Artist Poppy Reed doesn’t care if others think her marriage to Celia Marie Fox, a wealthy art dealer, is impulsive. Sure, they’ve only known each other for six months, and Celia has an infamous romantic reputation, but Poppy is brimming with excitement when she moves across the country to Celia’s home: a formidable, isolated, and art-filled manor called Busirane.

As Poppy tries to celebrate her first weeks of marriage and enjoy her new home, Busirane seems intent on rebuffing her every attempt to settle in. Strange noises and confounding occurrences lead Poppy to believe the house is haunted, a suspicion worsened by Celia’s insistence that Poppy avoid the locked basement.

When Celia leaves for a work trip, Poppy is left alone in the house, then finds herself snowed in. Surrounded by secrets, stalked by faceless statues, and beset by bodiless whispers, she struggles to trust her wife—and her own mind. When Poppy is eventually drawn to the forbidden basement, dark truths shatter everything she thought she knew, throwing her into a desperate bid for survival.

I have read my fair share of haunted house stories over the years and while I don’t tend to go for them first, I do tend to enjoy them. What makes this haunted dwelling story stand out is the author. I have now convinced myself that I would read the instructions on making an apple pie if it was written by Schaefer. There is something about the way Saratoga crafts their stories, no matter the genre or plot, that draws me in and keeps me around.

A Thousand Monstrous Forms was one I was heavily looking forward to reading and it didn’t disappoint. Not only is this story filled with dread and unease, it has a few jump scares that will make you yelp out loud, something I find hard to accomplish in prose novels at times. This story is one of those tales that is hard to read inside your own house, especially one like mine which is over 100 years old. What creepy, unsettling things have happened in the history of this house that might rear its ugly face in moments of quiet and tranquility, making you utterly frightened.

What made A Thousand Monstrous Forms even more terrifying was the fast-paced nature of the story as well. Schaefer wasted no time allowing these frightening moments to appear, not letting us settle in at all. Saratoga does wonderfully balance this scares with a real sense of foreboding unease, building on tension and dread throughout the story as well.

I feel most people have had or know of someone who has had a relationship that has moved extremely quickly, ignoring any red flags, rules, or questions that may arise. With A Thousand Monstrous Forms, Schaefer builds a story that is more than just one that frightens, but has deeper story to tell. When things get creepy after moving into an ld house with someone, let’s be honest, you barely know and they don’t take it seriously, how could you not question everything. It can be good to trust someone, but how far does that trust go when this unsettling house proves to be too much.

A Thousand Monstrous Forms is a modernized and horrifying take on the classic French folktale Bluebird by Charles Perrault. Taking stories from the 1600s and twisting them to fit a modern tale feels like an undertaking that I would not want to try, but Schaefer seems to do with ease.

A Thousand Monstrous Forms is a chilling haunted house tale filled with a sense of dread, a ton of tension, and some pretty frightening scares, all while exploring trust and relationships. Saratoga Schaefer once again proved they are one of the more compelling voices in storytelling today. A Thousand Monstrous Forms is dread-soaked horror story that made me happy I read with the lights on.

A Thousand Monstrous Forms hits bookstores everywhere on September 15, 2026 from Crooked Lane Books.

NOTE: We received an advance copy of A Thousand Monstrous Forms from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

The post A Thousand Monstrous Forms: Horror That Demands the Lights Stay On appeared first on Capes and Tights.

It’s 1992, and in the heat of Texas, camp Summer Fun rests by a crystalline lake surrounded by a shady forest. The counselors have set out the kayaks, prepped the kitchens, and refurbished the cabins. Now, on the night before camp begins, a bonfire and the teenage counselors’ rites of passage await.

But the camp has a horrifying history. In the ’80s, there was a massacre that left a sole survivor. One final girl. The killer never caught.

Deputy Tom Bailey is always on edge this time of year. There are rumors that the woods are haunted. That the killer might one day return. Tom has deeply personal ties to the ’80s massacre, and those ties have plagued his dreams.

Then Tom gets a call reporting bloodcurdling screams coming from the camp. The real nightmare is just beginning…

With his latest few books, which I have actually liked fairly well, DiLouie attempted to tell new and exciting stories based around tried and true concepts in the horror genre. In How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive he tackles the cursed film subgenre and with My Ex, the Antichrist he leans into the cursed band/music space. Now, The Summer Fun Massacre heads down the path of a summer camp slasher, but again, DiLouie makes this story his own.

