01/18/2026 UNCOMFORTABLY DARK HORROR HAPPENINGS
- Candace Nola
- 19 hours ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
Let's get to some January updates, latest releases, note-worthy news, and more!
The review team is back in action! Don't forget to submit your review requests directly on our website on the Author Services page. They are read in order received, but please allow 4-6 weeks to see a review post.
Keep in mind that we only post those reviews that we can award 3 stars or more to, in keeping with our motto to bring you "the best in horror, one uncomfortably dark page at a time". However, if we cannot post a review, we will contact you, gently, to see if you'd like our objective and kind feedback.
There are a lot of announcements, cover reveals, and updates coming in the next few weeks, so make sure you are checking the Facebook group or our socials to stay in the loop and informed!
Let's get to today's updates!
DID YOU MISS THE 2025 YEAR-END WRAP UP?
Check out the full 2025 Recap here:
Check out Candace's Personal Favorites of 2025 here:
Uncomfortably Dark Top Orders & Page Reads for the last 30 days
*Amazon stats only
TOP ORDERS
EVERYTHING BUT THE SKIN - MOLTING - BADLANDS - BISHOP
TOP PAGE READS AS PER AMAZON KDP STATS
EVERYTING BUT THE SKIN - CUCKOO - BISHOP - BISHOP: Man vs Monster
NOTEWORTHY NEWS- PROMOS- LINKS
SPLATTERPUNK AWARD NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED!
Check here for the full Splatterpunk Nomination list!
Wanna know who all the winners have been? Check out the great article posted by Lionel Ray Green!
HAUNTED MIND AWARDS RECAP
Did you miss the fun of the Haunted Mind Awards hosted by Nick Roberts?
Check it out here! (Forgive my weirdness and lack of audio-technical glitch)
WHAT SCREAMS MAY COME- A PODCAST FROM RICK HIPSON
Check out the all-new podcast from Rick Hipson featuring your favorite indie horror authors, in interviews, special features, and more!
HAPPY GOAT HORROR YEAR-END RECAP!
Did you miss any of the 'Best Horror of the Year" videos put out by Happy Goat Horror?
Find them all below and be sure to let Kayleigh know that you stopped by!
UPCOMING EVENTS
AUTHORCON 6 BY SCARES THAT CARE- Williamsburg, VA
Feb. 27 - March 1, 2026
Check the link below for information, tickets, and more! Uncomfortably Dark will be there with many of our authors!
KILLERCON 2026 - AUSTIN, TX - 2026
November 6 - 8.
Check the below link for details as they are announced.
*Is there an event happening soon that we need to know about? Send me an email at editor@uncomfortablydark.com
FOR THE GAMERS
The Consuming Shadow
Reviewed by Besu Tadesse
**Trigger Warning- suicide/ self-harm
Released in November 2015, The Consuming Shadow is a procedural, psychological horror game published by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (of Zero Punctuation and Fully Ramblomatic fame). In the game, you play as a paranormal investigator at the Ministry of Occultism charged with investigating the consuming of a fictional version of the English countryside by an ever-consuming demonic entity and banishing it from that world.
You have 60 in-game hours to drive into spirit-plagued cities and obtain the information on how to banish it for good. This includes finding information on the invading god, collecting resources and support items, and avoiding death either in the cities or on the road. Your final battle, if you can survive that long, occurs at Stonehenge, where you perform the banishment ritual and end the nightmare once and for all.
The game offers a unique perspective in both format and delivery. It balances between the driving portions, where random encounters can provide additional resources or dangerous battles with shadowy creatures, and the town portions, where you may be greeted either with a quest to find info on the demons or resupply with medical items to improve “health” and illicit drugs to maintain “sanity”.
While keeping up health is obviously necessary, keeping up your sanity allows you not to go mad from the events around you, leading to the visual display getting fuzzy or having your control scheme reversed. This is especially true when, on occasion, the game compels you to want to end your own life if your insanity meter runs to 0. Both you and the monsters are shadows as well, giving an even creepier vibe when a large insect or giant face marches toward you and sends you three towns away with minimal sanity remaining.
The only real issue I have is with close-quarters combat. The timing of shooting and melee attacks can be hard to gauge, so you end up losing a lot of health very quickly. With the time constantly winding down and with every move costing some amount of in-game time (usually an hour), every step is crucial in making sure you get enough information to cast the ritual. And there are no shortcuts—the solutions are randomly generated each time, including the ritual spell and other support spells, so there is no way to carry forward the information across play—throughs.
It’s basically a narrative-driven survival horror logic puzzle in a minimalistic style that gives the nostalgic feel of old-school text-based games like Zork with an updated twist, and I’m really into it. The Consuming Shadow is available on PC.
Check it out!
About Besu Tadesse:
Besu Tadesse is a horror author and musician. He is best known for his first novella, The Ghosts of Poplar Valley, as well as contributions to various short story collections and anthologies. He enjoys reading, performing, gaming, watching movies, and spending time with his family. He currently resides in Maryland.
Check out his work on Amazon:
New & Next from Uncomfortably Dark!
WE PAINT OUR FACES WITH THE ASHES OF OUR DEAD
BY NIKOLAS P. ROBINSON
Godless Release Jan. 21, 2026
Wide Release Feb. 10, 2026
When an author puts a short story collection together, they are sifting through the ashes in the hope of finding something valuable and breathing new life into things that were dead. Each story takes on new context when brought together, than it had in its original life. The author paints their face with the ashes of the dead, crafting a new facade made from pieces of the old.
This collection includes 13 stories, written and published over the course of more than a decade. Some of them may be familiar, while others may provide a new experience as you lose yourself in these tales of violent revenge, exploration gone horribly wrong, and strange encounters.
Even those you've read before may find a different meaning this time around.
Pre-order Now:
EVERYTHING BUT THE SKIN BY RADAR DEBOARD
Available now on Godless and Amazon!
Something is devouring the kids of Shallowroot, and young Sophia may very well be next.
Evil has come to the town of Shallowroot, and it’s picking off the children, one by one. To make matters worse, Sophia has some kind of connection with whatever is behind it, and it seems to be coming after anyone who is close to her.
How long will it be before it finally comes for her?
Everything But The Skin - Kindle edition by DeBoard, Radar, Nola, Candace. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
THE BARISTA BY CANDACE NOLA
Available in ebook on Godless - paperback release will be Jan. 31, 2026 on Amazon.
Orphaned as a baby, Sunny was raised by her young uncles, Justin and Zeke. Barely in their twenties, the young men turned to the seedy underbelly of the city as a means of survival.
Now that Sunny is a young adult, she begins to learn just how her coffee shop began, and what goes on in the dark corners of the warehouse where they create their special blends from the finest beans and other freshly roasted ingredients.
Welcome to Sunny's, where the pastries are tasty, the coffee is always fresh, and the special blends are brewed with that little something extra!
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