Thursday, March 31, 2022

March 2022: Monthly Recap

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team celebrated Women in Horror Month in March with an #LOHFReadathon, #LOHFReadalong, and more which you can check out below!


News and Announcements

March 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.

April 2022 Readalong Selection
For the April #LOHFReadalong, the members of the Ladies of Horror Fiction discord group selected The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris.


Reviews

What We’ve Been Reading #122

What We’ve Been Reading #123

What We’ve Been Reading #124

What We’ve Been Reading #125

What We’ve Been Reading #126


Special Topics

YA/MG Horror Spotlight March 2022
Check out the books that were released in March as well as what YA/MG our team read and reviewed.


Jen is one of our LOHF admins. Jen manages the technical side of the Ladies of Horror Fiction website. She also keeps a spotlight on middle grade and young adult horror each month.

You can also find Jen on her blog Book Den, Twitter as @bookden, Instagram as @bookdenjen, on Goodreads, and Letterboxd.

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

What We've Been Reading #126

Today we have three very different recommended reads for your tbr pile! Our recommendations include books by Mallory O’Meara, L.C. Barlow and Eve Harms. We hope you find something you’ll love!

Please click either tag above to read more team recommendations.


The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara

The Lady from the Black Lagoon uncovers the life and work of Milicent Patrick—one of Disney’s first female animators and the only woman in history to create one of Hollywood’s classic movie monsters.

As a teenager, Mallory O’Meara was thrilled to discover that one of her favorite movies, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, featured a monster designed by a woman, Milicent Patrick. But for someone who should have been hailed as a pioneer in the genre there was little information available. For, as O’Meara soon discovered, Patrick’s contribution had been claimed by a jealous male colleague, her career had been cut short and she soon after had disappeared from film history. No one even knew if she was still alive.

As a young woman working in the horror film industry, O’Meara set out to right the wrong, and in the process discovered the full, fascinating story of an ambitious, artistic woman ahead of her time. Patrick’s contribution to special effects proved to be just the latest chapter in a remarkable, unconventional life, from her youth growing up in the shadow of Hearst Castle, to her career as one of Disney’s first female animators. And at last, O’Meara discovered what really had happened to Patrick after The Creature’s success, and where she went.

A true-life detective story and a celebration of a forgotten feminist trailblazer, Mallory O’Meara’s The Lady from the Black Lagoon establishes Patrick in her rightful place in film history while calling out a Hollywood culture where little has changed since.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Audra’s Teaser Review

 I hope that this book will inspire girls and women who are interested in all aspects of horror film, whether it be special effects or directing or anything in between.

Read Audra’s entire review at Goodreads.


Perish by L.C.Barlow

Jack Harper is a dangerous woman, capable of death and resurrection. Raised and utilized by Cyrus, the leader of a mystical religion, she was once a fearless and brilliant weapon against all who blasphemed. Now, having destroyed Cyrus, Jack is free to be more.

While starting anew, Jack begins receiving letters from children trapped in Infinitum who beg for rescue, and she soon discovers that Cyrus’s cult is alive and thriving, with tendrils branching across the world. One of these tendrils leads Jack to Patrick, a man who speaks of a contraption that “bleaches anything white.” Yet another tendril stretches beyond death, where the Builder and Jack’s brother, Alex, reside. Jack must now seek to permanently destroy the following she once escaped by fixing her sights on a higher target―the infamous demonic Builder, who once supplied Cyrus with overwhelming power.

Potential aid arrives from an unusual source when Jack encounters Jonathon Roth and his kill-for-hire outfit. Combined, they hope to become an unstoppable force, but only the future will tell. Jack may be falling into her old acolyte ways, and Roth may have found in Jack the very thing that made Cyrus so powerful―his own magical being.

Goodreads | Amazon

Alex’s Teaser Review

We get loads of horror and paranormal action with elements of dark fantasy and fun from cover to cover.

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.


Transmuted by Eve Harms

Her doctor is giving her the body of his dreams… and her nightmares. Isa is a micro-celebrity who rarely shows her face, and can’t wait to have it expertly ripped off and rearranged to look more feminine. When a successful fundraiser makes her gender affirming surgery possible, she’s overjoyed—until she has to give up all her money to save her dying father.

Crushed by gender dysphoria and the pressure of disappointing her fans who paid for a new face, she answers a sketchy ad seeking transgender women for a free, experimental feminization treatment. The grotesquely flawless Dr. Skurm has gruesome methods, but he gets unbelievable results, and Isa is finally feeling comfortable in her skin. She even gains the courage to ask out her crush: an alluring and disfigured alchemy-obsessed artist named Rayna.

But Isa’s body won’t stop changing, and she’s going from super model to super mutant. She has to discover the secret behind her metamorphosis—before the changes are irreversible, and she’s an unwanted freak forever.

Transmuted is an outrageous and unapologetically queer body horror tale that will leave you gasping, giggling, and gagging for more.

Book 30 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.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Tracy’s Teaser Review

Transmuted contains a mixture of sinister and bizarre happenings to create a truly unique reading experience. Readers will feel anger and hope for Isa, all while being captivated by the strange turn of events they won’t be able to look away from. Eve Harms has crafted a novella that both entertains and provokes thought; be sure to check this one out.

Read Tracy’s entire review at Sci-fi & Scary.

Alex’s Teaser Review

What a fantastic novella! This is the first I’ve read from Eve Harms and will certainly not be the last. TRANSMUTED is fast-paced and has a spunky and quirky gamer main character, Isa, just trying to be her authentic self. 

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.


Laurie is one of our LOHF Admins. Laurie creates our review posts, coordinates review requests, oversees the Ladies of Horror Fiction directory, and manages our LOHF Goodreads group.

You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads.

