31 Days of Horror: Day 11-- Why I Love Horror by Poet Maxwell I Gold

Yesterday and today I am doing a mini series within a series by featuring Horror poets and their Why I Love Horror essays. Before we get to that though, I want to remind everyone that poetry, in general, is steadily gaining readers, and dark poetry, specifically, is very popular with poetry readers. If you are looking to add dark petri to your libraries, please look at the last few years of Bram Stoker Nominees in the Poetry category here.

Now back to today's guest-- Maxwell I Gold:

Maxwell I. Gold is a multiple award nominated author who writes prose poetry and short stories in weird and cosmic fiction. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Maxwell’s books include the Bram Stoker Award nominated poetry collection Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums. He lives in Ohio with his husband and two dogs Marshall and Otto, and currently serves as the Executive Director for the Horror Writers Association

Maxwell's poetry is focused on the weird and cosmic subgenres. I reviewed his poetry book, Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self Destructions in Booklist here. I am most excited about his upcoming poetry book with Bad Hand Books-- one of the best small horror presses in the business, and now with distribution meaning you can find their titles on Edelweiss and order them through Ingram. It is entitled I Was a Teenage Anti-Fascist: A Yiddishkeit Poetry Rock Album and it is Bad Hand Books' first poetry book!

Like Pedro yesterday, Maxwell's is a name in dark poetry you need to know. For his essay, Maxwell took a different path, one that I think will help all of you understand the lure of dark poetry better. In the essay below, Maxwell talks about why he loves both poetry and horror.

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The Things That Quoth Poe in the Night

By: Maxwell I. Gold

Dark poetry has had a relatively short lifespan compared to its other literary genre-siblings: novels, short stories, and other forms of prose. Still, what we have come to know and love as dark poetry traces its roots beyond the gothic into and the esoteric which can easily, without dispute, older than Poe.  

My love for poetry began well before I found myself within the throws of horror and dark literature. From the grotesque fantastique of William Blake to the wild universes painted within Ovid’s Metamorphosis and even deeper within Dante’s nine circles of Hell, there was always so much to admire, to fear, and to stand in awe from words that remained both timeless and awesome in a Kantian respect. 

And yet, as my journey continued and I gained a deeper understanding and experience of dark poetry. I found something that pulled me toward dark poetry’s ability to draw out the darkest parts of ourselves with beauty, grace, and raw emotion. To explain, and to illustrate feelings that might otherwise become utterly infinitesimal in any other medium; poetry taps into the most primal and creative parts of our brains to showcase not only the darkness, but the possibility of light. Poetry itself thrives on devotion and passion, and Poe’s The Raven too, was a poem that embodied a sense of undying devotion, yearning, and desperate understanding. “Here comes Poe with his Raven, like Barnaby Rudge, / Three fifths of him genius, two fifths sheer fudge,” the famous taunt and refrain used in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven illustrates a mere glimpse of both wit and darkness within horror poetry I’d come to appreciate. 

I quote Ginsberg often and while he doesn’t necessarily fall into the realm of dark poetry in the traditional sense; his understanding of poetics and sense of otherness have become very important to me when I’m writing and reading poetry in and outside of the horror genre. Ginsberg once said, “concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don’t care who’s listening.” 

Poetry speaks when words might also feel or seem impossible and that is also why I love both poetry and horror. It is the culmination of both freedom free from anxiety and a glimpse into our secret-self like tiny windows where monsters lurk. And in the immortal words of Poe’s Raven, “And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor,  Shall be lifted—nevermore!”

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Why I Love Horror,
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31 Days of Horror: Day 10-- Why I Love Horror by Poet Pedro Iniguez

Today and tomorrow I have something a little different. I am featuring award winning dark speculative poets and their Why I Love Horror essays. Before we get to that though, I want to remind everyone that poetry, in general, is steadily gaining readers, and dark poetry, specifically, is very popular with poetry readers. If you are looking to add dark poetry to your libraries, please look at the last few years of Bram Stoker Nominees in the Poetry category here.

