Author: Corinne Pollard

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Horror Aesthetic: Essays From The Dark Corners Of The Genre by L. Marie Wood

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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 Horror Aesthetic: Essays From The Dark Corners Of The Genre
Author: L. Marie Wood
Genre: Non-Fiction Horror
Publisher: Mocha Memoir Press
Publication Date: 4th October, 2024

Synopsis: Many creatures lurk in the dark, weaving on top of one another, roiling together like waves on the night sea. The darkness forms in layers to encompass the land, fill the corners, and obscure angles. Untold mysteries lie just beyond reach spoken in many tongues, many inflections, many rhythms.

The stories are many.

Innumerable.

Legion.

The Horror Aesthetic: Essays from the Dark Corners of the Genre shares perspectives from the darkest corners of the horror genre, providing study and nuance to the mythos, antagonists, and storytelling we love. This is a book that celebrates the craft of writing horror, explores the oral traditions that gave life to the written words of the gothic and the tortured, shines a light on what has been left in the obscurity of the dark. From the classroom to the far corners that only shadows reach, The Horror Aesthetic: Essays from the Dark Corners of the Genre examines the horror genre in rich context, contemplative zest, and dark humor.

It’s the horror research you never knew you needed until now.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond

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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 Fireborne Blade
Author: Charlotte Bond
Genre: Dark fantasy
Publisher: Tordotcom
Publication Date: 28th May, 2024

Synopsis: Kill the dragon. Find the blade. Reclaim her honour.

It’s that, or end up like countless knights before her, as a puddle of gore and molten armour.

Maddileh is a knight. There aren’t many women in her line of work, and it often feels like the sneering and contempt from her peers is harder to stomach than the actual dragon slaying. But she’s a knight, and made of sterner stuff.

A minor infraction forces her to redeem her honour in the most dramatic way possible, she must retrieve the fabled Fireborne Blade from its keeper, legendary dragon the White Lady, or die trying. If history tells us anything, it’s that “die trying” is where to wager your coin.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi

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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: Small Town Horror
Author: Ronald Malfi
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Titan Press
Publication Date: 4th June, 2024

Synopsis:Five childhood friends are forced to confront their own dark past as well as the curse placed upon them in this horror masterpiece from the bestselling author of Come with Me.

Maybe this is a ghost story…

Andrew Larimer thought he left the past behind. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he finds he has no choice but to return home, and to confront the memories—and the horror—of a night, years ago, that changed everything.

For Andrew and his friends, the past is not dead, and the curse that has befallen them now threatens to destroy all that they’ve become.

One dark secret…

One small-town horror…

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Epeolatry Book Review: Myrrh by Polly Hall

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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: Myrrh
Author: Polly Hall
Genre: Psychological Horror
Publisher: Titan Books
Release Date: 9th April, 2024

Synopsis: Myrrh has a goblin inside her, a voice in her head that tells her all the things she’s done wrong, that berates her and drags her down. Desperately searching for her birth-parents across dilapidated seaside towns in the South coast of England, she finds herself silenced and cut off at every step.

Cayenne is trapped in a loveless marriage, the distance between her and her husband growing further and further each day. Longing for a child, she has visions promising her a baby.

As Myrrh’s frustrations grow, the goblin in her grows louder and louder, threatening to tear apart the few relationships she holds dear and destroy everything around her. When Cayenne finds her husband growing closer to his daughter – Cayenne’s stepdaughter – and pushing her further out of his life, she makes a decision that sends her into a terrible spiral.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Shadow of the Hidden by Kev Harrison

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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: Shadow of the Hidden
Author: Kev Harrison
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Genre: Horror/Occult Horror
Release Date: 19th March, 2024

Synopsis: It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s too late?

From Kev Harrison, author of The Balance and Below, journey with Seb, Oz and Deniz across ancient North African cities as they seek to banish the Shadow of the Hidden.

 

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

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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 Night Guest
Author: Hildur Knútsdóttir
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Tor Nightfire,
Release Date: 3rd September, 2024

Synopsis:Hildur Knutsdottir’s The Night Guest is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík that’s sure to keep you awake at night.
Iðunn is in yet another doctor’s office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something’s not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven’t revealed any cause.
When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same ― have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.
Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .
What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

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Epeolatry Book Review: Question Not My Salt by Amanda M. Blake

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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: Question Not My Salt
Author: Amanda M. Blake
Genre: Horror, Serial Killer Horror
Publisher: Torrid Waters, Crystal Lake Entertainment Publishing
Release Date: 16th February, 2024

Synopsis: Come for Thanksgiving Dinner. Stay for the Feast.
Sierra’s first American Thanksgiving promises to be unforgettable when her college roommate, Zoe, invites her to the Samuels family feast. But as the ten-hour banquet unfolds, it becomes clear this is no ordinary holiday gathering.
With everyone bound by a chilling rule—eat and drink exactly as served, and enjoy it, or face dire consequences—the traditional celebration quickly takes a dark and macabre turn. Will Sierra survive the Samuels’ sinister hospitality or become part of a feast far more horrifying than she could have ever imagined?
Question Not My Salt is a gripping tale blending the terror of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the culinary horror of Hannibal and The Menu.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Posthaste Manor by Jolie Toomajan & Carson Winter

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Title: Posthaste Manor
Author: Jolie Toomajan & Carson Winter
Genre: Ghost Fiction; Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Tenebrous Press
Release Date: 18th October, 2023

Synopsis:  NEVER TRUST A HOUSE WITH A NAME
Everyone has a story about Posthaste Manor.
None of the stories end well, but that doesn’t stop the hopeful from hoping and the desperate from trying.
This composite novel stands as both history and eulogy of one very haunted house, as recounted by artists, real estate agents, and beloved family pets; by the debauched, the dead and the dying, and anyone looking for one last chance.
Raise a glass in celebration. Just don’t linger within its walls for long.

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