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

YA/MG Horror Spotlight March 2022

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 March as well as what our team has been reading and reviewing.

Young Adult New Releases

Gallant by V. E. Schwab

Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source.

Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home—to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways.

Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from.

Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?

Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by Greenwillow Books Goodreads | Bookshop

A Night to Die For by Lisa Schroeder

The Night Of meets Carrie when a boy finds a girl’s body in the ditch on prom night…and becomes the primary suspect in her murder.

All Mario wants is one normal night before he graduates. He’s spent most of high school riding solo and gaming with his only friend, Lucas. But when his mom asks him to take Elana Dexter to the prom as a favor to her father, his mother’s boss, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner.

Only, the night takes a turn quickly. First, Mario gets crowned Prom King alongside the school’s it-girl, Maribelle Starr. Which is weird enough. But what’s weirder is that when they put the crown on his head, hundreds of worms slither out of it and all over Mario. Just when Mario thought the night couldn’t get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving Elana home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr—murdered and left for dead.

All Mario wanted was to go to prom…but somehow, he ended up in hell.

Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by Underlined Goodreads | Bookshop

The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux

Perfect for fans of The Hazel Wood, this genre-bending page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux follows two girls who transport themselves into the world of their favorite book only to encounter the sinister alternate reality that awaits them.

No matter how different best friends Adelle and Connie are, one thing they’ve always had in common is their love of a little-known gothic romance novel called Moira. So when the girls are tempted by a mysterious stranger to enter the world of the book, they hardly suspect it will work. But suddenly they are in the world of Moira, living among characters they’ve obsessed about for years.

Except…all is not how they remembered it. The world has been turned upside down: The lavish balls and star-crossed love affairs are now interlaced with unspeakable horrors. The girls realize that something dark is lurking behind their foray into fiction—and they will have to rewrite their own arcs if they hope to escape this nightmare with their lives.

Expected publication: March 8th 2022 by HarperTeen Goodreads | Bookshop

I Am Margaret Moore by Hannah Capin

Hannah Capin’s I Am Margaret Moore is a paranormal thriller that tests the hold of sisterhood and truth.

I am a girl. I am a monster, too.

Each summer the girls of Deck Five come back to Marshall Naval School. They sail on jewel-blue waters; they march on green drill-fields; they earn sunburns and honors. They push until they break apart and heal again, stronger.

Each summer Margaret and Rose and Flor and Nisreen come back to the place where they are girls, safe away from the world: sisters bound by something more than blood.

But this summer everything has changed. Girls are missing and a boy is dead. It’s because of Margaret Moore, the boys say. It’s because of what happened that night in the storm.

Margaret’s friends vanish one by one, swallowed up into the lies she has told about what happened between her and a boy with the world at his feet. Can she unravel the secrets of this summer and last, or will she be pulled under by the place she once called home?

Expected publication: March 15th 2022 by Wednesday Books Goodreads | Bookshop

What We Harvest by Ann Fraistat

For fans of Wilder Girls comes a nightmarish debut guaranteed to keep you up through the night, about an idyllic small town poisoned by its past, and one girl who must fight the strange disease that’s slowly claiming everyone she loves.

Wren owes everything she has to her home, Hollow’s End, a centuries-old, picture perfect American town. Tourists travel miles to marvel at its miracle crops, including the shimmering, iridescent wheat of Wren’s family farm. Until five months ago.

That’s when the quicksilver mercury blight first surfaced, poisoning the farms of Hollow’s End one by one. It began by consuming the crops–thick, silver sludge bleeding from the earth. Next were the animals. Infected livestock and wild creatures alike staggered off into the woods by day—only to return at night, their eyes, fogged white, leering from the trees.

Then, the blight came for the neighbors.

Wren is among the last locals standing. And the blight has finally come for her, too. Now, the only one she can turn to is the last person she wants to call: her ex, Derek. They haven’t spoken in months, but Wren and Derek still have one thing in common—Hollow’s End means everything to them. Only there’s much they don’t know about their hometown and its renowned miracle crops. And they’re about to discover that miracles aren’t free.

Their ancestors have an awful lot to pay for, and Wren and Derek are the only ones left to settle old debts.

Expected publication: March 22nd 2022 by Delacorte Goodreads | Bookshop

My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham

WILDER GIRLS meets THE CRAFT in this Sapphic horror debut that asks: What price would you be willing to pay to achieve your deepest desires?

Finch Chamberlin is the newest transfer student to the ultra-competitive Ulalume Academy… but she’s also not what she seems. Months before school started, Finch and her parents got into an accident that should have left her dead at the bottom of a river. But something monstrous, and ancient, and terrifying, wouldn’t let her drown. Finch doesn’t know why she woke up after her heart stopped, but since dying she’s felt a constant pull from the school and the surrounding town of Rainwater, like something on the island is calling to her.

Selena St. Clair sees right through Finch, and she knows something is seriously wrong with her. But despite Selena’s suspicion, she feels drawn to Finch and has a sinking feeling that from now on the two will be inexplicably linked to one another.

One night Finch, Selena, and her friends accidentally summon a carnivorous creature of immense power in the depths of the school. It promises to grant every desire the girls have kept locked away in their insecure hearts―beauty, power, adoration―in exchange for a price: human body parts. But as the cost of their wanting becomes more deadly, Finch and Selena must learn to work together to stop the horror they unleashed, before it consumes the entire island. 

Expected publication: March 29th 2022 by Sourcebooks Fire Goodreads | Bookshop

Middle Grade New Releases

Field Guide to the Supernatural Universe by Alyson Noël

Stranger Things meets Sideways Stories from Wayside School in this quirky supernatural middle grade novel from New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël about a boy on an unlikely quest to uncover an enchanted book to defeat an unearthly nemesis.

