S.J.Budd

  Do you love All Hallows' Eve? Ghost stories? Tales from beyond that leave you feeling unsettled while walking to the kitchen at night? The orange-and-black vintage aesthetic? Haunted houses with shuttered windows? Edited by Gaby Triana with John Palisano, this anthology of 19 short stories by some of the most terrifying name son horror is the perfect collection for a dark and stormy October night. Featuring tales to make you hide under the covers by; Jonathan Maberry, Gwendolyn Kiste, Catherine Cavendish, Tim Waggoner, Jeff Strand, Sara Tantlinger, Lee Murray, Alethea Kontis, Lisa Morton & more I already knew before I read this that I would enjoy this, this anthology has an amazing line up of lots of authors I greatly admire. Literally Dead did not disappoint I had so much fun reading this. Some stories will make you cry, some will leave in you in stitches but beware of those that will strike terror in your heart! There wasn't one story I didn't like in here. When You

  Welcome aboard the Venus, a space ship deep in space looking for old wrecks to salvage. It's run by a very colourful all female crew and a cat. The ship badly need repairs the women need to make some money. A perfect opportunity presents itself but will they strike it rich or find disaster. Science Fiction isn't my thing but I really enjoyed reading Venus Falling by Sarah Jane Huntingdon. She's a natural story teller and adds plenty of fun and humour. It's full of really funny moments particularly from Jonesy the headstrong adrenaline seeking pilot! This is a short read so perfect for when you're between books.  The Venus is a salvage ship roaming through space searching for salvage so they can get rich. Each member of the all female crew has been made an outcast but together they form on mighty strong team. One day they are on the cusp of striking it rich when they encounter a strange cloud. Another ship is approaching also after the same prize and they must go t

  Anchorage, Alaska. A place where people don't care if someone goes missing. A place where Leia Walker tries her hardest to hide from the world, wanting a normal without anxiety and OCD. But Leia's bubble pops when an old friend is back in town and twists Leia's reality. A bloody event proves what Leia is scared to learn - Sophie Gardner, her old high school friend and saviour from the bullies, is a vampire. Forced to run away with Sophie, Leia's life takes a terrifying turn when vampires and hunters come after them. The only thing preventing them from losing themselves is their friendship... But will it be enough to escape the inevitable blood bath? Nocturnal Blood is a vampire book like no other. I love vampires in fiction and as a a result have read so many books based on vampires. I adore Anne Rice, Dracula and even Twilight (sorry) but this book is so different to those. This is a horror book with a lot of heart and tenderness that left me with a tear in my eye. T

  My Top Twenty Horror Reads of 2022 The following books are my top twenty horror reads in no particular order. This has been a great year for horror I have read only a fraction and can't wait to find more gems to read.  Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments section. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..." Ancient beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden ad the sea, is the county's showpiece. Rebecca made it so - even a year after her death, Rebecca's influence still rules here. How can Maxim de Winter's shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow? A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and it's inhabitants completely... Rebecca is a gothic masterpiece, a book that I make a point of reading each year, it's one of those rare magical books that seems to change with each read. 

  Betrayal brings grave ending to a noble bloodline. Forced to flee, its sole surviving heir is spared this fate by the timely intervention of a haunter of the wilds. In his charge, the maiden embraces the lore of the dark arts and rises to become the watch-keep of the woods. As decades pass, with her legend growing, the 'witch of root and earth' weaves subtle deceits in a tangled web of vengeance. But will there be a fairy ending, or will poisoned legacies and pacts with dark forces see ambition unravel in her relentless pursuit of power? Bloody and brilliantly realised, Baird's dark fantasy nightmare spins a lavish tale of dread, desire, and fantastical fury. I'm not sure where to start with this review, other than it's absolutely fantastic. I'm really struggling to think of another book that it is similar too but can't. It's such an original book! As a child I loved fairy tales, I really liked the dark ones such as Hansel and Gretal, Little Red Riding

  London 1971: Harry Undine is psychic and its tearing him apart. When his so-called gift kicks in, the pain can be deep and soul-wrenching - a pain nobody would understand, even if Undine revealed the truth. Which he won't. That sort of sensitivity might be considered 'cool' by hippies and New Age freaks, but its a million miles away from the tough Rat Pack image Undine aspired to when he was growing up. So Undine keeps his mouth shut as he hunts for a cure- a personal quest more important than the research he is supposed to be carrying out as a paranormal investigator for the Corsi Institute. Out in the suburbs, WPC Jo Cross is determined to do right by the terrified old lady she promised to help. Jo approaches the Institute for assistance, and soon Undine's sixth sense is screaming a premonition of danger. But the location Jo describes is notorious, and the Institute team leaps at the opportunity to investigate Mitcham's most infamous haunted house. Undine cannot

  Jessica ad Nicole think they've finally found their dream house- by the sea, in the West of Ireland. 17 Montpellier Street has history, character...and so many rooms you could easily lose your way, if you don't tread carefully. It has memories, too- so many memories. The new owners haven't learned them yet. But the girls who lived there decades before, when the church-used Montpellier Street to hide away its secrets- they've never forgotten. The ones who survived, anyway. Montpellier Street remembers every one of the horrors those girls suffered at the hands of the priests, nuns and doctors who should have been their carers. And Jess and Nicole...they're about to start reliving them, night after night. Sleep may never come easy again. This book immediately jumped out at me, set in Ireland, an old creepy house with a dark past and strange goings ons which a nice new couple have moved into. I knew straightaway this would be a great read and I wasn't disappointed

