(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is an occasional feature where I review horror short stories.) A cursed swing links a young girl to a supernatural entity that leads to traumatic revelations in a tale of domestic horror titled ‘Playing in the Dark” by John Durgin. Oddly enough, my previous Short Shots review was another domestic horror... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: Since 2024, Cryptid Quarterly is a feature where I highlight cryptid horror fiction from each quarter of the year, using Amazon Kindle release dates.) After a strong first quarter of cryptid horror fiction releases in 2026, the second quarter only gets better. Cryptid Quarterly X is dominated by familiar names from previous charts,... Continue Reading →
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones won Best Novel at the 2026 Splatterpunk Awards presented at KillerCon in Austin, Texas, on November 7. It was the first Splatterpunk Award nomination and win for Jones. In June, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel. Jones was... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is an occasional feature where I review horror short stories.) A woman flees with her young daughter from an abusive husband and ends up at a roadside diner somewhere in Montana. However, the paranoid fear of the husband finding her and taking their daughter may not be the worst danger she... Continue Reading →
SPOILER ALERT! “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” a short story about a mysterious cannabis cultivator, won the 2026 Alien Buddha Horror Showdown. The win gives author N.J. Gallegos the high of being the competition’s first back-to-back and first three-time winner. Gallegos won in 2025 for her zombie pandemic tale “The Call Shift” and again in 2022... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: Since 2024, Cryptid Quarterly is a feature where I highlight cryptid horror fiction from each quarter of the year, using Amazon Kindle release dates.) 2026 started strong for readers of cryptid horror fiction, and I think my first Cryptid Quarterly Top 20 chart proves it. The fact that I’m compiling a Top 20... Continue Reading →
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker won the Novel category at the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards presented on July 11, 2026, at Readercon 35 in Burlington, Massachusetts. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, the critically acclaimed horror mystery is about a Chinese American crime scene cleaner who witnesses the murder of... Continue Reading →
The June 6 ceremony for the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards is finished, and the next major event for horror fiction is July 11 when the 2025 Shirley Jackson Awards are presented. The anthology Silk & Sinew won the 2025 Bram Stoker Award and is nominated for a 2025 Shirley Jackson Award. The Shirley Jackson Awards... Continue Reading →
Stephen Graham Jones won Superior Achievement in a Novel for the third time in five years as the American Indian revenge story The Buffalo Hunter Hunter earned the top honor during the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards at StokerCon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 6, 2026. Presented by the Horror Writers Association, the 2025 Bram Stoker... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: The 2025 Cryptid Quarterly Awards are based on the Cryptid Quarterly Top 10 lists compiled by lionelraygreen.com in 2025. Today’s list features the Top 10 Books of the Year. Click here to check out the 2025 Top 10 Authors of the Year released May 13.) I released the 2025 Cryptid Quarterly Authors of the Year on... Continue Reading →