Now back to today's guest. I am thrilled to welcome the extremely talented and award winning poet Pedro Iniguez. From his website:

Pedro Iniguez is a Mexican-American Bram Stoker, Elgin, and Dwarf Stars Award-winning science-fiction and horror writer from Los Angeles. He has also been a Rhysling finalist and Puschart Prize and Best of the Net nominee.

He is the author of MEXICANS ON THE MOON: SPECULATIVE POETRY FROM A POSSIBLE FUTURE, FEVER DREAMS OF A PARASITE, ECHOES AND EMBERS: SPECULATIVE STORIES, SYNTHETIC DAWNS & CRIMSON DUSKS, and the SF novel CONTROL THEORY.

His fiction and poetry has also appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror, Shadows Over Main Street Volume 3, Qualia Nous Vol. 2, Beyond the Bounds of Infinity, Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers, Dark Spores, A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers, Worlds of Possibility, Infinite Constellations, Tiny Nightmares, Apex Magazine, Shortwave Magazine, Star*Line, Eye to the Telescope, Space and Time Magazine, and Savage Realms Monthly, among others.

Apart from leading writing workshops and speaking at several colleges, he has also been a sensitivity reader and has ghostwritten for award-winning apps and online clients.

Forthcoming, his debut picture book, THE FIB (Gloo Books), is slated for a Fall 2025 release.

I was in the room as Pedro won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry this past year for Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry From a Possible Future. This 50 poem collection weaves science-fiction, Mexican folklore, and magical realism as he explores the wonders and pitfalls of humanity in a future yet to come. The room burst into some of the loudest applause of the night.

Pedro is a dark poet you need to know about. And as you see above, his picture book, The Fib, can out this week! It is an allegorical tale about the consequences of lying that weaves magic and morality into a powerful message about honesty, responsibility, and the power of creativity-- all messages our children need right now. 

His work needs to be added to your libraries so that he can inspire future writers much like Dennis Etchison inspired him. Read Pedro's essay below to learn more.

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The Path Toward Purpose; or, Why I love Horror

By

Pedro Iniguez

People enjoy horror for many reasons. It can entertain, unsettle, or allow one to engage with the uncomfortable topics of life from a safe distance. For me, it’s all those things but as a writer, horror has also given me something else. Something personal, something profound. And, like many journeys, this story involves a path of discovery.

My first brushes with horror came when I was around 4 years old when my parents would tell me stories of El Cucuy, the Latin American boogeyman who lurked in the dark waiting to snatch up disobedient children. Every night in bed when the lights went out, I’d come to fear his skulking presence. It was my parents’ way to police me without having to actually do anything. I’m surprised this didn’t traumatize and outright turn me away from horror.

It wasn’t until I was about 5 or 6 that I began to willingly wade into the shallow end of the horror pool with books like Goosebumps and shows like Scooby-Doo and Are You Afraid of the Dark? These all did wonders for my imagination. Thus, my first foray into short story writing happened when I was in third grade, when the entire school had to participate in a Halloween short story writing contest. I wrote a story about a pair of brothers who forget their homework assignments at school before deciding to sneak out of their homes one night to break back into class to retrieve their worksheets. The boys’ mother then goes on to team up with the school custodian to dress up as skeletons and give them the scare of their lives in order teach them a valuable lesson about not sneaking off and forgetting their homework. Anyway, I won! And I received my first story payout: a Jack-O-Lantern plushie. It was beautiful. It felt great.

But my short story writing career stopped there. At least until college, when I had become a voracious reader. That’s when I’d sit bored through hours of lectures and I’d write these paragraph-long flash fiction pieces inspired by the books I’d been reading at the time. Books like Starship Troopers, I Am Legend, and Fahrenheit 451. Then, in October 2007, Mystery and Imagination, a local used bookstore in Glendale, California, announced an open mic night on Halloween, an event featuring many renowned local authors. One of which was Dennis Etchison, acclaimed horror writer, and future Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement winner.

