Tag: Horror

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My 5 favorite books of 2025: Fierce, compelling, and unapologetically feminist

Mandy Webster

This year has been a phenomenal one for reading. I’ve devoured dozens of new releases, and after much deliberation, I’ve narrowed down my favorites to five books that I think are particularly telling of the age we live in. Each of these novels features women at the center of the story—some brilliant, some flawed, some delightfully deranged—and together, they paint a vivid picture of modern womanhood. These are all books I have actually read this year, reviewed, and vetted as an experienced author and book reviewer. There are undoubtedly other incredible 2025 releases I haven’t yet encountered, but these five stand out for me.

Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan

Givhan’s novel is a dark, seductive thriller that stays with you long after the final page. I loved how she navigates grief, trauma, and memory with a sharp psychological lens. The female protagonist is both vulnerable and fierce, and there’s a subtle feminist undercurrent that interrogates how women navigate power and vulnerability in a patriarchal world.

Read now!

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Call for Submissions

Call for Submissions: Mother Monster/Father Fiend

Mandy Webster

Elderfly Press is now accepting submissions for Mother Monster/Father Fiend, a new anthology exploring the shadowed edges of parenthood. We’re looking for short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and black-and-white artwork that reveal the monstrous, misunderstood, or mythic aspects of motherhood and fatherhood.

This anthology invites you to challenge the cultural scripts of what a “good” parent looks like. Sometimes the monster is real—a parent whose choices hurt, haunt, or unravel the lives of those in their care. Other times, the monster is only a mask placed by society:

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Gothic horror and generational curses collide in House of Monstrous Women by Daphne Fama

Mandy Webster

Daphne Fama’s House of Monstrous Women is a lush and terrifying gothic horror novel set in 1986 Philippines, where revolution outside mirrors the quiet rebellion unfolding within a house that may as well be alive. Set against the backdrop of the People Power Revolution, this novel layers political upheaval with supernatural dread in a way that feels both intimate and epic.

Get your copy of House of Monstrous Women from my independent online bookstore today!

Radios hum with news from Manila as protests rise and a dictator’s hold begins to crumble—but inside the labyrinthine Ranoco home, another kind of battle is taking place. The connection between the two is unmistakable: both are revolutions built on desperation and the dream of escape. The hopelessness that Alejandro feels about the People Power movement echoes Hiraya’s belief that she can never escape the legacy of her cursed family.

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Writers on Writing

Creepy characters we love to hate (and secretly can’t)

Mandy Webster

There’s something fascinating about a character who creeps you out, makes you uneasy, or shocks you with their actions—but somehow, you can’t bring yourself to hate them completely. These are the villains and morally gray characters who blur the line between right and wrong, forcing readers to wrestle with their own sense of judgment. They unsettle us, intrigue us, and make our hearts race, which is why they are perfect companions for October reading.

Sure, she’s pretty. But there’s also something uncanny about her. Do you trust her?

In thrillers and suspense novels, some characters are written to be frighteningly clever, ruthless, or unpredictable, yet their motivations or circumstances make their actions feel, at least in part, understandable. In How to Kill Men and Get Away with It by Katy Brent, the protagonist’s cunning and dark choices are chilling, but her perspective invites empathy and even admiration for her ingenuity. Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen and This Girl’s a Killer by Emma C. Wells present characters whose morally questionable or violent actions are layered with complexity—making you uneasy, yet unable to fully condemn them.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Blood, sisterhood, and sanity: Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen #spooktober

Mandy Webster

If you’re looking for a haunting, atmospheric read to carry you through the end of #spooktober, Johanna van Veen’s Blood on Her Tongue offers the perfect blend of gothic unease and creeping dread. Set in the Netherlands in 1887, this novel follows Lucy, whose twin sister Sarah has fallen into a disturbing illness that blurs the line between madness and possession. As Sarah’s behavior becomes more erratic—and more violent—Lucy must decide how far she’ll go to protect her sister, even as something monstrous seems to take hold of her.

Get your copy of Blood on Her Tongue from my independent online bookstore today!

The story unfolds in shadow and candlelight, in grand halls filled with whispers and secrets. Van Veen’s prose feels appropriately decadent and claustrophobic, wrapping the reader in the same feverish confusion that grips Lucy. The decaying corpse unearthed on Sarah’s husband’s estate provides more than a physical mystery—it becomes a mirror for the moral rot beneath the surface of polite society, particularly the suffocating gender expectations that hem Lucy and Sarah in.

