Author: Catherine Jordan

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Epeolatry Book Review: Smile So Red and Other Tales of Darkness by Mia Dalia

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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: Smile So Red and Other Tales of Darkness
Author: Mia Dalia
Genre: Collection; Horror
Publisher: Anuci Press
Publication Date: January 19th, 2024

Synopsis: From the author of Estate Sale and many other literary nightmares, comes a collection of dark psychological fiction like no other, featuring novelettes and shorter stories that range from horror to suspense to mystery to coming-of-age to thrillers.
Smile So Red – a man down on his luck finds a strange graffitied house on his hike, and can’t quite seem to leave it behind.
Spindel – a twelve-year-old boy suspects that one of the neighbors on his paper route might be a local serial killer and sets off to investigate.
Blues for the Soul – a library worker tries to help a troubled young boy and uncovers a terrible truth about his family.
Devil’s Chord – return to the world of Smile So Red with a meta journey set to the earworm tune of your worst nightmares.
Stump – a bullied young boy and a downtrodden family man from the same apartment complex unwittingly find solace in the same area of the local woods, trusting their secrets to the same remnant of an old tree.
Flamingos – two sisters must confront their troubled past when a buried memory is triggered by the seemingly innocuous plastic lawn birds.
The Trunk – a first-generation immigrant from a war-torn country striving to achieve the American Dream finds something in the basement of his new home that has other ideas for him.
Reddest – another return to the world of Smile So Red, albeit from a very different perspective.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Trees Grew because I Bled There by Eric LaRocca

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Title: The Trees Grew because I Bled There
Writer: Eric LaRocca
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Horror; Short Stories
Publication Date: March 7th, 2023

Synopsis: “The stories collected here are by turns confident, brutal, and breathtaking… must-read horror” The New York Times
A beautifully crafted, devastating short fiction collection from the Bram Stoker Awards® finalist and author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. Includes an introduction from acclaimed bestselling author Chuck Wendig.

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution…

Originally published under the title The Strange Thing We Become and Other Dark Tales, this is a much-praised collection of deeply unsettling, painfully dark tales.

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Epeolatry Book Review: This is My Body, Given for You by Heather Parry

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Title: This is My Body, Given for You
Author: Heather Parry
Genre: Contemporary Horror, Short Stories, Weird Fiction
Publisher: Haunt Publishing
Release Date: 11th May, 2023

Synopsis:  A girl suffering a bizarre menstrual aberration is exploited by those around her, including her father. A boy expresses his love for a nonhuman man by making himself animalistic. A girl abandoned by her community discovers the possibility of transmutation through cannibalism. A man struggles with his wife’s choices around her existence, and considers whether he should leave her alone in her semi-oblivion, or join her.
In This Is My Body, Given For You, Heather Parry places in our hands fifteen stories in which the body is something that can be changed, altered, and escaped from. With dripping blood, bruised tentacles, and seamed skin, Heather Parry’s debut short story collection will consume you.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Passing Through Veils by John Harrison

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Title: Passing Through Veils
Author: John Harrison
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Suspense
Publisher: Wordfire Press
Release Date: 15th August, 2023

Synopsis: A fusion of Shirley Jackson and Gillian Flynn, Passing Through Veils is a gripping psychological thriller about Kathryn Fields who moves into a run-down Georgetown, D.C. townhouse in hopes that restoring it will be a metaphor for her own rehabilitation from the recent nervous breakdown that derailed her promising career.

But when she discovers a forgotten vanity behind a false wall in her bedroom and the secrets hidden there, the veil between the real and the surreal is abruptly pierced, and the ghost of a beautiful woman who was murdered in this very townhouse escapes to seek revenge.

Is this simply a fantasy of Katherine’s damaged psyche?

Or have her own demons finally escaped to torment her?

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

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Title: The Haunting of Velkwood
Author: Gwendolyn Kiste
Genre: Gothic Fiction; Horror Literature and Fiction
Publisher: S&S/Saga Press
Release Date: 5th March, 2024

Synopsis: From Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a chilling novel about three childhood friends who miraculously survive the night everyone in their suburban hometown turned into ghosts.
The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter—and only one has in the past twenty years, until now.
Talitha Velkwood has avoided anything to do with the tragedy that took her mother and eight-year-old sister, drifting from one job to another, never settling anywhere or with anyone, feeling as trapped by her past as if she was still there in the small town she so desperately wanted to escape from. When a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to come back to enter the vicinity, Talitha claims she’s just doing it for the money. Of all the crackpot theories over the years, no one has discovered what happened the night Talitha, her estranged, former best friend Brett, and Grace, escaped their homes twenty years ago. Will she finally get the answers she’s been looking for all these years, or is this just another dead end?
Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste has created a suburban ghost story about a small town that trapped three young women who must confront the past if they’re going to have a future. 

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Epeolatry Book Review: Estate Sale by Mia Dalia

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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: Estate Sale
Author: Mia Dalia
Genre: Occult Horror
Publisher: Black Ink Fiction
Release Date: 27th April, 2023

Synopsis: It has been said that every small town has a house on a hill, the one the witch lives in.
But what if there is more to the story? The devil, after all, is in the details.
The old lady of the Koshmaroff estate is finally gone. In life, she was a mystery; in death, she leaves behind a house full of strange, yet seemingly ordinary objects. Objects, which the curiosity-driven locals rush in to buy, only to see their lives take nightmarish turns as a result.
No one knew the old lady’s husband dabbled in dark magic. No one knew the two of them traversed decades and continents, hobnobbing with the most famous occultists of the 20th century and building their collection. They have acquired such terrible treasures along the way.
Come, see for yourself.
Step inside for a bargain of a lifetime.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin

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Title: Night’s Edge
Editor: Liz Kerin
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Release Date: 20th June, 2023

Synopsis: Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge is a sun-drenched 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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WiHM 2023: That Darkened Doorstep – The Hive–a place swarming with activity.

That Darkened Doorstep The Hive–a place swarming with activity. 

Diane Sismour started The Hive Writing Group with a retreat at her bed and breakfast in January 2020. Five women horror writers, in varying stages of their writing careers, found each other: Diane Sismour and Dianna Patricia Sinovic met at the Bethlehem Writers Group; Jacque Day and Amanda Headlee met Diane at a Pennsylvania Chapter Horror Writers Association meeting; Catherine Jordan found her way to the group through Jacque’s invite at an online writing group. The group continues to gather at Diane’s bed and breakfast for biannual retreats, and they participate in monthly remote meetings. Five different personalities meshed into a group that turned strangers into friends.

Together, they participate in writing workshops, watch masterclasses, and attend physical and remote conferences. One of their finest accomplishments to date is the anthology, That Darkened Doorstep, published on September 2022 by Hellbender Books, an imprint of Sunbury Press. Catherine approached her publisher and received the green light for the project. As editor, she placed a call for submissions. As a hive, the women participated in vetting and working with the writers, while also contributing their own individual stories. What a fabulous way to knit together (with plans for another book to follow). Between all five women, they have a multitude of horror related publications. 

During Women in Horror Month, these accomplished women (Unfortunately, Amanda Headlee was unavailable to participate.) took turns interviewing each other. 

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