Horror – Ring Reads

‘Murderers’ Blends Horror of Haunted House and Family Reunion

An illustration of two young white men in early-20th century clothing looking concerned and walking away from a large, foreboding mansion. The title, All of Us Murderers, and the author, KJ Charles, are superimposed upon the image.

Murderers was just the kind of book that I didn’t want to put down and go to bed, while also being the kind of book you shouldn’t read at night when the house is dark and quiet and you’re the only one awake. In other words, perfect for spooky season.

Moreno-Garcia’s Latest a ‘Bewitching’ Tale

The cover of The Bewitching, featuring black filigree in the fore of a dark green background. A pale hand tinted green reaches up for a gold bird surrounded by sewing pins. The cover is between hand and bird, also in gold.

The Bewitching expertly weaves the supernatural and the pedestrian together across generations into something rich and haunting in all the best ways.

‘Creek’ a Spooky Summer Tale of Grief and a Curse

A painting of semi-stagnant water with leaves and grasses on it. In the background, we see bones floating (skull, what looks like a tibia, what could be an ulna). In the foreground, a white teenage girl with wet medium-brown hair has half of her face above the water, as if she's about to stand up or go under. The reflection in the water is of a skull.

In the same way grieving is often harder on anniversaries and holidays—times when things feel the same as always except for the loved one’s absence—Glory’s haunting of the titular town feels perfectly fitting in a metaphorical sense well before it becomes literally true.

‘Nightmare Box’ Tinged With Real-Life Horror and Fictional Justice

A bright yellow background with a pair of brown hands lifting a blue lid on a pink box. Monstrous eyes peer out from within while black goop drips down the side of the box.

There are few happy endings in The Nightmare Box, though it does seem that Gómez intentionally left off on one of the more optimistic stories—an unexpected choice but one that ultimately informs the way we leave The Nightmare Box: Fully aware of the horrors, but pressing forward nonetheless.

‘Bat Eater’ Brings New Fears to Pandemic Lockdown

A realistic-looking bat with flowers on its back and its wings outstretched flies diagonally across a black backdrop. The title, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, is in large white font in front of the image. Smaller and at the bottom in green text is the author, Kylie Lee Baker.

Bat Eater is a marvelous friendship bracelet of plot threads that sometimes take turns and sometimes work in tandem but are always engrossing, and all feel like facets of a terrifying and claustrophobic world.

‘Horror’ Examines the Shadow of Genre – and Within

There’s no horror in a vacuum, Horror Movie seems to be telling us, and the way we ingest and interact with it says as much about us as the content itself.

‘Unmothers’ Sings Thanks to Subtlety

Most characters within The Unmothers grapple with some kind of emotional fracturing; what’s more interesting is seeing how each responds. The nice thing is that the creeping thing in the fog finds all flavors of grief delicious.

‘Ghost Station’ Full of Space-Age Scares

Despite minor missteps, Barnes crafts a taut horror with radically flawed characters that combine to make a satisfying horror of both the past and the unknown.

New story in Cast of Wonders!

One of my favorite stories to date just dropped on Cast of Wonders. Check out the podcast, narrated by Dani Daly, or read the full text online. This one started out with the imagery of a jack-o-lantern with a mouth full of human teeth and ended up becoming a deeply personal story about being aContinue reading “New story in Cast of Wonders!”

‘Nest’ a Cozy Exploration of Monstrosity

It’s hard to pick a favorite element in this “cozy horror.” Is it the blood and gore? The love story? The neurodivergent or asexual rep? The family trauma? Somehow, it manages to be all of the above.