Contents

That Ghoul Ava by TW Brown
Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke
The Colony: Genesis by Michaelbrent Collings
Chronicler of the Undead by Mainak Dhar
Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman
Chasing Spirits by Glynn James
The Home by Scott Nicholson
Preta’s Realm: The Haunting (The Hidden Evil Trilogy, #1) by J. Thorn

It might be madness to believe there’s a monster in your cellar, but Henry is pretty sure denying what just happened to him would be an even worse kind of madness. The kind that ends with someone living in a padded room

When Henry was a child, something terrible happened in the woods behind his home, something so shocking he could only express his grief by drawing pictures of what he had witnessed. Eventually Henry’s mind blocked out the bad memories, but he continued to draw, often at night by the light of the moon.

Twenty years later, Henry makes his living by painting his disturbing works of art. He loves his wife and his son and life couldn’t be better… except there’s something not quite right about the old stone farmhouse his family now calls home. There’s something strange living in the cramped cellar, in the maze of pipes that feed the ancient steam boiler.

A winter storm is brewing and soon Henry will learn the true nature of the monster waiting for him down in the darkness. He will battle this demon and, in the process, he may discover what really happened when he was a child and why, in times of trouble, he thinks: I paint against the darkness.

But will Henry learn the truth in time to avoid the terrible fate awaiting him… or will the thing in the cellar get him and his family first?

Written as both a meditation on the art of creation and as an examination of the secret fears we all share, The Painted Darkness is a terrifying look at the true cost we pay when we run from our grief–and what happens when we’re finally forced to confront the monsters we know all too well. 

“The tone and building dread reminds me of classic Stephen King. Great velocity and impact and super creepy.”

Stewart O’Nan

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I liked how the horror element built up – fragment by fragment – in a place where ice and snow are clear indicators of solitude. We have a claustrophobic feeling accentuated by the lack of people, dark houses, a loud boiler and a beast released into the wild. In stark contrast to the lack of escape options of the Adult Henry, young Henry has the world at his young feet. He’s out in the yard, out in the back, exploring the woods, the river, the tree houses.

One thing bind the two (other than blood) – their vivid imagination. Young Henry could conjure up soldiers and cops and thieves as he was stuck mostly playing by himself as both of his parents went to work. Adult Henry was married and had a child but his wife decided to leave him for a bit as he spent most of his time either fixing the old boiler – the fat bear – or painting in the attic a series of gruesome pictures that only a few select collectors enjoyed.

The ancient dungeon has rough stone walls damp with blood and there are dead rats scattered across the brown dirt floor. Hidden in the darkness are red glowing eyes, hundreds of them. But the focus is the princess in her tattered gown. She stands between a lumbering monster and a small child, and she has raised the sword, as if preparing to charge the hideous beast.

He seems to be painting now a series – an ever approaching monster with a princess being the only one to save the child. Is this his own repressed memory or is it truly something supernatural happening with him?

The book is gorgeously written, filled with great comparisons and metaphors – things don’t just come in, they “slither” into presence. The growls are sharp and fierce. The repetitions make the horror real.

 The fierce sounds grow louder and louder, closer and closer.

Even his “memories” have that oppressive feeling when something is watching you and wishing you ill.

They were flapping their wings incessantly and cawing shrilly. He could feel their beady eyes tracking him as he in turn tracked the rabbits, which were following deer trails deeper into the darkest, thickest part of the woods.