Month: September 2021

GUEST POST: Somer Canon

megHan

The Halloween Mood

It’s that time of year again. Summer has come to an end, the days are getting shorter, and the color orange is starting to saturate our world of capitalistic vice and consumption. There’s pumpkin spice, well, everything and the general cozy feeling that comes with the season, and then we have the people who are annoyed with the deliriously evangelical followers of the autumnal cult of joy. Fall is the favorite season of many, and the favorite punching bag of others. Personally, I’m a big fan of the season and the mood it sets. I haven’t even touched on the best day of the season, in my opinion at least: Halloween.

I sit pretty comfortably in the opinion that Halloween is one of the best holidays. I’m not even close to being alone in that belief. In 2019, almost 70% of Americans celebrated Halloween. It dropped a bit in 2020 and looks like the downward trend may continue this year, thanks to the pandemic. But still, more than half of Americans, pandemic or not, are going to be indulging in the spooky, in the morbid, and in the deliciously decadent delights that horror can give. Children and adults alike love Halloween. Horror fans and otherwise love Halloween. The love of Halloween spans various belief systems and religions. How is this so? Why is Halloween such a hit?

I think that it has a lot to do with the fact that it happens at the end of October, just as fall is getting into full swing. Like Christmas, we start celebrating Halloween before the actual day with trips to pop-up stores for new costumes and goodies for our homes, visiting haunted houses and hay rides, and scary movies play on the television every night. Summer is the season that we spend mostly out of our homes, away on vacations and with school being out, mostly on a relaxed or nonexistent schedule. Fall begins with school going back into session, the return to routine and to the end of the vacation season. We’re home, we’re settling in, we’re getting cozy, and we get to do that as the lush beauty of nature prepares to wow us one last time. In the autumnal season, nature proves that she saves the best for last. The sweet smell of dead leaves and their lovely crunch under our feet as we walk, it romances us. Death woos and charms us. Pumpkins start appearing everywhere, flanked by decorative baskets of chrysanthemums. But alongside that magazine-cover pretty picture, there are skeletons, spiders, black cats, corpses, vampires, bats…all of the ambassadors of the decidedly spooky. And they go together wonderfully. I put a seven-foot werewolf on my front porch, but I’ve also got mums and pumpkins. I put out a small cemetery in my side yard with zombies and skeletons climbing out of the graves, but they’re surrounded by beautiful falling leaves from the large tree. The beauty of nature’s death pairs nicely with the human macabre.

Halloween also has the distinguished position of being a holiday that normally doesn’t come with family obligations. Every season comes with a holiday that carries some sort of requirement that can stress us out. Halloween has no such demand. It stands as one of the special days on the calendar that is set aside purely for fun. Obligations are minimal, usually, and having to eat a big dinner next to your judgmental aunt is still at least a month away. Halloween is so much more casual. I know the history of Halloween and I know the pagan-held beliefs of the day, but it has become a day of laughter, fun, sweets, and ridiculousness. It has a few songs, it has a lot of movies, and it has costumes. Halloween is an absolute delight, and I know that I start looking forward to it every August. I sometimes hold out through September before bringing out my spooky and corny decorations, and sometimes I don’t. But, at the very least, the month of October is dedicated to Halloween in my house. My giant porch werewolf and the many other outdoor decorations pale in comparison to what I have inside of my house. A disassembled skeleton hangs from my dining room chandelier, I drink my coffee from Halloween mugs and have my evening tipple in Halloween glasses. For crying out loud, I have Halloween bedding and bathroom hand towels! I love every stitch of it. All of it.

The U.S. is an enormous country with many different regions and not all of them necessarily have four seasons, and yet, they still celebrate Halloween. I live in Eastern Pennsylvania where we certainly experience the full four seasons, but Halloween is pervasive in this country of ours regardless of whether autumn happens or not. Again, why? I’m not an academic and I have no deep philosophical answer for you. What I do have is my observation, and my knowledge of both your average person and the horror community. Halloween is popular because it’s fun. Being scared is fun. Horror carries a stigma of being sick and taboo, and yet I rarely meet a person who doesn’t have a favorite scary movie. People tell me all the time that they don’t like horror, but they love Halloween. Yes, it’s the day for the horror-lovers, but it’s also the day for the “normies” to take a walk on the spooky side and it turns out, they have just as much fun as us horror folk. It’s fun! That’s not a deep answer, but it is an obvious one, and a truthful one.

