06/27/2026 - Danielle's Dark Corners
- Danielle Yvonne
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Happy Saturday! So today things are a little different. For over a year now I have had the honor and privilege of being given a platform to post my weekly reviews and highlight indie authors, etc. Beyond that, I have had the honor and privilege of not only becoming friends with Candace Nola, but I have also been able to work alongside her and now call her closer to family than anything. We can be a dysfunctional family at times, but a family, nonetheless.
She never wanted us to review her books and highlight her when it came to our weekly blog posts. But today I am saying SCREW THE RULES. I went and found a bunch of reviews I have done over the past couple of years and without any editing, re-reading, or really anything besides copy and pasting, I decided to go fully rogue and post all those reviews today. Why? Because it’s time to take it full circle and show love and support to the one who shows everyone else love and support. The kindness in the dark? Yeah. That’s Candace Nola. Enjoy!
CLOWNSHOES
Damn. I needed this story, but I didn’t know how bad I really needed this story. You’ll often see/hear me say, “not my monkey, not my circus, I just know the clowns.” But sometimes… the clowns are our problems… and sometimes… you need to deal with the problem(s).
Nola takes us on a journey of a woman who is reclaiming her meek and mild side—and she’s tired of everyone’s bullshit. Sometimes a wall is a hit, a boundary is broken or you’re just simply tired of negative douche bags. When that happens, read this freaking book.
It goes hard cover to cover, with so many relatable aspects. Everything hit, and everything was on point. It’s a love from me.
“From now on, Vanessa was making her own rules and fuck anyone that got in her way.”
Like yasss girl, same.
BISHOP
“Death would come for the demon and the beast harbored deep within him would be its majestic harbinger.”
Okay, I don’t usually talk plots in my reviews to avoid spoilers, but this book was too damn good not to highlight some of it. This one is also impossible for me to do justice through my review, but I shall try. No spoilers though, promise!
Nola created an amazing freaking story with this one. If you’re looking for a solid, well-rounded book with creatures in the snowy mountains alongside human survival… this is the one. Then throw in some local legends, monsters, a wendigo, demons, missing people, an iconic main character, and you’ve got yourself a super fucking solid plot and read.
I loved the character development in this book. I loved the progression of the plot. I loved the tone and language. It was just all done really spectacularly. It’s such a vibe and such a mood. Totally here for it from cover to cover.
I know, I’m late on reading this one, but I’m finally chipping away at my TBR and this was the perfect book to end spooky season and start the winter reads. And yes, the second book is already on my Kindle.
BISHOP: MAN VS MONSTER
“I am a monster, a mockery of humanity. Parts and pieces of flesh stitched together by pain and madness.”
I feel like I’m being thrown for loops with my reviews lately because my words simply can’t do some of these books justice… especially this one with so many moving parts and praises to give—but once again, I shall try.
Okay, so on Friday I reviewed Hunger on the Chisholm Trail by Ennenbach, on Saturday I reviewed Bishop by Nola, and today the two come together for a mashup in this masterpiece. (There’s usually a method to my madness.) I was told ahead of time to read Mike’s Splatter Western to get the full effect for Bishop: Man vs Monster, and 10/10 recommend. It’s like the best of the two worlds coming together.
This story starts off really fucking strong. I’m a sucker for a good prologue, and this one was phenomenal. The action starts at the very beginning and goes completely unhinged in a couple places, and doesn’t let up until the end the very end, in the best freaking way possible. Oh, and that ending? Fucking brilliant. I need a part 3 in my life now.
Nola and Ennenbach matched each other’s energy flawlessly and it reads seamlessly, thus creating a hell of a book that’s quite frankly, unmatched in the community for this type of story.
Last month I mentioned I was handing out star ratings which is rare for me, I really didn’t think I would do it again this month, but when a five star comes across my kindle, I have no choice. So, this is another easily rated five star read, and one I HIGHLY recommend everyone adding to their TBR asap.
ZOMBIE DUCKS
“In a bizarre turn of events, reports of some types of inanimate objects are somehow coming to life after being contaminated.”
Lol, okay, I’m gonna be real transparent here. I took a copious amount of edibles before reading this, and damn. What a ride.
So, hear me out. Toy Story… but make it zombie. Then you say to yourself, “Wait, lemme grab all my rubber ducks and form an army, we totally got that.” But the thing is… you do have that.
Look, I don’t know. But I do know that this short story is an absolute gem and I highly recommend everyone grabbing it. It’s a really fun read.
ZIPPERS
“She was a madman’s delusion, a crackhead’s blackout dream. She was a nightmare of her fashionable design.”
I hate how much I love this story. I mean, I really love this freaking story.
Like, am I turned on? Repulsed? Uncomfortable? Intrigued? Concerned? I don’t fucking know.
It’s poetic and beautiful, but foul and weird? Look, it just makes sense.
I have so many mixed emotions. But the main one is that everyone needs to read this, and feel as weird as I do.
Okieee. Glad we had this chat.
THE UNICORN KILLER
“Stab and withdraw. Stab and withdraw. Blah. Blah. Blah. There were only so many ways to kill someone. He needed something fresh.”
Let’s just make things weird and keep it going with the Nola reviews this week.
