Breathe In, Bleed Out – Brian McAuley
Slasher horror
Hannah has been running from her demons ever since she emerged from a harrowing wilderness trip without her fiancé. No one knows exactly what happened the day Ben died, and Hannah would like to keep it that way, even if his ghost still haunts her with vivid waking nightmares that are ruining her life.
So, when her friend group gets an exclusive invitation to a restorative spiritual retreat in Joshua Tree, Hannah reluctantly agrees in search of a fresh start.
Despite her skepticism of the strange Guru Pax and his belief in the supernatural world, Hannah soon finds healing through all the yoga, sound baths, and hot springs offered at the tech-free haven.
But this peaceful journey of self-discovery quickly descends into a violent fight for self-preservation when a mysterious killer starts picking off retreat attendees in increasingly gruesome ways.
As the body count rises and Hannah’s sanity frays, she’ll have to confront her dark past and uncover the true nature of a ruthless monster hellbent on killing her vibe for good.
Fragments – Catriona Mowat
Ghost horror
London, 1774. Charlotte is a renowned London actress who has the world at her feet. Until one day she disappears, never to be seen again.
London, Present Day. Hazel has the job she has always dreamed of: writing plays in an iconic theatre in London. But when a secret room is discovered, and a ghostly presence begins to haunt the theatre, she finds herself drawn into the centuries-old mystery.
Piecing together the clues from fragments of memory and madness, Hazel must find out the truth or be driven mad by it.
Godzilla Minus One – Takashi Yamazaki
Creature horror movie novelization
After failing to carry out his suicide mission, disgraced kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima returns to ravaged postwar Japan to find his parents dead and country destroyed.
Having lost both his honor and his family, he must try to slowly rebuild alongside the thousands orphaned by the Tokyo air raids, including a woman named Noriko and her adopted child, whom he invites into the ramshackle remains of his home.
But as these struggling survivors begin to reclaim a semblance of stability, a new and unprecedented threat appears on the horizon: a rampaging, colossal creature from the deep that their defeated nation cannot defend against.
With no hope of aid from the occupying forces, can a ragtag militia of misfits band together to thwart this titanic terror?
Haunted Girl – Jamie Nash
YA supernatural horror
It was the infamous exorcism behind every book and movie. The secret they buried? Evil never dies and it just found Summer’s family.
Summer just wanted to finish senior year quietly – prom, graduation, one last summer at home. But when a trembling stranger confronts her on the front step, wild-eyed, reeking of fear, and seizes her arm with a single warning, “It’s coming. It’s coming for everyone,” her world cracks open.
Looking for answers, Summer stumbles onto a forgotten podcast chronicling the real story behind the exorcism, not the Hollywood version, but what actually happened. The voice behind the mic seems unhinged, obsessed, but he’s the only one who seems to know what’s really going on. And maybe the only one who believes her.
Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Doors close themselves, softly, like someone’s trying not to wake the house. Her little brother speaks in voices that aren’t his. And in the corners, something small and hunched watches, waiting.
Her family is changing, distant one day, violent the next, like something is crawling under their skin. The thing they thought was cast out isn’t gone. It’s back.
And it’s not just haunting them. It’s taking them.
One by one.
In the House of In Between – J.D. Buffington
Haunted house horror
The Backlund House is haunted, but no one knows why. No violence has taken place there, no one has died inside its walls. Over the course of a century, what-or who-haunts the storied property remains unsolved.
Phoebe Backlund built her family’s dream home, only to find it haunted upon its completion. She invites curious thrill seekers and notorious skeptics alike in the golden age of spiritualism to experience the house’s clockwork poltergeists. Knocks, slamming doors, screams, and looming shadows delight and terrify her guests, but answers are as elusive as the phantoms.
The inexplicable beckons Noah Benjamin and his crew to investigate the mystery. Using tomorrow’s technology, Noah aims to reveal the house’s unknown past and finally provide answers to the enigma.
