Are zombies coming back?

For me personally, they never left. Zombies in media have definitely played a huge factor in my horror journey. Train to Busan, Resident Evil, The Walking Dead, and more are all media that I've loved.

In honor of the release of This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers, I wanted to dive deeper into a few zombie novels that I have either loved or are high on my tbr.

This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers-(currently reading)-Pitched as The Breakfast Club meets 28 Days Later, the book follows a group of teens that barricade themselves in a highschool during the zombie apocalypse. Warning, this one does dive into some heavy themes such as abuse and thoughts of suicide.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey (read)--This one follows a world plagued by a fungal zombie apocalypse. It involves a teacher, a young girl, and the military in a journey for a cure.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (read)--In an alternate history, black girls are forced to attend a school to become "attendants" who protect white society from the undead. This book tackles racism and classicism.

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford (tbr)--This one is a post apocalyptic novel that follows a scientist who hides her undead husband in hopes for a cure.

And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin (read)--Not a typical zombie novel. This is an apocalyptic novel that focuses on a hallucinatory virus that leads you to see everyone around you as monsters.

Zone One by Colson Whitehead (tbr)--This one follows a group of people clearing out underground manhattan of zombies and rebuilding civilization.

World War Z by Max Brooks (tbr)--A history of the zombie apocalypse told as a post war historical document.

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay (tbr)--A tense novel following a rabies-like virus. It focuses on a pediatrician who races to help her friend who is eight months pregnant and has been bitten by an infected. She must get the vaccine quick if she wants to save both her self and her unborn baby.

Agnes At The End Of The World by Kelly McWilliams (read)-- A young girl escapes a fundamentalist cult only to get throw into a pandemic in the outside world.

What’s your favorite zombie novel/movie?

Anyone else claustrophobic? Did the Descent give you nightmares? Yeah…me too.

Caves terrify me. It’s super easy to get lost in them. Not to mention that people will go into narrow tunnels (that CAN COLLAPSE ON YOU) to get to other areas of the cave. Some of these tunnels can only be accessed by going under water.

See…that’s a whole lotta nope for me.

The below novels are either on my tbr or I have read (I’ll specify beside each one). They all center on or feature a cave at some point.

Please let me know if I’ve missed your favorite! I’m always looking for more cave horror.

The Anomaly by Michael Rutger (tbr)

The Sleeping Land by Ella Alexander (tbr)

The Maw by Taylor Zajonc (tbr)

Into The Sublime by Kate A Boorman (read)

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (read)

The Enigma of Amigara Fault (featured in Gyo) by Junji Ito (read)

Ararat by Christopher Golden (tbr)

The Reddening by Adam Nevill (tbr)

The Long Low Whistle by Laurel Hightower (read)

It’s time for another DIRECTOR’S CUT REVIEW. Today I’m talking about The Caretaker!

Book: The Caretaker

Author: Marcus Kliewer

Page Count: 320

Genre: Horror

Subgenre: Grief, Rituals, Anomalies, End of the world

Series: No

Setting: Michigan

Other Works by This Author: We Used To Live Here

Comps: Observation Duty (game) meets Lock Every Door

My Rating: ✨✨✨✨✨

Release Date: 4/21/26

Quick Summary: A woman strapped for money takes a house sitting job that promises to pay well. However, the duties she must perform have a lot riding on them. If she does not follow the rites correctly, something sinister may be unleashed.

My Thoughts: Kliewer does it again 🙌🏻 This author truly knows how suck a reader in and get them to stay until the very last page. The tension in this book had me on the edge of my seat. There were so many scenes where I wanted to jump in and make Macy focus on the task at hand.

Speaking of Macy, let’s talk about her character. She’s had a hard time ever since her dad’s accident. She’s been taking care of her sister who has some issues but is a good kid overall. I really liked Macy. Don’t get me wrong, she drove me crazy sometimes. Like I needed her to finish the darn rites. But she had a very strong voice and I loved how much she cared for her sister.

Just like We Used To Live Here, this book delivers on scares. There were several scenes that had me spooked. You can’t trust anyone in this book. I loved that this book reminded me of Observation Duty. It actually has a similar premise to a short story I’m writing for an anthology this year, and was a great inspiration! My story will also focus on a woman getting trapped in a dangerous job while caring for a loved one. But that’s where the similarities will end!

If this one was not on your radar I highly recommend adding it! It relaxes 4/21/26. You all get an early access to my thoughts on this book! My goodreads and insta thoughts will come closer to the pub date per request of the publisher!

I kicked off this year reading the fantastic Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature edited by Becky Siegel Spratford.

You can find my review HERE, but I wanted to take this space to dive a little further on my own personal Horror journey.

I'm often asked "What's the scariest book you've ever read?" And this is a very valid question. But it's also a loaded question as well, because what is scary to me may not be scary to you. This is because horror is subjective.

What scares me? I think what gets under my skin the most is bleak horror. When there's no hope. One book that does this well is The Ruins by Scott Smith. It's a survival horror about four friends that take a vacation to Mexico and wind up getting stuck in some ancient ruins. One by one the characters are picked off, with hope dwindling with each life lost. While the characters annoyed me in this book, the hopelessness really got to me.

Where did my love for Horror start? Let's take a journey into the past. As stated in my Instagram post, watching my dad play Resident Evil One really stuck with me as a kid. The scene with the giant snake truly traumatized little me. Looking back on it now, it makes me laugh. Everything was so cringy. The graphics weren't great and the dialogue was corny. But its a classic for a reason and I still love it dearly. "You were almost a Jill Sandwich!"