When he first started seeing ghosts, Max mistakenly assumed everyone else could see them, too. Now, after years of being blamed for the pranks of mischievous spirits, Max is determined to do whatever it takes to make himself normal. But when he’s sent to spend the summer with his eccentric grandfather, Ramhart, being normal becomes impossible.

Here in Glimmerville, bakeries sell enchanted pies, the lake is infested with mermaids, the town’s beloved ghosts roam free, and Ramhart himself is celebrated as the world’s most famous monster hunter. At first, all Max wants is to survive the summer, but the more time he spends in Glimmerville, the more he starts to wonder if he’s finally found a place where he can truly be himself.

But when a supernatural attack steals Ramhart’s soul, Max—with the help of a few new friends—must go on a quest to find his grandfather’s renowned Field Guide, an enchanted book that contains all the knowledge Ramhart has gathered about defeating unearthly nemeses. And if they don’t find the book fast, Glimmerville will crumble into chaos, and Max will lose the only person who’s ever made him feel at home.

Expected publication: March 22nd 2022 by Margaret K. McElderry Books Goodreads | Bookshop

Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick

The brand new must-read middle-grade novel from the author of super-spooky Crater Lake. Perfect for 9+ fans of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps.

It’s basically the worst school detention ever. When classmates (but not mate-mates) Hallie, Angelo, Gustav and Naira are forced to come to school on a SATURDAY, they think things can’t get much worse. But they’re wrong. Things are about to get seriously scary.

What has dragged their teacher underground? Why do the creepy caretakers keeping humming the tune to Itsy Bitsy Spider? And what horrors lurk in the shadows, getting stronger and meaner every minute . . .? Cut off from help and in danger each time they touch the ground, the gang’s only hope is to work together. But it’s no coincidence that they’re all there on detention. Someone has been watching and plotting and is out for revenge . . .

Expected publication: March 31st 2022 by Farshore Goodreads | Bookshop

Young Adult Books Reviewed

This month I (Jen) read and loved Girl in the Walls by Katy Michelle Quinn. Be sure to check out my review of Girl in the Walls (“Girl in the Walls is short (novella length) and is a coming-of-age, discovering-your-true-self story. It’s heartbreaking but it’s also wonderful.“)

Middle Grade Books Reviewed

This month Kathy read an reviewed Escape to Witch City by E. Latimer. Check out her review of Escape to Witch City (“Latimer’s book is a fun read that I enjoyed, and middle grade readers will love it.“)

Kathy also read and loved The Collectors by Lorien Lawrence. Don’t miss her review of The Collectors (“I highly recommend this book and series. I look forward to the third book.“)


Jen is one of our LOHF admins. Jen manages the technical side of the Ladies of Horror Fiction website. She also keeps a spotlight on middle grade and young adult horror each month.

You can also find Jen on her blog Book Den, Twitter as @bookden, Instagram as @bookdenjen, on Goodreads, and Letterboxd.

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

What We've Been Reading #125

Today our team members are sharing three recommended reads by Chloe N. Clark, Sylvia Plath and Carmen Maria Machado. We hope you find something you’ll love!

Please click either tag above to read more team recommendations.


Escaping the Body poems by Chloe N.Clark

Chloe N. Clark’s poetry collection takes readers through a catalog of the speculative body. Escaping the Body is a surreal and profound journey through space, forests, monsters, myths, spells, magic tricks, forests, and the body. Escaping the Body is a collection of dreams of the flesh, exploring the cosmic rifts between the soul and the body, encouraging readers to escape their body in search of the liminal space beyond skin and bones.

Goodreads | Amazon

Cassie’s Teaser Review

This is my first read by the author, but I’m excited to look into more – I really liked it! It’s a darker poetry collection, which is my favorite. I love the emotions in here, the words perfectly conveying everything from hurt to anger to apathy.

Read Cassie’s entire review at Goodreads.


Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath

Never before published, this newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life.

Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey.

Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt” these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom.

“But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.”

Sylvia Plath’s strange, dark tale of female agency and independence, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Audra’s Teaser Review

It’s pretty amazing to think that Plath originally wrote this story when she was just 20—it shows her raw talent and and pure storytelling power. I wish we could have gotten more fiction work from her.

Read Audra’s entire review at Goodreads.


In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

For years Carmen Maria Machado has struggled to articulate her experiences in an abusive same-sex relationship. In this extraordinarily candid and radically inventive memoir, Machado tackles a dark and difficult subject with wit, inventiveness and an inquiring spirit, as she uses a series of narrative tropes—including classic horror themes—to create an entirely unique piece of work which is destined to become an instant classic.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Alex’s Teaser Review

ALL. THE. STARS. Wow! Carmen Maria Machado bares all in this memoir, IN THE DREAM HOUSE. It is smart. It is clever. It is raw. It is brilliant! Exploring queer domestic abuse on the most personal level, Machado shares her painful experiences with us but does so in such a way that can leave readers empowered and setup to be, quite simply said, better people.

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.


Laurie is one of our LOHF Admins. Laurie creates our review posts, coordinates review requests, oversees the Ladies of Horror Fiction directory, and manages our LOHF Goodreads group.

You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads.

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

What We've Been Reading #124

Today our team recommends books by Angela Sylvaine, Kinitra D. Brooks and Muriel Spark. Take a look and add a book or three to your tbr pile!

Please click the tags above to find more team recommendations.


Chopping Spree by Angela Sylvaine

Eden Hills, Minnesota is famous for one thing—its ’80s inspired Fashion Mall. When high school junior, Penny, lands a job at one of its trendy stores, she notices her teen coworkers all wear a strange symbol they won’t explain. Suspicious but wanting to belong, she agrees to stay after closing for a party in the closed store. Her fun turns to terror when Penny discovers a mortally wounded boy and learns there is a killer loose in the mall. Soon the teens are running for their lives.

