Categories
Book Reviews Horror

AUTUMN BLEEDS INTO WINTER by Jeff Strand

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Jeff is going to be so famous.
He is already well known, but I mean ooper-duper famous. Watch and see.
I also predict that AUTUMN BLEEDS INTO WINTER is going to be made into a movie. It’s going to be the kind of movie that has you yelling at the screen, cursing at the characters, and pacing the floor. I did all three while reading the book! The author picks you up, and sets you down right in the story, and I couldn’t tear myself away until the very end.

Curtis has had a pretty normal life up till now, normal enough for any fourteen year old in 1979. He knows that kids are missing – being snatched up by an unknown psychopath, because nothing like that really happens to you, right? Especially in Fairbanks, where the darkest it gets this time of year would remind you of early evening anywhere else. Bad things happen in the dark… Don’t they?

Everything changes in the span of a bad yo’ mama joke.

You remember being fourteen… (if you don’t, you will! It all came rushing back while reading this!), sleepovers, junk food, bad jokes, farts, all of it happening with your best friend by your side… Jeff paints the awkwardness of adolescence so perfectly that I’d find myself cringing I’m remembrance of my teenage years. I’m hoping this one example can convey everything I’m trying to explain… The boys are sleeping over at Curtis’s house, and they get into an argument. For one reason or another, Todd gets way more pissed than usual and he’s just done. Eff this, I’m going home. Been there, both sides. Remember, it’s 1979, you don’t wake the ‘rents for these things. Just after Todd leaves, Curtis decides he needs to follow him. Not because he wants to apologize, or to make sure Todd makes it home OK. No. He’s going after him so he can scare the shit out of him before he makes it home! It’s not being childish. It’s not being mean. It’s being fourteen, with your best friend.
Before he gets the chance to scare him, Curtis sees a car pull up and someone start talking to Todd. His mind races as he watches his best friend willingly get into a strangers car at 1:am, and drive away. While he’s trying to think of any reason that this isn’t what he knows in his heart that it is, Curtis realizes something very important… he knows who is driving that car!

That’s just the beginning of the story. Just wait until you see how tough it is for a fourteen year old to get any adult to take him seriously, and how many wrong turns he makes while trying to find the answers about what happened to his best friend. I know, I usually don’t give details like that. But A: we already know what’s happening from reading the synopsis, and B: I had to try to explain how Jeff is able to make you ride shotgun through everything that happens, experiencing everything as it happens. It’s a draining experience, so much happens and this story went places I never expected.
You’ve got to read this – highest of recommendations here.

P, L & N 💋

sg

Gleefully Macabre: The more-or-less official Jeff Strand website!

Facebook, Facebook Fan Page, Unofficial Fan Club on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub

Subscribe to the bi-weekly newsletter via MailChimp

Read “The Eggman Falleth” a FREE short story only available on Gleefully Macabre

Categories
Book Reviews Extreme Horror Horror Human Horror

Boys Will Be Boys by Rayne Havok

Rating: 5 out of 5.
Ms. Havok ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ is begging for you to bring it to life! See note to author.

WARNING: Boys Will Be Boys is Extreme Horror, and NOT for the squeamish, the easily offended, or those with large sticks up their butts. It gets graphic, and may trigger things long buried. Here’s your second WARNING.

‘Bri goes hiking with her friends, determined to make fun memories before her and her friends are off to college.’

‘Everett and his friends are making their own memories; ones the girls aren’t going to want to be a part of. The boys forcefully include them anyway.’

Amazon Synopsis

I have to say that this was a hard book to read. I had a moment of wanting to beat my Kindle against the closest, and hardest thing possible – while swear-screaming, and ugly-crying. A couple hours of reading exhausted me.

I do love Rayne’s writing style. The only way I know to describe it is he said / she said. Every other chapter. You get to read the POV from both sides – in this book it’s boy/girl, rapist/victim, murderer/dead girl. She writes it all, every dirty joke/every scratch left. All in excruciating detail…

“We’re doing this. Here is the place and now, is the time.”

Everett

Rayne doesn’t fuck around with foreplay, that’s for sure. This time she kinda slammed it in and broke it off. After about the first 10% of the book, there are three pages of happiness. How do things get fucked-up so fast?! I’m talking IRL, too, because this story is just that. It could. It might. Maybe it has. In just a matter of moments you can go from the top of the world to the deepest pits of Hell. Un-livable. Un-repairable. Rayne writes so well, and so passionately. I had to fight off a panic attack when shit got REAL real. I was there, on that mountain, and it was tragic.

But, if you DO survive, then what? What’s next? If it’s anything near what happens in this book – listen close, and hear me loud and clear – no-fucking-thank-you. This ending… Omg, no spoilers.

