Split Scream Volume Seven: Off the Map

Split Scream #7

by Íde Hennessy, John K. Peck, L. Mahler

Volume Seven of our ongoing series of paired New Weird Horror novelettes takes readers on nightmare excursions to lonely locales!

Íde Hennessy - Sequoia Point

California's rugged “Lost Coast" has long been a treacherous place where dreams—and people—go to die. Meg's adrenaline junkie husband had been so drawn to Sequoia Point’s beaches that he'd requested his ashes be scattered on their black sands. Reeling after his death and a miscarriage, Meg decides to put down new roots in this strange place.

What she finds is a van-life conspiracy theorist seeking refuge from 5G radiation; mysterious packs of roving dogs; cryptic talismans on doors; and a mute woman who looks exactly like her. When a mudslide cuts the town off from civilization, Meg must overcome her debilitating fears to unravel the mysteries of Sequoia Point.

John K. Peck & L. Mahler - Evergreen

Wrapping up the loose ends of her mother's death, Deirdre makes a startling a tree growing in the closet of her childhood home, and a bizarre collection of knick-knacks buried in its soil. She soon learns that her mother had a hand in her hometown’s long history of odd disappearances and misfortune, and that this ominous tree is her legacy.

Nurturing the tree's soil with filched mementos, Deirdre learns that she can control the vast system of roots thriving beneath the town to a terrifying degree, and she soon finds herself fighting her darkest desires to wreak terrible vengeance on the town that wronged her.

Genres: Horror

166 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 27, 2025

About the author

Íde Hennessy (she/they) lives in Humboldt County, California with her partner and three special needs cats who can see ghosts. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Reckoning, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Dark Matter’s The Off-Season: Coastal New Weird anthology, Fusion Fragment, Flash Point SF, King Ludd’s Rag, and more. Her novelette Sequoia Point will be released by Tenebrous Press in late March 2025 as the second half of Split Scream volume 7. Íde also occasionally records and performs with darkwave band Control Voltage, as Vibra Steel.

Reviews

[Jamedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Split Scream Volume Seven: Off The Map is the new instalment on this double novelette feature, written in this case by Ide Henessy, John K. Peck and L. Mahler, published by Tenebrous Press. As you can imagine by the title, on this occasion, both novelettes will be focused around nature's unstoppable force and isolated places, with young girls as the main characters, but each one with its own twist.

With Evergreen, we have a short novelette, about a woman returning to her small hometown after her mother's death. The whole time the author is playing with the sense of nothing to fear, nothing threatening our main character, Deirdre; we can only see how she feels about this city that previously hurt her. You only see there's something weird about the trees, and while there's a local that acts as the driving force for the novelette to advance, you will totally not see how creepy it actually becomes. The pacing is a bit too slow for my taste, but it works with this particular wordcount.

Sequoia Point was my favourite from this instalment. From the start, we can feel the strangeness and how something is off; even taking in account Meg's philosophy, things only become worse and worse. A darker proposal, but which I totally enjoyed as it follows a formula that works so well in horror.

A great instalment on the Split Scream series, Volume Seven is totally a recommend if you prefer a more "natural" horror, stories where the setting plays a more important role. Another excellent addition to the weird bookcase of Tenebrous Press.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

This collection combines two novelettes that explore the topic of returning somewhere after the death of a person you once were close too, once to your home town and once making a home out of a place you visited for a holiday. In both stories the protagonists are haunted and pursued by something and they will have to confront their pasts. While the first novelette is a bit more in the typical horror killing spree, the second one is sad and filled with grief and I think they worked very well together. It was interesting to see where the novelettes had similarities and where they different and I enjoyed both of them a lot.

Evergreen by John K. Peck & L. Mahler
A young woman returns to the small town she left behind years ago after her mother’s death to take care of her affairs. In her mother’s room, which she was never allowed to enter as a child, she finds a tree growing in the closet. And the roots crave blood. Fun small town horror, cool sentient tree enemies, very fun depictions of the deaths (it was gruesome, I liked it!).
I enjoyed the story a lot and I liked the side characters, but I think the storyline of the main character could have been extended a bit more for her progression to make a bit more sense. I still really enjoyed this novelette, it was fun to read :)
TW: bullying (past), death, being eaten alive, murder, violence

Sequoia Point by Íde Hennessy
After her husband’s death, a woman moves to the small out-of-the-way town he proposed to her in. Grief weighs her down as does the decision of where to scatter his ashes. As she explores the town and tries to get to know the people, something begins stalking her in the night. A heartbreaking, but intriguing story about grief and fighting a scary beastie. I really enjoyed this one, it is haunting and I really enjoyed the main character. I also loved the descriptions of the landscape and the way the sea was described here really added a lot to the feeling for me. I have definitely discovered a new author for me to watch out for and I’m very glad I got to read this novelette.
TW: alcoholism, animal death, cancer, car crash (past), death, depression, drowning, gore, grief, miscarriage (mention, off-page) murder, smoking, vomiting

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway
As a Hitchcock kinda girl I enjoyed these two stories.
Not overly intense but enough to keep me reading the very end.

