Nightmares at the Asylum

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Nightmares at the Asylum by Andy Holberry and D.L. Garvin is a gruesome collaboration from two captivating storytellers.

As the title might lead you to believe, this collection takes place at an asylum. We have two men, one new to the place, and one who has worked there a while. The new arrival is getting a tour from the old hand and getting to learn a little about the best, or worst, of the asylums patients.

Richard Walden: The Painter

Richard is a struggling artist. He can’t quite keep up with the best of the best, largely do to an art critic with a lot of pull. In a drunken rage he accidentally creates his most astounding work of art yet, and spends the rest of his story trying to chase down that perfection again, no matter what the cost.

Austin Wilcox: The Sniper

Serving one tour too many, Austin Wilcox suffers a loss that causes his sanity not just to slip, but to collapse on itself. Safe and sound, but thinking he’s still surrounded by the enemy, we get to see what kind of damage a highly trained sniper can do in a civilian area.

Mary Smith: The Teacher

Being forced into a nature trip with a misogynistic coworker and students that she didn’t really want to give up her precious free time for, Mary finds herself being the only “responsible adult” left standing after a freak accident. Unfortunately for her the kids don’t want her around as much as she doesn’t want to be there. Their attempt to create some adult free time has dire consequences all around.

Marcus: The Scoutmaster

Marcus, a seasons scoutmaster has chosen a handful of scouts to join him and Scoutmaster Scott on a yearly camping trip. This one isn’t going to be a walk in the park though, it is all about basic survival. When the scouts want to whine and complain more than camp and hike, something in Marcus frays then snaps completely.

Randal Clarke: The Clown

Randal dons his grease paint one last time. He had been a clown for 30 years, but the job was getting harder every day. Laughter didn’t come easily, but disrespect did. He has a few new tricks up his sleeve though, and goes out one last time knowing that if he can’t make them laugh, he can at least make them scream.

Margaret: The Nurse

Margaret never wanted anything other than to be a nurse. She did everything possible in her life to make sure her dream came true. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it, and she was good at what she did. Then God spoke to her, and told her how she could be even better….

Alistair Monroe: The Mortician

Alistair is having a little trouble at home. His wife and children just don’t give him the respect he deserves. When his job leads him to meet a family much more to his expectations, he decides to take a much deserved vacation. Surely he’d get it right this time around.

Amy: The Housewife

Amy and Ezera were destined to be together from the beginning. Highschool sweethearts, they had the perfect marriage for 30 years. Sure, there were bumps along the road, but they always made it work. They had the kind of marriage that made other’s jealous. Until one tragedy led to one transgression that led to the ultimate housewife crashout.

Thomas: The Student

Thomas is a good kid. A smart kid. A bullied kid. And like all the quite smart kids that get bullied, he eventually decides enough is too much, and fights back, the best way he knows how. The aftermath exceeded even his own

Marco Anderson: The Chef

Marco is the ultimate foodie. He dedicated his entire life to world travel, chasing the PERFECT taste. There is nothing, vegetable, animal or otherwise, that he won’t try at least once. When he gets a once in a lifetime chance to dine with an isolated tribe he discovers the taste he has been looking for all these years, and will do ANYTHING to get his hands on it again.

Marvin: The Hypnotist

Marvin has an impressive ability, and a great distaste for everyone who isn’t him. Then a news report turns him on to unique opportunity perfect for his particular…skillset.

And that brings us full circle, back to two men touring a facility. And one of them is not who he claims to be. But which one is it? And who is he really?

WULFSHAUPT Review: A Dark Werewolf Tale

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WULFSHAUPT by Nick Hendricks is a short story at only 28 pages. It just takes one look at the cover to know that it is a werewolf themed horror tale.

A pair of brothers (Jakob and Matthias) find their dog, and all of their sheep, slaughtered.

They, and the men of the town, think it is a pack of wolves, though the brothers notice something odd about some of the tracks. They were too large, too broad. Not normal.

Matthias is old enough now that his father and the other men let him come on a hunting party. The party ends in yet more slaughter, with only Matthias returning home.

Then, along with the younger Jakob, he goes back out in an effort to find his father, but Jakob and Matthias find something more. They find out about a cursed bloodline and the truth that sometimes monsters come through inheritance, and with age.

In an age where werewolves have become romantic partners more than evil beasts WULFSHAUPT by Nick Hendricks brings the bite back to werewolf themed horror.