  This Is  Where We Talk Things Out This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau, author of Palimpsest: A Collection of Contemporary Horror, follows the gut-wrenching journey of Miller and her estranged mother, Sylvie, who have always had a tense relationship. After Miller's father dies, she agrees to a girls' vacation away from the city to reconnect with the only family she has left. Although she's eager to make things work. Miller can't help but worry that her mother is seeing their countryside retreat as a fun weekend getaway instead of what it really is: a last ditch effort to repair their relationship. Unfortunately, that quickly becomes the least of Miller's problems. Sylvie's trapped in the past and if Miller's not careful. she will be too. A cross between Stephen King's Misery and Stephanie Wrobel's Darling Rose Gold. This Is Where We Talk Things Out explores the horror of familial trauma, mother-daughter relationships, and what happen

  What's it about? Return to the Weald, the world Stephanie Ellis introduced us to in The Five Turns of the Wheel. Reborn is the story of Cernunnos, the Father of all, who has risen. Born of the blood offerings, he travels to the Layerings - one of those places, like Umbra, which sit just beyond the human veil. Reborn is the story of Tommy, Betty and Fiddler, the infamous troupe whose bloody rituals were halted by Megan, Tommy's Daughter. Rendered weak by Megan's refusal to allow them to hunt in the human world of the Weald, they seek their rebirth and forgiveness from the Mother and Cernunnos. Reborn is the story of Megan, who follows Cernunnos and Hweol's sons on a pilgrimage of hope - one that would see her husband restored to her and the dark presence of Hweol removed. Ultimately, though, Reborn is the story of Betty, the most monstrous of the three brothers. He is Nature, red in tooth and claw. He is what the Mother made him. And who are we to judge? With Reborn, E

  Throwing Shadows is a collection of 9 creepy stories that have something for everyone. A woman develops an unhealthy obsession with a scarecrow. A boy plays with an Ouija board and receives a terrifying warning of murder. A down-on-his-luck- father learns what happens when you die in your sleep. These stories and six more frightening tales await the reader within the pages of Throwing Shadows: A Dark Collection. Throwing Shadows will feed that hungry dark side that lives in your cellar. This collection of horror, thriller and science fiction has something for readers seeking tales of suspenseful fiction. With a vintage paperback feel, along with a modern sensibility, these short stories will take readers down a dark path of pulp dread.  I have never read any fiction by Jerry Roth before but with Brigid's Gate Press putting out so much amazing fiction I had really high expectations, and Jerry Roth certainly delivered. This was a great collection. This is a collection of nine short

Welcome to Buenos Aires, a place of nightmares and twisted imaginings, where missing children come back from the dead and unearthed bones carry terrible curses. Thrumming with murderous intentions, family betrayals, and morbid desires, these stories shine a light on a violent city gripped by urban madness; giving voice to the lost, the oppressed, and the forgotten. Lucid and darkly poetic, unsettling and otherworldly, these tales of revenge, witchcraft, and fetishes are a masterpiece of contemporary gothic and a bewitching exploration of the dark inclinations that threaten to lead us over the edge. This was one of those books that I just can't stop thinking about. I was worried I'd feel disappointed after reading as this book has had so much praise and adoration but after I read it, I realised the hype was real. It me just a day to finish and five minutes before I decided to read it again straightaway. The second read was just as scary as the first. Mariana Enriquez is an autho

  A 13 story collection of twisted tales, all featuring killer women. Supernatural creations hell-bent on revenge. Cosmic terrors form beneath the surface. Women with unusual afflictions. The kind housewife with a collection of pickling jars. The beginnings of a serial  killer and more. Villains, Vigilantes, Voyeurs and Vengeance. You won't forget these women in a hurry Straightaway I knew I would love this collection of short stories when I read the introduction. Particularly in the horror genre it is always the women who suffer the most particularly when faced with being the final girl but here in this anthology the women rise up and take their revenge against the world, taking down the patriarchy one by one! In Iron Maiden we meet women who are broken down but then they rise up stronger than ever returning the hate dealt out to them. Sarah Jane Huntingdon is an incredibly powerful story teller. Very quickly the reader is completely absorbed into the mind of a predator. In each s

The blurb! When Cabot Howard's ex-wife, Leana and their son, Porter, flee the pandemic to the backwoods town of Rookfield, Cabot sets off after them. Once there, however, Leana is in hiding, her family won't hand Porter over, and the townsfolk are deadly serious about always wearing masks. The children all dress like little plague doctors and the adults are hellbent on getting Cabot out by nightfall. Despite being alone and under attack, Cabot won't leave without his son. Nothing - not ex-in-laws, not the sheriff, not even whatever monstrosity might lurk in the woods behind the barn- will stop Cabot from getting them out of ...Rookfield. Cabot is on a mission to find his son and bring him home. Set during the pandemic Cabot doesn't care about the virus and certainly not the lockdown rules and regulations. It doesn't take long to conclude he's a bit of an arsehole. He's furious that his ex wife Leana has taken their son away from the city and back out across

Over a decade ago, Kari's husband and son went hunting and never returned. As she prepares for another long winter she longs for their return. Then one day things change. The night creatures who live in the dark have visited the day and a mysterious figure who arrives may hold the key to reuniting her with her family. For Kari, the question becomes - just how far will she go to be reunited? Wow I read this book in two sittings because it was so gripping it left me breathless. Piece of Me was unlike anything I've read by Steve Stred, and I've read a lot of his fiction such as Of Witches  , The Window in the Ground  and The One that Knows no Fear . This guy is a seriously versatile author! I loved Kari straightaway,  she's a fearless warrior who relies on no one but herself. She's learnt to survive in a hungry harsh world, she's gone through catastrophe and she still fights to hold on each day, never giving up hope of being reunited with her lost ones. I knew very

For fans of Mexican Gothic, from three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature--from Lucy Westenra, a victim of Stoker’s Dracula, and Bertha Mason, from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre--as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967. Reluctant Immortals  is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion,  Reluctant Immortals  is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they brave