05/23/2026 - Danielle's Dark Corners

Happy Saturday! I cannot even begin to contain my excitement with the three books and three authors featured today. All amazing. Truly. Enjoy!

LOVELY FLESH

by Michael Stone

"...So we took a stand. We decided we needed to educate our students on what beauty really is. It isn’t what’s on the surface. It’s what’s within. Here at PRP, we teach them a deeper truth: beauty is a moment that resonates with the human spirit—authenticity, meaning, connection, and transformation.”

Sigh. I don’t have half a clue where to even start with this book. Incredible. Truly captivating. Over 300 pages and I devoured the entire thing in two sittings. So well written with such an incredible plot with a million different amazing elements. Tone, pacing, dialogue, characters, plot, the entire freaking book is curated to near perfection and will forever be a memorable one. And for me to actually remember characters' names is a big one, lol.

LOVELY FLESH needs to be a series on tv asap. It has that type of plot and vibe. It’s culty. It has family drama. Characters that are relatable. Characters that you cannot even begin to stand. Characters that touch your heart. It’s so well-rounded. This is one of those times where I feel like no words I could ever say could do this book justice.

Naturally, I went in blind. And Michael Stone is a new-to-me author, as far as reading one of his books, and I was blown away. I am ashamed I haven’t read him yet. This book blew me out of the water and reminded me of so many of my favorite books and authors in the genre mashed into one book. Like, I almost want to say it gives Grady Hendrix vibes in the best ways possible. But Stone has a vibe of his own in the best ways possible.

I can’t recommend this book enough. I think it will be talked about A LOT. I think you will see a lot of hype and five stars for this book. And it will absolutely be landing on my top 10 reads of 2026.

Synopsis:

The Harrison family is unraveling.

Wesley Harrison’s father vanishes in Wyoming. His marriage is failing. His daughter, Lena, is spiraling toward a second suicide attempt, unable to see any beauty in herself because of a facial deformity.

Amid the family’s collapse, Wesley receives a strange job offer from the Pretty River Preparatory School for Girls in Wyoming. The same state his father went missing. The dream job seems to solve all of their problems: higher pay, free tuition at a private school, and an environment for teenage girls that emphasizes the beauty within, not on the surface.

As the Harrisons draw closer to Pretty River, the town exerts an otherworldly pull. One that defies logic or Earth’s natural laws. A town that shouldn’t exist. They soon realize they must not only confront the fractures in their family, but what it means to be human.

Welcome to Pretty River, where families are reborn in unspeakable ways.

Look to your left and to your right? Is the person next to you really human?

Available for preorder here.

URBAN DECAY

by R.J. Daly

“You see, I started over-prescribing medication to vulnerable patients. I actively sought out the senile, the disabled, the terminally ill. Those who were healthy, but flirted with addiction—and those who were already having a full-blown love affair with it.”

This book is brutal. Daly delivered exactly what I love about his writing and more with this one. URBAN DECAY is way more than just a Splatterpunk / extreme horror book. It’s deep. And it’s a really freaking brutal read from start to finish. It has all the triggers and puts you through a lot of feels. None of this surprises me coming from Daly, but it feels rare to get a book like this to evoke the feelings it does and take on some brutal realities of the real world.

This is another book that I find hard to review because I really don’t know how to express how brutal this book really is but also express how insanely good it is. It almost feels like a contradiction, but Daly’s storytelling ability is immaculate, and this showcases it brilliantly. I suppose right there is me trying, lol.

UBRAN DECAY is exactly what it sounds like. Straight up, urban decay. And it’s a reality. This book takes on themes of family, drugs, violence, poverty, organized crime and so much more. This is yet another book I cannot recommend enough and another book I am comfortable saying will make it on my top 10 reads of 2026 list.

Synopsis:

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY HIT ROCK BOTTOM… IT WON’T TAKE LONG.

Hustling a living on the streets is no picnic. Potential danger lurks around every corner. The lawless tenements attract undesirables, social outcasts, and criminals, and accommodate all manner of illicit activity. In a city where everyone is on the make, is there any point in playing by the rules?

Jimmy Henderson didn’t choose his life. Strapped for cash, he takes to the streets with the only thing he has left to sell—himself. When he thinks things can’t get any worse, he stumbles on an opportunity he hopes will change everything for the better. But will it work out the way he envisions, or will it end in disaster?

Paul and Tony Jeron rule the slums. When a drug deal goes wrong, and their product goes missing, Paul decides to send a brutal message. Will the degenerate’s ruthless tactics pay off, or has he gone too far in asserting his dominance?

Some cities are famous for their architecture and culture. But others occupy the opposite end of the scale. These cities are no more than human zoos, infamous for their blight on humanity. Rundown, dirty, and overflowing with gutter scum…

WELCOME TO BARBERVILLE. IF THE STREETS DON’T CLAIM YOU… SOMEONE, OR SOMETHING, MOST CERTAINLY WILL!

Warning: This book contains disturbing content. Reader discretion is advised.

Available for preorder here.

MIDDLE SISTER

by Eric Williford

His low-cut beard was grey and his eyes were tired. Not from a late night at work. These eyes belonged to a man who was tired of life. Exhausted from decades of making the wrong choices at every turn.

Williford is a new-to-me author as of maybe two months ago, and he is going to be my favorite new author I have found in 2026. I already know it from the last book I read by him. MIDDLE SISTER is the most recent book I delved into, and goddamn, it’s a wild ride.

At around 60 pages I read it in one sitting and couldn’t swipe my Kindle fast enough. It’s actually quite a mindf*ck. It’s got a cult. Sisters. Diabolical family dynamics. Some wild body horror and horror in general. It’s beautifully done. The dialogue is top tier. The characters are top-tier. The tone, pacing, and vibe are all fantastic.

This is an author we all need to be talking about more and reading more. This is an author I can see doing really big things around here and someone people should be looking out for. I would love to see his books get more hype and for people to take a chance on them. They’re exactly what the community needs.

Synopsis:

When three sisters discover the man they believe ruined their mother’s life, they do the unthinkable, they take him. Trapped together on their mother’s remote property, old wounds split open as fear, doubt, and long-buried trauma resurface. Are they delivering long-awaited justice… or unraveling under the weight of their mother’s past?

A tense psychological horror about family bonds, inherited scars, and the dangerous things we become when survival is on the line.

Grab it now on Godless.

Also available on Amazon.