Bruises on a Butterfly by Chad Lutzke

Genre: Coming of Age/Horror/Fantasy

Format: Cemetery Dance Trade Paperback

Pages: 142

Rating; ★★★★★

Synopsis:

A young boy runs away from his abusive home to live in the fort he's built in the middle of a Michigan cornfield. But when a cosmic discovery late one night warps reality into a mutating nightmare, it's up to loyal friends to fix what they can… and bury what they can't.

A dark coming-of-age tale that melds Colour Out of Space with Stand By Me.

Review:

"Last summer, they hadn’t been teens yet, and none of them should have had to deal with what went down. They were supposed to be running through fields with pockets full of dirt, rolling down hills with dizzying heads, riding bikes on trails they’d made by hand, and most of all, sitting in their fort, reading comics and telling stories."

Taylor, Kevin, and Jackie. Three young boys in the prime of their young little lives. Spending time together building their friendship bonds and going on adventures that all young boys should be able to do without a care in the world. 

Taylor's life isn't a life that a child should have to endure. He decides he has had enough and runs away, planning on never returning to the ugliness that he has had to live with throughout his childhood. Kevin and Jackie are aware of what has gone on in Taylor's home, but they are not aware of the extent of it. They promise to be there for Taylor and help in any way they can. 

When a cosmic event occurs, they go exploring to see what has fallen from the sky. When Taylor touches it, an anomalous event begins to occur, one that will alter their lives forever. 

 

Lutzke is a master at writing coming of age stories that dives us deep into the heart and soul. "Bruises on a Butterfly" is a shining example. The power of friendship bonds, the suffering of trauma, the effects it has, and the grief one carries with them for a lifetime after the loss of life. 

When reading anything by Lutzke, I am well aware of his writing style and I know I am going to get lost in the story that is unfolding. I know I am going to connect to the characters and feel what they are feeling. I also know I better have a box of tissues at the ready. 

This one is going to stick, and I am holding a place for one of my top reads for 2024. 

Goodreads Author Link:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/

Amazon Author Link:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Chad-Lutzke/author/

Author Website Link:
http://www.chadlutzke.com/

About the author

Chad has written for Famous Monsters of Filmland, Rue Morgue, Cemetery Dance, and Scream magazine. He's had dozens of short stories published, and some of his books include: OF FOSTER HOMES & FLIES, STIRRING THE SHEETS, THE PALE WHITE, SKULLFACE BOY, THE NEON OWL and OUT BEHIND THE BARN co-written with John Boden. Lutzke's work has been praised by authors Jack Ketchum, Richard Chizmar, Joe Lansdale, Stephen Graham Jones and his own mother.

Publisher Website: https://www.cemeterydance.com/

Review Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/

The Lingering: Skulldiggery Book 3 by D.M. Gritzmacher

Genre: Horror/Occult

Format: eBook

Pages: 288

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

With the pinprick of summer fresh on his skin, a young boy stumbles upon a horrifying secret long buried in the forgotten past of a small midwestern community. Sharing the disturbing discovery with his best friends, the boys set out on the adventure of their young lives, hoping to unravel a mystery over 100 years in the making. One that left a scarred graveyard full of discarded bodies in its wake, and a deep divide between those avoiding history and those unwilling to see it repeated. Without the comfort of an adult they can trust, their terrifying encounter haunts them the rest of their lives. Each blind to the murky darkness it left festering deep inside them.
Haunted by a series of recent and barely believable events, Russell Stander returns to the long-abandoned home of a deceased relative he’d last visited as a child. Hoping to discover a connection between what he’d witnessed there in the past, and freshly unveiled revelations. Enlisting the help of his best friend, retired detective Tom Secrist, Stander painstakingly peels back the layers of time. Searching for any connections, and the abandoned friendships he’d long left behind.
Four boys, coming-of-age in the 1980s, bound by loyalty and their thirst for adventure. Each tarred with a lingering stain that changed the course of their tattered lives forever.

Review:

"His chest heaved, and his mouth worked in the dim light of the kerosene lantern. Despite himself, soft moans of pleasure escaped his dripping lips."

1900s, the creature is among them, traveling, wandering, ever watchful as it hunts for its next meal. It must satisfy its hunger. The fear, the taste, the sweet entering causing pure bliss. 

Present Day, Stander and Secrist travel back to the roots of Standers home. Searching for answers from a past that has ever haunted him. Needing the answers to a mystery that has never been solved, buried deep within the history of time. 

1980s, four young boys set out on an adventure. Deep within the woods lies a hidden graveyard from a time that has long past,  forgotten and avoided. Undisturbed until the boys explore and uncover something buried deep underground. They are now running for their lives from an ancient evil that has set itself after them. Their lives will be forever altered by the darkness that has been visited upon them. 

