Category: Articles

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Epeolatry Book Review: Grab by Kendra Preston Leonard

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: Grab
Author: Kendra Preston Leonard
Publisher: Red Ogre Review Books
Genre: Poetry, folklore
Release date: 7th September, 2023

Synopsis: In the spirit of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, or the best of Neil Gaiman, GRAB is a lively collection of dark fantasy, horror, and folklore-inspired poetry that offers werewolf drama, eldritch entertainments for royalty, a guided tour of dangerous and fantastical labyrinths, spells for snow, far-seeing, and playing the cello, a Ukrainian love story, an unexpected haiku.

Come dance on skulls, see the Erlking stopped in his tracks, and find out how a baby gets raised in a house of witches.

This book is published by Red Ogre Review via a grant from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

 

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Epeolatry Book Review: Downpour by Christopher Hawkins

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: 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

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: 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: Calamity by Constance Fay

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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: Calamity
Author: Constance Fay
Publisher: Bramble
Genre: YA, YA Science Fiction and Action, YA Dystopian
Release date: 14th November, 2023

Synopsis: The captain of a ragtag mercenary ship is given an offer she can’t refuse by the ruthless head of an intergalactic noble family. The only catch? She’ll have to team up with his son–an upsettingly competent hardbody with his own agenda–to get her reward.
She’s got a ramshackle spaceship, a misfit crew, and a big problem with its sexy newest member…
Temperance Reed, banished from the wealthy and dangerous Fifteen Families, just wants to keep her crew together after their feckless captain ran off with the intern. But she’s drowning in debt and revolutionary new engine technology is about to make her beloved ship obsolete.
Enter Arcadio Escajeda. Second child of the terrifying Escajeda Family, he’s the thorn in Temper’s side as they’re sent off on a scouting mission on the backwater desert planet of Herschel 2. They throw sparks every time they meet but Temper’s suspicions of his ulterior motives only serve to fuel the flames between them.
Despite volcanic eruptions, secret cultists, and deadly galactic fighters, the greatest threat on this mission may be to Temper’s heart.

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Indie Bookshelf Halloween Special! All the Offers!

Spooky season means a feast for horror readers!

To help you while away those midnight hours, a large number of writers and small presses have put their books on offer. Scroll down and you will find books that are either free or available at a reduced price. And if you enjoy these, why not leave the author a review or tell others about it?

Either click on the image to go to the book or other link if shown.

Enjoy!

 

 

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Avoid Being Turned into a Toad: what you need to know when you’re writing the Witch

Avoid Being Turned into a Toad: what you need to know when you’re writing the Witch 

By Sarah Elliott

From Winnie to Willow to Wanda, women with magical powers feature in films, TV series and stories throughout the ages. Synonyms for the witch rise or wane in popularity over time including enchantress, sorceress, hag, necromancer, wiccan, and crone.

 

I met my first witch in a storybook. I can’t remember which story it was, but I do remember that she was old, hag-like, cruel, crooked-nosed and had an evil cackle. Every witch I ever came across since then was the same, until Glinda, the Witch of the North portrayed in the film musical The Wizard of Oz (inspired by the books by L. Frank Baum). Glinda was a witch with a serious glow-up!

 

(Fun fact: The Wicked Witch of the West was named Elphaba in Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked (1995). Her name was based upon the initials of L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), The initials “L.F.B.” each gave one syllable to the name: El-pha-ba.)

 

Our wonderful writerly imaginations have spawned a whole spectrum of witches. Like many things in society, perceptions and definitions change over time. This is certainly the case with the witch. Look at the definitions below. Which one fits the witch in your story?

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Epeolatry Book Review: Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong

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: Hemlock Island
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Ghost Fiction, Occult Fiction, Horror
Release date: 12th September, 2023

Synopsis: Laney Kilpatrick has been renting her vacation home to strangers. The invasion of privacy gives her panic attacks, but it’s the only way she can keep her beloved Hemlock Island, the only thing she owns after a pandemic-fueled divorce. But broken belongings and campfires that nearly burn down the house have escalated to bloody bones, hex circles, and now, terrified renters who’ve fled after finding blood and nail marks all over the guest room closet, as though someone tried to claw their way out…and failed.
When Laney shows up to investigate with her teenaged niece in tow, she discovers that her ex, Kit, has also been informed and is there with Jayla, his sister and her former best friend. Then Sadie, another old high school friend, charters over with her brother, who’s now a cop.
There are tensions and secrets, whispers in the woods, and before long, the discovery of a hand poking up from the earth. Then the body that goes with it… But by that time, someone has taken off with their one and only means off the island, and they’re trapped with someone―or something―that doesn’t want them leaving the island alive.

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 10/27/2023

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by life in general?

Get in touch and we’ll promote you here. The post is prepared each Thursday for publication on Friday. Contact us via Horror Tree’s contact address or connect via Twitter or Facebook.

Click on the book covers for more information. Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page – there’s all sorts lurking in the deep.

 

Before you scroll down through the books however, please could you consider checking out the ‘Creatives in Crisis’ section. This has been added to help those who need additional support at this time. Thank you!

 

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