A Selection of Horror Books Released, 23 to 29 Jun 2024
Themes: Supernatural, serial killer, historical, dark fantasy, and revenge horror
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Table of Contents
The Eyes are the Best Part – Monika Kim
Serial killer horror
Feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.
Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing.
In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.
For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.
Foul Days – Genoveva Dimova
Dark fantasy horror – Book 1 of The Witch’s Compendium of Monsters
In a city where everyone is out for themselves, who can Kosara trust to assist her in outwitting the biggest monster from her past?
As a witch in the walled city of Chernograd, Kosara has plenty of practice treating lycanthrope bites, bargaining with kikimoras, and slaying bloodsucking upirs. There’s only one monster she can’t defeat: her ex, the Zmey, known as the Tsar of Monsters. She’s defied him one too many times and now he’s hunting her. Betrayed by someone close to her, Kosara’s only choice is to trade her shadow – the source of her powers – for a quick escape.
Unfortunately, Kosara soon develops the deadly sickness that plagues shadowless witches, and only reclaiming her magic can cure her. To find it, she’s forced to team up with a suspiciously honorable detective. Even worse, all the clues point in a single direction: To get her shadow back, Kosara will have to face the Foul Days’ biggest threats without it. And she’s only got twelve days.
Incidents Around the House – Josh Malerman
Supernatural horror
A young girl’s troubled family is targeted by a malevolent entity she calls ‘Other Mommy’.
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.
But Other Mommy needs an answer.
Market for Murder – Heather Graham
Serial killer horror – Book 2 of The Blackbird Files
In the alleys of Edinburgh, someone is killing for profit…
Scotland has a dead body problem. Another one.
In the wake of a similar spate of tribute killings, Special Agents Luke Kendrick and Carly MacDonald know they have their work cut out for them. Working alongside a new team of agents, the partners have more questions than answers when the crime scenes yield little evidence. In the style of infamous killers Burke and Hare, it appears victims are being moved to a secondary location, where they’re dissected and sold for spare parts.
With the clock ticking on every organ being harvested, the members of Blackbird know the killers must be near at hand, and soon discover that they’re also being closed in on. As questions begin to arise about the newest additions to their team, Luke and Carly are running out of time, and people they can trust, to catch the killers before the agents themselves are the next to be put on ice.
Mountain Fast – S.J. Shank
Historical fantasy horror
Hungary, 1468. At Kuszkol, the old-timers say, shadows walk and men go mad. But sixty years after the remote mountain fortress was first abandoned, it is attracting soldiers once again.
The bishop’s messenger András carries a letter for the new commander. On his party’s northward journey, he downplays the old tales. Yet he cannot explain why the castle’s beacon should burn the night before their arrival. Nor why, once they arrive, the garrison is missing. Nor can he explain the mysterious charcoal figures they find etched on the walls.
By the time they settle down for their first night at Kuszkol, András faces an even more pressing question: why is he speaking in his dead wife’s voice?
PsychoActive – Crystal Lake Publishing
Horror novella anthology
Three transformative horror novellas of metamorphosis and madness.
Love is a Monstrous Death by Ryan C. Thomas & Anthony Trevino: The residents of Sunshine Spires, a dilapidated apartment building, are thrust into a nightmarish Valentine’s Day party where survival means confronting sexually-charged parasites, mutated neighbors, and a relentless middle-manager.
The Secret Eater by Cody Goodfellow: An Alaskan farming family discovers an addictive substance that triggers a catastrophic metamorphosis in their town, unleashing unspeakable dreams and bodily transformations.
Black Rings by Ed Kurtz follows an aspiring musician’s quest to find her missing sister in a Connecticut red-light district, only to stumble upon a cryptic conspiracy lurking beneath the surface of a strip club and an hourly motel.
Scorned – Unveiling Nightmares
Revenge horror anthology
A collection of revenge horror stories penned by some of the genre’s most acclaimed women’s horror authors.
Each tale is a journey into the heart of vengeance, where ordinary people are pushed beyond the limits of fear and morality.
These stories will leave you questioning where justice ends, and revenge begins.
Teleportasm – Joshua Millican
Supernatural horror – Book 3 of Killer VHS Series
Four friends unearth a unique VHS tape that, when viewed, causes short-distance teleportation with euphoric after-effects, inadvertently launching a perilous trend.
As copies of the original tape are made, the results become less predictable and ultimately gruesome due to analog generational decay. Despite the danger, some will risk everything for just one more trip.
Voracious – Belicia Rhea
Psychological horror
Sixteen years old, pregnant, and bulimic, Lila is struggling to endure daily life but is driven by her bleak, prophetic dreams that an upcoming doomsday of insect plagues will soon overtake humanity.
Her fears are written off as a severe insect phobia. Lila has no friends to talk to and her boyfriend is assumed dead after going missing under mysterious circumstances.
Forced into therapy by her mother, Lila recounts her panic about the insects to her therapist, who begins experiencing strangely similar symptoms.
As the insect threat looms, Lila confesses a troubling secret, fearful of her doom amid the impending apocalypse.
We Shall Be Monsters – Tara Sim
YA dark fantasy horror
Kajal knows she is not a good person. If she were, she wouldn’t selfishly be risking her sister’s soul in a dangerous bid to bring her back to life. She would let Lasya rest in peace, but Kajal cannot stand the horror of living without her.
As Kajal prepares for the resurrection, the worst happens: Her sister’s soul warps into a Bhuta – a murderous, wraith-like spirit – and Kajal gets sentenced to death for her sister’s rampage.
There seems little hope of escape until two strangers offer to free her. The catch: She must resurrect the kingdom’s fallen crown prince to aid a growing rebellion against a tyrannical usurper.
Desperate, Kajal rushes to complete her end of the deal, only to discover that the boy she’s resurrected, Tav, is not the crown prince.
Now Kajal must team up with Tav to find the real crown prince.
With only a scalpel and her undead dog, Kutaa, at her side, Kajal must work fast before her mistake is exposed or Lasya’s bhuta turns its murderous fury on the person truly responsible for her death: Kajal herself.
When I Look at the Sky, All I See Are Stars – Steve Stred
Supernatural horror
A psychiatrist begins to wonder if her latest patient really is possessed by a demon.
Dr. Rachel Hoggendorf has seen it all. An accomplished psychiatrist, she’s always prided herself on connecting to the patients who’ve been brought to the facility, no matter how difficult or closed-off they are. That is, until David arrives.
At first, she listens to what David has to say. How he claims to be four-hundred-years-old and possessed by a demon. She diagnoses him as having multiple personalities and approaches his treatment as such.
But as their time together continues, David begins to share details he shouldn’t know and begins to lash out violently.
When Rachel brings in her colleague, David’s behavior escalates and it’s not long before they begin to wonder if David just might be telling the truth.
Published: 29 June 2024
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