Category: The Fright Stuff

Hello my fellow Nightmares and Tiny Terrors, I’m Jessica Avery and I’ll be delivering your weekly brief of all that’s ghoulish 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.

This week’s unnerving delights are brought to you by the fruitful world of Middle Grade Horror. Those of us who were baby horror fans, digging through the grade school library shelves for those few stray scary books that made it into the catalog and past the notice of concerned adults, remember all too well the joy of discovering new favorites. Of devouring terrifying tales beneath the safety of our blankets, by the light of a pilfered flashlight. Which is why this week we are celebrating all those bump in the night books introducing horror to a new generation of readers.

Backlist Middle Grade Horror

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste

Corinne La Mer knows that jumbies are just monsters made up by parents to scare their children, and they don’t frighten her. Until a mysterious, beautiful woman shows up in her kitchen, cooking for Corinne’s father and setting into motion an evil plan to take control of Corinne’s island home. With the help of some ancient magics, Corinne and her friends must fight to stop the strange woman before she and her kind take over the island forever.

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

The smiling man is coming. When book-loving Ollie rescued the book about the smiling man from being thrown in to the river and destroyed, she never believed that the story inside might be true. But when on a field trip with her class she finds the graves of the “characters” in the book, she begins to wonder if the smiling man himself – a sinister, wish-granting creature, whose favors are sold for a terrible price – might in fact be real. Soon Ollie and her classmates are stranded in the middle of nowhere and on the run from with only an ominous bit of advice from their strange bus driver: “Avoid large places. Keep to small.”

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Cassidy Blake sees ghosts. Real ghosts, like her best friend Jacob, and like the ghosts her paranormal hunting parents, The Inspecters, are always searching for. When The Inspecters and their new TV crew head to Scotland, Cass finds herself surrounded by ghosts, and meets Lara, another girl who can see the dead. Lara calls people like them In-betweeners, tasked with sending ghosts to their final death. And with the malevolent Red Raven haunting Edinburgh, Cass has no choice but to embrace her new identity and fight to send this deadly ghost back beyond the Veil.

Recent and Upcoming Middle Grade Releases

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia

La Llorona, the wailing ghost woman of the river. Paola Santiago and her friends know the rule: stay away from the river’s edge so that La Llorona can not pull you in. For most of the kids in their school, they’ve been hearing warnings about the river since a schoolmate drowned last year, but Paola has been hearing warning tales of La Llorona from her mother her whole life. Her mother’s tales are embarrassing superstitions to the science-minded Pao, so she plans a stargazing meet up near the banks of the river, the best spot for viewing the night sky. Only to find out when one of her friends disappears that her mother may have been right all along.

Don’t Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark edited by Jonathan Maberry

Don’t Turn Out the Lights is a collection of 35 stories from the authors of the Horror Writers Association, paying homage to Alvin Schwartz’s legacy. Subjects range from flesh hungry ogres, brains full of spiders (*sob*), and haunted houses, and are illustrated in truly terrifying fashion. The complete list of contributing writers is stacked with some of the most talented voices in modern horror. It includes, among others, Tananarive Due, Amy Lukavics, Josh Malerman, Madeline Roux, and even R.L. Stine!

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

When Suraya’s grandmother died, she left Suraya a gift: a spirit that was hers to command. A pelesit, which Suraya named Pink and who quickly became her closest companion. But pelesits are dark spirits, and no matter how close Pink may be to Suraya, her dark side threatens both their lives. As Pink’s shadows loom large, Suraya and her pelesit must find a way to survive, or else be lost to the darkness forever.

Fresh from the Skeleton’s Mouth

Over at Book Riot Giovanna Centeno has your must-read list of Awesome Zombie Books, and Isabelle Popp discusses 3 New Thought-Provoking Horror Novels you should add to your TBR.

Did you hear that Mexican Gothic has been optioned by Hulu, ABC Signature Studios and Milojo Productions? I am ridiculously excited.

Speaking of Hulu, I apparently missed the memo that the adaptation of Clive Barker’s Books of Blood was even happening, but it will be out on October 7th, any my little Halloween heart is fluttering with joy.

Topping off the horror adaptations news with some R.L. Stine goodness, according to Bloody Disgusting Netflix has acquired the film trilogy adaptation of Stine’s beloved Fear Street series. Coming to your screen summer of 2021!

If you don’t follow book reviewer and artist Cassie Daley over on twitter (@ctrlaltcassie) you might not have heard about the awesome coloring and activities book she’s been working on: The Big Book of Horror Authors. Well it’s finished! According to Daley’s blog, “the book will include coloring pages that will show off each author’s portrait, plus a mini-cover or two of theirs that you can color in on their page”, and the activities section will have everything from mad-libs to crossword puzzles and DIY bookshelves. Follow Daley for further updates, including when pre-orders open up!

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

Hello Phantoms and Phantasms, I’m Jessica Avery and I’ll be delivering your weekly brief of all that’s ghoulish 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.

Horror has a stunning capacity for hope. In the midst of the darkest of fiction genres, which makes its living on terror and dread, I have often found more cause to hope – and more reminders of the power of hope – than in any other genre I have read. Which is probably why I refused to put down Paul Tremblay’s Survivor Song, even though it wrecked me emotionally and petrified me with its eerie prescience about life in pandemic America.

You’ve probably heard of Survivor Song by now. I wasn’t joking about its almost prophetic vision of what we’re all now living through, and that – combined with the fact that Tremblay is an amazing storyteller with a merciless ability to wring every last emotion from his readers – pretty much guaranteed that the book would be a hit. But what I loved most about Survivor Song, and why I insisted on finishing it, was its prevailing sense of hope even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. What we’re living through right now? This sucks. The grief, the fear, and the uncertainty are universal. As with the rabies-like virus ravaging the northeastern US in Survivor Song, COVID-19 feels like an invisible monster that we’re trying to fight with our hands tied behind our backs. Honestly, clowns with red balloons are starting to feel like a cake walk

(Sorry, Pennywise.)