I have the sequel Wulfshaupt Thaw already loaded on my kindle and ready to go.

(This post contains affiliate links that may earn me a commission at no extra cost to you. This post is cross posted to my substack Wild Verbs. Follow me at Wild Verbs if you want more reading, writing and horror related content.)

Bonemeal – a review

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Available on Amazon

Bonemeal: Limited Preview Release by Michael Hernandez is a short preview of a longer collection to be released in 2026. It gives us 3 short stories to tease us until the full collection is released. I bought the kindle version, but you can get the paperback for just a penny more!

In DRIVE a mother and son on a road trip are hunted by something unexpected and deadly on the road. I enjoyed this one for its unique creature.
In BLOOD DRIVE an office blood drive turns out to not be quite what it seems. While I knew what the outcome was going to be from about the 2nd sentence, I still enjoyed the read.
Lastly, in NIGHT AT THE OPERA, our MC finds himself to be the main attraction. I will admit to not knowing exactly what is going on, even by the end, but it was still a creepy atmospheric read.

I’m looking forward to finding out what the full version of the collection has to offer.

Why FNAF 2 Lost Me After Its Incredible Opening

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Looking for a spoiler-filled Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie review? I break down the opening scene, missed story opportunities, and why the sequel didn’t live up to the first film.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of my oldest child’s special interests. I know more lore about a serial killer in a bunny suit than I ever imagined I would.

Being the default horror parent, when the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie came out last year, I was the one who went to see it with him. My only hope at the time was that it was more interesting than the little bit of game-play I had watched and more like some of the graphic novels my kid had read to me.

And, it turned out that I LOVED the first movie, so I was just as eager as he was to see the second one that released this month.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!!!
FOR REAL THOUGH

five nights at freddy's 2 movie poster

The film opened very strong for me, as we get to see a young Vanessa and her friend Charlotte in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Charlotte is sitting by a trap door in a stage waiting for someone/something to appear. She had almost been convinced to join an ongoing birthday party when she sees someone in a rabbit suit snatch a boy off the floor into a dark hallway.

She tries to alert any adult in the area that a child needs help, and every single one of them blows her off. So, she decides to go rescue the kid on her own. She finds the boy, unconscious on the floor, and William Afton washing up and whistling

She picks up the boy, who is roughly the same size she is, and there is a slow speed chase as she tries to carry the boy to safety though the dark halls, while Afton pursues her in his iconic suit, knife in hand.

Charlotte, boy still in her arms, appears to have gotten them back to safety. They emerge from behind a red curtain onto the stage at the front of the place, where life is going on as if nothing happened at all. Charlotte SCREAMS, and all eyes turn to her. The boy wakes up and runs to his father. Charlotte stands there, panting, watching the scene, then slowly collapses and we get to see that there are several bloody spots on the back of her shirt. She had not made it back safely after all.

It turns out she was standing on the same trap door that she had been waiting by at the start, and the door opens dropping her inside. Then, ever so slowly, the attraction under the trap door rises up, and we get to see Charlotte, draped across the arms of her favorite animatronic, The Marionet, the same way she had the boy draped across her arms when she emerged.

It was amazing. And, unfortunately, it was the best part of the movie. It all went downhill from there.

Plot Misses and Frustrations

If you don’t know the lore…all of the animatronics are possessed by the spirit of a child killed by William Afton. Charlotte’s ghost, of course, possesses the marionette. It could have been a tragically beautiful story arc but they instead decided to go full on villain with her.

While Abby is missing her friends at the Freddy’s that Mike was a night guard for, a team of reality show ghost hunters show up at the new pizza place for this movie, and they give very, very little to the plot. They serve only to wake up the puppet/Charlotte before being killed off by random things in the pizza shop.

(One guy getting eaten in the fake river by what looked like a school of marionette look alike puppet piranhas was a decent scene then we never see them again even when we end up back in the fake river)

Charlotte’s ghost, now awake, wants revenge and uses Abby’s connection to the old animatronics to trick her into letting her out of the building she is trapped in so she can seek revenge on the “parents.”

There are so many things they could have used to better the story line. Like Abby’s robotics class. Why is she even in robotics class? They could have used that to have her go fix her friends at the first Freddy’s to help fight the evil ones controlled by Charlotte. But, no, she seems to only be in the class so that they can make her teacher be mean to her.