Will Penny discover the truth behind the mall cabal and survive to slay another day, or will she fall victim to the galleria of gore?

Book 27 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.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Alex’s Teaser Review

CHOPPING SPREE by Angela Sylvaine is a fast-paced, culty slasher novella wrapped up in the nostalgia of an 80s inspired fashion mall.

Read Alex’s entire review at Goodreads.

Laurie’s Teaser Review

This was a fun murderous romp set in a mall where a young lady stays late for an after-hours party and discovers A LOT.

Read Laurie’s entire review at Goodreads.


Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror by Kinitra D. Brooks

Searching for Sycorax highlights the unique position of Black women in horror as both characters and creators. Kinitra D. Brooks creates a racially gendered critical analysis of African diasporic women, challenging the horror genre’s historic themes and interrogating forms of literature that have often been ignored by Black feminist theory.

Brooks examines the works of women across the African diaspora, from Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica, to England and the United States, looking at new and canonized horror texts by Nalo Hopkinson, NK Jemisin, Gloria Naylor, and Chesya Burke. These Black women fiction writers take advantage of horror’s ability to highlight U.S. white dominant cultural anxieties by using Africana folklore to revise horror’s semiotics within their own imaginary.

Ultimately, Brooks compares the legacy of Shakespeare’s Sycorax (of The Tempest) to Black women writers themselves, who, deprived of mainstream access to self-articulation, nevertheless influence the trajectory of horror criticism by forcing the genre to de-centralize whiteness and maleness.  

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Tracy’s Teaser Review

Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror is just what this reader was looking for. Means’ book, Horror Noire, has since been adapted to a documentary (available on Shudder), and this book is an excellent companion piece for those looking for a new angle or a deeper dive into this topic of Black horror creators. Recommended for horror scholars and fans alike.

Read Tracy’s entire review at Sci-fi & Scary.


Ghost Stories by Muriel Spark

I aim to startle as well as please,” Muriel Spark has said, and in these eight marvelous ghost stories she manages to do both to the highest degree. As with all matters in the hands of Dame Muriel her spooks are entirely original. A ghost in her pantheon can be plaintive or a bit vengeful, or perhaps may not even be aware of being a ghost at all. One in fact is the ghost of a man who isn’t even dead yet. Another takes the bus home from work, believing she is still alive, though she is haunted by an odious tune stuck in her head (which her murderer had been relentlessly humming), and distressed by a “feeling of incompletion.” And a reflective ghost recalls her mortal days of enjoying “the glory of the world, as if it would never pass. Spark has a flair for confiding ghosts: “I must explain that I departed this life nearly five years ago. But I did not altogether depart this world. There were those odd things still to be done which one’s executors can never do properly.” In her case the odd things include cheerily hailing her murderer, “Hallo George!” and driving him mad. The remarkably nonchalant stories here include some of her most wicked and famous”The Seraph and the Zambesi,” “The Hanging Judge,” and “The Portobello Road”and they all gleam with that special Spark sheen, the quality The Times Literary Supplement has hailed as “gloriously witty and polished.”

Goodreads | Amazon

Audra’s Teaser Review

I was reminded of Shirley Jackson’s short stories, as Spark also has the talent of mixing scary with comedy. Just a true mastery of tone that you don’t often find with modern writers.

Read Audra’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.


Laurie is one of our LOHF Admins. Laurie creates our review posts, coordinates review requests, oversees the Ladies of Horror Fiction directory, and manages our LOHF Goodreads group.

You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

April 2022 Readalong Selection

For the April #LOHFReadalong, the members of the Ladies of Horror Fiction discord group selected The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris.

Get Out meets The Stepford Wives in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.

Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.

It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career.

A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.

The readalong begins April 1, and discussions will take place throughout the month of April. You must be a member of the Ladies of Horror Fiction discord group to participate. Everyone is welcome to join!

Check in and let us know you are joining us.

If you have any questions, please let us know. We look forward to reading with you!

📸 Featured Photo by Tracy


Jen is one of our LOHF admins. Jen manages the technical side of the Ladies of Horror Fiction website. She also keeps a spotlight on middle grade and young adult horror each month.

You can also find Jen on her blog Book Den, Twitter as @bookden, Instagram as @bookdenjen, on Goodreads, and Letterboxd.

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

What We've Been Reading #123

Today we have three great reading recommendations for you because we know you need more books!

Please click either tag above to find more books worth reading.


When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder.

But now Mira is back in Kipsen to attend Celine’s wedding at the plantation, which has been transformed into a lush vacation resort. Mira hopes to reconnect with her friends, and especially, Jesse, to finally tell him the truth about her feelings and the events of that devastating long-ago day.

But for all its fancy renovations, the Woodsman remains a monument to its oppressive racist history. The bar serves antebellum drinks, entertainments include horrifying reenactments, and the service staff is nearly all black. Yet the darkest elements of the plantation’s past have been carefully erased—rumors that slaves were tortured mercilessly and that ghosts roam the lands, seeking vengeance on the descendants of those who tormented them, which includes most of the wedding guests.

As the weekend unfolds, Mira, Jesse, and Celine are forced to acknowledge their history together, and to save themselves from what is to come.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Audra’s Teaser Review

McQueen adds a new twist on the idea of a modern southern Gothic, blending the horrors of the past and present along with ghosts that physically manifest and ones that we let haunt our minds.

Read Audra’s entire review at Goodreads.

Tracy’s Teaser Review

One of the best parts of experiencing an author’s debut novel is the the thrill of discovery. Whether the book turns out to be an amazing experience or not, witnessing the work and the mind of someone new is an event. In the case of When the Reckoning Comes, by LaTanya McQueen, readers needn’t worry. Supernatural horror and the very real horrors of racism and prejudice are joined with a real talent for storytelling sure to engage readers.

