Calling all cosmic horror fans! You’ll want to add this one to your reading lists!

Follow two kids as they find a hovering wheel in the middle of the forest one night. It changes the trajectory of their lives for good and bad.

I enjoyed seeing Marley & Caleb grow up, deeply influenced and bound to an object beyond their comprehension. It was a quick story, almost a bit too short, but I really, really enjoyed reading it. The author has a wonderful imagination.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Dead Sky Publishing/ Death’s Head Press for a copy!

This was a dope read! Boulerice is a completely new to me author. I haven’t heard this book mentioned in any of my circles, but I’m confident we’ll be hearing more from him soon. The novella, Feeding the Wheel, was great. It’s the story of two middle school friends, Caleb and Marley, who stumble upon a colossal, murderous stone wheel in the woods. The wheel is suspended a few feet above the ground and appears to eat willing child sacrifices. The boys flee but quickly discover temporarily enhanced capabilities which pulls them into a lifelong cycle of visiting this wheel to sustain their boon.

The cosmic horror was great in this one. The vibes were dope and the imagery goes hard. I struggled to connect with the characters as neither are good dudes, but it aligns with the events of the story and it’s a full circle tale. The only thing I wished is that we got more of that ending. I would love to have learned more about other potential dimensions, but maybe we’ll get more from Boulerice on that in the future.

Boulerice has included the short story, Lord of Doors with this book. I hoped it was going to be related to the events of Feeding the Wheel, but it wasn’t. I *loved* the short story at the end. It was perfect imo. Cyclical, creepy and it hits the mark all the way through. It’s short but packs a wallop in its few pages. I definitely feel like Boulerice is on the horizon for indie horror so don’t sleep on this one. Great read.

Feeding the Wheel was a weird, fun, horrifying ride. The story went in a direction I didn't expect, and it really kept me interested.

I have to say though, my favorite part of the book was the bonus story Lord of Doors! I wanted to scream at the ending and the visuals were just as rich as the novella which preceded it.

I will definitely be checking out some of Mr. Boulerice's future endeavors.

A narcissistic best friend. A window to another dimension. A being made of the forest’s discarded things. A circle of children in white, singing to an unknown god. And a system in which the being made of discarded things grinds the singing children into a paste to feed the god sitting on the other side of the interdimensional window.

Oh—and the narcissistic best friend absolutely, positively does not exploit the fact that these sacrifices give him the power of superhuman manipulation.

Part cosmic horror, part folk horror, and all too real for anyone who’s had a manipulative best friend. It’s a quick, entertaining read with vivid imagery and believable characters. Strong 5/5 from me.

I received an e-ARC and am giving my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity!

I love fast paced, quick horror reads and this was just that. Completely sucked me in (pun intended) and I couldn't look away. Each page brought more horror, whether literal horror or whatever Marley was saying and doing. I was completely enthralled for the entire book, and it was the perfect pace for me. Non-stop continuation of the horror with not a ton of scenes with nothing going on, in a good way. It was a perfect quick read, and the bonus short story at the end was so interesting (thought I have to admit, I wish it was a bit longer because I'm desperate to know what happens past the end). I really enjoyed this, a great read for fans of Chuck Wendig or Lovecraftian horror

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This was pretty much my first touch with Cosmic Horror as a genre and I had such a good time with it, got approved for the ARC a few days ago and decided to “give it a go” one evening, fully intending to only read for about half an hour and then go to bed.. and somehow I devoured the entire thing in one sitting.

The dynamic between Caleb and Marley was really interesting to me, as well as the premise of seeing them grow up throughout the book, that was pretty cool! The way the author describes the wheel and the children felt very eerie to me and got me immersed in the story really quick. Only thing I don’t know how I feel about is the ending, like, it makes sense but it left me wanting a bit More idk.

Overall I did really enjoy myself, loved the bonus story Lord of Doors, would absolutely read more by this author in the future!