I printed out a four-paragraph-long story and got myself to the open mic night. When I got there, the event was nearing its end, and Dennis had just finished wrapping up his reading of a story. When he was done, he asked if there was anyone who’d like to read something. I nervously raised my hand and proceeded to read my horror story about a group of survivors holed up in a church as an undead horde pounded on the doors. When I was done, there was a pause that felt like an eternity. Then the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. They loved my story. I was shocked. As I began to walk away, Dennis said he was hosting a weekly writing class and he wanted to see me there. I said OK. 

So, I began to attend Dennis’ classes, where I learned about story structure and the proper way to submit a story to an editor and how to handle rejection. But he went above and beyond. I think he must’ve seen something in me, because he’d invite me to hang out and have dinner with him and the likes of veteran writers like Peter Atkins (Hellraiser II-IV, Wishmaster), Lisa Morton (The Castle of Los Angeles, Midnight Walk) Willaim F. Nolan (Co-author of Logan’s Run), and George Clayton Johnson (The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Ocean’s 11), all who became wonderful friends. 

It was shortly afterwards that I sold my first story in 2009. This began my journey writing and selling fiction and poetry. And this went on until Covid hit hard in 2020. The world went into lockdown in March, just when my debut horror and SF short story collection, Synthetic Dawns & Crimson Dusks, was set to release. But I saw an opportunity to do something positive with my writing. Something meaningful. I announced that a portion of funds from sales of the book would go towards programs that provided free food to children who relied on school lunches. By the end of the year, I’d donated somewhere around $200 to Covid relief programs.

This moment spurred something in me. I’d realized I could use my writing for good. I could actually help people. Since then, I’ve donated portions from all pro sales, book sales, advances, speaking engagements, and royalties to causes and organizations dear to my heart. In that time, I’ve raised somewhere around $2000. But it didn’t stop there. I also began to lead writing workshops, speak at colleges, and on occasion, help writers that’d reached out in private who needed a little mentoring. Just like Dennis Etchison had done for me.

You see, Dennis put me on a path I didn’t know I needed to be on. Because sometimes we’re lost in life, wandering until we find our way. And this is why I love horror. Because, ultimately, it has given me purpose.

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Why I Love Horror,
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31 Days of Horror: Day 9-- Why I Love Horror by Andy Davidson

Today I am back to the guest essay with yet another readalike author from  WHY I LOVE HORROR: ESSAYS ON HORROR LITERATURE contributing their own thoughts to the blog-- Andy Davidson who is the readalike fro Stephen Graham Jones.

In his essay Andy writes about how In the Valley of the Sun came to be published. I love this book. I have put it on my Best Horror of the 2010s list, it was a 2020 Summer Scares selection, I gave it a starred review in Booklist (I wrote that I was sad I finished it, it was that good). 

Andy has gone on to write more excellent novels since then, but his story about how he rediscovered his love of writing through horror is raw, honest, and inspiring.

Here is Andy Davidson's contribution to the Why I Love Horror series.

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A Horror Story Saved My Life

By Andy Davidson

Let’s start with a quote: “But this too is true: stories can save us.”

I was twenty-one the first time I read that sentence. It’s a line from Tim O’Brien’s “The Lives of the Dead,” about as close to an outright ghost story as you’ll get in The Things They Carried. I read it in a graduate fiction workshop at the University of Mississippi, my first semester in the MFA program. Even then, without any real crisis in my life, peering over the threshold of adulthood, not yet privy to sadness, sickness, or loss, I understood the power of that idea. I knew, somehow, it was true.

But it would be another twenty years before a story actually saved my life.

It was, of course, a horror story.

But first, a love story:

In 2007, three years after graduating with my MFA in hand, creatively burned out with no desire to write another word for at least a thousand years, I found myself on the academic job market, which can be like finding yourself at the end of a pirate’s plank. My one and only offer came from a two-year college way out in Georgia, a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of English. I took it, and less than a year later, something wonderful happened: I fell in love with my boss. In the spring of 2008, I casually suggested to my department chair—we’d been dating in secret for months—that we get married. She said sure, we got hitched in the summer, and because of Georgia’s anti-nepotism laws, human resources and the powers-that-be rightly shifted me from the English Department to a full-time staff position in our small Department of Distance Learning. I became, with no formal training, an instructional designer. I did, however, have a few years’ experience teaching online, not to mention some self-taught digital media chops, so it seemed like a good fit. Maybe even a fresh start, I thought. After all, what writer really wanted to be a teacher?

