Thursday, January 31, 2019

January 2019: Monthly Recap

January was an exciting month for the Ladies of Horror Fiction team! If you missed any of our posts, please take a moment to get caught up with all of the exciting things we shared in January.

Reviews

Book Cover The Fiends In The Furrows

The Fiends In the Furrows edited by David T. Neal and Christine M. Scott

The Haunting of Henderson Close by Catherine Cavendish

Book Cover Beneath by Kristi DeMeester

Beneath by Kristi Demeester

Devil's Dreamland by Sarah Tantlinger Book Cover

The Devil’s Dreamland By Sara Tantlinger

Collected Christmas Horror Shorts Vol. II

Book Cover Unmemory by Kristi DeMeester

Unmemory by Kristi Demeester

Afterage Book Cover by Yvonne Navarro

Afterage by Yvonne Navarro

Fist of the Spider Woman Amber Dawn

Fist of the Spider Woman edited by Amber Dawn Review

Podcast Episodes

Episode 6 Mary Shelley and Frankenstein

Join Toni as she talks about Mary Shelley’s life and the many themes of Frankenstein. The latest in LOHF news and Horror Community News.

News and Announcements

New Year New Look

We are very excited about the upcoming year and the plans we have made to continue supporting and uplifting women horror writers and reviewers.

January LOHF New Releases

Each month the Ladies of Horror Fiction team will post all of the books we are aware of that will be releasing during that month.

Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is excited to announce the first annual Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

The #LOHFReadathon FAQ

We’ve had a few questions asked about our upcoming readathon during #WIHM, so we thought we’d do a clarifying post.

LOHF Weekly News For January Week 3

Every Sunday the LOHF will be posting a roundup of any news that comes across our feeds that is relevant to the LOHF and the Women’s Horror Community.  

Special Topics and Guest Posts

Guest Post: Frankenstein: The Battle Between the Lines by Seven Jane

Mary Shelley was a leading lady of horror before she ever penned Frankenstein.

Reading Recommendations: Sci-Fi Horror by Women

We love sci-fi horror, but it is ridiculously hard to find.  We figured we’d shout them out for you so you don’t have to look as hard as we did!

LOHF Shelf Edition: Alex

Once a month we’ll interview someone about their ladies of horror fiction books and share some shelfies! First up is Ladies of Horror fiction team member Alex, who kindly agreed to be the guinea pig for this segment.

Instagram Challenge Recap

The “Anticipated” Recap

We are constantly on the prowl for upcoming releases for Ladies of Horror Fiction.  While the challenge was going on, some of these were either anticipated reads from TBR lists or anticipated releases.

The “House” Recap

So many haunted house stories that went on our TBRs from this day!

The “Moon” Recap

It’s hard not to think of werewolf stories when we think of the MOON in horror, right? While there were quite a few chosen for the prompt, we definitely got a lot of variety!

The “Summer” Recap

Ah, summer. Memories of a much warmer time! We could all use a little summer right now.


Thank you all for helping us have an amazing January! I hope you have plans to join us in February for Women in Horror Month!

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Fist of the Spider Woman edited by Amber Dawn Review

Fist of the Spider Woman Amber Dawn

Traditional horror has often portrayed female characters in direct relation to their sexual role according to men, such as the lascivious victim or innocent heroine; even vampy, powerful female villains, such as the classic noir “spider women,” use their sexual prowess to seduce and overwhelm married men. Fist of the Spider Woman is a revelatory anthology of horror stories by queer and transgressive women and others that disrupts reality as queer women know it, instilling both fear and arousal while turning traditional horror iconography on its head.

In this collection, horror (including gothic, noir, and speculative writing) is defined as that which both titillates and terrorizes, forcing readers to confront who they are. Kristya Dunnion’s “Homeland” reveals the horrors that lurk on your average night in a lesbian bar; Elizabeth Bachinsky’s “Postulation on the Violent Works of the Marquis de Sade” is a response to Sade from a feminist (yet kinky) perspective; and Amber Dawn’s “Here Lies the Last Lesbian Rental” is a paranormal fantasia about urban gentrification, set in a house rented by lesbians on the eve that it is sold to new owners.

Subversive, witty, sexy—and scary—Fist of the Spider Woman poses two questions: “What do queer women fear the most?” and “What do queer women desire the most?”

Amber Dawn is a writer, performance artist, and radical sex/gender activist who co-edited With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn.