The movie relied far to heavily on jump scares, to the point that it actually got rather tedious. Meanwhile, the withered animatronics were underutilized when they could have been the most terrifying part of the whole movie. Especially Mangled Foxy.
Vanessa’s sub-plot of having trouble sleeping serves no point to the plot aside from getting Matthew Lillard some screen time in the movie.

The ending, of Mike telling Vanessa to stay away from them after one lie by omission from her too many leading to her being possessed by Charlotte, is purposely setting up for a sequel when I think an Evil Vanessa would have been a better story line for this one all along in the first place.

Final Thoughts on FNAF 2

Overall, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 had an amazing opening scene but struggled to deliver a satisfying story after that. The movie leaned too heavily on jump scares, underused iconic animatronics, and missed opportunities with characters like Abby and Vanessa.

For FNAF fans, there are still a few reasons to be excited. Such as Springtrap’s potential return hinted for the third installment, but as a standalone sequel, it falls short of the first film’s re-watch value. I give it 3 stars, most of them belonging to that unforgettable opening sequence.

Fifteen Eyes by Tyler Downs

/ Winona Morris / 2 Comments

I have a confession to make…. I am a notorious judger of books by their covers. There, I said it. I do the thing they always tell you not to do.

Just look at the amazing cover on Fifteen Eyes by Tyler Downs and tell me that it doesn’t make you want to put it right at the top of your TBR as well!

When I started seeing this particular cover pop up in a couple of the horror reading groups I frequent, I was intrigued. When I grabbed it up on KU and started reading it, I was smitten.

This is the author’s debut collection, and I will be surprised if you don’t see the name Tyler Downs going big places in the horror community.

On Amazon, the description of this collection is this:

Solomon Northcutt enjoys the simple things in life: a nice sweater vest, trivia night with co-workers, and using the eyeballs of the deceased to transcribe horrific deaths for his bosses’ reading pleasure.

Tag along with our happy-go-lucky tour guide, Solomon, as he cracks open a fresh batch of 15 sordid tales. There’ll be all sorts of fun stuff inside…Astrology cults. Bodily theft. Cowboys. A whole ton of ants. Cosmic gods the size of skyscrapers. Religious pilgrimages. Arsonists. A traveling guitarist who grants wishes. Desert cannibals. People floating away on balloons. Addiction. A trip to Heaven. Mental hellscapes. The end of the world. A puppet made from decaying body parts and household appliances. Oh, and maybe a werewolf.

“Maybe a werewolf” he says. Oh, yes, there is a werewolf, but before that there is Solomon, who bookends this collection. There is Fallon and Ed and and a whole eclectic cast of supporting characters in Solomon’s office who all deserve their own tales.

There is a method actress preparing for the role of -this- lifetime.
There is a lonely woman willing to risk it all to maybe not be so lonely anymore.
There is a little girl, some bad guys, and a lot of ants just like the description promised.
Also as promised, there is the end of the world, but also a heated revenge story, an intermission to check in on our host Solomon, a screwed up idea of what happiness is, a man on a religious pilgrimage, proof that lies are not the best way to start a relationship, a hellish peek at heaven, wishes with no strings attached, and somebody who just wants to reunite with their old man.

My descriptions can’t do justice to how each of these stories made me feel, and how I kept not picking the book up to read because I didn’t want to reach the end of it.

After all the tales were told, it was mentioned that Downs is hoping for a couple of novel released in 2026, and I’m looking forward to them.

Fifteen Eyes gets 5 stars.

Week End Review

/ Winona Morris / 1 Comment

We’ve survived the first week of December. We might be a little rumpled, maybe held together with caffeine and Scotch tape, but we made it. Some weeks the victory really is “I kept going,” and this was one of those weeks for me.

Work stress hit harder than I wanted it to, and a couple of days were rough. One day I hope I’ll learn the art of not letting other people’s bad moods crawl under my skin. Today was…not that day. But we move forward anyway.

One way I moved forward was getting a domain for this little slice of internet real-estate. You are now officially visiting feralcoziness.com

Good news: I finished all the Christmas shopping I intend to do. Now I get to wait for the deliveries like a gremlin guarding its doorstep.

I also had one productive burst of decluttering. I conquered two doom boxes and tossed four grocery bags’ worth of stuff. A small victory in a long journey, but a satisfying one.