So, if you’re like more than half of us and celebrating Halloween, enjoy it. Have the fun. Watch the movies, eat the treats, put up the decorations, and do it with people that enjoy it as much as you. Do a Halloween night recitation of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and eat some apple dumplings. But could you do this horror author a favor? Pick up a scary book from an author you’ve never read. Give a smaller name a chance. Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree is a terrific book and everything by Stephen King can be appropriate at this time of year. But there are so many horror authors out there who are putting out works that will surprise you with the imaginative takes and amazing storytelling and it’s a shame to only read the biggest names, or only a few names. Try something new, someone new, and allow yourself to be surprised and delighted. After all, ‘tis the season!

I’ll start you off. I’ll throw some authors at you, and you pick what thrills you most.

If you love monster books, authors Hunter Shea and Mary SanGiovanni write some of the best monster-based fiction out there. Wile E. Young is really climbing the ranks here as well.

If you love a good haunted house book or gothic horror, check out Catherine Cavendish.

If you like really strange, creative horror that takes unexpected turns, Wesley Southard, Stephen Kozeniewski, and Armand Rosamilia deliver.

If you like it spicy and want your horror a little sexy, check out Sephera Giron and Jessica McHugh. But don’t be fooled by the erotic bent of these works, they are every bit as brutal and horrifying as any other horror book, just with an added bonus.

Do you like horror that doesn’t really fit into a category but can be emotional and somehow beautiful? Robert Ford and John Boden belong on your shelves, then.

Grab a short story collection from a new author. As a reader, I find the best authors out there put together amazing short story collections. Most of the authors I mention here have short story collections in their bibliography. Also, try one of Matt Wildasin’s Horrors Untold volumes. They’re wonderful and varied fun.

Lots of authors write Halloween-themed works. Ronald Kelly, Kevin Lucia, Douglas Clegg, and yours truly have Halloween works out there.

I’m barely scratching the surface here, and could spend all day pointing you to terrific authors, but if you start here, and do a little digging of your own, I guarantee you’ll find your new favorite author. Happy Halloween!

Somer Canon lives in Eastern PA with her husband, two sons, and three cats. She loves to read and write and although she is polyamorous when it comes to genres, horror always seems to be her favorite.

Boneyard —
Halloween is a night of spooky fun…at least it is for the living. What about the dead? What kind of fun do they have? Read and find out how the no-longer-living entertain themselves at the expense of very much alive and disrespectful people!

A Fresh Start —
Still hurting from her divorce, Melissa Caan makes a drastic life change for herself and her two young children by moving them out to a rural home.But the country life came with some extras that she wasn’t counting on. Doors are slamming, she and her children are violently attacked by unseen hands, and her elderly neighbor doesn’t like to talk about the murders that happened in the strangely named hollow all those years ago.Ghost hunters, witches, and a sassy cancer survivor come together to help Melissa fight for the safety of her children and herself.All she wanted was a fresh start, will she get it?

Slaves to Gravity (with Wesley Southard) —
After waking up in a hospital bed, paralyzed from the waist down, Charlie Snyder had no idea where life would take her. Dejected, broken, and permanently bound to a wheelchair, she believed her life was truly over. That is…until gravity no longer applied.It started out slow. Floating from room to room. Menial tasks without assistance. When she decided to venture outside and take some real risks with her newfound ability, she rose above her own constraints to reveal a whole new world, and found other damaged individuals just like her to confide in.But there are other things out there, waiting in the dark. Repulsive, secretive creatures that don’t want Charlie to touch the sky. And they’ll stop at nothing to keep her on the ground.

GUEST BOOK REVIEW by Sue Rovens: Harvest Home

megHan

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon

Both the movie (the made for television mini-series from 1978) and the book (written in 1973) are absolute wins. Harvest Home is the story about Cornwall Coombe, a tiny, almost forgotten hamlet tucked away somewhere within the Connecticut countryside and follows a young family (the Constantines) who desire a more quiet and peaceful life.

