Author: A. R. James

Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Spite House by Johnny Compton

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Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

​Title: The Spite House
Author: Johnny Compton
Genre: Gothic, Thriller, Mystery, Ghost story
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Date: 7th February, 2023

Synopsis:

A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making―The Babadook meets A Head Full of Ghosts in Texas Hill Country.

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. When he comes across an ad for a caretaker for the Masson House, Eric hopes they have finally caught a lucky break. The owner of the “most haunted place in Texas” is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there―provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.

The job calls to Eric, not just because of the huge payout, but because he needs access to the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it will help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, too afraid to stop running…

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Epeolatry Book Review: Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin

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Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

​Title: Night’s Edge
Author: Liz Kerin
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Date: 20th June, 2023

Synopsis: Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin takes a bite out of vampire lore in this blood-soaked novel about the darkest secrets we hide and how monstrous we can be to the ones we love most.

Having a mom like Izzy meant Mia had to grow up fast. No extracurriculars, no inviting friends over, and definitely no dating. The most important rule: Tell no one of Izzy’s hunger – the kind only blood can satisfy.

But Mia is in her twenties now and longs for a life of her own. One where she doesn’t have to worry about anyone discovering their terrible secret, or breathing down her neck. When Mia meets rebellious musician Jade she dares to hope she’s found a way to leave her home – and her mom – behind.

It just might be Mia’s only chance of getting out alive.

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Epeolatry Book Review: A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather

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Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: A Season of Monstrous Conceptions
Author: Lina Rather
Genre: Historical Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, LGBTQIA+
Publisher: tordotcom
Release Date: 31st October, 2023

Synopsis: In 17th-century London, unnatural babies are being born, with eyes made for the dark and webbed digits suited to the sea.

Sarah Davis is intimately familiar with such strangeness―having hidden her uncanny nature all her life and fled to London under suspicious circumstances, Sarah starts over as a midwife’s apprentice to a member of the illegal Worshipful Company of Midwives, hoping to carve out for herself an independent life. But with each new unnatural birth, the fear in London grows of the Devil’s work.

When the wealthy Lady Wren hires her to see her through her pregnancy, Sarah quickly becomes a favorite of her husband, the famous architect Lord Christopher Wren, whose interest in the uncanny borders on obsession. Sarah soon finds herself caught in a web of magic and intrigue created by those who want to use her power for themselves, and whose pursuits threaten to unmake the earth itself.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older

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Title: The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles
Author: Malka Older
Genre: Science Fiction, Cosy Crime, LGBTQIA+
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: 13th February, 2024

Synopsis: Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a new mystery in the follow-up to the cozy space-opera detective mystery The Mimicking of Known Successes, which Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders called “an utter triumph.”

Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight. Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University―yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case may lie on the moon of Io―Mossa’s home―and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements during humanity’s exodus from Earth.

But Pleiti’s faith in her life’s work as a scholar of the past has grown precarious, and this new case threatens to further destabilize her dreams for humanity’s future, as well as her own.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Unquiet by E. Saxey

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Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Unquiet
Author: E. Saxey
Genre: Gothic Horror, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Titan Books
Release date: 18 July 2023
Page count: 320

Synopsis: An intrepid young woman journeys across Victorian London and beyond in search of the truth behind the presumed death, and reappearance one icy evening, of her brother-in-law, in this gripping and mysterious gothic horror.

Perfect for fans of The Haunting of Hill House and readers of Sarah Waters.

London 1893. Judith lives a solitary life, save for the maid who haunts the family home in which she resides. Mourning the death of her brother-in-law, Sam, who drowned in an accident a year earlier, she distracts herself with art classes, books and strange rituals, whilst the rest of her family travel the world.

One icy evening, conducting a ritual in her garden she discovers Sam, alive. He has no memory of the past year, and remembers little of the accident that appeared to take his life.

Desperate to keep his reappearance a secret until she can discover the truth about what happened to him, Judith journeys outside of the West London Jewish community she calls home, to the scene of Sam’s accident. But there are secrets waiting there for Judith, things that have been dormant for so long, and if she is to uncover all of them, she may have to admit to truths that she has been keeping from herself.

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Articles / Interviews

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An Interview With Author E. Saxey

E. Saxey is an ungendered Londoner who works in universities. Their fiction has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Queers Destroy Science Fiction and in anthologies including Tales from the Vatican Vaults and The Lowest Heaven. They live in London and tweet at @esaxey.

Firstly, Unquiet is a stunning book. Thank you for sharing it with the world. It already means a great deal to me personally. What do you want people to take away from it?

 

Ideally I’d like people to find it enchanting and excruciating, a bit of a balance. There are some eerie and agonizing parts, and it would be great haunt readers and generally put them through the ringer, but there’s also art and love and hope.

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Emmett Nahil on Let Me Out

Emmett Nahil is a writer, narrative designer, game developer, and literary jack of all trades living in a haunted town north of Boston, Massachusetts. He’s interested in intersectional analysis, diverse representation for other queer Middle Easterners, and bringing more nuanced work to genre fiction. He’s been known to favor horror, along with sci-fi, fantasy, and really weird speculative literature. Let Me Out is his debut graphic novel.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Let Me Out by Emmett Nahil and George Williams

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Let Me Out
Author: Emmett Nahil and George Williams
Publisher: Oni Press
Genre: Horror, Occult, Supernatural
Release date: 3rd October, 2023

Synopsis: After a body is found in the woods, Mitch Sahadi and his friends are accused by the local police of devil worship and murder. The gang decides the best way to get revenge is to embrace the devil. If you can’t beat the accusations, why not make them true?

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