Book Review: How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold

It’s an old trope: a group of people secluded in a spooky house. In this case, it’s a group of horror writers coming together for the reading of Mortimer Queen’s—renowned horror author—will. Actually, I bought it because I love these types of sub-genres, and I was ready for a fresh take on a tried-and-try classic.

Unfortunately, I had a different experience.

Before going on, let’s remember that all of us have different tastes in stories. A book I didn’t necessary connect with may end up being someone else’s favorite. This is just my singular opinion . . .

The book centers around seven people with ominous secrets, and it’s up to the reader to decide if the stories about their pasts are true or if this is an unreliable narrator situation. For me, it never really hit the latter. While the backstories were interesting and suspenseful, the story relied on the idea that there would be confusion as to the whether the writers are fibbing. In reality, the backstories and truths seemed very straightforward.

The pacing seemed a tad rushed towards the end which was in contrast to the beginning where the set up was a warm slow boil.

But like mentioned, the stories the readers propose have a lot of suspense and tension. The reason each of them decided to go to the will reader is juicy and unique and while the overall experience wasn’t for me, the induvial character moments kept me glued to the page.

Overall, it’s a great book for those who like a straight-forward plot and some really cool horror moments. But for me, it’s a pass.

GOBBLE ‘TIL YOU WOBBLE: A NEW YEAR’S EVE NIGHTMARE

COMING NOVEMBER 1ST:

It's New Year's Eve, 1984, and the desert town of Las Rodadoras, New Mexico is gearing up for its most beloved tradition: the annual Turkey Drop. Live turkeys rain from the courthouse roof while the locals celebrate below. It's quirky. It's chaotic. It's completely insane.

 And this year, it's going to be absolutely killer.

 Laura gets a little help from monstrous scorpions. Sheriff Big Jake Morrison has a bad feeling about the turkey wrangler. Mayor Villanueva hides a dark secret about the town's founding involving killer jackalopes. Verne, the twitchy pyromaniac, builds fireworks powerful enough to be seen from space. Rebecca, a bored vampire, is looking for a good time. And then there’s the recurring zombie problem . . .

 What could possibly go wrong when live poultry, homemade explosives, and a town built on a century of supernatural secrets are combined?

 Everything.

THIS CRUISE SUCKS COMIING JULY 15, 2025

* Title: This Cruise Sucks
* Author(s) name(s): Nico Bell
* ISBN (or ASIN):
* Publisher: Independent
* Publication Date Year: 2025
* Publication Date Month: July
* Publication Date Day: 15
* Page count: 96
* Format (such as paperback, hardcover, ebook, audiobook, etc): Paperback, Ebook
* Description: What has eight arms, two tentacles, and one gnarly appetite . . .? A Vampire Squid. While enjoying a much-needed cruise vacation, Nora and her friend Tori spend their days downing endless umbrella cocktails and their nights rockin’ out to gnarly bands—mainly Vampire Weekend. The 24-hour buffet is constantly calling their names, but unfortunately, something answers the call—a giant squid with an appetite for cruise passengers. But Nora and Tori have other problems. Their status as BFFs is hanging on by bikini thread, and this vacay should have given them time to repair it. But no. Of course, an annoying monstrous creature from the depths of the dark ocean just had to rise up to the surface, feast on terrified humans, and ruin their girl bonding time. Thanks a lot, Captain Sucky. But maybe, this is the very crisis that will bring the two friends together, or maybe, the women will learn that a blood-sucking cephalopod is too great a foe, even against the power of friendship.
* Language (for non-English books):

WINTER HORROR SUBMISSION CALL

Missing your flight is scary. So is sleeping in your childhood bedroom with cousins you can’t remember. Are your old band posters talking to you, or is that the ghost of Chanukah’s past?

Please send us your horror, thriller, and suspense stories (1,000-7,000 words) about holiday travel. We are interested in publishing stories set around a variety of cultural holidays and traditions. 

Take us into the mind of a sinister flight attendant on Christmas Eve. Show us the monsters who stalked ancient Winter Solstice festival-goers. Place us in the middle of a serial killer’s game while on a seniors-only cruise. Give us psychological terror while frying latkes in Grandma’s kitchen. Dazzle us with bonfires and fireworks and arson on New Year’s Eve.