It’s part folk and part cult, but all solidly horror-based. The book does take its time “getting there”, but what Tryon does masterfully is set the scenes and create the world, so by the time hell breaks loose (and trust me, it does), you are all in.

The characters are riveting and truly jump off the page. Like ‘em or hate ‘em, you’ll get to know and understand them. And while we might not live in a world like ‘the Coombe’, there’s enough folk horror of today for readers to have a firm grasp on the entirety of the story. Think Midsommar, The Wicker Man (the original), and to a degree, The Stepford Wives (the original), and even The Witch.

I recommend this book (and the made for tv movie – you can find a fairly decent offering on YouTube. It’s not the cleanest version, but you’ll get the gist.) It’s perfect for the fall, for Halloween, or anytime you want a fantastic story and pulls you in and refuses to let go long after you’ve finished with it.

Boo-graphy:
Sue Rovens is an indie suspense/horror author who hails from Normal, Illinois. She has written four novels and two books of short horror stories, with her latest book, Rage, having “hit the shelves” in July 2021.

Track 9, her second novel, snagged a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly (May 2018), her short story, “Coming Over”, from her book In a Corner, Darkly (Volume 1), was turned into a screenplay and short student indie film by the theater department of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and another short story, “When the Earth Bled”, won 2nd place in the Support Indie Authors short story contest earlier this year. Her two most recent books (Buried and Rage) are under Plump Toad Press.

Sue owns a blog which includes interviews with authors, musicians, podcasters, and artists. She is an Executive Producer for an indie (short) horror film which is currently in production called “Let’s Do Things that Make Us Happy”. Sue is also a co-host and story writer for the new horror podcast, Ye Olde Terror Inn.

Sue is a member of The Chicago Writers Association and the Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLi). 

Blog/Website
Email
Amazon

Rage —
Weston Cross is a bullied and abused man who wants nothing more than to escape from his agonizing mental anguish and excruciating misery. After a harrowing brush with death, he discovers a better way to twist his depression and self-despair into something different…something sinister.Lindsay Yager, the therapist assigned to help Weston with his internal battles, is fighting her own demons. On the verge of a nasty divorce, she finds solace at the bottom of a bottle. Her anger and vitriol take no prisoners, even when lives are at stake – including her own.Depression sets the stage, but RAGE will have the final say.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Sue Rovens

megHan

Meghan: Hi, Sue. Welcome to Meghan’s Haunted House of Books. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Sue: I’ve always loved “the feel” and “the atmosphere” of the season. Fall is my favorite time of year; October is my favorite month. The movies, the pumpkins, the spooky things, the trick-or-treating – all of it. I would totally go trick-or-treating now (if Charlie, my husband, would go with!) I think it would be a gas.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Sue: Trick-or-treating the old school way. Get dressed up, grab a pillowcase, and run house to house for hours.

Meghan: What are you superstitious about?

Sue: I don’t know if I’m superstitious, per se, but I also don’t see the need to tempt the fates. If I spill salt, I’ll throw some grains over my left shoulder. I won’t walk under a ladder (if I can help it). I’ll try not to open an umbrella in the house. I DO have a black cat, though. Noodle is adorable and not scary at all. 😊

Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?

Sue: I don’t really have a favorite villain, but I do have a lot of respect for the originals – The Mummy (the real one, not the Brendan Fraser mashup), Dracula, etc. So much was built on those characters, it’s hard not to have some reverence toward the ones who came before.

Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?

Sue: I imagine if I had to pick, I would say anything revolving around Ouija Boards. Even after writing an in-depth scholarly article about them (and knowing that they were created for parlor entertainment), I still think that there’s SOME way they can invite “evilness” into a house. And why in the world would I want to do that??

Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?