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Call for Submissions

Call for Submissions: Be My Weird/Wyrd Valentine

Mandy Webster

Love has always had a dark side—and we want to see yours. Elderfly Press is now accepting submissions for Be My Weird/Wyrd Valentine (working title), an anthology exploring the uncanny, unsettling, and sometimes downright horrifying side of romantic relationships.

We’re looking for stories, poems, essays, and black-and-white art that dive into the strange corners of love and desire—where passion turns perilous, intimacy hums with unease, and devotion blurs the line between beauty and terror. Whether it’s romance that defies reality, affection tinged with dread, or longing that transforms into something unrecognizable, we want work that lingers in the mind and twists the heart. Let the strange, the eerie, and the passionate collide—show us the love that frightens, bewilders, and enthralls.

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Call for Submissions

Now accepting book-length submissions

Mandy Webster

At Elderfly Press, we are committed to publishing bold, literary works that unsettle, provoke, and linger long after the final page. We seek book-length fiction and creative nonfiction that confronts the hidden violence of the world—psychological, social, or supernatural—and gives voice to stories that challenge the patriarchal status quo.

We are especially drawn to:

  • Literary thrillers and suspense novels with a sharp edge.
  • Horror fiction that unsettles through atmosphere, voice, or psychological depth.
  • Creative nonfiction—including memoirs—that could be read with the intensity of a thriller or horror novel.
  • Works that expose the dark underbelly of the patriarchy, pulling back the veil on power, violence, and survival.
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Writers on Writing

The psychology of fear in literature and why we can’t look away #spooktober

Mandy Webster

There’s something irresistible about a story that makes our hearts race and our palms sweat, even when we know we’re perfectly safe on our couch. Fear in literature taps into a deep part of our psyche, and understanding why we seek it out can make us appreciate the stories that haunt us even more.

Why do we love to read spooky stories, especially in October?

Fear works in books because it connects to emotions we experience in real life: anxiety, uncertainty, and the unknown. When we read a thriller like Her One Regret by Donna Freitas, we feel the suspense of a character navigating danger and deception, our brains mirroring their tension as if it were our own. Horror, on the other hand, like Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan or Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce, introduces us to scenarios that feel uncanny or impossible. Our minds grapple with the unknown, the supernatural, and the morally unsettling, creating a lingering sense of dread.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Pam Kowalski is a Monster! by Sarah Langan — When memory lies and the world unravels

Mandy Webster

There’s something deliciously unsettling about realizing your memories might be wrong. Sarah Langan’s Pam Kowolski Is a Monster! turns that unease into a full-blown psychological and supernatural meltdown. This novella barrels through themes of memory, trauma, and rivalry with the manic energy of an apocalypse that might already be happening — or might only be in the mind of its unraveling narrator.

Get your copy of Pam Kowolski is a Monster! from my independent online bookstore today!

Janet Chow’s life didn’t exactly pan out the way her classmates might have predicted back at Sewanhaka High. Once destined for greatness, she’s now middle-aged, adrift, and licking the wounds of a career in journalism that has long since crashed and burned. Then she spots her old nemesis — Pam Kowolski, the girl she used to despise — who has somehow transformed into “Madame Pamela,” America’s psychic sweetheart and doomsday influencer. Pam is rich, beautiful, and adored, while Janet is invisible. Convinced that Pam’s fame is built on lies, Janet sets out to expose her as a fraud. But digging into Pam’s past also means unearthing the pieces of her own history that she’s conveniently buried — and the deeper she digs, the more she starts to question what’s real, what’s remembered, and what’s imagined.

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Writers on Writing

The key difference between horror and thriller books that most readers miss

Mandy Webster

The line between horror and thriller fiction is thinner than most readers think. Both keep you turning pages late into the night, heart pounding and mind racing—but they do it for very different reasons. Understanding what separates them reveals not only why we read them, but why they haunt us in different ways.

Sometimes it’s hard to find the line between a thriller novel and a horror novel.

A thriller’s purpose is to thrill, to make readers feel a rush of danger and urgency. It’s about tension, pace, and cleverness—the satisfaction of watching a hero outthink or outrun the forces closing in. The threat is usually external and grounded in reality: a killer, a kidnapper, a conspiracy, or a psychological cat-and-mouse game. The pleasure comes from seeing order restored, justice served, or a mystery solved, even if the cost is high. Books like Keep This for Me by Jennifer Fawcett or Hannah Richell’s One Dark Night are perfect examples of thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat, weaving suspense with high-stakes personal drama.

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