In The Summer Fun Massacre, DiLouie tells the story from the point-of-view of the police, detectives, and other law enforcement opposed to what you’d expect of the final girl. While we do get some story from our survivor, it’s mostly Deputy Bailey as well as his co-workers who take the lead. This makes this summer slasher feel a lot more like a crime detective mystery instead of a straight forward horror. While it took me by surprise, and a few pages to get used to, it was a fun new take on the subgenre.

DiLouie does a wonderful job at keeping us on our toes throughout, guessing at who the big bad might be. At times I had pegged a member of law enforcement such as the Deputy or even the Sheriff, sometimes I had a random person in the crosshairs, but there is also this folklore thread woven throughout that makes you feel something mysterious and supernatural is at fault. This kept me turning the pages to see what would settle out at the end.

What made me struggle, just a hair (see what I did there), was the high and lows of the pacing as well as some moments where the story confused me a bit. These criticisms are ones I feel are merely personal ones and didn’t affect my feelings towards the book overall as it was a fun, quick read.

The Summer Fun Massacre is a great addition to Craig DiLouie’s books which take familiar horror tropes and finds a fresh angle to make them feel fresh. Shifting the focus from the usual final girl perspective to law enforcement offers trying to unravel this murder mystery, makes this story feel equally slasher horror and detective thriller. The Summer Fun Massacre is a clever reinvention of the summer camp slasher that had me guessing until the very end. Plus, this is the first of a duology, so we can expect more in November 2026 with The Yule Day Slaughter.

The Summer Fun Massacre is available at bookstores everywhere from Run For It. The audiobook, narrated by Garrett Michael Brown & Elizabeth Cappuccino, is available at Libro.fm!

The post The Summer Fun Massacre: Fresh Blood for a Familiar Subgenre appeared first on Capes and Tights.

When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.

Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.

She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life. How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?

Now, I will say that one of the biggest draws for me to Sublimation was the comparison to Severance, one of my favorite television shows in recent times. While this is not exactly the same concept, it definitely has similarities that made it all that more enjoyable. What Severance and Sublimation have both done is given us such a thought-provoking concept of creating a different version of ourselves, only Kim crafts with this novel is something so much more impactful to our real world.

The subject of immigration is one that we see here and there in stories these days, but Kim tackles it in such a unique way that made for such a wonderful read. As someone who was born and raised in New England, immigration in my personal life has not been a factor, but know how hard it can be on various people depending on the situation. Moving halfway across the world to start a new life, wether due to choice, pressure, persecution, or whatever the circumstances, can be a chance to reinvent yourself, but also can be extremely tough to find a way to fit in.

It must be on those immigrants minds as they move through life in a new country, what would life have been life if I had stayed in the place I was born? I can imagine the thoughts swirl on how life would be different. With Sublimation, some of those who have immigrated get the chance to see what life was life for the part of you that was left behind, as well as what happens when your instance gets to try and experience a new place. It’s a concept I cannot get over, and have been thinking about ever since I closed the final page.

Yes, does Sublimation make you think and have a deeper meaning outside of just a well-written story, but it’s where the story goes and the science behind new technology that makes this even more enjoyable of a read. Instancing has been around for as long as people can remember, but there are new inventions that work around the phenomenon that pushes this psychological thriller into the realm of deep science-fiction that made this story what it is in the end. Where this book goes is something I did not see coming and was excited to dive into it even more.

Sublimation is the kind of debut novel that I love reading, taking a fascinating idea, grounded in real human experiences, and pushes it into unexpected and unsettling territory. Isabel J. Kim delivers an emotional, thrilling, and thought-provoking story that transforms the immigrant experience into something original and impactful.

Sublimation is available at bookstores everywhere from Tor Books. The audiobook, narrated by Major Curda & Michelle H. Lee, is available via Libro.fm!

NOTE: We received an advance copy of Sublimation from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

The post Sublimation: A Fascinating Take on Identity and Belonging appeared first on Capes and Tights.

After a magical night out on the town with her boyfriend Jack, Emily wakes alone in a huge bed in a beautiful, well-lit room. But the pink ceiling, the mauve walls, and the deep, dark corners are nothing like the hotel she and Jack rented.

More worrisome yet: Emily has no memory of this place from the night before.

