Dark is When the Devil Comes – Daisy Pearce
Psychological horror
The woods are known as the place to avoid. What goes in, doesn’t come out.
Hazel has been gone from her small hometown of Idless in the English countryside for years. Now returned in the wake of a traumatic divorce and crumbling personal life, her simple plans are to lay low at her parents’ vacated house, reconnect with her prickly sister Cathy, and slowly get back on her feet.
She’s his captive but something has come home with her.
Cathy is surprised when Hazel doesn’t show. Their relationship strained from a fallout half a decade ago, she didn’t expect them to get back into a sisterly rhythm…though she hadn’t counted on Hazel bailing, either.
But something isn’t adding up. Other people in town whisper of a threat that can’t be shaken. The woods are known for being restless.
And Cathy knows the old saying: If you go looking for trouble, you just might find it.
The Dwelling – Judith Sonnet
Supernatural horror
Kelsey Stone was supposed to be the responsible one, but one wrong turn has led her and her mismatched group of friends deep into a dead zone in the Ozark hills.
When their van wheezes its final breath on a narrowing gravel road, they find themselves stranded in a forest that feels less like Missouri and more like a haunted set from a B-grade horror film.
Through the thick mist and the driving rain, they find a beacon of hope: an empty but stately house that offers shelter in the least and maybe a line to the outside world.
The group, however, soon discovers they aren’t just guests inside this dwelling; they are cogs in a much larger, sinister machine and they must face a gauntlet of unthinkable terrors. In a world where the trees are closing in, and the very floor can become a death trap, Kelsey and her friends must fight to survive unspeakable horrors.
John Carpenter’s The Fog – Dennis Etchison
Supernatural horror movie novelization
Before the light of dawn, you will know the fury of the dead.
Originally published in 1980 and now back in print.
A writhing icy mist pulsing with terror. It is too late to escape.
Even now the people of Antonio Bay are cut off, engulfed.
Along darkened streets, death searches them out. There is no sanctuary for the living. Those who are doomed will die horribly.
Those who are spared will suffer the endless fear of a soul-chilling night when the dead, finally, return for revenge.
Hex House – Amy Jane Stewart
Gothic horror
A safe haven for women transforms them into vessels of revenge.
Elly is running. Pregnant and still in her wedding dress, she flees the cottage that her new husband has rented for their wedding night. Because he’s not what people think he is – and she knows that, one day, he’ll hurt her in a way she can’t fix. Freezing and lost in the dead of night, Elly begins to lose hope.
A woman in the woods alone is never the beginning of the story. It’s usually the end.
So, when a beautiful house appears out of nowhere and a woman beckons her inside, it almost feels too good to be true.
Welcome to Hex House: a refuge, a home, a sanctuary. A place that can only be found by those who truly need it; a place that promises to teach Elly how to access a power more incredible – and more terrifying – than anything she could have imagined.
Four years after Siobhan meets Elly at Hex House, her life is in ruins. Once a promising filmmaker invited to the house to make a documentary with her brother, Theo, she’s given up on her dream after witnessing unspeakable horrors there. Now, she spends her time drinking too much, toying with an older man in increasingly dangerous ways, and trying to get Theo to speak to her again. She ignores the scar on her stomach that never fully heals.
That is, until someone reaches out with news about Hex House that could change everything.
And Siobhan knows, deep down, that she was always destined to return.
How to Survive Camping: The Lady in Chains – Bonnie Quinn
Cosy summer camp horror – Book 2 of How to Survive Camping
Every year, campground manager Kate sends out a pamphlet titled “How to Survive Your Camping Experience.” It includes a list of rules to help campers have an enjoyable experience and hopefully survive any encounters with the campground’s other inhabitants.
With the campground in the throes of a bad year, it will take more than a list of rules to keep everyone safe. Monsters that were previously lying dormant are starting to stir and they’re waking up hungry. Among them is the Lady in Chains, a creature feared by both human and inhuman things alike.
Her reappearance creates an upheaval in the balance of power in the campground by renewing an old grudge with the harvesters, who are willing to sacrifice anyone they get their hands on in order to gain an advantage. On top of all this, the man with the skull cap has started taking an unusual interest in Kate.
But with the harvesters on the prowl, the Lady in Chains hunting her down, and a sinister spider infestation, Kate is going to need all the allies she can get, even if those allies aren’t actually human.
Into the Darkening Dust – Katherine Silva
Supernatural horror – Book 1 of The Dustlands
Janet thought she had left behind the legacy of her parents, Hugh and Amos. After bringing them back over and over into the bodies of dead animals, she knew it was time for them to rest and for her to start trying to live again in the Deadlands. After all, that’s what her new friend, Mark, thinks is best for her: to find the scraps of good still left in the world and make them worth living for.
It’s hard when there are still men focused on bringing misery to those left behind, men who deserved what judgement came for them. Janet wants to be that judgement, still feeling that flame of retribution inside of her to enact a swift and painful justice. It’s who she is, who she’s made herself.
But when she discovers a lost journal belonging to Amos that tells her of his estranged brother and his ties to blood magic, Janet becomes enamored with the thought of finding someone like her again, finding someone who might understand what she’s been through. As the dust storms grow more violent around the land, Janet realizes the only way to find her lost kin is to dig into her own past in search of answers.