Read Tracy’s entire review at Sci-Fi & Scary.

Cassie’s Teaser Review

Horror has always been a genre where true grief and trauma can be explored through ghosts and other metaphors, and I think social commentary in the horror genre specifically is so important when it’s used with intention and care. This had some really tough moments to read, but it was so well done – applause to the author for such a compelling story!

Read Cassie’s entire review at Goodreads.

Jen’s Teaser Review

When the Reckoning Comes is atmospheric and chilling. I mention this often, but when it comes to horror, ghost stories are my favorite.

Read Jen’s entire review at Book Den.


Children of Demeter by EV Knight

In 1973, a commune of almost twenty-five people—mostly women and children—disappeared overnight from the small town of West Burma, WI. What happened to the hippie Children of Demeter has remained a mystery until this day, which is what draws Sarah Bisset, a sociologist on sabbatical, to the place.

With her personal life in ruins Sarah is more than happy to lose herself in the secrets of the isolated farmhouse, but soon those revelations have her questioning her own identity, and even her sanity. Is she prepared to navigate the labyrinth of lies and cover ups to expose the truth concealed inside Demeter House despite the consequences?

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Laurie’s Teaser Review

The Children of Demeter is unsettling, weird and mysterious and wild and all those great things that’ll keep you reading and it’s just the right amount of disorientating. Do yourself a kindness and forget this messed up world for a few hours by spending some time with this book!

Read Laurie’s entire review at Goodreads.


Telecommuting by L. Marie Wood

Working from home has its perks, being able to attend meetings in your pajamas chief among them. But when the house you occupy all day is empty – when the only voice you hear after work comes through television speakers, it can get a little old.

Unless you like it that way.

And Chris did like it that way

… until the whispering started.

Telecommuting is a modern psychological horror story set in what could be your town, your street, your house. The lyrical slow burn is subtle; the terror in this tale sneaks up on you before you know it.

Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop

Alex’s Teaser Review

TELECOMMUTING by L. Marie Wood is a contemporary psychological horror story focusing on one who is trying to find his place in the world again amidst a lot of changes and begins to work from home. Wood captures a lot of the feelings and emotions about working from home that a lot of people truly don’t realize.

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.


Laurie is one of our LOHF Admins. Laurie creates our review posts, coordinates review requests, oversees the Ladies of Horror Fiction directory, and manages our LOHF Goodreads group.

You can find Laurie on her blog Bark’s Book Nonsense, on Twitter as @barksbooks, on Instagram as @barksbooks, and on Goodreads.

Thursday, March 3, 2022

March New Releases

Each month the Ladies of Horror Fiction team posts all the books we are aware of that will be releasing during that month here and on our Bookshop.org page. You can also check out the releases for the whole year here. If you buy books through our Bookshop.org links below or from our page, we get a percentage of the sale, which helps our volunteer team continue our efforts to promote LOHF!

Please let us know if we missed any new releases so we can add them to our lists!


Gallant by V. E. Schwab

Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source.

Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home—to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways.

Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from.

Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?

Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by Greenwillow Books Goodreads | Bookshop


A Night to Die For by Lisa Schroeder

The Night Of meets Carrie when a boy finds a girl’s body in the ditch on prom night…and becomes the primary suspect in her murder.

All Mario wants is one normal night before he graduates. He’s spent most of high school riding solo and gaming with his only friend, Lucas. But when his mom asks him to take Elana Dexter to the prom as a favor to her father, his mother’s boss, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner.

Only, the night takes a turn quickly. First, Mario gets crowned Prom King alongside the school’s it-girl, Maribelle Starr. Which is weird enough. But what’s weirder is that when they put the crown on his head, hundreds of worms slither out of it and all over Mario. Just when Mario thought the night couldn’t get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving Elana home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr—murdered and left for dead.

All Mario wanted was to go to prom…but somehow, he ended up in hell.

Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by Underlined Goodreads | Bookshop


Our Eyes at Night (The Last Ghost #3) by M. Dressler

A spellbinding novel of the hunter and the hunted, defiance and survival, for fans of Jennifer McMahon and Simone St. James.

In a climate-ravaged town in the remote Utah desert, a house remodels itself, a cemetery is rearranged, and an ancient valley is suddenly haunted by a glimmering visitor. Called in to “clean” the unwanted dead, ghost hunter Philip Pratt finds himself in territory at once familiar and unfamiliar, stalking the spirit of Emma Rose Finnis, a one-hundred-year-old phantom who has never let his own spirit rest.

Yet Emma has come to this blazing desert for her own reasons–to see just how far a ghost can go in a changing world. And if a living man bars her path, she must find a way through him, even if it means risking her heart and soul. Joined by other ghosts of the West, both old and new, she will make her stand for the unexpected chance at love and home, far from the cold ocean grave where she began.

A boldly imaginative tale of loss, hope, and danger by the award-winning author of the Last Ghost series, Our Eyes at Night is a journey through a stunning landscape of inescapable consequences, for both the living and the dead.

Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by Arcade Goodreads | Bookshop


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The Quarter Storm by Veronica G. Henry

A practitioner of Vodou must test the boundaries of her powers to solve a ritual murder in New Orleans and protect everything she holds sacred.

Haitian-American Vodou priestess Mambo Reina Dumond runs a healing practice from her New Orleans home. Gifted with water magic since she was a child, Reina is devoted to the benevolent traditions of her ancestors.

After a ritual slaying in the French Quarter, police arrest a fellow vodouisant. Detective Roman Frost, Reina’s ex-boyfriend—a fierce nonbeliever—is eager to tie the crime, and half a dozen others, to the Vodou practitioners of New Orleans. Reina resolves to find the real killer and defend the Vodou practice and customs, but the motives behind the murder are deeper and darker than she imagines.