The details:

This call is open May 6, 2025 to June 6, 2025.

Submission Link

• We request submissions to be Google Docs or Word documents in Shunn modern manuscript format.

• Payment is tiered based on word count. 1000-3000 words=$20, >3000-5000 words=$30, >5000-7000 words=$40

• ROF Publishing House requests First North American Serial Rights and First Electronic and Digital Rights.

• We are not interested in stories that perpetuate stereotypes of gender, race, religion, nationality, ability, or sexuality or that minimize or glorify abuse, violence, or colonialism, including Zionism. ALL VOICES WELCOME!

• We are not interested in stories made with the help of AI.

• We plan to publish this anthology as an ebook and in paperback. 

• If you have questions or need to withdraw your story because another publisher has accepted it, please email editor@rofpublishinghouse.com.

Nathan Fielder: The True King of Horror

O.M.G

First, if you don’t know who Nathan Fielder is, he’s basically a much more awkward and, dare I say, messed up in the head comedian (I feel like he wouldn’t mind that description).

He has a show called The Rehearsal where he helps people prepare for a variety of moments in their lives by offering them, well, a rehearsal. In season one, he helped out trivia-obsessed New Yorker who wants to confess to his bar trivia team that he lied about having a master’s degree. But it isn’t as simple as that. He built a bar, identical to the man’s local one, hired actors to play his friends, and even stages a trivia night, all while Nathan lurks in the background, taking notes on a computer hanging comfortably from his neck.

But that’s a tame version.

In season two, currently available HBO or available to buy on Amazon (worth every penny), he has become a bit obsessed with the aviation field. In the latest episode, he decides to recreate the life of Sully Sullenberger by becoming Sully. Like, reallllllly becoming him. Like, from a baby and onward.

What unfolds is the real definition of horror. Unsettling. Disturbing. Something that will forever live in my mind.

Nathan doesn’t hold back just like so many in the horror genre dedicated to offering the unexpected and experimental. So, if you’re up for it, give it a watch and make your way to the Sully episode. You’ll never forget it.

Interview with Horror Author Chloe Spenser

1. Hello Chloe! Thanks so much for joining me! Let’s begin with an introduction. For those who don’t know you, can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Howdy! I’m an author, filmmaker, and game developer from Minnesota. I have two cats who are my absolute world, Kiwi and Coconut, and when I’m not writing, you can probably find me in front of my computer playing video games (probably The Sims.)

2. Your latest book CodeSkull is coming out July 2025 and will be published by Mad Axe Media. Congrats! Having read the book myself, I know it’s a killer YA sure to electrify readers, but how would you describe it? What can readers expect?

You can expect some serious stuff, but you can also expect to laugh! The three main characters play off each other really well, and they have some sweet moments together even as they’re trying to save their town from a terrifying, technological monster.

3. I’m going to go out on a limb and say your desire to write a book with a rouge video game villain has something to do with being a game developer 😊. Have you ever considered making CodeSkull into an actual game and when can we expect it to hit our computer screens (no pressure, but seriously, it’d be an INCREDIBLE game since the book is filled with amazing storyworld building!).

I would definitely say that my passion for making games influenced me to write this book. I haven’t considered making CodeSkull into a game yet, but that could be so fun! In all honesty, I’m working on an adult dating sim/survival horror RPG called FEVER. My computer broke about a year ago and I just recently got it replaced, so development’s been on hold for a while, but I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things. However, I have thought of a sequel to CodeSkull already. Let’s just say it involves ghosts, Gatorade, and leave it at that. 

4. Let’s shift to another one of your talents. Not only are you a writer of fiction books and a game developer, but you’re an award-winning filmmaker, which is so awesome, and it sounds like you’re really busy! Outside of your own books, what would be a dream book-to-movie adaptation you’d love to create and why?

Oh gosh, there are so many! I would love to work on an adaptation of Terry Moore’s graphic novel series Strangers in Paradise, but that would need to be a TV show, not a movie. I think Hailey Piper’s Benny Rose the Cannibal King could be such a fun adaptation, too.

