Latine Horrors for Your First Week of October

I love punkin pie, but only if it’s coupled with a great crust, and this coffee cake crumb topping sounds perfect! It also doesn’t seem too hard to make.

Now for books!

Raquel, a 16-year-old Bronx native, has been steadfast in her efforts to ignore the string of mysterious disappearances happening around her. To acknowledge them would mean acknowledging how the police aren’t doing anything about them, as they tend to only look for white kids. But when her crush’s cousin goes missing and Raquel’s mother becomes ill, she realizes that she can no long ignore what’s going on. She discovers that all of the mysterious goings-on are tied to an urban legend called the Echo Game, which traps people in an evil world beneath the city. But playing the game will expose Raquel to potentially lethal danger.

This collection has such an amazing line up of Latine authors who tell stories of monsters that come from the folklore of various Latine cultures. There are zombies, vampires, ghost-witches, and more. in addition to providing scares, this collection offers up critiques of things like gender-based violence, environmental injustice, and colonialism.

Fernanda and Annelise are so close they’re basically inseparable mirror images of each other… who happen to share a dark, violent secret. Then there’s their literature teacher, Miss Clara, whose unhealthy relationship with her mother has her on the brink of a break with reality…

The meetings that Annelise leads Fernanda and their other friends in after school — in which they pay tribute to a drag queen god — somehow culminates in Fernanda bound up on the floor of a cabin, isolated and held hostage by her teacher. This is a psychological horror novel that incorporates adolescent daring, mother-daughter relationships, pop culture, Lovecraftian horror, and other elements, making a very unique and unsettling read.

You probably heard a lot about this one last year, but here’s a reminder to pick it up if you haven’t yet — or simply to reread it if you loved it. It follows Noemí, a glamorous young woman who hails from a well-off family in 1950s Mexico. After we get a brief taste of her lifestyle — with its surplus of parties, cocktails, and handsome suitors — she journeys off to save her cousin who sent her a concerning letter. When she gets to the house, she sees how off everything is, including her cousin, who now claims that nothing is wrong. Her cousin’s husband and his family, English people who came to Mexico years ago, are hiding such a dark and terrible secret that you will literally go “wtf” when you get to that reveal. I warned you, friend!