Sue: The question is a bit of a misnomer as I don’t have a “favorite” serial killer (and, thinking about it, I don’t know if ordinary folks should). BUT having said that, I find Ed Gein one of the most interesting/character studies, probably because of the time period in which everything took place. The 1950’s were generally seen as such an idyllic era (no, not socially forward thinking, but we’re not addressing that here) that discovering what types of activities Ed Gein was actually engaged in was a complete and unconscionable shock. Eventually, the powers that be had to have his house torn down because people continued to be drawn to this “house of horrors” (for a variety of reasons).

Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie?

Sue: That goes back pretty darn far! LOL. I can’t say I remember what my very first horror movie was, BUT I do recall watching parts of The Mummy (1932), The Crawling Hand (1963), and Dracula (1931) when I was a kid (my brother would be watching these and I’d be in the same room). A little later (probably 9 – 15), I’d watch Made-for-TV “horror”. Those were the best (1970s).

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Sue: When I was around 15, 16, I read ‘Salem’s Lot (Stephen King). That was the main impetus of me wanting to become a writer. I found it really scary at the time.

Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?

Sue: Hmmm. Well, this might not be the kind of answer you’re looking for, but there’s been a few “extreme” horror movies that I wish I could unsee (for a whole host of reasons). Cannibal Holocaust is certainly one. I refused to watch the “animal scenes” because that’s where I draw the line. Plus, it’s basically just a poorly made slaughter-fest which, to me, isn’t “scary” or “horror”, but simply disgusting and grotesque.

Salo (120 Days) is another movie that I couldn’t come to terms with, no matter how I tried. If there are any redeeming qualities to this film, they’re beyond my capacity of understanding and critical ability. Yes, it’s created to provoke emotions and feelings, but the only feeling I retained after having witnessed it was that of nausea.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?

Sue: When I was 17, I dressed up as Richard Simmons. 😊

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?

Sue: I didn’t know there were actual Halloween songs! LOL.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?

Sue: Reese’s are perfection in any size, but I’ll take a Milk Dud or Butterfinger any day. Oh, the “fun size” they sell now? Scam. Total scam. Fun Size USED to be about half (maybe a third) of a regular bar. Now? Forget about it.

Neccos are beyond disappointing. They’re just evil and wrong.

Meghan: One more thing before we go: What are some Halloween movies you think we should definitely watch?

Sue:
Pontypool – Trust me. This is a brilliantly made Canadian film which doesn’t rely on special effects, excessive gore, or goofy one-liners. One of my favorite movies.

Burnt Offerings – Sure, it’s from 1976, but it’s fantastic. Spooky, great story, and some really scary scenes. Very little gore – doesn’t need it. The characters and story drive it home.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch – Campy, but insane, all at the same time. I love revisiting this one. If you can overlook the “smarminess” of the main character, it’s a great romp and features an additive melody.

The Sentinel – Again, another old school one. This movie is so trippy, though, it’s a delight to behold. If you’re looking for weird jump cuts and Burgess Meredith reveling in his scenes, give this one a try.

The Thing (1982) – Pure, unadulterated horror. Scary. Shocking. Intense. Great all around.

Boo-graphy:
Sue Rovens is an indie suspense/horror author who hails from Normal, Illinois. She has written four novels and two books of short horror stories, with her latest book, Rage, having “hit the shelves” in July 2021.

Track 9, her second novel, snagged a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly (May 2018), her short story, “Coming Over”, from her book In a Corner, Darkly (Volume 1), was turned into a screenplay and short student indie film by the theater department of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and another short story, “When the Earth Bled”, won 2nd place in the Support Indie Authors short story contest earlier this year. Her two most recent books (Buried and Rage) are under Plump Toad Press.

Sue owns a blog which includes interviews with authors, musicians, podcasters, and artists. She is an Executive Producer for an indie (short) horror film which is currently in production called “Let’s Do Things that Make Us Happy”. Sue is also a co-host and story writer for the new horror podcast, Ye Olde Terror Inn.

Sue is a member of The Chicago Writers Association and the Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLi). 

Blog/Website
Email
Amazon

  • “I’m the one behind Monkey.”

