Tag Archives: horror

The Most Anticipated Horror Book of the Summer: Horror Movie

It is rare that I come across a book that surpasses all others. A diamond in the rough, so to speak. Of the hundreds of books I peruse each year, I may come across one, maybe two books, each year that sit with me long after I’ve turned that last page. These are the books I take my time with. I don’t rush through them over the course of one or two days. I take over a month to read that book. It’s because I know I need to truly absorb the story.

Michelle Kenneth with Paul Tremblay. 03.03.2024

Back on March 3, 2024, I met Paul Tremblay at Barnes & Noble in Union Square. He signed a couple of copies of The Cabin at the End of the World for me. Personally, I thought Paul was a really cool guy. Someone I could see myself being really good friends with. It was the same vibe I felt with Edwin Walker and the fashion designer Malan Breton when we met (and yes, we’re still good friends).

There is a reason why I am starting this post this way. It may help you to understand just how special this book is, because in my world, when the universe gets involved, that means something very important is happening. Meeting Tremblay was the starting point.

As we talked about the horror movie Knock at the Cabin, starring David Bautista, which was based upon The Cabin at the End of the World, his publisher asked if I’d like a copy of his next release, Horror Movie. She warned me not to sell it. I mean come on, he signed it. This one is not leaving my curated collection. Especially, since I know every single horror book fan wants this signed ARC. I am never letting this one out of my library. Not even for someone to borrow it. I’d rather buy them a copy than to let them even touch this copy. [A side note to readers, that means there will be a future Instagram giveaway of a signed first edition of Horror Movie.]

When I left the store, I snapped a couple of pictures of the book and posted them on Instagram, to which the Horror community instantly became envious and hated me at the same time. Sigh. You just had to have been there.

As the weeks progressed, Saga Press (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) sent me a copy of My Heart is a Chainsaw and then Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones. Now, I mention these two books for a reason. It’s important for you to pick up the Indian Lake trilogy by Jones in order to completely understand Horror Movie. The trilogy and this book go hand in hand.

Stephen Graham Jones speaking at the New York Public Library. 04.29.2024.

Of course, at the time, I did not know this. I made the connection when I finished Horror Movie and read in the acknowledgements that Tremblay thanked Jones for the idea. That’s when Horror Movie and the trilogy clicked. But of course, I never would have made this connection at all if the universe hadn’t had Saga Press drop the trilogy into my mailbox and I ended up reading the books simultaneously with Horror Movie.

More importantly, while My Heart is a Chainsaw is the main book that is linked to Horror Movie, it’s Don’t Fear the Reaper that was on repeat in my universe. I could not figure out why that was until I read the acknowledgments. In the acknowledgments, Jones writes, “You know those moments when your world is kind of crackling all around you like crumpled paper unfolding, so you can finally read what’s on that page, what you didn’t even know was there hiding, had been written all along? This is that, for me. It’s my life going this direction, not that direction.”

While you may brush off these connections so far, I’m not done. After I posted Don’t Fear the Reaper as the week’s The Next Seven on Instagram (a weekly Wednesday post that features the next seven books I am reviewing), I saw Jones posted on his Instagram that he would be at the New York Public Library (more particularly, my NYPL branch) the following Monday. Seeing that as a strange sign from the universe, I go.

Of course, by this point, noticing that Don’t Fear the Reaper was on repeat in my universe (all the way down to some spiritual thing that happened that I’m not going to get into, I just know that someone else witnessed what I witnessed and was so freaked out, they followed me to safety), I still had not picked up that Tremblay and Jones were connected.

I was carrying these two books around with me, reading a chapter of Horror Movie, and then switching to Reaper, without ever knowing there was a connection. That is, I didn’t discover it until I read the acknowledgments in Horror Movie and did a WTF.

I carried these two books around with me, not knowing the authors and the books were connected.