Now, on to the fun stuff, what have I been up to this week, and links where applicable. Also I think I need something to call this other than Week End Review. Something quirky, cozy and maybe a little chaotic. Do you have any suggestions?

Feral Coziness “Newspaper”

I posed a question in the image above. Do you like these “newspaper” graphics? Would you like to see longer versions, either as images on this blog, or free for download in pdf format from Ko-fi?

Things I Have Read

I finished reading Dark and Dreary A Basement Horror Anthology, and put a review of it up.

I have started reading a collection of stories called Fifteen Eyes. It is the debut collection written by Tyler Downs. I am in love with this book so far. If it keeps going the way it is going I believe it will be my favorite read of 2025.

Review to come when I finish it. (maybe as soon as this week)

Things I Have Written

Somethings In The Trash – a free horror story to read.
A Dark and Dreary Review – A book review.

Things I Have Created

I have sewn one Misfit Frog this week, but can’t share pictures of it because it is supposed to be a gift.

This upcoming week I’m going to sew a Misfit Monster (think fuggler) and start a crochet lavendar alien for a friend. I also want to finally start on my alternative hoodie that I’ve been thinking about. More updates on those later this week.

Other Things

My writers group has put up a poll to see what readers would like to see more of on our stubstack. I’d love it if you took a moment to take the poll:
We’d Like to Hear from You, Our Readers, So We’ve Created a Poll
(There have been a few technical issues, so If the poll doesn’t load you may have to go the the man Butchered Writers Substack Page and click in that way.)

Until next time…

Thanks for stopping by, Wildlings. May your week ahead be soft, cozy, and full of small victories.

A Dark and Dreary Review

/ Winona Morris / 1 Comment

There’s just something about basements (and attics) that makes them feel inherently haunted. Maybe it’s the darkness, the damp and dusty corners, or the sense of being tucked beneath the world, closer to whatever might crawl up from below. Whatever the reason, they’re perfect settings for horror.

Dark and Dreary: A Basement Horror Anthology, edited by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, taps into that collective dread with 20 basement-centered tales. Each story is written by a different author with their own distinct voice, giving readers a wide range of reasons to fear what lurks beneath the floorboards.

My absolute favorite entry is “It Whispers From the Void” by Kathleen Palm. An exhausted wife and mother discovers a black spot on her basement floor that only she can see. It grows larger every day, and strange creatures, again visible only to her, crawl out and cling to her, draining what little energy she has left. The horror here is quietly devastating. Its depiction of burnout and depression is painfully real, making the supernatural elements hit even harder.

A few other standouts for me:

  • “Your First Night in Hell’s Kitchen” by Besu Tadesse
    A young up-and-coming cook learns the disturbing truth behind the restaurant’s secret ingredient.
  • “Every Piece Up and Up” by Caleb Jones
    A man watches his entire home, except the basement, vanish into the sky, leaving him alone with the dread of whatever will return for the rest.
  • “Dust” by Elizabeth S. Devecchi
    A casual fling becomes dangerously interested in what a young woman keeps hidden in her basement, unearthing all of her family’s darkest secrets.
  • “Make a Wish” by Kat Gutterman
    A family discovers a wishing well in their basement that grants their desires, at a price no one is prepared to pay.

It took me a little while to finish the anthology, but that’s on me, not the stories. I genuinely enjoyed every one of them. Five full stars from me.

Dark and Dreary: A Basement Horror Anthology is availabe on Amazon on kindle, including Kindle Unlimited, and in Paperback. And remember, you don’t have to have a kindle to read kindle books. The Kindle App is FREE and available for most devices.

And if reading this leaves you wondering whether your basement might be haunted, don’t miss How To Tell If Your Basement Is Haunted and Other Matters by Nora B. Peevy. It walks you through the steps of determining whether you’re experiencing something supernatural… or just battling your fear of dark and dreary places.

Rebelling Against December (Softly, With a Blanket)

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Happy December 2nd, Wildlings.

It doesn’t snow where I live, but today the sky is a soft grey bruise, and the rain is tapping its tiny fingers against the windows. It’s the kind of day that begs you to burrow under your favorite blanket with a warm drink. (I’ve got a mug of Brooklyn Beans Black and White Cookie coffee beside me, in my “Death before Decaf” mug.)

I’ll admit December and I are not on speaking terms. Over the decades retail work sanded away whatever holiday sparkle I had left. After so many years of watching shoppers melt down over shopping carts and wrapping paper, the season feels less like cheer and more like a test of endurance. There are kind exceptions, but they grow fewer each year. And every year, I retreat a little farther from the festivities.