Years later, I would remember this thought and think another: You idiot.

(As a reminder, I had not, at this point in time, finished a single writing project in over three years.)

Time passed, life was good, and then the winds of change blew through our small two-year school, and for a myriad of reasons that seemed like they had everything to do with my being trapped in an ever-shrinking cage of my own making, I found myself half a decade into a forty-hour-a-week career I’d never asked to have. Ten years out of my MFA program, degreed to teach and not even a teacher, certainly not a writer, I suddenly and inexplicably felt trapped, doomed, lost. 

One day in 2013, I came home and wept.

I got this burning, gnawing feeling in my stomach. Constant pain.

I drank bone broth out of a thermos for lunch everyday for almost six months.

I had tests. Just stress, the doctors said.

(“Just.” As if stress isn’t some world-eating monster that can kill you.)

At some point during this time, like an alcoholic who’s hit rock bottom, or a sinner who’s found his way back to the altar, I sat down at a keyboard. I don’t know what specific event drove me there, don’t even remember when the decision was made, only that it happened out of some desperate, unutterable need to recenter my soul. I started trying to write. Like, really trying. Planning, outlining, organizing. I took writing seriously, maybe for the first time in my life. I’ve likened it in the years since to Jesse Pinkman blazing across the desert in that El Camino.

The first project that bore real fruit was an idea I got while painting the backyard fence, listening to Dwight Yoakham’s “Honky Tonk Man.” Serial killer cowboy, can’t stop offing women at honky tonks. I thought it was a crime story, Tender Mercies meets Taxi Driver, but then I banged out a draft and didn’t like it. It felt uninspired, artless. Cheap, even. About that time, I was re-reading a couple of books, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. Both, arguably, horror novels, but Salem’s Lot scared the absolute shit out of me—that scene with the gravedigger and the kid at the graveyard? So, I thought: Vampires, cowboys. Hmm. I rewrote my weird cowboy serial-killer thing and made the main character a vampire, wrote it in language that felt, at least to me, like what a Cormac McCarthy vampire novel would feel like. I’d go on to revise it fifteen, sixteen times in the subsequent year, but in 2014, every agent I submitted to rejected my query (no one even requested pages for my “literary vampire novel”).

Enter Crystal, always my hero, who bought me a ticket to a writing conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where I could sit down and talk to a real, live agent.

Driving those six hours north from Atlanta, white-knuckling the wheel, knowing it was a last-ditch effort? The stakes couldn’t have been higher for me. I needed a win, some success. Even if it wasn’t immediate, just the kindling of a flame to light my way out of the dark.

I met my agent at that conference, and in 2017 In the Valley of the Sun was published.

I’ve since had a lot of people tell me how much that book matters to them.

My hope is that they read this and know how much it mattered to me, too.

It’s the one. It saved me. 

Didn’t make me rich. Didn’t make me famous. But it saved my life.

Maybe this is why, in part, horror always holds the promise of hope for me, even in the darkest of stories. Sure, I could tell you a lot of other true stuff about why horror matters to me as a genre, how it shaped my tastes and informed my imagination. I could tell you about this teenage kid I knew, the high school principal’s son. Straight-A student, first-chair trumpet in the marching band. He’s got a bad haircut, pimples. Wears these cheap, mail-order sweatshirts. Like Ben Hanscom in IT, he thinks they’re baggy enough to hide the parts of himself he doesn’t want people to see. This poor sad shambling, self-loathing dip who wins citizenship awards, Woodmen of the World trophies. And at lunch gets spit on by the kids his dad gave detention. I was Ben Hanscom. Eddie Kaspbrak. Bill Denborough. Hell, I even wrote poetry for some Beverly Marsh who never knew it.

