A Selection of Horror Books Released, 16 to 22 Mar 2025
Themes: Supernatural, vampire, ghosts, dystopian, gothic, and cult horror
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Table of Contents
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter – Stephen Graham Jones
Historical vampire horror
A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall.
What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow.
Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits.
Chloe – Connie Briscoe
Gothic horror
A spirited woman marries a Black billionaire, only to discover that he remains haunted by his first wife who took her own life – or did she?
A mansion haunted by the ghost of a cool, charismatic first wife. A second bride from a small Southern town who may be in over her head. A brooding billionaire who grows icier the more his new wife questions him about the past.
Angel is a private chef for the Harrison’s, one of the most powerful Black families on Martha’s Vineyard. Impossibly supercilious Jillian Harrison often spends the entire summer on the island, while her husband Irvin and their twenty-nine-year-old daughter Norma commute from Washington, DC, on weekends. They always join Jillian for the month of August, when the family throws a lavish garden party on the expansive lawn that is attended by nearly one hundred guests. This year’s guests include Everette Bruce, an influential Black billionaire, still in mourning for his first wife, Chloe, who committed suicide.
To the imperious Jillian’s surprise, Bruce ignores her and instead becomes enchanted with Angel. Eager to get away from the controlling Mrs. Harrison, Angel accepts Everett’s invitation to become the private chef at Riverwild, his massive mansion along the Potomac River. Her meals and company provide comfort Everett, and soon he and Angel begin a whirlwind romance that culminates in marriage.
Though Angel is confident and strong, over time, she begins to feel the enigmatic Chloe’s ghost. The house’s staff, the head housekeeper Ida, a menacingly rigid thorn in Angel’s side, and even Everett, cannot seem to let the dead woman go, nor explain why the wealthy, stunning woman would kill herself. The more questions Angel asks, the more melancholic Everett becomes, revealing a far less charming side of himself.
The Haunting of Room 904 – Erika T. Wurth
Ghost horror
Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of her sister, Naiche. But when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, Olivia suddenly can’t stop seeing and hearing from spirits.
A few years later, she’s the most in-demand paranormal investigator in Denver. She’s good at her job, but the loss of Naiche haunts her.
That’s when she hears from the Brown Palace, a landmark Denver hotel. The owner can’t explain it, but every few years, a girl is found dead in room 904, no matter what room she checked into the night before.
As Olivia tries to understand these disturbing deaths, the past and the present collide as Olivia’s investigation forces her to confront a mysterious and possibly dangerous cult, a vindictive journalist, betrayal by her friends, and shocking revelations about her sister’s secret life.
Night of the Witch-Hunter – Patrick Barb
Supernatural horror – Book 6 of Killer VHS Series
It’s 1999 and Fallen Church, New Hampshire is ready for Y2K. But they never planned for Goodman Pryce.
As the new millennium approaches, outcast teen Josey’s school video project for history class inadvertently leads to the resurrection of Pryce, a demonic witch-hunter from the 1600s.
As he unleashes puritanical Hell on Earth in her small New England town, Josey must rely on her best friend, an ancestor accused of witchcraft, and the mystical powers inside herself to put an end to the Night of the Witch-Hunter once and for all.
O Sinners! – Nicole Cuffy
Cult horror
A grieving young man is drawn into the orbit of a charismatic cult leader who forces him to reconsider why people give up control, and what it takes, ultimately, to find one’s place in the world.
Faruq Zaidi, a young journalist processing the recent death of his father, a devout Muslim, takes the opportunity to embed himself in a cult known only as “the nameless,” because its members refused to label themselves.
Based in the California redwoods and shepherded by an enigmatic Vietnam War veteran named Odo, “the nameless” adhere to the 18 Utterances, including teachings such as “all suffering is distortion” and “see only beauty.”
Faruq, skeptical but committed to unraveling the mystery of “the nameless,” extends his stay over months, as he gets deeper into the cult’s inner workings and alluring teachings. But as he gets closer to Odo, Faruq himself begins to unravel, forced to come to terms with the memories he has been running from while trying to resist Odo’s spell.
Passing Through a Prairie Country – Dennis E. Staples
Supernatural horror
For decades, a dark force has terrorized the Languille Lake reservation. Spoken of only in whispers as “the sandman,” he lurks in the Hidden Atlantis Lake Resort and Casino, the reservation’s main attraction and source of revenue, leeching its patrons’ dreams and preventing the ghosts that linger there from moving on.
Fleeing a breakup, Marion Lafournier, a midtwenties Ojibwe, seeks solace in the slot machine’s siren song. Here he falls afoul of the sandman, an encounter he barely escapes through the timely intervention of his cousins Alana and Cherie, who both work at the casino and are intimately aware of the sandman’s power.
Meanwhile, Glenn Nielan, recently out of the closet and an aspiring documentarian, hopes to capture the faces of the Ojibwe land while experiencing the casino’s thrills. But he will learn that all who choose to play the sandman’s games are in danger of falling into his grasp.
Marion and Alana are members of the Bullhead clan, a family with ties to a sacred past and a fierce determination to ensure their future. Alana, with her sevenfire sight, is the only person to fully understand the danger the sandman poses.
Aware of Marion’s occasional ability to navigate the spirit world, she enlists his aid in defeating this wraith. But the power and reach of the sandman go far beyond Alana’s worst fears.
Soon she and Marion find themselves in a battle for their lives and for the souls of the reservation’s residents, both the living and the dead.
Sunrise on the Reaping – Suzanne Collins
Dystopian horror – Book 5 of The Hunger Games
When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.
As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight, and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
White Line Fever – KC Jones
Supernatural horror
At a passing glance, County Road 951 is an entirely unremarkable stretch of blacktop, a two-lane scar across the Cascade foothills of Central Oregon.
But the road is known by another name, coined by locals who’ve had to clean up after all those scenic detours went horribly wrong: The Devil’s Driveway.
When Livia and her long-time friends take the Driveway as a shortcut to a much-needed weekend getaway, what begins as a morning joyride quickly becomes anything but. Soon, they’re driving for their lives, pursued by a horror beyond anything they ever imagined.
The Devil’s Driveway might be only 15 miles long, but with danger at every turn, it will take the four women to the very limits of their friendships and their sanity.
And there’s no telling what else lies in wait just beyond the bend.
Published: 22 March 2025
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