This book has the bones of a good story, but it fell flat for me personally. The characterization was a bit ham fisted and the pacing was rushed. I did love the imagery presented, and enjoyed the short story at the end more than the feature.

Would recommend for fans of “The Twisted Ones”

5 stars and a girl hungry for more from this author. An excellent shorter story about corruption and those who turn a blind eye.

Caleb and Marley are going into the seventh grade. Puberty, girls, and school loom over them with an unsure feeling. However, the night before school begins they take a walk through the forest behind their houses and find a group of children dressed in valiant white, standing in a circle around an enormous and floating stone wheel, waiting for something. Enter an Eldritch looking forest beasty named Old Friend who emerges from the trees and plucks a child up, gives it a hug, and grinds it into the spinning wheel. At first, Marley and Caleb chalk it up to hallucination, but when everything begins to go their way they question what the Wheel really does. Visit after visit to the wheel brings more food fortune, but when is enough truly enough? And what other sacrifices must Caleb and Marley make to keep the lives they've built?

I read this so fast! It was shorter but held my attention in a vice, my fingers turning the page in almost a trance-like state as I devoured words like the wheel ground children. I really felt for Caleb by the end whereas I vibed more with Marley in the beginning. Marley was unashamed with the offerings to the wheel, which was such a redeeming quality for me. So many times we get people doing terrible things with such guilt I find myself disconnecting from them. I'm sitting there screaming at the page "THEN JUST STOP", which would have been reasonably easy to do for Marley and Caleb. That quality that I really admired in the beginning morphed over my journey with them, making me even take a look inward to think would I be a Marley or a Caleb? And honestly.....Marley's fate would probably become my own. I am not noble or really regretful in my life, but I see how unchecked it will fester and rot. The ending was a bit rushed, but honestly it fit the story...had it been drawn out more I think some of the magic would have been lost. Also, sign me up for a tattoo of dear Old Friend. What a cool character they were!

Other than the rushed ending this is easily a 5 star read, the characters alone plus the mysteries of the wheel, children, and realms beyond make this a top read of the year for me. Thank you so so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Cosmic horror is a very difficult beast to wrangle, and even more difficult to wrangle with any level of success. There’s a certain level of complexity in handling eldritch terror, especially when balancing it with the mundane.

I felt like the characters in this were a little underbaked, and that the dialogue was a little stilted in places too, but I could understand the urgency in getting to the cosmic horror parts of this book. It felt like the ‘normal life’ facets of this were the ones that the author wanted to get out of the way to get to the good stuff.

There were some definite parts of this that definitely fitted the ‘good stuff’ brief. The focus on knowledge being powerful but also dangerous (and, more often than not, fatal) was wonderful, and I feel like the curtain got peeled back just that bit more on the Old Gods.

It was definitely brought forward with a real creeping sense of dread, which was delicious. I’m keen to see more of where this author’s work goes- but for now, this is a lovely first romp for me!

3.75 rounded up to 4

A love letter to cosmic horror, this novella has enough human sacrifice and creepy cults to keep you entertained for a whole afternoon. Fans of cosmic horror will definitely want to check this one out.

This one is short but it really packs a punch. The story gets into the thick of it almost immediately and provides some excellent creature designs and gore along with it. The concept of the "Wheel" itself was interesting as well with it drawing the main characters into a dependency that was interesting to read. The illustrations provided in the book also gave it a very nostalgic sort of Creepypasta feel.

However, outside of the Wheel and the rituals I thought the story was quite lacking and held back by the writing. Some of the dialogue felt stilted and some of the characters (especially Caleb's family) felt underdeveloped.

A cosmic mind bending horror that makes the reader question themselves and what they would do, it's pacy and packs a punch, the writing is captivating and I throughly enjoyed my time with this!

I am a huge fan of genre-bending horror, and this story did a good job of blending horror and sci-fi together to create an intriguing plot that makes the reader ask themselves, "Would I have done the same in these circumstances? What would I do if I got a cheat code to life at the expense of my morals? And what if I had a friend who was a little too good at convincing me I deserved what we got out of it?" I read it in one afternoon, needing to know what would happen next!

