There’s something wicked happening in Donn, Texas!

I am surprised how much this story creeped me out!

Normally, I prefer to have Alexa read to me, or even the TTS in the Kindle Fire I have is pretty good – compared to my last Kindle anyway. My point being… I’m used to Alexa, and my older, British mom type reading me my extreme horror when necessary. In most of the audio books I’ve tried, the narrator pulls me out if the story, if I’m ever able to get there in the first place.
That is not the case here. The woman doing the audio for Donn, TX made the story! I’m going to have to come back to edit her name in I think. I can only remember Micha. Just so you know, my fingers are crossed, and I’m hoping she comes back to narrate ‘every year’ 😉
In 1952 we are traveling with a young couple on a road trip to see her parents, and the ‘her’ is very, very pregnant. She is having a hard go of things, puking every few miles, and it’s time to take a rest for the night. In Donn, Texas. ♪ donn donn DONNNNN ♪
Head to Eric Butler’s website to get the lay if the land, and find out what happens during the couple’s siesta – you can download a copy of the written book, or listen to the audio free on the page.
I am really excited to find out ALL the evils of Donn, TX!

Every month or so there will be another addition to the Donn, TX Universe. They will come out as eBooks and Audio Books. Around every 50,000 words produced, the stories will be collected into a paperback edition. This way there are a number of ways for you to enjoy and consume The Donn, TX Collection.

Eric Butler Author / Naked Cat Press

Eric Butler on Amazon, Goodreads,

Donn, TX 1952, 1969,

* The narrator’s name is Micah Cottingham, and she’s fantastic!

Stronger Than Hate by Robert Essig

Francine watches, and she listens to them from below. TRAPPED. She is hurt, and imprisoned at the bottom of a sinkhole that opened up in her precious garden while they torment her.

Buy on Amazon or borrow through KU

Familiar faces look down upon her—the worst students she ever had the displeasure of teaching before she retired from the local high school. They snicker as money changes hands. They spit on her. Throw things at her.

And there’s no way in hell they’re going to get help.

But someone else knows about Francine’s predicament. Her neighbor Greg, another former student. The one whose peers called him Lazy Eye. The one who always looked to be accepted even at the expense of Francine’s safety. Does he have it in his heart to do the right thing, to come to his senses and call the police?

At the mercy of deviants, Francine Mosely must harness her inner strength to survive their torments, but how much can she take? Through guidance from the memory of her late husband she banishes herself from what is happening, retreating to her most precious memories, but what happens when the horrors around her infiltrate her mind? How much can she take before breaking down? Is Francine Mosely STRONGER THAN HATE?

Angel on my right shoulder… “Ahh, revenge, but at what cost?” Devil on my left shoulder leans over and whispers in my ear… “Forty bucks, and ¼ bag of weed.“ Me… “I’M THINKING!”

SG in STRONGER THAN HATE, by Robert Essig

It’s been a while since I’ve read human depravity at this level!
The story worked – the bully and the bullied, the mentality that allowed this to go on for so long, the drugs, (it had to have the drugs), and how so many kept a secret – it’s all there, working together, and believable. Till the very ending bit –
and that’s the reason I only gave 4 stars instead of 5. Because of ‘The Dark Ones‘.

WARNING

*Not really – but possible spoilers ahead*
It’s only my personal opinion, others may completely disagree. ‘The Dark Ones’ took the story somewhere that I didn’t think was needed. As a coping mechanism – yes. But, the bit at the end was something I think the story could have done without.

How to connect with the author: Find him on his blog Robert Essig’s Confusions, Delusions, and Formidable Impressions, Facebook, follow @Robert_Essig on Twitter, Amazon, and Goodreads.

Have you read STRONGER THAN HATE? What did you think? Leave a comment below. Until next time… stay safe, and stay scary – not scared!

P, L & N💋

~sg

Twisted Sideways

by Allisha McAdoo

*Warning* This story may contain graphic materials that not everyone finds suitable.

Ember Oaks is not your typical asylum and these are not your typical stories. Within these walls are deep dark secrets that give the entire building it’s depth. Each patient tells their chilling and terrifying stories about how they ended up at Ember Oaks. These stories will have your mind twisted sideways as they keep you up at night.

