Discontinue if Death Ensues: Tales from the Tipping Point (Beyond and Within)
Edited by Carol Gyzander and Anna Taborska
Flame Tree Publishing, 2024
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy

There is a great quote at the beginning of the book in the “About the Title” section which summarizes the entirety of this book as a whole: Scientists was of a possible domino effect of climate tipping points… leading to a global tipping point… But what if —and we are now entering the realm of the speculative—what if this is somehow linked to another tipping point at which the female body can no longer passively withstand all the violence and atrocity that has been unleashed upon it since time immemorial?

This quote describes perfectly the stories you will find by all the strong female writers in this book. Yes, some of the stories are very sad and will make you very angry, but some of them also offer seeds of hope too. It’s a beautiful tapestry that has been woven, a wonderful piece of art that moved me so deeply, I had to take a few months off from reading it and come back to it again. That’s how powerful the voices are in this book. I’ve never had to put down a book and take a break from it before. Ever. But this one spoke to my soul as a woman. It made me cry, it made me laugh, and it gave me hope that someday things out there could be better for us.

Not only is the writing beautiful, but the book itself is beautiful. The cover design is eye-catching and the pattern continues out to the edges of the book in the same color. It’s a hardcover and it’s not only glued, but stitched, so you know it’s a good quality book, but it also has ribbon bookmarkers which I always geek out over because they’re so pretty!

Now on to my favorite stories. Well, for this book I can’t say I have one. Each one touched my heart in a special way. The writers found a way to connect with me intimately like the stories were written just for me and nobody else. I also felt they were speaking with a sense of urgency and call to duty to all women to ponder more about what it means to be a woman in today’s world and what we have lost and have to gain. I hope when you read it you find it as creative, inspiring, and thought-provoking as I did. It is a beautiful and necessary piece of art.

Cemetery Tacos and Other Delights

Nora B. Peevy’s debut collection, Cemetery Tacos and Other Delights, besides having a wonderful title, is a pretty impressive volume for a first book. I have watched Nora develop as a writer over the years, and I think I can say that she has definitely arrived. Brava!

There are 14 stories, and here’s what you get:

“Knock, Knock” – The tragedy of abuse, the deaths of family members, and a unique, if stalwart, childhood friend. Beware of the knock at the door.

“The Telling Place” – An odd woman uses a horrific version of hypnosis for behavior modification in children. I liked this story very much.

“A Taste of Murder” – Persephone as a vigilante. An interesting take.

“My Little Red Wagon” – A 10-year-old discovers a Radio Flyer wagon in his new house that carries a grisly history and an eerie passenger. This story had a great build-up, but ended too abruptly. More could have been written—it was off to a wonderful start.

“Carnivorous Cows from Outer Space” – Our cows are actually aliens from another planet plotting to take over the world for cowkind everywhere. A cute story, and a funny take on cows not being as stupid as humans think they are.

“What Happened in the Country” – Be careful about cutting down old-growth oak trees if you’re new in this town…there are consequences.

“Silence Has a Color” – An inmate at an asylum is haunted by an old friend.

“The Witch of Fox Point” – Be careful when playing with spells. You may call something forth that you can’t put back…and it may be hungry…very hungry…  I enjoyed this one.

“How Romeo and Mori Saved the World” – The Intergalactic Federation of Traveling Librarians sends Romeo and Mori, two rather unusual members, to save the world from the destruction of soul-nourishing stories. I really liked this one.

“Bury Him by the River” – There are no monsters worse than intolerant human beings, but the Appalachian royalty will be avenged. This was my favorite story in the book. Wonderful.

“Murder Hornet Man Saves Milwaukee” – A frightening story, not of the potential killer, but the turnabout perpetrated by the targeted victim. Another favorite.

“Down to the Water’s Edge” – A story about a lesbian couple and the injustice and hatred they suffer.

“Chasing Rabbits” – A heartbreaking story of parental guilt. Very good.

“Cemetery Tacos on Wednesday” – The story of Mothgirl, with premonitions, death, and “Amazing Grace” as seen from the point of view of an alien to our planet. This one was terrific too.

And there you have it. And you should have it. I urge you to pick up a copy of this fine debut for yourself and some extra copies for those on your Christmas list who love a well-written, kitschy horror collection. It’s such fun!

5 out of 5 stars.

Nightmares at the Asylum
Andy Holberry and D.L. Garvin
Independently published (November 5, 2025)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy

Nightmares at the Asylum is a quiet horror read where the reader is taken on a tour of the asylum, but there’s a twist, one of the people taking you on the tour is not who they claim to be and at the end of the book you learn the chilling truth about the individual. The characters are all very relatable to the reader. There is some gore, so be prepared for that. The characters are fascinating and their stories will sweep you away before you know it. As you go through the asylum, it is easy to switch places with them and picture yourself in their place.

Andy Holberry and D.L. Garvin use subtle storytelling techniques effectively, but they know when to use the gory elements. I really felt like I was the one on the tour visiting each patient and learning their story. Their writing style is clean, which moves the plot along well. If you’re looking for a fun horror anthology, pick this one up. Go on a trip to the asylum and see what you can scare up! If you’re looking for comparable books, I would say The Asylum Confessions series by Jack Steen are as close as I could find. They deal with confessions of serial killers on death row that tell their stories, as you get the patients’ stories in Nightmares at the Asylum.

