horror Archives

Staircase in the Woods, The

"Home is where the hurt is." Author: Chuck Wendig Four outcasts. One-star student. Five friends. Matty is the star student, the good one, the one who watches after the others. The one who fights bullies, who throws his lot in with his traumatized friends, who sinks his reputation by hanging out with the “bad” kids. The druggies. The kids with no future. Matty is the glue, the hope. Until one night, camping in the woods, when they find a lone staircase. Matty goes up it . . . and is never seen again. Twenty-years later, everyone in the town still thinks [...]

Frances Carden2025-12-08T13:50:48-07:00December 8th, 2025|Tags: book review, horror, read, reading, Staircase in the Woods|

Haunting of Paynes Hollow, The

Ancient Dutch Folklore and Serial Killers Author: Kelley Armstrong Samantha Payne hasn’t been the same since the day she discovered her father burying a boy’s body on their summer property at Paynes Hollow. She hasn’t been back there since the discovery and its tragic aftermath either. Now, her father is long dead, branded a serial killer, and she and her entire family are infamous. But Samantha’s cruel grandfather insists on bringing the past back to life, arguing that her father was never a killer and that she doesn’t know what she saw – she was just a child, after all. But [...]

Frances Carden2025-12-06T16:51:46-07:00December 6th, 2025|Tags: book of the month, book review, botm, headless horseman, horror, read, reading|

Ghost Camera

“That’s what we always fear the most: the things we can’t see, and the things we don’t yet understand.” Author: Darcy Coates I’m a novel girly, so usually I don’t find myself attracted to short story collections, even those by a favorite author. I came to Ghost Camera more through false advertising than anything else. It’s not clear that Ghost Camera is a novella followed by seven other short stories and one other novella. Normally, I’d be mad, but I actually loved this collection and all of the stories. The signature tale from which the collection derives its name concerns two [...]

Frances Carden2025-11-24T19:05:07-07:00November 24th, 2025|Tags: book review, Darcy Coates, ghosts, horror, read, reading, Short Stories|