Bark At The Ghouls

 Sometimes free isn't worth the price. My 2 Cents for Free! The Tangled Woods by Emily Raboteau Released September 2018 Source: Audible Freebie See more @  Goodreads I am deleting this dreadful thing from my Audible library. It was terrible from beginning to end. The main character is a whiny, miserable man so unhappy with the life he has made for himself that he takes it out on everyone around him - especially his family. Not recommended. Just turn on the news if you feel like killing more of your soul. Oh, and for those who will say on the socials that "you should always say something nice because times are tough" here you go: The wife and son deserved better than that sad sack, mess of a man and I hope he gets eaten by a bear leaving them both to live out their days in peace and happiness because he's no longer in their lives! Final Rating: ⭐ Publisher Plot Synopsis  He went on the road expecting the worst of America, but what if the worst of America was also in hi...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 🎄 My 2 Cents for Free! Hark! The Herald Angels Scream edited by Christopher Golden Released October 2018 Source: Purchased Get it at your local library or see more @  Goodreads This was a bit of a mixed bag with many of the stories lacking in the scary Christmasy feelings I was expecting but there were a few standouts worth checking out. Absinthe and Angels by Kelley Armstrong A couple are spending a quiet Christmas at a remote cabin here when they hear a knock at the door. This was super creepy and filled with nightmare fuel. It was a great start to the collection and is definitely worth a read. Christmas in Barcelona by Scott Smith A tired couple with a new baby head out for a vacation they booked when they were still childless. Now they’re rethinking things because everything that could add stress to the trip has happened. Screaming baby, lost bags, no food, etc. and so on. When they arrive at their destination, the husband decides to wander a...

My 2 Cents for Free! The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter Released January 1979, 162 pgs Source: Bought with my own $ Goodreads  |  Amazon Eeek I don't know how to rate it. It's probably a 2 but one of the stories was a 4 and it was the longest so I'll go with a 3 for now. I've been wanting to read this book for ages. I bought a used copy years ago, promptly buried it under other books and about a decade later forgot about it and bought a new reprint. I also somehow ended up with a copy from Audible. Ugh, why do I do this? I should've loved this dark and haunting and beautifully written book but I also should've read it when I bought it the first time. I did not love this dark and haunting and beautifully written book much at all. I don't know if it just hasn't aged well or if I've read too many dark and haunting and beautifully written fairytale retellings but I was mostly bored and annoyed. The first story, The Bloody Chamber, started things off rig...

Here's a lovely little collection of stories filled with creeping dread that I read recently. A Small Light & Other Stories by Sara Century Released December 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon A mysterious woman stalks a seaside town. An isolated couple inhabit a house full of tropical birds. A rowboat floats down a river toward a witch's cave. Death wanders an unnamed city during the plague. Sara Century's debut short story collection carries with it surreal visions inspired by pulp paperbacks, art house films, comic books of all flavors, and classic queer villains. A Small Light & Other Stories gathers tales that hinge on troubled characters with nothing left to lose encountering existential horrors, where everyday problems escalate into insurmountable monsters, and we find ourselves unable to escape dreams long since transformed into nightmares. My 2 Cents for Free! A Small Light & Other Stories is an eerie, melancholy collect...

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...

Anthologies are so hard to review but I tried my best. Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror edited by John F.D. Taff Released: May 2022 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   |  Bookshop Dark Stars, edited by John F.D. Taff, is a tribute to horror’s longstanding short fiction legacy, featuring 12 terrifying original stories from today’s most noteworthy authors. Within these pages you’ll find tales of dead men walking, an insidious secret summer fling, an island harboring unspeakable power, and a dark hallway that beckons. You’ll encounter terrible monsters―both human and supernatural―and be forever changed. The stories in Dark Stars run the gamut from traditional to modern, from dark fantasy to neo-noir, from explorations of beloved horror tropes to the unknown―possibly unknowable―threats. It’s all in here because it’s all out there, now, in horror. Dark Stars features all-new stories from the following award-winning authors and u...

Would you look at this cover?! Someone to Share My Nightmares by Sonora Taylor Released October 19, 2021 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon    A band of bloodthirsty sea creatures terrorize a scientist and a journalist trapped in a Carolina cove. The seduction of a plumber making a house call becomes a nightmarish haunting for both parties. A woman transformed for her lover has second thoughts about just how good “together forever” can be. And the one man a woman wants for Christmas is the holiday demon sent to punish the wicked. "Someone to Share My Nightmares" is a tapestry of horrors interwoven with sensuality. Can our deepest fears be vanquished when they’re shared with someone else? Or is the danger doubled when two people come together?  My 2 Cents For Free! I’ve always been a fan of horrorotica? Horrorromance? Monterporn?  I don’t know what it’s called on this particular day but I know I like to...

This is a long-winded review. Oops, sometimes I get carried away. Dreams for the Dying by Adam Light Published June 2021 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Received for Review Consideration  Bad dreams don't always evaporate in the light of day. Some refuse to fade, forever haunting dark corners of consciousness: The dread of an approaching headlight on a deserted road . . . Swirling black clouds claiming the sky, bringing death and madness . . . The cabin of a trucker's rig, where a waitress lies bound and gagged . . . A cursed soul in a moonlit pumpkin patch, desperate and lonely . . . These are songs for the damned, poisons for the cure, and Dreams for the Dying. For years, Adam Light has frightened and delighted readers around the world with his stories of horror and the bizarre. Fully revised to best represent the author's original vision, these fearsome tales of the macabre are finally collected under a single cov...

Free creepy stories for your ears! Come Join Us By The Fire Season 2 Published October 2021 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |  GooglePlay   Source: Freebie! Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio-only horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries including Laird Barron, Indrapramit Das, Shaun Hamill, Daniel M. Lavery, Matthew Lyons, T. Kingfisher, Seanan McGuire, Nibedita Sen, and Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.  My 2 Cents For Free! I don't know if I have it in me to review this collection in any proper way so I'm throwing a 3.5 at it (bumping up for GR) It is huge and there so many stories and though I'm than...

Halloween never ends around here! Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder Published October 2020 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Received for Review Consideration  Halloween is the most wonderful part of the year for many of us. For dedicated fans, the season begins when the leaves start turning autumn colors and doesn't finish until Hallowtide ends in November. With it comes a whole lot of fun: scary movies and stories, haunted houses, seasonal sweets, spooky decorations, costume parties, and of course trick or treat. But Halloween is also a deeply spiritual time for some; it's an opportunity to remember and honor loved ones who have passed on. Master storyteller Lucy A. Snyder has filled her cauldron with everything that Halloween means to her and distilled it into a spell-binding volume of stories. Within these pages you'll find thrills and chills, hilarity and horrors, the sweet and the naughty. One of the best things...

So many of these dark stories made me laugh and for that this book gets SO many points! Resisting Madness by Wesley Southard Published November 2019 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   Source: Received for Review Consideration What drives a man mad? Maybe it’s the death of a loved one...or the petrifying fear of hands around your throat…the dread of rejection…or maybe it’s the black, soulless eyes of a child that shatters your sanity… Within these pages, delirium reigns supreme. You’ll discover how far a prisoner will go to be with his dying wife, and what lurks between the walls of that Louisiana jailhouse to keep him there. You’ll find out how deep a man can cut himself to dig out the past. You’ll meet a college professor whose fear of flying might be the least of his worries. And you’ll learn how a sister’s love for sweet treats can reunite a broken family…whether they want it or not. Aliens and lot lizards…disembodied lips…the vo...