Book Review

GNoH Review: Kill for It (2022)

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Written by Lizzie Fry

Cat Crawford is not especially good at her job.

Erin Goodman is the woman Cat wants to be when she’s older – smart, successful, and the best part? She’s earned it – nothing was ever handed to Erin on a plate, or to Cat.

But Erin doesn’t notice Cat. Not until something awful happens and Cat, finding herself in the right place at the right time, writes the article that goes viral. Now she’s got Erin’s attention.

The difference is, Cat knows Erin is onto her. And Cat is more than happy to toy with her colleague, especially if it gets her an even bigger story to report on.

In the game of cat and mouse, there can be only one winner.

Kill for It is a tight thriller that will keep you second-guessing Cat’s next move and, ultimately, ready for more from Lizzie.

See the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

GNoH Review: The Triangle – The Rise Trilogy, Book One

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Written by Robert P. Ottone

The world, as we know it, is over. Sea level rise has all but finished off life on Earth.

Born with a gift for engineering and technology, Azlynn and her father Merrill spend their days running a small shop in the flotilla community of Coral Cove. They scavenge shipwrecks, sunken vessels, and what precious little remains of the world before the planet drowned. With her best friend Ellis, they do their best to support their community, while struggling to survive.

When a group of scouts sent by The Order, a mysterious and powerful northeastern cabal, goes missing in the nearby Bermuda Triangle, Merrill is tasked with finding them. Unbeknownst to him, Azlynn and Ellis have snuck aboard to join in on the mission to find out what lurks within The Triangle. The ancient, cosmic truths they discover may be more terrifying than they ever imagined.

The Triangle is a solid introduction to Azlynn and the world she survives in, and I am sure I will find myself back with her some time in the future.

Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

Quick Review: The Cabin at the End of the World (2018)

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By Paul Tremblay

Available at AMAZON

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake, with their closest neighbours more than two miles in either direction.

As Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young and friendly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologises and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out, “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

So begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are intertwined.

This could be the shortest review I ever write, just by simply telling you that you need to go out and buy this book if you don’t already own it. And you certainly need to read it if it is languishing in your TBR pile. I know, I know, I am a bit late to the party, but hey, at least I arrived!

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Quick Review: The Watchers (2021)

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By A. M. Shine

Available at AMAZON

This forest isn’t charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina’s is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams.

Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn’t reach the bunker in time.

Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers and why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned, keen to watch their every move?

Shine’s debut novel, The Watchers throws a disparate group of unfortunates together in a mysterious woodland prison where they are watched at night by the mysterious, and clearly very dangerous, creatures that live in the tunnels beneath them. Hiding away during the day, the creatures leave the group in peace to complete their daily chores, collecting water and scavenging for food to keep themselves alive long enough to live in fear the next night.

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GNoH Review: Mystery Road

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Written by Kevin Lucia

Two Kevin Ellison Stories in One!

Mystery Road

Choices are like roads, taking us to destinations both planned and unexpected, but lofty thoughts like that are of no concern to young Kevin Ellison, who only cares about his dreams of basketball glory.

One day, however, while riding his bicycle to shoot baskets with his best friend, he comes across a side-road he doesn’t recognize, curving away into the woods. Intrigued, he rides down this unmarked road and encounters something both wonderful and quietly terrible, something that forever changes his understanding of the world…

A Night at Old Webb

Old Webb, an abandoned grammar school just outside Clifton Heights, is the place to be late summer nights in Webb County. A gathering place for friends to be themselves, away from grownups who have forgotten what it means to be young and free.

The summer of 1992, Kevin Ellison spent his Saturday nights there like everyone else. Everything was running according to plan: a college basketball scholarship, school, all the things everyone expected of him.

Then he met a girl named Michelle Titchner, and everything changed…

There is raw emotion at work here and both stories, despite their brevity, encompass feelings of wonder, confusion, love, and sadness all beautifully portrayed on the page. I can’t help but feel that Kevin Lucia has drawn heavily from his own past, and that lends credence and heft to the impact of these tales.

Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

Quick Review: The Last Storm (2022)

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By Tim Lebbon

Available at AMAZON

With global warming out of control, large swathes of North America have been struck by famine and drought and are now known as the Desert. A young woman sets out across this dry, hostile landscape, gradually building an arcane apparatus she believes will bring rain to the parched earth.

Jesse lives alone, far from civilization. Once, he too made rain, but he stopped when his abilities caused fatalities, bringing down not just rain but scorpions, strange snakes and spiders. When his daughter Ash inherited this tainted gift, Jesse did his best to stop her. His attempt went tragically wrong, and he believes himself responsible for her death.

But now his estranged wife Karina brings news that Ash is still alive. And she’s rainmaking again. Terrified of what she might bring down upon the desperate communities of the Desert, they set out to find her. But Jesse and Karina are not the only ones looking for Ash. As the storms she conjures become more violent and deadly, some follow her seeking hope. And one is hungry for revenge.

Tim Lebbon brings us another, fantastic story that takes the usual dystopian future and turns it into something tangible and not a million miles away from where we are heading. Drought and famine are common place across North America and people are fighting to simply survive in the tough new landscape. Hope comes in the form of the mythical rainmakers, potential life-savers, who haven’t been seen for years. When one reappears and brings rain, it could be the answer to everyone’s prayers, or nightmares, as it isn’t just water that comes through.

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GNoH Review: Glorious (2022)

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Written by Joshua Hall, David Ian McKendry and Todd Rigney
Directed by Rebekah McKendry

After a breakup, Wes ends up at a remote rest stop. He finds himself locked inside the bathroom with a mysterious figure speaking from an adjacent stall. Soon Wes realizes he is involved in a situation more terrible than he could imagine.

Glorious is a well-written and directed film that is lean, fun, and gory. It has half a foot in some serious moral themes but doesn’t get bogged down trying to be too clever. It knows what it is, plays to those strengths and is a glorious example of what you can do with a contained horror.

Read the full review at Ginger Nuts HERE

GNoH Review: Darling (2022)

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By Mercedes M. Yardley

Darling has its demons. Cherry LaRouche escaped the claws of Darling, Louisiana at sixteen. When she is forced to return after her mother’s death, Cherry and her children move back into her childhood home where the walls whisper and something sinister skitters across the roof at night. While Cherry tries to settle back into a town where evil spreads like infection, the bodies of several murdered children turn up. When Cherry’s own daughter goes missing, she is forced to confront the true monsters of Darling.

Mercedes skilfully fleshes out all her characters and the backstories that have shaped their lives, slowly filling in the gaps and presenting each as distinct and unique.

Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

Quick Review: The Thief of Broken Toys (2010)

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Author: Tim Lebbon

Available at AMAZON
ISBN-10: 0981297897
ISBN-13: 978-0981297897

When a father loses his son and his wife leaves him, he cannot tear himselfaway from the small fishing village where the boy’s memories reside. They’re all he has left. Thinking that his life is all but over, he takes to wandering the cliffs, carrying broken things that he always promised his son he would fix, but never did. They’re a sign of his failure, and they keep little Toby close. And then he meets the thief of broken toys, and everything begins to change…

I must confess, I was not very familiar with the work of Tim Lebbon before this volume hit the door mat. A prize involving a competition with The Last Storm and a Tarantula (I might tell you more when I review Storm) I had no real idea what to expect, but the cover blurb is intriguing so I got on with reading it as soon as I could.

At 150 pages, it didn’t take long.

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GNoH Review: Dark Stars (2022)

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Edited by John F.D. Taft

Created as an homage to the 1980 classic horror anthology, Dark Forces, this collection contains 12 original novelettes showcasing today’s top horror talent edited by John F.D. Taff. Within these pages you’ll find tales of dead men walking, an insidious secret summer fling, an island harbouring unspeakable power, and a dark hallway that beckons. You’ll encounter terrible monsters―both human and supernatural―and be forever changed. These stories run the gamut from traditional to modern, from dark fantasy to neo-noir, from explorations of beloved horror tropes to the unknown―possibly unknowable―threats.

Dark Stars is a celebration of the diversity, variety and joy of horror, an escapist delight to die-hard fans, and the start of a slippery, yet attractive slope for newbies.

So, grab a copy, settle in, and enjoy.

See the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE