Tagged: review

Articles / Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Black Out the Stars by Christopher Bond

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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: Black Out the Stars
Author: Christopher Bond
Genre: Crime horror
Publisher: Aquino Loayza
Publication date: 25th March, 2025

Synopsis: Marcus, a man estranged from his family, returns to his roots amid a backdrop of generational trauma in rural, poverty-stricken Ohio, only to find that not all family secrets die given time. As Marcus helps his uncle drain a pond on their ancestral property, he uncovers the dark secrets of his family and the land they’ve called home.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Bodily Harm by Deborah Sheldon

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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: Bodily Harm
Author: Deborah Sheldon
Genre: Crime horror
Publisher: Undertaker Books
Publication date: October 11, 2024

Synopsis: Survival has a price… Is Cara ready to pay it?

From the moment she feels a gun barrel shoved into her back, Cara Haynes is thrown into the brutal world of vicious criminals and the police officers tough enough to pursue them.

Cara has lived in Melbourne just a few weeks when she survives an armed robbery at her local pizzeria. Traumatised, afraid and alone, Cara’s lifeline is Mick Thompson, a detective from the Armed Offence Squad, whose compulsion to find these violent offenders keeps him awake at night. But soon, Cara doesn’t know the difference between safety and danger…

Written by award-winning author, Deborah Sheldon, Bodily Harm is a fast-paced, savage and disturbing read where one woman’s nightmare becomes a detective’s obsession. Don’t miss out—get your copy today!

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Epeolatry Book Review: Shadowplays, ed. Peter Coleborn and Mike Chinn

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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: Shadowplays
Author: various, ed. Peter Coleborn & Mike Chinn
Genre: horror
Publisher: PS Publishing
Publication date: 1st October, 2024

Synopsis: From an old regional theatre on the English coast to a Hollywood sound stage, an odd audition in London, by way of a sad and lonely hotel that attracts a series of strange residents. And much else too. Here are reflections on the nature of truth, how fiction and childish verse can impact reality, and the dangers inherent in retreating from that reality. Photographs and hauntings. Loss and longing. Just how lucky is it being lucky. Strange revenges and even stranger curses.

These nineteen tales of skewed everyday existence, divorced from the outwardly mundane world, demonstrate that all is not quite how it at first appears. These small, uneasy dramas play out in the shadows, in the twilight, hiding from the rational world.

These stories embrace the Shadows.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Black Cat Tales, An Anthology of Black Cats, ed. Francesca Maria & Mark Causey

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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: Black Cat Tales, An Anthology of Black Cats
Author: Various, ed. Francesca Maria and Mark Causey
Genre: Horror, Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Black Cat Publishing
Publication date: 13th June, 2025

Synopsis: A black cat approaches, do you let it cross your path, or run in the opposite direction? From the superstitious to the unlucky, from a witch’s familiar to a soul stealing grave robber, black cats have captured our imagination and remain solidly in the realm of the dark. 

Join authors from around the world for never before published horror, dark fantasy and mystery short stories and poems featuring the beloved, feared and mystical black cat. Black Cat Tales showcases a diverse group of authors ranging in age from 17 to 80, some with multiple award winning publications under their belts, for others, this will be the first time seeing their work in print.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

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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: Murder by Memory
Author: Olivia Waite
Genre: sci-fi mystery
Publisher: tordotcom
Publication date: 18th March, 2025

Synopsis: A mind is a terrible thing to erase…

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…

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Epeolatry Book Review: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

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: Murder by Memory
Author: Olivia Waite
Genre: sci-fi mystery
Publisher: tordotcom
Publication date: 18th March, 2025

Synopsis: A mind is a terrible thing to erase…

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…

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Epeolatry Book Review: We All Go Into the Dark by Kevin Lucia

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: We All Go Into the Dark
Author: Kevin Lucia
Genre: Horror 
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Publication date: 6th December, 2024

Synopsis: In We All Go Into the Dark, Kevin Lucia masterfully blends atmospheric horror with cosmic dark fantasy, taking readers on a spine-chilling journey through small-town myths, cult horrors, and paranormal mysteries. If you enjoy creepy ghost stories, mysterious lore, and the ever-present sense of an evil lurking just out of sight, this collection will haunt you long after the final page is turned.

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Epeolatry Book Review: Beyond the Deep by Carson Fredriksen

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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: 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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