Bark At The Ghouls

This was, dare I say it without losing my horror membership card, a cozy feeling little horror-romance story. The Ghost and Mr. Moore by Wendy Dalrymple Released July 2021 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon Joseph Moore is looking for a fresh start for himself and his son River after the recent death of his wife. With the ink already dry on the purchase of a rambling rural Victorian-era home in St. Augustine prior to her death, and family in close proximity, he decides that the property will be the perfect place for him and his son to heal. However, almost as soon as they arrive, Joseph realizes that they aren't proud new homeowners, but unwanted visitors. Carolina Braun knows that she's dead... she just doesn't want to accept it. Free-spirited in life, her family always held her back from living the way she wanted. Now, more than a hundred years after her death, Carolina is still holding on to the fact that she never got to really live and wants...

This is a dark and beautiful tale of body horror. The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw Released May 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairytale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself. You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three 'saints' who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruellest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive. My 2 Cents for Free! Khaw’s previous release, Nothing ...

Lots of goo inside this house! House of Rot by Danger Slater Released June 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon The pink mold growing on the walls isn’t the worst thing about Elenya and Myles’ brand new fixer upper. There’s also the inexplicable footsteps in the night; the sealed-over windows and doors; the neighbor that hears their screams but can’t be bothered to help. Soon, there’s no leaving at all. No hope of cleaning. And that encroaching mold? It’s practically become a second skin. Welcome to the House of Rot . You’re never getting out. My 2 Cents for Free! If you’re craving a read that will make you go “ewwwww” for pages on end and just when you get to thinking it can’t get any worse IT DOES, do I ever have a book for you! Newlyweds Elenya and Myles are all wide-eyed and optimistic about their new apartment and they stay far longer than I ever would’ve! On their first night they hear an extremely loud intruder so they go around and turn on eve...

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...

Feel like a solo hike? You won't after this! It Doesn't Go Away by Wendy Dalrymple Released February 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon A woman on the brink. A long, endless hike. Something waiting in the woods. There’s something waiting for her along the Appalachian Trail. Watching. Following. She knows it. She can feel their eyes on her at every corner. It’s only a matter of time before they catch up… In the aftermath of a horrible traumatic incident, a woman sets out on a solo long-distance hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail. Despite her insistence to push through, dark forces manifest in strangers' faces and terror sets in. With every turn through the dense, dark wood, she discovers that running away from her past is more difficult than it seems, and in the end, it just doesn’t go away. My 2 Cents for Free! It Doesn’t Go Away is a tense little novella filled with danger that lurks around every corner while slowly revealing some pain...

This is such a painful and powerful read. Three Days In The Pink Tower Released July 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction  |   Goodreads   | Amazon Josey Claypool begins the summer before her senior year at a carnival, where a fortune teller with milky-white eyes gives her a foreboding tarot reading. She’s spooked, but nothing could prepare her for the following day when two strange men show up at her front door. Josey is kidnapped at gunpoint and brought to a pink cabin in the woods where she is held prisoner. In her darkest moment, the fortune teller appears and gives her a deck of tarot cards, which she must cast and interpret in a fight for her life. In this work of speculative autofiction, award-winning author EV Knight reclaims the narrative of her own past in an exploration of trauma, agency, and survival.  My 2 Cents for Free! Several reviewers have already said this book is not an easy one to read (or review) and they’re not exag...

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here, have yourself a fun, spooky read to celebrate! Roser Park by Wendy Dalrymple Released October 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration  Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   | Bookshop Charlotte Slater is freshly divorced and starting over again in her hometown of St. Petersburg, FL. When a dog sitting job in the nearby upscale neighborhood of Roser Park falls in her lap, Charlotte jumps at the chance to make some easy money and enjoy a little peace and quiet. But as usual, when things seem to be too good to be true, they often are. While the job seems fine on the surface, from the moment Charlotte crosses the threshold at 684 Roser Park Drive, she can’t shake the feeling of being watched. The homeowner’s nearest neighbor, Adam, always seems to be lurking just around the corner, and soon, Charlotte can’t get the handsome, mysterious landscaper out of her thoughts to the point of near obsession. As each day passes, Charlotte become...

This cover is so beautiful! Marionette by Antonia Rachel Ward Released August 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration from Netgalley Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   | Bookshop On the run from a life of prostitution and poverty, exotic dancer Cece Dulac agrees to become the main attraction at an erotic séance hosted by an enigmatic mesmerist, Monsieur Rossignol. As the séance descends into depravity, Cece falls prey to Rossignol’s hypnotic power and becomes possessed by a malevolent spirit. George Dashwood, an aspiring artist, witnesses the séance and fears for Cece. He seeks her out and she seduces him, but she is no longer herself. The spirit controlling her forces her to commit increasingly depraved acts. When the spirit’s desire for revenge escalates to murder, George and Cece must find a way to break Rossignol’s spell before Cece’s soul is condemned forever. Marionette is an erotic horror novella inspired by traditional folk tales and set in fin de siècle P...

Be careful with your doodles! Cool S by Die Booth Released August, 2022 Source: ARC received for review consideration Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   | Buy It Here Tracy Forrest has it all. A great boyfriend, loyal best mate, good job and new house. But something is missing. There’s a wistful longing for good times gone by that Trace just can’t lay to rest. When she spots a ubiquitous and mysterious teenage doodle in an old schoolbook, she becomes obsessed with finding out what it is. You know Cool S? Yeah, you do. Cool S. Super S. Pointy S. THE S. That thing we all doodled on notebooks and schoolbooks and pencil cases, maybe graffitied on a park bench or a bus stop if you were frisky. Ever wondered what it was? Where it came from? What it means? Well, I’m here to tell you. Are you sure you want to know? Cool S. Some things should stay lost. My 2 Cents for Free! I don’t know if I ever drew the graffiti “S” aka “Cool S” while I was in school b...

I finished this book yesterday, wrote a review and posted it to my blog. Who the heck am I?! The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner Released October 2021 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   |  Bookshop The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner is a sawmill gothic that begins with June Vogel’s return to Storm Break, her family’s estate. Things in the great house aren’t what they used to be. Doors slam in the night. Faucets turn on, untouched. Something is always watching, whatever June does. And when her brother returns with his new bride, deceit and betrayal threaten to destroy everything she loves. My 2 Cents For Free! This review is my personal reading experience. Yours may differ. Don't be blaming me if it does! The Secret Skin is a quick gothic read. It has all the spooky things you’d expect in a gothic and a few surprises too! June returns to the family estate, a looming mansion on the coast, to care for her 9-year-old...

Have you read the work of Andrew Cull yet?! The Cockroach King by Andrew Cull Released November 2020 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon    “We’d been in the house two weeks when Tommy pulled the first bones from the garden.” When Cassie Baker buys the house on Cedar Street, it’s partly because it reminds her of the house she grew up in in the ‘80s. It reminds her of happier times, when her Mom was still alive, before the cancer had taken her. It seems like the perfect place to raise her baby boy, Sam. That is, until a friend unearths the remains of a dog, buried in a shallow grave in the backyard. After the bones come the cockroaches… The Cockroach King is a new novella written by Andrew Cull, the award-winning author of Remains and Bones. My 2 Cents For Free! A young mother and her toddler move into a new to them home and it should be a happy, exciting time but before long the gardener digs up some bones (ahhhh!)...

I have three brand new release reviews this week (who am I, even?!) and they all release on Tuesday so I'll be spreading them out a little bit and then you probably won't see a post from me until next month because I'll revert back to my slovenly ways, haha. This one comes out tomorrow!  Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw Released October 19, 2021 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   |  Bookshop Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists. A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends. But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and...