Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones, comes a slasher story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose in a small town. Winner of both the 2020 Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Awards!

We thought we'd play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead.

One last laugh for the summer as it winds down. One last prank just to scare a friend. Bringing a mannequin into a theater is just some harmless fun, right? Until it wakes up. Until it starts killing.

Luckily, Sawyer has a plan. He’ll be a hero. He'll save everyone to the best of his ability. He'll do whatever he needs to so he can save the day.

That's the thing about heroes—sometimes you have to become a monster first.

 After a group of teens are tossed out of the theater where one of them works, for having snuck in without tickets, they come up with what was meant to be a harmless prank. They're coming back, but not alone. This time, they are bringing in a mannequin, and won't it be funny when the manager finds out that it has a ticket to watch the show? Well, it would have been. I would have laughed. Except it doesn't work out that way at all. Their carefully planned prank was a flop. And where has Manny the mannequin disappeared to?

What felt like it was gearing up to be a light-hearted coming of age takes a drastic turn when a horrific accident takes the life of one of these friends. Sawyer knows it is the mannequin seeking revenge. It's out to get them all for making it take part in this prank, using it as a joke. How can he stop it from wiping out everyone who gets in its way?

This was a suspenseful read with fast-paced action that I flew through in a single day. It was not at all what I was expecting from the title and description. I love the way it took me by surprise. If you like small-town horror with close-knit friends struggling with desperate choices, this is for you.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Tor Nightfire for the gifted paperback.

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About the author

 

Movie Review - Bight

 

Scatena & Rosner (S&R Films) is proud to announce the North American release of the erotic thriller Bight from debut writer-director Maiara Walsh. Bight stars Walsh (Good Trouble, Desperate Housewives) alongside Cameron Cowperthwaite (Fallout, Dahmer), Mark Hapka (23 Blast, Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial) and Maya Stojan (Castle, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). S&R Films has scheduled the film to release February 10, 2026, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Written by Walsh and Cameron Cowperthwaite, Bight follows Atticus, a man who has lost his way after abandoning his dreams of becoming an artist and his wife Charlie, a woman struggling to regain her sense of self and security following a miscarriage. One night, Atticus and Charlie visit close friends Sebastian, a successful avant-garde erotic photographer and his wife Naomi, a seductress painter with a dark secret, to celebrate Sebastian’s latest art exhibition, an immersive dive into the intricate and sensual world of Shibari. Throughout the evening, their turbulent lives will push them to succumb to dark temptations and provocative explorations of an open relationship, all leading toward a devastating fallout. 

I was invited to watch an early screener of Bight, billed as an erotic thriller.

Bight is a chamber piece or what is sometimes called a bottle movie, heavily character driven and taking place over the course of a single evening, other than a couple of brief flashbacks that set the tone of the relationship between the couples.

Sebastian is a photographer preparing for his latest art exhibition featuring Shabiri. In case you don't know what that is, Shibari is Japanese rope bondage with decorative rope knotted in intricate patterns, the pressure of which leaves marks on the flesh. You know, like that mark you get if your socks are too tight? Turned on yet? Oh well, one man's erotic is another man's ick. I find this to be as erotic as the line a pair of jeans leave on my waist after a big meal, but I digress. 

Sebastian and his wife, Naomi, invite their friends Atticus and Charlie to celebrate what they believe is the completion of the exhibit. Shortly after their arrival, they discover that they will be the only guests at this very strange and awkward party.

The majority of the film takes place in Sebastian and Naomi's home, not needing multiple sets to build tension and suspense between the characters. I found the acting to be more impressive than the somewhat predictable plot. The characters' personalities seemed written in a way that they were one-dimensional, though the actors portrayed them well. Whether their single personality trait was jealousy, manipulation, insecurity, or gullibility, they channeled those traits onto the screen well enough that it might as well have been their names. There is no action at all until the final moments of the film. For me, Bight lacked bite.

I gave this a 5 out of 10 on IMDB

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Horror Library, Volume 9 edited by Eric J. Guignard

The Horror Library anthologies are internationally praised as a groundbreaking source of contemporary horror short fiction stories--relevant to the moment and stunning in impact--from leading authors of the macabre and darkly imaginative.