But what are our options, really? Stop fighting? Just sit back and hope the monster doesn’t eat us? Hope the virus doesn’t kill our friends and loved ones but well it’s not like there was anything we could do? Ramola and Natalie in Survivor Song don’t have that choice. Natalie is nine months pregnant, and infected. The clock is ticking, and you can feel its inevitable countdown in the breakneck pace of this book. There is no giving up – there’s only fighting through this thing. Together. With determination, love, and hope. We grieve together, we stick together, and we remember one of the most vital lessons horror has ever taught us: monsters were made to be defeated, and all nightmares end.

We aren’t going to come through this unscathed. We’ve lost so much already and our whole world has been changed. And in the meantime, we all have our ways of getting by. Me, I find that horror helps. It reminds me what we can do, what we’re capable of if we are willing to be brave and try. Horror is a genre about survival. It’s fundamentally hopeful. That’s something Tremblay conveys beautifully in Survivor Song – and something I desperately needed a reminder of at the time. Maybe you need reminding too.

Stay safe, creatures of the night. I love you.

Upcoming Releases

Crossroads by Lauren Hightower

If early reviews are to be believed, Crossroads promises to be an amazing read. Chris’s son died in a tragic car crash, and the loss nearly destroyed her. But when a drop of her blood falls on his roadside memorial and her son’s spirit starts to haunt her, Chris has to decide if it’s really him or something darker. She has to decide if seeing her son alive again is worth the risk of coming face to face with the unknown.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses

Tender is the Flesh paints a gruesome picture of a world in which all animal meat has been rendered poisonous to humans, and human meat has replaced it on the menu. Marcos works in a meat processing plant after the “Transition”, quantifying his work in numbers and consignments to keep from thinking about the truth. But when he receives a live specimen the lines Marcos has drawn begin to blur as he finds himself treating her more and more like a human being instead of a hunk of meat.

Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923 edited by Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton

In this new anthology, award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger have combined the works of those late-19th and early-20th century authors that remain legendary today, like Louisa May Alcott or Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, with those that were the bestsellers of their day but have yet to receive the contemporary recognition they deserve. Included are tales of terror about haunted houses, ghost stories, ancient curses, demonic dimensions, and more!

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Given how much I loved Stephen Graham Jones’s The Last Final Girl, I’ve been so hyped for his forthcoming September release: Night of the Mannequins. A simple revenge prank devolves into a night of mayhem and violence for a group of teens a their fun is interrupted by an evil unknown. Is it a malevolent supernatural force? Or a psychopath on the loose?

Fresh from the Skeleton’s Mouth

This fantastic article from Vanity Fair about Black storytellers in horror includes a sneak peak at the new novel author Tananarive Due is currently working on: The Reformatory.

Blunt magazine has an interview with Claire C. Holland. If you haven’t read the poetry collection they’re discussing in the interview, I Am Not Your Final Girl, definitely consider adding it to your fall TBR. It’s so good. Seriously.

Becky Spratford announced on Twitter that the 2020 Horror Writers Association’s 4th Annual Librarian’s Day is moving all the delicious horror fun online this year! It will be a free event, and there’s an amazing line-up of authors and librarians who’ll be participating. For more information on how to watch and/or participate check out the updated event information over at RA for All.

Over at Books in the Freezer they’ve compiled a list of horror titles for August’s Women in Translation month.

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

Hello Ghouls and Spirits, I’m Jessica Avery and I’ll be delivering your weekly brief of all that is ghoulish 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.

This week’s horror is brought to you by the deep freeze of winter. Why am I taking you to the dark, cold depths of winter in the middle of July? Because (depending on which hemisphere you’re in) it’s summer, and summer this year has not been kind. In fond memory of the mercury in the thermometer that hasn’t seen 60 when the sun is out in what feels like an age, let’s talk about some horror that might just make us grateful for the heat.

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

A freezing Vermont winter, a small town full of legends and suspicious disappearances. Nineteen-year-old Ruthie, her younger sister, and her mother Alice live in a house haunted by one of West Hall, Vermont’s darkest mysteries, the disappearance and death of Sara Harrison Shea. When Alice vanishes, and Ruthie uncovers a hidden copy of Shea’s diary, she finds that history is threatening to repeat itself and she may be the only one who can stop it.

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

The Donner Party. The pinnacle of snow-bound terror. And Alma Katsu, with her gift for haunting historical horror, takes this grim tale and spins it into an elegantly terrible new nightmare. The party makes their way into the mountains plague by disaster and the gut feeling that something terrible is stalking them. When the group becomes stranded, struggling to survive the elements, and members of the party begin to disappear, fear and suspicion grow.

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Ever since Lily died, her husband Luc and her twin children Miranda and Eliot have lived with both their grief, and the strange happenings inside their home. Whatever lurks inside the Silver house strains against the walls until they groan, and turns its rooms and hallways into a threatening, shifting maze. In the garden apples grow out of season. Miranda is more sensitive to the spirits than her father and brother, she can feel the women in the walls. Then she disappears.

The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn

Blizzards in Colorado never bode well. I mean Stephen King wrote two separate books about the evil that lurks in a Colorado mountain blizzard. But Ania Ahlborn gives that terror new form in her winter creature feature, The Shuddering. Twins Ryan and Jane Adler used to spend happy days at their parent’s cabin when they were kids. During a snowboarding party at the Colorado cabin with some of their friends, a last fling before the cabin is sold, a blizzard strands the group. Inside interpersonal tensions mount, and outside monsters lurk in the snow, waiting to strike.

Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories

Taaqtumi (an Inuktitut word meaning “dark”) is an anthology of own voices horror short stories from Northern writers. 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, these tales of terror on the ice are not to be missed.

August Releases

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

Clowns will always be the worst. And Frendo – mascot of the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory – is particularly creepy. Baypen used to be the heart of Kettle Springs, the tiny town Quinn and her father moved to for a fresh start, but then the factory closed. Kettle Springs is dying, split between those who want to see the town thrive again and the youth who are just biding their time until they can get out. That’s when Frendo the Clown goes berserk, determined to remake Kettle Springs anew, minus all those troublesome, ungrateful kids.

