Tales to Keep You Up at Night by Dan Poblocki

 From the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling series The Magic Misfits comes a spectacularly spooky novel that will keep you up way past bedtime.

Perfect for fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark!

Amelia is cleaning out her grandmother's attic when she stumbles across a book: Tales to Keep You Up at Night. But when she goes to the library to return it, she's told that the book never belonged there. Curious, she starts to read the stories: tales of strange incidents in nearby towns, of journal entries chronicling endless, twisting pumpkin vines, birthday parties gone awry, and cursed tarot decks. And at the center of the stories lies a family of witches. And witches, she's told, can look like anyone...

As elements from the stories begin to come to life around her, and their eerie connections become clear, Amelia begins to realize that she may be in a spooky story of her own...
With hair-raising, spine-chilling prose, Dan Poblocki delivers a collection of interconnected stories that, if you're anything like Amelia, is sure to keep you up late in the night.

Tales To Keep You Up At Night is a spooky collection of short stories for middle grades, ages 10 and up. I enjoyed them myself and I am long past middle grades and deep into middle age.

Amelia and her little brother, along with their two moms have gone to grandma's house to pack things up because grandma has been missing for quite some time. Amelia happens to find an old library book that she decides to return, but once she gets there she is told by the librarian that the book did not belong to that library. As Amelia settles in to read the creepy tales she finds they are all connected, not just to each other but to her family and to the disappearance of her grandma.

There are stories of revenge, including revenge gone wrong when a bullied child tries to get even with his tormentor, a Halloween tale about the dangers of accepting free pumpkins that aren't cut for jack-o-lanterns, a creepy-crawly tragedy that befalls a girl who steals from her mother's purse, and many more.

I loved the way the stories are all connected. I think the fast pace and multiple chills should keep young readers interested.

Only one of the stories was not a big hit with me and that is mainly because it was written in the second person. I am not a fan of that format and it just doesn't work for me. That is the only thing that prevents this from being a 5-star read.

This title will be released on August 16 which is perfect timing if you are looking to keep your child reading over the summer break, or even if you enjoy a good spooky story yourself. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy this book.

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy.

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Sunray Alice by Jeremy Hepler

 

Approaching the end of her life, Alice Mayes, notorious caretaker of the anomaly known as The Garden of Sunray, is eager to tie up one last loose end before moving on. "The" last loose end. For decades she’s been dreaming of finding someone to share her secret with, someone worthy of her truth, and in twenty-year-old Emily Newell, she thinks she finally has.

On a momentous stroll through her massive garden with her young friend, Alice delves back into the past, back to those five horrific, mind-bending days in the summer of 1944 when she was sixteen, and for the first time in over seventy-five years, gives voice to her role in the Nazi prisoner internment camp tragedy that befell the small town of Sunray, Texas. In revealing all she witnessed, confessing all she did, she hopes to pass on a wondrous legacy as well as validate and honor the mysterious man she knew as Karl Wagner.

Alice, an elderly woman, nearing the end of her days shares a miraculous story with Emily, a young friend who helps her care for her famous garden. This is a poignant tale of Alice's youth, growing up in a small town near a Nazi prison camp after her father was killed in the war.

It put me in mind of "The Green Mile" in the way that someone thought to be evil was actually a gift from God.

It's a beautifully written coming of age tale set in one of my favorite time periods, World War II

when Alice and her mother had to find a way to get on with life while grieving their loss.

I can't say much about the plot without spoiling it for you so I'm just going to say if you enjoy historical fiction or coming of age novels you get both here and it's glorious. I loved it.

5 out of 5 stars

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Attack From the '80s Edited by Eugene Johnson

 

Modern technology has brought some new twists and turns to horror. Found footage, cell phone-based viruses, literal ghosts in the machines but maybe it's time for a throwback. It's time for some new tales of slumber party horrors, VCR monsters, and problems that can't be solved with a smart phone. We want tales of unstoppable monsters, sewer-dwelling creatures, looming threats of cold-war chaos. Give us fear under the neon lights of an arcade, people fighting for their lives against the backdrop of a hot city night and a cheesy sax solo. Take us back to a time when latchkey kids had to fend for themselves and the only thing left to stop an unspeakable horror was a plucky band of high school kids. Make it bloody. Make it gnarly. Make it 80s!

Featuring over 20 Bram Stoker Award-winning and best selling authors such as Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, Weston Ochse, Lisa Morton, Grady Hendrix, Tim Waggoner, Christina Sng, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Jess Landry, Vince Liaguno, F. Paul Wilson, John Skipp, Linda D. Addison, and many more.

In the 80s, horror reigned supreme, and this anthology takes us back to those glorious days of spiral perms, leg warmers, and needing to stop at a pay phone if you had to call for help because who ever heard of a phone that fits in your pocket? Some of these stories have tickled my funny bone, others made me squirm with repulsion while others did a great job of raising some goosebumps.

This book recreates the fear of razor blades in your Halloween goodies, curses, Satanists and all the other spooktacular fun from back in the day. Whether you long to return to the 80s or whether you were too young and missed out on that decade there is lots of creepy fun to be had.