So, ya know when you’re in serial killer mode and you’re like… “ugh I’m bored of this same old stabby nonsense, I need to step it up a notch, lemme grab a unicorn costume?” Because, big same.
Anyway, I’m not saying anyone should be a serial killer… but if you do decide that’s your thing… please read this and be like Frank.
SHADOW MANOR
“I refused to give in to my fear. I was stressed out from my day. It was a creepy house and bad weather, nothing more. I opened my eyes and screamed.”
Okay, it’s been like, six days since I’ve done a Nola review… so let’s change that and keep the Nola-November going.
I love a good haunted house story, especially with a gothic horror feel… and I love the way Nola writes, so naturally the two meshed together made for a phenomenal read.
This story was actually spooky as hell. The atmosphere is supernatural and ghostly while providing a sense of dread and intense emotions the whole time. It was detailed and almost poetic in nature, with a nice first person POV, all while sprinkling in some hard hitting journal entries found from an old diary throughout. It actually put me in my feels and I may or may not had teary eyes a couple times.
I don’t even know how to explain it without spoilers, lol. But like all of Nola’s books, it’s just a total vibe from cover to cover.
At around 100 pages it was another binge read in one sitting for me. The build ups and not knowing what would happen next had me swiping my kindle like a maniac
MOLOCH
“Eyes dark as midnight watched from his skeletal face, pale skin stretched taut over jutting angles, a mirthless grin lifting his cheeks.”
Over the last couple months I have binge read quite a few of Nola’s books. I quickly fell in love with her story telling and writing style. This book exemplifies everything I love about her. Her ability to tell such a chilling and horrific tale in a beautiful way is essentially unmatched.
Demons, caves, missing children, and villages on fire… all told in a poetic fashion. But make no mistake, it’s unhinged / evil / depraved and top tier horror. It’s wild and almost indescribable unless you’ve read her work. Truly, it makes these types of reviews really hard because I feel like I sound crazy and contradictory.
TRANSFORMATION
“As painful as it was, I understood that there was nothing I could change about my past, but I could be a better person now, and as I moved through this life.”
Nola can paint one hell of a picture using words, and that’s one of the many reasons I love her books so much. This story, as always, was amazing! I always tend to read one of her stories at random, and they’re always what my soul needs without me even realizing it beforehand.
NUBS
“The odor of moist asshole and feces wafted into her nostrils and tongue, but she kept gnawing and nibbling on the stump.”
LOL. This is one of those books I find super hard to review because it’s weird as hell. It’s super unhinged. There were many places I laughed and many places I cringed—perhaps even gagged (a lot). But per usual, the story was told beautifully (weird adjective for this, just trust me, lol) and what would be a seemingly batshit crazy main character… becomes oddly likable and relatable (kinda, lol). So, I feel like there’s just a lot of contradictions. But I mean that in the best way possible.
I suppose the best way to sum it up would be that this is a story about when curiosity can get the best of someone and they let the intrusive thoughts win.
HANK FLYNN
*okay, I always take real time notes when I’m reading a book. I then use them as inspo for my reviews. For this one, I’m literally just going to copy and paste my realtime notes without doctoring them up at all. That being said…
•Amazing world and character building. Like really amazing. Unmatched to be completely honest.
•Detailed without being too wordy.
•Attention holding and easy to binge type of page turner.
•I really love her short extreme stories. But this writing style?! I absolutely adore to the moon and back. She is one hell of a story teller and I really don’t know how else to put it.
•Do I have a crush on the MMC?!
•Oh there’s lots of demons. Hell yeah.
•Brutal. In the best way possible.
BITTER PETALS
BITTER PETALS by Candace Nola embodies the female rage that happens when you are absolutely tired of people’s shit. And I cannot think of a better collection to celebrate Women in Horror Month! BITTER PETALS features three short stories, so I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s go ahead and take them one by one with my favorite quotes that I believe embody the essence of each story. Just a quick note that FLORA AND VENUS is a story that is not new to me, but it sure as hell tried to take me out. Both the first and second time I read it. She goes really hard in that one, lol. And if you know me, it takes A LOT for me to almost tap out of a book!
WISHBONE
“This was soul-crushing, demeaning, joyless free labor chained to a man she had grown to loathe.”
FLORA AND VENUS
“Being a woman sucked some days, horny and bloody, can’t get none. Man not in the mood, can’t get none. Trying to get some but can’t tell the man how you want it because you’ll hurt his feelings, and his ego, just ends up pointless.”
“The lush greenery always calmed her. The bright greens and the delicate white and pinks of their budding blooms gleamed beneath the fairy lights she strung over the curtain rod.”
PENANCE
“His arrogance would be his downfall, much like many other predators before him. The narcissistic mindset always lent rare bravado to the ego. This afternoon, the man had made her skin crawl with the obscene way he had been stroking her palm.”
There isn’t much I can say about Nola that hasn’t already been said. She is an amazing author, and her stories are always a hit. There is a reason that this collection has been sitting in the top 3 on Godless since it was released.
Call me biased, that’s fine. But I am absolutely slapping five stars on BITTER PETALS, and I highly encourage everyone to grab a copy because I’m pretty sure it’ll be a five-star read for the majority.
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