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

When Lola Nox’s father is attacked in their home, he sends her away to the safety of her estranged grandmother’s house in Harrow Lake, the eerie little town where her father filmed his most famous horror movie. But things are not what they seem in Harrow lake. The locals are obsessed with the film that made their town famous, people are disappearing left and right, and Lola is certain that something is stalking her as she tries to get to the bottom of the town’s dark mysteries.

The Living Dead by George Romero and Daniel Kraus

I couldn’t very well leave this book out of the August releases when it promises to be one of the top books of the year. The zombie plague of George Romero’s beloved Dead series walks again, bringing together a range of characters in a battle for their lives against the undead. Told in a series of interconnected stories, reaching from a Midwestern trailer park to a US aircraft character, The Living Dead is, as expected from Romero, as much about the struggles of humanity as it is about the rising dead.

Fresh from the Skeleton’s Mouth: 

Lookout and Chernin have announced that they will be adapting R.L. Stine’s YA horror series, The Babysitter, for TV! It’s one of a number of Stine adaptations currently in the works.

The Ladies of Horror Fiction announced the winners of their inaugural 2019 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards. Congratulations to all the winners! Also, this list makes a pretty good TBR killer.

Both Off Limits Press and Nightfire have hinted that they’ll be dropping information about new books next week! Follow now to make sure you don’t miss the latest horror news!

Speaking of Nightfire Books, over on their blog Nicole Hill has created a list of 6 Horror Short Stories That Haunt Us, and the books in which you can find them, if you’re looking to add a little short fiction to your reading list.

Over on Book Riot, Blair Carpenter is revisiting the Scary Books that Doomed Millennials as Kids. It’s a feast of horror nostalgia for all those of us who spent our formative years reveling in the macabre.

Until next time, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening. See you there!

Hello, spook-pals! You’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s weekly horror newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Jenn Northington, and I’m here to share some of the Get Booked podcast‘s favorite horror favorites from over the years.

Over at Get Booked, we take reading recommendation requests from across genres and do our best to come up with the right next read for each asker. We’ve had more than a few horror questions over the years, and Amanda and I both have our own (sometimes fraught) relationship with the genre — we tend to be a little squeamish, albeit about different things — but we’ve also managed to find books perfect for both us and our listeners. So I thought I’d give y’all a tour of some of our picks!

Bonus: You’re actually getting an advance peek at next week’s show, on which we have two askers looking for indie horror reads to help them finish the 2020 Read Harder Challenge.

Indie horror (tune in on Thursday, 7/30, to hear us talk about these):

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, illustrated by Michael Rogalski, published by Quirk

This is a horror novel inspired by an Ikea catalog, and I honestly feel like that should be enough? But if you need more, it’s set in a furniture superstore in Cleveland, OH, in which things are mysteriously being broken after closing, and three employees volunteer to stay overnight to figure out what’s happening. It’s a haunted house story but also a product catalog, and it’s funny and weird and creepy all at once.

Elegy for the Undead by Matthew Vesely (publishing October 13, 2020) from Lanternfish Press

I’m so excited to crack into this book, which is a queer zombie tragedy from a publisher local to me here in Philadelphia. This tweet thread from Seanan McGuire (you might also know her as Mira Grant) really sells the heck out of it.

Read-alikes for Bloodborne (gothic, dark urban fantasy, cosmic horror):

From the Wreck by Jane Rawson

Another Amanda pick, this is one I’ve got on my own TBR. It follows the survivor of a shipwreck, plagued by PTSD, and a woman from another dimension and it’s a twisty, weird, head-scratcher of a gothic historical novel.

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng

Dark fae and colonialism are the subject of this incredibly intense, extremely strange gaslamp fantasy, from one of my current favorite genre-busting authos. Ng’s work is always complex and unexpected, and you’ve never seen Queen Mab like this before.

Sci-fi + Horror:

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann

Speaking of genre-busting! Hoffmann has created a space opera with an autistic, queer scientist heroine that busts up Lovecraftian horror with modern-day sensibilities. Sentient AI gods, interdimensional eldritch horrors, and some truly weird body-horror all come together in this vibrantly imagined novel that, for my money, is a must-read.

Horror that will scare the living hell out of you:

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

This one came recommended by Rioter Jessica Woodbury, who has a stronger constitution than myself by a whole lot. Our heroine Mouse is asked to clean out her grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, and she has to deal with hoarding, her step-grandfather’s strange journal, AND terrifying encounters in the woods. Tread carefully and maybe sleep with the lights on??

Horror read-alikes for Stephen King, but with less racism, sexism, and homophobia:

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Graham Jones is a perennial Get Booked favorite, and this haunted house story is a great introduction to his work if you haven’t already been exposed. Amanda picked it as a comp for The Shining, in case that’s a thing you’re looking for.

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

While it’s not an exact comp for The Stand, it comes close in the ways that matter to me. It’s got a pandemic, it’s got elements of horror and the supernatural, but it’s also deeply about the relationships you build at the end of the world, traveling across America when everything is going to hell, and what it means to fight for good. It’s also got an absolute heart-breaker of an ending, so consider yourself warned!

Spooky reads that don’t rely on gore or body horror:

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

This claustrophobic, deeply overlooked YA novel is a favorite of both mine and Amanda’s. A 16-year old girl attending boarding school becomes obsessed with a fellow student, Ernessa, who may or may not be a vampire?! Told through journal entries, it’s got one of my favorite unreliable narrators; do yourself a favor and make sure you’ve got some time when you pick this up, because you won’t want to stop.

His Hideous Heart, edited by Dahlia Adler

Speaking of YA! I L-O-V-E, love this collection of stories, all riffs on Edgar Allen Poe, by 13 truly excellent YA authors. Creepy, gothic, horrifying, supernatural, understated, gory — the range is huge, the talent is breathtaking, AND the original stories that the authors were retelling are included so you can do comparisons if you are so inclined. This is a solid choice even if you’re not a Poe fan; you don’t need to know the originals to appreciate the stories, and there are some killer (heh) ones just waiting for you.