5. Who is your favorite author and why?

I think everyone should be reading Tiffany D. Jackson. I don’t care which book you pick, anything of hers is a banger, and I can’t put it down once I start it. She is so masterful with prose. I remember doing a signing event, and I said, “I’ll read a metaphor in one of her books, and be thinking about it for days.” Just that metaphor. Just the way that she put it together. There are many amazing writers, but few writers whose sentence construction and word choice sticks with me long after I close the book, rather than the story … although if you read Allegedly, I mean, good luck not being sick to your stomach for days on end afterwards.

6. Okay, let’s move to some hard-hitting questions. Would you rather have spiders crawl from your mouth whenever you start to speak or have maggots come out of the shower whenever you’re trying to bathe? Why?

Chloe Spenser

I had to talk to my girlfriend about this one for advice because to be honest, it depends on the size of the spiders. If I think about it, I have long hair and I’m constantly pulling it away from my face or out of my mouth, so that’s kinda like having spiders in my mouth already, so I think I’d be okay with that. With maggots, I mean, their whole job is to burrow inside your body, right? I’m thinking about every single possible way they could get inside my body if they were coming out of a shower spigot, and I don’t like my chances.

7.     If you had to live in one of the following haunted houses, which would it be: the house on haunted hill or the house from the Conjuring? Why?

Honestly I’d pick the house from The Conjuring. Based on the movie-specific lore, Bathsheba the ghost tends to only haunt women with children. I have no children other than my cats, and cats tend to ward off paranormal influence well. Other people have stayed in the house, and aside from reporting some strange activity, they seem to have had a decent time. Even the Perron family has admitted that no spirit was violent, at worse they were “unpleasant” or “mean-spirited.” The house I grew up in had those sorts of hauntings, so that’s pretty on par for me.

8. Who would you consider the scariest horror villain of all time?

This is so basic, but I think it must be Pennywise. Pennywise is a truly heinous creature that preys upon children regardless of their age. Worse, he’s basically immortal and it’s difficult to kill him, and on top of that, he shape-shifts? He can be the physical manifestation of any one of my fears? Count me out, bro. Count me out. I’m clocking in and clocking out.

9. Thank you so much for joining me! Do you have any final thoughts? Where can readers find you online?

I can’t wait for y’all to read CodeSkull! You can get it from any major retailer, but please please PLEASE consider supporting your local indie bookstore! Go to Bookshop.org to find them. You can also get e-books there now, too.

It’s critical to support local, independent bookstores instead of major retailers because these are often the places that are going to host live events for authors or will order stock of our books that we can come in and sign for you. You can also preorder directly from Mad Axe Media’s website if you prefer and get some cool swag that way!

Aside from that, you can find me online @heyitschloespencer on Bluesky, Instagram, and TikTok. Right now, I’m hosting a fundraiser for the Animal Humane Society of Minnesota, so if you feel so inclined, please contribute!  And if not, follow me, because I might have some cool giveaways and prizes planned for those who donate.

The Head is IN the Basket

The1982 comedy horror movie BasketCase is 1h 31m of pure gold! This is the best “head in a basket” movie ever!

Okay, so the premise pretty straight forward: “A young man carrying a big basket that contains his extremely deformed, formerly conjoined twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will.”

I mean, pretty believable, right?

Honestly, there isn’t much more to even say about it. It’s a great Friday night movie when you want to unwind from a long week and just escape into the world of 80’s bonkers horror! Enjoy! And you’re welcome!

The Problem with Invisible Velociraptors

First, there isn’t. A movie based on an invisible dino, specifically a velociraptor, is flawless.

Second, just for the sake of argument, let’s dive into this super realistic idea. I introduce to you one of the very best films of all time:

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Third: Yes, that is the dude from Lord of the Rings.

Okay, so here is the premise:

“An invisible raptor goes on a killing spree after a top-secret experiment goes wrong. Now, it's up to a disgraced paleontologist, his ex-girlfriend, a security guard and a chicken farmer to save their small town from the creature's ravenous rampage.”

The acting is exactly how you would expect in a movie like this, and I feel like there were other was to capture this dino with more efficiency . . . what in the hell am I talking about? It’s an invisible dino movie! Perfection!

Recently, I’ve been getting into watching ridiculous movies. I highly recommend as a form of escapism, and this one really scratches that itch. Oh, and here is the amazing trailer. Enjoy!

Support Black Authors

Here are some incredible Black books ranging from horror, magical realism, poetry, and so much more! Diversify your TBR!