I love asylum stories, but there aren’t many out there that are worth picking up. And I’ve picked up a lot of ’em. A lot. That makes the really good ones stand out even more though, and I’m happy that I can add TWISTED SIDEWAYS to that invisible list in my head!

I was excited right from rip when I realized it’s a collection of short stories, encased in one. The author, Allisha McAdoo, walks us through Ember Oaks, and introduces us to some of the asylum’s more interesting residents. We learn their stories, and find out how they came to permanently reside in this seventh circle of Hell. (But it has nice curtains!)

These curtains really do make my special place in Hell look more special.

Some of these stories are sick! They’re ALL twisted. And TWISTED SIDEWAYS is definitely worth reading. Grab a copy, you won’t be disappointed. Plus it’s hot off the presses, you can brag that you read it before all your friends! (pssst…hey… it’s free today – grab your copy today!) If you miss the sale, the book is available on KU – bonus points! +5 additional bonus points ‘cuz I love saying McAdoo! 😜

Connect With Allisha McAdoo on Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, and @AllishaMcadoo on Twitter.

P, L & N💋

~sg

Bad Appetites

by Jon Athan

WARNING: This book contains scenes of graphic violence and disturbing themes. This book also contains scenes discussing depression and suicide. Please enjoy at your own discretion.

Cindy Moore, a morbidly obese woman, has struggled to lose weight for years. Hours of exercise and a meticulous diet has only led to disappointment and depression. Her life drastically changes when she discovers a ‘miracle’ diet pill that allows her to lose weight without dieting or exercising. The pills, however, come with disturbing side-effects, including dangerous changes to her body, mind, and appetite…

Jon Athan brings you a grotesque body horror novel that targets social stigmas, unethical businesses, and psychological terror. If a pill could change your life while hurting the people around you, would you take it?

Review from January 2017

I gotta tell ya… I was pleasantly surprised at Jon Athan‘s new body horror novel 🙂 No, it’s not that I expected anything bad, but I thought I knew exactly where the story was going to go, and stay, until the last page. I was wrong. Sure – you can’t have a book like this without going there at all, but this isn’t a story based upon eating up mankind. Give it a go – it has a little something ‘new’ for us, and I think that Jon Athan is going to become a better known name among our circles this year!

Peace, Love & Necrophillia ♥
~sg

City of Hunger

by Jon Athan

WARNING: This novel contains graphic content. This book is not intended for those easily offended or appalled.

Traveling through rural Montana, Blake and Susan Hanson stumble upon a small, abandoned town known as ‘Bobcat.’ Eager to kill time before meeting their family in Washington, they decide to explore the town. They find broken down cars, looted stores, and raided houses—and blood and bones. It looks like the town was raided and pillaged, and they fear the raid isn’t over.

There are people in that city. And they are hungry.

In this vicious horror novel, Jon Athan—the author of Cannibal Creek and Spit and Die—brings you into the early nineties to meet the old and new residents of Bobcat.

First of all, thank you for doing cannibals, not zombies!

This was a lot better than I first expected. I should have learned by now – When it comes to my favorite authors, most of the books that I’ve put off reading for one reason or another have turned out to be pretty awesome! (See Matt Shaw and his DEN series!) Still, I don’t think I was totally invested…srry.

The story takes place in the ’90’s, but the characters sometimes act like they just stepped out of an ’80’s horror flick 😝 Seriously, though, there was a bad decision or two made here, enough for me to tell at someone through the pages. But where would stories go if not for their characters going rouge and getting into trouble.

It’s really weird to think about how close Bobcat really is to another city, and civilization. Don’t dwell on it though, you’ll start to get angry, lol. In that sense it reminds me of M. Night Shyamalan’s THE VILLAGE.

LIKE Jon Athan on Facebook, Goodreads & @Jonny_Athan on Twitter. Grab City of Hunger from Amazon, or KU.

P, L & N 💋

~sg

OMERION: (Hell is My New Home) by Angel Gelique

 

In life, Samuel Rylandt was a serial rapist and murderer who callously committed heinous acts with no regard whatsoever for the women he victimized. In death, however, he will suffer the consequences of his depravity as his soul undergoes a startling corporeal transformation and he is thrown to Hell (Omerion) to complete three horrific phases of moral reconstruction.