Emily’s LOHF Review

“Where does one / live when one fits nowhere but in fiction / and insanity?” – Elizabeth Bachinsky

Fist of the Spider Woman is an anthology of 16 horror and erotic stories and poems by queer women. This was my first time reading an anthology with erotic stories, so it was an interesting experience and a fun read. This book is unique, and I appreciate that it introduced me to a lot of new authors.

I didn’t love everything, but there were a lot of solid stories in here. My top 5 were Shark by Kestrel Barnes, All You Can Be by Mette Bach, In Circles by Aurelia T. Evans, Homeland by Kristynn Dunnion, and Every Dark Desire by Fiona Zedde. I think that Shark & All You Can Be are both going to stick in the back of my head for a while. They were both heartbreaking and fascinating. I am hoping to read more from some of the authors in this book.

I do want to give a warning to potential readers that this book has stories with violence and rape / lack of consent. It’s not in every single story, but it’s pretty prevalent throughout the book. It was a bit jarring at times. I’m glad that I read some reviews beforehand so that I was prepared.

I think a lot of these stories may fall more under speculative fiction or erotica, but it was still an intriguing anthology all around. I would definitely pick up a second volume if one ever exists.

I love that this book gives readers a chance to see queer women in all sorts of different roles in different stories. They are heroes, survivors, monsters, victims, villains, just regular people living – it’s a very human set of stories. If you are looking to make your horror reading more diverse, I think that an anthology like this one is a good place to start.

Buy Links:  Goodreads Better World Books | Amazon | Arsenal Pulp Press


About Editor Amber Dawn

Amber Dawn Author Photo

Amber Dawn is a writer, filmmaker and performance artist based in Vancouver. She is the author of the novel Sub Rosa (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010), editor of the Lambda Award-nominated Fist of the Spider Woman (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2008) and co-editor of With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005). Her award-winning, genderfuck docu-porn, “Girl on Girl,” has been screened in eight countries and added to the gender studies curriculum at Concordia University. She has toured three times with the infamous Sex Workers’ Art Show in the US. She was voted Xtra! West’s Hero of the Year in 2008. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Currently, she is the director of programming for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

Website:  http://www.amberdawnwrites.com/

Monday, January 28, 2019

The "Summer" Recap

This one reminded me of exactly how badly I keep wishing it was Fall already. Not because of the pics, but because it reminded me it was too bloody hot outside!  For me, there are fewer things worse than being hot and sweaty.  I would much prefer staying cool/cold because there are dozens of ways to warm up.  But it’s not like you can just cool down by taking your skin off.  And taking your clothes off will get you thrown in jail most places.  So, give me cool/cold weather over the hellish heat of summer any day!

Here I shared my thoughts on summer: fire, Hell, overheated plants that are wilting, WILY HAIR.  The list could go on but I could only fit so much in one photo that I had to choose carefully.  I thought this was the best time to share Hell by Kathryn Davis.

“Part mystery, part domestic meditation and part horror story, Hell is Davis’s tour de force.” (Joy Press, The Village Voice.) In her brilliantly eerie third novel, three households coexist in a single restless vision.”

Also from our LOHF team, tracy_reads79 shared The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel.

Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984:
the year a heatwave scorched the small town of Breathed, Ohio.
The year he became friends with the devil.

When local prosecutor Autopsy Bliss publishes an invitation to the devil to come to the country town of Breathed, Ohio, nobody quite expected that he would turn up. They especially didn’t expect him to turn up a tattered and bruised thirteen-year-old boy.

Fielding, the son of Autopsy, finds the boy outside the courthouse and brings him home, and he is welcomed into the Bliss family. The Blisses believe the boy, who calls himself Sal, is a runaway from a nearby farm town. Then, as a series of strange incidents implicate Sal — and riled by the feverish heatwave baking the town from the inside out — there are some around town who start to believe that maybe Sal is exactly who he claims to be.

But whether he’s a traumatised child or the devil incarnate, Sal is certainly one strange fruit: he talks in riddles, his uncanny knowledge and understanding reaches far outside the realm of a normal child — and ultimately his eerily affecting stories of Heaven, Hell, and earth will mesmerise and enflame the entire town.

Devastatingly beautiful, The Summer That Melted Everything is a captivating story about community, redemption, and the dark places where evil really lies.”

Ouija.doodle.reads took us back to 1973 with this classic from Lois Duncan, I Know What You Did Last Summer.  We all love this book and movie, right?!

“Last summer, four terrified friends made a desperate pact to conceal a shocking secret. But now, someone has learned the truth and is determined to get even.

