06/20/2026 - Danielle's Dark Corners

Happy Saturday! Half way through the year and today I have three amazing reviews for three amazing books for three amazing authors. Enjoy.

WE ARE HERE TO HURT EACH OTHER

by Paula D. Ashe

"I think, maybe, being alive is the stupidest thing any of us will ever do. To keep at it, like somehow things will right themselves."

I have not one clue where to start with this one. Twelve mind bending stories that take you to a really weird place in your brain. All twelve are beautiful in every way, and dark. These stories are dark.

The tone, the vibe, the language, the way each story was articulated—it’s all masterful in all the ways. I love a good bleakness to a story, and this collection as a whole gives such a solid bleakness. It’s pure dread from cover to cover.

It usually takes me a few sittings to get through a collection, but this one I binge-read in one. That’s all it took. I was intoxicated from the first page. I would never be able to choose a favorite story or take them one by one because each one is my favorite for a different reason.

I cannot recommend that every single horror reader drop what they’re doing and go and get this collection now. It’s like that.

Synopsis:

SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD WINNER!

BRAM STOKER AWARD NOMINATED

With these twelve stories Paula D. Ashe takes you into a dark and bloody world where nothing is sacred and no one is safe. A landscape of urban decay and human degradation, this collection finds the psychic pressure points of us all, and giddily squeezes. Try to run, try to hide, but there is no escape: we are here to hurt each other.

CONTENT WARNINGS FOUND INSIDE BOOK

“Poignant, grim, and startling, the remarkable stories of We Are Here To Hurt Each Other shine with luminescent dread. In this collection, Paula D. Ashe reminds us that monsters aren’t just real: they’re here and they’re human.”

—Tiffany Morris author of Green Fuse Burning and Elegies of Rotting Stars

"My god, this book Where do I even begin? The exquisite language. The devastation. The slow, creeping dread. Truly masterful. I’m a new and devoted fan of Paula D. Ashe."

—Eric LaRocca author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

"Clive Barker is her Virgil, but Paula D. Ashe is Dante guiding you ever deeper into an Inferno more hellish and cursed than the 14th Century Catholic poet could've possibly envisioned. The only salvation possible for these damned souls is to find rapture in suffering and release in condemnation. Most are lucky just to find the one, true end to all woe. Paula D. Ashe is a Prophet of Pain."

—Christopher Ropes author of Complicity

"Paula D. Ashe came to hurt me, refused to apologize, and left me in a forensically unfeasible state of despair. Holy fuck."

—Joe Koch author of The Wingspan of Severed Hands

"The stories in Paula D. Ashe's debut collection are brutal, intense, and will have you questioning what lies beneath the veneer of strangers, of loved ones, and of yourself."

—Doungjai Gam, author of glass slipper dreams, shattered and watch the whole goddamned thing burn

“To hold the reader’s undivided attention, such a degree of blistering honesty requires an equally high level of storytelling skill, and Ashe does not disappoint. Here is a writer whose impeccable prose grips the reader from the first sentence, and commands attention. The stories in this collection convey a chilling urgency, as all truthful and uncompromising fictions do.”

—S. P. Miskowski, author of I Wish I Was Like You

“Gooey, gory and utterly mesmerizing, Paula D. Ashe's debut short fiction collection reads like the sloppy love-child of Clive Barker and David Cronenberg--Barker for sheer gruesomely sensual intoxication, the language of blood-soaked angels, Cronenberg for bodies flipped inside-out and messed around back-to-front like suppurating biological Rubik's Cubes. I want to study it; I wish I'd written it.”

—Gemma Files, author of In That Endlessness, Our End and Experimental Film

Available on Amazon.

Dr. Parasite

by Rowland Bercy Jr.

"Maybe by observing and studying the physical effects of a parasite on an unwilling host, I could somehow comprehend and wrangle the emotional ones raging within myself, fostering a peaceful, if not beneficial, coexistence between the two, he thought."

Rowland Bercy Jr. is one of my favorite people in the indie horror community. He is the kindest and most genuine person, and he is one of the most talented authors I have read. One thing I love about him is his ability to take the reader on the most gag worthy experience ever, while still being able to have a really good story with a whole lot of substance and meaning as the focal point.

To be able to tell an absolutely unhinged gross-out while also telling a story that makes you think, that’s impressive as hell to me and very rare to see. There is a reason he is a favorite around here. And yes, he is a delight, but he is also one of the greatest talents that exists in the community. And one of the only authors to genuinely make me gag to the point of messaging them about it, lol.

DR. PARASITE is now one of my favorites by him and just a testament to all the great things I said above. If you’re looking to challenge yourself while still reading a book with substance, this is the one. I cannot recommend it more.

Synopsis:

IT’S WHAT’S ON THE INSIDE THAT COUNTS…

Jacob Westergren, an expert in his field of study, gets paid to research the most sickening parasites known to man. But, even when he looks at the most appalling of the species, he does not see the intrusive ugliness that humanity does, he sees himself. He sees a vessel by which to purge himself of an amalgam of detestable emotions. Emboldened by promising experimentation, Jacob is anxious to unburden himself by sharing his emotional parasite, in physical form, with the rest of the world.

DEFINITIVE PROOF THAT, WE HUMANS ARE THE GREATEST OF EARTHS PARASITES…

Available on Amazon.

FIDGET ELECTRIC

by Eric Williford

"Crushed Fidget Electric balances on the edge of my maxed-out credit card. It’s airy violet with metallic radiations resembling amethyst dust. It gets sucked into a flaring nostril. The burn intensifies. Eyes water. Lightning in powder form."

Eric Williford is one of the new-to-me authors of 2026 that I have fallen in love with. I am obsessed with his storytelling and how unique it is in all the ways and something I truly believe we need in the indie horror community. The plots are always super different and told in a way that makes it so easy to lose yourself in the book and before you know it, you have finished the story and are on Amazon, and godless finding anything else by him that you can read.

This is a standout story and standout author for me this year and I can’t wait to see what else he has in store. Everyone needs to start reading more Williford and FIDGET ELECTRIC is a fantastic place to start. This is an author I would really love to see talked about more!

Synopsis:

Max, an undercover cop, slips inside a gang trafficking a designer hallucinogen that chews reality like gum. In a world soaked in paranoia and altered reality, the deeper he goes, the less of him remains.

Available on Godless.

Available on Amazon.