Category: The Fright Stuff

Must-Read Indigenous Horror for Native American Heritage Month

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date November 19, 2021

Sponsored by Vault Comics – the best in Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror Comics!

When the music-scene murders start happening again, rock fan Jackie Mayer is ready. He knows the secrets, legends, and whispers of the past. Or, least he thinks he does. But the gods of rock are darker than he thought, and the conspiracy he uncovers is more insidious than he could have imagined. Enter a mixtape of music, murder, magic, and mayhem, where the burning desire for fame and fortune is exactly what the Devil ordered. By author Joe Harris & artist Megan Hutchison! AVAILABLE NOW! www.vaultcomics.com

Hey‌ ‌there‌ horror fans, ‌I’m‌ ‌Jessica‌ ‌Avery‌ ‌and‌ ‌I’ll‌ ‌be‌ ‌delivering‌ ‌your‌ ‌weekly‌ ‌brief‌ ‌of‌ ‌all‌ ‌that’s‌ ‌ghastly‌ ‌and‌ ‌grim‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌world‌ ‌of‌ ‌Horror.‌ ‌Whether‌ ‌you’re‌ ‌looking‌ ‌for‌ ‌a‌ ‌backlist‌ ‌book‌ ‌that‌ ‌will‌ ‌give‌‌ you‌ ‌the‌ ‌willies,‌ ‌a‌ ‌terrifying‌ ‌new‌ ‌release,‌ ‌or‌ ‌the‌ ‌latest‌ ‌in‌ ‌horror‌ ‌community‌ ‌news,‌ ‌you’ll‌ ‌find‌ ‌it‌ ‌here‌ in‌ ‌The‌ ‌Fright‌ ‌Stuff.

November is Native American Heritage Month, so this week in The Fright Stuff we’re celebrating some fantastic horror reads by Indigenous authors. Because this month specifically celebrates the Indigenous peoples of America – which is why it’s also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month – I’ve focused on horror books by authors who are from or who write about the Native American and/or Inuit populations of North America. But at the end I’ve also linked to readings lists of other horror titles that are written by authors from different Indigenous communities around the world.

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

My Heart is a Chainsaw was a massive success when it released earlier this year (and for good reason!), so it was an obvious choice for this list. But if you’ve already read it, consider substituting this with one of Jones’ other fantastic horror titles. Any of Jones’ books would make an excellent addition to your TBR. Jade Daniels has always been an outsider in Proofrock, a small lake town she grew up in that is now slowly being over run by gentrification. In her anger and her loneliness, Jade turns to horror for comfort, letting herself get lost in a world of masked killers and revenge. But when Proofrock’s wealthy newcomers begin dying in bizarre ways, Jade realizes that there is a familiar pattern to their deaths. A pattern that only she can see, and that may foretell a massacre in the making.

Empire of the Wild by Cherie Dimaline

If you’ve been in the market for a werewolf novel with a folk horror twist, I highly recommend Dimaline’s Empire of the Wild. Joan’s husband Victor disappeared almost a year ago, following an argument, and she has been searching for him ever since. One morning, after stumbling into a revival tent in a Walmart parking lot, she encounters a man with Victor’s face, his voice, and none of his memories. The man claims to be a charismatic preacher called Eugene Wolff, who has been ministering to the local Métis population, and he’s never heard of Victor. If Joan wants her husband back, she will have to find a way to remind him who he really is, before the true mission behind Wolff’s ministry comes to light.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

I shamefacedly admit that I still haven’t read Moon of the Crusted Snow, and from what I’ve heard, I am absolutely missing out on an amazing survival horror novel. Moon of the Crusted Snow is set in a small northern settlement trying to survive what may well be the end of the world. Anishinaabe has gone dark. They have completely lost contact with the outside world, and a long, dark Arctic winter is setting in. Then, even as their own society begins to fail and their supplies run short, strangers begin to arrive from the catastrophe in the south that left Anishinaabe a flagging beacon of life for the unexpected refugees. In the fallout from the disaster, a group of young friends will have to embrace Anishinaabe tradition if they hope to survive the scarcity and chaos and help their community withstand such dark, uncertain times.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

I wanted to include Elatsoe on this list for those of you who – like me! – love to mix fantasy with dark elements in with your horror titles. Though I wouldn’t discount how creepy this book can be! Set in an alternate America whose history was shaped by magic and monsters, Little Badger’s book is about the titular heroine, Elatsoe, a young woman with the ability to conjure the ghosts of dead animals. When her cousin is murdered, Elatsoe sets out to use her powers to reveal all the secrets hiding behind Willowbee’s charming small town façade and unmask her cousin’s killer. But what she discovers may go far beyond the death of her cousin, and come to threaten Elatsoe’s entire family.

Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories

Technically, Taaqtumi (an Inuktitut word meaning “in the dark”) is an anthology of own voices horror short stories from Alaska and Canada, but I really wanted to include it on this list. It’s a phenomenal anthology and a must-have read for the dark winter months. Featuring award winning authors Richard Van Camp, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Aviaq Johnston, and more, Taaqtumi is made up of tales of the darkness and the cold, from zombies to mysterious doors, to post-apocalyptic towns deep in the Arctic. I have always loved fiction set in the Arctic. Something about all that ice and snow, and nothing for miles but freezing winds and the blinding whites and blues. It’s the best of isolation and survival horror, all rolled into one.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

For more Indigenous Horror Reads:

Start with this list of four Indigenous horror titles by Amanda Diehl over at Book Riot.

And then you can follow up with this list of eight more by Ann-Marie Cahill!

Bonus List: If you’re a fantasy and sci-fi fan, I also recommend this list of 25 SFF books by Indigenous authors that Danika Ellis put together.

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

Emily Hughes has published the Nightfire list of most anticipated horror for 2022! So… you know… tell your bank account that you’re sorry, and that you’ll leave flowers on its grave. Here I was thinking that next year I was going to control my book buying! Ha. Ha ha. No.

