Title: Skinners II: The Spawn

Author: Craig Wesley Wall

Release date: February 17th, 2026

Having recently read book one in this series, I wasn’t going to wait to read book two when it landed on my Kindle on the 17th. As soon as I wrapped up one of my previous reads, I jumped in, excited to see where this one went!

This is a direct sequel to the first book, and this is 100% a case where you have to have read the first book to read the second. So, in accordance with that – everything going forward will pretty much be a spoiler for the first book. I suggest if you’ve not read book one, halt here and return after having done so!

What I liked: The book picks up immediately after the events in the first. Thom, Leland and Angie have survived the skinner infiltration where the survivors were hunkered down, but have been taken into custody by the military group that has arrived. Thom’s imprisoned in a cell with a massive biker named Zeke, unsure of where the two kids are.

Working with his new friend, he escapes and they go on a search for the kids, all while understanding the skinners are still making duplicates of those they attack.

What they don’t realize is that there’s another form they can take.

Craig does a great job of maintaining true to the tension and atmosphere of the first novella. There’s plenty of action, huge emotional moments and we get some really grotesque and fantastic skinner scenes.

Very rarely in this one does Craig take his foot off the gas, and that works to really heighten the reality these characters find themselves in. Saying that, we learn a bit more about what these things are, why the military is involved and whether this sort of thing has happened before on Earth, which I greatly enjoyed.

The ending is a one-two punch of culmination of events and what comes next, and I think it was handled perfectly to conclude things while still leaving the door open a crack for a third down the road.

What I didn’t like: The only thing that I noticed, was that early on a military leader mentions they’ve been studying things for a while and it made me feel like I’d missed something. It gets explained later on, but considering this takes place right after book one, I was momentarily thrown for a loop. Push past that spot if you end up confused like I did!

Why you should buy this: If you loved book one, book two is another creature/sci-fi/horror novella home run. Craig’s skinner creatures are a lot of fun and it’s great seeing them wreak havoc across the country side.

If you haven’t read book one and are looking for that perfect mix of 80s VHS creature-feature/sci-fi/horror that you used to rent every weekend, look no further.

This was such a good time!

 

Title: The Memory Shades

Author: David Watkins

Release date: February 17th, 2026

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

I’ve read a bit of David’s – definitely not enough – and so far, everything I’ve read has been wonderful. When I saw ‘The Memory Shades’ announced, I was super intrigued. I had the same feeling when his novella ‘Rhitta Gawr’ was announced and I think about that story all the time. The difference this time was the sci-fi/horror blending, which I’m a huge, huge fan of. Knowing what Watkins did with werewolves and folklore, I couldn’t wait to dive into this one and see what he’d created this time.

What I liked: Set in the future, we arrive on a distant planet where those being woken from cryo-sleep are about to learn their new reality. Here, on this planet, those who left the remnants of Earth, will be the ones to terraform this new place so humanity can continue on. Jon is one such person coming out of a deep sleep, and that’s where he discovers the trade off he made back on Earth. To avoid prison – for a horrible crime he can’t remember – he (and the other workers) will work off his sentence. And when the watch he wears finally ticks down to zero and his sentence has been completed, his memories will be restored.

It’s with that basis that Watkins sets up the day-to-day aspect of the ‘why.’ They’re there to plant the seeds, build the walls, dig the trenches, do the dirty work to get the place up and running. But things soon begin to rumble off the tracks.

There are reports of larger ‘worm’-like creatures that live below the surface, though they seem to stay farther away, closer to the coast. A few of the guys in charge are ruthless, making them work non-stop and punish them when they slack off or take an un-authorized break. And things really begin to shift when Jon – and some of the other ex-cons – begin to see ghost-like figures. In Jon’s case, it’s a bloody and brutalized woman who follows him everywhere. He thinks it might be the victim of whatever crime he committed on Earth, but he can’t be certain, his memories locked away in the vault within his implanted chip.

From here, Watkins begins to dissect the internal workings of those seeing these figures, but also throws us into a survival thriller. Jon and a few other’s head out on a scouting/retrieval mission. Another ship sent a message and then lost contact with the base. It’s while on this job that they discover the ‘worm’ creatures have grown in considerable size and threaten to destroy the base.

