Gingerbread

by J.E. Erickson

***WARNING: GRAPHIC VIOLENCE***

A supernatural serial killer.

A family’s deadly secret.

This isn’t your grandma’s house.

When six friends on a spring camping vacation in the forests of northern Minnesota become trapped in a strange mansion hidden deep within the woods, they unwittingly become part of a sinister and bloody ritual designed to either keep a wicked entity imprisoned… or set it free.

Genres: Horror

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

J.E. Erickson fell in love with horror and fantasy at an early age. The first story he wrote was at age 11 and was about a child walking home from school to discover his own gravestone. He still thinks about it when referring to himself in third person.

He currently writes horror and fantasy stories, and lives in an old house in the Midwestern United States with a nerdy soap maker, two spoiled dogs, and a (potentially) possessed vegetable garden.

His debut novel "Offerings to the Flower Moon: The Tale of the Abrams Witch" released in 2022. You should totally read it.

Reviews

[Tobin Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...a supernatural psychopath in a Scooby-Doo house."

A nasty, gruesome short read by one of my favourite indie authors.

I'm not the biggest fan of a lot of gore (says the author who's written some gory stuff of his own), but if you do, you're gonna dig this. Erickson basically strip mines a bunch of fairy tales, offers up the nastiest parts in a series of fever dream sequences in a fantasically weird house.

There's a large cast of characters for such a short book, but each does tend to get their moment, and the overall plot is a fun one. And Tabby?

Yeah, I'd love to see Erickson let Tabby loose in a good long book.

[Louise Conway · Rating 3 out of 5]

A creative and extremely gruesome dark fairytale where nothing is quite as it seems. While there are lots of classic horror ingredients here-- witchcraft, unsuspecting campers, serial killers-- this still feels like a fresh and original story with some very imaginative deaths.

I wasn't so keen on the (infrequent) moments of spice and at times the writing didn't feel quite as well done as it is in other books I've read by this author. But the characters were interesting and the story took some clever turns. It was good fun to read

[Stefanie Barnfather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. If you love horror stories with intensely creative ways of killing off an endearing and entertaining cast of characters, I highly recommend. Erickson's prose is beautiful - and his gore-drenched mind is brilliant. I gagged too many times to count, but couldn't put the book down. If you read it you won't look at peanut brittle the same way again. Or camping. Or cottages. Or kitchens. Bleh.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

review to come.