Jamie Alvey wrote a really interesting piece for Fangoria about the influence of Shirley Jackson on Mike Flanagan’s recent Netflix horror delight, Midnight Mass.

We’ve got a brand new podcast over at Book Riot! Adaptation Nation is all about TV and film adaptations of your favorite books! And given this glorious genre renaissance in which we find ourselves, you just know some of those adaptations are going to be horror!

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff

If You Read It, Then You Read It

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date November 12, 2021

Sponsored by Vault Comics – the best in Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror Comics!

MONSTERS WALK BESIDE US ALL … AND SOMETIMES LURK WITHIN. In her past, the Important Man took away Jacey’s brother. Now Jacey has David, who sometimes transforms into a terrifying beast. Together, they’ve found a way to live – hunt down those who prey on the vulnerable. But the Important Man is still out there – and Jacey and David are about to run into him again. By bestselling author Paul Cornell & artist Sally Cantirino! AVAILABLE NOW! www.vaultcomics.com

cover of annihilation by jeff vandermeer

Back in September, I read Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation for the first time, and I tweeted about this surprising but fascinating quest I was on to determine why Annihilation, a book that is not explicitly queer horror, was giving me such major queer vibes. I did eventually finish Annihilation, complete with my army of color-coded sticky notes. And while breaking down the entire book is a bit more involved than I can fit in one newsletter, there was something I wanted to talk about in this week’s Fright Stuff that is related to my Annihilation project: the validity of reader interpretations.

There has been a lot of discussion in the horror community lately about authors, readers, textual interpretation, and the experience of reading. And I think the whole situation is symptomatic of a larger issue, a sort of lack of general understanding among some horror readers and authors about the right of a reader to form their own interpretations of and opinions about the books they read. And the fact that those interpretations do not require either the author’s consent or the approval of other readers, because individual reading experiences are unique and extremely personal.

Once an English major, always an English major I guess, but one of the things my teachers always drummed into us was that there is no wrong or right way to read a text. If you can provide textual support for your reading (the gold standard of proof in English academia) then your interpretation is valid. End of story. Hark! I think I hear the existential screaming of some of my more hardnosed professors but I don’t even care.

And I am firmly of the belief that the above doesn’t just apply to so-called “literary” texts. Horror readers know very well how much an author can pack into a single, terrifying book in terms of themes, metaphors, tropes, etc. So the idea that genre fiction doesn’t have the depth needed to support interpretive reading is, frankly, bullshit.

And even if it weren’t, the experience of reading a book isn’t a sola scriptura event. Yes, you use the text to support your interpretation, but at least a portion of how you come to interpret a book has to do with where and when you’re reading it. That’s why you can read the same book at different times in your life and have two completely different experiences with the same work of fiction. Reader interpretations are entirely subjective, and that’s not a bad thing.

For example: I am fully aware that my reading of Annihilation as a queer text was influenced by my own journey of sexual identity. I read the Biologist’s experience of transformation inside Area X as, specifically, a narrative of sexual discovery because that was a huge part of my life at the time. But depending on the reader, her story could easily be read as a trans narrative, as an expression of humanity’s displacement from nature, or any number of possibilities that haven’t even occurred to me because I’m not the right reader for that particular interpretation.

My ability to read that queer narrative within Annihilation was a result of the themes present in the novel – themes of transformation, identity, the intersection of biology and humanity – which are, if not intrinsically, then at least tangentially queer. They’re themes that have invited queer interpretations of literature for years, even of texts that are not overtly queer, and the presence of those themes allows me to support my reading of Annihilation as a queer horror book. But it was my personal experience that allowed me to see the queer narrative that I might have missed if I had read the book at another time in my life.

And, though the impostor syndrome monster living deep in my soul shrieks in agony at the thought, I know that I can put my interpretation out there in the world with confidence, as can any reader, because our experiences as readers are honest, and our own.

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

Did you see that Kiersten White’s (The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein) forthcoming adult horror novel, Hide, has a stunning new cover? It’s to die for! I didn’t think it was possible to be even more excited about this book but I am. I defy you to think of a creepier setting than an abandoned amusement park.

Speaking of gorgeous covers, Ava Reid (The Wolf and the Woodsman) revealed the cover of her forthcoming baroque gothic novel Juniper and Thorn, and it is pure perfection. And that synopsis? Where’s a chef’s kiss emoji when you need one.

Nightfire is going just determined to ruin my life in the best ways. They’ve just announced a new novella from Cassandra Khaw, slated for May of 2023, about a flesh eating mermaid. The Salt Grows Heavy sounds like everything I could want in a horror novella and more!

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

The Fright Stuff

It’s All Well and Good Until Someone Gets Cursed

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date November 5, 2021

Sponsored by Nightfire.

Launched in 2019, Nightfire, the new horror imprint from Tor, encompasses the breadth of horror, from short story collections to novellas and novels, from standalone works to series, from dark fantasy to the supernatural, from originals to reprints of lost modern classics. Nightfire’s novels are now appearing on shelves in bookstores and libraries near you. Do you dare stretch the spines on these terrifying titles this autumn?

Welcome, welcome to the dying of the year! The days are getting darker, the nights are growing longer, the temperatures are dropping (if you’re far enough North that is), and though Halloween has passed us by for another year, it’s never too late to celebrate dark fiction!

This happens to be my favorite time of year to read fairy tale retellings. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s that my brain associates dark, cold nights with fireplaces, and fireplaces with storytelling? (I blame Jim Henson.) Or maybe it’s that fairy tale retellings often feature a mix of darkness and hope that I find perfect for a time of year characterized by both endings and beginnings. Or maybe it’s simply that fairy tales have always been a part of my life, and there’s a lot of comfort (and serotonin) to be found in retellings that put creative twists on familiar narratives.

Whatever the reason, I have one rule for fairy tale retellings: darker is always better. So I’ve put together a list of sinister retellings that are must haves for my winter TBR, and hopefully for yours too!

