10/18/2025 - Danielle's Dark Corners
- Danielle Yvonne
- Oct 18
- 8 min read
Happy Saturday! I am beyond excited to share this week's reviews, so I will skip all the small talk. Let's just dive right in!
SKINWEAVERS
By Dan Shrader
“The trees above them formed an oppressive canopy, their limbs knotted and twisted as though trying to shield them from something inescapable. Leah wasn’t captivated by the trees, but by a house that materialized before her, an unnatural blemish on the landscape. its crooked, sagging form seemed to cave in on itself, the walls warping and groaning under some unseen burden.”
SKINWEAVERS is definitely at the top of my favorite shorter stories by Shrader. The growth as a writer is evident from cover to cover in this one. The writing style is fantastic. The tone and overall vibe are amazing. This story is definitely creepy as hell. I loved the Towers Valley Easter egg, but I will not be taking any road trips through the desert anytime soon. I first read this story when he began it in April, and somehow between then and now, he managed to make these characters live rent free in my head, and while I never admitted this to him, I may or may not have had a nightmare or two.
While there’s still some gruesome scenes, this one feels a little different than his others… in a good way! Themes you can expect in this story are:
Folklore.
Body horror.
Survival.
Cannibalism.
Desert road trip.
Gruesome creature horror.
I highly recommend this one to everyone! It’s perfect to binge in one sitting! Overall it’s a fantastic story that is told really freaking well.
SYNOPSIS:
"WE CONSUME WHAT WE MUST."
A family road trip turns into a nightmare.
Angela, Sal, and Leah’s road trip isn’t going as planned. They are running low on gas and lost with no signs of civilization for miles. A flicker of hope appears in the form of a rundown roadside store but inside waits something far worse than the desert night. The locals aren’t just strange, they’re watching. Hunting and waiting. They’re hungry…
The trio is thrust into a nightmarish game of survival, where escape is only temporary and every shadow hides a predator. Skinweavers is a relentless descent into body horror, madness, and rural despair.
Amazon: https://a.co/d/eJzrQYT
DEATH CULT CUTIES
By Peter Caffrey
"Cause of death?" Pamplemousse asked.
“I'm pretty sure being cut open from cunt to breastbone and having her guts pulled out and strewn around had something to do with it?”
AHHH! This MONDO PERVERSO PULPAGEDDON series is going to be a favorite of mine, I can already tell by reading the first two. CULT CUTIES is the first book, and it is FANTASTIC. It’s beyond absurd, bizarre, and completely unhinged… three of my favorite qualities in a horror book. Caffrey has said that the series is what pulp fiction should be, and 10/10, hard agree. This book takes on the theme of Crime Mystery, and it’s done perfectly. The characters are amazing; there’s even one named Truly Moist. So, really, right there is an instant seller in my opinion.
They’re pretty short, perfect to binge in one sitting, so I’ll let the synopsis do some of the talking. But HIGHLY RECOMMEND preordering this!! (Link to preorder below.)
SYNOPSIS:.
MONDO PERVERSO PULPAGEDDON - PULP FICTION THE WAY PULP FICTION SHOULD BE!
DEATH CULT CUTIES
When dead teenage girls start showing up all over the place, Detective Inspector Savage (who’s a proper lazy bastard) makes certain he doesn’t get the case. His irritable bowel tells him the outcome won’t be good, and he doesn’t want to be tarred with the brush of failure. Thinking the crimes are linked to a far-right faction, he passes the case to DI Derek Pamplemousse, who soon discovers things are more fucked-up than he originally thought.
Amazon: https://a.co/d/9CABROG
MARY BRANNIGAN'S DEVIL BABY
By Peter Caffrey
‘For pity's sake, Mary, your bloody baby's just eaten the fucking cat!'
That was the moment Mary Brannigan realised her newborn wasn't normal.
So, in the above review, I mentioned how the MONDO PERVERSO PULPAGEDDON series was going to end up being a favorite of mine… and book two only reconfirms that. This one is so ridiculous, so unhinged, absolutely insane, and still managed to shock me at the end. But imagine thinking smoking pot basically got you pregnant with the Devil’s child?! I mean, the way everything pans out, it’s plausible… Once again, the characters are flawless, and the plot is fantastic. Caffrey’s books manage to hit EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ONE TOO!! Link available below!
SYNOPSIS:
MONDO PERVERSO PULPAGEDDON - PULP FICTION THE WAY PULP FICTION SHOULD BE!
MARY BRANNIGAN'S DEVIL BABY
What starts out as a day wagging off school soon becomes the kick-off of a horrifying ordeal for Mary Brannigan. Abandoned by her best friend, she ends up skulking around the churchyard with the local simpleton, but when he shares a reefer with her, the hellish reality of evil narcotics turns her ordinary life upside-down. Can she survive the rigours of an addiction to the ganja, and why is there a baby growing inside of her? More importantly, is the baby actually the Devil?
Amazon: https://a.co/d/3Extw1K
WHITE FLIGHT
By Peter O'Keefe
"You need to see me. I'm not your pet, or your project, or your protégé. I’m Black. That's not ever going to change." She was glaring at her mom as she framed her own face with her hands. "This. Is. Who. I. Am."
