Down Into The Sea by Dan Franklin

 Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross is struggling. His father is in prison for murder. His mother has slipped into addiction. Even if he can survive the bullying and the sudden run of disappearances, he has little hope for a future outside of the sleepy Massachusetts fishing town he calls home.

But there is something far more important on his mind.

He found her down beneath the local entertainment pier, and she seems just about perfect. Except for the teeth. But she doesn’t want to simply be a part of his world. She wants more…

From the author of These Things Linger and The Eater of Gods, Down Into the Sea is a vicious twist on coming-of-age horror, on the unyielding, transformative power of desire, and the dangers of standing in its path.

The sins of the father are visited upon Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross. He has had his life upended by events beyond his control. There was a time that he had a happy home life. There was a time when he had friends, and hopes, and dreams. Now he knows only hunger and neglect, with his father in prison and his mother unable to cope, drowning her depression in pills and alcohol. 

He spends most of his energy avoiding bullies, missing his father, and hanging out at the pier. That is where he sees her, a strange looking woman that at first appears to be a corpse in the water. This unusual pair become ill-fated friends.

In between the missing people and occasional carnage, I forgot this was a horror story because fear is only one of many emotions this powerful novella evokes. I could feel Eric's loneliness and his love for his parents. I could feel his mother's shame at being unable to take better care of him. Then there was my own apprehension over his unlikely friendship with this woman under the pier. 

If you're looking for a read that will leave you alternately terrified and heartbroken this is it. I have an emotional hangover from my splash Down Into The Sea.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to the author and Cemetery Dance Publications.

Get a copy

BLOODY HELL: An Anthology of UK Indie Horror Edited by Sarah Jules

 

The United Kingdom is known for its breath-taking beauty, but even the most idyllic of places can harbour dark secrets. Experience twenty-seven brand new horror stories from British indie authors, each set in a unique location throughout the British Isles. Grab a cup of tea, a scone, and remember… they’re only stories.

This fully illustrated anthology is brought to you by indie horror author Sarah Jules, and illustrator Rachael Rose, and features veteran, and debut, British indie horror authors,

"Twenty-seven stories from some of the best the UK has to offer. In this anthology, you’ll find a little something of creepy ghosts, mythical monsters, and deadly killers, all guaranteed to send a shiver up your spine. Grab yourself a cuppa, make yourself comfortable, and check your doors are locked… You might regret it otherwise.” - Justin Boote, author of Soul Searchers.

Vengeful ghosts, Folk horror, strange creatures, and psycho killers leaped from the pages and pulled me into the tales. I was a willing victim, happily spellbound from start to finish. 

Just a few of my favorites were Hungry Is The Bodach by Stuart Knott in which a woman has an ulterior motive for getting her lunkheaded husband up to the family cabin.

The Syn-Eater of Lancaster by MJ Mars is about a sin eater who has finally found a way to turn a good-sized profit for his work but at a terrible cost.

To Be A Man Of Man by J C Michael A new love is not all it's cracked up to be in this twisty surprising tale.

The God Botherers by Ashley Little follows two men on their way to do the Lord's work or at least their interpretation of it.

In Wrong Lane by Stephen Barnard a driver sets out to teach others the consequences of aggressive driving but ends up learning their own lesson.

Pergyl by C S Jones A family arrives at a cabin in the midst of a terrible storm, but there is more to fear than the weather.

Sand by David Watkins is a story worth remembering any time you're on the beach. Especially a lovely secluded beach that you seem to have all to yourself.

The Joke by Tom Carter left me stunned! I don't even know what to say about this one without giving anything away. I'm just going to say it was brilliant.

Brompton Road by Elizabeth Brown is where a content creator sets out to film one of those creepy abandoned place videos but it doesn't go as planned.

I could go on but at this point, I'd be listing the whole table of contents if I named every story that I enjoyed.

This is a huge collection of 27 stories that were much darker than expected and left me saying Bloody Hell that was a good book!

