Wednesday, September 30, 2020

YA/MG Horror Spotlight September 2020

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is putting a spotlight on Young Adult and Middle Grade horror each month. Below we are featuring the books that were released in September as well as what our team has been reading and reviewing.

Young Adult New Releases

Horrid by Katrina Leno

From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.

Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.

As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all–it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears….

Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more…horrid?

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | Amazon | Goodreads

Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

Nina LaCour delivers another emotional knockout with Watch Over Me, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the Printz Award-winning We Are Okay.

Mila is used to being alone. Maybe that’s why she said yes to the opportunity: living in this remote place, among the flowers and the fog and the crash of waves far below.

But she hadn’t known about the ghosts.

Newly graduated from high school, Mila has aged out of the foster care system. So when she’s offered a job and a place to stay at a farm on an isolated part of the Northern California Coast, she immediately accepts. Maybe she will finally find a new home, a real home. The farm is a refuge, but also haunted by the past traumas its young residents have come to escape. And Mila’s own terrible memories are starting to rise to the surface.

Watch Over Me is another stunner from Printz Award-Winning author Nina LaCour, whose empathetic, lyrical prose is at the heart of this modern ghost story of resilience and rebirth.

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Dutton Books for Young Readers | Amazon | Goodreads

White Fox by Sara Faring

After their world-famous actor mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Manon and Thaïs left their remote Mediterranean island home—sent away by their pharma-tech tycoon father. Opposites in every way, the sisters drifted apart in their grief. Yet their mother’s unfinished story still haunts them both, and they can’t put to rest the possibility that she is still alive.

Lured home a decade later, Manon and Thaïs discover their mother’s legendary last work, long thought lost: White Fox, a screenplay filled with enigmatic metaphors. The clues in this dark fairytale draw them deep into the island’s surreal society, into the twisted secrets hidden by their glittering family, to reveal the truth about their mother—and themselves.

Expected publication: September 22nd 2020 by Imprint | Amazon | Goodreads

Middle Grade New Releases

Seance Tea Party

Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

After watching her circle of friends seemingly fade away, Lora is determined to still have fun on her own, so when a tea party leads Lora to discovering Alexa, the ghost that haunts her house, they soon become best friends.

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Random House Graphic | Amazon | Goodreads

Young Adult Books Reviewed

This month Emily and Jen read Dread Nation by Justina Ireland during the #LOHFReathon. Be sure to check out Emily’s review (“The story and characters are memorable, and it was amusing and heartbreaking at the same time.”) and Jen’s review (“I love when a book gets better and better and then thoroughly hooks me by the end.”) Amazon | Goodreads

Emily also read and loved Harrow Lake! Don’t miss her 5⭐ review (“Harrow Lake is mysterious and intriguing, and it has a couple delightfully spooky parts and storylines.”) Amazon | Goodreads


Have you read any of the books we read or reviewed this month? Let us know what YA or MG books you have read recently!

Monday, September 28, 2020

Guest Post: Creativity, Agoraphobia and Isolation by Jennifer Anne Gordon

At the height of the most powerful creative work of her life, Shirley Jackson suffered from intense agoraphobia. There were months that she was unable to leave her home. Her isolation, and at times deep mental instability led her to create work that inspire me and legions of other horror lovers, now. If there were no Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, then books like Beautiful, Frightening, and Silent and From Daylight to Madness (my Literary Gothic Horror novels) would not exist.

I would have a voice that I would perhaps still be afraid to use.

In my past, I too have also suffered from this affliction, this all-encompassing fear to leave the house. It was years ago now, and I was involved in a powerfully abusive and controlling relationship. I made my living selling my artwork online. My world was small, it consisted of my old house, my art studio, my dog, my fear, and my imagination.

I created paintings and collages of sad women, former vaudeville stars, most who died young, seeped in tragedy and gin. I saw myself in those women, I created each one as a way of screaming out of my closed windows and bolted doors. I created them as a reminder to the world and to myself that once upon a time I too was an actress on a stage, I was a poet, I was a person.

It took years to overcome, and in the past few months, I have felt at times, that my old friend fear was coming back to me. An old friend like this never really leaves, does it?

At the end of February my fiancé and I returned home from a trip to Spain, my debut novel had just been released and sold record numbers during the presale from my publisher. People would come into the dance studio where I worked with copies of my novel to sign, which I did, in a beautiful metallic red marker.

If you have read my book you will understand why I wrote in red.

I felt at that time that I was on a precipice of something, perhaps something beautiful, perhaps something frightening…and in the end we were all on the precipice of something silent.

It was the first week of March and suddenly my dance students were starting to cancel lessons. When I was out in public and heard a cough, I grew frightened. There was something creeping out of the shadows for me, for all of us. It was not just a virus, but also paranoia.

By March 16, the few students I had that day came in and wept, I wept. In a job that depends on me touching people, physically and emotionally, we went without touch.

The next day the dance studio shut down, and I was once again, in my house, and afraid to leave.  Luckily for me, this go around, I am with someone who supports me, and loves me, but once again I find myself with an exceedingly small world. An old house, a dog, my fear, and now…my books. 

I am now 47,000 words into my third horror novel, the second part in a sweeping historical horror tale that deals with isolation, fear of what is outside, and what is inside your head. I realize I am still that artist telling a story of a sad woman, screaming from behind a closed door. I am still someone looking into a broken mirror and finding myself and the world broken in two.

As artists, and authors, we are mirrors of the world, we are reaching the fingers of our imagination out and bringing back fragments of stories, pieces of characters, memories that we are creating, and giving to imaginary people. 

What happens though when we reach out towards something, and now, we are met with walls. My hands seem to scrape against the things that are keeping me safe. They long to break through, but instead they come back with bruised knuckles.

So…. that goes in the book. It all goes in the book. 

Tomorrow I leave my house to go back to a job that will be a shadow of what it was a few months ago, it is a job I know is ending completely by October. It is a shadow that both scares me and intrigues me. Until then, I rest my head against this pillow, I hear a large animal rustling in the deadfall outside my window. The air feels cool for late summer as the wind blows in off the river that still runs high from too much rain for too long.

My imagination is there with my new main characters, Isabelle, and Francis. They are the result of these long months, of the sickness with no cure, the almost birth of a second round of agoraphobia. They fight against it all, as do I. 

At the end of this long endless day when their eyes close so do mine. 

I will end this with a list of the things that inspired me today, and I encourage all of you to hit me up on facebook and tell me what is inspiring you. 

1-People that are lost…specifically people lost at sea, or at war, I am drawn to the women left behind.

2- Cold Climate Islands, specifically in the Northern Atlantic.

3- Tidal pools

4 -Photos that are out of focus, or overexposed.

5- The Victorian Spiritualist movement, and mesmerism used for therapeutic reasons.

6- Waking from a dream, just to see the person sleeping next to you has woken at the same time, and one or both of you whisper, “I just had the worst dream.”

Biography

Jennifer Anne Gordon is a gothic horror novelist. Her work includes Beautiful, Frightening and Silent, which is a semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Review Awards (Horror/Suspense (2020), and From Daylight to Madness (The Hotel book 1), and coming out in November 2020, When the Sleeping Dead Still Talk (The Hotel book 2).

She had a collection of her mixed media artwork published during spring of 2020, entitled Victoriana: mixed media art of Jennifer Gordon

Jennifer is one of the hosts as well as the creator of Vox Vomitus, a video podcast on the Global Authors on the Air Network.