Rage —
Weston Cross is a bullied and abused man who wants nothing more than to escape from his agonizing mental anguish and excruciating misery. After a harrowing brush with death, he discovers a better way to twist his depression and self-despair into something different…something sinister.Lindsay Yager, the therapist assigned to help Weston with his internal battles, is fighting her own demons. On the verge of a nasty divorce, she finds solace at the bottom of a bottle. Her anger and vitriol take no prisoners, even when lives are at stake – including her own.Depression sets the stage, but RAGE will have the final say.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Tia Souders

megHan

Meghan: Hi Tia!! Welcome to Meghan’s House of Books. Thank you for taking part in this year’s Halloween Extravaganza. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Tia: All of it? But seriously, I do love Halloween. I think what I love the most is that no matter how old I get, it’s nostalgic. It reminds me of being a kid and running around my neighborhood with neighbors and sister, racing to as many houses as possible, then going home and dumping all our candy out and watching silly Halloween movies like Monster Squad and the ones Disney always used to put on.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Tia: Gosh. Obviously as a kid it was trick-or-treating, which usually meant freezing your butt off, then coming home and going through our candy and watching movies. When I was a teen, through my 20’s, it was watching cheesy horror flicks with my best friend and pigging out on junk food. As an adult and a parent, it’s now getting to do the whole trick-or-treat thing again with my kids. Only, it’s a little more fun because we may or may not drink wine out of paper coffee cups (shhhhh) and order pizza. I do still watch Halloween movies, though. That’s the one constant that hasn’t changed. Oh, and I DO dress up as an adult to go out with my kids!

Meghan: If Halloween is your favorite holiday (or even second favorite holiday), why?

Tia: It’s just simple. I think that’s what makes Halloween so fun. There’s no massive amount of presents to buy. No stress or worry. Just a few hours of getting to dress up, eat candy, and be a kid again.

Meghan: What are you superstitious about?

Tia: This is a tough one. I’m not really superstitious, but if I had to say one thing I am superstitious about, it would be expressing something good that I think might or want to happen for fear it won’t come true.

Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?

Tia: Michael Myers. (From the Halloween movies.)

Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?

Tia: Gosh, honestly? The JonBenet Ramsey case. Probably because it’s such a tragedy, and the parents were so suspicious and the brother kind of weird. It STILL makes me question whether it was one of them when really — who knows? It could’ve been some random person.

Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?

Tia: Probably Candyman. At least it did when I was a kid.

Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?

Tia: This question feels tricky. Mostly because, are we supposed to have a favorite serial killer? Is it creepy if we do? LOL

If I had to choose, I guess I’d pick Jack the Ripper. Mostly because I read a fictional historical romance called The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly that put a fictional play on Jack the Ripper that added a cool element to the story. It was kind of fun to get a glimpse into what it would’ve been like to be in Whitechapel during that time.

Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie? How old were you when you read your first horror book?

Tia: Does Jaws count? I was maybe six when I saw that and I liked it. Hahaha

Otherwise, it was probably Halloween around 11, and it only freaked me out in that creepy-cool kind of enjoyable way.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Tia: Truthfully, I don’t read horror. I immerse myself in books so much, it would creep me out WAY too much. Probably the scariest thing I’ve read is The Shining by Stephen King.

Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?

Tia: Poltergeist. It still creeps me out. Anything paranormal and dealing with spirits/demons. <shudders>

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?

Tia: Gosh. This is hard. I can definitely tell you my LEAST favorite. Hahaha When I was about nine, my mom dressed me up as a pilgrim. She sowed this little dress and hat and I remember we went to this party and I hid the whole time under the table. Hahaha

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?

Tia: Definitely either Monster Mash or Thriller.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?

Tia: Reese’s peanut butter cups with Snickers as a close second. Milk Duds are by far the worst. They’re like eating cardboard covered in waxy chocolate. LOL

Meghan: Before we leave, what are your top 2 favorite Halloween movies?

Tia: The Monster Squad – I used to watch this every Halloween and it’s still my favorite. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it! It has all the classics. Dracula, Swamp Thing, a mummy, werewolf and Frankenstein. And, of course, Crazy German Guy!

