novel from the author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle. Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly...something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep. Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it me...

Just like Rumfitt's previous book, this book will upset you. Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt Released October 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon From Alison Rumfitt, the author of Tell Me I’m Worthless — “a triumph of transgressive queer horror” (Publishers Weekly) — comes Brainwyrms, a searing body horror novel of obsession, violence and pleasure. When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie’s workplace, she blows up Frankie’s life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, fucking strangers, pushing away her friends. Then she meets Vanya. Mysterious, beautiful, terrifying Vanya. The two hit it off immediately, but as their relationship intensifies, so too does Frankie’s feeling that Vanya is hiding something from her. When Vanya’s secrets threaten to tear them apart, Frankie starts digging, and unearths a sinister, depraved conspiracy, the roots of which go deeper than she ever imagined. Shocking, ...

This book will upset you. Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt Released January 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends, Ila and Hannah. Since then, Alice’s life has spiraled. She lives a haunted existence, selling videos of herself for money, going to parties she hates, drinking herself to sleep. Memories of that night torment Alice, but when Ila asks her to return to the House, to go past the KEEP OUT sign and over the sick earth where teenagers dare each other to venture, Alice knows she must go. Together, Alice and Ila must face the horrors that happened there, must pull themselves apart from the inside out, put their differences aside, and try to rescue Hannah, whom the House has chosen to make its own. My 2 Cents for Free! This book is extremely timely. It’s a scathing look at fascism, TERFism, and the complete lack of empathy that has become commonplace everywhere you...

A mini-review of a very weird and excellent book. Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey  Released July 2022 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon “Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories -- she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there. Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be? There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes. My 2 Cents for Free! I have to admit the dedication sucked me in immediately. “This book is dedicated t...

How about a little eco horror today? Dehiscent by Ashley Deng Released August  2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon As the world’s climate swings rapidly between oppressively hot and freezing cold, the remnants of civilization huddle in small communities to scrape together what they can to survive. All except the Zhu family. Yi has lived in her ancestral house her entire life, sheltered and safe from the scarcity that plagues her community. Her family enjoys a secret life of running water, electricity, and an abundance of food. But as Yi seeks a way to share their fortune, she learns the terrible secret of the Zhu house. DEHISCENT is an Eco-Horror tale of a future that has practically arrived, and the humanity that lurks in the most inhuman of places. Cover art and illustrations by Ivy Teas. My 2 Cents for Free! Dehiscent is a quiet, ominous tale of climate catastrophe. It’s likely not too far off in our own future too unless the people with powe...

Here's a little mini review of an audiobook I liked. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland Released April 2021 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads   | Amazon Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind. As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the m...

I wasn't really expecting this level of body horror, yikes! Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang Released April 2023 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads   | Amazon Sly, surprising, and razor-sharp, Natural Beauty follows a young musician into an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost. Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City. Holistik is known for its remarkable products and procedures—from remoras that suck out cheap Botox to eyelash extensions made of spider silk—and her new job affords her entry into a world of privilege and a long-awaited sense of belonging. She becomes transfixed by Helen, the niece of Holistik’s charismatic owner, and th...

This book delivers on its cover. Maeve Fly by CJ Leede Released June 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads  | Amazon By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess. By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes. But when Gideon Green - her best friend’s brother - moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet. Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife. My 2 Cents for Free! Lookie, Maeve Fly has a little bit of something for almost everyone: ☑️ A dark and spicy-sweet hockey romance w/ bite 🦷 ☑️ Creative lessons on how to use your styling tools and new uses for eggs (how di...

This novella packs in a full novel's worth of surprises! Below by Laurel Hightower Released March 2022 Source: Purchased with my own $ Goodreads   | Amazon HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO HELP A STRANGER? While driving through the mountains of West Virginia during a late-night snowstorm, a recently divorced woman experiences bizarre electrical problems, leaving her with little choice but to place her trust with a charismatic truck driver. But when an unexplainable creature with haunting red eyes gets between them, she is forced to make one of the toughest decisions of her life. Will she abandon the stranger who kept her safe—or will she climb down below, where reality has shapeshifted into a living nightmare? My 2 Cents for Free! This book is so damn unsettling. It’s been a few days and when I think about it now it still gives me a strong case of the creeps. Addy, newly divorced and on a solo road trip to a horror convention, has a weird encounter that shakes her up. It’ll probably shake y...

This is a wild one! Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder Released February 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon Sister, Maiden, Monster is a visceral story set in the aftermath of our planet’s disastrous transformation and told through the eyes of three women trying to survive the nightmare, from Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lucy A. Snyder. To survive they must evolve. A virus tears across the globe, transforming its victims in nightmarish ways. As the world collapses, dark forces pull a small group of women together. Erin, once quiet and closeted, acquires an appetite for a woman and her brain. Why does forbidden fruit taste so good? Savannah, a professional BDSM switch, discovers a new turn-on: committing brutal murders for her eldritch masters. Mareva, plagued with chronic tumors, is too horrified to acknowledge her divine role in the coming apocalypse, and as her growths multiply, so too does her desperation. Inspired by her Bram Stoker A...

Phew, this one has some rough content! Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid Released June 2022 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads   | Amazon From highly acclaimed bestselling author Ava Reid comes a gothic horror retelling of The Juniper Tree, set in another time and place within the world of The Wolf and the Woodsman, where a young witch seeks to discover her identity and escape the domination of her wizard father, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson and Catherynne M. Valente. A gruesome curse. A city in upheaval. A monster with unquenchable appetites. Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. As Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist trap as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from...