A Selection of Horror Books Released, 28 Jan to 3 Feb 2024
Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghosts, slasher, and haunted house horror
- This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Table of Contents
Bone Pendant Girls – Terry S Friedman
Ghost horror
Andi Wyndham has been able to communicate with spirits since she was a kid.
When a bone pendant carved into the likeness of a girl’s face calls to her at a gem show in Pennsylvania, she can’t resist buying it and a sister piece.
When she discovers the girls are missing runaways and the pendants are made of human bone, Andi is drawn into a mystery that will force her to confront her gifts, her guilt, and the ghosts haunting her.
The Book of Denial – Ricardo Chávez Castañeda
Ghost horror
There are stories so terrible that we tremble to hear even a whisper of them. What’s even more terrible is that some of them are true.
This is one such story, a story of our deepest inhumanity. One that confronts the history of violence against children, and through its young narrator attempts to find a way out.
A horror story and ghost story told as much through art as through text.
Broken Olive Branches – Stephanie Rabig (editor)
Charity horror anthology
Over 30 authors in the horror community donated stories to help the civilians of Palestine.
Among the stories are:
- co-dependent necromancers
- a spy discovers a supernatural weapon that might turn the tide of the war
- a Girl Scout troop camping trip goes horribly wrong when dinosaurs show up
- a child’s drawings of their family are not quite what they seem
- a group of men fighting a forest fire are about to have a Very Bad Day
- a man is constantly followed by a terrifying shadow figure he calls the Other
- a young woman’s new job at the mall isn’t nearly as mundane as she anticipated.
Deeper Downs – DM Sinclair
Supernatural horror – Book 2 of Hole House
They stopped an ancient evil and saved the world. Now what?
Guy and Mae are left with a wrecked house, a big ugly rock, and the looming threat of dark forces crashing in to re-open the hole and undo all the good they did.
And now there’s a sprawling new housing development under construction right next door. Mae’s certain it has something to do with the hole. Guy’s certain it’s a juicy job opportunity. They might both be right.
Soon, Hole House is under siege as servants of the ancient evil close in from both above ground and below. And all that stands against them is Guy and Mae. If they’re going to win this time, they’ll have to dig deep.
The House of Last Resort – Christopher Golden
Supernatural horror
Across Italy there are many half-empty towns, abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild by selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years.
It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought.
There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort.
Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years, and how many people died in the strange chapel inside.
And down in the catacombs beneath Becchina, something stirs.
Midnight on Beacon Street – Emily Ruth Verona
Psychological horror
When single mom Eleanor goes out a for a much-needed date night, she leaves her two young children, six-year-old Ben and twelve-year-old Mira, in the capable hands of their sitter, Amy.
The seventeen-year-old is good at looking after children, despite her anxiety disorder. She also loves movies, especially horror flicks. Amy likes their predictability; it calms the panic that threatens to overwhelm her.
The evening starts out normally enough, with games, pizza, and dancing. But as darkness falls, events in this quaint suburban New Jersey house take a terrifying turn: unexpected visitors at the door, mysterious phone calls, and by midnight, Ben is in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood, with a dead body at his feet.
Nun Taken – Brady Phoenix
Slasher horror
In 1986, two boys cross paths at Griffwood Manor, a rehabilitation center for troubled youth. While their bond grows, something is watching. Lurking. Waiting.
Twenty years later, Sonya, a lost girl who found trouble, is enrolled in Griffwood Manor, now under new management. She thought it would be easy. She thought she found the place to change herself for the better with the help of the nuns.
However, one of the sisters is very different.
Very Dark Thoughts – Kyle Harrison
Psychological horror collection
The tales in this collection serve as grim reminders that often the most terrifying horrors aren’t waiting in the shadows but lurking within our own minds.
- A scientist analyzes audio from Mars that reveals mysterious screams.
- A young man takes a haunted plane flight.
- An unsettling life-sized doll hides a sinister secret.
- A man races against time to solve a series of twisted puzzles in a sadistic escape room.
- An arctic excavation unleashes an attack from an alternate dimension.
- A man seeks a supernatural wandering campfire in the woods.
We Ate the Dark – Mallory Pearson
Supernatural horror
Five years after Sofia disappeared, her remains are found stuffed into the hollow of a tree bursting through the floorboards of an abandoned house in the woods. The women who loved her head home to the North Carolina hills to face their grief.
Frankie, Sofia’s twin, is in furious mourning. Poppy is heartbroken. Cass has never felt more homesick. And Marya knows something the rest of them don’t.
Determined to find Sofia’s murderer, they share more than a need to see justice done for their friend. Each woman is haunted, bound to the next by something both cruel and kind, and now stalked by a shadowy presence they’ve yet to understand.
As Sofia’s secrets unravel, so do those of the woods, and the women soon realize that Sofia might not be who they thought she was at all. And that whoever, or whatever, killed her is coming after them.
What Hides in the Cupboards – Cassondra Windwalker
Haunted house horror
Following a traumatic accident, ceramic artist Hesper Dunn trades life in Chicago for the enchanted deserts of New Mexico. But not all is quaint, and it’s far from what it seems. There’s a mystery buried deep in the heart of her new home.
Love, guilt, and grief demand that Hesper remain within the haunted pueblo. To free herself, she must free the trapped spirits, but the creatures lurking in the shadows are not what they appear.
Published: 3 February 2024
Subscribe
Horror-themed clothing, notebooks, homewares, and accessories