Caleb and Marley are your average slackers in middle school. Not great at school, athletic or anything that would get the praise of their teachers or parents. This changes after finding The Wheel, a cosmic entity hidden in the woods. After they witness a horrific ritualistic sacrifice, their entire world will change forever when they become imbued with strange power. However they realize all too late that with this power comes dire consequences.

The best way to summarize The Wheel is the movie Chronicle/The Covenant with a cosmic horror twist. Two boys wander into the woods to find a strange entity that grants them powers and abilities at a horrific cost, both in the immediate and the long term. Boulerice not only captures cosmic horror perfectly but also the conflict that arise when people acquire pow). My only criticism would be the length. The story is a novella, but there are definitely parts of the story (mainly the second half) that could have been more fleshed out. The pacing of the second half of the book tends to be very quick and I would have loved to see more of a slow burn that leads to the epic conclusion. Overall I loved reading FEEDING THE WHEEL and Boulerice’s take on cosmic horror. It was a quick but highly enjoyable read. Thank you to NetGalley and Dead Head Press for giving me an ARC copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

This haunting story can easily be consumed in one sitting. It feels perfectly crafted: No paragraph feels unnecessary and nothing's missing. The wheel is strange at first, but just as Caleb, the reader get's to accept the wheel's existence very fast.
The bonus story was an interesting read as well. I'll keep an eye out for this author in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, This is my full and unbiased opinion given of my own accord.

Feeding The Wheel follows two best friends over the years, as they benefit from the boons given by a mysterious wheel in the forest by their hometown. Every few months, the friends travel to this wheel, and watch as a small child is fed by a bizarre entity, and the blood of the child is devoured by a powerful and malevolent being from another world. Caleb is forced to reckon with the consequences of a life that's only possible due to the slaughter of indoctrinated children, while watching his best friend Marley give into his worst manipulative impulses.

I'm a sucker for cosmic horror and weird fiction, and this definitely scratched that itch. It's a very short read, a novella, and not particularly dense, so you can most likely get through it in less than an hour. Because of this, there isn't a lot to say.

Editing wise, there were quite a few typos, as well as one case where Marley's name was replaced with Caleb's. It could definitely use another go around by the editor.

I think Boulerice got the point across in a pretty short timeframe, and it's very enjoyable to read. The worldbuilding of the Wheel and the Children of The Wheel was also pretty well done, even if it wasn't fully explored. I do wish it was longer, I don't think he got the most out of the premise, and there are a few dangling story threads not addressed by the end of the story. The climax is the weakest part of this novella. The actual ending/epilogue flowed nicely, but what preceded that left things to be desired. I also wish Marley's character and relationship with his parents was more fleshed out to accompany his downfall.

Overall, Feeding The Wheel is a solid 4/5 and a very enjoyable read, even if it's potential wasn't fulfilled to its fullest

This is a fantastic freaky and horrifying novella which has folk horror vibes along with some creepy cosmic horror.

Caleb and Marley are two best friends who sneak out for some late night adventures in the woods on the eve of entering seventh grade. They get more than they bargained for as they enter another world with a floating round disc, a group of strange children dressed in white, a ritual which brings a creature made of woodland things, and the bloody willing sacrifice of one of the children to a cosmic entity.

Both boys experience extraordinary changes. Scars and acne are gone, they possess knowledge they shouldn't have, and their talents are vividly enhanced. But this effect from the wheel wears off over time and this novella will show how they continue to go back, watch the sacrifices of children just to have these abilities and they'll do it for the rest of their lives. Throughout high school, collage, and well into adulthood, their lives are almost perfect because of the power from the wheel. But it comes with a cost and a question of morality.

We'll see how this affects both of them throughout the years as their relationship begins to crumble and how the lust for more power will change them both forever.

This is a very creepy, highly effective story and it gets more horrific as it progresses. What and who will one of them sacrifice for the ultimate power? I highly recommend this one.