[Candie Holland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #77 2025
"Split Scream Volume 7: Off The Map"
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️

"Split Scream Volume 7: Off the Map" continues the series' tradition of delivering unsettling horror through paired novelettes, this time venturing into isolated and eerie locales.

"Sequoia Point" by Íde Hennessy

Set along California's treacherous "Lost Coast," this story follows Meg, who, after personal tragedies, seeks solace in the remote town of Sequoia Point. The narrative weaves elements of grief, isolation, and the uncanny as Meg encounters enigmatic locals, cryptic symbols, and a doppelgänger. Hennessy's prose effectively builds a sense of dread, though some plot elements could benefit from deeper exploration.

"Evergreen" by John K. Peck & L. Mahler

In this tale, Deidra is driven back to her hometown she desperately tried to escape as an adult. Peck and Mahler crafts a haunting atmosphere, where Deidra returns to her childhood home after her mother's death. She discovers a tree growing in her mothers closet; the vivid descriptions evoke a sense of decay and desolation. The story's pacing maintains tension, though certain character motivations might leave readers wanting more from the story.

Volume 7 offers two distinct narratives that delve into themes of isolation and the unknown. While both stories succeed in creating atmospheric horror, they occasionally leave questions unanswered, which may intrigue some readers while frustrating others. Nonetheless, this installment is a worthy addition for fans of the series seeking new, chilling experiences.
#goodreads #goodreadsgiveaway #booksgoals2025 #bookreviewer #bookstagrammers #booklover #bookrecommendations #booksbooksbooks #BookWorm #bookreview #blogger #bookblogger #bookstagram #bookshelf

[Leo Otherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Special thanks to Tenebrous Press for the ARC copy they provided.

I often say, Tenebrous Press doesn’t disappoint, and I will add, neither does the Split Scream series.

Split Scream Volume Seven opens with “Evergreen,” a going home after doing everything you can to leave story. The word count is short and the pacing mild. Everything about “Evergreen” draws you in with a lulling sense that there is little or nothing to fear. The main character, Deirdre, certainly has no fear, only aggravation towards the town she grew up in and the people residing in it. Nothing unusual there, in and of itself.

The only disquiet lurking behind the scenes of “Evergreen” are the trees, and the anomaly of the one hiding in the closet of Deirdre’s late mother. Not to mention the collection of “trinkets” Deirdre finds littering her childhood home and the strange tendency of the closet tree to “eat” whatever is put into the soil at its roots.

This disquiet is dispelled somewhat by a mild mannered sheriff with the comforting name of Milo who shows up and really makes you root (get the little pun there, trees and roots, haha…) for him. Even when he drops a few strange hints that make you scratch your head and hope he doesn’t turn out to be the monster hiding in the closet.

He doesn’t, which is nice. (He gets the root, which is less nice.) And ultimately “Evergreen” took me by surprise because I wasn’t expecting… that.

Ahhhh… yeah. This one took a turn I should have expected but just didn’t. Something I enjoy in a book. (I will just quietly lament Milo over here in a corner…)

Following “Evergreen” is “Sequoia Point,” a slightly longer novella that reached out and grabbed me from the first few lines. The tone is much more sinister from the beginning and the strangeness of the setting can’t be ignored. I also loved that the things I anticipated helping just didn’t. They, in fact, made matters worse.

A good twist is something I appreciate and both “Evergreen” and “Sequoia Point” have them without the novellas feeling like copies of each other. The main characters, Deirdre and Meg couldn’t be more different and couldn’t make more disparate choices.

I have to say, I much prefer Meg’s decisions and her attitude toward life, but that’s just personal opinion. We all have plots we prefer, and I think “Sequoia Point” has one of mine. Which is why I don’t want to say too much about it.

I want you to read it for yourself. Grab that book and decide if you like this one and its ending as much as I did. It’ll be worth it. Trust me.

Or don’t. Either way, read it.