A horror graphic novel:

Hexed Vol. 1: The Harlot and the Thief by Michael Alan Nelson, Emma Rios, and Dan Mora

There are so many great horror GNs, but this is a personal favorite that I just can’t resist gushing about whenever I get the chance. Our main character, Luci (a.k.a. Lucifer, obviously!) is a con-artist and thief for hire with supernatural skills. When she accidentally unleashes the evil in a painting, she sets herself on a journey that also reveals the layers to her own journey, and some unanswered questions about her past. Sort of like if Coraline was about a young adult who stayed on the other side and made friends with Other Mother without losing her soul, is one way to describe it. Utterly awesome, is another way.

And this concludes our tour into the Get Booked horror rec archives! I hope you’ve found something for yourself; swing by the show anytime, and happy hauntings.

-Jenn

Hey Spookies!

Are you familiar with the Summer Scares program?

This volunteer partnership among the Horror Writers Association, United for Libraries, Library Journal, and Book Riot — us! — is aimed at bringing more attention to great horror books. Though the focus is for libraries, the resources made for the program are perfect for anyone who loves scary reads.

Each year, beginning last, a volunteer team selects three books from the backlist that represent a wide range of types of horror for three categories: adult, young adult, and middle grade. The team them works to build an array of tools to make talking about these books and learning about horror more broadly easy.

In addition to those titles, the team has created read alikes, expanding the opportunities to go deeper into horror.

Here are this year’s selected titles in each category:

Adult

In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson (Skyhorse, 2017)

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (Tor.Com, 2016)

She Said Destroy: Stories by Nadia Bulkin (Word Horde, 2017)

Young Adult

The Agony House by Cherie Priest, Illustrated by Tara O’Connor (Scholastic 2018)

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova (Sourcebooks Fire, 2017)

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics (Harlequin Teen, 2015)

Middle Grade

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh (HaperCollins, 2017)

Case Files 13: Zombie Kid by J. Scott Savage (HarperCollins, 2012)

Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith (Clarion Books, 2015)

So what kinds of resources are available? Many! Here’s a peek at what the team has pulled together for you to get to know these books, these authors, and, of course, even more excellent scary reads.

• The Summer Scares YouTube channel features videos from the selected authors, committee members, and the Summer Scares spokesperson/author of honor this year, Stephen Graham Jones.
• Stephen also interviewed several of the selected authors, including Ellen Oh, Ronald Smith, and Andy Davidson.
• The Ladies of the Fright Podcast are official partners in the venture and offer up a dedicated episode to each category of books. Here’s this year’s episode featuring the adult authors of the Summer Scares selections.
• Thanks to Konrad Stump and his team at the Springfield-Green County Public Library in Missouri, there’s an extensive programming guide for these books, perfect for librarians or teachers looking to incorporate these books — and horror more broadly — into their book discussions or reader advisory work. The full-color resource is available to use freely.
• As a member of this committee and overseeing the YA selections, I took a deep dive on Book Riot into the YA picks, as well as a number of great YA horror books that would make for great next books to pick up.
• All of the resources and information about 2019 Summer Scares picks are available, too, over on Becky Spratford’s blog.
• And, of course, you can follow Summer Scares updates as they happen, including new interviews and podcast episodes, over on Twitter.

Scary-Good Ebook Deals

Pick up a new-to-you read or revisit a favorite with these great horror ebook deals. These are current as of Friday, July 17.

First up: grab The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle for $4!

Alden Bell’s The Reapers Are The Angels is $2.

Read some classic short stories with Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson. $2.

The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas — about a girl who befriends the evil exorcised from her — is $3.

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge is a must-read and absolutely so at $3.

Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you again soon!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of Body Talk, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, and Here We Are.

It’s felt like the end of days for a while now… and while we’d all like to hope the cycle rebirths us into a kinder new world, the literature just doesn’t support that. By that, I mean, horror literature (in particular when it crosses over with science fiction) just won’t allow the future to be anything but bleak. If you don’t believe me, you’ve come to the right place. You’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s weekly horror newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil through this realm of hell, dystopias and worst case scenarios.

Earworm: “Sleeping In” by The Postal Service: “Again last night I had that strange dream / where everything was exactly as it seemed. / No concerns about the world getting warmer. / People thought that they were just being rewarded / for treating people as they’d like to be treated, / obeying stop signs, and curing diseases. / For mailing letters with the address of the sender, / now we can swim any day in November.”

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh

In this dystopia, on the day of your first period, women are assigned tickets to determine whether they will get marriage and children (a white ticket) or a career and freedom (a blue ticket). “You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice.” Calla, who received a blue ticket, starts questioning that assignment when she becomes pregnant, and she has to go on the run while considering if “the lottery knows her better than she knows herself.”

Killers Keep Secrets: The Golden State Killer’s Other Life by James Huddle

Joseph D’Angelo has been arrested, we know, but do you want to know more about his family life? This work of nonfiction is told by someone who knew him IRL, his brother-in-law. (Think of it as the Golden State Killer’s Extremely Wicked, Shocking and Vile Bundy equivalent.) It may not be a dystopia per se, but finding out decades later that one of your family members raped and killed tons of people? WORST CASE SCENARIO.

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

This new release from acclaimed horror author Paul Tremblay tells the story of a pregnant couple at the start of a super-rabies epidemic in New England as Natalie and her best friend Dr. Ramola race to get the baby delivered before Natalie succumbs to infection. It’s a true stress-inducing horror story.

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

Everyone is loving this novel–so much so that most online booksellers have it on back order. Described as a combination of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this medical dystopia follows Lena Johnson as she undergoes medical experimentation in order to pay off her family’s debts.

Cryptkeepers (FKA horror from the backlist):

Kindred by Octavia Butler

It’s a classic, and you’ve likely already heard of it, but it’s such a page turner that I had to mention it here. Though some consider dystopia to happen only in the future, when Dana, a Black woman living in 1970s California, gets sucked back in time and place to the antebellum south… well, I’ve never understood why ANYONE would want to travel back in time. I mean, even though times are tough right now, this is nothing compared to the atrocities of, for example, slavery. Anyway, time traveling horror dystopia coming up hot!

Paradise by Toni Morrison

The unsung hero of Morrison’s novels, this one shows what happens when refugee women settle outside of town, in a decadent edifice known as “the Convent.” The townsfolk see them as a threat, and I’m not spoiling anything when I say the book opens on a multiple murder crime scene.

