© 2026 Clay Reads

Four boarding-school girls conduct a candlelit séance as a ghost appears above them, surrounded by curdled milk, rotting fruit, and creeping black decay.

Review: Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran

Clay | August 7

A Queer Gothic Horror Mystery I never meant to become a gothic horror junkie, but here we are. After hunting for a new[…]

Three frightened children explore a moonlit canal filled with hanging dolls as a sinister glowing-eyed Wish Doll looms beside their boat.

Lost on Doll Island by Cassandra Ramos-Gomez Review

Clay | July 31

A Masterclass in Creeping Out Middle Schoolers My 9-year-old daughter was so terrified by Lost on Doll Island by Cassandra Ramos-Gomez that she[…]

A young Victorian man stands beside a decaying portrait of himself in a dark gothic room, capturing the eerie supernatural horror of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Clay | June 5

Vanity, Murder, and Masterpieces I have wanted to read The Picture of Dorian Gray for a while. Dorian Gray is prominent in pop[…]

A terrified woman hides behind a palm tree on a tropical beach at night while masked figures gather near a bonfire and a charismatic host stands on a lit stage in the background.

How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates

Clay | April 10

Cults, Influencers, & Island Horror A little life background to give context to this review: I recently vacationed in Mexico, and while sitting[…]

Astronaut in a bulky spacesuit stands in a blizzard on a dark alien ice planet, facing a glowing domed research habitat as jagged knife-like towers tilt from the snow.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

Clay | December 5

Ghost Station Book Review: The Perfect Sci-Fi Horror for Fall Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes was exactly the book I was looking[…]

A woman stands alone in a dim, teal-lit control room on a decaying space barge, watching flickering monitors that show a crawling human figure, a ghostly boy’s hologram, and a corridor lined with shadowy cryo pods, inspired by the space-horror novel Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes.

Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes

Clay | November 21

A Claustrophobic Space Thriller As I stated in my Dead Silence review, I wanted to read a glut of thrillers that verge on[…]

Rainy night at a lonely motel: neon sign, one lit window, a Victorian house on the hill, and a 1950s car in the mud—evoking Robert Bloch’s Psycho.

Psycho by Robert Bloch

Clay | October 24

More Than a Movie: A “Spooktober” Review of Psycho This book has been on my to-be-read shelf for at least two years. I[…]

Derelict starliner ballroom with bodies; through a cracked window, a starfield and a small salvage ship approach.

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Clay | September 26

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes It is September, and I am struck by the mood for thrillers that verge on the horror side[…]

Silhouetted woman approaches a fog-shrouded Gothic mansion under a full moon, evoking the eerie atmosphere of The Haunting of Hill House.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Review

Clay | August 1

A Masterclass in Psychological Terror I might be the only person to have not watched Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House (maybe I[…]

Post cover of Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

Clay | March 28

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates While browsing Goodreads’ The 144 Most Read Books of the 2024 Reading Challenge, I stumbled upon Dead[…]

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