A Few Reminders: don’t eat fruit handed to you by strangers; no making deals with overly helpful unknown entities; always stick to the path; spinning wheels are bad, get a better hobby; and, above all, nothing is as it seems so don’t take anything for granted! (See, it always comes back to Jim Henson.)

Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

Rumpelstiltskin has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. So when I found out that Erin. A Craig – whose House of Salt and Sorrows was a retelling of another fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses – was writing a creepy YA fantasy novel loosely inspired by Rumpelstiltskin, I was over the moon! Ellerie Downing has lived in the town of Amity Falls all her life, in the shadow of Blackspire Mountains and surrounded on all sides by a nearly impenetrable fortress rumored to be full of devils the villagers defeated long ago. But a sudden disappearance disturbs the peace of Amity Falls, raising fears that the monsters may have returned, ready to tempt unwary villagers with promises of desires fulfilled. And in return they ask for so little! What’s a small favor in the face of all you’ve ever wanted?

Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

So personally, I love Frozen. But if Disney’s (very, VERY) loosely Snow Queen-inspired film didn’t do it for you, may I recommend something a little more… violent? Sirapirat has been locked in endless winter ever since the Winter Queen captured the city-state. In search of the shards of a powerful magic mirror. General Lussadh carries one of those mirror shards in her heart, making her unwaveringly loyal to winter. Her job is to find the remaining “glass-bearers”, and her search eventually leads her to Nuawa, whose only mission in life is to destroy the Winter Queen. Add in one brutal, deadly tournament in which the victors become part of the Queen’s army, the loser’s souls are forfeit, and there’s a complicated romance growing between general and insurgent, and you’ve got all the makings of an epic queer retelling that also happens to be seasonally on point!

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

Little Red Riding Hood really is the perfect fairy tale for adaptation. It’s dark, borderline scary (some versions are downright gruesome). It pits a young girl against a violent, predatory, sexually coded figure, and it’s all set against the back drop of a vast, threatening forest. In other words, it’s pretty much the proto-plot for any number of horror stories. Red is the original final girl. And when it comes to dark retellings, For the Wolf definitely delivers! Red is a Second Daughter, the first in centuries, which means that her one purpose in life is to be sacrificed. The Wolf in the Wood holds the world’s gods captive and every second daughter born is sacrificed in hopes that he might release them. But what she finds in the depths of the Wilderwood is a tangle of lies, and everything she thought she knew about her world comes undone.

Cover of Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (November 9th)

The release date of Comfort Me With Apples got delayed late last month because of the almighty and terrible supply chain issues that are currently plaguing publishing, but the day is finally here! Tomorrow this chilling, enchanting Bluebeard retelling enters the world, and I could not be more excited. Sophia knows nothing but the reality of her perfect, sheltered, beloved life behind the safe walls of Arcadia Gardens. She was made to be her husband’s little darling, that’s her whole life. Sophie has never questioned her existence, or how she came to exist. Until one day the arrival of a stranger in Arcadia Gardens threatens to overturn her peaceful existence and reveal the terrible truth that hides behind the basement door her husband forbids her to open.

Briar Girls by Rebecca Kim Wells (November 16th)

Can I just say how much of a struggle it was to choose a Sleeping Beauty adaptation when I had three amazing, queer retellings to choose from? But ultimately I chose Briar Girls because I’m a sucker for a mysterious forest. Lena has spent her whole life living in fear of her curse, a touch that can kill. She and her father live in a tiny village near the Silence, a dense forest that few are foolish enough to enter, and fewer still return from. Until the day that Miranda emerges from the trees, on a quest to wake a fabled sleeping princess that may be able to save her home city. Miranda promises to break Lena’s curse in exchange for the other girl’s help in completing her mission, but the further into the forest they travel, the more Lena beings to suspect that not everything is as it seems.

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

Nightworms featured an interview on their blog with authors Beverley Lee and NIcole Eigener, all about Vampires!

V. Castro’s books Goddess of Filth and The Queen of Cicadas both made it onto the Brom Stoker Reading List!

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff

Goodbye Halloween, Hello New Releases!

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date October 29, 2021

Sponsored by Nightfire.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists. A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundation rests on the bones of a bride, its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s perfect for a group of thrill-seeking friends reunited to celebrate a wedding. A night of celebration spirals into a nightmare as secrets are revealed and relationships are tested. The house holds secrets, too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

Welcome to November, friends! While another Halloween may be behind us, we all know that our favorite creepy season lives in our hearts year round. How else do you explain all those Christmas horror movies and books? Still, it’s the start of another month which means it’s new releases day! As you might expect, following October’s veritable flood of amazing new horror titles, November is shaping up to be a quieter month for the genre, but there are still some amazing titles being released. Including three anthologies of dark and/or horror short fiction that I’m really excited about!

Cover for the A Conjuring of All Seasons anthology

A Conjuring for All Seasons ed. by Brhel & Sullivan (November 2)

Oh my sweet decaying jack-’o-lanterns, this is going to be the perfect post Halloween read. I could not be more excited. As opposed to the other anthologies on this list which are short and fiction based, A Conjuring for All Seasons is a collection of novelettes from five practicing witches and talented horror authors. Hailey Piper leads the way with “Magic Loves the Hungry” about a woman being haunted by an unknown entity that seems to feed on her anxieties and her hunger to belong. Stephanie M. Wytovich’s “Drawing Down the Sun” is about Anne, the first Clement daughter in over 200 years, who sets out to discover the truth behind the curse that was placed on her family. “Milk Kin” by K.P. Kulski is about a young woman called Ruby who is haunted by the memory of her mother’s abduction by a long-fingered woman from the forest, who returns every year to pierce Ruby’s heel with a long silver needle. Donyae Cole’s “The House of the Heart” is a story about the living practice of hoodoo, family, and knowing when things have gotten too out of hand and it’s time to call in the ancestors. And last but certainly not least, “Longest Night” by Gaby Triana is about two witches “recently out of the broom closet” who decided to throw a Yuletide party that takes an unexpected and deadly turn when it’s crashed by some uninvited guests.

