Author: Kirsten Barger

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Epeolatry Book Review: Downpour by Christopher Hawkins

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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: Downpour
Author: Christopher Hawkins
Publisher: Coronis Publishing
Genre: American Horror, Supernatural Thrillers, American Literature
Release date: 15th September, 2023

Synopsis: A sudden storm appears above an isolated farmhouse in rural Illinois, bringing with it a relentless and unnatural rain. A rain that eats away at everything it touches. A rain that turns people into monsters.

Trapped inside his crumbling home, a father must do everything he can to keep his family from falling apart. But the rain calls to them, and not everyone wants to stay inside.

Haunted by memories of loss, he must put aside his painful past and find a way to keep them all safe. But the rain shows no signs of stopping, and time is running out.

From the award-winning author of Suburban Monsters comes a heartbreaking tale of survival and terror.

 

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Epeolatry Book Review: Down the Well by Joseph Blackhurst

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Title: Down the Well
Author: Joseph Blackhurst
Publisher: Independent
Genre: American Horror, Occult Fiction, Psychological Thriller
Release date: 11th June, 2023

Synopsis: When hunters stumble upon a genocide deep in rural Kentucky, investigators unearth a mysterious cache of canvases at the scene that seem to contain the secret to solving the case – but they’re written in an unintelligible script that has the uncanny ability to drive people insane.

Immune to the sinister power of the canvases due to his color blindness, lawyer Joe Blackhurst is tasked with translating the messages and unravelling the truth behind the carnage. Joe begins to unmask the perplexing story behind the canvases creator: Richie Maltessouri, a down-on-his-luck young lawyer struggling under a mountain of debt.

Drawn deeper into an unsettling mystery, Joe finds his fate tangled with a cast of strange characters – including a handicapped painter with seemingly supernatural skills, a rude barista, and a camgirl. As he peels away the layers of Richie’s enigmatic story, he finds himself flirting closer and closer with madness.

And when the trail of canvases leads him to an old, dark well, Joe knows that the answers that have been tormenting him lie deep at the bottom – if he can bring himself to face them…

Step into a gripping paranormal thriller that artfully weaves together edge-of-your-seat suspense, stunning prose, and a dash of disturbing horror. Down The Well is an unforgettable read that’s perfect for fans of experimental novels from authors like Mark Z. Danielewski.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Dark Water Daughter (Winter Sea #1) by H. M. Long

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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: Dark Water Daughter (Winter Sea #1)
Author: H.M Long
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Sword and Sorcery. Fantasy Action and Adventure, Epic Fantasy
Release date: 18th July, 2023

Synopsis: A stormsinger and pirate hunter join forces against a deathless pirate lord in this swashbuckling Jacobean adventure on the high-seas.

Launching the Winter Sea series, full of magic, betrayal, redemption and fearsome women, for readers of Adrienne Young, R. J. Barker and Naomi Novik.

Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Faced with servitude to pirate lord Silvanus Lirr, Mary offers her skills to his arch-rival in exchange for protection – and, more importantly, his help sending Lirr to a watery grave. But her new ally has a vendetta of his own, and Mary’s dreams are dark and full of ghistings, spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of her homeland and the figureheads of ships.

Samuel Rosser is a disgraced naval officer serving aboard The Hart, an infamous privateer commissioned to bring Lirr to justice. He will stop at nothing to capture Lirr, restore his good name and reclaim the only thing that stands between himself and madness: a talisman stolen by Mary.

Finally, driven into the eternal ice at the limits of their world, Mary and Samuel must choose their loyalties and battle forces older and more powerful than the pirates who would make them slaves.

Come sail the Winter Sea, for action-packed, high-stakes adventures, rich characterization and epic plots full of intrigue and betrayal.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

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Title: The Dead Take the A Train (Carrion City #1)
Author: Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Genre: Occult Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Cosmic Horror


Release date: 3rd October, 2023

Synopsis:  Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.

Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority.

Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah—and the entire world—directly in the path of annihilation.