Where is she? A woman’s voice directs her to remain in bed. Just so… And beyond the end of the bed, a picture frame upon an easel—a frame with no canvas, no painting, no art. Only…there is the silhouette of a person Emily does not recognize. A person emanating demand, danger, evil. And the way the woman talks…and the things she says…She’s acting as if Emily herself is the painting. The still life. The art.

Emily is as scared as she is confused. But it’s immediately clear Jack’s life is on the line with her own. And if she attempts to escape the bed and the wood frame of this nightmare masterwork, neither will survive the experience. Emily is fierce, independent, brilliant, but to get out of this, she’ll have to think like an artist herself. The clock is ticking. For Emily. For Jack. For being forever trapped.

Of course when I saw the name Josh Malerman, it was a must-read, especially after Incidents Around the House, but it really was the unique plot, setup and story itself that peaked my interest. Pictures of You is the kind of fresh storytelling I am always on the look for in a horror story and for some people this book will be perfect. Myself, not so much, but I am guessing it is mostly because of how my brain works and processes some stories.

Pictures of You features a few characters and their point-of-views while adding more as the story progresses. This was hard to keep track of in my mind. Again, I can see how these characters can be the draw for some readers, but almost acted in the opposite direction for me. The back-and-forth nature, which sometimes overlaps, lost me here and there, making it hard to follow in various moments. While Malerman’s writing itself is wonderful in the moments I followed easy, there was something about the way this book was laid out that had rattled.

Malerman does craft a story that had an uneasy vibe and unsettling feeling throughout, again, something that really hooks me in a good horror story. It is suspenseful and well paced with tension you could cut with a knife that was built up from beginning to end with a release at the end that lingers and stays with you. Even with my inability, personally, to follow along easily (although I was able to), proves that Malerman knows how to craft a horror story that hits hard, pulling you in and keeping ahold of you.

While personally Pictures of You didn’t fully hit home with me due to its structure and shifting views, I love and appreciate the ambition and creativity behind what Josh Malerman accomplishes with the story. The novel delivers on atmospheric dread that rarely lets up, building on suspense and tension throughout. Pictures of You is a deeply unsettling and thrilling horror that proves Malerman remains a commanding voice in the genre.

Pictures of You hits bookstores everywhere on September 8, 2026 from Del Rey. The audiobook, narrated by Beth Hicks, is available via Libro.fm!

NOTE: We received an advance copy of Pictures of You from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

The post Pictures of You: An Unsettling Nightmare Framed by Suspense appeared first on Capes and Tights.

Meet Julia Flang, a twenty-something former semi-professional gamer, living with her retired uncle, and working two jobs she doesn’t like. Out of the blue, her estranged mother, a CFO for one of the world’s largest tech companies, offers her a temp job with a payday Julia can’t refuse. One sham interview later, she’s offered the job: to chaperone a man in a vegetative state—one with proprietary AI implanted in his head—from California to the East Coast.

To sum up in Julia’s own words: “You want me to remote control this dead dude across the country.” In a word, yes. But he’s not dead dead.

Meet a middle-aged man who wakes within a disorienting hellscape filled with monstrous grotesqueries. Worse than the fluid, morphing reality in which he’s trapped, he has no memory of who he is. He certainly doesn’t remember getting the rabbit tattoo on his arm. He only knows that he must find a certain person. Who? He can’t remember.

Using a cell phone modeled after a video game controller, Julia fumblingly navigates the man she calls “Bernie” from the company campus and onto planes and through one of the largest airports in America. All the while, the man endures an ever-changing and worsening nightmare that offers clues as to who he was—and who he must track down. And as their two lives intertwine, Julia and Bernie become unlikely allies and fugitives on a collision course with reality.

Computers and the advancement of technology has been super beneficial for the human race over the years, but we are in an age of artificial intelligence that is getting sloppier by the second. Such places at the generative spaces is unnecessary and ugly, but there is also a line we shouldn’t cross when things become a little more blurry on the ethical side of things. These ethical boundaries are being pushed on a daily basis and it’s this real-life horrors that make Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep hit closer to home and all that more terrifying.

Tremblay explores AI in a way that was eyeopening and horrifying. The lines that people will cross for financial, personal, and selfish gain are fading away. What makes it the most scary and sad is how people don’t care as much and how normalized using AI for whatever you need or want has become. Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is deeper than the surface issues with this technology and has extremely heartfelt and emotional moments I wasn’t fully expecting. AI can be evil, but sometimes the technology itself is innocent enough, it’s those who wield the power of AI that are even more evil.

