3 min read

The Hell Priest Returns

Digest 09.30.26 - Stone Soup
The Hell Priest Returns

Welcome to the Stone Soup Digest! This is where I share what I'm up to and some of my favorite things from around the internet. Subscribe to Stone Soup to get this in your inbox on the regular.


The Hell Priest Returns Today

HE’S HERE! Today, Hellraiser: Return of the Priest is in comic shops everywhere. 

He’s lived so many lives. He’s died so many deaths. Does it ever end? Is there peace or only endless war? He’s lived with so many names—The Hell Priest, The Acolyte, The Cold Man, and the one that has always plagued him—Pinhead.

Caught in the sensory deprivation of Middle Hell, Elliot Spencer suffers the worst fate: no feeling at all. No pain, no pleasure, just unending consciousness. When the glory of Leviathan’s light finally sears through him, granting him the gift of pain—it’s revelatory. The Hell Priest must journey to remake himself and gather his Gash once more to bring the cherished blessing of pain to all that deserve it. After all, there is a calling telling him the way...no, that he is the way...

Barnes & Noble | Bad River Website | Find a Local Comic Shop

EVENT: In Conversation with Mona Awad for We Love You, Bunny

TONIGHT, September 30 at 7:00 PM
Meet Cute Romance Bookshop
8235 La Mesa Blvd
La Mesa, CA 91942

EVENT: Can*Con

If you’re not in San Diego, you’re probably in Ottawa (I’m advised that those are the two places people live). Which is such a lucky coincidence, because Ottawa is the location of my final appearance of the year! 

CAN*CON: OCTOBER 16 - 18, 2026
FRIDAY, 7:00 PM - Class Conflict & Revolution in SFF
SATURDAY, 10:00 AM - Discomfort as a Compass Needle
SUNDAY, 10:00 AM - Quirks and Perks of Writing for a Big IP

At the end of the Civil War, a daughter of the Confederacy made what she thought was an innocent wish: to build a house where nothing bad could happen. But peace came at a price, and one hundred and seventy years later Shantell and her friends are about to discover where all that darkness ended up.

When Shantell’s best friend, Avery, tells her he has inherited a house big enough to make their dreams of a sanctuary come true, she’s too cautious to be optimistic. A lifetime of loss — her father to the Iraq war, her brother to police violence, and her mother to suicide — has taught her cynicism, and even though Avery swears the house has never experienced a tragedy, she goes along expecting everything from black mold to evil spirits.

But not only is the house in better shape than they’d expected, it makes them better too: Shantell’s anxiety stops flaring up; terminally shallow Avery is suddenly capable of deeper emotions; and Tobias, Avery’s older brother and the contractor for the job, even quits chain smoking.

There’s an eeriness to the calm, and it’s almost a relief when they realize they do not walk alone in Abernathy House. If nothing bad has ever happened here, where are all these ghosts coming from? As they dig into the house’s history, Shantell, Avery, and Tobias discover that there’s only one thing worse than a house that’s haunted: a house that desperately wants to be.

Barnes & Noble | Bad River Website | Local Library | Libro.fm | Find an Indie Bookstore


If you'd like to support the work of the team that keeps Stone Soup running, you can subscribe here for as little as $1 per month, or you can drop a one-time donation into the tip jar.

In the meantime, remember: Do what you can. Care for yourself and the people around you. Believe that the world can be better than it is now. Never give up.

-gailey