As Reina delves into the city’s shadows, she untangles more than just the truth behind a devious crime. It’s a conspiracy. As a killer wields dangerous magic to thwart Reina’s investigation, she must tap into the strength of her own power and faith to solve a mystery that threatens to destroy her entire way of life.

Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by 47North Goodreads | Bookshop


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Sundial by Catriona Ward

Sundial is a twisty psychological horror novel perfect for fans of The Push and Girl A, from Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street.

All Rob ever wanted was a normal life.

Nothing like her childhood, growing up in the lonely, wild Mojave Desert on her family’s ranch, Sundial. Surrounded by dogs, coyotes, and research assistants.

For a while, it seemed like Rob got her wish: A husband, two daughters, the white picket fence, and margaritas with the neighbors. But when a frightening accident in her home reveals a disturbing secret in her oldest daughter’s bedroom, Rob knows her luck has run out. What’s buried out at Sundial could never stay a secret forever, and Rob must risk one last trip out there to protect her family’s future.

Expected publication: March 1st 2022 by Tor Nightfire Goodreads | Bookshop


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Escaping the Body: Poems by Chloe N. Clark

Chloe N. Clark’s poetry collection takes readers through a catalog of the speculative body. Escaping the Body is a surreal and profound journey through space, forests, monsters, myths, spells, magic tricks, forests, and the body. Escaping the Body is a collection of dreams of the flesh, exploring the cosmic rifts between the soul and the body, encouraging readers to escape their body in search of the liminal space beyond skin and bones.

Expected publication: March 7th 2022 by Interstellar Flight Press Goodreads | Amazon


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The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux

Perfect for fans of The Hazel Wood, this genre-bending page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux follows two girls who transport themselves into the world of their favorite book only to encounter the sinister alternate reality that awaits them.

No matter how different best friends Adelle and Connie are, one thing they’ve always had in common is their love of a little-known gothic romance novel called Moira. So when the girls are tempted by a mysterious stranger to enter the world of the book, they hardly suspect it will work. But suddenly they are in the world of Moira, living among characters they’ve obsessed about for years.

Except…all is not how they remembered it. The world has been turned upside down: The lavish balls and star-crossed love affairs are now interlaced with unspeakable horrors. The girls realize that something dark is lurking behind their foray into fiction—and they will have to rewrite their own arcs if they hope to escape this nightmare with their lives.

Expected publication: March 8th 2022 by HarperTeen Goodreads | Bookshop


The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton

The Girls meets Fight Club in this coming-of-age novel about queer desire, religious zealotry, and the hunger for transcendence among the devoted members of a cultic chapel choir in a prestigious Maine boarding school—and the obsessively ambitious, terrifyingly charismatic girl that rules over them.

When shy, sensitive Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by Byronic “prep school prophet” (and St. Dunstan’s alum) Sebastian Webster, who died at nineteen, fighting in the Spanish Civil War. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by the charismatic, neurotic, overachiever Virginia Strauss. Virginia is as fanatical about her newfound Christian faith as she is about the miles she runs every morning before dawn. She expects nothing short of perfection from herself—and from the members of the choir.

Virginia inducts the besotted Laura into a world of transcendent music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits: a world that, like Webster’s novels, finally seems to Laura to be full of meaning. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go.

The World Cannot Give is a shocking meditation on the power, and danger, of wanting more from the world.

Expected publication: March 8th 2022 by Simon Schuster Goodreads | Bookshop


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The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect–a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion.

Oregon, 2017Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases–a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea’s surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth’s mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she’s not looking, and she could swear she’s seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn’t right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?

Expected publication: March 15th 2022 by Berkley Goodreads | Bookshop


I Am Margaret Moore by Hannah Capin

Hannah Capin’s I Am Margaret Moore is a paranormal thriller that tests the hold of sisterhood and truth.

I am a girl. I am a monster, too.

Each summer the girls of Deck Five come back to Marshall Naval School. They sail on jewel-blue waters; they march on green drill-fields; they earn sunburns and honors. They push until they break apart and heal again, stronger.

Each summer Margaret and Rose and Flor and Nisreen come back to the place where they are girls, safe away from the world: sisters bound by something more than blood.

But this summer everything has changed. Girls are missing and a boy is dead. It’s because of Margaret Moore, the boys say. It’s because of what happened that night in the storm.

Margaret’s friends vanish one by one, swallowed up into the lies she has told about what happened between her and a boy with the world at his feet. Can she unravel the secrets of this summer and last, or will she be pulled under by the place she once called home?

Expected publication: March 15th 2022 by Wednesday Books Goodreads | Bookshop


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The Ravenous Dead (Gravekeepers #2) by Darcy Coates

He’ll never let go…

Keira, hired as Blighty Graveyard’s new groundskeeper, lives surrounded by the dead. They watch her through the fog. They wordlessly cry out. They’ve been desperately waiting for help moving on—and only Keira can hear them. But not every restless spirit wants to be saved.

Sometimes the dead hate the living too much to find peace.

As Keira struggles to uncover the tangled histories of some of the graveyard’s oldest denizens, danger seeps from the darkest edges of the forest. A vicious serial killer was interred among the trees decades before, his spirit twisted by his violent nature. He’s furious. Ravenous. And when Keira unwittingly answers his call, she may just seal her fate as his final intended victim.

Expected publication: March 15th 2022 by Black Owl Books Goodreads | Bookshop


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Roost by Hope Madden

Every spring in small town Ohio, kids get a touch more daylight, wander a little farther from the front porch, and spend a bit more time off on their own, exploring.

One such spring, the Murphy twins were considered an Easter miracle. And now, almost 18 years later – Easter week, 1988 – the girls approach their birthday, and busybodies around town get a little anxious. Every time their birthday falls on Easter Sunday, bad things seem to happen, and the neighbors have noticed.