Jennifer is a pale curly haired ginger, obsessed with horror, ghosts, abandoned buildings, and her dog “Lord Tubby”.

She graduated from the New Hampshire Institute of Art, where she studied Acting. She also studied at the University of New Hampshire with a concentration in Art History and English. 

She has made her living as an actress, a magician’s assistant, a “gallerina”, a painter, and burlesque performer and for the past 10 years as an award-winning professional ballroom dancer, performer, instructor, and choreographer.

When not scribbling away (ok, typing frantically) she enjoys traveling with her fiancé and dance partner, teaching her dog ridiculous tricks (like ‘give me a kiss’ and ‘what hand is the treat in?’ ok these are not great tricks.) as well as taking photos of abandoned buildings and haunted locations.

She is a leo, so at the end of the day she just thinks about her hair.

For more information and benevolent stalking, please visit her website at http://www.JenniferAnneGordon.com

Amazon Author Page – amazon.com/author/jenniferannegordon

Facebook Author Page – https://www.facebook.com/JenniferAnneGordonAuthor/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jennifergenevievegordon/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/JenniferAnneGo5

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20063036.Jennifer_Gordon




Friday, September 25, 2020

#LOHFMovieNights: The Invitation

Every Friday night in September, we are watching horror movies directed by women.

Tonight at 8 PM EST we are hosting our next #LOHFMovieNights with The Invitation (2015) Directed by Karyn Kusama on Netflix Party.

The Invitation

There is nothing to be afraid of.

Will and his new girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner with old friends at the house of Will’s ex Eden and her new partner David. Although the evening appears to be relaxed, Will soon gets a creeping suspicion that their charming host David is up to something.

Visit us on @lohfiction Twitter 15 minutes before the movie to get the link or DM @ladiesofhorrorfiction on Instagram.

Please note you must have an account on Netflix to join in. For more information on using Netflix Party, visit the Netflix Party site.

We hope to see you tonight!

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

What We're Reading #66

The Ladies of Horror Fiction have a new batch of review link-ups of recent reads to add some dark joy to your week! Today we have reviews of a horror play, a graphic novel collection and a collection of short horror stories. There’s a little something for everyone!

We hope you find your new favorite book and don’t forget to click either tag above to find more good books ♥ 

Unboxed by Briana Morgan

Greg Zipper is a paranormal vlogger whose livelihood relies on his online popularity. When a fight between him and his girlfriend goes viral for all the wrong reasons, Greg purchases a dark web mystery box in hopes of restoring his audience’s faith in him and hitting one million subscribers. But when Greg opens the box, he gets much more than he bargained for, including a Boxer who’s determined to stop him from taking his loved ones for granted. Now Greg must do all he can to stop the Boxer, or else he’ll lose his livelihood – along with the woman he loves.

Amazon | Goodreads

Alex’s Teaser Review

This twisted little play is fast paced, well-written, and eerily intoxicating. It is a must-read! 5 stars!

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.

Cassie’s Teaser Review

I’ll admit that this was my first time outside of a school setting where I decided to read a book as a play, but I wasn’t worried at all due to both Briana’s experience with the format, and her strength as a writer. I dove in without a second thought as soon as the book arrived, and sped through it with the sort of attention that I’d imagine you’d give to the act of diffusing a live bomb: I was so absorbed by the story!

Read Cassie’s entire review at Let’s Get Galactic.

Survivors’ Club by Lauren Beukes & Dale Halverson

What if the horror movies of the 1980s were real?
Where are those kids today?

The haunted house, the demonic doll, the cursed video game, the monstrous neighbor, the vengeful ghost, the killer imaginary friend…in 1987 a wave of horrors struck six communities around the globe. Six traumatized kids survived those events, and grew up haunted by what happened to them.

Almost 30 years later, the six survivors are drawn together in Los Angeles to confront a terrifying childhood nightmare that has returned, bringing up their own traumas and dragging their dark secrets into the light. Somehow, they’re all connected. But when personal horrors collide, they’ll be forced to confront one another’s demons.

And then they’ll discover that staying alive was only the beginning…

Award-winning novelist Lauren Beukes and co-writer Dale Halvorsen join artist Ryan Kelly for a bloody journey of self-discovery in SURVIVORS’ CLUB, a terrifying new vision of horror in an inescapably interconnected world. Collects #1-9.

Amazon | Goodreads

Audra’s Teaser Review

Co-written with Dale Halverson, this story is interested in horror tropes and stock characters and subverting the hell out of your expectations. I am also a sucker for a haunted house tale! The story plays with time in a way that will appeal to anyone who loved The Haunting of Hill House Netflix series or fans of House of Leaves. But through the art (Ryan Kelly), this story goes to whole new levels of weird, horrific, and just plain awesome.

Read Audra’s entire review at Goodreads.

All That's Fair by S.H. Cooper

All That’s Fair by S.H. Cooper

A maiden looking for love in all the wrong places.

A mother in an endless search for missing children.

A crone whose passing is marked by the tinkling of tiny bells.

All That’s Fair is a collection of twenty-two short horror stories themed around women who are made up of anything but sugar, spice, and everything nice. Be they human, ghost, or something else entirely, one thing holds true for all: These are not the girls you’ll find (or want) next door.

Amazon | Goodreads

Jen’s Teaser Review

All That’s Fair contains 22 horror short stories. These short stories really are short which helped make All That’s Fair a fun book to fly through. Several of Cooper’s stories made me think this would be a great collection for adults like me who grew up loving the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark volumes.

Read Jen’s entire review at Book Den.

Alex’s Teaser Review

All That’s Fair is a dark, fun collection of short stories. Like most short story collections, this one has a theme and it focuses on “women who are made up of anything but sugar, spice, and everything nice.”

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.

Thank you for joining us today! We hope you found something to add to your tbr list. Please share your recent reads with us in the comments below.

If you are a LOHF writer and have a book you’d like us to consider for a review please visit our review submission page here.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Shelf Edition: Gabrielle S. Awe

For this month’s Shelf Edition, we’re checking out the shelves of Gabrielle S. Awe! Gabrielle is the writer and narrator of the popular podcast Stories in the Dark. She has previously published a collection of stories from the podcast titled “Stories in the Dark: The Horror.”

She lives in Texas with her husband, nephew, two cats, and a house full of books and Funko Pops, where she alternates between writing dark fiction and YA Fantasy – because it is a writer’s job to both show the world its own darkness and also to give it hope.

Do you have any recent favorite LOHF books? 

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas was SO good. I love the creeping Gothic type of horror. I don’t know why it isn’t getting better reviews online; I think you just need to really connect with this surreal type of writing (similar to Vita Nostra). 

What LOHF books do you have on your TBR?

Harrow the Ninth – I was OBSESSED with Gideon the NInth and I cannot wait for the sequel. I read the preview and so now I’m literally at my wits end waiting for it.

Where do you find recommendations? Are there any LOHF books that have been recommended to you that you loved? 

I need MORE recommendations! I feel like people aren’t talking enough about ladies in horror, so I was so happy to find LOHF to get more recommendations. Since I love Shirley Jackson I tend to scour the Shirley Jackson Awards to find new authors or I stalk Twitter to see what people are talking about. I’m also in a Bookaholics Facebook group and the recommendation community there is so, so good. That’s a newer community for me and I’m slow to warm up to new groups but recently I’ve found some great new reads there.