Chlorophobia: An Eco-Horror Anthology ed. by A.R. Ward (November 24)

Oh look, Jessica is talking about eco-horror again. But in my defense, this forthcoming anthology from Ghost Orchid Press looks like it’s going to be absolutely amazing. There are a few horror authors that I recognize, like Nico Bell and Sonora Taylor (and Stephanie M. Wytovich, making her second appearance on this list), but there are a lot of new to me authors as well, which is exciting! Chlorophobia explores the many ways in which the earth can turn against us in its attempt to destroy us or drive us off the planet. Everything from killer plants, to dangerous viruses and obliterating fogs!

My only complaint about the Chlorophobia anthology is that the TOC is very white. A lot of horror anthologies have this problem, so I’m not picking on just this one, but lack of diversity in horror anthologies is an ongoing issue, genre wide, and it should be kept in the spotlight. However, to give credit where credit is due, Chlorophobia features a number of queer horror authors!

Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas ed. by Carina Bissett, Hillary Dodge, and Joshua Viola (November 30)

Shadow Atlas is more heavily dark fiction inclined than strictly horror, but take a look at the list of contributors and you’ll find a lot of familiar horror names! It includes fiction and poetry by, among others, Kay Chronister, Gwendolyn Kiste, Owl Goingback, Josh Malerman, Lee Murray, Christina Sng, Betty Rocksteady, and E. Lily Yu! The premise for the anthology is that a secret organization call the Umbra Arca Society was created to discover the truths the ancients knew about the haunted places of the world that have long since been relegated to myth and superstition. A private league of explorers, the Society dedicated itself to the secret mysteries of the Americas, and each story in the collection represents the work of one of these intrepid adventurers as they set out to explore the dark and dangerous landscapes long forgotten by the modern world.

Just as a note, since I pointed out a similar problem with Chlorophobia, Shadow Atlas does feature work by several authors of color, which I’m really excited about, but we’re still talking about maybe 20% of the total authors featured in the collection. Of course, editors work with both time constraints and, in the case of an indie publisher like Hex Publishers or Ghost Orchid Press, somewhat limited resources, so again I’m definitely not assigning blame to a single anthology. And every TOC that includes authors of color, as Shadow Atlas’ does, helps to promote their work and increase the likelihood that future anthologies will become even more diverse!

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

Obviously these three fantastic anthologies are not the only books coming out this month! So if you’re looking for more new releases be sure to check out Nightfire’s list of 2021 new horror releases!

The Chicago Public Library hosted a Feel the Fear Panel on October 27 that is now available to stream on Youtube! It featured authors Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, and Hailey Piper, and was moderated by Becky Spratford (@RAforAll).

Over at Book Riot, we’ve got a brand new podcast, Adaptation Nation, all about TV and film adaptations of your favorite books! Given how many amazing horror adaptations are in the works right now, you should definitely keep your eye on Adaptation Nation for all the latest news.

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm (https://twitter.com/JtheBookworm), where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff

Get Out Your Pumpkin Buckets!

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date October 22, 2021

Sponsored by Nightfire.

It’s Halloween week! We are only a few days away from the best day of the year. Though plans can still be hard to come by this year I hope you’re all anticipating a fun, horror-filled holiday. And whether you’re going to be out and about, or camping out in your own living room with candy, snacks, and something scary, I wish you all a Happy Halloween!

Since this is our last Fright Stuff before the big day arrives, I thought we’d do something fun. A little bookish horror trick or treat. In the spirit of Halloween I’ve pulled together some amazing Halloween horror reads and some delightfully bookish Halloween swag! Get ready for:

Some Terrifying Tricks…

Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder

You know I love a short short collection, and that goes double for the fantastic, holiday-themed Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder. Halloween Season is a collection of stories inspired by the many facets of Halloween. From the traditional trappings of the holiday— the chilling haunted houses that pop up in abandoned forts or winding corn mazes to the buckets of candy and scary movie marathons— these stories run the gamut from chilling to hilarious, so there’s a little something for every kind of horror reader.

Devil’s Hill by E. Reyes

Must-read Halloween collection number two on our lists is Devil’s Hill by E. Reyes. These fifteen Halloween-inspired stories offer readers a range of terrifying delights all set in the town of Devil’s Hill, Arizona where, for one long night, the veil between the living and the dead has been lifted and evil has been set free in the streets. Each story is its own, separate narrative, but all fifteen are connected to the fallout of a summoning spell which imbued a scarecrow with the consciousness of an ancient god. Because what could POSSIBLY go wrong with that scenario? As if scarecrows weren’t creepy enough already.

benny rose the cannibal king hailey piper cover rewind or die

Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper

If you like your Halloween a little retro and a lot bloody, with a side serving of flesh-eating, I can’t recommend a better horror read for the holiday than Benny Rose, the Cannibal King! A Halloween prank goes horribly wrong in Blackwood, Vermont when a vicious Halloween storm in 1987 leaves high school student Desiree St. Fleur, her friends, and the unfortunate new girl they were trying to prank stranded far from home. It was just supposed to be a bit of seasonal fun, inspired by Blackwood’s own dark legendary figure: Benny Rose, the Cannibal King. Now the girls are lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood, hunted through the streets by a figure straight out of the legend itself.

And Some Seriously Sweet Treats.

Halloween bookmarks with pumpkins ghosts flowers and haunted houses.

Halloween-Inspired Bookmarks
Shall we start with bookmarks? You can never have too many (particularly since mine always seem to grow legs and walk off the second I’m not looking at them…) and these Halloween themed bookmarks are particularly adorable.

Halloween themed bookish t-shirt with cute ghosts and text that says books with too many o's

“Booooks” Ghostly Halloween T-Shirt
Speaking of adorable, how cute is this booooookish Halloween t-shirt? Yes, I know this is the second adorable ghost item in a row. But look I am a simple girl with simple needs, and I…. may need to order one of these t-shirts.