A babysitter goes missing. The little girl up the road meets a bad end. Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe living in a town dropped smack in the middle of farmland – with miles of corn in every direction – makes people feel isolated from the outside. Folks start to see evil where it isn’t.

Or maybe this year, the devil’s come home to roost.

Expected publication: March 15th by Off Limits Press Goodreads | Amazon


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Palimpsest: A Collection of Comtemporary Horror by Caitlin Marceau

From one of Canada’s hottest young talents comes this stellar collection of contemporary horror stories and poetry. Caitlin Marceau’s work ranges from the quietly unnerving to the deeply disturbing, taking in post-apocalyptic futures, supernatural forces, psychological terrors and deals with the devil. One thing’s for certain: these stories will linger in your mind for long after you’ve read them.

Expected publication: March 16th by Ghost Orchid Press Goodreads | Bookshop


All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

Something deadly and mysterious stalks the members of an isolated polar expedition in this haunting and spellbinding historical horror novel, perfect for fans of Dan Simmons’ The Terror and Alma Katsu’s The Hunger.

In the wake of the First World War, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Antarctic expedition, determined to find his rightful place in the world of men. Aboard the expeditionary ship of his hero, the world-famous explorer James “Australis” Randall, Jonathan may live as his true self—and true gender—and have the adventures he has always been denied. But not all is smooth sailing: the war casts its long shadow over them all, and grief, guilt, and mistrust skulk among the explorers.

When disaster strikes in Antarctica’s frozen Weddell Sea, the men must take to the land and overwinter somewhere which immediately seems both eerie and wrong; a place not marked on any of their part-drawn mapsof the vast white continent. Now completely isolated, Randall’s expedition has no ability to contact the outside world. And no one is coming to rescue them.

In the freezing darkness of the Polar night, where the aurora creeps across the sky, something terrible has been waiting to lure them out into its deadly landscape…

As the harsh Antarctic winter descends, this supernatural force will prey on their deepest desires and deepest fears to pick them off one by one. It is up to Jonathan to overcome his own ghosts before he and the expedition are utterly destroyed.

Expected publication: March 29th 2022 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books Goodreads | Bookshop


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The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller

Charm is a witch, and she is alone. The last of a line of conquered necromantic workers, now confined within the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House, and the secrets of their marrow.

Charm is a prisoner, and a survivor. Charm tends the trees and their clattering fruit for the sake of her children, painstakingly grown and regrown with its fruit: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain.

Charm is a whore, and a madam. The wealthy and powerful of Borenguard come to her house to buy time with the girls who aren’t real.

Except on Tuesdays, which is when the Emperor himself lays claim to his mistress, Charm herself.

Now—Charm is also the only person who can keep an empire together, as the Emperor summons her to his deathbed, and charges her with choosing which of his awful, faithless sons will carry on the empire—by discovering which one is responsible for his own murder.

If she does this last thing, she will finally have what has been denied her since the fall of Inshil—her freedom. But she will also be betraying the ghosts past and present that live on within her heart.

Charm must choose. Her dead Emperor’s will or the whispers of her own ghosts. Justice for the empire or her own revenge.

Expected publication: March 22nd 2022 by Tor Books Goodreads | Bookshop


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Field Guide to the Supernatural Universe by Alyson Noël

Stranger Things meets Sideways Stories from Wayside School in this quirky supernatural middle grade novel from New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël about a boy on an unlikely quest to uncover an enchanted book to defeat an unearthly nemesis.

When he first started seeing ghosts, Max mistakenly assumed everyone else could see them, too. Now, after years of being blamed for the pranks of mischievous spirits, Max is determined to do whatever it takes to make himself normal. But when he’s sent to spend the summer with his eccentric grandfather, Ramhart, being normal becomes impossible.

Here in Glimmerville, bakeries sell enchanted pies, the lake is infested with mermaids, the town’s beloved ghosts roam free, and Ramhart himself is celebrated as the world’s most famous monster hunter. At first, all Max wants is to survive the summer, but the more time he spends in Glimmerville, the more he starts to wonder if he’s finally found a place where he can truly be himself.

But when a supernatural attack steals Ramhart’s soul, Max—with the help of a few new friends—must go on a quest to find his grandfather’s renowned Field Guide, an enchanted book that contains all the knowledge Ramhart has gathered about defeating unearthly nemeses. And if they don’t find the book fast, Glimmerville will crumble into chaos, and Max will lose the only person who’s ever made him feel at home.

Expected publication: March 22nd 2022 by Margaret K. McElderry Books Goodreads | Bookshop


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What We Harvest by Ann Fraistat

For fans of Wilder Girls comes a nightmarish debut guaranteed to keep you up through the night, about an idyllic small town poisoned by its past, and one girl who must fight the strange disease that’s slowly claiming everyone she loves.

Wren owes everything she has to her home, Hollow’s End, a centuries-old, picture perfect American town. Tourists travel miles to marvel at its miracle crops, including the shimmering, iridescent wheat of Wren’s family farm. Until five months ago.

That’s when the quicksilver mercury blight first surfaced, poisoning the farms of Hollow’s End one by one. It began by consuming the crops–thick, silver sludge bleeding from the earth. Next were the animals. Infected livestock and wild creatures alike staggered off into the woods by day—only to return at night, their eyes, fogged white, leering from the trees.

Then, the blight came for the neighbors.

Wren is among the last locals standing. And the blight has finally come for her, too. Now, the only one she can turn to is the last person she wants to call: her ex, Derek. They haven’t spoken in months, but Wren and Derek still have one thing in common—Hollow’s End means everything to them. Only there’s much they don’t know about their hometown and its renowned miracle crops. And they’re about to discover that miracles aren’t free.

