Exequial: Exhumed

by Hannah Graves, Kelley York (Illustrator)

Every story is a eulogy.

The clown has been with Morgan since she was eleven years old. She's learned not to talk about him. ("A Girl and Her Clown")

A woman attends a family dinner for the first time in a decade. It will be "liberating", her therapist insists, and so she's going to record the whole thing. ("Reconcile with Your Family Today")

It is a perfectly ordinary day for the mistress of the house. Today. Tomorrow. Every day. Until 2:28 a.m.. ("Life in Repetition")

There are lights in the forest. Everyone sees them. Everyone wants to know what they are. Everyone who tries to find out never comes back. ("The Lights of Northwood")

Encounters with ghosts, cursed books, incriminating VHS tapes, entities from the skies, and questions that are best left unasked. Now featuring illustrations, six new stories, and a bonus guest story.

Genres: Horror

Kindle Edition

Expected publication October 23, 2026

Reviews

[Skye Crawford]

When I think about horror collections I’ve enjoyed the most, what first comes to mind are those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books I read as a kid, that combine short tales with compelling art. I’ve been chasing that horror collection “high” ever since, so seeing that Exequial also has bonus art on top of scary stories instantly grabbed my attention… and didn’t let go.

This is a collection of all different flavors of horror. I started this review by listing which ones that stood out to me the most, but then realized if I talked about every single one this would become multiple paragraphs. So, I will only mention three:

On Bodies and Bouquets is an atmospheric, near-poetic little wonder of horror, that relates the thoughts and events of the narrator being symbolically linked to certain flowers.

Sometimes You’re Not the Nightmare, when it’s the ghost who ends up the most disturbed by the person she chooses to haunt. I thought it was a nice twist on the more traditional horror stories involving the ghost usually the one giving the scares.

Corpse Congregation has a folksy, hearsay vibe as if told by a friend, with a haunting premise and a bit of dark humor. The kind of story shared around a campfire or passed down in a family.

…

Okay, okay, I can’t help but mention another:

Reconcile With Your Family Today is revenge gone right in a slasher kind of style (or wrong, depending on the perspective. I’m very much in the “gone right” camp).

I received an early review copy and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Pranav Bhatnagar]

I went into Exequial: Exhumed expecting horror, but I did not expect the stories to get into my head the way they did. This is the kind of collection where you can finish one story, take a breath, and then wonder if you actually want to start the next one. Of course you do, because curiosity wins every time. The story about Morgan and the clown was probably the moment when I realized this book was going to play with more than just fear. Morgan has lived with something terrifying for so long that the horror starts to feel painfully personal, and I found myself caring about her rather than simply being scared for her. Her relationship with Elizabeth also gave me something I did not expect from a collection like this. It reminded me how much it can mean when someone simply believes you and stays beside you when everyone else thinks you are imagining things. Then the collection moves into completely different kinds of fear. There are stories that made me uncomfortable, stories that made me curious, and stories that made me think, “Why am I still reading this?” while immediately turning the page anyway. I also loved the way humor appears in places where I absolutely was not expecting it. It made the characters feel more human and gave the darker moments even more impact. What makes this collection worth your time is that it never feels like the author is trying to scare you in exactly the same way over and over. Some stories made me feel sad, some made me uneasy, some made me laugh, and some left that horrible little feeling that something is still sitting in the corner of the room after you have stopped reading. If you enjoy horror that can make you feel something beyond fear, this is a collection I would happily spend another night losing sleep over.

[Maya]

Thank you to NetGalley and Dead Fox Publishing for providing me with the ARC.
Pub Date 23 Oct 2026
Unfortunately, I felt like these stories are not fully developed. They were just ideas, some good, some quite simple. My biggest turn off is that I read the first 10 stories and disliked every single one of them, so this is a DNF for me. I don’t want to be a Debbie downer, but these are most definitely not horror stories for me. I can’t review the stories without spoiling them, just because there is nothing to spoil. But here are some quick comments I have for the ones I’ve read.
A girl and her Clown – not a bad concept, just boring execution, quite bad ending
Have you seen this man? – Bunch of blog posts about a shared dream of a boring ritual, but the ending wasn’t that bad
A (potential) ghost story – I honestly do not remember anything about this and I’ve read it two days ago
“DO NOT READ” – cool premise but it was so short, it wasn’t punchy or surprising, it was just predictable and unsatisfying
Winterhollow – Doctor does experiments on mental patients and that’s it.
Hibernation – Just an idea with no substance, very short and boring
Little sister – the narrative is the same in every story, you could tell this is written by the same person, that knows only one way to tell a story /with the exception of the blog posts in the second story/
In the basement – Just an idea with no substance, very short and boring
The last of the real ones – I can honestly admit that this was a good story, but nothing special or memorable.
Enrichment – an idea with little substance, still boring tough

[Essie]

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars

An anthology of horror stories, there are always bound to be some that are favored over others. Unfortunately, with Exequial: Exhumed, there were far fewer stories that I enjoyed than those I did not enjoy. It almost felt like there were too many stories crammed into the book and I feel like if the author had spent a little more time on some stories than having so many short ones (just a few pages), the book might not have felt as overwhelming getting through.

The writing was very simple and not very sophisticated. It had the feel of more juvenile writing and oftentimes felt rushed. The pacing of the majority of the stories was very fast and again, I feel as though I might have enjoyed the book more with slightly slower paced, more in-depth stories that were fewer in quantity. Quality is always better than quantity.

While I didn’t hate this book, I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it. I don’t think that I would recommend it to others.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an eARC.

[Zoe Lipman]

This is a collection of spooky short stories.

The cover really caught my eye. I think the imagery is intriguing, but I also really love the contrast between the pink and the grey.

Unfortunately, these stories didn't really feel like anything special to me. I didn't find them to be very exciting or satisfying. They didn't have an arc to them.

A lot of them felt like they just randomly ended. And that can squash any satisfaction or impact from the story (at least, for me).

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

[Sylena Speed]

I enjoyed the idea of multiple stories in one book, but this may have been too many. The stories that really drew me in felt way too short and others way too long. Overall, I did enjoy the book and the different stories made this easy enough to read!

Thank you NetGalley and Hannah Graves for this opportunity to read this ARC

[Kala Godin]

This is a collection that has something for everybody! Or anybody who likes horror. The writer is incredible and has a knack for writing beautiful and lyrical prose.