Creepy Book Fingers Bookmark or Shelf Decor

Creepy Book Fingers
I’m not sure if this counts as a bookmark, or book ends, or just a really phenomenal piece of bookshelf décor, but oh my gosh how creepy is this set of monster fingers? Can you imagine forgetting that you put this on your shelves only to look over and scare yourself half to death? Perfection. 10/10 recommend waiting until your houseguests are not looking before slipping this in between a couple of books and sharing the scare.

Mug with a skeleton hugging a book surrounded by the words my TBR will be the death of me

Death by TBR Mug
Skeletons are one of my favorite parts of Halloween. So please share my delight in this extremely relatable skeleton mug as we all embrace the inevitability of never finishing our TBRs. And possibility of being literally killed by them, in the instance of a fatal book avalanche.

vintage style poster of a black cat in a witch hat that reads that's what I do I read books I put a spell on you and I know things

“That’s What I Do” Black Cat Poster
Confession? Halloween is the time of year when I buy like 90% of my home décor. That includes wall art, and I love this bookish black cat print. I adore the colors and the vintage-esque design. It feels very classic Halloween!

Stained glass suncatcher of a skull with fly amanita mushrooms growing out of the bone.

Fly Amanita Skull Stained Glass Suncatcher
MUSHROOMS. Okay, yes, I know that this isn’t explicitly bookish. But how. Absolutely. Incredibly Gorgeous is this suncatcher? Y’all know my unabashed obsession with horror fungi. So of course my heart went pitter patter in my chest when I saw this piece. And I highly recommend checking out the artists entire Halloween collection! They’re creepy glass perfection.

Fresh from the Skeleton’s Mouth

Tor is killing it with their horror content this Halloween season, and today’s picks are very… toothy. Linden Lewis is recommending 5 Books for People Who Crave More Vampires, which includes the much anticipated re-release of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Certain Dark Things and my beloved fav A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson. And Lee Mandelo wrote a fantastic piece on Cassanda Khaw’s new novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth.

Stephen Graham Jones’ amazing slasher homage, My Heart is a Chainsaw, is getting a sequel!

For your weekly dose of Book Riot horror content, Emily Martin pulled together a list of terrifying middle grade books for the budding horror fan in your life! And Jamie Canaves discusses the ways in which fictional horror can help us escape from the ever day horrors of the world we live in.

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff

Whatever Walked There: 62 Years of Hill House

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date October 15, 2021

Sponsored by Vault Comics – the best in Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Horror Comics!

Welcome to Comfort Notch. You’ll never want to leave… Following the death of her estranged mother, Kat Somerville and her daughter, Sybil, flee a difficult life in Chicago for the quaint–and possibly pernicious–town of Comfort Notch, New Hampshire – hoping to fit in. But the town’s obscure history and strange customs make it a struggle, leading to a shocking confrontation. Gruesome truths are revealed, sacrifices are made, and life in Comfort Notch bursts into flames. By New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus & star artist Chris Shehan! AVAILABLE NOW!

62 years ago, in October of 1959, Viking Press published the first edition of Shirley Jackson’s quintessential ghost story The Haunting of Hill House, a novel now so familiar to horror readers that I’d be willing to bet most of us can quote at least part of its iconic opening paragraph from memory. I was on a plane back from the West Coast the first time I read Hill House. I spent the first half of that flight so consumed that I forgot I was even on a plane, and by the time I was done I’m pretty sure those opening lines were permanently tattooed on my brain.

cover of the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson

In Laura Miller’s introduction to the 2006 Penguin Classics edition, she describes classic ghost stories like Hill House as being traps for their protagonists, luring them in by virtue of their own curiosity (ix). I mean, how many times when watching a horror movie have you caught yourself shouting at the main character to stop opening all the damn creepy doors? Right? It’s because we know. We know that if you give in to the nervous impulse to open door after door, drawn on by the “what if”s— “what if there’s something there”, “what if that sound I heard was real”, “what if that little voice in the back of my head was right”— the haunting in the house will pull you in too deep. Because you have to know! You have to know all the bad things that might be behind the door, because if you don’t find them then you know they’ll find you first. So it’s just “what if” over and over, door after door, until you’re trapped. Until none of the doors you left open behind you lead out.

On my first read through, I picked up on the anxious, trapped feeling that permeates The Haunting of Hill House (it’s hard to miss), but at the time I didn’t make a connection to my own struggles with anxiety over the years. I just knew that I deeply empathized with Eleanor, and the struggle against the pull of Hill House which ultimately consumed her. Eleanor was a dreamer, insulating herself in fantasy against the threat of “absolute reality,” keeping the world at bay with dreams to escape from her fears and anxieties from the trauma of being emotionally abused and neglected by her own family for years. But Hill House, as we are told, is “not sane.” It cannot dream. It is an amphitheater of absolute reality with an entrance like a lobster trap; one way in, no way out. Poor Eleanor and her dream world never really stood a chance.

Whether you choose to believe that the house is haunted, or that, as Miller suggests in her introduction, Eleanor may herself be the “whatever” haunting in Hill House, is a matter of opinion left up to the individual reader. The novel is open ended enough to let us make our own decisions. I think it’s a bit of both. I’ve always believed that Hill House is “not sane”, as we’re told, but that the only ghosts within its walls are those its visitors bring with them. Amphitheaters are designed to amplify, after all. So the “what if” you find behind the closed door is more likely to be a phantom of your own making than a ghost in the literal sense.

Speaking from personal experience, “whatever walked there, walked alone” is pretty much exactly what the inside of my head feels like when I’m panicking. Haunted but alone, caught in the echo chamber of my own anxieties. But then, Shirley Jackson was very well acquainted with what it feels like to live with anxiety. So if Hill House‘s claustrophobic tension bears an echo of that oh so familiar tight, twisting in the chest and throat that a particularly good spike of anxiety can cause, well, rightly so.

