Tag Archives: books

A Study in Unease — R. Jacob Honeybrook’s “Thaddeus Greene’s Spooktacular House of Horrors”

In Thaddeus Greene’s Spooktacular House of Horrors, R. Jacob Honeybrook transforms the spectacle of fear into something philosophical. His sixth horror work, released on October 20, 2025, doesn’t rely on the expected mechanics of terror. Instead, it builds a slow and deliberate unease, rooted in the question of whether redemption can truly exist.

The novella follows Mr. Belgrave, an ordinary man whose night takes a strange turn after he avoids a head-on collision. What begins as an accident spirals into a nightmare of spiritual symbolism. A wandering cat leads him to a cathedral, where a man dressed as a vampire, The Count, sells tickets to a carnival of grotesque displays. Yet as Belgrave explores its dark corridors, the line between theater and truth begins to collapse.

Honeybrook’s decision to write in a modernized 19th-century voice gives the story a haunting distance. The formality of the language contrasts with the modern setting, creating an atmosphere that feels unmoored from time. The result is a text that feels both familiar and alien, echoing gothic traditions while speaking to contemporary dread.

“This is the most surreal story I’ve written,” Honeybrook said. “It’s based on a dream I had, so I wanted everything to feel a bit off.” That intent permeates every paragraph, as if the narrative itself were caught between sleeping and waking.

Beyond his fiction, Honeybrook remains an active presence in modern horror. He co-hosts the Midnight Terrors Podcast with Kevin Roche and writes Honeycut, a weekly column for TBM Horror. Both platforms reveal the same intellectual curiosity that defines his prose.

Thaddeus Greene’s Spooktacular House of Horrors is now available as an eBook on Amazon, offering readers an experience that is both literary and unsettling.

To follow Honeybrook’s ongoing work, visit his Instagram page for updates on upcoming stories and collaborations.

Behind the Red Nose: The Cosmic Insanity Driving The Killer of Devils: Clowns

There’s a method to the madness in The Killer of Devils. As the clowns pile up and the bodies fall, it becomes clear that the face paint is more than a disguise — it’s a symptom. Of something older. Something spreading. Bloodstone weaves a layered mythology beneath the horror, hinting at cosmic dread and mental unraveling that goes far beyond the surface violence. The result is a book that’s as psychologically unnerving as it is action-packed — a rare balance, pulled off with expert control.

Synopsis

Calista “Cali” Lindquist is a final girl. She had to fight and destroy an unkillable beast. Now, she and her mother hunt monsters.

On a crusade to ensure no one else experiences such horror and loss, Cali and her mother travel to Philadelphia to track a depraved soul who uses face paints and magic tricks to prey on the innocent. While hunting that monster, they cross paths with Collin, a faithful and treacherous follower of the enigmatic figure, Master Poppie. Building an army using an insanity inducing powder that turns regular people into murderous lunatics with painted faces, Collin and Master Poppie have their sights set on a dangerous prize.

As the number of villainous clowns increases, as well as the number of brutal deaths by their hands, Cali puts herself directly in their path. Speeding on a collision course of terror and carnage, she is ready to pay any price to keep the streets from running red with the blood of unsuspecting victims. However, beyond the horde of bloodthirsty clowns, there is one factor that could derail Cali’s mission she never took into consideration – her past.

It’s monster hunter versus murder clowns in an all-out battle of madness and mayhem! 

“The Killer of Devils features mobs of psychotic clowns, a kick-clown-ass heroine, and enough bloody mayhem and dark humor to fill a shopping mall. I loved every crazy, twisted, f***ed-up word of it!”
SAWNEY HATTON, author of Everyone is a Moon

Jackal Among Snakes by Nemorosus 

Though not all ended as expected, the Kingdom of Vasquer stands unified against the coming calamity. Even with its internal threats mitigated, enemies still lurk beyond the border. On a large belt of land to the northeast, an untamed forest of towering redwood trees known as the Bloodwoods experience tumult to such a degree it begins to spill over to Vasquer.

As the situation within the nearby nation proves increasingly dire, Argrave is forced to take direct action before a wave of hostile people and animals native to those towering woods are forced out, doubtlessly ravaging the kingdom. Unwelcome by both the indigenous elves and centaurs, the diplomatic mission promises to veer in countless directions. This time, however, Argrave has a nation at his back.

The Death King by Penelope Barsetti

I was fifteen when the Death King came for us.

With a mighty black dragon and the ability to command the dead, he raised an army of our fallen soldiers to fight for him—and conquered us in the night. My father, King Laurier of Scorpion Valley, couldn’t stop him. I tried to flee but came face to face with the man in black armor, the man who looked more like a god than a human. Instead of killing me, he chose to show me mercy…but it didn’t feel like mercy.

Not when the next ten years of my life are spent as a slave in the Arid Sands, digging for Black Diamonds from sunrise to sunset. I’m also the personal slave of General Titan—a man who has grown obsessed with me. The work under the hot sun is unbearable—but I prefer it to his company any day. I’ve never tried to escape because there’s nowhere to run in the desert, but all of that changes when I hear the news—that the Death King is coming.