It is strange, though, how all of this kind of fell into place in my world. First, meeting Tremblay and receiving Horror Movie, Saga Press sending the first two books in the Indian Lake trilogy, meeting Jones, then receiving the final installment of the trilogy. Then I discover the two authors and their stories are linked. As a book influencer, I can tell you, of all the books I’ve reviewed over the last decade, none of them have shown up the way that these four books did and the universe announced a connection (one for me to figure out). I’ve never unknowingly read books simultaneously together without knowing they were connected. As a writer, though, I understand the connection. It’s right there in Jones’s acknowledgements. It’s right there on the page.

So as you read this review, you may pick up on the tie-in that ultimately links Horror Movie with the trilogy (if you’ve read all the books). I recommend reading the trilogy alongside Horror Movie in order to completely get the WHOA factor while reading all four books. It will help you to appreciate them at a much deeper level.

All of these books are listed in the Bookshop.org and Amazon Bookshop in the Shop menu above.

The Review: “Horror Movie” by Paul Tremblay

I wanted to mull this one over before I did a review because my brain needed to be OK with what I just read. Please note this is a five-star rating for me.

It’s several days later, and I’m still thinking about this book. The screenplay. The filming. The reboot. The OMG did that just happen at the end?

There are layers to the way this story is told. There is the present day. They want to remake Horror Movie, a low-budget film that never saw the light of day until the director decided to release clips of it on YouTube before she died. There’s the screenplay, written in a way that we can understand what made this into a horror movie, keeping the Thin Kid (our narrator) out of the loop. There is foreshadowing of what is to come.

This is where I want to say if suicide is triggering for you, there are elements of this in the book. You have been warned. Mind you, that is a trigger for me. That is the main reason why I needed to sit a little while longer with my thoughts on this book before doing a review because maybe that was the part that scared me the most. Yet, I believe that the way Tremblay approached this topic was as gentle as he possibly could. It’s like he’s saying it’s time for this to happen. It will be ok. You’ll be ok. Everyone will be ok. And also not ok. It’s like looking back at a moment that has haunted you and will forever haunt you, and learning to be ok. To see the monster of death and not fear the reaper.

There are also flashbacks to fill in the gaps of how the Thin Kid was approached to make the film, what happened during filming, and what happened afterward.

There’s method acting, and then there’s Thin Kid. I don’t think I’ll ever look at a method actor the same way again. I will always be thinking about the Thin Kid and what he took with him after the film. What he became. Do all method actors leave the character behind, or does the character become a part of the actor after the movie?

As I write this, sitting outside on a lounge chair, enjoying the spring Manhattan weather, I have a copy of Stephen Graham Jones’s Don’t Fear the Reaper on my lap. Paul Tremblay thanked SGJ for the idea of Horror Movie. SGJ mentioned to Tremblay that he should watch something about chainsaws on YouTube. That took Tremblay down a very dark rabbit hole where Horror Movie was birthed. If you’ve read My Heart is a Chainsaw, the first book in the Jade Daniels trilogy, you’ll understand the horror movie and chainsaw reference in this book. SGJ is the inspiration for Horror Movie.

I can see a Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones horror writing and film class in some university’s curriculum in the future. You sort of need to read both of their works simultaneously to completely understand their stories and where the references are being derived from.

I will admit that the screenplay in this book kept my brow furrowed throughout. I kept thinking, what are you doing? Where are you going with this? Not in an accusatory way to the author, but in an ‘I know this is where you’re going to scare me.’

The entire time, I am trying to protect myself for what is to come. The hand in the pocket. The uncaring step towards death. What are you warning me of? It’s like my brain knew what he was going to do. That’s why I didn’t speed through this book in a day. I sensed the trigger. I took my time. Stuck other books in between the next chapter and the next to ease the moment when it happens.

Then, finally, it happens. I’m stuck there in my head, but I keep reading. And then the end. OMG. THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.

To which, days later, I remember there was a suicide in the book. But I’m still at the end saying, OMG, THAT JUST HAPPENED.