Note to author: I’m yelling out titles of revenge horror movies, and begging for a do over so my guts feel better. GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS needs to be your literary I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Not necessarily a sequel, but, I’d love to see these boys try it again inside of a new cover… Especially after reading that last line!

If you haven’t read this one yet, mind the trigger warnings, but hurry and go get it!! I need to discuss!! While I wait for you, I have Killstreme downloaded, and can’t wait to start reading.

Buy BOYS WILL BE BOYS on Amazon, then leave your 5 star review on Goodreads,

Rayne Havok loves hearing what you think, so leave reviews, and reach out to her via social media – Goodreads, Amazon, and Twitter.

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Fiction Fiction

Hogg

by Samuel R. Delany

The classic and controversial novel made available again; Acclaimed winner of the William Whitehead Memorial Award for a lifetime’s contribution to gay and lesbian literature, bestselling and award-winning SF author Samuel R. Delany wrote Hogg three decades ago. Since then it has been one of America’s most famous ‘unpublishable’ novels. The subject matter of Hogg is our culture of sexual violence and degeneration. Delany explores his disturbing protagonist Hogg on his own turf – rape, pederasty, sexual excess – exposing an area of violence and sexual abuse from the inside. As such, it is a brave but necessary book.

A shocking and contemporary insight into a parallel world of sex and cravings that lies in wait in the shadows of our own world.

“HOGG is the story of a man—a depraved trucker named Franklin Hargus, whom the people he works for call Hogg—and of the nameless boy who tells the story of three days of unspeakable sexual violence and devastation, which, together, they initiate in a small seaside American city in the middle of the last century. Hogg is a towering brute who makes his living as a rapist for hire. By the end of a series of vicious attacks, kidnappings, and mass murders, the reader will wonder who is more corrupt: the man or the boy.”

The narrator of Hogg is a Huck Finn–like youngster caught in society’s most sinister seams—but unlike Huck, he passes no moral judgments on the violence he takes part in . . .

Amazon

This got pretty gross.
But I had heard so many things about this novel of ‘sexual violence and degeneration’ that I had to read it. I’m really surprised that something this controversial was written over 30 years ago.
But, again… It got pretty gross.

You know what’s next, right? COWS. ‘Till next time…

P, L & N💋

~sg

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Horror Series

Games 4 – Maze by Sea Caummisar

PicsArt_05-06-07.15.21
Games 4 Release Date – July 10th, 2020

In Games 1, Sara won Donny’s twisted game. In Games 2, she became his apprentice (collecting cash from debtors of Sanger Entertainment, an adult arena of illegal events). In Games 3, we got to know Donny just a little bit better. Sara found out she was pregnant and agreed to keep the baby (under the condition he helped her make a pain maze). She does not want the baby, and has plans to get an abortion that he doesn’t know about. This is where the story begins…..

 

PicsArt_05-06-08.33.59

After two long months of preparations, Sara finally has her maze, and she is anxious to get started. The 12 prisoners are in place, and ready to be Sara’s tortured little mice.
run-horror-1540581477One of the maze participants, Bas, just might have what it takes to survive, and possibly even work with Sara and Donny.
Little do they know that Bas is a different kind of criminal, and he is dangerous. Will they figure it out before getting him too deeply involved with their work? Before everything is compromised?

I actually shouted out loud towards the end. Something that I wanted to happen – happened, and now I don’t know how I feel about it!
The only thing I do know for sure is that Games 5 is going to be intense!

Games 4 – Maze will be released July 10th, 2020. You can preorder your copy on Amazon now.

Check out Games 4 on BookBub, GoodReads, Amazon, and if you’re interested in an ARC  – BookSprout.

You can contact the author by email, and connect with Sea Caummisar on Facebook & Goodreads. Tweet @Seacaummisar

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Extreme Horror Short Story

MARY BLAKE: A Nasty Novelette by Sam West

WARNING!  THIS IS A VIOLENT,
BLOOD THIRSTY, AND MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE PIECE OF FICTION!

★★★★★/★★★★★

Fifteen years ago, Casey Brown and her college friends did something very, very bad to an innocent girl.

What really happened to poor Mary Blake that night?

There are whispers in the woods that surround that old abandoned house. Urban legends are repeated, and sightings of their usual suspects are sworn on – by a friend of a friend of that guy’s second cousin who knew a dude who swears they saw ‘He/She/It’ one dark, and stormy night. Bloody Mary, the Slit-Mouth Woman, Click Clack, the Slender Man… they aren’t the only boogeymen in those woods…
People say that the house is haunted by it’s original owner… The things that Mr. Jones did to his wife and two daughters went way beyond ‘slaughter’ – the depravity of his actions makes the family’s eventual slaughter a blessing.

Now, Casey’s nightmares are invading her waking life.
Mary Blake is back, and she’s not alone.
Only the truth will set her free.

You can still find MARY BLAKE, and other titles by Sam West, for #free on Amazon with your Kindle Unlimited plan – FOR NOW.

Find MARY BLAKE: A Nasty Novelette on Amazon, Goodreads, BookLikes, and LibraryThing.

Find SAM WEST on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and BookLikes

 

 

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Extreme Horror Horror

DOLLS by Matt Shaw

From Matt Shaw – the author behind the black cover books – comes a terrifying story of lost love and mental illness. Expect twists and turns as he takes you on a dark journey into the depths of a broken mind.

Synopsis:
“He understood why she did it. She had lost her own baby – one conceived by the unwanted advances of a sexual predator – and hated thinking of them out there in the cemetery, alone and cold. She had to bring them into the warm. She had to give them the life they’d otherwise never live. It was her mission. But with each new doll brought home, her yearning for a living child of her own continued to grow. Yes, he knew why she did it but – even so – he wasn’t able to stand by her and he knew she was going to get a lot worse before she got better. But how do you help someone who doesn’t want to be helped? And how do you turn your back on your own sister?”

☆☆☆☆☆ /☆☆☆☆☆
Another 5 Stars For THE Matt Shaw

IDK what stopped me from reading this title earlier, (published February 2, 2016), but I’m happy that I finally did read it! DOLLS feels like one of Matt‘s older titles – it’s not a black cover, not an extreme extreme horror, and the story totally sucked me in. I was 100% invested in the story right from the beginning.  Now, as embarrassing as this might be, I gotta tell ya… I didn’t see the ‘oh holy shit’ moment until about 5 words before it was revealed to us! I love that Matt can still do that after all these years, and all these books.

I’m trying to catch up on a lot of Matt‘s titles that I haven’t’ read and/or reviewed before now, so stay tuned for a couple more ‘not-too-extreme’ extreme story reviews, and for some with the buckets of blood & gore that I expect to be dumped on me very soon ::winks::

Peace, Love & Necrophilia ♥
~sg

DOLLS on Amazon
Matt Shaw‘s Amazon Author Page
DOLLS on Goodreads
Matt Shaw on Goodreads
DOLLS on BookLikes
Matt Shaw on BookLikes
The Sick B*stards Society
Matt Shaw‘s Official Webpage
Matt Shaw on Facebook
@The_Matt_Shaw on Twitter

DOLLS Review/Discussion on BBB – shortlink: http://wp.me/p37DRX-1Fg

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Holiday Horror Horror Video Wicca

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER by M. R. Sellars

THE SMALL TOWN OF HULIS, MISSOURI
HAS A KILLER CHRISTMAS SPIRIT…

perf6.000x9.000.indd

… AND IT’S HIDING A KILLER SECRET.

In 1975 the small town of Hulis was ground zero in a frantic search for 10 year-old Merrie Frances Callahan, as well as an intense manhunt for her abductor.

35 years later, it seems the FBI would like to pretend it never happened.

Special Agent Constance Mandalay didn’t get that memo…

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER is based on the short teaser novella MERRIE AXEMAS: A Killer Holiday Tale, (see below) but it tells the whole story of ten-year-old Merrie Frances Callahan’s 1975 abduction, and the present day murders that are somehow intricately linked to that event.


5/5 Holiday Stars

I’ve been a Rowan Gant fan since I picked up my first copy of HARM NONE (I got it autographed, too – teehee), and I am so happy that SA Constance Mandalay got her own story! (soon-to-be-series 🙂 I can’t wait for Book 2: INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE!!).   ITBM is going to impact the rest of the RGI Series for me. Constance was already growing on me, but I like her character much more now.  Getting to go along with her on this investigation, and see how she handles the (I’m quoting Ben here…) “Twilight Zone” stuff without Rowan being there is eye-opening.  I definitely see her a little differently, and have more respect for her. She has earned her place in The Ghoul Squad, haha!  I would LOVE to see both Constance and Ben shake off their traditional beliefs and… well… a girl can dream.   ♥ Blessed Be!

SA Constance Mandalay is assigned what appears to be a 7-year-old cold case that echos the events of the 35-year-old child abduction. Unfortunately for all involved, the case heats up for a short time each year with a brutal murder that appears eerily staged, and occurs under impossible circumstances.

Undaunted, she faces the task with no backup, a mysteriously redacted case file, and the inevitable murder fast approaching.

