I don’t like “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. This is what I’m thinking while I am helping my daughter through the last bits of her Gothic Literature class. She doesn’t actually need my help, she just wants it. The class was taught by a woman who was clearly passionate about the Gothic.

Adam-Troy Castro examines a thriller (What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan) whose ending puts it squarely in the realm of horror. He also discusses A Scout Is Brave, a new novella by Will Ludwigsen and a zombie movie you might want to check out.

I think the short story is the most effective form of horror. This is not to say a horror novel can’t be scary or great—there are many great horror novels—but the brevity of the short story serves to heighten the fear because, like a knife in the dark, it’s fast, it’s sudden, it’s unexpected, and you don’t have time to recover once it appears.

Adam-Troy Castro looks at two new novels about haunts and houses: Elizabeth Hand’s A Haunting on the Hill and Gwendolyn Kiste’s The Haunting of Velkwood.

Let me begin as simply as I can: It’s really weird to revisit Stephen King’s The Stand in late 2023. Here’s where the simplicity stops, because said weirdness is multifaceted, and each facet is rooted in a variety of different variables.

Adam-Troy Castro dives into Stephen King’s new novel Holly, then goes on to recommend a dark Chilean film (El Conde) and the latest adaptation of A Haunting in Venice.

Find out why critically acclaimed editor and author Shane Hawk loves Stephen Graham Jones’s The Babysitter Lives, a novella originally released only in audio.

Find out a little more about Chuck Wendig’s Black River Orchard and why veteran reviewer Adam-Troy Castro is recommending it.

Screenwriter and author Jamie Flanagan discusses the impact of Jeff VanderMeer’s works on their own writing, with a special emphasis on Veniss Underground and Annhilation.

Are you ready for Silver Nitrate, the new novel from Silvia Moreno-Garcia? Let horror expert Emily Hughes tell you why it’s a must-read this summer!