In the need of something speculative and medically disturbing to read?

I've got review copies of Lee Upton's forthcoming novel The Withers (June 2026, Regal House). Hit me up if you want to help spread the word!

"a haunting exploration of obsession set in a near-future world"

What I read in October. It wasn't much and there was definitely some slogging through books when a DNF might have been the better route...

So let's see which books were knock outs and which ones I should have chucked out the door, shall we?

thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/what...

Darrin Doyle's latest book gets "If My Book"ed:

'If The Dark Will End the Dark were a meat, it would be a hot dog. Made of bits and pieces of god-knows-what but strangely delicious when cooked over an open flame'.

monkeybicycle.net/the-dark-wil...

I Smell Sheep helped us spotlight the 10th anniversary release of Darrin Doyle's The Dark Will End the Dark!

Check out one of the stories found in the collection here:

www.ismellsheep.com/2025/10/10th...

Move over, mermaid fans! Make room for Selkie fiction. K. Stephens's By the Dark 'O the Moon is a deliciously slow-burning tale of maternal fury, folklore, and the saltwater price of stolen things. This isn’t a love story. It’s a reckoning.

www.instagram.com/p/DPdyAFgEV5B/

Some love for Darrin Doyle's collection, which drops tomorrow!!

"...stories that depict, to different degrees, the dark, grotesque, strange, and/or weird aspects of a human, or supernatural, body in a way that delivers a punchy, shocking effect..."

makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/b...

Nothing like kicking off the month with a banger and ending it with one too! Come check out what I read in September:

thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/what...

Cool interview w/ Lisa Hasleton & Darrin Doyle about the 10th anniversary edition of his collection The Dark Will End the Dark

"While the short story itself has a tighter boundary than a novel, within a series of short stories the range is much wider."

lisahaselton.com/2025/09/29/i...

Are you between books and not sure what to read next? Looking for something that vibes best with fall? Let me get Darrin Doyle's collection The Dark Will End The Dark into your hands! The stories are dark and strange and sorted by body parts! (out 10/7)

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...