But that’s the beauty of horror, isn’t it? We talk often about the catharsis of watching or reading horror, the way that just the right book or movie can help us cope with the horrors of real life or the monsters in our own heads. However, re-reading The Haunting of Hill House recently reminded me that horror is also the way in which we communicate our fears to others to see if perhaps those fears and anxieties are shared. Whether as an author putting their story out into the world, or a reader recommending their favorite books to other readers, we want to share the things that frighten us, and find others who feel the same. I mean, it makes sense! When it comes to haunted houses, ghosts, monsters, or masked killers, there’s always strength in numbers.

So a very happy 62nd birthday, to a genuinely frightening book whose horrors never fade with age! The Haunting of Hill House permanently transformed the haunted house narrative, and for that this anxious horror reader is eternally grateful.

For more on The Haunting of Hill House, check out these excellent articles:

Speaking of Laura Miller, you can read part of her introduction on LitHub!

Annika Barranti Klein at Book Riot wrote a fantastic deep dive into the first line of the novel (2019), and Lee Mandelo explored the novel’s queerness, and the theme of isolation which runs throughout, for Tor (2016).

Also for Tor, but a bit more recently, last September Anne M. Pillsworth and Ruthanna Emrys included Hill House in their Reading the Weird series, and wrote a series of responses to the text, the first of which is linked here (2020). Beware of spoilers if you haven’t read the book yet! Each response begins with a summary of the portion of book being discussed.

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

Nightfire’s “Out for Blood” Queer Horror Panel, featuring Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth), Zin E Rocklyn (Flowers for the Sea), and Lee Mandelo (Summer Sons), is this Thursday the 21st! If you have a chance to tune in at 7PM (ET), you definitely should. All three of these books are amazing.

Tananarive Due wrote an article for Novel Suspects “On Horror and the Creations that Shape Us”, in which she discusses Black Horror, how she developed her love of horror, and the recent reissue of her novel The Between.

Last but definitely not least, Margaret Kingsbury has put together a list of 21 must read new and upcoming horror novels for Buzzfeed, so get out those reading lists and a pen, people!

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm (https://twitter.com/JtheBookworm), where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff

If You Go Down in the Woods Today…

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date October 8, 2021

Sponsored by Nightfire.

From international bestselling author Catriona Ward comes The Last House on Needless Street, a shocking and immersive read perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House. In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street lives a family of three. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but what is buried among the birches may just come back and haunt them all…

One of my favorite tropes in horror is evil toys. Demonic Doll? Please. Haunted Toy House? I’m all in. Possessed Jack-in-the-Box?

No, too scary. Not cool, Dave.

they threw us away by daniel kraus cover

But have you ever wondered what would happen if you found yourself on the other side of the “evil” toy invasion, and it turned out that things maybe weren’t exactly what they seemed? That maybe the toys didn’t think they were evil, but were in fact lost, not sure of their identities or why they had been abandoned? That’s a whole different kind of horror, isn’t it? And it’s the idea at the heart of one of my favorite 2020 middle grade horror titles: Daniel Kraus’ charming but alarming, They Threw Us Away.

Confession: I knew I was going to buy this book the moment that I saw the cover. Rovina Cai’s distinctive artwork struck me as adorable, heartbreaking, and a tad bit creepy all at once. Three slightly scruffy teddy bears stand upon a mountain of trash – the last place a beloved teddy bear should be. And so begins a sweet, scary, sad but hopeful tale about a pack of teddy bears, led by a bear called Buddy, who wake up in a dump one day and have to band together to find their way back to the toy store and in to the arms of children who will love them.

Now when I say that They Threw Us Away is scary, I mean it. In the spirit of Watership Down, this book is determined to stress you out. The horror ranges from atmospheric, to monstrous, to one sudden and very upsetting moment involving teddy bear eyes that I think may have scarred me for life. I will be sending Kraus my therapy bills. This middle grade horror takes the idea of the animate toy, which in horror is often the villain of the piece, and turns it on its head. We’re on the side of these poor, determined bears! We’re rooting for them as they waddle their way through a hostile world!

But should we be?

Our poor bears may be trustworthy, brave little adventurers, but They Threw Us Away gives us plenty of reasons to be wary of the other Furrington Teddies. Yes, you know I’m thinking about Mad – the terrible, many-in-one bear in the donation box which Rovina Cai captured in a chilling illustration of too long, wiggly arms and a horrific, patchwork belly. But I’m also thinking of an earlier scene, the one that first made me wonder how the Furrington teddies had gone from being beloved to being trash in the dump. And whether maybe there was a reason they were being destroyed. I’m talking, of course, about the toy store Manager and the dumpster full of shredded bears.

The dumpster itself was upsetting enough! But when the Manager peered over the edge at the still living teddies, and said “I don’t know how you four got through […] But it won’t happen again, not on my watch.” (160) a chill went down my spine. Not just because Buddy and the other teddies were in trouble, but because the Manager was implying that these were not the first living teddies he had seen. And his horror and anger at seeing them alive makes me wonder: just what happened to cause the Furrington massacre? What did the teddies do?

Is it possible that we’ve been on the side of the evil toys all along?

I supposed we’ll have to wait until January to find out!

If You Liked They Threw Us Away…

Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon

If there’s one thing you can always count on, it’s that horror will find a way to make all your childhood memories terrifying. And we all know that there’s already something innately creepy about hide and seek. But if you ever wondered just how wrong one game of hide and seek could go, you need to add Hide and Seeker to your reading list. Justin’s friend Zee went missing, and came back wrong. Though Justin can’t figure out exactly what about Zee is different, he knows that something has changed and not for the better. Then a seemingly harmless game of hide and seek at Zee’s welcome home party takes a terrifying turn as the players start to disappear and Justin finds himself trapped in the nightmarish world of the Seeker.