Samuel’s notions of the underworld are broadened as he learns that “Hell” is actually an elaborate civilization where the damned agonizingly learn the virtues that evaded them in life.

 

 

 

OMERION: (Hell is My New Home) on Amazon, Goodreads,

Angel Gelique on her Official Webpage, Amazon, Goodreads,

 

How well can you ever really know someone?

Mommy Dearest by Willow Rose
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

You can really get to know someone in thirty days.
– Just ask Morgan Spurlock.

The faces that people show to the world are not always the same faces that look into our eyes when no one else is around – the ones trying to melt our soul with a mere glance.
I’m speaking generally, of course.
BUT… if my now mother-in-law would have come to stay with me and The Dark Defender way back when… I seriously would have just shot myself. I’d love to tell you that we’re now best of friends all these years later – but my lies smell like a fart in a car, so I’m not even going to try. (We’re getting a lot better with our face to face time though!)

Crystal is hoping to have a very different experience.
Her soon-to-be mother-in-law is coming to stay for a whole month, and she hopes that they’ll really be able to bond during that time. So what if she is just finding out what a mama’s boy her fiance is? Why should it bother her that they don’t speak English when they’re talking around her? She is just imagining those smug, self satisfied sneers coming from Mommy Dearest across the dinner table… right?

One month. That’s enough time to learn their habits, and get used to their quirks. It might even be enough time for everyone to start showing their real selves to one another…

Good luck, Crystal!

Check out more of my reviews

THE ABUSE OF ASHLEY COLLINS by Jon Athan

I don’t  know why I ever chose to torture myself and willingly read A CHILD CALLED IT,  but Dave Pelzer broke something inside me – I haven’t been right since.  Knowing that, you’d think I’d have learned a lesson, (yeah, I know… I’m audibly laughing right now, too).  Nope. Years after ‘ACCI’ I decided that I wanted to read THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, and I let Jack Ketchum walk right in and start poking at the wound that David Pelzer left with a big, pointy stick.  I think it was the masochist in me who invited Mendal W. Johnson to drop by and sucker-punch my PTSD in the back of the head.  As far as the ‘Let’s Go Play At The Adams‘ fiction/non-fiction debate’ goes – I’m sticking with IT’S FICTION, but I’m sure all the atrocities have been committed, many times, and on many different Barbaras. 
Like LGPATA, THE ABUSE OF ASHLEY COLLINS is not a true story – but it very well could be. Watching the decreasing sanity, and the elevating brutality of Ashley’s parents demonstrates just how fast situations can escalate. One little poke at the wrong moment, and all control is lost – you can’t come back from certain things.

       

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. It is disturbing, and hard to read at times, but the author is not exploiting issues to gain shock value for a horror story. Jon Athan comes at the story from every possible angle, from every p.o.v., and sheds light on problems that most families would keep hidden in the dark. Let me misquote one of my favorite movies before you start reading…

WARNING: This book contains scenes of graphic violence, including violence towards children. This book is about abuse—verbal, physical, and emotional. This book does not feature any explicit sex scenes, but it does discuss sexual abuse. This book is not intended for those easily offended or appalled.

Ashley Collins, a sixteen-year-old girl, has severe behavior issues. She regularly fights with her parents, Logan and Jane. When the fights become personal and physical, Logan and Jane decide to take matters into their own hands. They chain their daughter in the basement and abuse her in an attempt to rescue her from her bad behavior… while delving into their own deviance and depravity.

This is a story of family and abuse. This is a story of violence and discipline. This is the abuse of Ashley Collins.

Jon Athan, author of A Family of Violence, brings you an uncompromising vision of human horror. Can the cycle of abuse be broken?

 

Find The Abuse of Ashley Collins on Goodreads, Amazon, and it’s available through the KU program.

Connect with the author via Twitter – @Jonny_Athan, Facebook,  through the official Jon Athan Website, or his author pages on Goodreads, BookLikes, LibraryThing  & Amazon. You can email him directly at: info@jon-athan.com, or head on over to the West Coast and start stalking him the old fashioned way!