[Books For Decaying Millennials · Rating 5 out of 5]

The publisher provided an advanced digital ARC of this title. All views and opinions are my own, provided free of charge.
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Every volume of Split Screams from Tennebrous Press, delivers something unique, something special. The forthcoming 7th volume is no exception. John K. Peck, L. Mahler and Íde Hennessy have contributed stories that seem almost infused with the cold spray of sea water off the West Coast of Northern California, and that scent of Pine Trees and rich earth that draws me back to Western Washington, decades ago. These stories are not an invitation to relaxation, far from it. Their stories are a reminder of "The Unknown" that exists in the green, twisted in the roots of trees or in th shadow of rocky cliffs pounded by incoming surf. It's bitter sweet that this collection evoked the atmospheric quality of some of the late David Lynch's work, that sense of shadow and darkness that is both void, and also pulsing with life.

[The Blog Without a Face · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome, you twisted fuckers, to the latest installment of Split Scream, Volume Seven, brought to you by the delightfully deranged folks at Tenebrous Press. This bad boy is a double-barreled shotgun of horror novelettes that’ll leave you questioning your sanity. We’ve got Evergreen by John K. Peck and L. Mahler, and Sequoia Point by Íde Hennessy. These two tales take you off the map and into the deep, dark woods where the trees whisper your name and the shadows have teeth. Let’s carve into each story, rip out their themes, and see if they bleed brilliance.

Evergreen by John K. Peck & L. Mahler
John K. Peck is a Berlin-based writer and musician whose work spans horror, travel, history, and gaming. His fiction and essays have appeared in outlets like Interzone, Pyre, Cosmic Horror Monthly, McSweeney’s, and Glasgow Review of Books. He’s also the editor of Degraded Orbit, a site exploring abandoned places, unusual architecture, and underground culture. With his wife, he co-founded Volta Press, a letterpress and book arts studio that began in Oakland in 2007 and continues in Berlin. Peck’s punk rock roots shine through in his DIY ethos, having reviewed music for DyingScene.com and played in various bands, which infuses his writing with a raw, rebellious edge.

L. Mahler is a designer and doctoral researcher specializing in cellulose-based origami structures and living design systems. Based in northern California, Mahler brings a unique perspective to horror, informed by their academic work on mycelial structures—fungal networks that inspired Evergreen’s eerie premise. While their publication history is primarily academic, Evergreen marks their first major fiction piece. Mahler’s background in writing and printmaking from their undergrad days, where they contributed to DIY lit mags, adds a tactile, hands-on quality to their storytelling.

Deirdre, a city girl with a grudge, returns to her dead-end hometown of Falls Valley after her mother’s death. The place is eerily quiet, with a dwindling population and a dense forest that feels alive in all the wrong ways. Her mother’s house holds unsettling surprises, including a strange natural phenomenon that defies logic. As Deirdre reconnects with an old friend and confronts her hatred for the town’s remaining residents, she’s drawn into a creepy mystery tied to the forest’s unnatural pull.

Evergreen is a snarling eco-horror tale about nature’s quiet vengeance and the weight of past grudges. The forest looms as a living, breathing entity, not just a setting but a force that watches and waits. It’s a middle finger to humanity’s obsession with taming the wild, suggesting that nature’s got its own plans, and they’re not friendly. The story’s central natural anomaly, something bizarre and organic, symbolizes nature’s ability to infiltrate and reclaim spaces we think we control.

Isolation is a core theme. Falls Valley is a nowhere town, a place where people vanish and no one bats an eye. Deirdre’s return amplifies her alienation; she’s a stranger in her own memories, and the town’s emptiness mirrors her inner disconnect. The strange objects she finds around the house (knick-knacks like baseball cards and a lighter) hint at a deeper, darker history, suggesting the forest has been collecting tributes for years. The story wrestles with how we confront (or feed) our personal demons when trapped in a place that amplifies them.

Peck and Mahler wield prose like a rusty axe, sharp, gritty, and ready to hack through your expectations. They paint Falls Valley with vivid detail: the “snap of screen doors in the wind” and the “hum of flies circling half-empty plates” create a palpable sense of desolation. The forest’s voice, described as “low and coarse,” adds a mythic edge, while Deirdre’s grounded bitterness keeps things human. The pacing is a slow creep, building dread like roots pushing through concrete, though it can drag when it lingers on Deirdre’s brooding. It’s atmospheric without being flowery, balancing supernatural unease with small-town stagnation.

Evergreen is a deliciously creepy slow burn that nails the folk-horror vibe. Its central anomaly is a stroke of originality, a twisted idea. The prose is quotable as hell: “They thirst for the coppery flavors of the life-throbs that meander past” is the kind of line that deserves to be shouted from a rooftop. The horror builds steadily, creating a suffocating sense of inevitability.

