Best Books
by Kelsey Ford, November 10, 2023 8:48 AM
by Victor LaValle
Victor LaValle is so good! Just — so good. His new book blends horror with the myth of the American West, in a story about Adelaide, a woman who will go to extraordinary lengths to protect both herself and the secret of her family's curse. This book is so inventive, so startling, so pleasantly strange, and has one of the most satisfying endings I've read in a long time. Already, I know it's one of the books that's going to get better the more I think about it. — Kelsey F.
by Stephen Graham Jones
This sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw made me look around corners and made me want to rewatch the original Halloween! Jones takes us back to Proofrock on the hunt for an escaped serial killer who seeks revenge for the 38 Dakota who were hung in 1862. The punk-ish imperfect protagonist from the first book, Jade Daniels, is released from prison and reunites with old friends and enemies alike to hunt this killer down. This book is a blend of slasher movie, the paranormal, Indigenous history and lore, mystery, and jump-scares. — Vicky K.
by Sam Rebelein
Edenville creeped me out in all the right ways. It sucks you in, chews you up, and spits you out. I didn't anticipate a single turn of events, and every new discovery left chills down my spine. You'd never guess this is Rebelein's debut book with the way the plot unfolds. This is what horror is all about. Come visit Edenville, you'll never leave... — Dani L.
Okay, so. SO. I honestly have no idea how to accurately sum up Edenville. This book has it all! Struggling author? Check. Strained relationships? Check. Massive amounts of gore and humor? Check. This is going to be the perfect Halloween read and I will be recommending it to my fellow horror enthusiasts! — Chris P.
by Grady Hendrix
Grady Hendrix does it again. How to Sell a Haunted House is the horror master's expert take on the haunted house trope. It's equal parts thrilling and hilarious, and so incredibly consumable. Hendrix has carved out a specific and delicious brand of horror that is breaking down barriers for readers who previously wouldn't pick up a King novel with a trash grabber. This is horror at its finest. — Stacy Wayne D.
by Alison Rumfitt
In Tell Me I’m Worthless, Alison Rumfitt manages to take that legendary line from The Haunting of Hill House — “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality" — and, with a bold underline, replaces “absolute reality” with the starker truth of our world: fascism, as well as the bodily threats that fascism poses to those who don’t “fit” their standards. This book does haunted houses with the best of them — I was genuinely spooked for so much of it, which is saying a lot! — but its horror doesn’t always come from the carnivorous house at its center. Rumfitt doesn’t shy away from how regularly and insidiously cruel the world is to trans people. Stark and terrifying but thoroughly worthwhile. — Kelsey F.
edited by Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele is a master of horror. He simply gets it. So I knew that in this collection, curated by him, he'd be sharing only the best and brightest voices in the genre. There's so many things to be afraid of in Out There Screaming: scares new and old, fueled by injustice and myth; horrors that are familiar and strange and utterly fresh. Each author writes as sharply as a knife, and I promise there's a story for every reader in here that's going to crawl under your skin and live there. What a delight! — Nicole S.
Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst
If a handful of amazing Indigenous authors tell me not to whistle at night, I am going to listen to them! I am, however, going to enjoy reading about what might happen if I do.... Never Whistle at Night is a collection of spine-tingling stories about ghosts, monsters, curses, and hauntings, all from the imaginations of Indigenous writers. — Jamie W.