The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Cassandra Khaw’s cosmic horror and Richard Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Were House by E. Rose Sabin

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Title: Were House
Author: E. Rose Sabin
Publisher: Arucadi Enterprises, LLC
Genre: Fantasy
Release date: September 15, 2015 (Reprinted 2021)

Synopsis: Jobless and evicted from her apartment, Charlotte Ramirez has nowhere to go. Being were compounds her problem. The animal spirit inside her is a jaguar, and it’s restless. When she passes a man on the street and recognizes, via her unique ability to “see” the animal within other weres, that he carries within him the spirit of a wolf, she turns to follow him only to see him brutally stabbed. Because she witnessed the stabbing, she is contacted by other weres and taken to the house of a clan of weres. Has she found the home she is looking for or only more trouble? To win a place in the clan she is told that she must accomplish daunting tasks: learn whether the stabbing victim is alive or dead, discover who stabbed him and why, and locate the stabber so that he or she can be brought to justice. Charlotte wants very much to become part of the were family, so she embarks on her assigned duties without careful planning and with no idea of the difficulties and dangers she will face. As she blunders through her initial attempts, she makes enemies of some of the were household, discovers and unwittingly endangers a young were who is not part of the household, and faces enemies who are determined to destroy the weres. Charlotte quickly learns what a high price she’ll have to pay for the privilege of making the Were House her home.

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Citadel of Bureaucracy by J.D. Mitchell

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Title: The Citadel of Bureaucracy
Author: J.D. Mitchell
Publisher: Fighting Reality Books
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Political Satire, Speculative Fiction
Release date: 1st June, 2023

Synopsis: Part story, part game, this is a book in which YOU make all the decisions!

The Citadel of Bureaucracy holds dark and dangerous perils for civil servants unprepared for its labyrinthine cubicle walls, but enter you must. The Albatross Pay System has shorted you, money’s tight, and long hours have left you ragged and in desperate need of a vacation. You’ve just got to make it through one more day. But it won’t be easy. Packed with asbestos, bad wiring, and with air quality equivalent to a dank, rat-infested dungeon, the Darby Complex, known as “The Citadel” to its hapless inmates, is riddled with appalling hazards and frantic civil servants to test you beyond all reasonable limits.

Working against the clock, you must fight unreliable transit, dodgy I.T., the dreaded Canada goose, and a rising sense of nihilism in an effort to get paid and clear your desk before your vacation. YOU decide which paths to take, which dangers to risk, and which colleagues to confront. May the blessings of the Janus-faced God of Finance and H.R. be with you, for you’ll find little succour in the Citadel’s unhallowed halls.

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: The Headsman by Cristina Mîrzoi

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Title:The Headsman Cristina Mîrzoi
Author:Cristina Mîrzoi
Genre: Horror / Fantasy / Collection
Release date: 14th March, 2022

Synopsis:  Take a glimpse into the world of a headsman, a gloomy village in which each dweller has a secret: an evil witch, a shrewd florist, a naive young man, a foreign merchant, a dreadful husband, a mischievous maid, and a lustful duke. These stories are intertwined, weaving a dark narrative of love, trickery, brutality, and loss.

 

Under the bleak aesthetic, raw human emotions unravel themselves in a gripping story about moral decay. In a world that belongs to the wicked, how far can one walk this path while keeping a clean conscience?


The Headsman is a collection of short stories that focus on interconnected characters, sometimes looking at the same event from a different perspective. As a genre, it falls somewhere under dark fiction territory.

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Comic Book Review: All Eight Eyes #4

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Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Piotr Kowalswki
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Cover Artist: Piotr Kowalswki
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Publication Date: July 19, 2023
Format: FC, 29 pages; Series

Synopsis: Now that Vin knows the truth about “Reynolds,” he’s determined to help track down the spider who took everything from him. But they’re not alone in their descent into the beast’s lair, as a self-interested politician jeopardizes their hunt. Fangs fly in the gory conclusion to this creepy-crawly creature-feature! Jaws meets Arachnophobia in a new vision of creature-feature terror from Eisner-nominated writer STEVE FOXE (Razorblades: The Horror Magazine) and dread-inspiring artist PIOTR KOWALSKI (Bloodborne)!

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