Harbingers (FKA news):

HBO’s Lovecraft Country finally gets its August premiere date.

Want to learn more about the women authors behind Alfred Hitchcock’s films? Here’s how reading Patricia Highsmith and Daphne Du Maurier changed one reader’s understanding of the Master of Suspense.

Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Homesick for Another World, and Eileen, talks in-depth and reads from her latest novel of haunting, metaphysical suspense, Death In Her Hands, about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds a cryptic note on a walk in the woods.

Anton Chekhov’s trip to Sakhalin puts lockdown in perspective… When he crossed the strait to the island prison colony, the writer felt he was entering hell.

Perched above the Yoshino River in Japan’s Iya Valley is a small museum that tells the history of the many monsters, demons, and spirits that inhabit the region.

Want to hear a brief history of queer women detectives in crime fiction? Uh, of course you do.

A miniature fairy village lies nearly forgotten in the forest by the side of a major highway in Waterbury, CT… and if you don’t know why fairies=horror, go ahead on and pick up The Cooper’s Wife is Missing: The Trials of Bridget Cleary by Joan Hoff.

Want to know why in England, coroners decide what is treasure and what is not? “It’s a bizarre holdover from a previous age.”

According to the A.V. Club, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, “the supernatural Archie-verse series, will wrap up later this year, when Netflix airs the fourth season (part, whatever) of the well-received mixer of teen angst and immortal stakes.”

Enter to win a copy The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.

Enter to win 12 hardcover books chosen for YOU specifically.

Enter to win $250 to spend at Barnes & Noble.

Until next week, follow me @mkmcbrayer for minute-to-minute horrors or DM me there to let me know of other books I should include. I’m also on IG @marykaymcbrayer. Talk to you soon!

Your Virgil,

Mary Kay McBrayer
Co-host of Book Riot’s literary fiction podcast, Novel Gazing

When I was teaching English composition, nothing gave me more delight than starting off a semester by close-reading “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood. I’d hear a couple of students giggle at the end, and when I’d ask, “What’s funny?” they’d clam up. When I rephrased the question, “No, you’re right. It’s funny. In a macabre sort of way… what is a siren? Google it right quick.”

Then they’d read about them being birds from the chest down, and I watched the confusion materialize on their faces: “But not THIS siren. She’s a human.”

“Oh, nope. She got you. You died.” Because that’s the thing about animal/human hybrids, right? You can never tell which part is human and which part is animal, and that’s what makes those monsters dangerous.

You might have guessed by now, you’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s weekly newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil through this week’s realm of hell, the cryptids.

Ear worm: “Committing Love” by Lynx & Kemo… but the performance here, with Zoe Jakes the bellydancer, complete with antler headdress, is exactly the visual interpretation of this song to cement its creepiness.

Fresh Hells (FKA new releases): 

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

According to popular culture, Indians use every part of the animal… but when the ill-willed game warden shows up just before a blizzard to a group of First Nations hunters who have hit the jackpot out of season, the warden makes them abandon the elks’ carcasses. One doe’s spirit does not take this slight on the chin…

Bunny by Mona Awad

Weird things happen at Warren University, not only with the bunnies ubiquitous on its campus, but also with the women in the MFA writing program who call each other “Bunny.” This novel perfectly illustrates the kind of false intimacy that can happen among artists as well as the exploitation that female friendships often foster. But more than that, it’s a dark fairy tale for the creative imagination. I can’t recommend this one enough.

Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin

There’s a new toy on the market, a Furbee-like robot that you can host in your home… except for the fact that, rather than operate like a computer who learns, there’s a dweller inside, a stranger operating the robot from somewhere far away. Though the robots’ shells look like different animals, inside, they’re all human… or maybe monster.

The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado, illustrated by Dani

You’re likely familiar with Machado from her collection of short stories, Her Body and Other Parties, or her memoir, In the Dream House, and this graphic novel does not fall short of the high bar she’s set for herself. Best friends Vee and El wake in a movie theater to an absence of memory–what just happened to them? And when the animals in their hometown Shudder-to-Think start acting weird, well, there’s more to that amnesia than the reader anticipates.

Cryptkeepers (FKA horror from the backlist):

“The Mermaid in the Tree” by Timothy Schaffert

You’ve heard me sing this author’s praises before, in the form of his novel The Swan Gondola, among his other writings, but this short story is the one that first grabbed my heartstrings. It’s located in the anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, and it tells The Little Mermaid narrative from the perspective of the non-mermaid woman that the prince DOES marry. More than that, though, the mermaids in their coastal town are treated like monsters, embalmed and set afloat in their personal aquariums to be literally paraded by bicycles through the gritty fairy tale.

Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, illustrated by Peter Sis, translated by Andrew Hurley

A classic for y’all: this bestiary compiled by Jorge Luis Borges is a compendium of cryptids, or mythological creatures that inspire fear and imagination. And, bonus, it’s full of illustrations! (This one is truly amazing–when I taught it to gifted middle-schoolers, they loved it, and it inspired them to imagine their own cryptids.)

Harbingers (FKA news):

“Why are horror and fantasy so queer-coded?”: LGBTQ celebs discuss the appeal of magic and monsters at The A.V. Club.

Art Young’s Dante-Inspired Satire Replaced Demons with Exploitative Capitalists: Steven Heller on an Old Master of Political Cartoons.

What’s the deal with eels in literature? They don’t show up often, but when they do, they’re gross and creepy.

You have to read Octavia Butler’s motivational notes to herself!

Here’s what Patton Oswalt has to say on surviving his late wife, the author of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, the horrifying true crime book about the now-pleading-guilty Joseph DeAngelo, or as she called him, the Golden State Killer.

Near the allegedly haunted pub, The Witch Stone of Great Leighs, you can find strong spirits on the rocks.

Atlas Obscura is hosting a number of “wonder from home” virtual tours. Check out the list of freaky literary spots here. (Past tours have included Weird Homes: Ghosts in the Machine, and Ascend Ascend: A Poetic Performance.)

