Author: A. R. James

Epeolatry Book Review: Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

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Title: Bloom
Author: Delilah S. Dawson
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Horror, Thriller, LGBTQIA+

Release date: 3rd October, 2023

Synopsis: A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella with the slow build menace of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber―from a New York Times-bestselling author hailed by Chuck Wendig as “a storyteller working at the top of her class.”

Rosemary meets Ash at the farmers’ market. Ash―precise, pretty, and practically perfect―sells bars of soap in delicate pastel colors, sprinkle-spackled cupcakes stacked on scalloped stands, beeswax candles, jelly jars of honey, and glossy green plants.

Ro has never felt this way about another woman; with Ash, she wants to be her and have her in equal measure. But as her obsession with Ash consumes her, she may find she’s not the one doing the devouring… Told in lush, delectable prose, this is a deliciously dark tale of passion taking an unsavory turn…

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Never-Ending Party by Joe Corallo, Rachel Pollack, Eva Cabrera

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Title: The Never-Ending Party
Author: Joe Corallo, Rachel Pollack, 
Art: Eva Cabrera (Illustrator)
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Genre: Horror, Occult, Fantasy, LGBTQIA+

Release date: 23rd August, 2023

Synopsis: Twenty-five years after losing her lover Lulu in a cult ritual for Dionysus gone wrong, Mindy Morrow is trying to live her life and put the past behind her.

Unfortunately for Mindy, the past won’t let her go. While she’s taking care of her friend Flavia, her frenemy Kate is trying to lure Mindy back into the old club scene, and something more ancient and terrifying awaits them all.

From Joe Corallo and Rachel Pollack, the winner of The World Fantasy Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and a Nebula nominee comes a story about dark pasts and the supernatural.

Collects The Never-Ending Party #1–#5 from the ComiXology original digital series, in print for the first time!

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Epeolatry Book Review: Dehiscent by Ashley Deng

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Title: Dehiscent

Author: Ashley Deng

Genre: Eco-horror, Sporror, Gothic

Publisher: Tenebrous Press

Release date: August 1, 2023

Page count: 92

Synopsis: 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.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1

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Title: The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #1
Author: Based on an idea by James Tynion IV; Script by Tate Brombal Tate Brombal Art by Isaac Goodhart; Colors by Miquel Muerto Miquel Muerto; Letters by Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Comics & Graphic Novels, LGBTQIA+
Release Date: 28th June, 2023

Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling and multi-Eisner award-winning writers of Something is Killing the Children, The Department of Truth, and House of Slaughter; and the artist on Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story comes this LGBTQ+ horror-hero coming-of-age series that’s Invincible meets Doom Patrol.

Meet teenage mad scientist Christopher Chaos. For all his life he knew he was different. His brilliant mind works in ways that defy logic and enable him to do things that push him beyond his peers. Unfortunately, these abilities have also caused great pain in his personal life–leading others to fear him and leaving Christopher with profound loneliness and guilt.

Then one day something cracked. When the cute boy at high school turns out to be a deadly creature, Christopher finds himself pitted in a world of monsters, heroes, and a cult of hunters out to kill them all.

 

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Epeolatry Book Review: Us by Sara Soler

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Title: Us
By: Sara Soler (English translation by Silvia Perea Labayen, letters by Joamette Gil)
Genre: Graphic Memoir, Non-Fiction, LGBTQIA+
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: 25th July, 2023

Synopsis: Us is Sara and Diana’s love story, as well as the story of Diana’s gender transition. Full of humor, heartache, and the everyday triumphs and struggles of identity, this graphic memoir speaks to changing conceptions of the world as well as the self, at the same time revealing that some things don’t really have to change.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Shanghai Immortal by A. Y. Chao

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Title: Shanghai Immortal
Author: A.Y. Chao
Publisher: Hodderscape
Genre: Fantasy, Folklore, Sword & Sorcery, Romance
Release date: 31st October, 2023

Synopsis: This richly told adult fantasy debut teems with Chinese deities and demons cavorting in jazz age Shanghai.

Half vampire. Half fox-spirit. All trouble.

Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sasshole. As the King’s ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper – with varying levels of success.

So, when Jing overhears the courtiers plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she seizes her chance to expose them, once and for all.

With the help of a gentle mortal tasked with setting up the Central Bank of Hell, Jing embarks on a wild chase for intel, first through Hell and then mortal Shanghai. But when her hijinks put the mortal in danger, she must decide which is more important: avenging her loss of face, or letting go of her half-empty approach to life for a chance to experience tenderness – and maybe even love.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Jamie Hallow and the End of the World by A. V. Wilkes

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Title: Jamie Hallow and the End of the World

Author: A. V. Wilkes

Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media

Genre: Horror, Fantasy, LGBTQIA+

Release date: July 11, 2023

Synopsis: Jamie Hallow is an Unbeliever…

For thousands of years, the Legion protected humanity from eldritch terrors. But when the nukes dropped, the balance was broken. The Legion retreated underground, ceding the surface to radioactive fall-out, surface scavengers, and things from Outside.

Several years since the war’s end, queer teenage misfit Jamie Hallow – Legion born and raised – finds the bunker’s theocracy stifling. His ex-boyfriend has pledged allegiance to the secretive Taskforce, running missions into the hot zone of the crumbling city.

And when Jamie learns just what his ancient cult is prepared to do to ‘save’ humanity, he must choose where his loyalties lie.

A novella from A.V. Wilkes — HP Lovecraft meets Mean Girls by way of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Family Curse: Field Notebooks (1880-2020)

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Title: Family Curse: Field Notebooks (1880-2020)
Author: Tenacity Plys
Genre: LGBTQ+ Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Fantasy
Publisher: Bottlecap Press
Release Date: September, 2022

Synopsis: They say in town that every generation, fairies lure a member of Virgil’s family into the local woods, never to be seen again. Virgil doesn’t really care about that; they’re just squatting at their aunt’s vacant house during quarantine. But one night, they’re awoken by a knocking at the back door that leads them into a tangle of family secrets, and a mystery that’s as heartbreaking as it is chilling.

To avoid disappearing themself, Virgil has to piece together journal entries from three generations of their relatives, who all spent their lives wondering why their siblings were taken. If Virgil can solve the puzzle, they won’t just save themselves — they’ll put more than a hundred years’ worth of family history to rest. This story of a neurodivergent family’s struggle to understand themselves is by turns spooky, funny, sad, and hopeful despite everything.

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