Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
When Maya and Magdalena lose their parents to a home invasion, Magdalena puts her dreams on hold and turns to exotic dancing. Cash is what the sisters need to stay together and keep Maya in an elite catholic high school that has set her on the path for an athletic and academic college scholarship.These sisters come from a bloodline of Jaguar shifters from Mexico and have gained unwanted attention. The San Antonio Stripper Ripper is stalking the streets, out for a specific kind of blood.Though Magdalena trades in skin, there is no way she will allow anyone to own her. Steamy. Bloody. Dangerous. Hairspray and Switchblades, what more could a girl need to survive the hot streets? Find out the answer in Hairspray and Switchblades, available now, here.
Written by Kristen Renee Gorlitz and illustrated by Eli Powell, with cover art by Jeanne Vadeboncoeur and lettering by Marshall Dillon, The Empties is a new horror comic, described by Peter Atkins (Hellbound: Hellraiser 2) as “a perfectly balanced blend of the personal and the apocalyptic, The Empties peppers its in-your-face gore with poignancy and wit”. The Empties is a graphic novel about what happens when love dies. Most of us have experienced the end of a relationship – even the best breakups aren’t easy, but the worst ones are messy and leave us battered and bruised, or numb. The love we thought we would have forever is no longer. And something that was good leaves us rotten on the inside. Yeah, I’ve been there. So you can see why I thought that the messy side of relationships would be fertile grounds for a one of a kind horror story, The Empties. Because when love dies, something of us dies with it… and is reborn in a flesh-eating monster! You can read the first issue online, for free, here, then, if you like it, go support the Kickstarter, launching 18 February, here.
The summer of 1989 brought terror to the town of Shadows Creek, Florida in the form of a massacre at the local carnival, Cirque Berserk. One fateful night, a group of teens killed a dozen people then disappeared into thin air. No one knows why they did it, where they went, or even how many of them there were, but legend has it they still roam the abandoned carnival, looking for blood to spill. Thirty years later, best friends, Sam and Rochelle, are in the midst of a boring senior trip when they learn about the infamous Cirque Berserk. Seeking one last adventure, they and their friends journey to the nearby Shadows Creek to see if the urban legends about Cirque Berserk are true. But waiting for them beyond the carnival gates is a night of brutality, bloodshed, and betrayal. Will they make they it out alive, or will the carnival’s past demons extinguish their futures? Pre-order your copy to find out, here.
Karma and Other Stories is the fourth anthology book in the series from horror author P.J. Blakey-Novis and now the latest book to be released on audible from Red Cape Publishing. Karma and Other Stories is a collection of six terrifying stories, with tales of vengeance, the occult, a deadly competition, a weekend trip which turns violent, witchcraft, and things which go bump in the night. These short stories pack a punch, with an ending that will haunt your dreams. Available in paperback, eBook and also with Audible narration by Tim Shoesmith, you can get your copy here.
KEV HARRISON