Another instance was when I was flipping through the channels, looking for something to watch. Stephen King's IT was on television. My young, innocent mind believed that someone would truly make a movie involving kids playing Tag Your It...So you best believe I was in shock when I see a clown holding balloons, inviting children to float. Then blood spewing out of the sink all over Beverly's bathroom. You best believe I hit the guide button on that TV remote and figured out that it was rated R. I ran to my room in terror as my mom laughed at me. And yes Child's Play did the same thing to me too. Who knew a movie involving a doll was actually a slasher in disguise.

So what made me stop being such a scaredy cat? Honestly, I think playing Resident Evil 4 made me start appreciating horror more. I slowly started building myself up, until I could handle movies like Sinister (WHICH PHEW terrified me a lot). Final Destination also terrified me. To think that near death experiences had become a death sentence had me on the edge of my seat. And death definitely gets creative when taking back what it's owed.

I love chasing that rush I feel when watching something scary. I love looking in the background for something subtly creepy (i.e. Haunting of Hill House ghosts in the background). I feeling my heart race as I wait for the jump-scare to pop up on the screen, or the fake out to cue the scare when I least expect it.

So what books got me into reading horror?

Well of course Stephen King kick started me. Now you may think I'm going to mention The Shining. While that is a FANTASTIC book of his and an all time favorite, Misery was one of my first and favorite works.

When I joined bookstagram, my world was opened to all kinds of horror novels. I never knew so many horror books/authors existed.

Some of the wonderful books I've discovered and will forever recommend are as follows:

Come Closer by Sara Gran

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Below by Laurel Hightower

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Mary by Nat Cassidy

Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven

Bat Eater and Other Names by Cora Zeng

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Slewfoot by Brom

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

Eynhallow by Tim McGregor

...and so many more books!

I love that Horror has a little bit of something for everyone.

Love Romance? How about a gothic horror with a dash of romance on the side?

Love Thrillers? So many horror books toe the line of thrillers.

Love History? There are so many historical horrors out there to try out.

Your favorite genre has a place in horror. There is a horror book out there for everyone! Want a rec to get you kickstarted? As for a rec on my profile page.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk lol.

It time for another book club pick! How did everyone like Root Rot?

So you want to dive into some horror graphic novels but you don't know where to start? Or you've read some graphic novels and are looking for some more to sink your teeth into? Well here are some that I've personally read and love. And I've thrown in a few that are on my tbr as well.

1. Bad Dreams in the Night--this one takes urban legends and turns them into fun, fresh, beautifully drawn stories.

2. Uzumaki--I started with this Junji Ito manga and it completely sucked me in. This was my first every graphic novel and I will never not recommended it!

3. Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees--Think Dexter meets animal crossing. This one is so much fun!

4. The Me You Love In The Dark--A struggling artist rents a haunted house for inspiration...

5. Wytches--A family starts fresh in a new town to get away from the tragedy haunting their daughter. But the wytches are coming...

TBR

Beautiful Darkness--dark fairytale

Saint Catherine--religious horror/possession

Wait Til Helen Comes--sisterhood and creepy ghosts

The Pit--Fresh start, folklore, rural setting

The Autumnal-Small town, fall focused, folk

Fruiting Bodies--Trip gone wrong, nature

Double Walker-- Trip gone wrong, Murder

Nocturnos--a collection of stories set at night

What are some of your favorite graphic novels?

Welcome back to a Director’s Cut Review. Today’s book

under the knife is A Veritable Household Pet by Viggy Parr Hampton.

Title: A Veritable Household Pet

Author: Viggy Parr Hampton

Page Count: 336

Genre: Horror

Subgenre: Domestic, Medical

Themes/Tropes: Lobotomies, Sisterhood, Loss of autonomy, Mental health, medical abuse

Series? No but also 😉

Setting: 1960s/70s

Other Works by this author: A Cold Night for Alligators, Much Too Vulgar, The Rotting Room

Let's talk about this book. As always, I'll do my best to keep this review spoiler free for you all.

The book follows two sisters as they recall their tragic upbringing. Darla developed emetophobia--the fear of vomiting-- at a young age. By age eleven her parents were unable to handle her any more, so her father decided a lobotomy was the next step. This set off the chain of horrible events that follow in the book. Darla nearly died after the lobotomy--which at this point in time were nearly unheard of being practiced by medical professionals anymore. Her sister, Ellie, wound up having to care for Darla often due to the lack of effort her parents applied to the "new" Darla.

The story is told in alternating Povs. Decades later, Darla has asked Ellie to transcribe her life. After the lobotomy, Darla was never able to write again. She wanted a record of what she could remember. Ellie adds in her own thoughts and memories as she transcribes Darla's words.

This story is beautiful yet tragic. The feeling I got while reading this book reminded me of Tiffany McDaniel's The Savage Side. This book is brutal. It doesn't shy away from tragedy.

I can see some people not wanting to label this as horror. But to that I say this: Horror is subjective. We all perceive things differently. What scares me may not scare you. This book focuses on "real" horror. People had lobotomies done against their will. Many were never the same after the procedure. This book shows the tragedy of this horrible procedure that was once labeled a cure for neurosis. I'm a firm believer in the scariest kind of horror is the kind that happens everyday.

In this book we see parental negligence. We see medical professionals abuse their power. We see a young girl lose her autonomy. We see a girl have to make sacrifices and help raise her sister--a job her parents should be doing.

I'll drop a few content warnings here: Rape, Murder, Suicide.

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

Be sure to check it out when it releases on 1.28.26.

You can preorder the book down below. Be sure to check out more of Hampton's work! She is a fantastic writer.