Hi, horror fans! It’s me, Emily, your weird friend who only talks about scary stories and makes everyone uncomfortable.
2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!
If you’re also that person in your friend group, then you’re in the right place. And this week, I’ve got more books by Black authors to recommend to you for Black History Month. Plus, a whole bunch of other fun stuff. Let’s do this.
Bookish Goods
Ghostly Vanilla Soy Wax Melts by PlumTreeIllustration
Want to create the perfect spooky reading vibe? I love these soy wax melts. Yeah, they’re a little scary because they’re ghosts and all. But (correct me if I’m wrong), idk, they’re also really cute. They’re striking a good balance for me. $14
New Releases
Out of Body by Nia Davenport
YA horror is kinda the focus of this week’s newsletter, if you haven’t noticed. And the release of this new one from Nia Davenport was definitely the inspiration. Seventeen-year-old Megan desperately wants to find a group of friends, but she doesn’t really feel like she fits in with anyone. Until she meets LC. Everything with LC seems so easy, and the two quickly become best friends. Then, one day, Megan wakes up to discover she’s no longer in her own body and that everything she thought she knew about her friend is actually a lie.
Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine
Here’s a horror novel you should add to the top of your TBR pile, especially if you love The Last of Us and/or Bird Box. The world has been infected, and if you look into anyone’s eyes, you will almost certainly face a violent death. Riley hasn’t looked at a human face for a long time, but her desire for connection has her curious, especially when a new neighbor moves in down the street. Ellis seems like the kind of woman Riley could really enjoy getting to know. But the closer Riley gets to Ellis, the more her paranoia starts to take over.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
We’re still focusing on Black horror novels for Black History Month, and this week, I have two excellent YA horror books to share with you! This is one I actually JUST FINISHED reading, so this rec is hot off the presses. At Camp Mirror Lake, you can live out your favorite horror movies. Guests pay to be scared at this full-contact horror attraction. For Charity Curtis, it’s the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at the camp and recreating scenes from the classic slasher film Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. But then, on the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers start disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity begins to wonder if she’s becoming a final girl in real life. Now, if Charity and her girlfriend Bezi want to survive the night, they’ll have to figure out who is killing off all the campers and what the killer wants.
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
I am so obsessed with this cover, but guess what? The book is good, too! Bonus! Daisy sees dead people, so in navigating life in Ontario, she’s completely unsurprised by the amount of ghosts she sees walking the city. But her boyfriend breaking up with her? Now that is surprising. So when her mother inherits a secluded mansion, Daisy jumps at the chance for an escape to a quieter life. But the house — and what’s inside it — might be more than all of Daisy’s experiences with the supernatural have prepared her for. Flash forward to ten years later. Brittney’s desperate to get away from her abusive mother, and she’s quite certain that the book her mother wrote about a “Miracle Mansion” is a total sham. So, what does Brittney decide to do? She takes her popular web series Haunted on location to the mansion to find out what happened there ten years earlier and expose her mother’s lies.
See? Isn’t it fun talking about horror for a little bit? Stay weird, friends, and I’ll see you next week. In the meantime, you can follow me (and message me) on Instagram at emandhercat. Sweet dreams, horror fans!