The horror is starting again. There is an unknown avenger out there who is stalking them in a deadly game. Will he stop at terror-or is he out for revenge?”

Heylittlethrifter shared these awesome covers of Point Horror books – The Lifeguard by Richie Tankerley Cusick and The Surfer by Linda Cargill.  I will never not be obsessed with 90s horror covers like these!

The Lifeguard by Richie Tankerley Cusick

“Kelsey’s summer should have been paradise: An invitation to rich and famous Beverly Island, complete with sun-drenched beaches and three gorgeous lifeguards on duty. But Kelsey’s summer is the opposite of paradise. It starts with the note under her pillow from a girl who’s missing. Then there’s the crazy man in the lighthouse who won’t leave Kelsey alone.

And there have been a number of suspicious drownings…. At least she has the lifeguards around to protect her….

Poor Kelsey. Someone forgot to tell her that lifeguards don’t always like to save lives.”

The Surfer by Linda Cargill

“Jessie has never seen the daring beauty on the surfboard before. The one who gets a thrill out of surfing in stormy seas. And now it seems Jessie will never know her. The girl disappears beneath the treacherous waves…never to surface again…

So who’s the new girl in town? The one who casts a spell over everyone she meets. She can’t remember her name. Or where she comes from. Jessie thinks she knows… Has the beautiful surfer come back from the dead? Or is it something worse…much worse…”

Wrapping up our “Summer” recap, we have this amazing photo shared with us by banzaireads showcasing Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi and Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan.

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

“An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born “with one foot on the other side.” Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.

Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves–now protective, now hedonistic–move into control, Ada’s life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.

Narrated by the various selves within Ada and based in the author’s realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.”

Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan

“Tangled tales of earth, salty tales of water

Bewitched retellings of thirteen classic fairy-tales with brave and resilient heroines. Tales of blood and intrigue, betrayal and enchantment from a leading Irish YA author.”


Do you tend to read books related to the current season or holiday? What are some of your favorite seasonal LOHF reads??  Let us know below!

Next week we will share highlights from the prompt, “MY EMOTIONS!” So get ready!

 

Sunday, January 27, 2019

LOHF Weekly News For January Week 3

LOHF NewsWe have a new feature here at the LOHF.  Every Sunday the LOHF will be posting a roundup of any news that comes across our feeds that is relevant to the LOHF and the Women’s Horror Community.  If you have a news item that you would like to be featured in the round up please email ladiesofhorrorfiction@gmail.com.

LOHF Organization News

January 8th The Ladies of Horror Fiction opened the submission process for the LOHF Awards. Here is the link for more information:

https://www.ladiesofhorrorfiction.com/2019/01/08/ladies-of-horror-fiction-awards/

February is Women in Horror Month so you know that the LOHF is going to be working on a few projects for Feb. The first if the #lohfreadathon being hosted by Emily over at Book.happy and Alex over at Hey Little Thrifter. As Alex hosts a you tube channel she has put together a video about the readathon as well as some some suggestions.

If you aren’t following Alex you are totally missing out!! Make sure you give her a follow at @heylilthrifter. Make sure that you participate in the #lohfreadathon it is going to be amazing.

The Next Ladies of Horror Fiction Read-along starts on Sunday, February 3rd. The book that we are going to be reading is The Between by Tananarive Due. Here is the link to the reading schedule.

Community Wide Readalong: The Between

We are also going to be hosting another instagram challenge for Women in Horror Month. Here are the prompts that we are going to be using:

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If you would like to participate just take a picture of a Horror Book written by women that you believe encompasses the prompt of the day. Uploaded it to Instagram or twitter and use the #ladiesofhorrorfiction hashtag.  We love seeing all the photos of the books!!

LOHF Community News

One of our favorite reads of 2018 has been released in Spanish. Which means even more people get to read Gwendolyn Kiste’s beautiful words.

If you are interested in diving into Horror Movies that are directed by Women but don’t know where to start have a look at this:

Now you have no reason not to watch horror movies directed by women!!

If you have a love of Victorian Ghost stories written by women Melissa Makala has put together a really great list of Victorian Ghost stories so Head over to Sublime Horror and have a look.

Ghost stories by Victorian women, a reading list chosen by Melissa Edmundson

This is all the news for this week!! If there is anything that we missed please let us know.

 

 

 

Friday, January 25, 2019

Afterage by Yvonne Navarro Review

Afterage Book Cover by Yvonne Navarro

In the bestselling tradition of Salem’s Lot, here is an impressive debut novel by an acclaimed author of short horror fiction. A vampire eons old has spread her touch throughout the human population, leaving the streets full of the undead. The survivors band together to fight back in this riveting tale.

