You Don’t Belong Here
D.M. Siciliano
Publication date: October 13th 2025
Genres: Adult, Horror, Paranormal, Suspense
A girl who feels invisible finally faces her worst fear on her sixteenth birthday and hastily makes a dark deal.
An old man returns to the same place every year on the anniversary of his wife’s death, to have one last moonlit dance with her.
A woman’s health concerns are ignored, and it leads to global chaos.
A young woman goes home to bury her father and sell his house but finds that the home is no longer hers.
An old man with Alzheimer’s becomes increasingly lost in his own house, which seems to be doing its own forgetting.
Two young girls find a Ouija board, thinking they’re communicating with a deceased relative, but find something much more cunning.
A woman, grieving the loss of her baby, takes a trip to a remote cabin in Tahoe. Her worried sister goes after her and isn’t prepared for what she finds.
A woman’s drive through California’s winding roads leads her to a perilous and sinister discovery lurking in the woods.
A woman takes a job as a nanny for two troublesome kids, only to find that the children aren’t the problem.
I don't read a lot anymore but when I saw this one and the various stories included, I was quite intrigued. Overall, a perfect read for this time of year, definitely a haunted or scary vibe with most of the stories. Bullet points below on some of my favorites... Highly recommend especially if you're looking for a nice October Halloween season read.
You Don't Belong Here is a collection of nine short (horror) stories. I italicize that because they don't all read to me as horror, though they are all mostly quite good.
Invisible: Reminded more of scary stores we tell in the dark. Slightly twisted, more campfire scary than horror. That being said, Invisible, I'm sure we've all felt invisible at one point or another. Ponder that while reading.
Moondance: So, I lost my mom in 2023, just a few months shy of hers and my dad's 55th anniversary. This one, this hit me in the feels. I'm not sure the Author intended it to be that way, very bittersweet and haunting for me.
Hysteria: Who among us hasn't had that nasty inner thought occasionally, why did I have children?
Round & Round: Loved the way the Author wove everything together here like an episode of a dark TV show, slowly revealing things throughout.
Not a Game: Nope, as soon as I read the word Ouija I stopped reading. Spiritual thing for me, I don't do Ouija anything.
No Cell Service: The song playing in my head while reading, Anxiety by Doechii.
Sunny Days Ahead: See previous notation for the short, Hysteria. Quite enjoyed the way the Author tied everything together again with this one, would love a more elaborate, full book on just this short.
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Excerpt...
SUNNY DAYS AHEAD
Tommy took a long sip of his milk, leaving a trail of a white mustache above his top lip. “She died.” He took the sleeve of his pajamas and wiped it across his lip, removing the stain. “She got sick. Sad sick.” He leaned back against a pillow on the sofa and pulled the corner of the throw blanket up to his chest.
“Oh, I am so sorry.”
“She got confused a lot. And cried a lot. She confused me and Danny. Didn’t know who was who. Sometimes she yelled at my father for no reason. Sometimes she got so sad and nervous that she would itch her arms until they bled. That’s what Dad said.”
Terry pulled her sleeves down low, so as not to call attention to the long red marks that now plagued her arms. They began to itch and tease at her, but she resisted the urge. Instead, she locked her hands around her teacup. “That is very sad.”
“When everyone went to sleep, she stayed awake. She would walk up and down the halls. Open our doors and just stand there at the bed watching us sleep.”
A chill of recognition swept over Terry.
“If we were bad, she would lock us up in our room.”
DM is a lover of all things creative. From the moment she could speak, growing up in Massachusetts, she had a passion for flair and drama, putting on concerts for anyone who was even remotely interested (and even for those who were not). A storyteller by nature, she first pursued her young dream of becoming a singing diva while living in Arizona. She soon found that stage life wasn't the only form of storytelling she craved, so she dropped the mic and picked up a pencil instead. She still hasn't given up on her diva-ness, and hopes her pencil stays as sharp as her tongue.
A dark sense of humor and curiosity for haunted houses and things out of the ordinary led her down the path of completing her first novel, Inside. Several other projects are constantly floating around in her head and her laptop daily, and sometimes keeping her up much too late at night. Occasionally, those projects are so dark and twisted, she needs to leave a nightlight on.
She now lives in Northern California with her two fluffy furbabies, Cezare and Michaleto.
You Don’t Belong Here Blitz
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