I have been looking forward to this anthology ever since it was announced! Every author in this anthology of unsettling and eerie Indigenous fiction is a heavy hitter: Tommy Orange, Morgan Talty, Kelli Jo Ford, Mona Susan Power… The list goes on!! And there’s an introduction from the legend himself, Stephen Graham Jones. These are stories filled with hauntings and curses, intergenerational trauma and racism, creatures and body horror. They’re melancholy, horrifying, unnerving, dreamy — everything you’d hope for from an anthology like this. I’m so glad it exists, and can’t recommend it enough. — Kelsey F.
by Chuck Tingle
I just want to start this by saying, yes, this is by THAT Chuck Tingle, and no, it’s nothing like his usual fare. Moving on. Camp Damascus is a sharp, funny, and fast-paced story about a young woman finding herself, freeing herself from an oppressive belief system, and (literally) facing her demons. I was given an ARC of this early in the year, read it in one weekend, and have been excitedly talking it up since. — Deana R.
by Jade Song
A modern, thalassic gothic about girlhood, obsession, and queerness briny with wit so sharp I almost can't believe it's a debut. Song shines brighter than any mermaid scale you can dream up. Yes, even brighter than your older sister's tail in the pool all those summers ago. Drag us down into the depths, Jade. More, more, more! — Stacy Wayne D.
by Gerardo Samano Cordova
A literary horror tale that trudges through the gruesome, visceral parts of grief nobody likes talking about. With othering queerness at its core, Monstrilio won't hurt you, but will absolutely knock you around a bit. You've read nothing like it. — Stacy Wayne D.
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Anytime a book from Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic among many others, comes out is time for celebration. Her latest, Silver Nitrate is as dark and twisty as they come: about Montserrat, a sound editor, and Tristán, her best friend (an often down-on-his-luck soap opera star), who find themselves caught up in the world of Abel Urueta, a once famous cult horror director. Monsterrat and Tristán’s worlds are soon saturated with Nazi occultism, ghosts, curses, justified paranoia, and, perhaps most terrifying of all, feelings. This book is as riveting as it is scary!! — Kelsey F.
Absolutely gobsmacked by Moreno-Garcia's ability to crack open the status quo when it comes to the paranormal. If you loved Brand New Cherry Flavor, you're going to adore Silver Nitrate. This is one of those books that will be cool forever. I'm obsessed. — Stacy Wayne D.
by Mona Awad
You would never guess that Tom Cruise, skincare, jellyfish, cults, and roses would fit together, but here we are. When Belle’s mother dies mysteriously, she follows clues to figure out what happened, and it ultimately leads her down a dangerous path of the pursuit of beauty and youth. — Vicky K.
by V. Castro
A perfect weaving of Mexican folklore and generational trauma stretched across different places in time, all neatly bound with V. Castro's signature attention to detail and expert care. This is a book only she could have written, full stop. You have never seen La Llorona in this light and you won't soon forget her. ¡Viva La Llorona, viva V. Castro! — Stacy Wayne D.
The Haunting of Alejandra is an affecting, moving, horrifying tribute to what it takes to live as a woman today, while carrying and grappling with demons from past generations. Alejandra is a wife and a mother who feels unmoored and lost. Her mind is doing what it can to undermine and belittle her — little does she know that these cruel, inner whisperings all come from La Llorona. In order to survive, Alejandra will have to face what she’s inherited, face her heritage, and do everything she can to fight for the existence that she deserves. V. Castro never disappoints. — Kelsey F.
by Tananarive Due
Set during the Jim Crow years in Florida, a young black man, Robert Stephens Jr., is sent to a reform school as punishment for beating up a landowner’s son. Robert can see ghosts, and the reform school is full of them, a situation that gives him an opportunity to get an early release, if he does what the warden wants — which, of course, goes against what the ghosts in the school want. A book that’s filled with grief and trauma, The Reformatory is terrifying — because of the supernatural elements, sure, but much more so when it turns its lens on the long-lasting, insidious effects of racism, and the way those effects infect the world around them. A terrifying, beyond worthwhile read. — Kelsey F.
by Isabel Cañas
The author of The Hacienda returns with a spooky and thrilling supernatural western that pits vampires against vaqueros. Vampires of El Norte is dripping in gothic goodness and a deep sense of the history of 1840s Mexico (thanks in no small part to Isabel Cañas’s deep well of knowledge and research of the area). Come for the vampires, stay for the love story. — Kelsey F.
|