Laurie’s Review

A vampire apocalypse has occurred. Navarro starts things off after it has happened. The few remaining humans must struggle to survive in a wasteland ravaged by monsters both vampiric and human. And, as usual, the human monsters are always the worst! Only the suicidal dare venture out after dark because the vampires are fast, ravenous and deadly.

The book follows a rather large cast of survivors, most of them eking out a life by themselves but eventually they come together to save a group of humans being kept hostage by a vampire called Anyelet for reasons that are gross, disturbing and so incredibly awful.

I loved the fact that the Big Bad was a woman! She was vicious and selfish and so perfectly evil and so much better a villain than Anne Rice’s whiny creatures (sorry, Anne Rice fans). I don’t think she had even one “poor me” moment. She was lonely so she changed her situation. It created an apocalypse but them’s the breaks! Her human henchman was a vile man and she surrounded herself with lesser vampires that she could easily boss around. There’s some nasty stuff insinuated within these pages.

The survivors are all pretty well fleshed out and, despite the high number of them, I miraculously didn’t find myself terribly confused which is usually the case with large casts. I think it’s because the chapters were short and I tried to read big chunks of the book at each sitting so it was easier to remember who was who and what they had done a few chapters earlier.

This reads like old school horror because, well, it is! It reminds me of those long, lost days when I was able to spend an entire day under a tree reading King and McCammon until the sun went down. It’s not quite at the emotional level of those two but it comes close at times and it isn’t overly wordy as some books of that time were. These characters were in peril from start to finish but they find time to love and help each other. The baddies are BAD but there are a few who haven’t totally lost their humanity and I appreciated that.

If you’re into nasty vampires that aren’t romanticized you should give this one a try.

You can find a copy here:  Better World Books  |  Amazon


About Yvonne Navarro

Yvonne Navarro is the author of Concrete Savior, Highborn, AfterAge, deadrush, Final Impact, Mirror Me and a bunch of other books, plus Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels and tie-in novels for Hellboy, Elektra, and others.

Website:  http://www.yvonnenavarro.com/

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Unmemory by Kristi Demeester Review

Book Cover Unmemory by Kristi DeMeester

An original, 9,000-word short story by Kristi DeMeester, with 10 illustrations by Yves Tourigny. A university student attempts to track down the briefly-glimpsed Christmas film which traumatized her as a child.

You can buy a copy here: http://www.yvestourigny.com/shop/demeester

Toni’s Teaser Review

There is so much about to love about DeMeester’s writing. It makes heart happy to read anything that she writes. This story is interesting. I feel like there is more there then just the words. I feel this with so much of her writing.

Click here to see Toni’s full review on The Misadventures of a Reader

Laurie’s Teaser Review

There is seduction and simmering distaste and all sorts of uglies and strangeness bubbling under the surface of this story and that’s what I love most about DeMeester’s writing. She knows how to create atmosphere and a sense of disquiet and she does it very well here.

Click here to see Laurie’s full review at Bark’s Book Nonsense

Emily’s Teaser Review

I did really enjoy reading Unmemory, and I adore Kristi’s writing. She’s an auto-buy author for me, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Click here to see the full review on Emily’s Goodreads

Alex’s Teaser Review

4.5 out of 5 for Unmemory from me! DeMeester just know show to tell a story and her way with words will just make you warm all over. HIGHLY recommended!

Click here to see Alex’s full review on FindingMontauk

About Kristi Demeester

Kristi DeMeester
Photo Courtesy of Kristi Demeester.com

Kristi DeMeester is the author of BENEATH, a novel published by Word Horde, and the author of EVERYTHING THAT’S UNDERNEATH, a short fiction collection published by Apex Publications. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year Volume 9, Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volumes 1 and 3, Black Static, The Dark, Apex Magazine, and several others.

She is currently at work on her fourth novel and seeking representation.

The #LOHFReadathon FAQ

We’ve had a few questions asked about our upcoming readathon during #WIHM, so we thought we’d do a clarifying post.

Hosting: The readathon is hosted by the LOHF Crew and HeyLittleThrifter from Booktube

When: February 1st through February 28th

Locations You Can Participate: Goodreads, Your Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube etc.

How to Participate: Read books by women horror authors based on the prompts, talk about those books wherever you can using the #LOHFReadathon hashtag (and, of course, review the books if possible).