It’s not just the story itself that is fantastic with Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, it’s the way Tremblay writes this book and how it is laid out. He uses two different perspectives that can confuse you to start, but are written with such purpose. Not to mention a couple of special additions throughout that serve a purpose, but also give a little fun to the book. Tremblay crafts a story that is extremely well written, but also compiled in such a wonderful way. Reading this story was more than just enjoyment, but an overall amazing experience. Not to mention the bonus I give Tremblay for mentioning Stephen King and my great home State of Maine.

If you are someone who dabbles in the world of audiobooks I will highly recommend enjoying Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep in this format. Yes, Tremblay crafts an amazing story, but it’s only amplified by the narration by Sophie Amoss, Graham Halstead, John Pirhalla & Dan Bittner. Some stories are just simply narrated and others bring an entire other level to the book, this is one of those books.

Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is an unsettling and surprisingly emotional, yet unsurprisingly smart exploration of technologies relationship to morality and dangers of pushing innovation too far. Paul Tremblay crafts a story that is both science-fiction and horror that feels frighteningly relevant. Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is a thought-provoking story that turns the real-world horrors of AI into something terrifyingly unforgettable.

Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep hits bookstores everywhere on June 30, 2026 from William Morrow. The audiobook is available via Libro.fm!

NOTE: We received an advance copy of Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

The post Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep: A Smart and Unsettling Look at Our Future appeared first on Capes and Tights.

Former scream queen Barbra Jacobs desperately wants to break out of the box Hollywood has neatly packaged her in. Cast as the star of the Mirror horror franchise films twenty years ago, the breakout role that shaped her career has also destroyed her dreams of being taken seriously as an actress. Now forty, and still seeking the approval of everyone around her, she makes ends meet by signing old photos of herself and doing meet and greets at horror conventions.

So when a producer calls asking her host The Monsters We Made, a hot new horror docuseries, she sees it as a step in the right direction. But when fans begin dying around her—and in ways that mimic the kills in her films—Barb is thrust back into a role she can’t seem to walk away from: The Final Girl.

Will she ever break out of the display-box-life she’s been imprisoned in, or will Mirror Man end it all in Barbie’s Scream House?

As someone who has worked closely with various conventions and hosted a number of panels, its fun to dive into a fictional story the features the convention life. Knowing that a lot of the guests of these conventions are not currently working in their field and spend most of their time signing autographs and taking photos with the fans from their work of the past. Twisting this story from there into a slasher story made for a gripping adventure.

Its not the convention itself that takes center stage, but our main character Barbra “Barb” Jacobs and her struggle to find an identity while dealing with the struggles of aging, typecasting, and finding self-worth. This made Barb’s character feel much more relatable and the stakes all that more higher. Pell wonderfully crafts Barb’s character in a way that made it easy to root for her, while also making her more than a typical Final Girl, one with more emotional depth.

This B Just Won’t Die is proof of Pell’s love for the genre. Pell crafts a horror story that feels familiar to us fans of the genre, all while delivering on surprises and elements that keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s the actual scares in this story that terrify you, but it’s the relationship to real life horrors that hit even harder, including aging, visibility, fame, and societal expectations. Blending these themes into a story, while also creating a sense of unease isn’t easy, but Pell lands it wonderfully.

Pell doesn’t let off the gas with This B Just Won’t Die. It’s a fast-paced story with escalating tension that made each page quick, but also carry a lot of weight and momentum. It’s the dark humor moments that give us a slight break from the tension that allows this novel to be swallowed a bit easier, but it also remains very entertaining during these breaks in suspense.

This B Just Won’t Die is a wildly entertaining slasher that truly understands what horror fans love while delivering something fresh and meaningful. Tanya Pell wonderfully balances frights, dark humor, and thoughtful social commentary on aging, fame, and identity to create a story that feels thrilling and somehow relatable. Barb is a Final Girl worth rooting for and her journey adds emotional weight to the blood-soaked mystery unfolding around her. This B Just Won’t Die is a love letter to slasher fans that proves familiar tropes can still feel fresh and relevant.

This B Just Won’t Die! hits bookstores everywhere on October 13, 2026 from Gallery Books. The audiobook, narrated by Natalie Naudus, is available via Libro.fm!

NOTE: We received an advance copy of This B Just Won’t Die! from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

The post This B Just Won’t Die!: A Fresh and Fierce Slasher appeared first on Capes and Tights.