Where do you shop for books? 

I’m almost ashamed to admit it but most of my reading is on Kindle so… Amazon. Pre-Covid I went to Half Price books to stock up on books for my new home library; I have this weird habit of reading everything as an ebook and then if I love it I get a physical copy. When I lived in Portland I went to Powell’s, of course, but now that we’re back in Texas I love going to Austin to hit up the independent bookstores there. I wish the North Dallas area had more (translation: any) independent bookstores.

Are there any upcoming LOHF releases you’re excited about? 

Really, Harrow the Ninth. I almost can’t think about anything else. Did you read Gideon the Ninth? Lesbian necromancers in space? SWOON

If you’re an author, can you tell us anything about your new or upcoming releases? 

I have two new releases – one is a collection of horror short stories based on my podcast, and the collection is called Stories in the Dark Volume 1: The Horror. The title is a little tongue in cheek. My other new release is a YA Fantasy novel called Empire of Sky – it’s basically the opposite of horror.

I think you’re the first horror podcast host to participate in Shelf Edition! Can you tell us a little about your podcast, and where people can find it? 

My podcast is called Stories in the Dark and it’s in its third season. All the stories are original fiction that I write and narrate. I have a lot of fun with it and I’ve experimented with different themes in each season. The first season had a lot of little girls killing men but, you know, there’s definitely some interest in murdery little girls. We’re on every major (and even some minor) podcast streaming apps and our website storiesinthedark.com has all of our episodes and links to make it easy to find.

Where can people find you on social media? 

https://twitter.com/evilkittygrr
https://twitter.com/sitdpodcast
https://www.facebook.com/authorgabrielleawe
https://www.instagram.com/storiesinthedarkpodcast/

Monday, September 21, 2020

Guest Post: How To Survive A Horror Movie

We have a special guest post today from horror reviewer Ellen Avigliano! You may have seen Ellen around Twitter and Instagram promoting horror for Dead Head Reviews and spreading joy, Supernatural gifs and book love like nobody’s business! Take it away, Ellen.

The Unbreakable Power and Unity of Sisterhood

We don’t have much time. All eyes are on me.

THUNK, THUNK, THUNK.

His footfalls are heavy against the tiled floor. Standard issue military combat boots, clomping along in a muted bass tone, echoing and bouncing through the narrow corridor. Between the steel-toed structure of his footwear and immense physical stature, there was no way he was going to tread quietly, but he certainly leveraged those clodhoppers to their maximum impact. Quite frankly though, it was all completely unnecessary. He didn’t have to lift a finger or move a muscle to elicit fear. He could have remained inert, simply looming in a doorway, and it would have instilled the same sense of dread within the bones of every woman in his vicinity.

His mere existence in the world rang alarm bells for every woman that crossed his path, caught him out of the corner of her eye. It stirs up all kinds of icky feelings. You know the ones. That sinking feeling you get in the pit of your stomach as you walk alone in the dusk, hoping to beat the darkness, and ignoring the lengthening shadows beneath the streetlights. It’s that dull pressure in between your shoulder blades, when you feel someone standing behind you, even if you know you’re alone in the room. It’s like someone is kneading the nerves leading up to your neck; your body is numb and yet simultaneously tingles. You want to flee, but you’re stuck. Immobilized. That’s the power he has. That’s the power all men have. Some men embrace it, and leverage it for their personal gain. Other men ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist. A rare minority of men see it, acknowledge it, and call it out. It doesn’t much matter, though.  All men benefit from it.

Except for today. Today, the power of men would be their undoing. His downfall, specifically. For I have something – excuse me, we, we have something — that men will never have. We’ve got sisterhood.

“What the fuck does that mean?” you ask. Allow me to elaborate.

The official Merriam-Webster dictionary definition is as follows:

sis·ter·hood | \ ˈsi-stər-ˌhu̇d

1a the state of being a sister

1b sisterly relationship

2 a community or society of sisters

3 the solidarity of women based on shared experiences or concerns

“Okay, fine, but what’s that got to do with anything? How is that going to stop a raging, brutish man with some thick-ass combat boots who is a dragging sledge hammer behind him like a caveman drags a club, and enough bulging muscles to make The Incredible Hulk look like a withering plant caught in a hurricane?!”

Everything.

Sisterhood is more than just a word in the dictionary. It’s an ineffable connection between all women, be they cisgender or transgender. It’s hearing the sigh from the stall next to you, and handing over a wad of toilet paper. It’s the “yes, GIRL” as you walk by someone checking out the fit of some jeans in the dressing room, and the smile that spreads across their face in return. It’s the instinct to walk up to a complete stranger with utter conviction and confidence that you’re their best friend or girlfriend in order to thwart interaction with a predatory man. It is a neutral expression with direct eye contact exchanged across the room between coworker-gals, silently acknowledging mutual distaste for the mansplaining of the latest company project.

In short, it’s a wavelength that women communicate over which men just can’t pick up on their radios. That unifying force between strangers and an unshakeable bond. It’s an instinct, you know, like “spidey sense.”

And it’s the best weapon we’ve got right now.

For a split second, there’s a ringing in my ears, a whoosh, then the world goes silent and I can hear my heartbeat pounding in my skull. I scan the length of the hallway, eyes darting this way and that, brain making calculations as quickly as possible, assessing the threat of capture and imminent death. I spot a door at the end that’s slightly ajar, the faintest glow of sunlight radiating warmth against the sterile blue-white of the fluorescents. This just might work. If we all make a break for it at the same time, we might just make our hasty escape, and survive the horror show called “our lives.” We can’t make a sound. If we do, we’re toast. A mere pin drop would echo in these hallways like a hammer striking cold steel. I carefully remove my shoes, and gesture to the others to follow suit, which they do mechanically.

Suddenly all the noise of the world rushes back into existence at once. That’s when I hear him.

THUNK, THUNK, THUNK.

And I realize we’re out of time.

I nod my head to the right, then up, and do a little boogie-shuffle gesture to the side. Stiff head bobs all around in wordless reply. Good. We’re all on the same page.

I take a deep breath in, and get ready to make the breakaway. It’s now or never.

Let’s do this.

By Ellen Avigliano

My name is Ellen and I am an Artist, Illustrator, and Freelance Blogger based in New Jersey. I am a disabled creator with multiple auto-immune conditions supporting myself with my artwork and creativity. I’m also an Admin as well as Digital Content Manager and Team Contributor for DeadHeadReviews.com
I like dogs, houseplants, and drinking coffee. I am a self-proclaimed champion hula hooper. I have an affinity towards vintage and retro style. I read a LOT of books. I believe in challenging societal norms, equality and justice for all, and smashing the patriarchy.

Links:

Website: www.imaginariumarts.com

Twitter: @imaginariumcs

Instagram: @thejackalopes.warren and @imaginariumarts

Friday, September 18, 2020

#LOHFMovieNights: Always Shine

Every Friday night in September, we are watching horror movies directed by women.

Tonight at 8 PM EST we are hosting our next #LOHFMovieNights with Always Shine (2016) Directed by Sophia Takal on Amazon Prime Video Watch Party.

Please note: we were originally planning to watch The Slumber Party Massacre tonight, but it has been removed from Amazon Watch Party.

Always Shine

On a trip to Big Sur, two friends, both actresses, try to reconnect with one another. Once alone, the women’s suppressed jealousies and deep-seated resentments begin to rise, causing them to lose their grasp on not only the true nature of their relationship, but also their identities.