Cover of The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkhaf

Lots of kids have an imaginary friend. It’s normal, and definitely not cause for concern! Until, that is, your kid’s “imaginary” friend turns out to be not so imaginary and far from benign. Now, technically Suraya’s friend, Pink, isn’t imaginary. She’s a pelesit, a spirit companion gifted to Suraya by her grandmother, and the two are the best of friends. But pelesits aren’t entirely benign – they have a dark side which Suraya knows nothing about. One which could destroy them both.

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

Looking for more MG horror? The Ladies of Horror Fiction publish a list of new YA and MG horror titles at the ended of every month. September’s list went up a few days ago, and October’s should be up just in time for Halloween book shopping. That’s how we “treat” ourselves in this apartment, people!

October is a month full of exciting book releases, which of course means it’s also a month full of exciting book events! Up next is Copper Dog Books’ Oct 14th “Art of the Novella” panel, featuring Catherynne M Valente, Zin E Rocklyn, Cassandra Khaw, and Adrian Tchaikovsky

Let the horror party continue! Whether you’re in the mood for some horror comedy, a Shirley Jackson fan on the hunt for a read-alike, or ready to design your perfect monster team to find your next horror read, we’ve got screams a plenty over at Book Riot.

Speaking of Book Riot, we’re celebrating our 10th Anniversary this year! And for the month of October only we’re offering some fantastic limited edition clothing and assorted Book Riot swag. Take a look!

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff

The Season of Scares is Upon Us!

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date October 1, 2021

Sponsored by Nightfire.

From Silvia Moreno-Garcia, the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic, comes Certain Dark Things, a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore. Now in paperback for the first time ever!

Hello and welcome to the creepiest month of the year, our month, our happiest darkest holiday season: It’s October, Witches. Lets party! This year’s been a lot, right? I mean the last two years, really, but as we enter the last final quarter of 2021 I’m sort of torn between horror (ha) that it’s already October and delight that at least, after all this shit, it’s finally Halloween. The lights are up, the decorations are out, the candy bar is stocked. All that’s missing are the books!

Cover of The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling (October 5th)

Oh my god I can’t believe that this book is finally almost here. I can’t wait to put this monstrous, gorgeous book in my eyeballs. It’s peak Gothic goodness and, surprising absolutely no one, I am living for it. When Jane Shoringfield makes a calculated choice to marry a stranger to ensure her security and independence, wooooow does she bet on the wrong horse. I mean sure, Augustine Lawrence seems like the perfect choice. He’s wealthy, he’s charming, and best of all, he’s a recluse who doesn’t even want her to set foot in his house. What could be better? Until Jane ends up stranded on his doorstep on their wedding night and what she finds inside Lindridge Hall throws all her careful planning into disarray. So much for best laid plans, because there is something very, very wrong in Lindridge Hall.

Cackle by Rachel Harrison (October 5th)

I honestly don’t know if we can get more “perfect Halloween read” than Cackle, folks. I have been counting down the days until October when this book and it’s gorgeous cover would be released upon the world. Tired of her ordinary, safe life in Manhattan, Annie abandons everything in exchange for a teaching position in a small village in upstate New York, a picturesque town almost too good to be true! Even her apartment is Instagram ready – except of course for the spiders. Still, even a persistent eight-legged infestation can’t put a damper on what looks like a shining start to her new life. Especially once Annie meets beautiful, charming, and independent Sophie, who wants to help Annie to finally start living her life. If the townsfolk seem a little frightened of Sophie, so what? It’s not like witches are real. Right?

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros (October 5th)

Can I offer you some (more) queer horror in this trying time? This new YA horror by Aden Polydoros takes place in 1893 Chicago during the illustrious World’s Fair. But while most of the city is caught up in the glitter and whirl of the fair, Alter Rosen is hunting a killer. Alter came to America to make a better life for himself, and a future for his mother and sisters still living in Romania. But the violent murders of several young Jewish men, the most recent of which was Alter’s best friend Yakov, have brought Alter’s American dream to a halt. Now Yakov’s dybbuk is possessing Alter, threatening his very existence, and leaving Alter no choice but to team up with a dangerous boy from his past and find the killer before the killer finds him first. Or Yakov’s dybbuk takes him over entirely.

Nothing B ut Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw (October 19th)

This novella, people. It’s so full of rot, and mold, and gore! A perfect, weird, delightfully horrifying ghost story. When a group of friends descends upon an abandoned, reputedly haunted Heian-era mansion for a wedding, things quickly go sideways when a scary story told in a dark room resurrects the vengeful spirit of the house. My favorite part of this was definitely Khaw’s descriptions of the house as just seething with rot, as though the whole thing were a decomposing corpse in its own right. If you love watching groups of people crumble as external terrors expose and put pressure on the cracks between them, you’re going to love Nothing But Blackened Teeth.

Cover of Flowers For the Sea by Zin E Rocklyn

Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn (October 19th)

Rocklyn’s forthcoming post-apocalyptic cosmic horror novella is one of those books that really sticks to you after you put it down. It’s gorgeous – and definitely a bit gross in places (but in the best horror way, of course) – and the amount of worldbuilding that Rocklyn fit into 112 pages puts some 300 pages novels I’ve read to shame. Survivors of a flooded land exist in isolation, fighting for their continued survival on an ark. Supplies are dwindling, terrifying sea monsters circle, and Iraxi, locked away deep in the hold of the ark, is heavily pregnant with a child she does not want. A child that may not even be human. In a society in which Iraxi’s people are reviled, but her ability to bear a child when so many others cannot is revered, she straddles a strange line between outcast and idol. But there may be an even darker and more powerful fate awaiting her.