This week on the Capes and Tights Podcast, Justin Soderberg welcomes author Paul Doiron to the podcast to discuss his Mike Bowditch Mysteries including Storm Tide and more!

Paul Doiron is the author of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels, including The Poacher’s Son, which won the the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award, an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and a Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and the Maine Literary Award for “Best Fiction of 2010.” PopMatters named it to its Best Fiction of 2010 list.

Since 2010, Doiron has written over 16 novels and many short stories featuring Mike Bowditch, including his upcoming Storm Tide which hits stores on June 30, 2026. His novels have been translated into 11 languages.

#284: Paul Doiron – Author of Mike Bowditch Mysteries

The post #284: Paul Doiron – Mike Bowditch Mysteries, Storm Tide appeared first on Capes and Tights.

When a college drop-out accepts work on a cannabis farm in the woods of Northern California, he realizes almost immediately that the harsh realities of this life won’t match his naïve fantasies. He’ll have to work hard-and watch his back. Dubbed “Harmless” by his cultish cohorts, the young man learns the logistics of cultivation and the dark philosophies dictating conduct in this outlaw wilderness.

The farm sits on a mountain the locals call Satan’s Tumor, above a valley called The Green Cauldron, where dangerous elements have been brewing beneath the misty canopy. Overstimulated gangs of smugglers and well-funded foreign mobsters vie for control of this fertile territory, threatening to disrupt an elaborate ecosystem that predates history.

And beneath it all, in the most dismal corners of The Green Cauldron, even darker forces are stirring… angry, agitated, pushed to the brink. The forest is an explosive tinderbox on the verge of ignition. If he’s going to survive, Harmless must sink to new depths before facing unimaginable horrors on a feverish journey into Hell and back.

When looking for new books to read, cannabis farmer is not typically towards the top of this list. However, I know the harsh realities of such an industry can be which peaked my interest. This is even before including the mysteries that surround this farming area. Bigfoot and related creatures have always been lingering in my mind, but have really moved to the forefront over the past few months, making Dopefoot the perfect story to read right now.

What made Dopefoot a story I could not put down from the first few pages was Millican’s captivating writing of Harmless his journey to Northern California, his start on the farm, and the dangers of such a profession. Those who wish harm on such a place from gangs or mobsters that want control over the area was horrifying enough and had me hooked. The addition to mysterious forces made the book for me, but it was these early chapters that made me care. Moving forward I had a connection to Harmless and what he was about to go through.

Millican takes real-life horrors and combines with supernatural forces making a truly terrifying story. Just when you think things are going bad for our band of farmers, things only get worse. This made each page turn that much more suspenseful and tension-filled. It’s the mystery that comes with it all which added to the story and allowed for an unsettling read. Millican knew exactly where he was taking us, and there were moments of apprehension on my part, not wanting to see what happens next, I was sure as hell I went along for the ride.

Dopefoot ended up being exactly the horror story I was looking for and then some. Joshua Millican takes the brutal realities of Northern California’s cannabis trade and blends it fantastically with cryptid folklore and unsettling supernatural terror. Dopefoot is a relentless story filled with paranoia, violence, and supernatural horror that never loosened its grip.

Dopefoot hits bookstores everywhere on June 16, 2026 from Mad Axe Media.

NOTE: We received an advance copy of Dopefoot from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

The post Dopefoot: The Horror Lurking Beyond the Harvest appeared first on Capes and Tights.

Knowledge is power. So when an unassuming Manhattan bassist named Will Dando awakens from a dream one morning with 108 predictions about the future in his head, he rapidly finds himself the most powerful man in the world. Protecting his anonymity by calling himself the Oracle, he sets up a heavily guarded Web site with the help of his friend Hamza to selectively announce his revelations. In no time, global corporations are offering him millions for exclusive access, eager to profit from his prophecies.

He’s also making a lot of high-powered enemies, from the President of the United States and a nationally prominent televangelist to a warlord with a nuclear missile and an assassin grandmother. Legions of cyber spies are unleashed to hack the Site—as it’s come to be called—and the best manhunters money can buy are deployed not only to unmask the Oracle but to take him out of the game entirely. With only a handful of people he can trust—including a beautiful journalist—it’s all Will can do to simply survive, elude exposure, and protect those he loves long enough to use his knowledge to save the world.