Beetlejuice – Am I showing my age? What can I say? I am an 80’s child and I love Michael Keaton. Also, can you tell I don’t do super scary or super gory? LOL

Boo-graphy:
Tia Souders is a city girl turned country. If life on a farm isn’t interesting enough, renovating a century home with her hubs has kept her on her toes. There’s nothing like discovering a fried squirrel in your furnace to make life fresh again.

She’s an unapologetic wine-loving coffeeholic with a sweet tooth. In-between wrangling her children and drinking copious amounts of coffee, she writes sweet romance and stories that tug on your heartstrings.

Tia Souders on Goodreads

GUEST BOOK REVIEW by William J. Donahue: The Summer That Melted Everything & Rosemary’s Baby

megHan

The Summer That Melted Rosemary’s Baby

Two novel recommendations for horror fans who appreciate well-told stories about devilish characters.

What respectable horror fan doesn’t love a good novel in which the devil, or something closely resembling him, comes to Earth to stage an uprising, possess an unsuspecting soul, or otherwise wreak havoc on the mortal world? I sure do; in fact, I used the trope as a central part of my 2020 novel, Burn, Beautiful Soul, in which a demon king named Basil departs his subterranean kingdom for the surface to take a job writing ad copy for an agency in rural Nebraska.

Two excellent novels that incorporate this idea ended up on my nightstand in the past year: Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (1967); and The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel (2017). In some ways, these two novels are opposites; one is written in first person, the other in third person; one is a coming-of-age story set in a small Ohio town that does not exist, and the other is an occult-driven mystery set in the world’s largest metropolis; and one surrounds the end of innocence, while the other details the postpartum beginning of hell on earth.

Both, however, are amazingly written, completely engrossing, and creepy as hell.

Let’s start with Rosemary’s Baby. I picked up a hardback copy of this novel for less than a dollar at a used-book sale in a suburb of Philadelphia, figuring that even if it landed in the “DNF” pile, at least I had it in my collection; it’s considered a classic for good reason. I had not watched the film in its entirety until last year, though I had seen the final unsettling scene a dozen times in Terror in the Aisles and other films about horror’s best and most iconic titles.

You likely know the story, too, even if you have not read the novel or seen the film. The gist: A young married couple moves into a gorgeous Manhattan apartment building with an insidious past; a klatch of elderly and eccentric neighbors gets increasingly chummy with the couple, because they are grooming the protagonist, Rosemary, to bear the Dark Lord’s progeny; and, in the end, Rosemary’s maternal instincts kick in as she comes to terms with the idea of spending the next 18 years mothering the antichrist, at which point the antichrist will be of legal age and able to make decisions for himself.

Rosemary’s Baby is an excellent read. Even though I knew the story, I felt a sense of eerie delight as I turned the patchouli-scented pages. (Incidentally, I love the personalities of used books; many come with notes in the margins, underlined passages the prior owner found particularly profound, or, in this case, evidence of the prior owner’s lifestyle.) Without giving away too much of the story, Rosemary finds herself on the horns of a thorny dilemma. She and her husband, Guy, want to have a baby. Her new neighbors seem kind enough, even if they are a bit strange and take a little too quickly to the new folks in town, particularly Guy, who is an aspiring actor. When the neighbors learn that the couple is trying to procreate, things happen, as they generally do in novels.

Rosemary’s pregnancy takes, which should be a cause for celebration. Her memory of certain events surrounding the pregnancy seems fuzzy, which may or may not have something to do with the “cold sour” concoctions one of the neighbors has been feeding her to sustain the bundle of joy growing inside her. Or it could be the stink of the strange charm around her neck, another gift from the overbearing neighbor. Of course, Rosemary also abhors the atrocious dreams—or are they memories?—about a seemingly demonic figure having its way with her as Guy and others look on approvingly.

Levin, the author, does a wonderful job of making the reader struggle along with his protagonist. Rosemary begins to suspect that her neighbors, her doctor, and even her loving husband are conspiring against her, and gaslighting her into thinking her pregnancy is going according to plan, when, in fact, her body is nourishing a monster. Part of Rosemary does not want to believe such horrible things are happening, despite the impassioned warnings of a male friend who digs a little too deeply into the curious goings-on. Likewise, the reader suspects Rosemary’s fate is not a good one, but the nugget of doubt keeps the reader turning pages until the perfectly devilish conclusion.