I sneak out in the middle of the night to steal his dragon, but that backfires in my face—because you can’t steal a dragon. Khazmuda is no mindless beast. He can speak directly into my mind and hear my thoughts in return. The Death King is about to kill me, but Khazmuda changes his mind—because I have the gift.

The ability to speak with dragons.

The Death King spares my life once again and takes me back to his castle. He has no idea who I am, has no idea what he did to my family ten years ago. He asks me to fight for his cause—but he won’t tell me exactly what that cause is. And then he tells me he wants more from me…desires me more than any other because, like him, I have the gift.

I can’t deny he’s the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, with eyes black like midnight, a jawline as sharp as his dragon’s talons, the height of a mountain, and shoulders as broad as a stream. But no amount of attraction will ever change the fact that he destroyed my life. The answer is no—and it’ll always be no.

But the Death King doesn’t accept that answer.

Trigger Warning: Contains dark themes including rape and suicide.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber 

Welcome, welcome to CARAVAL, Stephanie Garber’s enchanting, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling fantasy debut about two sisters swept up in a mysterious competition filled with magic, heartbreak, and danger

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful and cruel father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to attend. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, and her sister disappears forever.

Continue the adventure in Legendary and Finale―out now!

An Epic of Ghosts and Gunslingers – Jim Walker and the Redemption Hymn

The weird west genre is alive and well in Jim Walker and the Redemption Hymn! A thrilling mix of supernatural mystery and gritty Western action, this book delivers a memorable journey. Jim Walker’s quest for redemption is gripping and will keep you turning pages.

The Dime Western Returns!

“Reading Jim Walker and the Redemption Hymn is equal parts quirky fun and riveting action. Cloud’s confident, entertaining voice draws the reader in like an old radio western: the perfect bite-sized story with a main character you’re ready to follow through every adventure he finds himself on. So, tune in next time…”
– Megan Stockton, author of Lovely, Dark & Deep

BUY IT ON AMAZON

The history books would read that Jim Walker was brutally executed after the Battle of Goliad, but a few promises in the right ear blurred the contrast between blood and ink. Now an aging bounty hunter on the verge of retirement, his services are requested in the Northern Arizona Territory to solve the terrifying mystery of the Verde River Massacre. With guns from a local Deputy, courage from a saloon proprietor, and a deathbed confession from an all-too-familiar Medicine Woman, Jim sets off on what could be his final adventure. Will he lay the ghosts of his past to rest once and for all, or is he simply whistling his Redemption Hymn?

The King of Frost and Shadows by Jen L. Grey 

A vengeful King.
A lost princess.
And the revenge he’s desperate for.

For the last twelve years, Tavish, the King of the Unseelie Fae, focused on finding the key for taking back his rightful lands from the Seelie fae after they killed his parents.

There was one problem that stood in his way—locating the Seelie Princess hidden on Earth.

After years of haunting her dreams, he finally locates her and drags her back to their realm.

She’s forgotten her fae life and wants to escape. He doesn’t care. He merely needs her blood in order to free his people.

But she’s more than he remembers, and a spark ignites between them every time they touch.

None of that matters though. His goal is set—to drain her blood once her magic activates once again.

He must take back what is rightfully his, no matter the cost.

But if he does, the price might be what’s left of his heart.

The King of Frost and Shadow is a slow-burn, royal fae romantasy that includes betrayal, morally gray characters, enemies-to-lovers, villain gets the girl, a gauntlet tournament, political intrigue, who did this to you, and touch her and unalive. One-click this story today.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

Design of Darkness by R.D. Pires 

The shadow of the great usurper, King Fogosombre, has kept the East in darkness for twelve long years. Made paranoid by a foretelling of his downfall, the king’s indiscriminate violence reaches a new zenith, leaving twins Arsenio and Mariana orphaned and homeless, their village burnt to the ground.

Now, as the dying embers of their rebellion fade into the night, the twins make a promise to find aide for their people in foreign lands. To get out from under the king’s reach, they must venture across the Great Ocean into a world they had only dreamt about through travelers’ stories. From their perilous quest arises a tale of emperors and queens, marauders and mysticism, fortitude and forbidden love.

Meanwhile, King Fogosombre conducts profane rituals driven by his lust for indomitability. Toiling with malign magic that may yield dire consequences for all the known world, he seeks a pact with the shadows, a plan to cement his reign indefinitely: a design of darkness.

The Wizard’s Path by T. D. Ash 

Enter the world of Craton, where Ascendant gods roam and magic decides wars, in the first novel of the Smiter Saga.

Sixteen-year-old Bjorn Smiter has only known a life of swinging a hammer in his family’s forge. There is no destiny written or songs sung for peasants like him. And when his brother’s life was taken years ago, there was no vengeance offered to the weak.

When Bjorn earns the opportunity to study at a university of magic, he hopes this will be his chance at power. This could catapult him to fulfill the potential he knows is inside him. He could become strong enough to protect those he loves and become a mage knight or even a god.

But on his journey, an encounter of chance or fate spells trouble for Bjorn as it places unwanted attention on him from the royal palace. Even at the university life is not easy for a half-dwarf half-elf like Bjorn. He must learn quickly to control his magic, navigate relationships with other spellcasters, and survive the brutal contests of Mage Rage.

All the while, his suspicions grow that dark forces not seen in centuries are returning to Craton.