Mandalay’s experience as the ‘handler’ for an FBI occult/paranormal expert (Rowan Gant) makes her the perfect choice for this investigation. However, even her brushes with the unexplained still cannot prepare her for the answer she was not supposed to discover…

You can find In The Bleak Midwinter: A Special Agent Constance Mandalay Novel @

Amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords

You can find Merrie Axemas: A Killer Holiday Tale (#FREE) @

Amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords

Where to find M. R. Sellars online:

M. R. Land, Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Google+Smashwords, YouTube, StoryFind, and if he ever decides to get back to pinning – Pintrest. I’m still trying to recruit all you horror lovers to switch to SlashBoard instead – it’s Pintrest for Horror Lovers! Maybe we can follow him there soon  series 😉

~

Merrie Axemas – Book 0.5 of the Constance Mandalay Series

merryaxemas

LITTLE MERRIE CALLAHAN MAY BE ALL GROWN UP, BUT SHE STILL HAS AN AXE TO GRIND WITH THE MAN IN THE RED SUIT…

~

INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE: Book 2 of the Constance Mandalay series

THE END IS NEAR, IT JUST NEEDS A LITTLE PUSH…

COMING SOON…

~

Check out the entire Rowan Gant Investigation [RGI] series – I highly recommend the books I’ve read so far, and I’ll bet I say the same as I finish the rest of them.   

~

My autographed copy of HARM NONE can’t be replaced, so I was especially giddy when I saw that M. R. Sellars uses AuthorGraph! Now my ebooks are virtually signed  🙂   Stop by and get your new M. R. Sellars ebooks personalized, too!

~

Be sure to check out all of the M. R. Sellars and other WillowTree Press Author logo-ed swag available @ On The Edge Graphics: Purveyors Of Official Author Swag & Other Graphical Oddities  http://www.cafepress.com/otegraphics

 

)O(

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Holiday Horror Horror

CHRISTMAS EVE ON HAUNTED HILL by Bryan Smith

cover-bryansmith

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Horror Short Story

VIOLENT DELIGHTS by Dawn Cano [and Lewis Duncan]

John Reynolds wasn’t an angry person, and he wasn’t a violent person, but every man has his limit.

ViolentDelights

Your soulmate, your split-apart, your one and only. Your… everything.
The problem with true love? When they’re gone, you’ve got nothing.
When John’s wife Megan died at the hands of a madman, he lost the one and only reason he had to live.
John began a private journal as a way to battle his inner demons, and to remember Megan in his own way. My heart was breaking for him as I read about their lives together, and how much love they had between them. (Especially when he explained why they decided to not have kids! ::sob::)
I wanted to dive into this book and destroy the person that could destroy a love like that, so just imagine what is going through Jonn’s mind! He is determined to find the killer, and punish him for the destruction he’s caused.

ViolentDelights.Quote

Buy Violent Delights on Amazon, and visit Dawn Cano’s Amazon Author Page to check out her other books.

Follow Dawn Cano on Goodreads, and add Violent Delights to your Goodreads TBR list.

Stalk, ahem, Connect with Dawn Cano on Facebook – you won’t regret it!! 🙂

You can find Lewis Duncan on Goodreads, too!

Categories
book discussions Book Reviews Horror Horror Series

PARALYSED by Matt Shaw

prisonbound

They had met in prison.
Dennis felt terrible about his crime, and judging from his beaten & bruised body… the other inmates didn’t find his deeds tolerable, either. Except for one man. One man befriended him when no one else could stand the sight of him. That man was Ryan, it this began a long, and very special friendship.

Things are different today, though.

Today is Dennis’s birthday. The card waiting for him from Ryan brings him no joy. He peeks his head into Ryan’s room to see if he’s awake, and the only words spoken to him by his best friend in the world are… “Please, kill me.”

PARALYSED is the new 5 star extreme horror novel from Matt Shaw. Continuing with his Black Cover series, and pushing boundaries of decency, Matt Shaw takes you on a journey with a serial killer and his accomplice, Dennis – a man who’ll do absolutely anything for his broken master.

This is promoted as one of Matt’s Black Cover extreme horror books, but it’s so much more than that. PARALYSED isn’t just a quick ride for cheap thrills – it’s a heartbreaking story about the friendship & love that developed between two of society’s cast offs. I don’t use that term lightly, either. I could feel my heart breaking as the story unfolded.  Only Matt could evoke this response from a tale about a convicted rapist, and his murderous best friend. (sl http://wp.me/p37DRX-1kO)

 

Like gore? Like horror? You’re in for a treat because Matt Shaw brings the crazy right to your kindle!  Stay up to date on All Things Matt, and be notified of new titles by following his Amazon author page, his official blog, and Matt Shaw Publications on Goodreads, and Facebook.