After you read the book, this caption will make sense.

Fall Horror Books: Malus Domestica series

The Malus Domestica series from S. A. Hunt is one of my favorite scary series. It starts with Burn the Dark, followed by I Come With Knives, and The Hellion. This series is perfect for those who love their scary books to be on the extreme side, as in explosive action featuring witches, demons, and lots and lots of scary stuff. I don’t think I will ever get that cat scene out of my head.

This is also perfect for those looking for a trans author to read and follow.

What I loved about this series was all of the explosive action, followed by everything super evil you can think of. I may end up going back to read this series again.

This series is one you need to share with everyone who loves horror. It is really, really good.

Synopsis

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets Stranger Things in award-winning author S. A. Hunt’s Burn the Dark, first in the Malus Domestica horror action-adventure series about a punk YouTuber on a mission to bring down witches, one vid at a time.

Robin is a YouTube celebrity gone-viral with her intensely-realistic witch hunter series. But even her millions of followers don’t know the truth: her series isn’t fiction.

Her ultimate goal is to seek revenge against the coven of witches who wronged her mother long ago. Returning home to the rural town of Blackfield, Robin meets friends new and old on her quest for justice. But then, a mysterious threat known as the Red Lord interferes with her plans…

[DISCLOSURE: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]

Fall Horror Books: Malice House

Malice House by Megan Shepherd is the perfect horror book for those who love their horror mixed in with a little fantasy and supernatural.

For horror writers and artists of macabre, maybe our worst nightmare is seeing our work come alive and do what it was created to do: kill in the most gruesome of ways.

I received Malice House last year when I was in the middle of taking a course at Conde Nast College in London, so I wasn’t able to get to it then. When I finally sat down to read it last month, I sat there thinking, “Look at you, Megan Shepherd. Scaring the hell out of me was not what I was expecting from this.”

I love a good horror story, especially when I wasn’t expecting to be scared at all. For me, being scared all lies with me walking away and thinking about what the author just whispered to me in between those pages. Did I carry it with me, mull it over, and think, “Yeah, that shit was scary?” I did with this one.

The scare factor lies in those creatives (or those, like me, who are writing a horror romance novel) who would be petrified if their scariest creations came to life and they went on a killing spree and there’s no natural way to stop them. It is kind of like the Jason, Freddie Krueger, and Michael Myers genre where you can’t kill them. They’ll keep coming back.

So if that’s your kind of scare factor, this is your next read.

You can get Malice House on Kindle Unlimited as part of your KU membership. Book two, Midnight Showing, releases on October 3, 2023.

SYNOPSIS

“One step away from our world lies another: a land of violent fantasies, of sharp-toothed delights. . . .”Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father’s remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right?

Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father’s obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven’s bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets—completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process.

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of review. The opinions expressed here are by no means influenced by the publisher or the author. This post contains affiliate links. Should you click on the link and purchase the product, I may receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]

Fall Horror Books: The Nightmare Man

The Nightmare Man by J. H. Markert was my first five star read of 2023. As a writer, I think this one scared me more than most horror books because the idea that your horror story could come to life scared the crap out of me. This scary story is for those who fear their own nightmares.

For parents, if you could find a way to save your children from having recurring nightmares, you would help them, right?

What appears to be a miracle for children to have their nightmares removed turns into a real-life nightmare for them as adults when their nightmares start hunting them. More and more people are found dead, and they all have one thing in common.

This debut made me such a huge fan of this author. Finding the next master of horror is a difficult task in and of itself. To find a story that just scares the crap out of you and it be delivered so well…I mean, how can you not become a fan?

I will say, I will be reading all of his books. His next book, Mister Lullaby, releases on November 21, 2023. That is a book I plan on adding to my collection alongside The Nightmare Man.

Synopsis

Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of Crooked Tree. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.

Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax.

As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words.

As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.