Nightscript, Vol. 1

It was difficult picking out only a few stories to discuss because all of them are a gut punch to the heart, but I managed to do it after much deliberation and knocked it down to my top three. This was so hard. *chuckles* The Sound That the World Makes by David Surface resonates with me at a cellular level. It’s haunting my soul, even as I’m typing this review. A family drives to an eerie separatist church in the middle of nowhere where the monks appear to take very good of their elderly brethren, until they roll out the eldest of the eldest who have spiderwebs covering their mouths. And then all the monks start this horrible screaming, which is “the sound that the world made and always made” and the family flees on foot from the church, terrified after their nontraditional Christmas celebration. I can hear  the screaming in my ears and picture the spider webs across the monks’ mouths; the imagery is so vivid. It was such a good story. I inhaled this spooky tale! I’m always up for a fresh new holiday vibe and this one works overtime.

Animalhouse by Clint Smith is a werewolf story I couldn’t put down. It started out in the traditional manner with the main character being attacked by a known vampire. The poor guy just wants revenge for his dog, Gamble, who gets attacked by someone near a playground in a house and the story just spirals from there. I like that it’s a fresh take on how he learns he’s a werewolf too and how he’s dead set on revenge for his beloved pet because believe me, I would be hellbent on killing someone that hurt my furbaby too. Unfortunately, spoiler warning, the dog doesn’t make it.

I saved my very favorite, Tooth, Tongue, and Claw by Damien Angelica Waters for last. It begins with the tale as old as time where a beauty is sent to live with a beast. The beauty is stubborn and will not accept her fate as the beast’s consort, even though it’s for the peace and safety of her town. She tries everything she can do to escape. She finally, after trying other solutions, bludgeons the poor beast to death, who has been nothing but gentle and patient with her, proving she is the real monster. The last line of the story is: The people want a monster. She’ll give them one. Once upon a time there was a girl… I adored how Walters flipped this fairytale on its head. It’s even more macabre and unforgettable now than in the original tellings.

There are lots more stories for you to choose from to raise the hackles on your head and keep you reading throughout the night with your light on until it’s time to get up and join the civilized people to go to work, but I’ll leave you with these three. C.M. Muller is a master at assembling a literary landscape of fear. I was along for the ride 100%. I checked on Amazon and right now there are eight volumes I found to get my grubby little paws on. And you bet I will be because learning how to tell a story from a master storyteller is the best way to become a better writer.

October Sign ‘22

Ryan Oliver Brandt’s October Sign ’22 is a moody, atmospheric horror-tinged romance that leans heavily into the uncanny rhythms of teenage longing and small-town dread. Set against a crisp autumn backdrop in what feels like a slightly off-kilter American suburb, the novel follows Conan, a grieving high school musician whose father has just died, as he becomes magnetically entangled with Snow, a pale, enigmatic girl from the elite Preston Academy who appears during a school visit.

Brandt wastes little time plunging the reader into a haze of déjà vu, intrusive lyrics that seem to write themselves, and a growing sense that reality is fraying at the edges. Conan’s impulsive decision to ditch school with Snow triggers ripples—his breakup with the fiercely loyal Brandi, band drama at Rufus’s Club Depression, and a cascade of omens: a mass exodus of rats, an unlikely earthquake, and whispers of missing girls from previous years. The prose has a raw, confessional quality, particularly in the way Brandt renders Conan’s song fragments as both prophetic and disorienting. These interludes give the narrative a pulsing, almost musical undercurrent that suits the story’s rock-band milieu.

What elevates the book beyond standard fare is its commitment to emotional messiness. These are all characters who feel real; you might even see resonances of yourself and your old high school gang in these pages—I know I did. Conan’s lovesick obsession with Snow is equal parts tender and self-destructive, while Brandi’s chapters offer a grounded, heartbroken counterpoint that keeps the story from floating entirely into dreamy supernatural territory. Rufus, the wise-cracking mentor figure running the club, brings welcome humor and grounded perspective without undermining the mounting weirdness. The central mystery around Snow’s family and the “October sign” itself simmers effectively, promising deeper revelations in the pages not excerpted here.

Brandt’s strength lies in atmosphere. The October setting is evoked with sensory precision—crunching leaves, low-hanging sun, the musk of decay—creating a liminal mood where love and loss blur. The supernatural elements feel organic rather than bolted on, emerging from grief and adolescent intensity in ways that recall early Poppy Z. Brite or certain strains of late ’90s/early 2000s emo-infused horror. Pacing occasionally drifts in the middle sections as characters circle the same intense feelings, but the emotional honesty and building sense of impending catastrophe compensate.

October Sign ’22 is sincere and evocative. It captures that specific autumnal melancholy where first love feels apocalyptic and the veil between worlds thins. Fans of character-driven horror with musical souls and coming-of-age unease meeting subtle cosmic folk horror will find much to sink into. Brandt shows real promise in weaving personal pain with the uncanny; one hopes future work continues sharpening that blade. A solid, haunting debut that lingers like a half-remembered song.