Author: J.W. Donley

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Epeolatry Book Review: Frost Bite by Angela Sylvaine

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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: Frost Bite
Author: Angela Sylvaine
Publisher: Dark Matter INK
Genre: Horror, Cosmic Horror, Creature Feature, Outbreak
Release date: 10th October, 2023

Synopsis: Remember the ’90s? Well…the town of Demise, North Dakota doesn’t, and they’re living in the year 1997. That’s because an alien worm hitched a ride on a comet, crash landed in the town’s trailer park, and is now infecting animals with a memory-loss-inducing bite–and right before Christmas! Now it’s up to nineteen-year-old Realene and her best friend Nate to stop the spread and defeat the worms before the entire town loses its mind. The only things standing in the way are their troubled pasts, a doomsday cult, and an army of infected prairie dogs.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Black Lord by Colin Hinckley

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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 Black Lord
Author: Colin Hinckley
Publisher: Tenebrous Press
Genre: Horror
Release date: 12th September, 2023

Synopsis: New Weird Folk Horror intertwines with a troubled family history in the debut novella from Colin Hinckley!

Eddie’s parents may be arguing about the disappearance of his infant brother Danny, but Eddie’s facing a terror all of his own. There’s a strange figure outside that claims it has Danny safe and sound—all Eddie needs to do to get his brother back is open that window.

Eddie’s father is filled with guilt over his relationship with his own lost brother. His mother has been abandoned to navigate her grief and terror alone. And his grandmother carries a disturbing, all-too-relevant truth about their shared family history.

As minutes tick by and hope for Danny grows ever smaller, the very fabric of their world disintegrates, welcoming eldritch terrors of unspeakable provenance to their doorstep. The family is losing a decade-long struggle against an entity that is not of this world, and its hunger threatens to swallow them whole.

 

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Epeolatry Book Review: Moon Fellows by Danger Slater

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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: Moon Fellows
Author: Danger Slater
Publisher: Perpetual Motion Machine
Genre: Horror, Bizzarro
Release date: 20th July, 2022

Synopsis: ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP INTO THE EXISTENTIAL ABYSS

Washington DC. 1906. The inaugural mission of the Moonfellow Program. A chance to shape the future of civilization as we know it. Our first tentative steps out into the stars…
It was a complete and unequivocal disaster.
Now a hapless gravedigger finds himself among the handful of survivors stranded on the lunar surface—forced to contend with madness, conspiracies, and whatever-the-fuck that thing is on the dark side, picking them off one by one. 
This is the 100% true-ish story of the brave men and women we abandoned on the moon.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Possession of Natalie Glasgow by Hailey Piper

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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 Possession of Natalie Glasgow
Author: Hailey Piper
Genre: Horror
Publisher: indie
Release Date: 2nd September, 2019

Synopsis: Margaret Willow has never met an eleven-year-old as dangerous as Natalie Glasgow. Natalie spends her days comatose, but at night she prowls her mother’s home, unnaturally strong and insatiably carnivorous. With doctors baffled, Natalie’s mother reaches out to Margaret, an expert in the supernatural. But even Margaret is mystified and terrified by Natalie’s condition. She’s dying, and before she dies, she might kill someone. Has a demon clawed its way inside an eleven-year-old girl? Or does the source of this nightmare lie with Natalie’s dead father?
A tight, tense novella, The Possession of Natalie Glasgow twists the exorcism tale at every turn down to its final grave confrontation.

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Epeolatry Book Review: WTF was That? by Bridgett Nelson

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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: WTF Was That?
Author: Bridgett Nelson
Publisher: Indie release
Genre: Horror, Extreme Horror
Release date: 1st, June, 2023

Synopsis: Bridgett Nelson, the two-time Splatterpunk Award-nominated author of the hugely popular A Bouquet of Viscera, has three deranged stories to tell that all you freaks are sure to love!
In “Getaway,” four college friends go on a beach house vacation in an Outer Banks town. The allure is that it’s off-season and the town is completely deserted…so why is there a loud knock on the door in the middle of the night?
In “Scars,” a famous author holds a contest to have characters named after his biggest fans. But after the book is published, the fans begin to die in the same way as their characters…
In “Belong,” Briony has dealt with an obsessed stalker her entire life. Just when she thinks he’s finally gone, all hell breaks loose…and Briony is no longer the only victim.
So enjoy! But if you share this book with the normal people in your life, be prepared to hear “WTF was that?”