Filled with Fears and Fantasy. Death and Dark Dreams. Monsters and Mayhem. Literary Vision and Wonder. Each volume of the +Horror Library+ series is packed with heart-pounding thrills and creepy contemplations as to what truly lurks among the shadows of the world(s) we live in.

Containing 30 all-original stories, read Volume 9 in this ongoing anthology series, and then continue with the other volumes.

Shamble no longer through the banal humdrum of normalcy, but ENTER THE HORROR LIBRARY!

 Also including a special guest-artist's gallery of Michael A. Livolsi!

I love short horror stories and I have been a fan of Horror Library for quite a while. I have not read them all, but I have enjoyed every volume that I have read, including the newly released Volume 9.

This latest anthology includes the stunning artwork of Michael A. Livolsi along with 30 exemplary tales of disquiet and unease to make you uncomfortable and fill you with dread.

Just a few of my favorites were :

Afterimage by R. E. Rule is about an unusual clean up job, the description of which evokes empathy and disgust at the same time.

Found You by Poppy Z. Brite -Where grief and ritual collide, the supernatural follows.

Third Floor Windows by LH Michael  -A psychiatrist learns too late that sometimes you should believe in your patient and not assume that facts are delusions.

Dumb Insolence by J.L. Rifkin -The downstairs maid gets revenge for having been mistreated.

 The Edge of the Earth by Iain Rowan -A bored salesman dissatisfied with his life, and a fisherman with a secret to share, walk into a bar...

Before His Time by Bentley Little  -A son with a father on hospice care takes him to visit a healer.

The Luckiest Man by Gina Easton -No good deed goes unpunished in this haunting tale of a paramedic who saves a burning man.

Head Over Heels by Ana Nelson -A man, a wedding, and a sentient unicycle bring bloody mayhem and dark humor.

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer Lash Fleck -A mother-daughter trip to the seaside while one is losing her memories and the other revisits a memory she pushed aside.

The Hearing Booth by Tom Johnstone -A mobile hearing test may also judge your character.

It Moves On by Colin Leonard -It's not unusual to spend time in a public park after a job loss, so why is the park suddenly subject to closing hours and padlocked gates?

At this point, I feel like I am naming the entire table of contents as my favorite stories, so I will just stop here and say there's really not a bad one in the mix. If you like weird fiction that leads you down dark paths, you will love this anthology.

5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Eric J. Guignard and Dark Moon Books for the paperback.

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A Blackened Heart, A Blackened Soul by John Ward

Evil walks among us. It watches. It waits.

John Tinsley’s life was shattered as a child when he lost his mother in a tragic car accident—but that was only the beginning. From that moment, a dark entity marked him, one intent on destroying everything and everyone he loves. Haunted by visions, hunted by shadows, and carrying the scars of his childhood, John must now confront the darkness as an adult, facing a malevolent force that has followed him into every stage of his life.

A Blackened Heart, A Blackened Soul is a gripping tale of supernatural horror and psychological suspense, chronicling one man’s lifelong battle against a being determined to consume his life, his love, and his very soul. Will John survive, or will the darkness finally claim him?

 

John Tinsley was 8 years old when he was traumatized by the car accident that killed his mother and left his father paralyzed. Struggling with his grief, he is not afraid at first when he is visited by an entity that has taken on the appearance of his mother. It seems comforting to him, until it's too late.

Having enjoyed one of the author's middle-grade horror stories, I was excited to see what he would do with his first adult horror novel, but for me, this was just an OK read. I did not hate it. I did not love it.

The multiple points of view were heavy on narration and I would have preferred a little less. Young Johnny's narration bothered me the most. An 8 year old's mind doesn't use phrases like  "being eager to right the ship"  or "trying to be more upbeat." It just felt so unnatural to me, like he was a much older man instead of a little boy. It left me feeling disconnected from this character the most out of all of them. I only truly cared about the dog.

There were some well written scenes with the demonic activity, and heartbreaking developments with grandma and Johnny's dad, but even part 2 of the book that skips ahead 25 years to an adult Johnny still had more inner dialogue than I care for. Some passages felt unnecessarily long. For example, if a character drives somewhere, I don't need to be told they put the car in park when they arrived. I don't want to nitpick over a long list of reasons why this was not for me, so I will just say that you may enjoy this book more than I did. Lots of people loved it.

My thanks to Crystal Lake Publishing for the e-ARC