April is for Terror, Not Just for Tulips!

I ordered the books in this newsletter based on released date, not on how badly I want to read them. But I have to confess that I might have put this one first regardless, because I am desperate to get my hands on it. This also gives me a chance to once again recommend this dark fantasy series to horror readers looking for books that successfully bridge the genre lines. As much cosmic horror (so. many. eyes.) as it is dark fantasy, this Slavic-inspired setting is peopled with bloody magic, hungry gods, and (again) so SO many eyeballs. In places that eyeballs really should not be. Blessed Monsters is the final book in this trilogy, so if you’ve been looking for a completed series to marathon, now’s your chance!

I’ve already had the pleasure of reading Near the Bone, and it is 100% everything I want in a horror novel. The isolation, the deep and growing sense of dread, it’s fantastic. Mattie and William have been living on the mountain for longer than she can remember, just the two of them. Until the day that Mattie finds a mutilated fox in the woods and realizes that there is someone or something on the mountain with them. Lurking in the trees, making terrible noises, savaging the wildlife with sharp teeth and claws. But when a group of strangers appears to hunt the creature in the woods they don’t just pose a threat to the monster. Their unwelcome presence makes William angry, and Mattie knows how dangerous it can be when William gets angry.

From the author of last year’s chilling The Silence of the Bones comes a new story about families, secrets, and deception. Hwani’s family and life have fallen apart ever since she and her younger sister vanished and were found unconscious in the forest on the edge of a crime scene. Though the family fled their small village to escape the incident, some histories are not so easily banished. Years later Hawni’s father, Detective Min, is drawn back to their hometown by the unsolved cases of 13 other girls who recently vanished under similar circumstances as his own daughters. But when he returns to investigate, he too vanishes, leaving Hwani to follow in his footsteps in an attempt to find her father and finally put an end to the mystery that tore her family apart.

Based on the early reviews I’ve seen, Witches Steeped in Gold is going to be a deliciously dark edition to both the fantasy and horror genres. This Jamaican-inspired fantasy pits two enemy witches against a powerful queen, forcing them into an uneasy alliance in order to take her down. Iraya has lived her whole life in a cell, plotting her revenge. Jasmyne is the queen’s daughter, and determined not to be the next body in a long line of daughters sacrificed to strengthen their mother’s power. Though she and Iraya are sworn enemies, they are left with no choice but to combine forces and pursue, at any cost, the queen who threatens both their lives.

Okay so by now we all know that I adore a short fiction collections, yes? And since I also have an obsession with themes of transformation in horror (thanks Mary Shelley), obviously I am super excited for trans author Callum Angus’ forthcoming debut collection A Natural History of Transition. Angus’ collection “disrupts the notion that trans people can only have one transformation” as its characters undergo incredible, unusual, and at times alarming changes, exploring what it means to “become”. Described as a mix of alternative history, horror, and magic steeped realism, Angus’ first collection promises to be a memorable introduction to a talented new author.