Tag: Spooktober Reads

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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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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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Ordinary Bruja by J.E. Ortega shows us the histories we’ve been taught to forget

Mandy Webster

What do we inherit from the generations before us—magic, shame, resilience, silence? In J.E. Ortega’s novel The Ordinary Bruja (coming November 4, 2025), Marisol Espinal returns to her hometown of Willowshade, Ohio, after her mother’s death and finds herself face-to-face with the family secrets she’s been running from. The story unfolds with an atmosphere of both dread and wonder, as Marisol confronts not only the haunting presence of Hallowthorn Hill but also the pieces of her own identity she’s been taught to bury.

Get your copy of The Ordinary Bruja from my independent online bookstore today!

The novel is steeped in Dominican folklore and written with a lyricism that brings the supernatural to life. The hill itself becomes a character—watching, waiting, whispering—and what it wants is Marisol’s surrender to fear. But Ortega makes clear that the greater threat isn’t the folklore itself, but the way Marisol has been taught to erase herself: her culture, her curls, her curves, her magic. The suspense is as much psychological as it is spectral, and the real horror comes from how shame and generational trauma can consume us if we let them.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Night Watcher brings Halloween horror vibes to a storm-soaked thriller

Mandy Webster

Sometimes a thriller doesn’t just keep you on edge—it crawls under your skin and lingers like a nightmare. That’s exactly what Daphne Woolsoncroft achieves in Night Watcher, a dark, atmospheric suspense novel set in Portland, Oregon, where the rain never stops and neither does the fear.

Get your copy of Night Watcher from my independent online bookstore today!

Nola Strate has spent her adulthood trying to outrun the shadows of her past. As a child, she narrowly escaped a notorious Pacific Northwest serial killer known as the Hiding Man. Now she’s a late-night radio host, fielding calls about hauntings and strange sightings on the show her father once made famous. It’s the perfect job for someone who wants to talk about fear without facing it directly.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce is a haunting #spooktober thriller that cuts deep

Mandy Webster

Daisy Pearce’s Something in the Walls is the kind of book that makes you glance over your shoulder while reading. Equal parts folklore horror and psychological suspense, it delivers a chilling blend of witchcraft, mob mentality, and small-town secrets that feel both timeless and terrifying. If you’re looking for a gripping #Spooktober read, this one absolutely delivers.

Get your copy of Something in the Walls from my independent online bookstore today!

The story follows Mina, a young psychologist still finding her footing, who takes on the case of Alice Webber, a troubled thirteen-year-old girl in the remote village of Banathel. Alice insists she’s haunted by a witch, and her symptoms grow more alarming as the days pass. Mina, desperate to prove herself and help the girl, joins forces with journalist Sam Hunter. But Banathel is a place steeped in superstition, and the villagers have their own brutal methods of “dealing with” witches. The deeper Mina digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes—especially as echoes of her own past begin to surface.

Continue reading “Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce is a haunting #spooktober thriller that cuts deep” →