Three timelines woven together to reveal what has been lurking in the darkness. Not only upon the earth, but in the hearts and souls of all who have been affected. Many questions have been answered in this third installment of the "Skulldiggery" series. Taking us back in time into the life of Stander and what he experienced as a young boy. An adventurous boy with a free spirit that was taken from him and his friends and has lingered within them as the years have passed them by. 

The atmosphere has a foreboding that makes the mind wonder what will come out to play in the darkness. When it does, what occurs is visceral and horrific. It leaves a bloody path behind in our minds, filled with disturbing images with no doubt of what is lying in bloody piles. The lost lives upon our hearts and the lost innocence upon our souls. 

Although these can be read as stand alone novels, I recommend reading them in order as it really adds to the whole experience of a marvelously created series. 

‘It’s a good day as long as your elbows aren’t touching pine,’...

Goodreads Author Link:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/

Amazon Author Link:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/DM-Gritzmacher/author/

Bookbub Author Link:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/dm-gritzmacher

Author Website Link:

https://gritzmonster.com/

About the author

DM Gritzmacher spends much of his time unwinding the knots his twisted narratives bind him in. Plotting out his escape (and next dark tale), while cruising along the backroads near his home in Illinois. Married to his high school sweetheart for more than 35 years and with five grown children, he remains baffled by the state of the world around him. Retreating into his own writing where the dark things that slither, creep, haunt, and betray are not merely the folly of man…

Review Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/

The Pumpkin King and Other Tales of Terror by R. David Fulcher

Genre: Horror Short Stories

Format: eBook

Pages: 136

Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis:

Gravelight is pleased to present the first volume in a two-book series collecting the horror fiction of R. David Fulcher!

THE PUMPKIN KING AND OTHER TALES OF TERROR offers up 20 works by Fulcher, each updated and revised by the author. Each tale has been fully revised by the author, making these the definitive versions of the stories.

 Unlike slasher books, these stories create an eerie atmosphere of dread, letting the reader’s own imagination fill in the terrifying details. In the tradition of psychological horror and dark fantasy, they hint at sinister things lurking in the shadows without fully bringing them to light. 

The collection Includes:

• Eulogy to E.A. Poe
• Marienburg Castle
• The Pumpkin King
• Heavenly Strains
• A Matter of Taste
• My Days With Mahalia
• A Night Out With Mr. Bones
• Merry Are We of the Lake
• The Night Flyer
• Pumpkin Seed Spit
• A Night for Animals
• The Man Next Door
• Extra! Extra!
• The Flight Dummy
• For the Children
• The Watcher’s Web
• Dreaming, The Copper City
• The Huntress
• The Faerie Lights
• The October Man

Review:

"Everything retained the silence after the storm; everything retained the silence of the dead."

The best thing about short stories is the diversity of each plot or character. To create both in just a few short pages and engage the reader is to be commended. 

Each story centered on a mix of horror and sub-genres of horror. These are the types of stories that produce the slow creeping dread, the kind that are atmospheric, and have imagery that settles into the imagination. The kind that are thought provoking, creating those moments when one feels the need to stop and think about what was just being read. 

Hauntings in neighborhoods, deep within the woods, and in places where one wouldn't expect them to be. One must always be wary of what walks among them and what may be hidden. Watching and waiting for their time to shine amongst the living. Tempting and coercing into realms of darkness that change the lives of their prey. Much like the minds of us readers tempted into the pages of horror stories. 

 "There was a still woman by a stair railing and a still horror floating in her living room and twenty-seven still spirits by the still waters of a silent lake."

Goodreads Author Link:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/

Amazon Book Link:

https://www.amazon.com/Pumpkin-King-Other-Tales-Terror-ebook/

Author Website:

https://rdavidfulcher.com/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. DAVID FULCHER is an author of horror, science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. Major literary influences include H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, Edgar Allen Poe, Fritz Lieber, and Stephen King. Fulcher’s first novel, a historical drama set in World War II, Trains to Nowhere, and his second novel, a collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories, Blood Spiders and Dark Moon, are both available from authorhouse.com and Amazon.

FULCHER’S work has appeared in numerous small press publications including Lovecraft’s Mystery Magazine, Black Satellite, The Martian Wave, Burning Sky, Shadowlands, Twilight Showcase, Heliocentric Net, Gateways, Weird Times, Freaky Frights and the anthologies Dimensions and Silken Ropes. Fulcher’s work can also be found in the DPP collection Halloween Party 2019, available at Amazon and at the DPP online store. A passion for the written word has also inspired Fulcher to edit and publish the literary magazine, Samsara,(samsaramagazine.net), which has showcased writers and poets for over a decade. Fulcher resides in Ashburn, Virginia, with his wife Lisa, and their rambunctious cats.

A Coffee & Thorn Book Tour

Coffee & Thorn Website Link:

https://coffeeandthorn.com/

Review Links:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/