A Selection of Horror Books Released, 12 to 18 May 2024
Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghost, vampire, and cult horror
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Table of Contents
The Boo Hag Flex – Justina Ireland
Middle grade horror – Book 1 of Tales from Cabin 23
Few campers at Camp Apple Hill Farm have found the mysterious cabin rumored to be hidden deep in the woods – but those who have whisper of a mysterious woman who tells tales of horrors beyond imagination. Are you brave enough to visit Cabin 23?
The last thing Tasha Washington wants is to move from her home in Savannah to a trailer park in Middle-of-Nowhere, Georgia. But when her mother dies and Tasha is taken in by her father – a man she’s never met, who abandoned her mom when Tasha was just a baby – she doesn’t have much of a choice. At least, she thinks, she won’t have to spend much time with him, something that becomes clear when he dumps Tasha with her grandmother and disappears to be with his new girlfriend.
The Shady Pines trailer park seems like a miserable place to spend a summer, even before an elderly neighbor suddenly passes away. Then Tasha meets Ellie who says she knows what really killed old Mr. Harold: a terrifying creature that stalks the trailer park at night, sucking the life from its victims.
Tasha doesn’t believe it, but when she discovers a book of hoodoo legends in her grandmother’s trailer, and more people around Shady Pines start to appear unwell, she begins to fear the stories are true, and that danger is much closer than she thinks.
Feed the Young – Twizted Talez
Charity horror anthology
From government experiments to telepathic vultures, alien invasions, and a forest revolution, some of the best authors in indie horror have come together to deliver disturbing tales to raise money for the Humane Society International.
Prepare for feral women, killer felines, maggots, and human farms to invade your nightmares.
All proceeds from this book will go to The Humane Society International.
The House that Horror Built – Christina Henry
Vampire horror
A single mother working in the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets.
Harry Adams has always loved horror movies, so it’s not a total coincidence that she took the job cleaning house for movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding graystone Chicago mansion is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes, as well as glittering awards from his career making films that thrilled audiences – until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.
Javier values discretion, and Harry has always tried to clean the house immaculately, keep her head down, and keep her job safe. She needs the money to support her son. But then she starts hearing noises from behind a locked door. Noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help, even though Javier lives alone and never has visitors.
Harry knows that not asking questions is a vital part of working for Javier, but she soon finds that the sinister house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.
Kosa – John Durgin
Supernatural horror
Kosa’s journey unravels the intricacies of control, the strength of one’s convictions, and the true nature of the world beyond the shadows. The choices she makes will not only determine her fate but also influence the fate of those around her.
In a secluded mansion hidden away from the outside world, young Kosa lives under the strict and overpowering rule of her enigmatic mother. For Kosa, the rules set by Mother are the guiding principles of her life, shaping her beliefs and actions. She has been sheltered from the truth about the world beyond the confines of their home, conditioned to fear the darkness and malevolence that supposedly lurks outside.
However, as Kosa grows older, she begins to question the reality she has been presented with. Doubts eat away at her, fueled by a deep-rooted curiosity and a burgeoning sense of independence.
But Kosa possesses a mysterious and powerful ability that Mother desperately needs to sustain her own existence. Mother, a figure shrouded in shadows and secrets, will stop at nothing to ensure that Kosa’s power remains potent and under her control. The sinister grasp that Mother has on Kosa becomes increasingly suffocating as she tightens her grip, isolating Kosa further from the truth that exists beyond their home.
My Darling Dreadful Thing – Johanna van Veen
Ghost horror
Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth – strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries – is the light of Roos’ life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos’ backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.
Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable.
Then, someone is murdered.
Poor, alone, and with a history of ‘hysterics’, Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she’ll have to prove who, or what, is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.
The Red Grove – Tessa Fontaine
Psychological horror
When her mother goes missing, a young woman uncovers the secrets beneath her protected community.
The Red Grove is a special place, protected. Some say a spell was cast by its founder, Tamsen Nightingale. Some say the mountain lions stalking the nearby hills guard its mysteries and its boundaries. Some say the mighty redwoods keep its people safe.
Yet a man has died on the Red Grove’s sacred ground. And Luce’s mother, Gloria, has vanished.
The Red Grove is Luce’s whole world. She is utterly devoted to its mission, its rituals and history. Still, she knows that her mother, frustrated free spirit though she might be, wouldn’t just leave without a word, wouldn’t leave Luce’s little brother or their aunt, whose life and care in a suspended state they call everdream depend on Gloria in every way.
Strange things begin to happen as Luce tries to figure out where her mother has gone. Clicks echo from the trees, flies pound against the windows, and a strange man keeps calling on the phone.
The deeper Luce digs, the more she must ask if her beloved home, the women she admires, and the stories they tell might be built on a devastating lie.
The Witches of Bellinas – J. Nicole Jones
Cult horror
A woman moves to the mysterious town of Bellinas to save her marriage, only to be swept up in a hedonistic cult that isn’t what it seems.
Tansy and her husband Guy are the newest arrivals in Bellinas, a lush oasis tucked into the coast of northern California where a reclusive, creative community is beginning to take shape. Helmed by Guy’s cousin Mia, a famous model-turned-wellness-luminary, and her tech mogul husband, the group renounces the outside world in pursuit of purity, fashioning their own rules about what to eat and how to live.
Everything seems perfect in Bellinas: food is abundant, flowers are always in bloom, and nearby wildfires leave the town remarkably unscathed.
While Guy is happy in their new lives, Tansy becomes more and more suspicious of the community and increasingly desperate to save her already-fragile marriage. And as lonely women have throughout the ages, she wants to believe in what may only be a beautiful lie.
Published: 18 May 2024
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