Some of my many favorites were Snapshot in which a couple of burglars try to do the right thing for a change but no good deed goes unpunished. Your Picture Here, about an unusual date night at the movies. Permanent Damage about friends (or frenemies) preparing for a wedding. Slashbacks about a very unique video store. and Ghetto Blaster, about a cursed boom box and Stranger Danger, which concerns the aforementioned razor blades on Halloween.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications for the review copy.

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Mick Garris.
Top Guns of the Frontier by Weston Ochse.
Snapshot by Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale.
The Devil in the Details by Ben Monroe.
Return of the Reanimated Nightmare by Linda Addison.
Taking the Night Train by Thomas F. Monteleone.
Catastrophe Queens by Jess Landry.
Your Picture Here by John Skipp.
Permanent Damage by Lee Murray.
Slashbacks by Tim Waggoner.
Munchies by Lucy A. Snyder.
Ten Miles of Bad Road by Stephen Graham Jones.
Epoch, Rewound by Vince A. Liaguno.
Demonic Denizens by Cullen Bunn.
The White Room by Rena Mason.
Ghetto Blaster by Jeff Strand.
Haddonfield, New Jersey 1980 by Cindy O'Quinn.
When He Was Fab by F. Paul Wilson.
Welcome to Hell by Christina Sng.
Perspective: Journal of a 1980s Mad Man by Mort Castle.
Mother Knows Best by Stephanie M. Wytovich.
Stranger Danger by Grady Hendrix.
The Garden of Dr. Moreau by Lisa Morton. 

The Haunting of Kinnawe House by Steven Rigolosi

 

THE HAUNTING OF KINNAWE HOUSE is a ghost story that spans two eras in American history. As the novel opens, 27-year-old Matthew Rollins, an aspiring pop singer, is watching his dreams rapidly swirling down the drain. His girlfriend has dumped him, and he’s suffering with terrible insomnia that is affecting his brain and his eyesight.

Then comes the email from a real-estate agent at York Village Realtors, offering information about Kinnawe House. This former preacher’s house, built in 1746, is now available for rent for the first time in its history. The offer is too good to refuse, so Matthew sublets his Hell’s Kitchen apartment and heads north to Agamenticus, Maine, where he expects to exorcise his demons, write songs, and get some much-needed sleep.

Matthew does not know of the connection between Kinnawe House and the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, who terrified the American colonies with his 1741 sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” For years, Edwards’ former lover, has threatened to reveal her child, Parthalán, as Edwards’ illegitimate son. When four hardy men from the reverend’s Northampton, Massachusetts, community ask Edwards to sponsor a new congregation on the rugged Maine frontier, Edwards sees the opportunity to rid his house of his blackmailer and the child who is a living reminder of his hypocrisy.
Edwards has reason to believe that Parthalán has chosen to study the dark arts, but he does not suspect Parthalán’s plan to build Cape Agamenticus, Maine, into a prosperous oceanside town that Reverend Edwards, and all God-fearing people of the colonies, would consider an abomination.

The narrative alternates chapters between the present, as Matthew struggles with failing health and increasingly violent delusions and hallucinations, and the past, as Parthalán populates his town, and his church, with a community willing to sell their souls for hearty meals and comfortable homes—until a mysterious family arrives to foment rebellion from within. Past and present come together as Matthew learns, little by little, of his family’s ties to Cape Agamenticus and Kinnawe House—and why Parthalán will not rest until the house has driven Matthew to take his own life.

I feel like I should have known with a synopsis this long (probably longer than my review) that this would be a convoluted story.

Matthew is a struggling musician who can't seem to catch a break. His mother is mentally ill, his girlfriend has dumped him, and his insomnia is so bad that he sometimes can not tell hallucination from reality. As if that isn't enough to deal with he has scars all over that mysteriously rip open and bleed profusely under certain circumstances.
When he is offered a stay in a beautiful secluded home on the peaceful coast of Maine if he will consent to be the caretaker it seems like a too good to be true opportunity where he can rest and relax and write some new music.

What he doesn't know is the horrific evil that has been present since the house was built, is still there, and waiting for him.

Told on two timelines that switch between the present day of Matthew and the 1700s when the house and non existent town were built we slowly learn the reason that Matthew never knew his father and the reason his mother went insane. 

Because of the dual timelines there are a lot of characters to keep track of, some of whom were part of a devil worshiping cult, and others who hoped to thwart their leader's evil plans.

It was a bit confusing at times because some of the characters also changed names to Americanized versions, and several characters from the 1700s are still with us in the present day, some wanting to protect Matthew while others want to drive him to suicide.

I do enjoy a good historical fiction and when you combine it with horror I enjoy it all the more. I would have preferred not to have the name changes. There are some genuinely creepy and well written occurrences that happen to Matthew but their connection to the 1700s was at times confusing.

3.5 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy.

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About the author

Steve Rigolosi lives in Manhattan and is the author of the Tales from the Back Page series of mystery novels. The third book in the series, Androgynous Murder House Party, was released in June 2009. The premise of this series: Have you ever wondered about the stories behind the advertisements in your local newspaper—-those ads for fetish parties, transvestite boutiques, discount psychotherapy, wicca conventions, Gothic/Punk events, and lonely-hearts seeking to re-establish contact with a ship that passed in the night? Each book in the TALES FROM THE BACK PAGE series looks closely at an advertisement placed on the “Bulletin Board” of The Clarion, a community newspaper published on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.