But all of that’s just memories, who I was. Truth, maybe.

It’s not salvation.

I was almost forty years old by the time I learned how a story can really save you, like O’Brien says. In his story, the narrator keeps dreaming alive the dead, imaginging other paths their lives could have taken. Memory itself as an act of conjuring.

For me, it was literal.

The agent requested the pages. The book got published.

And a story—a horror story—saved my life.

So yeah. I love horror.

Forever and ever.

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Why I Love Horror,
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31 Days of Horror: Day 8-- Oh, The Horror! at Springfield-Greene County Library District (MO)

Many of you know Konrad Stump as my Co-Chair of the Library Committee for the HWA, but did you know that 31 Days of Horror is how we met?

Back in 2017, Konrad reached out to let me know about an event he was planning for his library system entitled, Oh, The Horror. Well not only is that event still going, Konrad has turned it into a year long celebration of Horror with a newsletter, live events with the biggest horror authors,  TV appearances, fundraising activities, and more. Plus, we have become dear friends in the process.

Click here for the landing page for this year's Oh, The Horror!. They had a preview event with Eric LaRocca at the end of September, but the October festivities begin tomorrow!

Here is a link to watch Konrad discuss the program on local TV. And below, Konrad wrote this to share with all of you about the program in general:

The Springfield-Greene County Library's annual "Oh, the Horror!" program series, coordinated by HWA Libraries Co-Chair Konrad Stump, celebrates its ninth year this October. Mixing author events, local history programs, film screenings, crafts, escape rooms, and even the occasional month-long interactive mystery game, "Oh, the Horror!" has proven that the horror genre has something to offer everyone, bringing in over 4600 community members since its inception in 2017. After nearly a decade of engaging the Springfield-Greene community with the horror genre, the Library established a quarterly "Oh, the Horror!" newsletter and recently expanded the series to include author events, storytelling performances, and more throughout the year.

Since Konrad is now an expert at horror programming for an entire community, he also shares his knowledge and expertise with others looking to do more with their communities. Nothing is too small to try. You never know where it will go. 

This year, I get to be a part of the program as well. I will be appearing live with Grady Hendrix on October 28th at 6:30pm. Click here or on the image below to learn more. Registration is required for this one. Click here to register.

Click through to learn more about the entire month of activities, beginning tomorrow night! And while you are there, why not sign up for the newsletter to stay in the know whether you plan to attend any of their events or not. 

Click here to see the full schedule of events.

 

31 Days of Horror: Day 7-- My Horror Reviews in the October 2025 Issue of Booklist

I have 3 horror reviews in the October 2025 issue of Booklist. As always, these are my draft reviews with some extra appeal info, my three words, and extra readalikes.

This means I have added 11 horror books to your "to be read" pile in the last two days. (Sorry not sorry.) But good news, you don't have to read them all, just put them on order, and promote them as a good read all year long, so that each book can be found by its best reader.

 I am going to post them here in the order in which I wrote them

The Villa, Once Beloved

By Victor Manibo 

Nov. 2025. 400p. Kensington/Erewhon, $28 (9781645661382).

 First published October 1, 2025 (Booklist).

The patriarch of the Sepulveda family is dead, but as readers see, it is not from natural causes. As the family makes their way to the coconut plantation, above an isolated village, where the family’s grand Spanish Colonial Manor home sits, a typhoon is raging. Soon, a landslide traps them all. Readers enter this atmospheric, immersive, slow burn Filipino Gothic through the eyes of Sophie, a Filipino-American adoptee of white parents, attending the funeral with her boyfriend, the oldest grandchild. Amidst jet lag and an unfamiliar culture, Sophie learns that the “bad luck” tied to the family is grounded in a very real curse, one for which the various family members hold a collective responsibility. No longer beloved, the Sepulveda’s must all face the consequences of their evil political and personal choices. Another great example of how voices from all over the world are injecting a centuries old trope with their culture, history, and folk horror, both honoring and refreshing the Gothic itself while giving readers a slew of new terrifying tales to enjoy.