Wow. I had no words for days after reading this. I really had to pause and figure out how I was going to go about this review, because I have never read a story like this before. This is hands down the most unique haunted house type of story I have ever read. This book punched me in the gut over and over and put me in feels that I didn’t even know I had. There were so many times I wanted to crawl into my Kindle and insert myself into the story so I could talk to a character, etc., and I don’t know if I have really ever felt that way while reading a book… certainly not to this level.
WHITE FLIGHT takes on some really heavy topics. A white couple adopts a black baby at birth. When their daughter is a teenager, they move to a new house and area in hopes of seeing their daughter truly thrive. Unfortunately, she was killed by the police. BUT THEN, while mom and dad are going through every emotion possible… they realize they’re dealing with their house that also wants them dead, and they cannot figure out why.
O’Keefe does such an incredible job with this book from cover to cover. The way he takes on these topics was great, in my opinion. The tone was perfect. It was absolutely horrifying at times. What’s real, what’s not, why is this all happening?! So many questions, so much going on, but never once did I feel lost/confused in the storytelling. The entire vibe is extremely unsettling but incredible. I do think that this is going to be a book you see talked about often, and it is one I think everyone in this day and age should read.
It's available on Godless 10/21 and Amazon 11/4. It is also available on NetGalley for those who like to arc read/review! All the links can be found below.
SYNOPSIS:
Joel and Willow Ward are white. Their Black teenage daughter, adopted at birth, was just killed by the police.
Now, their house is trying to kill them, and the grieving parents are trying to understand why.
And survive the night.
Early Praise for White Flight!
“White Flight by Peter O’Keefe opened with a roar and then I couldn’t work my finger fast enough to keep up. A married couple attempts to navigate an unspoken tragedy haunting every corner of their dream house - and every layer of their dreams. But there’s an undercurrent of racial disquiet lingering in the air that kept me on edge, like I was waiting on the other shoe to drop. O’Keefe deftly sets the landscape and paints a picture of a home wrapped in overwhelming sadness and dysfunction, but he also builds an unsettling suspense that makes you clench your throat because you just know there’s something else there. And there is...something else.” — Kenya Moss-Dyme, author of SEED
“This is not your ordinary haunted house story. It’s the starkly beautiful, heart-wrenching tale of a white couple who lose their black daughter in a tragic accident. A display of love so well-meaning that it becomes caustic, and even with the best of intentions, every decision they make leads to something more horrific than they could ever imagine. Peter O’Keefe’s book will wreck your soul, and you will stand up and applaud him fiercely for doing so!” — Jill Girardi, Author and Owner of Kandisha Press
“A brutal look at the tensions of American racism, O’Keefe’s White Flight is a lightning-paced haunted house tale that asks hard questions. The novella holds up a mirror to white America. Those brave enough to look are in for a hell of a ride.” —Elizabeth Broadbent, author of BLOOD CYPRESS
Amazon: https://a.co/d/aHCHkGy
OUR SARNATH
By Judith Sonnet
"The nothingness a god dwells in when people cease to worship him. The nothingness God Himself experienced before he said, “Let there be light.” The nothingness all humans know before they rest in the womb. The nothingness beyond life, death, and other such minuscule concepts."
I’ll be completely honest, I am not very familiar with Lovecraft’s short story, The Doom That Came to Sarnath. But what I do know about it, and the way that Sonnet managed to create a “romantic” retelling that stays true to her style, makes OUR SARNATH a fantastic novella.
OUR SARNATH is a cosmic horror that takes the reader through an atmospheric ride that will put you through ALL the feels. Doom, anxiety, sadness, loss, love, gain, what’s a dream… what’s not a dream… and a descent into madness. When I say every emotion is there, I mean that with my entire being.
The characters and their growth were done superbly well in this book. The FMC and her growth alone were extraordinary to see from the start of the book to the finish. I love that she’s a trans character as well, because that alone brings in an entire range of emotions and feelings to this story… and it works perfectly.
At the end of this book, in the author’s note, Judith explains a lot about this book. One thing that stood out to me was how much she loves it. (No, really, when you read the author’s note, there’s so much that was poured into this story.) Right down to how she had this entire story plotted from the very beginning and stuck to the “script.” — Judith’s own love for this book comes through the words on EVERY SINGLE page.
This is one of those times where I feel like I rambled a ton and somehow did zero justice to this book. I recommend this book to anyone, but especially if you’re a fan of cosmic horror, Lovecraft, and an overall fan of Sonnet in general.
OUR SARNATH releases on November 22nd but is available for preorder now. You can find the link to grab it below!
SYNOPSIS:
Two academics come to a cabin in the Utah mountains to perform "the only ritual that works." A Dream Cycle, which should give them glimpses into pre-human society--a look into a beautiful, Eden-like kingdom called Ib. A city that has been almost entirely forgotten, except by a very small number of modern witches and warlocks.
But when Celeste begins to experience unplanned night-terrors about an ancient deity named Bokrug, her partner, Theo, realizes that someone has intruded upon their ritual, and that there may be no way out of this nightmare . . . unless they go through it!
Cold, weird, tender, and trippy, OUR SARNATH is the romantic and Lovecraftian horror odyssey you've been waiting for! From Judith Sonnet, the versatile and unpredictable author of The Home, The Vanishing Barker, and Terror! Horror! Agony!
Amazon: https://a.co/d/1pWzHdi
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