Prompts:

  • Indie Author
  • Author of Color
  • LGBTQ+ Author
  • Written Before You Were Born
  • Something Short

What to Read: Horror written by women!

Recently we released a graphic showing our choices for the readathon. Not every one of us is reading all these books! This is a combined list of our choices. I’ve written out all of our choices below to make it easier for those using assistive devices.

Please note: lots of people have come forth with some incredible lists, so please don’t feel like you have just our choices to pick from if you’re trying to come up with books to read for this!

Indie Author

  • Black Wings – Megan Hart (out 2/14)
  • Cruel Works of Nature – Gemma Amor
  • Daymares – Kenya Moss-Dyme
  • Echo Lake – Letitia Trent
  • Fountain Dead – Theresa Braun
  • The Haunting of Henderson Close – Catherine Cavendish
  • Without Condition – Sonora Taylor (out 2/12)

Author of Color

  • Beloved – Toni Morrison
  • The Between – Tananarive Due (also our group read for this month!)
  • The Gilda Stories – Jewelle Gomez
  • The Good House – Tananarive Due
  • How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend – Linda Addison
  • Let’s Play White – Chesya Burk
  • Shutter – Courtney Alameda

LGBTQ+ Author

  • Bittersweet Symphony – Rebecca McNutt
  • City of Ghosts – VE Schwab
  • The Gilda Stories – Jewelle Gomez
  • Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw
  • The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters
  • The Red Tree – Caitlin R. Kiernan
  • Say Her Name – Juno Dawn

Before You Were Born

  • The Auctioneer – Joan Samson
  • Beloved – Toni Morrison
  • The Birds and Other Stories – Daphne du Maurier
  • Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  • The House Next Door – Anne Rivers Siddons
  • Somebody Come and Play – Clare McNally
  • The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Something Short

  • Apart in the Dark – Ania Ahlborn
  • Baby Hater – CV Hunt
  • Being Full of Light, Insubstantial – Linda Addison
  • Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  • How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend – Linda Addison
  • Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw
  • Let’s Play White – Chesya Burke

For the curious, here is a list that Emily made up that several of us picked books from because she’s good at doing this type of thing and saved us all some trouble. Please note, this is not a comprehensive list. It is, however, a good place to start if you are completely lost.

Indie Author

  • Cruel Works of Nature – Gemma Amor
  • Fountain Dead – Theresa Braun
  • Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked – Christa Carmen
  • Maria The Wanted – V. Castro
  • The Carrow Haunt – Darcy Coates
  • Everything That’s Underneath – Kristi DeMeester
  • The Rust Maidens – Gwendolyn Kiste
  • The Making of Gabriel Davenport – Beverly Lee
  • Church – Renee Miller
  • Daymares – Kenya Moss-Dyme
  • The Bone Weaver’s Orchard – Sarah Read (Out 2/1)
  • Love for Slaughter – Sara Tantlinger

Author of Color

  • Shutter – Courtney Alameda
  • The Jumbies – Tracey Baptiste
  • My Sister the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
  • Sycorax’s Daughters – edited by Kinitra Brooks, PHD
  • Cartoons in the Suicide Forest – Leza Cantoral
  • The Between – Tananarive Due
  • Things We Lost in the Fire- Mariana Enriquez
  • Her Body and Other Parties – Carmen Maria Machado
  • Body – Asa Nonami
  • White is for WItching – Helen Oyeyemi
  • The Hole – Hye-young Pyun
  • Black Magic Women – edited by Sumiko Saulson

LGBTQ+ Author

  • Fist of the Spider Women: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire – edited by Amber Dawn
  • Say Her Name – Juno Dawson
  • F4 – Larissa Glasser
  • The Gilda Stories – Jewelle Gomez
  • Hammers on Bone – Cassandra Khaw
  • The Red Tree – Caitlin R. Kiernan
  • Bittersweet Symphony – Rebecca McNuitt
  • The Lights – Carrie Pack
  • Broken Mirror and Other Morbid Tales – Carmilla Voiez
  • Affinity – Sarah Waters
  • The Daylight Gate – Jeanette Winterson

A Book Published Before You Were Born

  • The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter
  • The Birds and Other Stories – Daphne Du Maurier
  • Gothic Tales – Elizabeth Gaskell
  • The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  • The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
  • The Graveyard Apartment – Mariko Koike
  • Interview with a Vampire – Anne Rice
  • Weird Stories – Charlotte Riddell
  • Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  • The House Next Door – Anne Rivers Siddons
  • The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton – Edith Wharton