So lately, instead of leaning into the holiday machine, I look past it—toward January. A new year. A reset button. A chance to change everything, or change nothing at all.

This December, I’m choosing underconsumption. Purging instead of piling on. I’ll buy gifts for my kids and my husband, of course, but mostly I’m staring down my own clutter. The empty jars I saved for “someday crafts.” The hole-filled work shirts waiting to become rags. The storage shed full of objects I’m convinced “Future Me” will definitely use for something.

But honestly? I’m drowning in things. And you can’t welcome the new if both arms are wrapped around the old.

So this December, I’m letting go. Releasing. Making space for whatever the new year wants to bring in.

What about you, wildlings—what are you ready to release?

The 31st Trick-or-Treater

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You know what you need at the end of November and only 3 days away from Thanksgiving? You need me to tell you about a book that’s all about Halloween!

Ben Farthing, probably best known for his “I found horror” series, gave us a Halloween Advent Calendar this year in the form of The 31st Trick-or-Treater. It was set up so that if you started reading the book on October 1st, and read one chapter a day, you would finished it on Halloween night, which is also when the book concludes.

In it there is a small community who love and celebrate Halloween with great gusto. Then, 30 children disappear all at once on Halloween night.

A year passes, during which time our main character, Bob, never stops looking for his missing daughter. Then, just as suddenly as they disappeared, the children stat Reappearing, one child a night. The children, seeming to be 100% the same as they were the moment they disappeared a year ago, come back terrified and talking about a mysterious “31st Trick-or-treater” who will arrive on Halloween night.

While Bob waits nightly to see if his daughter will return, he still keeps looking for her around the town. Where he has not managed to find her for 365 days, but whatever floats your boat dude.

I hated Bob. HATED him. He looked own on all the other people in the community for “giving up” on the missing children, was absolutely self absorbed to the point of neglecting his wife and remaining children, and still had the audacity to complain that neighbors weren’t “neighborly” anymore.

Make it make sense my dude.

I did enjoy the book in the beginning enough that I accidentally read more than one chapter at a time and had to wait for the month to catch up with me. (When a story is good, chapter breaks cease to exist for me). There were some scenes that were definitely giving Stranger Things/Upside down vibes.

But the my interest fell off, and I had to catch up several chapters to reach the ending on Halloween.

The ending….

The ending couldn’t have fallen flatter for me if it had tried. I was left with a feeing of “That’s it?”

I ended up feeling generous with a 3 star rating.

I do recommend Ben Farthing, but not this book. The Twitching House and It Waits on the Top Floor were both good reads.

Feral Crafting – DIY Neon Grunge Patchwork Hoodie

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DIY Hoodie Makeover: A Cozy, Feral Crafting Adventure

As a lifelong craft-idea hoarder (Pinterest is basically my natural habitat), I’ve been on the hunt for ways to jazz up my new plain black hoodie. I don’t usually get cold, but apparently this year my body decided to experience “winter” for the first time, so: hoodie season it is.

My goal?
A battle jacket, but in hoodie form. Something patch-covered and full blown chaotic. And then I stumbled across the hoodie. Neon yarn. Ambivalent smiley faces on scrap fabric. A glorious explosion of vibes. I fell instantly in love.

Looking around the internet at places other than pinterest I found hoodies like this and other embroidery accented hoodies, costing $90 to over $100

Good thing I can 100% make this thing! I have neon(ish) yarn, and lots of random fabric and paint markers.

So, once I get a sewing needle that both has an eye big enough for yarn AND is sharp enough to go through the fabric of my hoodie, and maybe some neon pony beads, its game on! Then the DIY embroidered hoodie journey begins.

Probably mine will have a few less dangly threads in the end though. I feel like dangly bits on my hoodie would be begging an accident to happen.

So, what do you think. Is it too feral. Not feral enough?
Would you try this kind of hoodie customization?

There is another yarn craft I want to work on that involves using a cardboard weaving loom. I’m a little afraid to try that one though, because nothing I can fin tells me exactly how big to make the loom, or exactly how much yarn I need, and the yarn for that project is about $20 a skein. When I tackle that one it will be a true “wing it and hope” situation—classic feral crafting.

Anyway, check back next week to hold me accountable for the DIY Hoodie goodness