Title: You’ll Do As You’re Told

Author: Craig Wesley Wall

Release date: February 19th, 2025

Back in 2021, I read my book from Craig and was blown away. ‘The Briar’ had everything I love in horror novels – isolated location, small town zaniness/craziness, ancient curse and survival at all cost. When I saw his newest novel announced, I was even more excited. Craig was moving the horror to the PNW, a place I lived just north of in BC for over a decade. Seattle itself is a wonderful city, and one we visited a handful of times, but the areas surrounding it and north are… unique. They have their own pulse, their own individual populations that bob and weave to the sound of their own drums. It was interesting even just stopping for fuel and realizing that it wouldn’t be hard to be sucked into these little pockets of oddness and become one with them in short order.

Such is the backdrop of ‘You’ll Do As You’ll Told,’ and Craig effortlessly delivers an unnerving thrill-ride.

What I liked: The story itself might seem – on the surface at least – like one you’ve read before. On the outskirts of a small town is an abandoned asylum, previously home to a doctor who did unspeakable acts and experiments and now the land around it is considered haunted.

Craig takes that basic set up and turns it on its head.

The story follows Ray, recently divorced after his young son passed away from Cancer. He’s purchased a place in a secluded small town in Washington, a forty-five minute drive into the nearest city where he works. The house seems to have it all – wonderful views of Mt. Baker, land aplenty and a perfect spot for a home office.

Craig does a wonderful job setting things up, having Ray move to town, while also revealing that something seems to live in the basement, something that mimics each person who goes down the stairs deepest nightmare. I’ll admit, numerous times I was unnerved, pulling my feet in and making sure the blankets were tucked in tightly. Craig’s deft prose and descriptive prowess bring these visions to life.

And after Ray meets his neighbor, Court, an old man who has been investigating the asylum’s history, things begin to appear faster and more violently. After Ray falls for his realtor and Joyce becomes involved as well, the story goes full-throttle and we get some truly excellent PNW-fueled horror.

The last quarter of the novel is a pure sprint, the action coming fast and furious and we see the three of them have to figure out how to stop the spreading nightmare before it commits more atrocities.

What I didn’t like: I think the only thing that stuck out to me, at least, was that considering this was set in a remote, small town, not a lot of stuff actually happened in the small town. What I mean by that, was outside of Ray going to get a haircut and then later returning to the barbershop, we didn’t get much in the way of local folks questioning Ray or directly disgust or fear towards him elsewhere over where he lives. It would’ve been a solid addition to show the fear the citizens have towards the place by having a few public confrontations.

Why you should buy this: Craig is easily one of the most overlooked authors. Even at this stage of being out for almost a month, ridiculously there’s not a single rating/review on Goodreads. I’ve stopped giving star ratings on my reviews, but I’m making an exception here, because more people need to read Craig’s work and this book and ‘The Briar’ as a one-two punch duo of eco-horror work so perfectly together that they should be on everybody’s TBR’s and should be read ASAP.

This book features characters you’ll root for, super creepy and scary scenes and a back story of horrible acts that get slowly revealed over the course of the novel.

This might be Craig’s perfect novel and I for one hope more people find this.

5/5

Title: Death Spell

Author: David Sodergren

Release date: May 1st, 2025

*Thanks to David for sending me a digital ARC of this one!*

Over the years of his writing career, we’ve watched Sodergren go from strength to strength while blurring genre lines. His most recent release, late 2024’s ‘Summer of the Monsters’ was perhaps his most tame book yet, more a YA/dramatic/suspense/monster novel than anything resembling gore/terror/horror. It was a magical turn, one demonstrating how widely he can cast his net and took it a step more ‘mainstream’ than even his hit release ‘The Haar.’

Since then, he’s publicly revealed that Carl John Lee was his pseudonym and with that, outside of ‘Satan’s Burnouts Must Die!’ this is the most Carl John Lee book of all of David’s novels. In fact, I’m certain that Uncle Carl influenced this book more than Boris did and for that we’re all the better for it.

What I liked: The book throws us headfirst into the fire with the prologue. We meet Ron, who has resorted to a grotesque act in order to ascend the company ladder. It will blow readers away with the repulsiveness we get so early on, but it does two things – sets the tone of how Sodergren has written this and sets the extreme level at ULTRA-EXTREME. You know quickly that this one’s not for the faint of heart.

We then fast forward in time, Ron is a successful business man, father and will do anything for his daughter. Which is the crux of the entire book. She’s scorned by her former lover, a movie star, so Ron takes her and his head of security to the darkest reaches of a jungle to find the black magic shaman who helped Ron become successful.

Sodergren does a great job of infusing this book with tons of random pop culture quips and jokes – a particular Meatloaf gag that extends throughout had me chuckling each time – and as the deal is made and the reality of what that means starts to take hold, this goes from a ‘romance-splatter’ novel to a straight up 70’s extreme movie novelization. Time and time again, just when you think Sodergren can’t go further, he does, and to great effect.

The final quarter of the novel is a smorgasbord of trying to undo what’s undoable and seeing if anyone can even survive. It is cinematic, vivid and visceral and has some really great moments of moral questioning for our main characters. It pushes the envelope right to the brink of toppling over the edge, but manages to keep the story from falling to the wayside.

What I didn’t like: At the beginning, our martial arts movie star, Nick, seemed destined to have a larger, more prominent role and his character seemed fully formed. Sadly, he becomes an afterthought not too far in and I thought that was a disappointing turn, as he could’ve had a fantastic character arc.

Why you should buy this: I mean, if you love David’s books, you’ll be buying this, but if you’ve not read anything from him, I think this is an excellent place to dive in and discover why so many people rave about his books. From start to finish this is unrelenting and ultimately filled with so much ultra-violence that you’ll wish you’d kept a body count. Or, if this was film, they’d be measuring how much fake blood was used to execute these scenes in all their pulpy glory.

Another fantastic book from one of the best writers out there, this was gloriously macabre!