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Door in the Mountain by Chris Cornetto

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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 Door in the Mountain: A Fantasy Novella
Author: Chris Cornetto
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror
Publisher: Of Metal and Magic Publishing
Release Date: April 4th, 2023

Synopsis: Some things lost should not be found, no matter what the wind tells you.
Down on his luck and out of food, Rorik is resigned to sell his only heirloom—a family ring with a mysterious symbol. When a stranger invites him to seek a dead man’s fortune, he sees his chance at last. But as his fellow treasure hunters start turning up dead, Rorik finds himself with more to fear than cliffs and ice. There’s no turning back. Not when the wind whispers of destiny.
The Door in the Mountain is a dark, character-driven fantasy adventure in the vein of Abercrombie, with a dash of Lovecraft for spice. Step off the edge of the map into the wraith-haunted frontier, where madness and death await the unwary. Come seek the Door, but think twice before looking within.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Confirmed Sightings by Bridget D. Brave, P.L. McMillan, Ryan Marie Ketterer

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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: Confirmed Sightings: a triple cryptid creature feature
Author: Bridget D. Brave, P.L. McMillan, Ryan Marie Ketterer
Publisher:  Salt Heart Press
Genre: Horror, Weird
Release date: 1st June, 2023

Synopsis: Horror fans and cryptid lovers unite! Grab your popcorn and candy, settle into your seat, and make sure to silence your phone for this triple creature feature!

A Piasa for Christmas by Bridget D. Brave Kaycee has returned to her hometown and finally found her soulmate in the most unexpected package: a transdimensional, all-powerful creature once trapped in a temporal prison. Can true love prevail between this headstrong aspiring influencer and an ancient immortal god?

eyeofmoth.exe by P.L. McMillan When the crew of the CRS Piasa encounter a space station drowning in madness caused by a creature from Pre-Calamity Earth, they become desperate to get back to their ship and warn the Company in a race against the clock.

Once Upon a Time in Turu by Ryan Marie Ketterer When a jackalope from the good part of town ends up dead, Policefoot Orli is tasked with solving the bizarre murder before the already tense town of Turu erupts in cryptid fury. But it won’t be as easy as it looks when all the usual suspects are very unusual themselves.

With full page illustrations for each novella and a foreword by Laurel Hightower, this is one anthology you don’t want to miss.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Jurassichrist by Michael Allen Rose

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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: Jurassichrist
Author: Michael Allen Rose
Genre: Bizzaro
Publisher: Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing
Release Date: April 6th, 2021

Synopsis: It’s time for Jesus to attempt his second coming, but linear time progression doesn’t apply to extra-spatial deities, so he ends up coming “again” long before the first time – the Jurassic period. Once he arrives, expecting to see a bunch of human beings who’ve been waiting for him for two millennial seasons, he is surprised to find himself in a weird civilization full of thunder lizards.

Jesus goes into Predator mode, arming himself to the teeth and slaughtering them wholesale, trying to find someone who’s capable of nailing him to a cross so he can get back home, however, dinosaurs don’t have thumbs. What they do have is the “hum,” a magical frequency capable of shaping the world. They have mythical metals. They have a sensible social contract. They have a bizarre, but seemingly decent civilization going.

Mammals however, are the most disgusting, rotten, violent things imaginable, and they seem to be evolving into something worse with the help of a little cosmic power. Something has been providing them with products that shouldn’t be invented for another billion years or so, from the as-seen-on-tv catalog, and they’re taking full advantage of it. Who is behind this forced evolution, and what could they stand to gain? Is heaven full of heroes, or gibbering lunatics?

It’s up to J.C. to set things right and stop the apocalypse and figure out whether the universe really should be run by a bunch of insane deities, or whether it’s better to wipe out heaven and let them sort it all out themselves! Action, adventure, insanity and good ol’ fashioned heresy!

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