A Selection of Horror Books Released, 27 Oct to 2 Nov 2024
Themes: Supernatural, psychological, AI, and weird horror
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Table of Contents
25 Days – Per Jacobsen
Psychological horror
25 days, 25 chapters. This December, the countdown to Christmas will chill you to the bone.
Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving gifts in the Christmas stocking mounted on the barn door.
Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the contents become more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling realization: they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of Secret Santa, and if they want to survive, they will have to fight.
Don’t Let the Forest In – CG Drews
Psychological horror
Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him.
High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality: Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. With his twin sister inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.
But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won’t say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork, whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew’s wicked stories.
Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster. Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator.
The Gods Among Them – Joe Scipione
Cosmic horror
Philip Mayhan is homeless and doesn’t want to spend another winter wondering if this is the year he dies of exposure on the streets of the city his calls home.
Leaving his friend and the familiarity of an area he knows well, Philip goes in search of a place to stay for the winter. His exploration ends with the discovery of an empty house to squat in.
Philip gets the rest he needs and feels better than he has in years. As strange occurrences begin to take place in the house, Philip finds himself drawn to an unending hole in the basement.
Philip yearns to learn more about what is happening in the house and comes to realize the only way he will get an answer is by seeing what lies waiting for him at the bottom of the abyss.
Halloween Horrors – Twisted Dreams Press
Halloween horror fundraising anthology
From ghostly encounters to sinister secrets, these twelve terrifying Halloween tales explore the darkest corners of the human psyche, keeping you on the edge of your seat, and threatening to disrupt your dreams.
Stories from Matt Bray, Josh Gunderson, Desiree Horton, Robb Basham, Mark Mackey, Jude Deluca, Kurt Newton, J. Rocky Colavito, D. L. Winchester, C S Dixon, Dawn Colclasure, Jennifer Horgan.
All sales proceeds will be donated to Project Semicolon, an international charity supporting Mental Illness and Suicide Prevention.
Haven – Mia Dalia
Haunted house horror
You can’t choose your family or your destiny or your legacy. But once upon a time, a woman named Ava St. James tried to build happiness upon the remains of her broken heart. For better or worse.
Decades later, the Bakers are headed for a perfect family vacation. A full month at a house by the lake; the house passed down from a mysterious aunt no one ever talks about.
Love and good intentions aside, what begins like a relaxing vacation turns into a nightmare as each of the Bakers’ nerves slowly but steadily begin to wear away at the edges. Is it their fraught family dynamics or is something more sinister at work?
The house has welcomed them, but will it ever let them leave?
The House of Damien Black – Ash Ericmore
Haunted house horror
When a young family moves into the idyllic Blackmoor House to prepare the estate for sale, something is awoken, something dark, evil.
Things creep in the house, Things move unseen. Something watches from the shadows. A malevolence falls over the building, something is in the mist.
Everything points to the land owner Damien Black, the first mayor of Blackmoor. The villagers know. The area is rampant with rumours, folklore.
Then one of the children is taken.
In the Eyes in the Shadows – Gage Greenwood
Supernatural horror
His obsession with death was unhealthy, but it didn’t become dangerous until death became obsessed back.
While Jackson takes care of his dying father, navigates his rocky relationship with Amanda, and watches the company he works for go out of business, his panic attacks return with a vengeance. In a stressed fugue, he sees a figure approach his father’s death bed, singing a lullaby. And when he looks into his father’s eyes, he sees something he can’t define, dancing within the irises.
With his life falling apart around him, Jackson finds comfort in a new hobby: seeking out dead things and trying to find that hidden pattern in their eyes, hoping to lure the mysterious figure he’d seen at his father’s bedside from the darkness.
But one day, Jackson finds the wrong dead thing. Her name is Lexia, and she’s angry.
The Off-Season – Marissa Van Uden (editor)
Coastal ‘new weird’ horror anthology
Twenty-five strange and surreal stories of disquieting and disturbing ‘New Weird’ horror set in landscapes and communities on the edge of the sea.
These unsettling tales de-familiarize the ordinary, evoke dread in the daylight, and haunt like half-remembered dreams. They are tales of mysticism, psychedelia, outsiders, obsessions, collapsed boundaries, weird sea life, and the total abandonment of reason.
Welcome to your stay on the other side. Please check your sanity at the door.
Poison Ivy – Mark Towse
Psychological horror – Prequel to Nana
Chatter from all corners brings the dilapidated community centre to life.
Sinatra crackles across the room. Chair legs scrape on the uneven hardwood floor.
Yes, the residents of Newhaven Crescent are all busy prepping for another thrilling evening.
Could it be Bingo night? Another talent show? Or is it to welcome the clipboard-carrying visitors from the council tasked with enforcing the centre’s shutdown?
Nana’s back. She has pie!
The Queen – Nick Cutter
Psychological horror
A young woman searching for her missing friend, uncovers a shocking truth.
On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on to find a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity’s been missing for over a month. Most people in town, even the police, think she’s dead.
Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything, know the most intimate details about one another… except for the destructive secret hidden from them both. A secret that will trigger a chain of events ending in tragedy, bloodshed, and death.
Now Charity wants Margaret to know her story, the real story.
In a narrative that takes place over one feverish day, Margaret follows a series of increasingly disquieting breadcrumbs as she forges deeper into the mystery of her best friend, a person she never truly knew at all.
Sick Girl Screams – SJ Townend
Horror collection
Woven together by the black ribbon of grief, with whispers of haunted children, feminism, and the unnerving concept of infinity, this inaugural collection of dark fiction is an eclectic mixture of reprints and original material.
SNAFU: AI Insurrection – Cohesion Press
Technology horror anthology
Nine tales, filled with stories of warriors fighting for their lives against (or with) artificial intelligence, and all the horror it could bring.
The same horror our world is rapidly heading towards.
With all the smart appliances around, just how much do you trust your toaster or coffee machine?
Transcending Nature – Stephanie Ellis
Short horror – Part of Darklings
A brilliant scientist, Dr John Sinclair turned his back on his work when he realised where it would lead.
Others were not as moral in their experimentation with disastrous results.
Can John halt its advance before it’s too late?
Published: 2 November 2024
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