Feeding The Wheel
Michael Boulerice

Creepy, kooky cosmic horror with hints of Ligotti and Matthew Barlett's weird and wonderful collection'Creeping Waves'; yet this story has a flavor and style all it's own.

4 / 5

Proudly wearing its inspiration from the legendary H.P. Lovecraft, Wheel very much reads like if 'The Shadow over Innsmouth' was written by one of the Innsmouth fish folk tempted by the blessings of a higher power; Caleb's position as both favoured and victim of an eldritch god makes him the best narrator for this kind of story, which, at its best, is creepy, weird, and the best kind of unsettling. (I also cannot overstate how much I love the unnatural floating disk with a hole in the centre being our Great Old One for the tale.)

However, this appealing and eerie premise is really held back by its writing. The evocative imagery really starts and ends with the Wheel itself; meanwhile, the prose describing Caleb and Marley's 'normal' lives pales heavily in comparison to the cosmic horror underside of the narrative. The scenes of the boys at school or at work are written with a strangely reticent style where it seems that the author was clearly trying to only write them out as a bridge or explanatory setup to get to the Good Stuff. Paragraphs of the typical 'telling and not showing' writing pitfall show up frequently, and I believe that is very much a disadvantage in a genre that requires a healthy amount of mystery suspension of disbelief. There are also small typographical errors within some dialogue that tended to disrupt my focus. (There's one instance in particular that I found pretty conspicuous, where the narration refers to Caleb in the first person and then reverts back to the first person narration of the rest of the book.)

But despite all these things, Wheel is a true love letter to the cosmic horror genre, and has everything about it that I want: weird creatures, sinister happenings, unexplained phenomenon, the horrifying infinity of space, both the insignificance of humanity in the face of unfathomable knowledge and humanity's penchant for greed and abusing that knowledge. I always needed to know what happened next, and that kept me reading until the end.

I also truly hope that they keep the illustrations I had in my edition in the published one, because they add a delightfully nostalgic sense of creep factor to the whole thing. And they are also charming as hell!

Thank you to Death's Head Press for the ARC through NetGalley.

*Feeding the Wheel* by Michael Boulerice is a strange, sharp, and darkly funny ride that caught me completely off guard. It’s one of those books where you think you’ve figured out the tone—maybe it’s satire, maybe it’s existential dread—until it shifts again and drags you somewhere deeper and weirder than you expected.

The voice is what pulled me in first: biting, self-aware, and laced with just enough vulnerability to keep you hooked. Boulerice writes with a kind of controlled chaos—like everything is teetering on the edge of absurdity but still feels grounded in something painfully real. It’s unnerving, yes, but also hilarious in a way that made me feel guilty for laughing.

There’s this sense of inevitability running through the narrative, a tension that builds even when nothing overtly terrifying is happening. It plays with themes of routine, purpose, and the invisible grind of everyday survival—but does it with such unique style that it never feels heavy-handed.

*Feeding the Wheel* is smart, unsettling, and strangely cathartic. It got under my skin in that rare way where I wasn’t just thinking about the plot—I was thinking about myself. Definitely one I’ll be recommending to anyone who likes their fiction bold, bleak, and a little unhinged.

Feeding The Wheel surprised me with how much it packed into such a short space. The story’s mix of cosmic horror and the complexities of friendship and addiction really worked for me. Caleb and Marley’s journey felt authentic—there’s a rawness in how their relationship frays alongside the supernatural elements that kept me hooked.

Boulerice’s writing is evocative and measured, creating an atmosphere that’s both eerie and emotionally grounded. I appreciated that the horror wasn’t just surface-level but tied into deeper themes of desire and power, which gave the story a lasting impact.

That said, there were moments where I wanted the story to slow down and explore certain emotions or conflicts more fully. But overall, the tight narrative and the emotional depth more than made up for that. It’s the kind of novella that sticks with you after you’ve finished, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for horror with real heart behind the scares.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!