Watkins uses this section to humanize the characters. Up to this point, they’ve all remained fairly surface-level in terms of depth, but this is where we really see who they are and the ends they’ll go to help each other and ultimately try and defend the base. We also learn more about the implanted chips, the odd figures only some folks are seeing and also find out why some people are remembering bits and pieces from their time on Earth.

The ending is a cinematic blast. Watkins gives us an all-guns-blazing send off, with all hands on deck and tons of splattery insanity.

What I didn’t like: There was really two things that stuck out for me here. The first was that these figures some are seeing, dubbed ‘memory shades’ (hey, that’s the title!), kind of fade away from importance as the book goes on. I was hoping to learn more about the reason each one was seeing earlier on and in a bit more depth, but instead they get pushed aside to a degree during the mission and mentioned sporadically after.

The second, and this is just me being persnickety, is how the ground/soil/dirt etc. on this distant planet constantly is called earth. The ground sloughs away and it says they get covered in earth etc. etc. It drove me batty, because they’re not on Earth. Yes, lower casing ‘earth’ is frequently interchanged with dirt/soil, but when on another planet, it would be called regolith, which differentiates from earth as it won’t have the same elements as earth. And yes, I’m sounding super nerdy, but my son and I have been reading a bunch about this stuff for his current Science section about outer space and Mars, so it’s stuck in my head! And double yes, I’m being totally persnickety, lolol!

Why you should buy this: If you’re looking for a absolutely bonkers sci-fi/horror mashup where people try to survive each other and crazy creatures on another planet, look no further. Watkins has delivered perhaps his current magnum opus – a novel layered with emotions, action and deeper themes that break through the foreign planets soil when you least expect it.

From start to finish, I was hooked and throughout the entirety of reading this I was trying to picture who would play each character when this becomes a major motion picture – and it absolutely should.

Watkins has delivered an outstanding novel, one that shows his attention to detail and ability to create page-turning books.

 

Title: Wilson

Author: Jack Finn

Release date: February 10th, 2026

*Huge thanks to Jack for sending me a digital copy of this one!*

It’s been a few years since Jack and I connected – I think first on IG – and I absolutely love the variety of posts he shares, highlighting so, so many books. Up until now, I simply haven’t managed to read one of this yet, but when he reached out and asked if I’d be down to check out his newest, ‘Wilson,’ I was all over it. The cover (from Blaine Daigle, an amazing author himself!) was great and the synopsis sounded right up my alley. It read like a monster-of-the-week X-Files episode, which had me stoked!

What I liked: Set in the 1940’s, Wilson works in a sideshow carnival, traveling the country and bringing in townsfolks to see the animals and the freaks. He’s a loner, an odd-ball, but a key component to the day-to-day enjoyment of the show to those who attend. He has a camera and he takes a photo of those who’ll pay, so they have a picture to remember the day. But his camera isn’t all that it seems to be. It has an extra button. A special button. A button that allows Wilson to connect with their soul.

Finn sets things up nicely while also playing rough shod with the idea of ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ Wilson doesn’t care that the camera connection seems to be growing, seems to be demanding more of him and that he simply can’t control the desires he gets from what the camera gives him.

As the story progresses, we get to see the hold Wilson finds himself under, but as the darkness takes over, a light shines – Dahlia. A beautiful woman visits, one who – for some unknown reason to Wilson – attaches to him and wants to see the elephants.

There’s a marketed tone shift here and it works really nicely to let the reader know something’s off with Dahlia, but something’s off with Wilson’s addiction to the photos.

This sets up the ending really nicely, spinning the story on its head and ensuring that we get an finale that did the build up justice.

What I didn’t like: We get a little bit of a backstory regarding how Wilson gets the camera etc. but I would’ve really loved to have learned more and maybe even had a flashback or two of it previously being used. Not a big thing, but I think a slightly missed opportunity for more of the dark element that camera brought to the story.

Why you should buy this: This novella ended up being a perfect take on the ‘monster-of-the-week’ idea I was hoping it’d be when I dove in. Snappy chapters, deft storytelling and the darkness Finn gives us what a perfect mix of unsettling and brutal. This was a ton of fun, and a book I think folks will really dig, especially if you enjoy carnival/circus themed horror.

