Book Review: CEMETERY TACOS AND OTHER DELIGHTS

by | Jul 13, 2026 | Author News, Book Reviews, Reviews, The Horror Review News | 0 comments

Cemetery Tacos and Other Delights
Nora B. Peevy
Trepidatio Publishing (April 10, 2026)
Reviewed by Andrew Byers

Nora B. Peevy’s Cemetery Tacos and Other Delights is a spirited collection of short fiction that blends Midwestern gothic, dark whimsy, and unflinching personal reckoning. Spanning childhood trauma, supernatural menace, and slyly humorous horror, the volume gathers a mix of previously published and new stories to showcase an author with a distinctive voice rooted in Milwaukee’s working-class landscapes.

The opening piece, “Knock, Knock,” sets a haunting tone. Framed around the death of a grandmother and a cherished stuffed toy that mysteriously plays its lullaby in moments of crisis, it weaves childhood sexual abuse, grief, and quiet miracles into a raw, confessional narrative. Peevy’s strength here, and throughout the book, is her ability to ground the uncanny in sensory domestic detail: butterscotch candies, porch swings, and the cloying scent of funeral flowers. These tactile anchors make the supernatural intrusions feel earned rather than ornamental or superfluous.

Standouts like “The Telling Place” deliver pure genre pleasure. A boy’s therapy sessions with the unsettling Ms. Sinclair (complete with a snake-headed coat rack and bone talisman) spiral into psychological and folk horror as the “therapist” extracts and twists childhood fears. The story’s creeping dread, playful grotesquerie, and sharp child’s-eye perspective recall the best of early Ramsey Campbell or Thomas Ligotti’s suburban nightmares, executed with a lighter, more mischievous touch. Other entries, such as the title story and “Carnivorous Cows from Outer Space,” lean into absurdist bizarro territory, offering grotesque comedy and inventive creature features that balance the collection’s heavier emotional currents.

Peevy’s prose is direct and evocative, occasionally veering into sentimentality (in the best possible way). The collection’s Milwaukee settings and recurring motifs of food, family ritual, and hidden monstrosity give it regional flavor without provincialism. Not every story lands with equal force—a few feel like sketches rather than fully realized tales—but the best ones linger with their blend of tenderness and terror.

Cemetery Tacos and Other Delights showcases Peevy as a writer comfortable in multiple horror registers: the intimately personal, the folkloric, and the gleefully grotesque. Readers who enjoy character-driven weird fiction with heart, humor, and a touch of the macabre will find much to savor. A promising start that leaves me eager for what Peevy cooks up next.

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *