The Bone Queen – Will Shindler
Psychological horror
A mother’s search for her missing daughter leads her to battle against the shadows of a historic, dangerous legend.
Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who’s disappeared from their London home. She has no idea why; all she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.
As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.
As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the village’s grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea.
Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is next.
The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day she’ll collect.
Cruelty Free – Caroline Glenn
Revenge horror
A disgraced movie star returns to Hollywood 10 years after the kidnapping of her young daughter intent on seeking revenge.
Ten years ago, Lila Devlin was an A-list actress with a movie star husband and a beautiful baby girl, Josie. When Josie was kidnapped out of her home and never seen again, Lila’s previously pristine public image twisted into that of an Unfit Mother. Driven mad by the hungry press, incompetent cops, and relentless true crime–obsessed “fans,” she disappeared into anonymity.
Now, Lila Devlin returns to LA with a grand vision for a radical new skincare brand to reinvent herself and honor Josie’s legacy. She’s prepared to move into the next chapter of her life with forgiveness in her heart, when an encounter with a parasitic blogger ends with him dead. Lila suddenly discovers forgiveness isn’t nearly as satisfying as a body hitting the floor.
With the help of her devoted publicist Sylvie, Lila begins a relentless, blood-soaked hunt through LA. Giving her skincare the edge it needs, they introduce a secret ingredient (revenge-sourced) from the bodies piling up.
But as the company’s success skyrockets and Lila begins unraveling the truth behind her daughter’s kidnapping, her murderous side hustle threatens the life she’s painstakingly rebuilt.
The Darkness Greeted Her – Christina Ferko
YA Monster horror
A group of troubled girls is stalked through the Appalachian wilderness by a monster that feeds on their deepest fears.
Penny’s abusive father is dead, but she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can’t go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewood, an exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.
She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can’t possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor, a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it’s clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn’t all in her head.
As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.
The Glowing Hours – Leila Siddiqui
Gothic horror
A story about the fabled summer Mary Shelley began work on Frankenstein, as told by her Indian housemaid, Mehrunissa “Mehr” Begum.
Summer 1816: London is a hostile place for the newly disembarked Mehrunissa Begum, who’s come to deliver her brother’s letter of inheritance before returning to her comfortable life in Lucknow, India. Only, she can’t find her brother anywhere and has no money for the return trip. With nowhere else to go, Mehr finds refuge in a boarding house for Indian maids. If she can’t find her brother, she reasons, she will get a job and start saving.
Mehr is soon hired at the English estate of Mary and Percy Shelley, young artists of burgeoning fame who are on the run from secrets of their own. Mary is brooding and quiet, but takes a curious liking to her new maid, asking her to accompany the Shelleys and her stepsister, Claire, as well as the eccentric Lord Byron and his physician, John Polidori, to Lake Geneva for the summer.
Almost immediately, Mehr notices strange, ghostly events at the villa. The walls breathe, portraits shift, and phantoms appear like unbidden guests who refuse to leave. The weather is fierce and foreboding, showing no signs of softening its relentless pall.
And as Mary Shelley begins work on what will become her earth-shattering literary phenomenon, Mehr finds herself trapped in the villa as the rest of its inhabitants descend into madness.
Greedy – Callie Kazumi
Psychological horror
In Japan, a desperate gambling addict masquerades as the private chef to a reclusive billionaire with deadly taste.
They will kill me soon, Edward Cook thinks. And when the Yakuza are unable to collect what he owes, Ed realizes, theyʼll go after his wife and child next. Broke, desperate, and unemployed, he stumbles upon an unusual ad: Chef wanted! Private chef for a high-profile businesswoman. One million yen per day.
Ed accepts the job. He hasnʼt earned any Michelin stars, but he knows his way around a kitchen. Leaving his life in Tokyo behind, he departs for an opulent estate in the mountains owned by the enigmatic and reclusive Hazeline Yamamoto, a disgraced socialite with a predatorʼs smile and an exacting palate. Hazelineʼs world is one of taste, connoisseurship, and experimentation; she is a certified gourmand. But when you can afford filet mignon for every meal, you begin to seek out the strange and forbidden.
The closer Ed gets to Hazeline and the brighter future that she promises, if he remains loyal, the nearer he is to realizing the chilling truth about her altruism. In this shadow world of unimaginable wealth, there are worse monsters than two-bit gangsters. The wind blowing through Hazeline’s home carries the sound of screaming, and Ed finds himself feeding all kinds of beasts.