Cover of Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood (October 19th)

Be still my Brontë loving heart. Within These Wicked Walls is Gothic, it’s creepy, it’s romantic, so of course I enjoyed every minute of it. I mean I’m a simple girl. Give me a room full of blood and I’m content. Jane Eyre fans will recognize a few beloved lines and familiar scenes, but even when paying homage to her source text, Blackwood has created something wholly original and unique. Andromeda is a debtera without a license, making her little better than an eternal apprentice in the eyes of the world. If she wants to continue to work, she’s going to need a patron. So when Magnus Rochester hires her sight unseen to cleanse his house of the Evil Eye, despite her lack of licensure, Andromeda decides to take her one chance at a future and run with it. But she could never have predicted the degree of horror lurking inside of Magnus’ home, nor the youth and charm of her new employer. With both her life and heart in danger, Andromeda will have to work fast if she hopes to save Magnus from the curse that threatens to tear them apart.

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (October 26th)

I have been absolutely DYING to talk to you about this book. For real. I had to put a big old moratorium on it in my head so that I wouldn’t write about it too soon and risk being run out of town for spoiling a genuinely upsetting reveal that had me gasping out loud. Sophia knows nothing but the reality of her perfect, sheltered, beloved life behind the safe walls of Arcadia Gardens. Her husband is her whole world. She was made to be his little darling, and she’s never once questioned that. That is, until the perfection of her life begins to crack around the edges, letting in a strangeness that just might lead her to the truth behind the only life she’s ever known. A truth perhaps lurking in the locked basement of their home, where Sophia is never, ever to go.

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

As always, if you’re looking for yet more October horror new releases, I absolutely have to refer you to Nightfire’s list of their most anticipated 2021 horror titles.

Speaking of Nightfire, you are not going to want to miss their Out for Blood: Queer Tales to Tell in the Dark panel on October 21st at 7PM, featuring Cassanda Khaw, Lee Mandelo, and Zin E. Rocklyn!

Beloved Horror Host, Queer Icon (!), and Mistress of the Dark, Elvira, has hit number 4 on the New York Times Best Seller List for her recently released biography Yours Cruelly, Elvira! And somebody ring the shame bell, because guess who still has not picked up her copy.

We’ve got a full compliment of new scary content for you at Book Riot! From horror comedy reads to the best horror manhwa and manga, to the depth-haunting terrors of the ocean.

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff

This one’s for you, Mistress of the Dark

Post author By Jessica Avery
Post date September 24, 2021

To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames

So hot off the presses that the ink’s barely dry, Ame’s To Break a Covenant is about an ex-mining town capitalizing on its haunted past to bring in the tourism money that’s keeping the town alive, and a group of girls determined to discover the mystery behind the strange phenomena that plague their town. Moon Basin’s haunting supposedly stems from the violent deaths of sixteen people the day the mine exploded and touched off an underground fire that burns still. Now only New Basin is left. Clem and Nina, best friends since childhood, and on the verge of being something more, are joined by Lisey and Piper as they journey deep into the abandoned mines of Moon Basin in search of the truth.

The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado

I love Machado’s work, so I was beyond excited when I found out she would be contributing to the 2020 Hill House comic series! Her graphic novel, The Low, Low Woods, is about two teenagers, El and Octavia, who are best friends that grew up in the tiny town of Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania. A strange forgetting illness has begun to affect the inhabitants of the town, stealing their memories as horrors stalk the streets of a town on fire. Its long burning coal mines abandoned but still aflame (sense a theme here?). When El and Octavia are infected, the two take it upon themselves to investigate the dark mysteries of their town before they loose themselves forever.

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

This one probably sways the most towards dark fantasy, rather than being more fully horror. Our heroine Jessamyn hears the voice of her estranged grandmother, now a mysterious deity who is determined to make use of Jessamyn to settle a vengeful score. With that, plus the existence of a whole strange world full of danger, gods, ghosts, and secrets, I think there’s plenty here to keep dark fiction readers intrigued. And while I freely admit that I haven’t read Black Water Sister yet, the reviews I’ve seen suggest there might even be a few scenes that are down right, graphically scary. Cho described Black Water Sister as “A stressed zillennial lesbian fights gods, ghosts, gangsters & grandmas in 21st century Penang”, and I mean honestly what better inducement can I offer?

Dead Lez Walking by G. Benson

I will never miss a chance to include zombies on absolutely any list where I can fit them. Particularly these days, when zombie apocalypse novels have taken on an additional shade of emotional significance. There’s something extra cathartic about a plague with a physical manifestation that you can actually fight. I doubt that comes as much a relief to Taren and Joy, though, as the hospital they work at is suddenly overtaken with the living dead. With a soured “almost romance” hanging between them, the two find themselves unable to avoid one another, trapped in the hospital with a group of other survivors. Their only way out is to work together and fight their way free. Which makes this a bit of an awkward time to find themselves falling in love. Did I specifically make room for this book because I am absolutely obsessed with the idea of the horror romance? Pfft. Of course I did.

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

So this one might also fall more under the umbrella of dark fantasy, but it has plenty of creepy, Gothic goodness to sate horror readers. In This Poison Heart, Briseis finds herself spending the summer at the dilapidated estate of her dead aunt, surrounded by its vast gardens. There, Bri hopes that she will learn to control her extraordinary gift: the ability to grow plants from seed to full bloom with just a touch of her hand. But the estate is old, and dark, and one of its gardens is comprised of nothing but the world’s most deadly plants. As she falls into creating tinctures and elixirs for those who come to the estate seeking help, Bri meets Marie, a young woman keeping dark secrets, who knows more about the estate than she is letting on.

Fresh from the Skeleton’s Mouth

Speaking of queer horror in general, that wonderful terrible book that ruined my life (yes I’m talking about Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo) comes out next week and Unabridged Bookstore will be holding a virtual event to celebrate on Monday the 27th! That’s tonight folks!

October 19th TorDotCom Publishing is hosting an event to celebrate the publication of Zin E. Rocklyn’s fantastic cosmic horror novella, Flowers for the Sea!

It’s finally fall, which means Book Riot is ramping up its production of creepy good fun to make sure you’re Halloween reading seasons are well supplied. For shiny new YA horror to haunt your nights, check out this list by Kelly Jensen or stock up on indigenous horror with a little help from Ann-Marie Cahill.

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.

The Fright Stuff