Three Words That Describe This Book: cursed family, Filipino Gothic, isolation horror

Further Appeal: The title adds just the right amount of tension to the story as readers go in-- the "once beloved" adds a layer of unease. And then the book opens with a death that in the first chapter is shown to be not "natural." Great dread filled atmosphere from the start.

It needs to be said that this book would not have gotten published without Silvia Moreno-Garcia writing Mexican Gothic; however, it is more than just "Filipino Gothic." I love that SMG has allowed so many people to explore their cultures and folklore through a trope that has been very white for 200 years. And because these books use a known and beloved trope but inject something new, readers are flocking to them in droves-- rightfully so.

In this case, Manibo has given readers a Gothic about a cursed family-- the Sepulveda's-- and their Spanish Colonial villa which has been part of their family for generations. The history of this fictional family is intertwined with very real history of the Philippines, especially the well known and horrific Marcos family.

There are a few narrators (and one that comes towards the end and is key to bringing the story all together) but readers mostly follow Sophie. She is a Filipino adoptee from Nebraska. Raised very blandly midwestern, aware of her heritage but never given the chance to engage with it, until at Stanford when she met Adrian, the oldest grandchild in the Sepulveda family, as they all travel to the Philippines to have the funeral for Adrian's grandfather. Sophie is a great narrator for us because she knows very little about the family and their history. She also knows very little about the supernatural folklore and monsters of the culture. As a result, things are explained to her (and us) but, she also becomes a conduit for the supernatural beings who visit her and increase the fear.

Readers know this family is rich and that in getting that power and money they probably did bad things, but as the book goes on, just how bad all of them are is revealed. And they have been literally cursed. This is referred to from the start, but the book does great job revealing the details. Consequences are coming from the curse that was placed on them and the plagues set upon them for very serious wrongs against the people of their community. Wrongs they tried to hide. Wrongs they have no remorse for-- all of them. And the monsters from their own folklore who will mark their end.

This entire story is told over the week just before Easter, during a typhoon. The group gets completely isolated from everyone else due to a landslide. No phone service, no road, no help. I appreciated how well the author built up a complex family, giving all of the family members a distinct identity and allowing each of them to reveal themselves fully as the danger and stress builds.

The political issues and history were also woven in without sacrificing the pace. This is a slow and steady build on purpose. As the isolation and danger increase, the pacing does as well. Sophie is our canary in this coal mine here-- as she gets more uneasy and unsettled and then terrified, so do we. This book would not work if it was told at a flat out pace. Readers need to see the story build and the days pass by-- labelled at the top-- and feel Easter coming. There is a reason this is told mostly over Holy Week. Religion and folklore overlap quite a bit. 

Readalikes: As I mentioned above, Mexican Gothic by SMG but also so many others since. 

Dark Sisters

By Kristi DeMeester.

Dec. 2025. 336p. St. Martin’s, $29 (9781250286819).

First published October 1, 2025 (Booklist).

The residents of Hawthorne Springs, all members of The Path (a mega church), have seen unprecedented and ubiquitous prosperity since the late 1700s, except for a strange illness that indiscriminately and seriously sickens the women.  Even more troubling, that sickness seems to be tied to those who have reported seeing the “ Dark Sisters,” two grotesque female spirits, tied together by their braids, living in a large tree on the outskirts of town. Told by three women, alternating in order beginning with Anne in 1750, Camilla in 2007, and finally Mary in 1953, each timeline enhances the others, keeping readers turning the pages, watching it all come together like a jigsaw puzzle, albeit one with a nightmarish final piece. A deadly serious, witchy story, propelled by rage against both the extraordinary and everyday violence men perpetrate against women, Dark Sisters reaches out across the centuries with a terror that is all too timely. For fans of anything by Rachel Harrison and Gwendolyn Kiste as well as The Year of the Witching by Henderson.

