Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
Out today from author Amanda M. Blake and Crystal Lake Publishing, In the Dollhouse We All Wait
Sam Frain thinks she’s found the perfect escape: a live-in nanny position in a sprawling mansion owned by one of the wealthiest families in the country.
The job seems simple: Take care of Annie Lange.
Annie may look like a grown woman, but she lives inside a world built for a little girl—frilly dresses, scripted games, rigid rules, and what seems like every doll in the world.
As Sam learns the true nature of Annie’s games, she’s forced into a waking nightmare of psychological domination, grotesque excess, and carefully curated cruelty. In this gilded cage where money erases morality, survival means choosing whether to resist—or become part of the performance. Available today in eBook and paperback formats, you can grab your copy here.
Arriving 7 July from writer Jeff Strand and Death’s Head Press, Fun Times at the Bloodbath
Fun Times at the Bloodbath may be the most insanely violent video game ever designed. Currently only a select few have been able to play the beta test version, and they’re addicted. Addicted to the point where one man dies of dehydration rather than stopping playing long enough to simply walk into the kitchen for a bottle of water. A husband discovers that his wife is calling in sick to work and spending all day playing the game. When he finally gets completely fed up and unplugs the console, she goes berserk, killing him with a meat cleaver.
Margo, whose brother died from his addiction, tries to learn more about the makers of the game, yet it’s all a sinister secret. She tries to warn the public about what happened, but there’s no law preventing a company from selling a video game that’s just so much fun you can’t stop playing! She’s terrified about what might happen when the game goes from beta testing to a real game, available everywhere. And she’s right to be scared. Because when Fun Times at the Bloodbath goes nationwide, the effect is the same on anybody who plays it. They don’t want to stop. They don’t care about anything else. And if you try to intervene, the violence goes from the video game screen to real life. It becomes a large-scale tale of survival horror, with a hundred thousand players brutally defending their right to keep playing the game for as long as they want. The United States has gone completely insane, and the rest of the world is next. As the carnage spreads, Margo, joined by other family members of players who were similarly affected, tries to infiltrate the company and shut the game down before the entire nation succumbs to the bloodbath. Available for pre-order now in paperback, with other editions arriving soon, you can guarantee your copy here.
Coming 4 August from author Adam Tierney, Illustrator Saspy and IDW Publishing, 13 Demons Dead
Fourteen-year-old Everly “Ev” Espada is walking home one night when she spots her favorite teacher, Father Serrano, suspended in midair, choking and being ripped apart by something she can’t see. Acting on pure instinct, Ev swings a nearby pipe and shatters the illusion, exposing a monstrous demon in the middle of her school. With one lucky shot, the creature is dead. And so is Ev’s normal life.
By killing one of Earth’s Thirteen Hidden Demons, Ev has unknowingly triggered an ancient covenant. She’s been marked as the latest demon hunter, and the remaining twelve demons are already coming for her. The rules are simple and merciless: slay all thirteen within one year… or they will return more powerful, more vicious, and utterly unstoppable. Available for pre-order now in eBook and paperback, you can guarantee your copy here.
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KEV HARRISON