In This City, Where it Rains – Lyndsey Croal
Gothic horror
Maggie is haunted by ghosts that only appear in the rain – and it always rains in this city.
At the edge of town, stands Tair House, a house that remembers, in a city that forgets. The mansion is so damned, it scares the clouds themselves from breaking, and the man of the house, Xavier Logan, and his wife Lucia, are harbouring a dark secret there, something that connects to Maggie and her ghosts.
Soon all roads lead to Tair House, where Maggie hopes only to uncover more about her family’s past and her muddled memories.
But the house is hungry, and something is waking deep within its roots … something that has been waiting a long time for Maggie.
Mama Came Callin’ – Ezra Claytan Daniels
Slasher horror graphic novel
A young biracial woman uncovers her estranged father’s role in a grisly hate crime.
Kirah was born from an improbable interracial relationship that, in central Florida’s infamous Asurupa County, defied all the odds. But her idyllic childhood was shattered by an urban legend come to life. The “Gatorman” was a nightmare on the lips of kids and grown-ups alike all the way back to Jim Crow: a monster with the body of a man, the head of an alligator, and a taste for Black children. That’s who crawled into Kirah’s window when Kirah was just five years old. According to the police, it was Kirah’s own father who put on that gator mask and tried to kill her.
Twenty years later, Kirah works hard to build a life unburdened by the traumatic events of her childhood. Just when it seems like she’s managed to find her stride, her dad, fresh out of prison, crashes back into her world with a chilling message: “He’s coming for you.”
Finally forced to face the hideous family history she’s been avoiding, Kirah sets off to discover where, and who, she truly came from. And the more she learns, the more disturbing the whole picture becomes. Turns out there’s a lot more to the Gatorman than Kirah thought, and even worse: he isn’t through with her just yet.
Midnight Covenant – Amelie West
Vampire horror – Book 1 of Cursed in Crimson
In the autumn of 1893, a young bride is delivered to a Transylvanian castle where secrets fester in the walls, and she must rely on herself if she hopes to survive.
Sold into marriage by her father’s reckless gamble, Mina Murray travels across Europe to wed a Transylvanian nobleman cloaked in mystery.
The castle towers above the mountains, a fortress of stone and silence that seems to watch her every step. Once inside, she feels trapped within a gilded cage, every door locked, every corridor alive with listening shadows.
The Count is charming, yet secretive, and Mina soon realizes the truth her new husband conceals may be far more monstrous than she dares imagine. Silenced and far from home, she must trust her instincts if she hopes to survive the castle, and the master who rules it.
Puzzle House 2: The Summoners – Duncan Ralston
Supernatural horror – Book 2 of Puzzle House
Los Angeles is on fire. Society is collapsing. And Henry Hall is on the run.
After barely surviving the horrors of Puzzle House, Henry emerges into a city under martial law, consumed by carnage, madness and fear. Ancient entities summoned by the dark rituals performed at Puzzle House are twisting reality to their will, and in the chaos left behind, human monsters run rampant.
Hunted by the police and the sinister Infiniti Enterprises, Henry must again rely on unlikely allies, this time in a perilous journey across a city he no longer recognizes, to find his estranged wife and a reason to keep fighting.
But as the influence of these evil entities spreads across the city, and the vast scope of Infiniti’s power reveals itself, Henry finds himself facing a chilling question: Did he ever truly escape Puzzle House, or is he still playing into their master plan?
We Should Not Have Come Here – J.D. Mills
Supernatural horror
The host of paranormal reality show Phantom Files, Ash, built their massive following on fake hauntings, possessions, and passing off special effects as honest-to-god spirit activity.
When the team arrives at Crenshaw Castle to shoot the first episode of their new season, the dilapidated former reform school turns out to be more than they bargained for. The team’s exploration of the grounds leads to the discovery of horrific documentation detailing medical and psychological experiments performed on the institution’s wards.
The action begins to unfold violently as the crew clamors for a way out, only to find they’ve been sealed inside. Over the course of one harrowing investigation turned survival mission, Ash reckons with his own queer rage as he sees himself mirrored in the institution’s wards.
Coming face to face with things he never thought possible-deadly spirits, an end to his own skepticism, and an ex-boyfriend he’d thought to be long-dead, Ash must overcome the past in order to ensure he has a future.