Three Words That Describe This Book: witches, linked time lines, feminist rage

Further Appeal: more "words" I considered-- unsettling, nightmarish, 3 narrators, short chapters that rotate time lines/narrators in this order (1750, 2007, 1953) as a result the story flows quickly without sacrificing the necessary details and clues that help bring it all together. And even though readers "figure out" a few things fairly early, they really have no idea what is coming. I think this is on purpose. DeMeester is leading us to where she wants us to go with the knowledge, in her back pocket, that she has more

This is a well constructed story of a community in Hawthorne Springs somewhere below the Mason-Dixon Line in America-- the town is purposefully not placed within a state. A church called The Path has long been in control since the 1750s. People who live in the town are all unusually prosperous-- like absurdly so. DeMeester fills the story with mentions of high end brand names that everyone has all the time. It was jarring and odd from the start which signaled to me that I should be paying attention to why. And there was a great why at the end.

The narrators are Ann Bolton in 1750 told in "interludes" as readers see the founding of Hawthorne Springs. Then we meet Camilla in 2007. She is the pastor's daughter. Then we meet Mary in 1953. They live in Hawthorne Springs. The timelines and narration alternate (as mentioned above) in that order-- 1750, 2007, 1953-- over and over. Each time line enhances the others. Each reveals something about the entire story. The book comes together like a jigsaw puzzle. It is very satisfying. But as I said above, the final pieces still are jarring and shocking.

The book moves quickly because of the narrative style choices which is great because this  is an angry book. The entire story is propelled by anger and rage against the everyday violence men perpetrate against women. From wanting them to be thin and pretty to physically assaulting them. All of it is there. And it is interspersed well. Without the short chapters and shifting timelines to provide a bit of a buffer, it would be too much. So kudos to her for sticking by her vision but working to make sure it flowed for the reader.

This book is deadly serious. There is no room for humor. It is fueled by anger and it can be overwhelming at times. This was written (purposefully I believe because it is well executed throughout) with a heavy hand-- Like The Power by Alderman. That is not to say it is not enjoyable to read. As a horror novel it is. But just be ready. 

Readalikes: Besides the ones in the review and the mention of The Power just above, I also suggest Hag by Kaufman. For fans of the church that is actually controlled by darker magic/spirits and have controlled a town for centuries- try Crafting for Sinners by Kiefer. Kiefer's story has more dark humor though. This one is deadly serious.

Yeehaw Junction

By Kayli Scholz 

Nov. 2025. 181p. Moonstruck, paper, $19 (9798988815440). 

First published October 1, 2025 (Booklist).

Welcome to Yeehaw Junction, smack dab in the middle of Florida, where the land is poisoned with DDT. It is June 1999 and the narrator Skeet tells readers, “... I’m gonna be a school shooter when I grow up.” Leading readers through a few fateful weeks that summer, when a young girl goes missing, and Skeet’s precarious home situation goes from bad to worse, readers sympathize with Skeet even as he and his “family” make awful choices. Scholz adds depth to the story by letting readers see things outside of Skeet’s limited experience in the form of ephemera (police documents, articles, transcripts, etc), from before and after 1999. Straddling the line between intensely discomfiting psychological suspense and extreme horror without ever sacrificing the heartbreaking humanity at its core, readers will be forced to confront the terrifying reality of the America that is hiding in plain sight, just off the interstate, on their way to the amusement parks. For fans of the movie, The Florida Project and novels by CJ Leede, Eric LaRocca, and Gabino Iglesias.

Three Words That Describe This Book: discomfiting, thought provoking, sympathetic but awful narrator 

Further Appeal: I put “family” in quotes because it is a found family but being raised by a foster parent. And how they became a family is part of the story told in the ephemera– and it is NOT GOOD. 

Readalikes: This is a book for the space where psychological suspense and horror overlap. In your face horrors with plenty of humanity-- like in the work of Gabino Iglesias, Eric LaRocca, and CJ Leede. Especially great for fans of The Devil Takes You Home or Coyote Songs by Iglesias. 

The present of this book is set in 1999 and it is mostly told by Skeet, a young man who tells us in the first sentence that he is a school shooter in training. But throughout he use of ephemera-- police documents, transcripts of true crime videos, 911 transcripts, newspaper articles and more-- all clearly dates-- readers get a sense of what happened before we meet Skeet and way after he leaves us.