While we’re on the Atlas Obscura trail, co-founder Brian Thuras interviews an auctioneer of “the unusual” (like catalogs detailing “magic-related material,” Ernest Hemingway first editions, automatons, taxidermy, sideshow and circus, and more), on their Show & Tell series.

And, more in the worlds of cascading disappointment, J.K. Rowling tweets praise for Stephen King, deletes it after he voices support for trans women. But… glad we got King in our corner!

Everything gets reborn, including the Midsommar Director’s Cut. Now available in a special edition Blu-ray exclusively at shop.a24films.com.

Speaking of Midsommar, Ari Aster, along with horror director Robert Eggers, horror actors Florence Pugh, Lakeith Stanfield, Cynthis Erivo, and most of the cast of Parasite are all now part of the Motion Picture Academy.

Want to see the 50 different covers of The Plague by Albert Camus? Of course you do.

Enter to win a copy The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.

Enter to win 12 hardcover books chosen for YOU specifically.

Enter to win $250 to spend at Barnes & Noble.

Until next week, follow me @mkmcbrayer for minute-to-minute horrors or DM me there to let me know of other books I should include. I’m also on IG @marykaymcbrayer. Talk to you soon!

Your Virgil,

Mary Kay McBrayer
Co-host of Book Riot’s literary fiction podcast, Novel Gazing

The things I’m missing the most during social/physical distancing are weirdly nuanced. Most things can be adapted by taking them outdoors or wearing a mask, but there are two things for which there are no close substitutes:

1. Overpriced cups of “drip” coffee that I can sip at my leisure in a semi-public over-air-conditioned space while eavesdropping to inane and unequivocally boring conversations while pretending to write, hunched over my dusty-ass laptop.

2. Going to the movies by myself, sitting in the exact center of the theater and watching some obscure horror movie in the middle of the day.

The closest we can come to substituting those experiences at a time like this is reading books about horror films. The only way to do that (that emulates the things I miss) is while sitting on our own patios or porches in the afternoon, pouring your morning’s leftover coffee over ice. Or in parks with a makeshift fence staked with your kids’ tent spikes and wrapped with crime scene tape (don’t pretend like you don’t have a roll or two from Halloween still stashed above your fridge in those cabinets that there is no point to because NO ONE CAN REACH THEM. They are literally behind an appliance and taller than any human can go-go-gadget their arms. Who decided?) while your sun-deprived skin absorbs all the vitamin D it can get.

By the way, you’re in the Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s weekly horror newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil through this realm of hell, THE MOVIES.

Earworm: “Prototype” by Andre 3000.” “Do something out of the ordinary, like catch a matinee… / / Let’s go… let’s go / to the movies.”

Fresh Hells (FKA new releases):

Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles edited by Ellen Datlow

This new anthology centers around the mythology we’ve created by looking at screens. The horrors that lie just offscreen or on the cutting room floor, or even hide in plain sight are all fair game for this collection of horror authors such as Josh Malerman, Stephen Graham Jones, Laird Barron, and Nathan Ballingrud, among others.

Interior Chinatown: A Novel by Charles Yu

Though this novel itself is a satire of noir tropes, particularly those of Asian men in Chinatown, more than a horror book itself, the tropes that it satirizes have a horrific sting. The book is described as “a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.” (And if you’re interested in the film Chinatown, check out the biography of the film itself, The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson.)

Hitchcock Blonde: A Cinematic Memoir by Sharon Dolin

This “cinematic memoir” releases in one week (on July 7), but I, of course, had to put it on this list. The book is described as a “heady cocktail of sex and trauma,” but told through the lenses of the famous horror films by director, Alfred Hitchcock. Go ahead on and pre-order this one. You’re welcome.

Cryptkeepers (FKA horror from the backlist): 

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones

If you’re a horror fan (and I know you are), you are also unquestionably familiar with the trope of the Final Girl. This horror book is THE horror book for horror movie fans. It’s not quite a screenplay and not quite a novel, but it’s chock full of film references. The premise itself is an homage to the most famous final girls (Jamie, Ripley, etc.), and a competition among them. And if you’re a big SGJ fan (which you will be, if you’re as yet unfamiliar with his work) his book The Only Good Indians is finally releasing (after being postponed for COVID) on July 14. And Night of the Mannequins is hot on its heels (it releases in September)!

Harbingers (FKA news):

Here’s how the “Shoot the Book adaption market — a staple at the Marché du Film since 2014 and a rising player on the global film scene — continues to evolve.”

Congratulations to horror author Grady Hendrix, who will be releasing his next two novels with Berkely Publishing. Can’t wait to get my hands on The Final Girl Support Group, due to release in June of 2021. Till then, y’all can enjoy The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. 

Here’s how The Twilight Zone season two premiere softly skewers male presumption.

Want to read about award-winning Tayari Jones (author of Leaving Atlanta) and her search for writing success? Of course you do.

Read 8 horror novels that are set in Maine (and not by Stephen King).

Check out this horrifying list of queer true crime, too. 

Speaking of true crime and film adaptations, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, “HBO’s new docuseries about late crime writer Michelle McNamara and her obsession with finding the predator she dubbed the Golden State Killer, is a complex story that embodies both of these points and more.”

Rest in peace, Joel Schumacher, director of horror cult classics like The Lost Boys, thrillers like A Time to Kill, The Number 23, and Phone Booth, among many other writing and directing credits.

Boots Riley (director of the wild film Sorry to Bother You) announced his new TV series I’m A Virgo, which will “be dark, absurd, hilarious, and important.”

Want to know how lockdown has changed the publishing industry? Here you go.

Enter to win $250 to spend and Barnes and Noble.

Enter to win a 1-year subscription to Audible.

Tell us more about yourself and potentially win an ereader! We’re doing a Reader Survey, it’ll only take a few minutes, and you can see the questions and giveaway details at bookriot.com/2020survey.

Until next week, follow me @mkmcbrayer for minute-to-minute horrors or DM me there to let me know of other books I should include. I’m also on IG @marykaymcbrayer. Talk to you soon!

Your Virgil,

Mary Kay McBrayer
Co-host of Book Riot’s literary fiction podcast, Novel Gazing

It’s Pride Month! Let’s talk about one of the most famous and problematic trans characters in horror, Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.

