Punk Goes Horror II: Hardcore for the Encore

by William Sterling (Editor), Clay McLeod Chapmen, Cynthia Pelayo

321 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2026

About the author

William Sterling is an independent novelist who hails from the darkest depths of Georgia.

He is especially into horror, fantasy, science fiction, and anywhere that he can find them overlapping.

Follow along and get updates on Instagram by following @Spooky_Sterling, or @spooky.sterling on Bluesky

Reviews

[Steffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the first anthology so couldn't wait to get my hands on the second installment! The formatting is gorgeous, with an A side and a flipped B side, each song-titled story preceded by the author's photo and additional artwork. As a fan of both punk music and the horror genre, these collections have been a delight! Like a true mixtape in book form, it contained many favorite authors but also several new to me. They run the gamut from fun campy tales to more serious topics. Some of my faves included: (in order of how they appeared in the book) Cat Like Thief by Thomas Gloom (a cursed/premonitory zine tale), Aesesinos by Cynthia Pelayo (people are disappearing in an ICE-esque manner), Well, I Can Get Sexual Too by Cat Voleur (a pedo revenge tale), Dismantle Me by Chris Panatier (a fly that is in love with a human), Black Me Out by Laurel Hightower (a middle aged woman encounters a robbery at Hot Topic), and Wrong Way Kids by Brian Asman (a crime noir involving literal mall rats!)