Visit us on @lohfiction Twitter 15 minutes before the movie to get the link or DM @ladiesofhorrorfiction on Instagram.

Please note you must have an account on Prime to join in. For more information on using Amazon Prime Watch Party, visit Amazon’s Watch Party page.

We hope to see you tonight!

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Guest Post: Countess Bathory the Early Years by Lana Popovic

When I started writing YA speculative fiction, my one rule for myself was to stay firmly rooted in the present. While I’ve always enjoyed historical fantasy to the hilt—Mists of Avalon and Jacqueline Carey’s Renaissance-inspired Kushiel’s Legacy series both hold uncontested places in my heart, and I’m still totally ready to swoon over rereads of Outlander—contemporary fantasy just seemed to offer up that sweet spot for my own writing. A modern world, blessedly without the need for too much research, but with a liminal sense of existing within the seams between the mundane and the magical? Pretty much perfect.

I’ll play in that sandbox all day, I thought, and never feel the need to leave.

But then there was Countess Bathory, glimmering dark and inviting on the periphery. Waiting to be revisited at some opportune time.

I was born in Serbia and grew up all over Eastern Europe, my family playing hopscotch across the former Iron Curtain countries until I moved to the U.S. for college. At each American International School, I found a Bulgarian or Romanian or Hungarian Studies class—and in each local studies class, Bathory Erszebet kept turning up like an alluring bad penny, her gruesome exploits gleefully detailed and claimed by each nation. I learned about Elizabeth so often that thinking back, I don’t really remember ever not knowing about her beauty, charismatic persona, and legendary depredations, ranking right alongside bloodthirsty Vlad Tsepes, Romania’s infamous inspiration for Count Dracula.

Still, no matter how many times I read about her gristly murders of hundreds of women, and the bricked-up tower that served as her final punishment, her story never seemed to lose its magnetic pull. Thinking of her always conjured up gothic and beguiling images of castles looming over the Transylvanian countryside, and the lurid vision of a lady bathing in a tub of virgin’s blood to preserve her youth.

Pretty heady stuff for middle school, and certainly enough to lodge in my subconscious like a stubborn and very intriguing burr.

Later on, I made conscious efforts to seek her out both in fiction and nonfiction, though there’s a weird void of cinematic material centered on such a compelling and volatile figure, as ahead of her time as she was villainous—where’s that Netflix show when you need it? In crafting her character for Blood Countess, I especially relied on source material from Infamous Lady: The True Story of Elizabeth Bathory by Kimberly L. Craft, a biography of the Countess based on a collection of letters, documents, and court transcripts, and a totally engrossing read for anyone interested in peeling back the curtain on the lady’s dazzling and unnerving mind. Rebecca Johns’ adult historical novel, The Countess, was also beautifully captivating in its lushness and keen attention to period detail—invaluable assets to someone not familiar with the trappings of sixteenth century Hungarian life.

Blood Countess

The biggest challenge came in the form of aging the Countess’s life and times down for a YA readership without losing the spirit of the story. In real life, the Countess had about forty years to bedevil the lowborn women she preyed on and the minor nobility she eventually lured to her deadly finishing school. For a YA reimagining, I obviously needed her young for the majority of the plot, and unencumbered by things like a relatively happy (and supremely twisted) marriage and a number of children. While Elizabeth’s husband Ferenc Nadasdy was by most accounts an avid conspirator in many of her crimes, in Blood Countess he takes on an even more insidious and antagonistic role.

Ultimately, it was the detachment from the need to cleave very closely to her chronological arc, and an alternate focus on an imagined, obsessively toxic relationship with her real historical confidante, the “witch” Anna Darvulia, that allowed the story to grow into its YA form. But my hope is that this reimaging of Elizabeth’s macabre, confounding, and darkly irresistible psyche will inspire readers to delve more deeply into the historical record of her life—or at least spend a few sleepless nights wondering what drove a noblewoman who spoke five languages, and often interceded on the behalf of the lowborn women in her care, to such bloodthirsty extremes. Was she deranged, evil, somehow tormented…

Or something even more twisted and unfathomable than that?

Jen’s Teaser Review of Blood Countess

Blood Countess sucked me in right away. I did not want to put it down. Lana Popović’s writing is perfectly suited for writing such a romantic and brutal piece of historical fiction.

This is truly a horror story. I worry when heading into YA horror, and I think the gothic, romantic, historical kind has me at my most skeptical. I was not disappointed.

Even though this is the first book in a planned “Lady Slayers” series, Blood Countess can stand on its own. In fact, I have no guesses as to what the sequel and the rest of the series will be about, and that’s a great thing.

Read Jen’s review at Goodreads.

Check out Blood Countess, the first in the Lady Slayers YA series, at Goodreads and Amazon!

Biography

Lana Popovic is the author of Blood CountessWicked Like a Wildfire and Fierce Like a Firestorm. Born in Serbia, she lived in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania before moving to the US, where she studied psychology and literature at Yale University, law at Boston University, and publishing and writing at Emerson College.

Website

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

What We're Reading #65

It’s Wednesday! That means we here at Ladies of Horror Fiction have a new batch of review link-ups of recent reads for you! Today we’ve included Betty by Tiffany McDaniel which some may consider “horror adjacent”. If you love having your heart crushed you do not want to miss Betty or Crossroads (for that matter). Rounding things out is some cannibal fun because we all need some of that!

We hope you find your new favorite book and don’t forget to click either tag above to find more good books ♥ 

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

A stunning, lyrical novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians in which a young girl discovers stark truths that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

“A girl comes of age against the knife.”

So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence–both from outside the family, and also, devastatingly, from within. The lush landscape, rich with birdsong, wild fruit, and blazing stars, becomes a kind of refuge for Betty, but when her family’s darkest secrets are brought to light, she has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.

But despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father’s brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write. She recounts the horrors of her family’s past and present with pen and paper and buries them deep in the dirt–moments that has stung her so deeply, she could not tell them, until now.

Inspired by the life of her own mother, Tiffany McDaniel sets out to free the past by telling this heartbreaking yet magical story–a remarkable novel that establishes her as one of the freshest and most important voices in American fiction.

Amazon | Goodreads

Alex’s Teaser Review

It broke my heart over and over -but McDaniel’s writing style is so beautiful, descriptive, and evocative that you cannot stop reading. 

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.

Laurie’s Teaser Review

I said this about The Summer That Melted Everything and I’m going to say the exact same thing about Betty. “This story is cruel, it is bleak and it is beautifully descriptive and impossible to put down.” If you haven’t read the work of Tiffany McDaniel you are truly missing out because her prose is pure magic and I am not exaggerating. These two books deserve every single star in the reviewing universe.

Read Laurie’s entire review at Goodreads.

Crossroads by Laurel Hightower

Crossroads by Laurel Hightower

How far would you go to bring back someone you love?

When Chris’s son dies in a tragic car crash, her world is devastated. The walls of grief close in on Chris’s life until, one day, a small cut on her finger changes everything.

A drop of blood falls from Chris’s hand onto her son’s roadside memorial and, later that night, Chris thinks she sees his ghost outside her window. Only, is it really her son’s ghost, or is it something else—something evil?

Soon Chris is playing a dangerous game with forces beyond her control in a bid to see her son, Trey, alive once again. 

