Thursday, June 30, 2022

2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team would like to congratulate all of the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award recipients. Please join us in celebrating these amazing authors and their outstanding works of horror fiction.

Best Young Adult

Winner: Bad Witch Burning, Jessica Lewis

Also nominated:

The Dead and the Dark, Courtney Gould
White Smoke, Tiffany D Jackson
Our Last Echoes, Kate Alice Marshall
Girl in the Walls, Katy Michelle Quinn

Best Middle Grade

Winner: The Collectors, Lorien Lawrence

Also nominated:

The Dollhouse, Charis Cotter
Ghost Girl, Ally Malinenko
Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, Kaela Rivera
Root Magic, Eden Royce

Best Novella

Winner: Goddess of Filth, V. Castro

Also nominated:

Transmuted, Eve Harms
& This Is How to Stay Alive, Shingai Njeri Kagunda
Waif, Samantha Kolesnik
Salvation Spring, T.C. Parker

Best Short Fiction

Winner: “Sister Glitter Blood”, Gwendoyln Kiste

Also nominated:

“A Cold Grip,” Christi Nogle (Boneyard Soup)
“The Sharps,” Sonora Taylor (Someone to Share My Nightmares: Stories)
“Eating Bitterness,” Hannah Yang (The Dark Issue 74)
“Syringe,” Isabel Yap (Never Have I Ever)
“First Harvest,” April Yates (Blood & Bone: An Anthology of Body Horror by Women and Non-Binary Writers)

Best Poetry

Winner: Strange Nests, Jessica McHugh

Also nominated:

Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken., Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, Christina Sng, & Geneve Flynn
Exposed Nerves, Lucy A. Snyder
The Smallest of Bones, Holly Walrath
Monstrum Poetica, Jezzy Wolfe

Best Collection

Winners: Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, Hailey Piper and Never Have I Ever, Isabel Yap

Also nominated:

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories, Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell (Translator)
Sometimes We’re Cruel, and Other Stories, J.A.W. McCarthy
The Ghost Sequences, A.C. Wise
SEEDS, Tabatha Wood

Best Debut

Winner: The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris

Also nominated:

When the Reckoning Comes, LaTanya McQueen
Queen of Teeth, Hailey Piper
The Forest, Lisa Quigley
Tidepool, Nicole Willson

Best Novel

Winner: Cackle, Rachel Harrison

Also nominated:

The Queen of the Cicadas, V. Castro
Good Neighbors, Sarah Langan
The Burning Girls, C.J. Tudor
The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Novel

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Novel.


Cackle by Rachel Harrison

All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She’s stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is dreamy too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.

Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem…a little afraid of her. And like, okay. There are some things. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power…but she couldn’t be…could she?

Published October 5th 2021 by Berkley Books | Goodreads | Bookshop

Congratulations to Rachel Harrison and the 2021 nominees for Best Novel:

The Queen of the Cicadas, V. Castro
Good Neighbors, Sarah Langan
The Burning Girls, C.J. Tudor
The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward


We will post the full winners list tomorrow, but you can check out all of the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards nominees and winners posts here!

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Debut

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Debut.


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.

Published June 1st 2021 by Atria Books | Goodreads | Bookshop

Congratulations to Zakiya Dalila Harris and the 2021 nominees for Best Debut:

When the Reckoning Comes, LaTanya McQueen
Queen of Teeth, Hailey Piper
The Forest, Lisa Quigley
Tidepool, Nicole Willson


Stay tuned as we continue to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

Monday, June 27, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Collection

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Collection. When this team was faced with a tie and the decision between having a tie-break or two winners, we went with two winners, of course!





Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap

“Am I dead?” Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask. Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, “A Spell for Foolish Hearts” to the terrifying tension of the urban legend “Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez.”

Published February 9th 2021 by Small Beer Press | Goodreads | Bookshop

Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy by Hailey Piper

Love twisted into horrific shapes, nightmares driven by cruel music, and a world where what little light remains fractures the sky into midnight rainbows in eighteen stories tracing the dark veins of queer horror, isolation, and the monstrous feminine.