Title: Kayak

Author: Kristal Stittle

Release date: February 17th, 2026

*Huge thanks to Tenebrous Press for the digital ARC of this one!*

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Tenebrous Press is the wild variety of books they release. Be it through their Split Scream releases or the novellas and novels, or the collections, they don’t have a singular ‘style’ of book. They like to publish across genre’s. Secondarily, Tenebrous continues to introduce new-to-me authors. I can think of a half dozen authors who I’ve discovered through Tenebrous releases that I actively look forward to seeing new releases from. Hilariously, in this case, though I was thinking Kristal was a new-to-me author, when I started reading the book, I was trying to place where I knew her from. I knew I’d shared one of her books in my 2025 month long celebration of fellow Canadian authors, but it wasn’t until I went to Goodreads where I realized we both had a story in the ‘Dark Canadiana’ anthology in 2025! And I loved her story within.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. I’d briefly scanned the synopsis and knew aliens were involved, and that was about all it took for me to be excited to dive in to this one.

What I liked: The novel hops between present and past as we follow teenager, Keith, trying his best to survive in the new world. He’s wracked with guilt over an incident he believes has resulted in the loss of dozens of lives, and with that weighing him down, he continues to flee further up the river. Why up the river?

Well, an asteroid had landed on earth and while at first it was a celebratory event, the space rock hitting a remote, deserted island, while being live-streamed, soon stories spread of strange alien creatures – huge dog-like things, that have the ability to disappear into the dirt below. Dubbed ‘dirt devils’ an alarm is sent out – get to (and into) the water – as that’s the only safe place.

As the story unfolds, Stittle does a wonderful job of balancing emotions and tension. We see the difficulties faced by the inability to step foot on dry ground. How do you get food? Where is it safe to spend the night and get some rest? And when it rains, how long will the rain last, allowing you the time to go into the various water front cabins that now lay abandoned.

The jumps between past and present works (for the most part) to push the emotional and physical guilt that Keith is dealing with, especially in consideration with being separated from friends and family, and deftly displays the ‘why’ of some of the decisions Keith makes. This also helps heighten the ever-growing anxiety as the chapters get closer to the end.

The ending works – though I’m going to be a bit vague here about it so as to not push anything one way or the other – and dare I say it even offers some hope?

What I didn’t like: There were a few things that struck me and came back to me as I was reading this one. Up first was that I found the back and forth didn’t always work to raise the stakes, if you will. There were a few times when a present chapter would suggest something and when it was then revealed in the past chapter, the impact wasn’t as big as it could’ve been. I know that’ll happen with the time jump stuff – I’ve been in that situation before as well – but in this case, it happened enough times that I noticed it.

The second thing I noticed was there is a lot of ‘tedium’ throughout the chapters. While necessary in some instances, I think those repetitious instances could be enough for folks to find its moving too slow and tap out. It’s something we all deal with, especially if you’re writing about anything set in the wilderness. I just felt like a few times we could’ve done with less of the descriptions of when Keith was bored waiting for it to rain, or when he was paddling to find rocks etc. Though part of the survival element, it also greatly slowed a few of the chapters to a slog.

And lastly, I personally don’t know if the ending fully worked for me. I’m trying to be spoiler free, so what I will say, is that the novel never once really offered a ‘this is what needs to be done for humans to survive/overcome’ aspect. That’s often what folks are drawn to in alien invasion books/movies, right? The idea that if they band together and do [X] they’ll overcome and survive. I suspect a sequel might be on the horizon, as there was an ‘egg’ angle left behind without any further development and the season was changing.

Why you should buy this: A very grand novel in scope, Stittle has delivered a fantastic entry into the alien-invasion/humans try to survive subgenre, but throwing a new wrench into the mix. Much like in the movie ‘Signs,’ we see the aliens dislike/hatred of water and by isolating the surviving humans to the bodies of water around them, it made for an even higher-stakes game of ‘how can we survive.’ By taking the land out of the equation, this novel really thinks outside of the box and had me on the edge of my seat numerous times.

A great Canadian-based speculative novel from a Canadian author, this book was a lot of fun and one that reminded me about why it’s important to push your characters to the very edge and see what happens if they fall over.

You can snag it here – https://store.tenebrouspress.com/products/kayak-ebook