Which brings me to Tiffany McDaniel’s The Summer That Melted Everything. This is not a horror novel; rather, it’s a dark coming-of-age story about a young boy named Fielding Bliss who grows up in a town called Breathed (pronounced BRETH-ed), Ohio, during a particularly hot summer in the early 1980s. Circumstances convince Fielding’s father, a kind man named Autopsy — give McDaniel credit for inventive character names — to advertise a peculiar invitation in the local newspaper: He welcomes the devil to visit and shake up their sleepy town.

Soon enough, the devil shows up… in the form of a thirteen-year-old black boy named Sal.

Sal looks nothing like one might expect from the Prince of Darkness: no horns, no hooves, no pitchfork. He does, however, have a peculiar way about him, and he seems to have no discernible past. Sal also possesses an uncanny ability to understand people’s intentions and past traumas, even if they cannot understand those things themselves.

Despite outcries from certain sects of Breathed’s population, led by a feisty dwarf named Elohim, the Bliss family takes Sal in as one of their own. That’s where the story gets good — amazing, in fact. Mysterious occurrences ensue. People die. Innocent snakes get set alight. (Great line, among too many to mention: “You can tell a lot about a man by what he does with a snake.”) Along the way, Fielding learns about kindness and cruelty, friendship and love, good and evil, life and death.

The writing ranks among the best I have ever had the pleasure to consume. Several times while reading this novel I stopped and nearly gasped at McDaniel’s talent for turning a phrase and plucking a nerve I didn’t know was there.

Of the sixty or so books I read last year, I consider The Summer That Melted Everything my favorite. I immediately bought McDaniel’s follow-up, Betty, which is a prequel of sorts. It, too, was incredibly well written, but reading it pained me because of the many hells the title character and her family must endure. It’s even more unsettling to consider the novelist’s suggestion that some of those hells were slightly fictionalized versions of episodes from her own family’s history.

Betty is one of the few books that I nearly stopped reading purely because of a scene’s intensity. The author took one step across a line that made me wonder if I wanted to finish; only the strength of the narrative kept me going. I’m glad I did because of the novel’s resolution, which included a graceful reintroduction to some of the characters from The Summer That Melted Everything.

I have read my share of horror novels flush with gore and brutality, and some of them have a permanent place on my bookshelves at home. Even so, my favorite horror stories, meaning the ones I will return to, have a certain elegance to them—moments of quiet and tenderness among the screaming and bloodshed. To me, few novels achieve this balance more effectively than the two I’ve outlined here.

Boo-graphy:
William J. Donahue’s novel Burn, Beautiful Soul won the horror category in the 2021 International Book Awards. He also authored three short-story collections: Too Much Poison, Filthy Beast, and Brain Cradle, one of which (Filthy Beast) was a finalist for Foreword’s 2004 Book of the Year Award. His next novel, Crawl on Your Belly All the Days of Your Life, will be released in April 2022. He lives in a small but well-guarded fortress in the Keystone State, somewhere on the map between Philadelphia and Bethlehem. Although his home lacks a proper moat, it does have plenty of snakes.

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Burn, Beautiful Soul —
Basil the demon king has come to a crossroads. He has grown tired of life underground and regretful of the atrocities he has committed to maintain his hold on power. Wanderlust leads him to the surface, to live freely among humans. Considering the state of the world, most humans seem unfazed by his arrival – but not all. A religious zealot with murderous intentions and a vengeful biker gang seek his end. Meanwhile, Basil must contend with two internal forces: the disturbing dreams that suggest he once walked the earth as a human; and the pull of the underworld, drawing him back to deal with the troubles he left behind – namely, a cunning foe who craves the throne, a monstrous kraken, and an ancient evil as cold and dark as the soil.

‘Burn, Beautiful Soul is The Wizard of Oz with a demon Dorothy… It is a loving but unsentimental dissection of America and its people. It is a story you will never forget.’ John Schoffstall, author of Half-Witch