Deirdre’s resentment toward Falls Valley, however, gets repetitive, hammering the same note until it feels like a grudge match with no payoff. Secondary characters, like her old friend, are flat, serving as props rather than people. The forest’s mythology is evocative but vague. There’s a sense of something massive lurking, but it’s never fleshed out enough to hit as hard as it possibly could. Still, the story’s ambition to blend ecological dread with personal vengeance is bold and mostly lands.

A stellar slice of weird horror that takes big swings and mostly connects.

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Sequoia Point by Íde Hennessy
Íde Hennessy (she/they) is a writer, musician, and graphic artist based in the rugged “post-apocalyptic wastelands” of northern California, where she lives with her partner and three special-needs cats. Her work blends cosmic horror, eco-horror, folk horror, sci-fi, and cli-fi into genre-defying “weird blobs.” A musician with a punk rock streak, Hennessy has played in post-punk bands like Control Voltage, a minimalist synthpop group called Blood Gnome, and as a guest vocalist for the experimental Starving Weirdos. Her love for nature and fascination with non-human intelligence infuse her horror with a primal, otherworldly edge.

Meg, a widow drowning in grief, retreats to Sequoia Point, a remote coastal village, to start over. Her solitude is shattered by a bizarre, otherworldly presence that upends her sense of reality. As the town’s isolation deepens with a storm cutting off the only road out, Meg uncovers whispers of missing persons and strange local rituals. She’s forced to confront the town’s dark secrets and her own pain, navigating a dangerous game to survive the supernatural threat.

Sequoia Point is a raw exploration of grief, survival, and the moral cost of self-preservation. Meg’s journey mirrors her internal struggle with loss—her husband’s death is a wound that festers, and the supernatural entity she encounters feels like an extension of her fractured psyche. The story’s ritual objects symbolize the cyclical nature of trauma: you can try to bury it, but it keeps resurfacing. The coastal setting, with its “black sands” and stormy cliffs, amplifies the sense of being trapped in a liminal space where reality bends.

The entity itself is a powerful symbol of identity and transformation, forcing Meg to confront who she is when stripped of her civilized shell. The town’s “magnetic anomalies” and hints of otherworldly portals suggest a place where the veil between worlds is thin, reflecting Meg’s teetering mental state. The imagery of glowing rifts in the cliffs is haunting, representing both escape and danger, a tempting but perilous way out of her pain.

Hennessy’s prose is jagged and vivid, like sea glass cutting through fog. She captures Sequoia Point’s wildness with lines like the “roar of waves” and the “soggy box” of cremains, grounding the supernatural in tactile reality. The dialogue is sparse but sharp, especially the snarky exchanges with a local teen. The entity’s scenes are feverish, blending primal horror with pathetic vulnerability. The pacing is relentless, though it can feel overwhelming, and some lore dumps (like blog posts) are clunky.

Sequoia Point is a visceral plunge into grief and survival, with a supernatural threat that’s both terrifying and tragic. Hennessy’s knack for making Meg’s desperation palpable is a goddamn triumph: lines like “A swirling pit had opened in her stomach, aching to be fed” hit like a punch to the gut. The coastal setting is a character in itself, wild and unforgiving. The horror is relentless, with disturbing imagery that’ll make your skin crawl.

But the story trips over its own mythology. The rituals and portals are intriguing but underdeveloped, too many questions go unanswered, leaving the supernatural elements feeling half-cooked. Meg’s arc, while emotionally raw, rushes toward its climax, diluting the impact. The blog posts used for exposition feel like a shortcut, pulling you out of the story’s flow. It’s ambitious but doesn’t quite stick the landing.

A wild, messy ride that’s scary as hell but wish it had a bit more space to allow its lore to breathe.

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Split Scream Volume Seven is a bold, weird, and occasionally brilliant duo of novelettes that lean hard into isolation and supernatural hunger. Both stories take risks, blending personal trauma with cosmic dread, and their prose is sharp enough to cut. Evergreen edges out slightly with its tighter focus and unforgettable closet tree, but Sequoia Point’s raw emotion and gruesome imagery keep it close. The collection’s biggest flaw is its vague mythologies—both stories tease big ideas but don’t fully deliver. Still, for a horror blog crowd that craves the strange, this is a damn tasty treat.

TL;DR: Evergreen is a creepy, nature-fueled nightmare where a pissed-off woman faces a forest that’s way too alive. It’s bold and unsettling. Sequoia Point is a grief-drenched coastal horror show with a freaky entity and killer vibes.