That means revisiting old haunts, places she swore she’d never return. Not sure what she’ll find when she gets there, Janet knows that in leaving things behind, there’s a chance they will become lost to the dust as well.
Jones 2023 – Devin Cabrera
Supernatural horror
For decades, Briarwood has lived a lie. They said Jones Jepsen was gone. They said the nightmare had ended.
They were wrong.
When a strange man finds a tattered top hat and decides to put it on, he discovers his soul is being transferred into the ghost of Jones Jepsen.
As the killings begin again, one thing is horrifyingly clear.
Jones Jepsen isn’t back from the dead. He never left.
Molka – Monika Kim
Psychological horror
Molka: an abbreviation of molrae-kamera, a “sneaky camera” hidden to capture covert images and videos for voyeurs.
In an unassuming Seoul workplace, IT technician Junyoung’s network reaches throughout the entire building. He sees every entrance. Every lobby. Every bathroom. The women in this building may be cold and dismissive, but he can always pull up his favorite images of them and remember who holds the real power. Until one, Dahye, sets herself apart from the rest.
Dahye, ever the romantic, yearns to be cherished after years of living in the shadow of her perfect older sister, who tragically drowned years ago. Only her boyfriend seems to appreciate Dahye. He’s rich, handsome, and generous, and she’d do anything to hold on to the happiness he brings her.
But when a hidden camera scandal rocks the city’s elites, Dahye’s dreams of a fairy-tale romance twist into a grotesque nightmare. Her boyfriend abandons her. Her parents reject her. Her grip on reality begins to shatter as visions of her dead sister suddenly appear.
And as Junyoung’s interest in Dahye turns to obsession, and the truths of their troubled lives are revealed, Dahye must go to extreme lengths to bring the truth to light.
No One Heard Her Screams – Ann O’Mara Heyward
Horror collection
An unforgettable journey into the terror, isolation and despair of human beings placed into extraordinary situations that force them to question perception versus reality and confront how very far they will go to survive, protect themselves and those they love, or achieve justice.
Of Beasts & Bones – Robin Knabel (editor)
Horror anthology
Creatures. Grotesqueries. Aliens. Cryptids. Ghosts.
Pursue monstrosities, unwittingly stumble upon unspeakable horrors, and bring terrifying abominations to life.
They’re all waiting for you: the monsters from your nightmares, the noises you ignored as a child, the shadows hiding atrocities you can’t fathom.
They’re all there, creeping in the darkness, waiting to be discovered.
Allow us to lure you in. Let us captivate and tantalize you with the unknown. But beware, you might not be ready for what you find. Or what finds you.
Pixerina: A Haunting – Joanne Anderton
Ghost horror
Can a person haunt a ghost?
Something about the old house on the hill has always intrigued artist Rebecca Bell, but she’s always resisted its pull. Until now. She becomes obsessed with the building, its history, its inhabitants, and especially the little girl whose spirit seems to linger in the house and on its grounds.
Angelica has been waiting patiently for someone to notice her. For someone to befriend her. For someone to care. Even after her passing.
Meeting Rebecca is a boon for both of them.
But while Angelica thinks she’s gaining a friend, Rebecca … well, Rebecca is gaining a muse.
Transendence – Katrina Kimball
Supernatural horror
When a demonic entity seeking revenge starts tormenting her family, a young woman must rediscover their shared past and embrace her own divine power in order to save not only those she loves, but the creature bent on her destruction.
If you asked Alexis Ferelli what her biggest challenges are in life, she’d say it’s parenting her daughter, Luna, running her masseuse practice, and deftly avoiding conversations about marriage with her partner, Jack.
At least, that was the case before she attended a séance. Now, the spirits are trying to contact her and there’s a demonic entity in her daughter’s closet.
Determined to find answers, she turns to the psychic from the séance and the spirit world for help. As she dabbles in the hereafter, she not only discovers another dimension filled with angelic guides, magic, and wonder, but also learns the shocking truth of her connection to the creature tormenting her daughter.
As the dark entity grows bolder and sets its sights on Jack as well as Luna, Alexis realizes that to save them all, she has to face the creature she once betrayed to bring it out of the darkness and back into the light.
A Vow for Breaking – L.M. Riviere
Folk horror
Sloane McIntyre, a Boston-born workhouse girl and suspected murderess, is sent away to serve a rich man and his ailing wife.
But what begins as a promising new start curdles into something far more sinister
Sloane soon finds herself drawn into a labyrinth of horrors only a demon could survive.
Windigo Plague – MJ Preston
Western horror
In the Spring of 1879, a Cree Trapper, formerly employed by the Northwest Mounted Police from Fort Saskatchewan, was alleged to have murdered all eight members of his family and dined on their flesh.
The trapper’s Cree name was Ka ki si Kutchin. English translation: Swift Runner.
After his arrest, Swift Runner denies the charges, saying his family starved to death, and tells them he had eaten their flesh only after they had perished. While in custody, Swift Runner claims to be afflicted by the ‘wihitikow’ also known as windigo, an indigenous spirit said to possess and turn its victims homicidal and cannibalistic.
Unconvinced of the story, the NWMP launches an expedition to Athabasca Landing to find Swift Runner’s death camp.
As the expedition pushes north, the prisoner’s condition casts a growing shadow over the group, and in the distance, they hear the tormented shrieks of the windigo stalking them.
This is the unofficial story of that expedition.
