Month: November 2025

Empire of the Dawn (Empire of the Vampire #3) by Jay Kristoff

Posted on November 25, 2025 by - Book Review

So this is it. The end of the saga of Gabriel de León and Dior Lachance. This series has had be utterly captivated for the past four years, and I just knew that the conclusion was going to smack me in the face. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was how damn hard it hit me in the feels.

If you’ve read the previous two books, and don’t you dare read this one if you haven’t, you know how much pain and suffering that Gabe has gone through in this incredible saga even before starting out on the quest to end Daysdeath. He’s lost his family, his order, and, very often, his confidence. Shit thing after shit thing happens to Gabriel, and he is forced to just keep dealing with it.

Empire of the Dawn is no different. Well, it’s slightly different in that Mister Kristoff amps the pain and suffering up to about twenty, and drags a whole slew of other folks into the maelstrom of hurt.

So many shocking things happen back-to-back-to-back that I often found myself shaking my head in sympathetic dismay whilst churning through this hefty tome.

To say that this saga, especially this novel, is the best that Mister Kristoff has ever written is an understatement. Empire of the Dawn is an absolute masterpiece and winds this story around and around is such a perfect way. You do not see the conclusion coming until you are right in the thick of it, and that takes a lot of doing. Oh how I want to talk about the end of this thing, but there is no way in hell I would spoil this for anyone. I’m not even going to discuss it online with other folks who might have finished it out of fear of potentially providing spoilers to some poor innocent who might stumble across them. It’s that damn good. This is one I will only talk about face-to-face.

I heap a lot of praise on authors (deservedly), and their works, but a new bar has been set. Books one and two were already an incredible roller-coaster ride, but Empire of the Dawn really grabs you by the throat and flings you off the cliff.

I think I’ll go back and read that conclusion again.

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Posted on November 24, 2025 by - Book Review

So I get this email from a rep at Tor saying “Hey, we are about to release this novella from an author you like, and we’d really like you to give it a read.” Seeing that it was Dr. Jones, I knew it would be a bit twisty, and very enjoyable.

What the hell did I just read?

Sawyer and his four friends have spent their entire childhood making pranks and trying to pull off stunts. Their silent partner in crime was a department store mannequin that they found in a creek. They’d dress it up, post it random places, and try to get reactions from the people around them.

Now, in the Summer right before their senior year of high school, and with one friend Shanna forced to work at a movie theater to pay for the damage done to her yard by one of the gang’s failed stunts, the abbreviated gang decides to pull the ultimate prank on Shanna.

Attending this year’s Summer blockbuster, they smuggle the mannequin into the theater and buy it a ticket for the prime seat. When the prank doesn’t go as planned, Sawyer is horrified to see the mannequin get up and walk out of the theater at the conclusion of the movie.

When Shanna and her family are killed by a runaway Mack truck that runs through their house late at night, Sawyer is convinced that it is “Manny,” and it must be stopped.

This novella had some very interesting themes to me. I could not ignore the unfolding of mental illness as Sawyer tries to logic out “the math,” and the actions he feels adamant about undertaking to stop Manny. Next was the very strong feelings of “the loss of innocence” as these young people are faced with mounting maturity and mortality. Naturally there is a fair amount of escapism as each of the friends deal with the situations that are unfolding around them.

I have noted from his previous writings that Dr. Jones is quite adept at getting the reader in the mind of his characters, and he does so masterfully with Sawyer. When things start to slide, I really had to question where the tipping point might be until finally realizing that it was far behind us.

Night of the Mannequins is a quick read, and something very different from typical slasher fare. I highly recommend it. Oh, did I mention it has won both the Bram Stoker Award and the Shirley Jackson Award? Yeah, it’s that good.

The Harvest by Ryan Hyatt

Posted on November 20, 2025 by - Book Review

The future is now! Denizens of near future Los Angeles now have automations and robots helping with all aspects of public life. So, when Dr. Deidra Cranston steps into to her fully automated Hum Around ride, mind heavy with questions of the future, she doesn’t think twice about seeing where she was actually going. Needless to say, this ride would be life-changing.

That’s all I’m going to give you as a plot synopsis.

Once again, Mr. Hyatt has executed a delightful piece of short fiction with deft aplomb. While this probably doesn’t fall into his Terrafide series, it seems like it could shoehorn in quite nicely. What we have here is some near-future semi-dystopia (aren’t we there yet already?), a little science fiction, and a touch of horror. All wrapped up neatly in eighteen pages that never pauses.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m a big fan of short fiction. Sometimes you just need a complete thought that you can start and finish while your oil is getting changed.

Short fiction can be tricky, though. An author needs to keep the reader engaged in a sprint, that also has to be fully formed. The way Mr. Hyatt intertwines potential perilous mystery in with a mix of mundane and spicy domestic matters really pulls it all together. Anyone of us could be Dr. Cranston.