Recommended For: Freaks who get off on nature turning humans into mulch or doppelgängers chowing on sea lions.

Not Recommended For: Normies who think horror peaked with The Conjuring or need every plot hole sealed tighter than a coffin.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with this book. I can't believe it took me this long to find the split scream volumes. perfect blend of creepy and well- written. thank you for the arc ♡

[Nadia King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Tenebrous for the digital ARC.

Volume Seven is the first of the Split Scream series I've read, and the first book I've read overtly advertised as New Weird Horror.

With that in mind, the two stories in this book are tied thematically with nature as this beautiful, yet unforgiving force. Paired with the young protagonists--two women who return to a place of not-quite-home as they bear the weight of grief--the dichotomy of nature peaks at the stories' climax and end, as one protagonist is empowered by the destructive force of nature, and the other learns to adapt with an evolving existence.

'Evergreen' is more weighty and haunting in style as the reader is constantly aware of the ghostly legacy of the protagonist's deceased mother and the unknown lurking threat of disappearances. This story kept me turning the pages as it waited until the very end to deliver on all the setup, and boy was it worth it! There is something deeply resonant about nature seeking revenge, destroying every minute forever plastic we leave in our wake.

'Sequoia Point' is more folkloric in style, complete with witches, talisman, a doppleganger, and failed rituals. The protagonist actively tries to uncover what is going on in this strange town as disappearances leave body parts, stray dogs, and personal memorabilia behind. The ending is strangely hopeful, leaving the reader with a sense of inevitability yet resolution--that we are more than flesh and bones, and we are capable of good things.

The plots, themes, and worldbuilding are what kept me reading and made the experience highly immersive. I did find some moments a little slower than preferred. I also found both protagonists to suffer the horror cliche of contrived actions to move the story along (i.e. doing the dangerous thing), which broke immersion. However, these moments were easy to move past considering the concise nature of novelettes. The mystery was well done enough to keep moving forward, and the endings made it all worthwhile!

These stories are excellently paired together, being similar enough to craft an overarching thematic exploration, while different enough to prevent reader fatigue. This novelette double-feature style is excellent for this, as I find many anthologies to be too disparate in their selection. I hope to read more of the Split Scream series!

[Helen Whistberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Split Scream series pairs similarly-themed short stories (or novelettes, depending on how you define these closely-related writing forms), and in this outing, we delve into grief and eco-horror as two women dealing with the recent death of a loved one arrive in towns hiding secrets.

In Evergreen, we follow Deirdre as she returns to her childhood home to deal with the aftermath of her mother's death. Full of resentment over childhood slights and traumas, she is at first mystified but then oddly gratified to discover a mysterious tree growing in her mother's closet that seems to have wreaked a lot of havoc in the town over the years. Will she take advantage of its dark power to exact her own revenge? There isn't a ton of suspense here, but I appreciated the creepy atmosphere and malevolent trees and forests is always a favorite trope for me.

In Sequoia Point, Meg moves to a small, very isolated town with her late husband's ashes as she also mourns a miscarriage. Any horror fan will immediately know that hard to reach towns which can be easily cut off from the outside world spell trouble with a capital T. Meg quickly is plunged into unsettling events culminating in discovering her doppelgänger who appears to be stalking both wildlife and people. Meg's genuine grief gives this tale a more weighted and melancholy feel and the ocean-front setting provides a sense of wildness that works well with the overall mood.

Both are perfectly enjoyable reads though neither strikes into new or unexplored territory for experienced horror fans. Although I love shorter books, I did feel in both of these cases that they might have benefited from being longer pieces. In some ways, they ended up feeling like sketches or prologues for what could have been more complex and emotionally-involving stories. Still, if you're looking for quick but satisfying horror, the Split Scream series continues to deliver.

[Horror Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, this series continues to amaze and terrify as these two authors deliver two novellettes of horror.

In the first, a woman returns to her small hometown after the death of her mother. The secrets she finds hidden in her old home slowly begin calling to her to seek vengeance against a town which hurt her years ago.

The second novellette is an extremely creepy story about a small coastal town in California with something darkly disturbing causing a load of missing people. What's really going on is horrific.

This is the seventh volume in the series and each has a different theme to explore. The range and diversity of authors is fantastic and each book has delivered stories you'll want to read more than once. I highly recommend it.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid 3.5 from me, two lovely short spooky stories. I loved the concepts for both, but I could’ve used more time in the middle of the first to earn the ending. Blazed through the second, really nice character, setting, and monster. Always happy to read horror writers I’m unfamiliar with.