The use of dates is key because info is giving to the reader throughout the present storyline and some is set before and some after. It all adds to the extreme unease of this story.

The world building here is excellent. Readers get a sense of this hopeless place-- Yeehaw Junction-- right in the middle of nowhere FL. A place literally poisoned-- the DDT remnants are still leaving a mark on the people who live there-- including Skeet.

The less you know about this book going in the better. It is a full body experience to read it. You will feel disgust, anger, and terror but also sadness, hope for better for Skeet even though you know the odds are impossibly against him. You will also be forced to take a hard look at the America that is just off the interstate on your way to the amusement park. 

31 Days of Horror: Day 6-- My October Library Journal Column with a 3 Book Giveaway

     

My October 2025 Horror Review Column is now live on the LJ site and in the current issue of the print magazine! 

In this post I have gathered the titles with my three words and links to my full draft reviews on Goodreads. Click on the titles for readalikes and more appeal information. 

I also have 3 of these books in print that I will be giving away to three winners in the order that they are listed here. Those titles are marked in the list below. Rules and how to enter are all at the end of this post. 

First this month's 2 STARS: 

• The Long Low Whistle by Laurel Hightower (cryptids, claustrophobic, cinematic)
• Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite (generational trauma, character driven, immersive unease)

And the other 6 excellent titles: 

• I'll Make a Spectacle Out of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker (multiple time frames, strong world building, Hoodoo)
• Interview with the author in the print issue
• This book is giveaway #1
• Sofa by Sam Munson (Horror in the mundane, dark humor, intensely psychological)
• Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World by Cullen Bunn (cinematic, epic, small town horror, huge cast of characters)
• Futility by Nuzo Onoh (vengeance, voyeuristic, unapologetic)
• Humboldt Cut by Allison Mick (omniscient narration, eco-horror, multiple timelines)
• This book is giveaway #2
• Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer
• This book is giveaway #3

As promised, here are the rules on how to enter the giveaway portion of this post:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

31 Days of Horror: Day 5-- Sunday Links Roundup

Every Sunday during 31 Days of Horror, I will have links that I have gathered throughout the week to share here. 

Please note, the first week of links I always the most as media outlets pack their horror content into the last week of September and the first week of October.

• The Return of the Horror Honker by me in The Lineup
• Link to everything I have written for The Lineup
• More recent pieces from The Lineup of particular interest to this blog.
• Mother Horror's monthly guide to dark and disturbing books by Sadie Hartmann (wrote the introduction to my book)
• Six Dark and Disturbing Books with Disability Representation by Grace Daly who will be offering up a Why I Love Horror Essay for me later this month
• Just use The Lineup as a resource all year long, but especially right now. So many great book lists are here. Many of them are focused on backlist titles meaning all of these lists work all the time to make displays, offer suggestions, and beef up your horror offerings.
• Alma Katsu and I had a conversation about Horror that ran exclusively in People Magazine Online last Sunday.
• I have been on a bunch of podcasts talking about WHY I LOVE HORROR. Here are the links to each of them if you want to listen.
• Books in the Freezer, live on September 9. 
• Reading Glasses, live on September 18
• The Scares That Shaped Us, live on September 24
• Circulating Ideas, live on September 30
• Every Fall I update my Horror RA program. Here is link to the latest version.
• Recent Book Riot Horror Content:
• Six Spooky New Genre-Bending Books
• Horror About Lust and Desire
• Click here for ongoing Book Riot Horror content 
• Rachel Harrison in the NYT sharing Unconventional Possession Novels (gift link)
• From Goodreads:
• 10 Years of Horror Hits to Read this October
• Eight Halloween Reading Lists Based on Very Specific Vibes, Themes, and Tropes
• Horror for Beginners: A Guide to Horror Reading Based on Your Go-To Genre (written by Sadie Hartmann and includes my book!)
• The Chicago Tribune on the current state of horror lit-- mentions my book and many of the authors in it. (Link only for subscribers but check your library for access.)