Their ancestors have an awful lot to pay for, and Wren and Derek are the only ones left to settle old debts.

Expected publication: March 22nd 2022 by Delacorte Goodreads | Bookshop


Happiness and Other Diseases by Sumiko Saulson

Flynn Keahi has had a rough year. His nightmares are starting to manifest in reality, but no one believes him. Terrifying creatures are trying to cross out of dreams into the physical realm. Only Flynn can stop them – but doing so might cost him his life. Complicating matters further, one of these creatures cannot help wanting him — in every forbidden way. Will she be able to save him from his fate? Can she even protect him from herself?

Expected publication: March 25th by Mocha Memoirs Press Mocha Memoirs Press


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Below by Laurel Hightower

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO HELP A STRANGER?

While driving through the mountains of West Virginia during a late-night snowstorm, a recently divorced woman experiences bizarre electrical problems, leaving her with little choice but to place her trust with a charismatic truck driver. But when an unexplainable creature with haunting red eyes gets between them, she is forced to make one of the toughest decisions of her life. Will she abandon the stranger who kept her safe—or will she climb down below, where reality has shapeshifted into a living nightmare?

Expected publication: March 29th 2022 by Ghoulish Books Goodreads | Bookshop


Monarch by Candice Wuehle

The cryptic worlds of Hanna and Stranger Things mingle with the dark humor of Dare Me in this debut novel about a teen beauty queen who discovers she’s been a sleeper agent in a deep state government program, and whose love for a fellow pageant girl sparks an underworld journey to the truth of her being.

After waking up with a strange taste in her mouth and mysterious bruises, former child beauty queen Jessica Clink unwittingly begins an investigation into a nefarious deep state underworld. Equipped with the eccentric education of her father, Dr. Clink (a professor of Boredom Studies and the founder of an elite study group on idleness, affect, and crime known as “The Devil’s Workshop”), Jessica uncovers a disquieting connection between her former life as a pageant queen and an offshoot of Project MKUltra known as MONARCH.

As Jessica moves closer to the truth, she begins to suspect the involvement of everyone around her, including her own mother, Grethe (a beauty queen turned spokesperson for a Norwegian cryochamber device built to halt the aging process for suburban housewives). With the help of Christine (a black-lipsticked riot grrrl babysitter and confidante), Jessica sets out to take down Project MONARCH and the operatives who programmed her. More importantly, she must discover if her first love, fellow teen queen Veronica Marshall, was genuine or yet another deep state plant.

Iconic true crime stories of the ’90s (Lorena Bobbitt, Nicole Brown Simpson, and JonBenét Ramsey) merge with Jessica’s own past, triggering traumatic revelations and the radical potential of feminist vengeance. Drawing on theories of human consciousness, folklore, and a perennial cultural fixation with dead girls, Monarch questions the shadow sides of self-concept: Who are you if you don’t know yourself?

Expected publication: March 29th 2022 by Soft Skull Goodreads | Bookshop


My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham

WILDER GIRLS meets THE CRAFT in this Sapphic horror debut that asks: What price would you be willing to pay to achieve your deepest desires?

Finch Chamberlin is the newest transfer student to the ultra-competitive Ulalume Academy… but she’s also not what she seems. Months before school started, Finch and her parents got into an accident that should have left her dead at the bottom of a river. But something monstrous, and ancient, and terrifying, wouldn’t let her drown. Finch doesn’t know why she woke up after her heart stopped, but since dying she’s felt a constant pull from the school and the surrounding town of Rainwater, like something on the island is calling to her.

Selena St. Clair sees right through Finch, and she knows something is seriously wrong with her. But despite Selena’s suspicion, she feels drawn to Finch and has a sinking feeling that from now on the two will be inexplicably linked to one another.

One night Finch, Selena, and her friends accidentally summon a carnivorous creature of immense power in the depths of the school. It promises to grant every desire the girls have kept locked away in their insecure hearts―beauty, power, adoration―in exchange for a price: human body parts. But as the cost of their wanting becomes more deadly, Finch and Selena must learn to work together to stop the horror they unleashed, before it consumes the entire island. 

Expected publication: March 29th 2022 by Sourcebooks Fire Goodreads | Bookshop


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The Resting Place by Camilla Sten

A spine-chilling, propulsive psychological suspense from international sensation Camilla Sten.

The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.

When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer—a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, her anxiety mounts. The dark feelings of having brushed by a killer, yet not know who could do this—or if they’d be back—overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.

Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house—a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a dark past for over fifty years.

Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to bringing the truth to light, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.

A heart-thumping, relentless thriller that will shake you to your core, The Resting Place is an unforgettable novel of horror and suspense.

Expected publication: March 29th 2022 by Minotaur Books Goodreads | Bookshop


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Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick

The brand new must-read middle-grade novel from the author of super-spooky Crater Lake. Perfect for 9+ fans of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps.

It’s basically the worst school detention ever. When classmates (but not mate-mates) Hallie, Angelo, Gustav and Naira are forced to come to school on a SATURDAY, they think things can’t get much worse. But they’re wrong. Things are about to get seriously scary.

What has dragged their teacher underground? Why do the creepy caretakers keeping humming the tune to Itsy Bitsy Spider? And what horrors lurk in the shadows, getting stronger and meaner every minute . . .? Cut off from help and in danger each time they touch the ground, the gang’s only hope is to work together. But it’s no coincidence that they’re all there on detention. Someone has been watching and plotting and is out for revenge . . .

Expected publication: March 31st 2022 by Farshore Goodreads | Bookshop


Audra

Audra and her horror hound, Ouija, help manage the Ladies of Horror Fiction Instagram page. When not ghost hunting or rollerskating, she also contributes articles and helps maintain the website.

You can find Audra on Instagram as @ouija.reads, Twitter as @audraudraudra, and Goodreads.

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