[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced in any way by the author or the publisher. This post contains affiliate links. Should you click on the link and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no additional cost to you.]

Fall Horror Books: Black Sheep

Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison is the perfect horror story for those who loved Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, and End of Days.

When the publisher first sent this book to me for review, I thought it was funny, because I am the black sheep of my family. I’ve even posted about it on my social media accounts. Usually, those who find themselves to be estranged from their families is because of their religious and/or political differences. Oftentimes, in America, both are synonymous with each other.

When I went into this novel, I assumed that this cult-like family would be Christian. Oh, imagine my surprise when the cult happened to be Satanists. Now, you have my attention.

After reading this book, I guess it doesn’t matter what religion you are from. All cults are the same. They have the same issues that affect families. People become brainwashed with scriptures as they learn how not to love the people they are supposed to love. That’s why there are black sheep out there. We know life was meant to be better than this. We deserve to be loved.

For those who are looking for a horror book featuring the Devil, this is your Perfectionistwannabe.com Horror Pick for the fall season. The ending is as epic as any ending you would expect from a book about the Devil trying to bring an end to the world.

Synopsis

A cynical twentysomething must confront her unconventional family’s dark secrets in this fiery, irreverent horror novel from the author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle.
 
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep. 
 
Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.
 
When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.

Pub Date: September 19, 2023

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of review for this site. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by the author or the publisher. This site contains affiliate links. If you click on any of the affiliate links, I may receive a commission from the sale of the product at no additional cost to you.]

Fall Horror Books: The September House

The temperatures are starting to drop. People are running to pick up their pumpkin spiced lattes. For us bibliophiles who love spooky season, we are looking for every new and old scary book we can get our hands on to commemorate every thing we love about fall.

To start off the spooky season, I have a new title for you that is set to be released on September 5th called The September House. This book is for all those who love the haunted house and murderous ghosts vibe. This is for those who love The Haunting of Hill House.

Throughout most of this book, you may think it is comical how an older couple with a grown daughter could purchase a beautiful haunted Victorian and not care one lick that it is haunted. The wife loves the house so much that she will put up with the blood running down the walls every September. She will tolerate all of the ghosts that look the way they did when they were murdered. She can even put up with the priest that comes every other month to sanctify the house from whatever evil lurks in the basement.

Even when her husband goes missing, she does not bat an eyelash that something could be amiss, because she has her dream house. She can live with the ghosts, so long as she has her perfect Victorian.

But things start to go all sorts of wrong when her daughter starts asking for her father. He has not returned any of her calls. She is getting tired of hearing her mother make up excuses on why her father won’t come to the phone or return her calls. So she decides to show up right when the September season is in full swing, when the house is at its worst.

As the daughter begins to think her mother is suffering from dementia and is seeing things, the police show up thinking that she’s killed her husband. Yet, the house decides to take matters into its own hands to prove that it isn’t just haunted, there’s an evil being living in its basement. It plans on killing everyone in the house.

As you read through this book, stick with it until the end, especially if you love the good ole gory stories. What may seem as all innocent and comical at the beginning, can turn into a complete bloodbath at the end.

That’s the part I was not expecting from this. You hope it will turn out that way, but you start to give up hope that it will. Maybe it is just a feel good kind of haunted house story. Oh no. It turns into a bona fide bloodfest horror story towards the end, sure to make any horror lover happy.

Synopsis

A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. 

Margaret is not most people. 

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

Get Your Copy

The September House is out on September 5th. This book is the first in this year’s Perfectionist Wannabe’s Horror Picks for the fall season. There will even be a few witchy books (that may not be scary, but are excellent reads for those who love the season, but hate the scare factor). Stay tuned for more finds and suggestions from now until Halloween. Happy Haunting!

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a feature on this site. All opinions are my own and are in no way shaped by the author or the publisher. This post also contains affiliate links. That means that should you purchase the book in the link, I may receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]