Amazon | Goodreads

Cassie’s Teaser Review

CROSSROADS is in my Top 10 of 2020 for sure, and I can’t recommend it enough. If you’re looking to bawl your eyes out while reading your next favorite novella, definitely check this one out and thank me later (but I’m not responsible for the amount of tissues you’ll need to get through it!).

Read Cassie’s entire review at Let’s Get Galactic.

Benny Rose Cannibal King Book Cover

Benny Rose, the Cannibal King by Hailey Piper

Blackwood, Vermont has one legend to its name—Benny Rose, the Cannibal King. Every local kid knows him and tells his stories, especially on Halloween. When a new girl moves to town in the autumn of 1987, the legend inspires high school junior Desiree St. Fleur and her friends to pull a Benny Rose-themed prank. A few laughs and screams, and they’ll have a Happy Halloween.

But a vicious storm crashes into Blackwood and interrupts the festivities. Soon the girls find themselves trapped and hunted in a strange neighborhood where no one will help them. There’s nothing made-up about Benny Rose this Halloween night. The truth is coming, and it’s hungry.

Book 3 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.

Amazon | Goodreads

Jen’s Teaser Review

Benny Rose is a gory, coming of age horror centered around an urban legend and a group of girls on Halloween. Is there a better way to spend your evening?

You don’t need to wait until October to read this one, but if you haven’t read it by the time October rolls around, it really is the perfect book to read for the Halloween season.

Read Jen’s entire review at Book Den.

Cassie’s Review

Spooky stories about urban legends and small towns are some of my favorites, so it’s no surprise that having Hailey Piper blend those two familiar horror tropes together would lead to some amazing reading. What should also be unsurprising, given Piper’s talent with the written word, is how unique the story would be, despite the familiarity one might have with the the different things inspiring it – and yet, somehow, I am still completely blown away after finishing it!

Read Cassie’s entire review at Let’s Get Galactic.


Thank you for joining us today! We hope you found something to add to your tbr list. Please share your recent reads with us in the comments below.

If you are a LOHF writer and have a book you’d like us to consider for a review please visit our review submission page here.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

2020 LOHF Writers Grant Recipients

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is honored to announce the recipients of the 2nd annual LOHF Writers Grant:

Nico Bell
Holley Cornetto
Tracy Cross
Madison Estes
Rebecca Fraser
Anastasia Garcia
Eleanor Merry
Premee Mohamed
Christina Persaud
Augie Peterson

Many thanks go out to Steve Stred, Laurel Hightower, Andrew Cull, Cemetary Gates Media, Sonora Taylor, S.H. Cooper, Ben Walker, and anonymous donors for their incredible generosity in funding this year’s grants. We are so privileged to be teamed up with each of you!

Monday, September 14, 2020

Horror Adjacent: Reads in Translation

I’m baaaaack to preach about the joys of horror adjacent reads again!! If you’re sitting there all, “what is she going on about with this made-up terminology?” you can check out this post that explains a bit more of what horror adjacent means (to me, at least. What does it mean to you?).

Another facet of any type of fiction that I love to explore is translated books. It is especially intriguing in the horror genre because you get to see what other cultures are afraid of. I’ve long felt that one of the best ways to learn about a culture is through its fiction, but if you know what scares people, you truly see them to their bones.


The Embalmer by Anne-Renée Caillé (trans. from French by Rhonda Mullins)

From one of my favorite small presses, Coach House Books, comes this little gem of a novella, a haunting and introspective, almost poetic story looking behind the curtain of what it means to be an embalmer. It romanticizes nothing (while somehow being beautiful to read), drawing back the curtain on the mess that death can make and how we, the living, disguise it in an attempt to forget that death is coming for us too.

Goodreads | IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon


Bluebeard’s First Wife: Stories by Ha Seong-nan (trans. from Korean by Janet Hong)

Ha Seong-nan’s writing can’t really be put in a box, I definitely consider it horror—my favorite kind of horror that sits quietly on the edge of your bed as you sleep, suffusing your dreams with dark imagery. There aren’t any jump scares or supernatural happenings—it is just a dark world outside, and sometimes it stains you. The stories end up being about much more than the plot, offering commentary on women’s roles and society’s expectations of them. Also check out Flowers of Mold, another excellent story collection of hers published by Open Letter Books.

Goodreads | IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon


The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun (trans. from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell)

This is a strange tale about control, most specifically not being able to control your own body, being at the mercy of anyone around you. It is intensely psychological, detailing the internal struggle of a man who is paralyzed and at the mercy of his less-than-kindly mother-in-law. Another of her novels, The City of Ash and Red, is more of a Kafka meets 1984 meets the apocalypse nightmare, and also worth checking out.

Goodreads | IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon


The Vegetarian by Han Kang (trans. from Korean by Deborah Smith)

Is that horror? Yep, it definitely is. I love when I can point out a popular book that everyone loved as being a horror story. This is definitely one of those books. It is incredible literary fiction, but at its core, it is a terrifying horror tale about the pressures and constraints on the female form and what might happen when a woman decides to take absolute control of her body. Chilling and strange.

Goodreads | IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon


Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin (trans. from Spanish by Megan McDowell)

Oh, to be in the mind of Samanta Schweblin! What a place. Beautiful and horrible, breathtaking and fear-inducing. She truly does dance to the beat of her own drum,The master of small details, she has a way of twisting everyday occurrences and situations and blending such fresh and vivid descriptions in her writing that I found myself reading every story twice and still wishing for more. For more Schweblin, you can’t miss her novella Fever Dream (the ultimate WTF in the best way possible) and her newest, Little Eyes, which offers up a strange new technology and puts a magnifying glass on how and why we allow strangers access to our whole lives via the internet.

Goodreads | IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon


Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez (trans. from Spanish by Megan McDowell)

These stories are dark and speculative tales of haunted houses, black magic, and creepy kids, but also of socio-political unrest, injustice, and domestic issues. They offer the perfect mix of realism and speculative fiction. Though I honestly don’t know that much about Argentina, I felt immersed in it through these stories.

Goodreads | IndieBound | Bookshop | Amazon

Friday, September 11, 2020

#LOHFMovieNights: High Life

Every Friday night in September, we are watching horror movies directed by women.

Tonight at 8 PM EST we are hosting our second #LOHFMovieNights with High Life (2018) Directed by Claire Denis on Amazon Prime Video Watch Party.

Please note: we were originally planning to watch Into the Dark: Culture Shock tonight, but we have learned that Hulu Watch Party only allows 8 people to watch at a time. In order to make sure everyone is included, we will now be watching High Life (2018) on Prime Video.

Oblivion Awaits.

Monte and his baby daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to the outer reaches of the solar system. They must now rely on each other to survive as they hurtle toward the oblivion of a black hole.

Visit us on @lohfiction Twitter 15 minutes before the movie to get the link or DM @ladiesofhorrorfiction on Instagram.

Please note you must have an account on Prime to join in. For more information on using Amazon Prime Watch Party, visit Amazon’s Watch Party page.

We hope to see you tonight!

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

What We're Reading #64

The Ladies of Horror Fiction have a nice mix of recommendations for you this Wednesday! Don’t forget to hit the tag up above to find more excellent books to add to your tbr piles.

