Author: J.W. Donley

Articles / Reviews

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: Lute by Jennifer Marie Thorne

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.

Alien: Inferno's Fall

Title: Lute
By: Jennifer Marie Thorne
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Genre: Horror/Folk Horror
Release Date: 4th, October, 2022

Synopsis: Wicker Man meets Final Destination in Jennifer Thorne’s atmospheric, unsettling folk horror novel about love, duty, and community.

On the idyllic island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less.

Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. They live a happy, superior life, untouched by the war that rages all around them. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored.

Nina Treadway is new to The Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina’s heard about The Day, of course. Heard about the horrific tragedies, the lives lost, but she doesn’t believe in it. It’s all superstitious nonsense. Stories told to keep newcomers at bay and youngsters in line.

Then The Day begins. And it’s a day of nightmares, of grief, of reckoning. But it is also a day of community. Of survival and strength. Of love, at its most pure and untamed. When The Day ends, Nina―and Lute―will never be the same.

(more…)

Articles / Reviews

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: Little Eve by Catriona Ward

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.

Alien: Inferno's Fall

Title: Little Eve
Author: Catriona Ward
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 11th, October, 2022

Synopsis: From Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street, comes the Shirley Jackson Award-winning novel Little Eve, a heart-pounding tale of faith and family, with a devastating twist

“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.”

On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.

The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.

A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.

And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.

(more…)

Articles / Reviews

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror by Caleb Stephens

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.

Alien: Inferno's Fall

Title: If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror
Author: Caleb Stephens
Publisher:Salt Heart Press
Genre: Horror
Release Date:October, 2022

Synopsis: Coming October 2022…

An unlikely friendship is born in the red clay dirt of a trailer park. Two latchkey kids who will do anything to hold onto one other, despite the consequences.

A disabled boy and his sister move into a house by the sea, one haunted by a demon living in the walls.

A father on a camping trip in a remote section of Appalachia wakes to find his daughter missing, taken by something not quite human.

A traumatized teenager stumbles across a strange slide at a waterpark—one only he can see.

If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror is a visceral collection of thirteen stories that explore what happens when we open ourselves to others and dare to let them in. There are monsters on these pages, yes, ones whose teeth cut deep, but never as deep as the teeth of the monsters in the mirror.

(more…)

Articles / Reviews

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: What Remains when the Stars Burn Out by P.L. McMillan

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: What Remains when the Stars Burn Out
Author: P.L. McMillan
Publisher: Salt Heart Press
Genre: Horror
Release Date: 31st March, 2022

Synopsis: From the lips of a dying woman to the ears of an overworked nurse, a word begins to haunt her and the city in which she lives.

An office worker is convinced she has contracted something highly contagious, but no one believes her.

Earth is on the brink of collapse, when scientists discover a new plane of reality. Could this be the salvation people are seeking?

A company’s revolutionary method of travel promises instant teleportation across countless light years but at a price.

What Remains When The Stars Burn Out is a vivid collection of twelve stories ranging from the morbid to the macabre, the sinister to the supernatural, the unearthly to the uncanny, which are sure to send a shiver down your spine.

(more…)

Articles / Interviews

 by 

Read J.W. Donley’s Interview With Gwendolyn N. Nix!

Gwendolyn N. Nix lives in Missoula, MT. She saw her first beached humpback on a windy day in New York, met a ghost angel in Paris train station, and had Odin answer prayers on a mountain in Scotland. Her experience includes being the entertainment editor for Aconyte books, the senior editor for Outland Entertainment, being a casting producer, and social media manager. She has studied sharks in Belize and induced evolutionary pressure on green algae.

 

Her works include shorts in the, Pileaus Symphony No. 1, Where the Veil is Thin, Apex: World of Dinosaurs, and The Sisterhood of the Blade anthologies. She has four novels including Sharks of the Wasteland, The Falling Dawn and Seams of Shadow from her Celestial Scripts series, and the upcoming I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come. You can find a review of the new novel here at HorrorTree.com.

This is a transcription of our original video interview of Gwendolyn N. Nix that you can find here.

(more…)

Articles / Interviews

 by 

Watch J.W. Donley’s Interview With Gwendolyn N. Nix!

Today, we’re honored to share J.W. Donley’s video interview with Gwendolyn N. Nix on her upcoming release of ‘I Have Asked to be Where No Storms Come’ from Crystal Lake Publishing as well as her writing in general. Before jumping in, here is a synopsis of the novel to get you in the right headspace:

The facts of Domino Bluepoint’s afterlife are simple: he’s a half-breed witch from a people without a name, and no one wants to be stuck in Hell with witch blood.

When a demon bounty-hunter comes calling, Domino pairs up with his mother, who died too young and carries the witch lineage in her veins, to survive. Soon the two of them are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid running from whatever torture awaits them and whoever wants to harvest their magic. Yet, Domino doesn’t know that his brother, Wicasah, is behind this and is desperate to resurrect Domino out of long-lasting guilt and a sensation of belonging to no place and no one.

As Wicasah dives deeper into darker magic that ends in an ill-made deal, Domino must overcome addiction, depression, and hone his own brand of witch-magic to help save his brother—and the world—from an ancient god of lighting and thunder.

You can watch the interview right here:
(more…)

Articles / Reviews

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: The Man in the Field by James Cooper

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: The Man in the Field
Author: James Cooper
Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications
Genre: Occult Horror
Release Date: 10th June, 2022

Synopsis: The village: a remote, God-fearing place, governed by ancient rituals that provide eternal balance to the land. Here, people have faith in working the soil, the good Lord above and their own peaceful community. This is how they have lived for centuries, the Council providing spiritual oversight and the charismatic Father Lynch lighting the way.

As he does every year, according to an age-old custom, the man in the field arrives amid much rejoicing and apprehension. To sanctify the newly planted crops and ensure a productive harvest, the village must make a personal sacrifice in his name. This is the tradition that must be honored. For every blessing, there is a debt to be paid . . .

Mother Tanner, an older member of the village, has seen all this before. She has been born and raised in the shadow of these harsh solemnities and feels increasingly disturbed by them. Celebrating the Turning of the Wheel and exalting in God’s bounty is only half the story; there is much here that she is starting to distrust. Not least of which is Father Lynch himself and his beloved Council. And the enigmatic man in the field, who gazes not at the village, but at the distant horizon, thinking only of the overdue debt and the stroke of midnight when it will be time to collect . . . 

(more…)

Articles / Reviews

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: Silk Hills by Brian Level, Ryan Ferrier and Kate Sherron

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: Silk Hill
Author: Brian Level, Ryan Ferrier, Kate Sherron
Publisher: Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group, LLC.
Genre: Horror Manga/Sci-Fi
Release Date: 14th June, 2022

Synopsis: This atmospheric and stylish mystery set in the Appalachian region is perfect for fans of Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Sons of the Devil.
When Beth Wills comes to Silk Hills, a small Appalachian town that’s seen better days since the mines were abandoned, she expected a bit of culture shock… But not like this! Beth is someone who has a talent for finding people who don’t want to be found, and when she’s called to Silk Hills by a local titan of industry, she can tell that something’s not right. Little does she know…
Silk Hills was once booming, but the only reason people tend to come through town anymore is to buy Mothman merchandise. Before long, Beth finds out just how wrong things can get in the woods, as her search for a missing troubled youth finds her running afoul of the local drug trade, too-friendly creepers, a very sinister deer, and psychoactive moth dust. after all this time, for a new friend to sing his song… to take his hand and disappear?

(more…)