04/04/2026 - Danielle's Dark Corners

Happy Saturday! We’re starting April off strong with the reviews I have today! Two are new-to-me authors, and one is from a very familiar author. The one thing they all have in common is that they’re phenomenal writers, and I cannot recommend their books enough! Enjoy!

PUMPKIN SEEDS

by Tyler Downs

“Burnt goddess of night,

Naked in your bed of bones,

I welcome you to swim again,

In a sea of skulls and tongues,

Upon your throne of spines,

Amid your maze of madness,

Let us gaze upon you once,

And only once,

Never to see again.”

PUMPKIN SEEDS is an absolute gem of a book. I had the best time reading this one! I always go in blind, but for this one I assumed it would be a heavily Halloween driven story. And it is. But it’s not one of those Halloween “themed” books that you would really only read around the holiday, at all. This book is just a straight-up, well-rounded horror story that I see doing big things in general.

This is the first thing I have read by Tyler Downs, but his first collection is already on my Kindle and has moved up on my TBR. The writing style and vibe were amazing. The story felt familiar and almost cozy? But it also felt so different from anything I have read before. I know, that sounds so contradictory, but this is yet another one of those times that I need people to just trust me on this!

I loved all the characters and the way they developed throughout the story. The book sits at around 220 pages but there is A LOT of story within them, but Downs has a really good way of keeping the reader both engaged and on point without any confusion. There are a ton of elements to this book. Violence. Gore. Some coming of age. Supernatural elements. Witchy elements. As a New Englander, I loved that it’s set in Salem, MA.

I have seen some early reviews for this, and they have been really positive in hyping this book up. And not only do I know why now, I fully agree with every positive word said about this book. I cannot recommend it more, to quite literally all horror readers, even some of the younger ones, if I am being honest! It’s that well-rounded! Tyler Downs is definitely an author to look out for around here and I can’t wait to see what he does next. PUMPKIN SEEDS releases on April 9^th but is available for preorder now.

"...and I’ll watch her fall, fall, fall. Fall forever..."

SYNOPSIS:

Edward Crane is a private detective who died eleven years ago. But once a year, with the help of his loyal sidekick Sam, Ed’s rotting corpse is reanimated for the last week of October to solve his town’s most devious cases before returning to the grave.

As the pair navigate the supernatural underbelly of Salem in pursuit of a dark entity with a growing body count, Ed and Sam are forced to rely on the haunting visions of a body-swapping ghost for clues to help set things right.

Grab it here (releases on 4/9 - preorder available): https://a.co/d/0dgc4out

TRIP CHAINSAW

by Christian H. Smith

“Even in the dim firelight, they could all see that he wasn’t human. The black eyes and crooked teeth remained, but the rest of Jim’s face had rotted away. All that remained was a thin layer of dead, black flesh. A grinning skull in a ball cap with vulgar nonsense printed on it.“

TRIP CHAINSAW is as trippy and wild as it seems. From the amazing cover to the title, it’s all such a freaking vibe and I loved every moment of it. The main thing here is that if anyone ever offers you acid that has a chainsaw on it, just don’t take it. And if you know someone who is tripping on acid that has a chainsaw on it, I would advise running the hell away. And never looking back, lol.

This was a hell of a Godless find for me and another reason I love Godless so much. I am often introduced to stories and authors I may not have been otherwise, and this is one of those times I couldn’t be more thrilled with a random pick of the draw!

This story had me in a chokehold from the first page and just got weirder and wilder as the pages turned. This story has so many elements curated into it and the entire time, you don’t know if you're on drugs, the book is on drugs, or a combination of both. There are fever dream type vibes, but it’s also sexy in a weird way at times, and absolutely depraved and violent in others. If it sounds chaotic, it's because it is. But I mean that in the best way possible.

TRIP CHAINSAW was an easy five-star memorable read for me and something I HIGHLY recommend everyone take a chance on!

SYNOPSIS:

For God’s sake, don’t take the acid!

Seven teenagers gather at an isolated house in the woods for an LSD party, but the strange drug annihilates reality and unleashes an irrational nightmare. Jason Stanton is a horror movie fanatic who worships the films of Hooper, Romero, and Raimi. His trip dissolves imagery from these classics into a mélange of pure madness, and externalizes his hallucinations into a real world acid party chainsaw massacre. Trip Chainsaw is like an ultra-violent video nasty in your head, with a post-modern twist of hallucinogenic insanity.

It’s a bad trip.

Grab it on Godless!

Also available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/04qK5j0S

THE SIN EATERS AND OTHER MACABRE TALES

by Michael R. Collins

THE SIN EATERS AND OTHER MACABRE TALES is an awesome new collection of nine or ten amazing short stories. I love everything Collins writes, but he truly thrives when it comes to short stories and being able to tell a hell of a tale in a limited number of words. It’s honestly impressive as hell. I was familiar with quite a few of these stories from previous anthologies, and funny enough, when I looked back on my notes from those anthologies, Collins definitely had some standout stories in them!

I love this collection because it has such a solid mix of Collins writing and showcases all his different styles and vibes. The stories all have variety which makes this collection ideal for essentially any horror reader. I do love that there are many stories heavy on the queer side, as I think that’s something he thrives at writing as well.

With so many different stories and themes and types of horror, I cannot recommend this collection enough. If short story collections are your thing, or Collins is a new author to you and you want a sample of the writing, grab this one asap! It was released on Godless already and will be available on Amazon on April 6^th. Godless and Amazon have different covers for this book, but the content is the same!

Table of Contents:

The Healer

With A Frozen Dream and A Borrowed Hope That Died

Lucifer's Flowers

I Am the Gate

No Shelter Here

Meat Corridors

The Loss

The Land Fights Back

Prometheus

SYNOPSIS:

Dark and gruesome stories. Here you will find grief and loss are a transmittable curse. That the realms of science can be taken too far, with gory results. We’ll visit a man who realizes the true price of revenge. And take a step back into the seedy 70’s to find devils lurking. An angry god roams the land to take back what was his to give, the Earth gets her own sort of revenge, and a healer can never runaway from her past. And of course, we will meet those who would gladly eat our sins.

Grab it on Godless!

Also available on Amazon (releases 4/6 - preorder available): https://a.co/d/0f1pJPOZ

*The Godless edition has a different cover but they are the same book!