Shiny Happy People by Clay McLeod Chapman

Posted on November 14, 2025 by - Book Review

Mr. Chapman abhors normalcy, and this is a very very good thing. Over the past few years he’s managed make me terrified of crabs, be very wary of mushrooms, and have some serious PTSD from the Satanic Panic insanity.

What he does in Shiny Happy People appears to be, on the surface, just a classic take on the horror/sci-fi trope of “bodysnatchers,” but, underneath, takes on so much more. For appearing to be a semi-light and pithy YA novel, Shiny Happy People really dives into teen dynamics, trauma, mental health, and peer pressure.

Our protagonist is Kyra, a sixteen-year-old adoptee who has had a lifetime of trauma that has caused her serious anxiety and a deep sense of displacement. Kyra has her tight friend circle, and she relies on them, and her family, a lot.

A Snapchat trend starts popping up around school of kids popping some pill and going into an overdose/seizure type state before recovering and being euphoric, and, increasingly, Kyra is seeing her friends and peers show up in these house party videos.

Strangely, the people around Kyra start to have massive personality changes: all acting oddly similar.

Kyra, and the mysterious “new guy,” Logan, set out to see what is at the bottom of the quickly spreading calamity, and the rest you’re just going to have to find out for yourself.

As I said before, Mr. Chapman deftly tackles some of the classic issues that teens face. Kyra’s support network seems to be what really keeps her together in her strained situation, and, when things start to drastically change, she has to find the inner strength to push forward or just collapse.

This one is a real page-turner. The pacing really moves the story along rapidly, and the twists are not telescoped out as is the weakness in many YA novels. Mr. Chapman could have very easily taken a different tone with this book to make it much more sinister and dark, but I’m very glad he approached it the way he did.

All Hallows by Christopher Golden

Posted on November 7, 2025 by - Book Review

I have a favorite Halloween song, and it’s pretty atypical. Back in 2003, Austin band Li’l Cap’n Travis put out a single called “To All the Trick-Or-Treaters” (you can listen to it here).

Perhaps, unknowingly (though it would be fantastic if he was familiar with the track), Mr. Golden has, basically, fleshed out a lot of details of the song in All Hallows.

It’s Halloween 1984 in Coventry, MA, and things are not well on Parmenter Road. While kids are getting ready for trick-or-treating, a family tradition haunted forest, and a neighborhood party, and two families are, seemingly, falling apart, something supernaturally malicious appears to be creeping into the block.

Four children, in decades old costumes and faded makeup, have intermingled themselves in with the bands of trick-or-treaters going up and down Parmenter Road in search of candy. Once confronted, the strangers beg for protection from the threat of The Cunning Man, who is actively pursuing them.

Needless to say, all sorts of weird shit entails.

I picked up this novel because I absolutely love Mr. Golden’s previous works, and it was near Halloween time. I could not have picked a better read if I tried.

The thing with Mr. Golden’s approach is that he has this arcane ability to fully submerge the reader into the environment he is creating. Little details make all the difference, and really flesh out this tiny suburban vignette.

The cast of characters is the real icing on the cake. There are a lot, and I mean a lot, but all very compelling. The diversity, range of age, emotion, and mental state really cement All Hallows as a irresistible read. Along with the opportunity of eldritch horror, you have normal every day family situations that run the full range of emotions. I especially appreciate that the reader doesn’t always have the full picture.

Just what exactly did Ruth and Zack do? We’ll never know.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Posted on November 4, 2025 by - Book Review

It is the Summer of 1970, and, in St. Augustine, Florida, exists the Wellwood House, a home for wayward girls to be tucked away from public view so they can have their babies and then return to a “normal” life.

Run by the very very stern Miss Wellwood, each girl is stripped of her identity and, instead, given a botanical name to build a personality around.

This, chiefly, is the story of Fern, a fifteen-year-old girl who finds herself having been delivered to the Wellwood House by her irate father.

Fern navigates the massive change that has happened in her life, and makes friends with some very unlikely characters. There is Rose, a headstrong hippie type who is continually plotting a way to escape the home and keep her baby; Zinnia, a pianist waylaid by the pregnancy, but absolutely sure she will return to marry her baby’s father; and Holly, a fourteen-year-old scrap of a wild child.

Life in Wellwood House is very harshly controlled, and there are very few freedoms. One of said freedoms is a bookmobile that comes periodically. It is through this bookmobile that Fern gets her hands on a book of witchcraft, and then things change, drastically, for the girls.

I really really wanted to like this book, but I found it somewhat dreary and mundane. There were definitely sections of it that were riveting and suspenseful, but, by and large, it feel a tad flat for me. I’m sure it was intentional, but the pacing seemed to be very very slow. There was a ton of repetition followed by little sparks of chaos.

The character and story development were very well done, but I feel like there was a lot of other aspects where this novel could have excelled and fell flat. Mr. Hendrix is a fantastic writer, and sets a wonderful stage, but this one just wasn’t for me.