Night & Day – Ellen Datlow (editor)
Horror anthology
Stories from some of the most evocative and bestselling writers of horror and speculative fiction.
Dreadful Dark: Tales of Nighttime Horror features stories about what haunts the night.
Merciless Sun: Tales of Daylight Horror showcases the terrors that can exist in the light of day.
Screaming and Conjuring – Clark Collis
Horror movie non-fiction
Details the films and frights that led to this extraordinary renaissance, from the release of the groundbreaking Scream in 1996 to the arrival of 2013’s The Conjuring, which spawned a multi-billion dollar franchise.
Wes Craven’s Scream was followed by a flood of classic terror tales such as The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense, Final Destination, The Others, Pan’s Labyrinth, 28 Days Later, Resident Evil, Saw, Hostel, Paranormal Activity, and Insidious. This comprehensive history covers the often difficult and tortuous making of all these films (and many more), giving readers the exclusive lowdown on productions which were often as intense as the horrifying sights that ended up on screen.
Features recollections from a host of genre icons, including actors Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) and Neve Campbell (Scream), directors Eli Roth (Hostel) and Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell), and legendary makeup effects artist Greg Nicotero (The Mist, The Walking Dead). The book also includes 200 production stills, film posters, and rarely seen images.
Straw World and Other Echoes from the Void – Erik McHatton
Horror collection
All of us, at one time or another, have heard the call of the Void.
For some, it is a song; for others a shriek; for others still, the faintest of echoes.
Most of us live our lives trying to ignore it, pretending it isn’t there. But it has always been there, watching, waiting, hungering, and above all else, patient.
The Void knows that, sooner or later, we will find our way back to it and, once we do, our sanity will buckle and break at the chaos and terror within.
Fifteen stories investigating the darker, more unsettling corners of philosophical argument, calling out to those who hunger and question, but also to those who simply delight in a hideous tale told with relish.
Be invited to a disturbingly familial art installation; witness a mother’s desperate grief; be party to a doctor’s late-night appointment with eternity; journey through a world of Boschian madness; and read the pages of a cursed book containing worlds within worlds (within worlds).
Through Broken Glass – Nicky Shearsby
Psychological horror – Book 3 of The Flanigan Files
When Jack Monroe is left physically disfigured after a hit and run, his declining health spirals to the point of painful obsession. He becomes an unwitting killer in pursuit of acceptance, blaming society for his actions.
Newton Flanigan must ensure Jack does not become another statistic of a damaged world, his complex involvement ensuring his ultimate failure to protect those he cares for,
The Toxic Avenger – Adam Cesare
Horror movie novelization
When a struggling janitor is pushed into a vat of toxic waste, he is transformed into a mutant freak who must go from shunned outcast to underdog hero as he races to save his son, his friends, and his community from the forces of corruption and greed.
Unworthy – L. Marie Wood
Dark fantasy horror
A woman comes of age as the member of a royal family. She’s next in line to take the throne, a position she does not aspire to possess. Her siblings are unable to assume the role as one by one they’re deemed unfit for the position.
The task is thrust upon her, as it is her duty.
Yet, at the right angle, under the proper lens, the real path is shown, paved with bones and held in place by the viscid and the bloody. There the truth is told, spoken in whispers into ruined ears. There, smiles sit askew on bloated faces, waiting for their turn on the other side of the veil.
Can she find the strength within to prove not only to the court and country, but also to herself that she’s not unworthy of the crown?
You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman – Wayne Byrne
Horror movie non-fiction
A cultural and critical examination of the legendary Halloween film franchise, considering the style, themes, and development of the series within temporal and industrial contexts.
Through candid conversations, a variety of directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, composers, and actors from across the Halloween films offer exclusive insights into their careers, their unique aesthetic approaches, and their experiences of working on one of the most celebrated horror franchises within the history of American cinema.
