Author: Luc Dantes

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Epeolatry Book Review: Rabbit Face and Further Awful Encounters by Thomas C. Mavroudis

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Title: Rabbit Face and Further Awful Encounters
Author: Thomas C. Mavroudis
Genre: Occult & Supernatural Horror
Publisher: JournalStone 
Release Date: April 25, 2025

Synopsis: Escaping the mounting issues with city life, a couple move into a suburban subdivision that utilizes a special form of security. An ex-con shares her experiences with an obscure cryptid on a late night talk show. Grigori Rasputin conducts a cult under observation by British Intelligence. The personification of Death, bored and lonely, wanders the streets of Denver seeking connection.

Every encounter is a confrontation. Doppelgängers, conglomerate spirits, and other awful things await your acquaintance in Rabbit Face and Further Awful Encounters, the debut collection from Thomas C. Mavroudis, of whom Bram Stoker award winner Christa Carmen says, “Employs crisp prose, heartbreakingly earnest characters, and a wicked gift for dark humor to absolutely brilliant effect.”

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Epeolatry Book Review: Demon Drink by Kris Ashton

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Title: Demon Drink
Author: Kris Ashton
Genre: Occult Horror
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Publication date: 25th April, 2025

Synopsis: A night out becomes a nightmare in this dark supernatural novel that blends demonic possession, occult rituals, and the chilling consequences of temptation.

Times are tough in Black Wattle. Drought and forest fires have ravaged the town and its lifeblood, tourism, is on the wane. Nobody is feeling the pinch more than divorcee Shirley Goodsall, who is trying to keep the historic Ironstone Hotel afloat while quelling animosity between her ex-husband and their teenage daughter. So when the business manager for a microbrewery, Damon Prince, offers her a promotional deal that includes free kegs of beer, it’s a deal that seems too good to be true.

And it is. Shirley’s elation soon turns to horror as she discovers she has unwittingly helped Prince unleash dark forces in her town. Black Wattle’s residents are plunged into a nightmare of infection and blood-curdling transformations. Shirley and a handful of survivors band together to try to foil Prince’s fiendish plot, but Prince is no ordinary man. He will stare into their souls and turn their most shameful personal demons against them…

Fans of King’s earlier novels such as ’Salem’s Lot and Needful Things will revel in every ghastly, page-turning detail of Demon Drink, a master class in small-town horror from Australian Shadows Award Winner, Kris Ashton.

Can you handle your drink? 

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Amusement Park by Jeff Whitehead and Ryan Carr

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Title: The Amusement Park
Author: Jeff Whitehead
Artist: Ryan Carr
Genre: Horror Graphic Novel
Publisher: Storm King Comics
Publication date: 10th June, 2025

Synopsis: Two titans of horror come together for the first time ever, in John Carpenter Presents George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park, the graphic novel adaptation of George Romero’s lost 1973 film of the same name, presented by John Carpenter and Sandy King’s Storm King Comics.

William Lincoln, an impatient businessman in his 20s, casually asks a small-town coffee shop barista about a carousel horse atop its roof. Within earshot, an elderly man asks William if he would like to learn about the history of the sprawling amusement park that once stood on that spot, the carousel horse the final reminder of its existence. They settle into a conversation that immediately disturbs young William. It is the story of an elderly man hoping to experience the amusement park one last time to recapture childhood memories, to relish the rapidly fleeting remaining moments.

Instead of pleasant memories, each attraction becomes a surreal microcosm of aging and its inherent challenges as bodies and minds begin to break down. The elderly man is abused, pushed in a seemingly endless throng of elderly people through attractions that mimic the final stages of life. Finally, he winds up right back where he started, battered both mentally and physically. Instead of being able to leave the park, he realizes he is trapped in a loop, forced to relive the harrowing experience over and over. At the end of the elderly man’s tale, William is puzzled, concerned, and annoyed, irritated to have had his time wasted on such a story.

William quickly realizes that not everything in the coffee shop is as it seems. The elderly man with whom young William has been conversing shares his name. It is William Lincoln. Perplexed and scared now, young William attempts to leave, fleeing through the coffee shop’s front door. When the door closes behind him, William is back in the amusement park, transformed again into his elderly self, still trapped in the loop, forced to reconcile the reality of aging and ultimately, his own mortality.

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Epeolatry Book Review: It’s No Fun Anymore by Brittany Micka-Foos

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Title: It’s No Fun Anymore
Author: Brittany Micka-Foos
Genre: Domestic Horror
Publisher: Apprentice House
Publication date: 17th June, 2025

Synopsis: “It’s No Fun Anymore” is a collection of eight stories that explore the politics of victimization, the sites of trauma on women’s bodies, and their attempts to divine meaning from suffering.

 

In “The Experiment,” the murder of a young girl prompts a stay-at-home mother to undertake a desperate bid for agency, drawing unlikely inspiration from a 1950s self-help book. An MLM saleswoman in “Border Crossings” is held captive at the Canadian border, and in her marriage. And “Thumb Stump” introduces a new mother who worries her baby will inherit both her perceived deformity and generational trauma.

 

These stories examine the double binds of motherhood, the sham of “having it all,” the daily struggles. The centralizing thread is the question: How can trauma be transformed?

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Epeolatry Book Review: We Like It Cherry by Jacy Morris

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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: We Like It Cherry
Author: Jacy Morris
Genre: Supernatural Horror
Publisher: Tenebrous Press
Publication date: 31st July, 2025

Synopsis: Ezra Montbanc is burned out. The reality series he hosts—immersing himself into the cultures and celebrations of Indigenous tribes—borders on pure exploitation and has been relegated to tax write-off status by the network; this was not the prestigious journalism career he had long envisioned.
Everything changes when Ezra receives an invitation to document the rites of a mysterious, hitherto unknown tribe: the Winoquin, who reside in the harrowing, inhospitable Arctic. Ezra and his crew depart immediately for the home of the Winoquin, only to find themselves in a bloody battle for survival against a mythical horror with a serious grudge against modern man.
We Like It Cherry is a story about identity and the quest for success, splashed with supernatural slasher vibes and the nail-biting relentlessness of survival horror.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Beyond the Deep by Carson Fredriksen

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Title: Beyond the Deep
Author: Carson Fredriksen
Genre: Horror (Creature Feature)
Publisher: Baynam Books Press
Publication date: 25th January, 2025

Synopsis: In 1991, shortly after stopping at the Sammy’s Oasis resort, eight-year-old Mike Burgess witnesses the deep end of the swimming pool disappear and a creature emerge from its depths. Although he is able to escape with his life, his older brother Davey isn’t so lucky.

Years later, a new recreation center is built on the land that once housed Sammy’s Oasis. Mike tries to think that the creature is dead and buried. But after reading about several disappearances in the area, Mike realizes that the creature has awoken from its slumber and is seeking fresh victims. With the help of the complex’s receptionist, Ivy, Mike must stop the creature once and for all and uncover why the assistant manager, Lester Snidely, is so protective of the pool.

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