Bluebeard’s First Wife by Ha Seong-nan

Disasters, accidents, and deaths abound in Bluebeard’s First Wife. A woman spends a night with her fiancé and his friends, and overhears a terrible secret that has bound them together since high school. A man grows increasingly agitated by the apartment noise made by a young family living upstairs and arouses the suspicion of his own wife when the neighbors meet a string of unlucky incidents. A couple moves into a picture-perfect country house, but when their new dog is stolen, they become obsessed with finding the thief, and in the process, neglect their child. Ha’s paranoia-inducing, heart-quickening stories will have you reconsidering your own neighbors.

Amazon | Goodreads

Audra’s Teaser Review

This is a collection of 11 short stories. Though I’m not sure that Ha Seong-nan’s writing can really be put in a box, I definitely consider her writing horror—my favorite kind of horror that sits quietly on the edge of your bed as you sleep, suffusing your dreams with dark imagery. There aren’t any jump scares or supernatural happenings—it is just a dark world outside, and sometimes it stains you. All of the stories but one focus on female protagonists, and this is clearly where Ha Seong-nan shines. The stories end up being about much more than the plot, offering commentary on women’s roles and society’s expectations of them.

Read Audra’s entire review at Goodreads.

It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

Sam Wakefield’s ancestral home, a decaying mansion built on the edge of a swamp, isn’t a place for children. Its labyrinthine halls, built by her mad ancestors, are filled with echoes of the past: ghosts and memories knotted together as one. In the presence of phantoms, it’s all Sam can do to disentangle past from present in her daily life. But when her pregnant sister Elizabeth moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts. Already navigating her tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth, Sam is even more unsettled by the appearance of a new ghost: a faceless boy who commits disturbing acts—threatening animals, terrorizing other children, and following Sam into the depths of the house wielding a knife. When it becomes clear the boy is connected to a locked, forgotten room, one which is never entered, Sam realizes this ghost is not like the others. This boy brings doom. As Elizabeth’s due date approaches, Sam must unravel the mysteries of Wakefield before her sister brings new life into a house marked by death. But as the faceless boy grows stronger, Sam will learn that some doors should stay closed—and some secrets are safer locked away forever.

Amazon | Goodreads

Alex’s Teaser Review

I do recommend this for fans of ghost stories, haunted houses, and gothic literature. It checks off all the boxes you would expect.

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved. 

Amazon | Goodreads

Emily’s Teaser Review

Tender is the Flesh is WILD. I don’t even know where to start with this one – it’s completely captivating and disturbing, and even though it’s so grim, it’s hard to put down.

Read Emily’s entire review at Goodreads.

Tracy’s Teaser Review

First published in Argentina, translator Sarah Moses did an excellent job in helping prepare this novel for its 2020 English language release. If any book can be called a MUST READ this year, Tender is the Flesh is the one. It is difficult to narrow down a “recommended for” list for this book because it is so wholly unique. Recommended for every reader both in and outside of the genre; there, that works.

Read Tracy’s entire review at Horror DNA.


Thank you for joining us today! We hope you found something to add to your tbr list. Please share your recent reads with us in the comments below.

If you are a LOHF writer and have a book you’d like us to consider for a review please visit our review submission page here.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

September 2020 LOHF New Releases

Each month the Ladies of Horror Fiction team posts all of the books we are aware of that will be releasing during that month. If you are involved in the process of publishing a horror book written by a female author, please reach out to us and let us know so we can help to spotlight the book’s release!

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

The lives of three women weave together across centuries in the dazzling new book from the Granta Best of Young British Novelist and author of All the Birds, Singing

Surging out of the sea, the Bass Rock has always borne witness to the lives that pass under its shadow on the Scottish mainland. And across the centuries, the fates of three women are inextricably linked to this place and to one another.

Sarah, accused of being a witch, is fleeing for her life.

Ruth, in the aftermath of the Second World War, is navigating a new marriage and the strange waters of the local community.

Six decades later, Viv, still mourning the death of her father, is cataloguing Ruth’s belongings in the now-empty house.

As each woman’s story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that their choices are circumscribed, in ways big and small, by the men who seek to control them. But in sisterhood there is also the possibility of survival and a new way of life. Intricately crafted and compulsively readable, The Bass Rock burns bright with love and fury–a devastating indictment of violence against women and an empowering portrait of their resilience through the ages.

Published September 1st 2020 by Pantheon Books | Amazon | Goodreads


The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry

The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry

When people go missing in the sleepy town of Smith’s Hollow, the only clue to their fate comes when a teenager starts having terrifying visions, in a chilling horror novel from national bestselling author Christina Henry.

When the bodies of two girls are found torn apart in the town of Smiths Hollow, Lauren is surprised, but she also expects that the police won’t find the killer. After all, the year before her father’s body was found with his heart missing, and since then everyone has moved on. Even her best friend, Miranda, has become more interested in boys than in spending time at the old ghost tree, the way they used to when they were kids.

So when Lauren has a vision of a monster dragging the remains of the girls through the woods, she knows she can’t just do nothing. Not like the rest of her town. But as she draws closer to answers, she realizes that the foundation of her seemingly normal town might be rotten at the center. And that if nobody else stands for the missing, she will.

Published September 8th 2020 by Berkley Books | Amazon | Goodreads


Ruby by Nina Allan

Ruby by Nina Allan

Ruby tells the story of Ruby Castle told in snapshots and fleeting glimpses and secret histories, in tales repeated and reinvented by those who fall under the horror film actress’s spell: her childhood sweetheart, an antiquarian bookseller with a passion for magical artifacts, the mistress of the poet who was once Castle’s lover, a young girl in a future Russia who dreams of the stars. Worlds collide, and the boundaries between the real and the fantastic begin to break down. Is Ruby Castle a living person or a collective fantasy? By the time the final page of Ruby is turned, the world that Castle created through her films has become dangerously indistinguishable from our own.

Published September 8th 2020 by Titan Books | Amazon | Goodreads


The Sentient by Nadia Afifi

The Sentient by Nadia Afifi

Amira Valdez is a brilliant neuroscientist trying to put her past on a religious compound behind her. But when she’s assigned to a controversial cloning project, her dreams of working in space are placed in jeopardy. Using her talents as a reader of memories, Amira uncovers a conspiracy to stop the creation of the first human clone – at all costs.

As she unravels the mystery, Amira navigates a dangerous world populated by anti-cloning militants, scientists with hidden agendas, and a mysterious New Age movement. In the process, Amira uncovers an even darker secret, one that forces her to confront her own past.

Published September 8th 2020 by Flame Tree Press | Amazon | Goodreads


Shadowy Natures edited by Rebecca Rowland

Shadowy Natures edited by Rebecca Rowland

With its twenty-one stories of serial killers and sociopaths, fixations and fetishes, breakdowns and bad decisions crafted by authors as diverse as their writing styles, Shadowy Natures leads fans of psychological horror down dark and treacherous roads to destinations they will be too unsettled to leave. 

Under the tutelage of a charismatic caretaker, a young boy learns that the rules don’t apply to ‘exceptional’ people; under the blinders of parental love, a parent considers the after-effects of his daughter’s criminal exoneration.

One suburban dad finds himself inexplicably drawn to something he spies while walking the family pet, and another discovers buried compulsions awakened by his daughter’s dental deformity. Sorting through a deceased relative’s belongings, a family stumbles upon a horrific treasure, as a drifter with a dark secret wanders the Old West.

While a military officer spends his days delivering despair, a procrastinator is consumed by guilt after making a deadly mistake, and a businessman stumbles upon a bizarre family photo gallery.