Get a copy

Authors include:

Stephen Barnard

Marie Sinadjan

Mark MJ Green

Benjamin Langley

Brad Thomas

Elijah Frost

Lee Allen

William Long

Bethany Russo

David K Slater

Dr Stuart Knott

Elizabeth J Brown

Jessica Huntley

MJ Mars

M.L. Rayner

Ashley Lister

Jim Ody

Alexandra Nisneru

EC Samuels

Philip Alexander Baker

Tom Carter

CS Jones

JC Michael

Tim Stephens

David Watkins

And, a bonus Irish story from Leigh Kenny.

The Taste of Tiny Bones by Vincent Heselwood

 

No one knows where he came from...He's what lingers in the shadows behind you when you turn off the lights and race up the stairs...The darkness beneath the bed that keeps your feet tucked tightly under the covers...The Bogeyman...

But Evie "Creepy" Morenson has unknowingly found a way to make him something more than what he was, something much more vicious, something much more hungry...

A simple blog post causes new nightmares to start, new fears that give him new life, and now, something is very, very wrong.

She's lost control of the monster she created, and children are starting to die.

Will she and Detective Ezra Dean find a way to stop him before he goes viral?

You thought you were afraid of the Boogeyman before...Just wait...

Alfie Turner is the first but he will not be the last that the Tat O' Rag Man visits in the dark of night. An insidious presence made of fear and belief that devours its victims as they shriek in terror has come to life.

"What do you want?" he whispered. "To eat you," came the reply.

It spreads like a virus. To see it is to believe in it and to become its target. It's up to one woman, who has lived in fear most of her life to find the strength to stop it. I loved Evie "Creepy" Morenson and her love for books and the written word in general. She reminded me a bit of Stephen King's Holly in her mannerisms and her hyper focused ability to work on a problem.

If you were ever afraid of the dark as a child, if you ever had an unkind babysitter who told you the boogeyman would get you, or a sibling who teased you that something was in the closet, be prepared for those forgotten childhood fears to come roaring back.

The author succeeds in turning the unbelievable into the possible.

My thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

Get a copy

Behind by Bentley Little

 When he was a little boy, there was a house behind Alex Lowry's house. Except he was the only one who could see it. Only he could hear the woman singing from within.

Decades later, after the pandemic costs Alex his corporate job, he picks up work delivering specialty items to homebound clientele and, against all odds, he realizes he enjoys his new life. His world is simpler. Quieter. Until he once more hears the tuneless, wordless song of the woman from the house behind. Until the cracks in the façade of his simple, quiet life begin to yawn, and a past he thought he had outrun begins to gain on him.

Until he finds himself slipping into the world behind.

Alex is a happily married man who tries not to think much about the past. He has never told anyone what he saw as a child, not even his wife Jennifer. He has given her the impression that he had a normal childhood. He may even have convinced himself that it's true. He never talks about the church, and only says that his parents passed away when he was young.

When Alex loses his job due to the pandemic, Jennifer thinks her father or his connections could be of some help. He's never gotten along well with his Father-in-law but complies with Jennifer's request to visit her parents. It is on this visit that the past catches up to him. There it stands. A house behind his in-laws' house. A house that should not be there in their suddenly too-big backyard. A house that's just a little bit wrong, with doors in the wrong place and not enough windows. The house where "she awaits." 

I don't want to say anything else about the plot and spoil it for you. I will just say that if you have read Bentley Little before you know that his book titles that begin with "The" as in The Store, The Mailman, The Resort, etc tend to follow his usual formula. While those without, such as Dispatch, His Father's Son, Gloria, etc. tend to stray from that usual formula. Behind was not just my most anticipated read of the year, it is now among my favorites of all his books. I savored it slowly over the course of a week because I didn't want it to end.

Behind is delightfully dark and disturbing. The pervasive atmosphere of "wrongness" grew heavier with every page I turned. It takes a lot to scare me but this succeeded in appearing my nightmares. 

My thanks to Dan Franklin and Cemetery Dance Publications.

About the author

Get a copy