Something Short

  • How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend – Linda Addison
  • I Call Upon Thee – Ania Ahlborn (available in Apart in the Dark pb, or single e-book/audiobook)
  • Come Closer – Sara Gran
  • I Am Not Your Final Girl – Claire C. Holland
  • Cockblock – CV Hunt
  • We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
  • Pretty Marys All in a Row – Gwendolyn Kiste
  • Return to Dyatlov Pass – JH Moncrieff
  • The Silent Companions – Laura Purcell
  • Like Jagged Teeth – Betty Rocksteady
  • Fortune Box – Madeleine Swann
  • The Devil’s Dreamland – Sara Tantlinger

This is not a reading list but a list of books that we would recommend.  If you know of a book that would qualify, please add it in the comments below! (Please make sure you specify the category(ies) it would fall under!)

You are welcome to read with us even if you aren’t doing the prompts. The idea is to get you to read more women horror writers.

Thanks,

LOHF

Monday, January 21, 2019

The "Anticipated" Recap

We ‘anticipated’ seeing a lot of new releases.

Get it?

GET IT?!

#sorrynotsorry

We are constantly on the prowl for upcoming releases for Ladies of Horror Fiction.  While the challenge was going on, some of these were either anticipated reads from TBR lists or anticipated releases.

If you missed last week’s recap, you can find it here: Moon

M_a_rubio shared with us her current read at the time that was also her most anticipated read, Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes.  This isn’t the first time Beukes has mad our Instagram challenge or even our recap posts, so it may be safe to say she is an author we should continue to anticipate!

“Detective Gabriella Versado has seen a lot of bodies, but this one is unique even by Detroit’s standards: half boy, half deer, somehow fused together. As stranger and more disturbing bodies are discovered, how can the city hold on to a reality that is already tearing at its seams? If you’re Detective Versado’s geeky teenage daughter, Layla, you commence a dangerous flirtation with a potential predator online. If you’re desperate freelance journalist Jonno, you do whatever it takes to get the exclusive on a horrific story. If you’re Thomas Keen, known on the street as TK, you’ll do what you can to keep your homeless family safe–and find the monster who is possessed by the dream of violently remaking the world. ”

Tamsparks let us know about anticipation for an upcoming review book, Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw, which is the second installment in the Dr. Greta Helsing series.

“Contemporary fantasy in the world of Strange Practice, starring Dr. Greta Helsing, whose family has been keeping the supernatural community not-alive and well for generations.

When Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, is unexpectedly called to Paris to present at a medical conference, she expects nothing more exciting than professional discourse on zombie reconstructive surgery and skin disease in bogeymen — and hopefully at least one uneventful night at the Opera.

Unfortunately for Greta, Paris happens to be infested with a coven of vampires — and not the civilized kind. If she hopes to survive, Greta must navigate the darkest corners of the City of Lights, the maze of ancient catacombs and mine-tunnels underneath the streets, where there is more to find than simply dead men’s bones.”

We at LOHF hosted our  first readalong with Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and tracy_reads79 shared this pretty edition as her anticipation for the book and readalong grew!  We had a great time with this readalong and cannot wait for more of them!

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady’s maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives–presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.”

Book.happy gave us this perfectly horrifying cover of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked by Christa Carmen.  This collection of horror shorts will make your skin crawl and are bloody in the best way.

“A young woman’s fears regarding the gruesome photos appearing on her cell phone prove justified in a ghastly and unexpected way. A chainsaw-wielding Evil Dead fan defends herself against a trio of undead intruders. A bride-to-be comes to wish that the door between the physical and spiritual worlds had stayed shut on All Hallows’ Eve. A lone passenger on a midnight train finds that the engineer has rerouted them toward a past she’d prefer to forget. A mother abandons a life she no longer recognizes as her own to walk up a mysterious staircase in the woods.

In her debut collection, Christa Carmen combines horror, charm, humor, and social critique to shape thirteen haunting, harrowing narratives of women struggling with both otherworldly and real-world problems. From grief, substance abuse, and mental health disorders, to a post-apocalyptic exodus, a seemingly sinister babysitter with unusual motivations, and a group of pesky ex-boyfriends who won’t stay dead, Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked is a compelling exploration of horrors both supernatural and psychological, and an undeniable affirmation of Carmen’s flair for short fiction.”


What are some of your most anticipated reads or upcoming LOHF releases?  Let us know below in the comments!  And do make sure you come check back with us next week for our Instagram challenge recap where we share highlights from “SUMMER” prompts.

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