Post-partum paranoia and isolation threaten one mother’s sanity until an outside threat pushes her over the edge while another mother picks at her son’s psychological scabs until he scrambles for release.

Urban blight bears down on a convenience store owner; a middle-aged man takes a terminally ill acquaintance captive to avenge his lover’s death; a depressed suburban housewife makes a strange new friend, and a neglected teen finds solace and inspiration in a vicious classmate’s company.

When her brother moves back into the family home, a woman becomes consumed by what he leaves behind; when a man disappears, his sister considers the warning signs he may have been leaving since childhood. One couple abandons urban life for the isolating wilderness while another plays a dangerous game, hoping to rekindle their relationship.

While one son revisits the scene of his father’s horrific crime spree, another returns home to ponder his family’s well-hidden secret.

From unique twists on traditional terror tropes to fresh frights found in the most innocuous of places, these tales will surprise and unnerve even the most veteran horror fans.

Expected publication: September 10th 2020 by Dark Ink Books | Amazon | Goodreads


Horrid by Katrina Leno

Horrid by Katrina Leno

From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.

Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.

As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all–it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears….

Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more…horrid?

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | Amazon | Goodreads


If Ur Stabby by Kaz Windness

Who’s positively magical and ready for sunshine, giggles, and sliding down rainbows? Not Stabby! Meet the world’s surliest unicorn. This stab-happy unicorn is a fan-favorite character from “Mother Goth Rhymes” (www.mothergothrhymes.com Hermes Press, Halloween 2020) and now he’s getting his own book! “If UR Stabby” follows Stabby as he deals with life’s challenges the only way he knows how―horn first.

Expected publication: September 22nd 2020 by Hermes Press | Amazon


The Orphan of Cemetery Hill by Hester Fox

The Orphan of Cemetery Hill by Hester Fox

The dead won’t bother you if you don’t give them permission.

Boston, 1844.


Tabby has a peculiar gift: she can communicate with the recently departed. It makes her special, but it also makes her dangerous.

As an orphaned child, she fled with her sister, Alice, from their charlatan aunt Bellefonte, who wanted only to exploit Tabby’s gift so she could profit from the recent craze for seances.

Now a young woman and tragically separated from Alice, Tabby works with her adopted father, Eli, the kind caretaker of a large Boston cemetery. When a series of macabre grave robberies begins to plague the city, Tabby is ensnared in a deadly plot by the perpetrators, known only as the “Resurrection Men.”

In the end, Tabby’s gift will either save both her and the cemetery—or bring about her own destruction.

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Graydon House | Amazon | Goodreads


Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality.

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

For readers of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.

Expected publication: September 17th 2020 by Bloomsbury | Amazon | Goodreads


Revelations by Elizabeth Hartl

Revelations by Elizabeth Hartl

Fear is that unpleasant feeling of danger looming, either real or perceived. It could be the monster under the bed. It could be the contents of a graveyard. It could be your neighbor. It could be the people you trust. In this book, fear is: The dark. A vacation. Your neighbors. Your loved ones. Fear can teach us valuable lessons necessary for our survival. Are you ready for yours?

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Millennial Drowning Press | Amazon | Goodreads


Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

After watching her circle of friends seemingly fade away, Lora is determined to still have fun on her own, so when a tea party leads Lora to discovering Alexa, the ghost that haunts her house, they soon become best friends.

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Random House Graphic | Amazon | Goodreads


You Are Invited by Sarah A. Denzil

“There are those who claim the ghosts walking the corridors of Sfântul Mihail are not ghosts at all.”

During a midnight journey snaking through the Carpathian Mountains, these are the words whispered to Cath Fenwick. It is the warning she will later wish she’d taken more seriously.

When Cath receives her invitation to The Event–a monetised retreat for social media influencers–she can’t believe her luck. Irene Jobert is the most famous influencer in the world, and now Cath will be one of the five participants chosen to stay with Irene in a renovated Transylvanian monastery.

The catch? Their every move will be live-streamed to millions of people around the world. Patrons pay for constant access to their favourite social media stars: Irene, the model, Nathan, the gamer, Jules, the blogger, Daniel, the fitness guru and Cath, the writer. Nestled halfway up a mountain, surrounded by forests teeming with nature, the five are isolated, with nothing but the internet to connect them to the world. That is, until eagle-eyed live-stream followers all around the globe notice a sixth participant. A dark figure lurking in the background. Who–or what–is in the monastery with them?

Wolves roam the nearby forests. Shadows haunt the long corridors of Sfântul Mihail. Slowly, five lonely people begin to lose their minds. You are invited to The Event.

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 | Amazon | Goodreads


Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

Nina LaCour delivers another emotional knockout with Watch Over Me, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the Printz Award-winning We Are Okay.

Mila is used to being alone. Maybe that’s why she said yes to the opportunity: living in this remote place, among the flowers and the fog and the crash of waves far below.

But she hadn’t known about the ghosts.

Newly graduated from high school, Mila has aged out of the foster care system. So when she’s offered a job and a place to stay at a farm on an isolated part of the Northern California Coast, she immediately accepts. Maybe she will finally find a new home, a real home. The farm is a refuge, but also haunted by the past traumas its young residents have come to escape. And Mila’s own terrible memories are starting to rise to the surface.

Watch Over Me is another stunner from Printz Award-Winning author Nina LaCour, whose empathetic, lyrical prose is at the heart of this modern ghost story of resilience and rebirth.

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Dutton Books for Young Readers | Amazon | Goodreads


Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

Nina LaCour delivers another emotional knockout with Watch Over Me, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the Printz Award-winning We Are Okay.

Mila is used to being alone. Maybe that’s why she said yes to the opportunity: living in this remote place, among the flowers and the fog and the crash of waves far below.

But she hadn’t known about the ghosts.

Newly graduated from high school, Mila has aged out of the foster care system. So when she’s offered a job and a place to stay at a farm on an isolated part of the Northern California Coast, she immediately accepts. Maybe she will finally find a new home, a real home. The farm is a refuge, but also haunted by the past traumas its young residents have come to escape. And Mila’s own terrible memories are starting to rise to the surface.

Watch Over Me is another stunner from Printz Award-Winning author Nina LaCour, whose empathetic, lyrical prose is at the heart of this modern ghost story of resilience and rebirth.

Expected publication: September 15th 2020 by Dutton Books for Young Readers | Amazon | Goodreads


Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre edited by Alison Peirse

Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre edited by Alison Peirse

“But women were never out there making horror films, that’s why they are not written about – you can’t include what doesn’t exist.”
“There are really, very few women horror filmmakers working today, that’s why so few are coming up.”
“Women are just not that interested in making horror films.”
“How can you be a woman and be a fan of horror?”

 
This is what you get when you are a woman working in horror, whether as a writer, academic, festival programmer or filmmaker. These assumptions are based on decades of flawed scholarly, critical and industrial thinking about the genre. Women Make Horror sets right these misconceptions. Women have always been making horror, they have always been an audience for the genre, and today, as this book reveals, women academics, critics and filmmakers alike remain committed to a film genre that offers almost unlimited opportunities for exploring and deconstructing social and cultural constructions of gender, femininity, sexuality and the body.
 