 

Coming Soon from Jon Athan –  An uncompromising new vision of human horror.
Pre-order your copy now – $2.99 Publication Date:  April 7th, 2017

Mason’s Television

Mason Williams is not a normal 13-year-old teenager. He regularly gets in trouble at school. He doesn’t mind getting beaten by his father. He enjoys extremely violent movies. He talks to his television—and his television talks back. With the advice from his television, Mason begins committing violent crimes against his peers in order to achieve infamy…

WARNING: This book contains scenes of graphic violence, disturbing themes, and some sexual references. Most of these scenes involve violence committed by and against minors. This book is not intended for those easily offended or appalled. Please enjoy at your own discretion.

 

*´¯`*.¸¸.*´¯`* Dear Author *´¯`*.¸¸.*´¯`*

Jon Athan,
You knocked another one out of the park!!
I want to touch on a few things from your author notes, and Dear Reader section. I’m adding a ‘SPOILER ALERT’ in case people who haven’t read the story yet don’t scroll through this and see something they shouldn’t 🙂  On my blog is will look like…  Read the rest of this entry →

THE SEASON OF GIVING by Angel Gelique

THE SEASON OF GIVING

More Horrific Holiday Fun from Angel Gelique

Lou Reilly grew up in a strict, oppressive environment, raised by zealous religious parents who merely wanted to protect him from the sinners of the world. Sheltered to the point of isolation, Lou is unprepared to fend for himself when his parents pass away.

Bullied and tormented at his new place of employment, Lou starts suspecting that his parents were right to shield him from such harsh and hateful people. Just as Lou begins to befriend a colleague who vows to help improve his life, he is put to the ultimate test of faith. All seems hopeless.

But he won’t let the sinners win. He won’t burn in hell as his parents have warned.

Lou will make things right….

Warning: For Mature Readers (18+) Only

The Season of Giving wasn’t all horrific holiday fun – it kind of bummed me out a little bit.

I think Lou’s mom used to get together and go to lunch with Carrie White‘s mom, where they would swap “Parenting Tips for the Mentally Christian” over their watered down tea and bad fish entrees.

All alone, Lou Reilly grew up the best that he could.  He finally made a real friend,  but when a little miscommunication / misunderstanding arose between them – he obsessed over it until he convinced himself that his “friend” was actually an enemy out to destroy him, and send him to Hell in a hand-basket.

I definitely had some emotional moments while reading this – mostly anger that came with me screaming at the characters and waking my husband up. There were some ‘Oh, poor Lou’ moments, too.  One final ‘hugely cringe-worthy’ scene leads up to our (mostly) “YAY!” ending – unless you overthink it and let your mind wander past the final page of the story. If you do that, you may end up like me when Lou finally ‘make things right’ – I haven’t decided if I want to cheer for Lou, the carnage, and the sweet, wonderful revenge or if I want to just put my head down and sob.

If you’re not in the mood for something quite so… deep right now, you can start by reading Christmas Shopping first – a genuine Horrific Holiday FUN book   🙂

The Season of Giving on Amazon / Goodreads

Angel Gelique on Amazon / Goodreads

 

CHRISTMAS EVE ON HAUNTED HILL by Bryan Smith

Ten years ago on Christmas Eve, Silas Herzinger donned a Santa suit and took an axe to 15 members of his extended family. Luke Herzinger, his youngest son, was the sole survivor of the infamous Herzinger Family Massacre.

Now, after a decade away, a despondent and suicidal Luke has come home.

Luke returns to ‘Haunted Hill’ after ten years, and plans on drinking himself brave enough to use the shotgun that he has brought with him to his old hometown. Dressed in a Santa suit, Luke enters an old, somewhat familiar haunt – a bar that he remembers from the old days – Sal’s Place. 

While sitting & drinking at the bar, what Luke finds isn’t the courage to wrap his lips around that shotgun – it’s some familiar faces and friendly voices from people that he once knew. 

Instead of running from his memories, Luke decides to face his past and battle the evil that people say still roams the halls of his old family home on Haunted Hill. 

Stop by Spotify before you start reading CHRISTMAS EVE ON HAUNTED HILL and queue up the playlist of the music that is playing in Sal’s Place (created by the author, Bryan Smith):  
∗ Drinkin’ with Luke and Greg on Christmas Eve ∗

 

Check out CHRISTMAS EVE ON HAUNTED HILL and Bryan Smith on Amazon.

Check out CHRISTMAS EVE ON HAUNTED HILL and Bryan Smith on Goodreads.

You can also find Bryan Smith on Facebook, and Spotify.