Stories featuring a character with the ability to tell the future or the concept of an oracle are not uncommon, it’s how The Oracle Year is built that makes it stand out in the crowd. With stories such as this, I tend to put myself in the shoes of the person who has the ability and see how I would handle it. I’d like to think I would be altruistic about it and help others, but like Will Dando I would likely use this newly found power for personal gain before ever attempting to help others. But who knows?

What I expected to turn out as a Final Destination style narrative, where Will knows the future for specific events and works towards preventing them, ended up so much better. The Oracle Year is not only a tale of the future, but also one that deals with peoples concept of faith and the surrounding elements as well as wielding power over others, including governments. The person who has the ear of The Oracle, has the power over others in ways that have never been seen before. This is huge.

This governmental twist is something I would’ve avoided in reading these days, with the current political climate, however it is needed to further this story. It’s how this story moves forward in many ways and I was glad it was apart to it. Just think, what is our current politicians had the ear of Will Dando…

While I knew of the talent of Charles Soule, The Oracle Year completely exceeded my expectations. What started as a fascinating premise quickly evolves into a thought-provoking exploration of faith, power, and influence. Soule crafts a story that is thrilling while surprisingly relevant. The Oracle Year is a smart and addictive transformation of a familiar concept that was hard to put down.

The Oracle Year is available at bookstores everywhere from Harper Perennial. The audiobook, narrated by Charlie Thurston, is available via Libro.fm!

The post The Oracle Year: The Epic Weight of Knowing Tomorrow appeared first on Capes and Tights.

Poppy Stringer was born to be a star. An aspiring fashion influencer by day, Poppy moonlights as a grave robber to make ends meet, wheeling and dealing dead bodies across Palm Springs.

When her hero, the flamboyant, piano-slamming rockstar Eddie Michaels, unexpectedly dies, Poppy gets a call to retrieve his body from the medical examiner’s office for a lucrative sum. It could be the last job she’ll ever need―if everything goes to plan. But the night’s delivery quickly veers off course when Eddie wakes up.

Now Poppy must fight for her life if she hopes to survive this blood-soaked joyride of carnage and extravagant entertainment.

As I said to kick things off here, expect the unexpected, that is what I have come to find with Tingle. This goes for the story itself, the method of storytelling, or really anything. What I expected with this story was grave robbing and the associated risks with this endeavor. While that is the case, it was not exactly what I had pictured in my mind. Yes, I knew Eddie would wake up, as described, I just figured there would be more to it. This is not a dig (pun-intended), but a change of what I had gone in expecting.

While it starts off a bit slow, setting the foundation for the rest of the story, Fabulous Bodies does come at you quick with neck breaking pacing. There is no rest for the wicked. When shit hit the fan, there is no stopping the fast paced, campy horror, and even humor that takes place. The speed of the book doesn’t take away from the overall story, but adds to the experience. Even in the emotional moments, the again surprised me, things felt like the peddle was to the floor. Making for an easy, and fun read.

Poppy is setup as a fantastic character from the start, someone who is extremely public facing as an influencer but also leads the double-life as some making some quick cash in the trade of the dead. I couldn’t help but think of stories such as Dexter whereas it should be obvious to those around you that something is off about you, but no one is the wiser. Makes for a funny, campy, and sometimes intense story. And when Poppy ends up on an intense, horrifying adventure with Eddie we are introduced to another well crafted character and a terrifying but amazing connection between the two.

Fabulous Bodies is filled with a great amount of dark humor paired with just the right amount of body horror and action. It can be intense at moments, but the campiness helps balance this out. How Tingle is able to accomplish all of this in a zombie-style journey is beyond me, but it works.

Fabulous Bodies is somehow disgusting, hilarious, and genuinely sweet at the same time. It’s impossible not to have fun reading this. Chuck Tingle understands that camp and sincerity actually work really well together. The book is ridiculous in the best possible way.

Let’s be honest, Fabulous Bodies shouldn’t work on paper, but somehow Chuck Tingle turns this influence satire, body horror, zombie-fueled chaos into something that is truly wildly entertaining, all while also being surprisingly heartfelt. Fabulous Bodies is disgusting and funny, making for a blood-soaked fever dream that proves Tingle is one of horror’s most original voices.

Fabulous Bodies hits bookstores everywhere on July 7, 2026 from Tor Nightfire. The audiobook, narrated by Mara Wilson, is available via Libro.fm!

NOTE: We received an advance copy of Fabulous Bodies from the publisher. Opinions are our own.

The post Fabulous Bodies: A Chaotic Blend of Horror and Humor appeared first on Capes and Tights.