Women Make Horror is the first book-length study of women filmmakers in horror film, the first all-women edited book on horror film, and the first book to call out the male-bias in written histories of horror and then to illuminate precisely how, and where, these histories are lacking. It re-evaluates existing literature on the history of horror film, on women practitioners in the film industry and approaches to undertaking film industries research. It establishes new approaches for studying women practitioners and illuminates their unexamined contribution to the formation and evolution of the horror genre. The book focuses on women directors and screenwriters but also acknowledges the importance of women producers, editors and cinematographers. It explores narrative and experimental cinema, short, anthology and feature-filmmaking, and offers case studies of North American, Latin American, European, East Asian and Australian filmmakers, films and festivals.
 
Women Make Horror is designed to not only engage and inspire dialogue between the academy, filmmakers, industry gatekeepers, festival programmers and horror film fans. With this book we can transform how we think about women filmmakers and genre.

Expected publication: September 17th 2020 by Rutgers University Press | Amazon | Goodreads


Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances by Lisa Morton

Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances by Lisa Morton

Calling the Spirits investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer’s Odyssey to the emergence of Spiritualism, when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by “spirit rappings;” Daniel Dunglas Home, the “greatest medium of all time;” Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the afterlife; and Helen Duncan, the medium whose trial in 1944 for witchcraft proved more popular to the public than news about the war. The book also considers Ouija boards, modern psychics and paranormal investigations, and is illustrated with engravings, fine art (from beyond), and photographs. A hugely entertaining contribution from the supernaturally adept Lisa Morton, Calling the Spirits begs the question: is anybody there . . . ?

Expected publication: September 26th 2020 by Reaktion Books | Amazon | Goodreads


Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

A smart, imaginative, and evocative novel of love, betrayal, revenge, and redemption, told with razor-sharp wit and affection, in which a young woman discovers the greatest superpower—for good or ill—is a properly executed spreadsheet.

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?
As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured. And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing. And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics.

Expected publication: September 22nd 2020 by HarperCollins | Amazon | Goodreads


The Low, Low Woods (Hill House Comics #3) by Carmen Maria Machado

The Low, Low Woods (Hill House Comics #3) by Carmen Maria Machado

When your memories are stolen, what would you give to remember? Follow El and Vee as they search for answers to the questions everyone else forgot.

Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, is plagued by a mysterious illness that eats away at the memories of those affected by it. El and Octavia are two best friends who find themselves the newest victims of this disease after waking up in a movie theater with no memory of the past few hours.

As El and Vee dive deeper into the mystery behind their lost memories, they realize the stories of their town hold more dark truth than they could’ve imagined. It’s up to El and Vee to keep their town from falling apart…to keep the world safe from Shudder-to-Think’s monsters.

Collects issues # 1-6.

Expected publication: September 29th 2020 by DC Black Label | Amazon | Goodreads


The Night She Fell by Jennifer Soucy

The Night She Fell by Jennifer Soucy

Falling in love or falling into darkness? For some, it’s the same journey.


Coralena del Prado wishes to become a witch like her mama, but her ancestral magic still hasn’t activated. She fears she’ll be stuck forever as Mama’s assistant at Cornucopia, their Mediterranean cafe located in Greenwich, the home of Connecticut’s elite. But all that changes when a mysterious man from their past returns, sparking more than Cori’s late-blooming magic.

Hayden Colburn, Greenwich’s elusive bachelor prince, fled his life of privilege to become a restaurateur in nearby New York City. He’s everything Cori wants and, after one brilliant night, she’s ready to surrender. Until Mama shares a secret about the Colburns which shatters their peaceful home and Cori’s dreams of love.

Evil lurks beneath Greenwich, spawned by the Colburns and their powerful friends. Mama begs her to stay away, but Cori can’t ignore their crimes. She plans a sneak attack, armed with only her temperamental magic—a power made volatile by her conflicting emotions for Hayden, a man she’s sworn to hate who stubbornly fights to win her heart.

Cori vows to destroy her mother’s enemies. She’ll weaponize her magic even if the act shatters every natural law, a sacrilege which might damn her soul. But none of that matters if it means saving her beloved mother from a pack of humans more wicked than any mythological monster.

Expected publication: September 22nd 2020 | Goodreads


The Sadness of Spirits: Stories by Aimee Pogson

The Sadness of Spirits: Stories by Aimee Pogson

What power does misery play in daily life?

In this sorrowful yet intriguing collection of stories, Aimee Pogson explores journeys of suffering through magical realism. A preschool teacher contends with the stream of salmon that keep appearing on her windowsill, in her closet, tucked in her shoes. An invisible boy swallows nails, buttons, and tree bark in a misguided attempt to grow stronger. Spirits cling to a Ouija board, restlessly hoping that someone will remove it from the closet and ask them a question. A young girl who has an existential crisis burns her Barbie dolls at the stake. And a short, dancing man manipulates the melody of molecules in an attempt to bring his loved ones back to life.

While sadness weighs heavy in The Sadness of Spirits, Pogson’s writing provokes strong emotions, leaving the reader with hope and admiration as the characters are awakened to the nuance and possibility melancholy can bring.

Expected publication: September 22nd 2020 by Indiana University Press | Amazon | Goodreads


White Fox by Sara Faring

White Fox by Sara Faring

After their world-famous actor mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Manon and Thaïs left their remote Mediterranean island home—sent away by their pharma-tech tycoon father. Opposites in every way, the sisters drifted apart in their grief. Yet their mother’s unfinished story still haunts them both, and they can’t put to rest the possibility that she is still alive.

Lured home a decade later, Manon and Thaïs discover their mother’s legendary last work, long thought lost: White Fox, a screenplay filled with enigmatic metaphors. The clues in this dark fairytale draw them deep into the island’s surreal society, into the twisted secrets hidden by their glittering family, to reveal the truth about their mother—and themselves.

Expected publication: September 22nd 2020 by Imprint | Amazon | Goodreads


Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women by Lee Murray

Almond-eyed celestial, the filial daughter, the perfect wife. Quiet, submissive, demure. In Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Southeast Asian writers of horror both embrace and reject these traditional roles in a unique collection of stories which dissect their experiences of ‘otherness’, be it in the colour of their skin, the angle of their cheekbones, the things they dare to write, or the places they have made for themselves in the world.

Black Cranes is a dark and intimate exploration of what it is to be a perpetual outsider.

Featuring 14 stories by Nadia Bulkin, Grace Chan, Rin Chupeco, Elaine Cuyegkeng, Geneve Flynn, Gabriela Lee, Rena Mason, Lee Murray, Angela Yuriko Smith, and Christina Sng, and a foreword by Alma Katstu.

Expected publication: September 26th 2020 by Omnium Gatherum | Amazon | Goodreads


The Nesting by C.J. Cooke

The Nesting by C.J. Cooke

The woods are creeping in on a nanny and two young girls in this chilling modern Gothic thriller.

Architect Tom Faraday is determined to finish the high-concept, environmentally friendly home he’s building in Norway–in the same place where he lost his wife, Aurelia, to suicide. It was their dream house, and he wants to honor her with it.

Lexi Ellis takes a job as his nanny and immediately falls in love with his two young daughters, especially Gaia. But something feels off in the isolated house nestled in the forest along the fjord. Lexi sees mysterious muddy footprints inside the home. Aurelia’s diary appears in Lexi’s room one day. And Gaia keeps telling her about seeing the terrifying Sad Lady. . . .

Soon Lexi suspects that Aurelia didn’t kill herself and that they are all in danger from something far more sinister lurking around them.

Expected publication: September 29th 2020 by Berkley Books | Amazon | Goodreads


Have we missed any September 2020 LOHF titles you are excited about? Let us know in the comments!

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