Let me get this out of the way: I love the book, I love Ted Levine’s performance and also find the actor/that character irresistibly magnetic, I know the movie is set in the 1990s, and so the language in the film is dated and not the most sensitive, and I realize that Thomas Harris had the expertise of Robert Ressler (author of Whoever Hunts Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI) for the sake of authenticity.

And yet, in that movie at the exact middle mark, Agent Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter have a really important conversation that sets the tone for the rest of the book/film AND sticks in my craw:

LECTER: Our Billy wants to change, too.
STARLING: There’s no correlation in literature to transsexualism and violence. Trannsexuals are very passive–
…
LECTER: Billy is not a real transsexual, but he thinks he is. He tries to be. He’s tried to be a lot of things, I expect… There are three major centers for transsexual surgery, Johns Hopkins, the University of Minnesota, and Columbus Medical Center. I wouldn’t be surprised if Billy had applied for sex reassignment at one or all of them and been rejected… Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn’t born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one by years of systematic abuse. Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual, but his pathology is a thousand times more savage, and more terrifying.

When I taught the film to my ENGL 1102 class several years ago, I had a long discussion with one of my students who realized (admittedly) before I did that this representation is problematic, despite that the dialogue above seems to disclaim, “Buffalo Bill is not a REAL trans person, so don’t let this character represent all trans people as serial murderers so ‘covetous’ of women’s bodies that they would literally steal their skin.” My student pointed out, for one, why should we or Agent Starling trust the cannibal psychiatrist for expertise on gender identity? And though the rejection from numerous hospitals might have been historically accurate for the time, why are we perpetuating the concept of disavowing someone’s own identity in popular culture? And though in the conversation they seem to parse a separation between his nonbinary identity and his violent tendencies… the movie as a whole has us remember differently. Furthermore, outside the film’s zeitgeist, many would argue that trans stories should generally be told by trans voices.

I learned a lot from that conversation, particularly from hearing the views that I had not considered. Here we find ourselves, though, with Buffalo Bill as one of the most iconic trans/not-trans figures in horror lore. Granted, his character is loosely based on Ed Gein, an actual serial murderer with a complex relationship to gender, but this version is largely dramatized.

In observance of Pride Month, I’m highlighting LGBTQ+ writers and characters in the horror world, featuring horror by LGBTQ+ authors and/or with central LGBTQ+ characters. As you may have guessed, you’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil through this realm of hell. LET’S GO.

Ear worm: “Goodbye Horses” by Q Lazzarus. It’s just such a great song.

Fresh Hells (FKA new releases):

This Town Sleeps: A Novel by Dennis E. Staple

When Marion Lafournier, a mid-twenties gay Ojibwe man, unknowingly brings to life the spirit of a dog buried beneath a playground, he also unearths secrets of a murdered Ojibwe basketball star. This book explores the connections between inherited culture, personal identity, and legend all develop together.

*bonus that could not wait* Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Terror, and Hope during a Pandemic edited by Nick Kolakowski and Steve Weddle

In this anthology, a fictional virus sweeps the U.S. It’s perfect for our time, and it’s a really interesting approach to a pandemic similar to the one we are currently experiencing. Over 20 authors contribute stories of different experiences and characters in similar settings. Say it with me: ADD TO CART. (Bonus: Proceeds from LOCKDOWN will go to support BINC, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, as it seeks to help booksellers recover from the devastating COVID-19 crisis.)

Cryptkeepers (FKA horror from the backlist):

House of Sighs by Aaron Dries

In this novella, Liz the local bus driver decides not to die by suicide, but to wait one more day. Nine people board her bus, and from them, she tries to make a family, against their wills. (This edition includes the novella’s sequel, too, The Sound of His Bones Breaking.)

The Devourers by Indra Das

In this novel, Indra Das imagines a world of werewolf-like beings in 17th century Mughal India. I can’t summarize the book better than this: “On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man’s unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger’s behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins.”

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

From the much-beloved noir writer of classics like The Talented Mr. Ripley comes the cult classic story of romantic obsession. Originally published in 1952, it’s kind of the unsung hero of forbidden Lesbian romance thrillers. And it comes highly recommended by In the Dream House author, Carmen Maria Machado.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Celebrated author of Her Body and Other Parties released this horrifying memoir in fall of 2019. It depicts the experience of an abusive Lesbian relationship through numerous literary and film tropes, from the bildungsroman to the haunted house. It’s a real piece of art.

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

Cannot emphasize enough how sincerely terrifying this collection is–and it’s anything but “everyday,” unless you consider the Velveteen Rabbit an enemy, or if folktales come alive in your nightmares. Seriously, if you want to be freaked out (and you do. I mean, you’re in a horror newsletter, after all), go on and buy this one.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

“This remarkable novel begins in 1850s Louisiana, where Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel.” … Sold, am I right? But more than the description of the book itself, when this book released in 1991, it examined the cross-section of Black, Lesbian identity in the speculative fiction and horror world as few novels had before–plus, this novel has the erotic slant that vampire tales so easily lend themselves toward.

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

Referred to by one author as the “guidebook to hell,” this novel tells the story of a prison-broke serial killer, his lover who is also a vicious murderer, and the artistic nature with which they view their murders. It’s Bonnie and Clyde, minus the heteronormativity and alleged do-good motivations.

Harbingers (FKA news):

Heads up! Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix will be adapted to film–and the novel’s author will be writing it!

A museum celebrating Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein just had plans approved in Bath.

Check out this list of nightmare hotels in books and movies, provided by Quirk.

According to Tara Isabella Burton in her article, “Searching for Meaning in Times of Despair: A Reading List,” “In times of cosmic confusion, in other words, people search for meaning: whether through witchcraft or politics, drugs or sex or mysticism.”

Learn about the deadly Irish epidemic that brought Dracula to life.

Look at this interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic. 

These authors (including our horror fave Carmen Maria Machado) weigh in on what Pride means today.

Here’s how one author learned early from Alfred Hitchcock that nightmares can be real.

Isaac Newton’s horrific notes on the Bubonic plague just sold for $81,000.

In a new VR adaptation of the Russian folk horror Baba Yaga (that’s right, the crone-y witch that lives in the house with the chicken legs), Daisy Ridley plays the POV character, Magda.

While you’re doing your lockdown re-watch of the ultimate crime horror, The Sopranos, give Made Women a listen: Drea de Matteo (who played Adriana on the show) and Chris Kushner host the re-watch podcast with other guests and stars.

In Bloody Women’s on-going series, Comfort Viewings, filmmakers, fans, and writers talk about what they’re finding comfort in right now, while we live through a real-life horror film. The fourth one comes from award-winning producer Jennifer Handorf.

Check out these 4 Apocalyptically Good Books.

Enter to win $250 to spend and Barnes and Noble.

Enter to win a 1-year subscription to Audible.

Tell us more about yourself and potentially win an ereader! We’re doing a Reader Survey, it’ll only take a few minutes, and you can see the questions and giveaway details at bookriot.com/2020survey.

Until next week, follow me @mkmcbrayer for minute-to-minute horrors or DM me there to let me know of other books I should include. I’m also on IG @marykaymcbrayer. Talk to you soon!

Your Virgil,

Mary Kay McBrayer
Co-host of Book Riot’s literary fiction podcast, Novel Gazing

Let’s be honest: horror films are full of dads. In case you are interested, here are my six favorite father figures in film (GET IT? SIX? SEE WHAT I DID THERE?).

1. Gregory Peck in The Omen
2. Jack Nicholson in The Shining
3. Winston Duke in Us
4. Gabriel Byrne in Hereditary
5. Gong Yoo in Train to Busan
6. Ralph Ineson in The Witch–or, alternatively, Black Phillip in The Witch, depending on where your allegiances lie.

But let’s be even more honest: family takes all forms, and so do fathers. In horror literature, the dynamics of fatherhood get infinitely more complicated…and they’re never really simple in films, either. You might have already deduced it, but you’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil though this realm of hell, horror dads, in observance of Fathers’ Day.

Earworm: “Father Figure” by George Michael. (Okay… it’s not scary so much as THE BEST SONG EVER.)

Fresh Hells (FKA New Releases):

Garden of Monsters by Lorenza Pieri, translated by Liesl Schillinger

Though this novel certainly has an air more of “family drama” than “horror,” it definitely has a deep root in the occult. Even its contents are drawn up based on the Major Arcana. Set in the urban Italian countryside, tourists and artists from Rome show up to build sculptures based on the tarot in the mountainside. Annamaria navigates coming of age and her father’s libertine nature.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? by Seth C. Adams

When 15-year-old Reggie’s father passes away, he finds a father figure in the injured stranger whom he takes care of in his treehouse. Reggie is faced with a pretty significant dilemma when the new stranger reveals himself as a killer for hire.

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

In the macabre Florida setting of the Morton family taxidermy shop, the daughter Jessa-Lynn works hard to fill the role of her father in taking over the store… after she comes upon him having died by suicide in the skinning room. Meanwhile, her mother makes erotic artwork in the store window with the taxidermy pieces, and the entire family grieves the abandonment of Brynn, everyone’s love.

Cryptkeepers (FKA horror from the backlist):

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

While seven-year-old Wen vacations with her parents, Eric and Andrew, she meets Leonard, a friendly stranger. While they are playing, three more strangers approach the family cabin with weapons. I can’t say any better that this narrative is an “unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined.” And if you like Paul Tremblay, be sure to pre-order his next novel, Survivor Song, too.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

I recommended this novel last week, too, but it’s just so truly amazing that ICYMI, here she is again. In this narrative, Jesmyn Ward illustrates the hereditary nature of pain in the form of racism and the prison industrial complex, and a boy-ghost who really looks up to the patriarch of their family. (If you only get to read one book on this list, this one should be THE one, IMHO.)

Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson

According to Caribbean folklore, the Skin Folk take shapes because of their skin. In this collection of stories ranging from science-fiction to folklore retellings, father figures take many different forms, whether the superstitious new husband, the elder brother, or your own skin. Regardless, it’s a must-have for this summer’s reading.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

In many ways, the dad in The Road is the horror dad gold standard: his only mission is to protect his son, perhaps the only good person left in the world, from the post-apocalyptic society that has degenerated in every conceivable manner. Get this book. I mean, it won a Pulitzer for a reason, y’all.

Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez

The Marquis of Casalduero is maybe the worst father figure, period. He ignores his daughter, allows her to be raised by his slaves, until she turns 12 and gets bitten by a rabid dog. Convinced she has rabies, he hires every cure practitioner that he can manage. When she is not cured of her weirdness, he takes her to a convent to be exorcised. Actually, I take back my earlier statement: her exorcist is the worst father figure, period. He falls in love with her. (I’ve taught this book several times in world literature, and I can promise you IT SLAPS.)

Harbingers (FKA news):

In case you were wondering how the film, Shirley about legendary horror writer Shirley Jackson was received, viewers say that it’s basically a fanfiction… and awesome.

Want to know the latest on FANGORIA’s relationship with the #metoo movement regarding Cinestate? According to one article, “Fangoria and Birth.Movies.Death joined together for a statement saying that, ‘since our initial statement, we have come to understand and respect that Fangoria and Birth.Movies.Death cannot continue under the Cinestate banner.’”

If you loved our recommendation Catherine House by debut horror author Elisabeth Thomas, check out these books that she recommends.

“No Name Woman” by Maxine Hong Kingston is an essay that gives me chills through every re-read. If you want to know about this genre-defying author and her life and inspirations, click here.

Here’s your summer full of YA horror books, courtesy of Book Riot.

And we also did you the service of discussing the vast and violent and sublime imagery of Tim Lebbon’s Eden.

This week in 1976, Octavia Butler’s classic sci-fi/horror novel, Kindred, released for the first time!

Win a 1-year subscription to Audible.

Enter to win $250 to spend at Barnes & Noble.

Until next week, follow me on Twitter @mkmcbrayer for minute-to-minute horrors, or on IG @marykaymcbrayer to see them come to life. Happy Fathers’ Day to you and yours!

Your Virgil,

Mary Kay McBrayer
Co-host of Book Riot’s literary fiction podcast, Novel Gazing