The universe unwinds to the tune of a malicious ice cream truck jingle in “We All Scream.” “The Law of Conservation of Death” dictates that a ghost pursue his prey across her every reincarnation. Superstitions thrive even in the distant future and across the stars when a colony shuttle mounts a witch trial in “Hairy Jack.” And try to “Forgive the Adoring Beast” as it scavenges a world of dead gods for tokens of bloody affection. Including two new short stories and a never-before-published novelette, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy digs deep inside and clings to the beating nightmare heart you always knew was there.

Published May 7th 2021 by The Seventh Terrace | Goodreads | Bookshop

Congratulations to Isabel Yap, Hailey Piper, and the 2021 nominees for Best Collection:

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories, Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell (Translator)
Sometimes We’re Cruel, and Other Stories, J.A.W. McCarthy
The Ghost Sequences, A.C. Wise
SEEDS, Tabatha Wood


Stay tuned as we continue to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

Friday, June 24, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Poetry

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Poetry.



Strange Nests by Jessica McHugh

…the secret of dying arrived scrawny. it’s growing stronger & fatter though & whispers, “go mad.”

Beyond ancient gates, among thorny overgrowth and carnivorous blooms, a raven called Death waits tirelessly for its chance to roost within us. Using scraps of love, remorse, anger, and pain, it weaves. With erasure, memory, and discovery, it binds. And from the garden of wounds that grows within our broken hearts, it builds Strange Nests.

In the follow-up to her Bram Stoker and Elgin Award nominated collection, A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh uses poetry, design, and illustration to unearth the horrific, consumptive, and transformative nature of grief from the pages of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, The Secret Garden.

Published August 18th 2021 by Apokrupha | Goodreads | Bookshop

Congratulations to Jessica McHugh and the 2021 nominees for Best Poetry:

Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken., Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, Christina Sng, & Geneve Flynn
Exposed Nerves, Lucy A. Snyder
The Smallest of Bones, Holly Walrath
Monstrum Poetica, Jezzy Wolfe


Stay tuned as we continue to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

Thursday, June 23, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Short Fiction

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Short Fiction.

“Sister Glitter Blood” by Gwendoyln Kiste

“Sister Glitter Blood” by Gwendoyln Kiste appeared in Violent Vixens: An Homage to Grindhouse Horror edited by Aric Sundquist | Published August 2nd 2021 by Dark Peninsula Press | Goodreads | Dark Peninsula Press


Congratulations to Gwendoyln Kiste and the 2021 nominees for Best Short Fiction:

“A Cold Grip,” Christi Nogle (Boneyard Soup)
“The Sharps,” Sonora Taylor (Someone to Share My Nightmares: Stories)
“Eating Bitterness,” Hannah Yang (The Dark Issue 74)
“Syringe,” Isabel Yap (Never Have I Ever)
“First Harvest,” April Yates (Blood & Bone: An Anthology of Body Horror by Women and Non-Binary Writers)


Stay tuned as we continue to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Novella

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Novella.


Goddess of Filth by V. Castro

“Five of us sat in a circle doing our best to emulate the girls in The Craft, hoping to unleash some power to take us all away from our home to the place of our dreams. But we weren’t witches. We were five Chicanas living in San Antonio, Texas, one year out of high school.”

One hot summer night, best friends Lourdes, Fernanda, Ana, Perla, and Pauline hold a séance. It’s all fun and games at first, but their tipsy laughter turns to terror when the flames burn straight through their prayer candles and Fernanda starts crawling toward her friends and chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors.

Over the next few weeks, shy, modest Fernanda starts acting strangely—smearing herself in black makeup, shredding her hands on rose thorns, sucking sin out of the mouths of the guilty. The local priest is convinced it’s a demon, but Lourdes begins to suspect it’s something else—something far more ancient and powerful.

As Father Moreno’s obsession with Fernanda grows, Lourdes enlists the help of her “bruja Craft crew” and a professor, Dr. Camacho, to understand what is happening to her friend in this unholy tale of possession-gone-right.

Published March 30th 2021 by Creature Publishing | Goodreads | Bookshop

Congratulations to V. Castro and the 2021 nominees for Best Novella:

Transmuted, Eve Harms
& This Is How to Stay Alive, Shingai Njeri Kagunda
Waif, Samantha Kolesnik
Salvation Spring, T.C. Parker


Stay tuned as we continue to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Middle Grade

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Middle Grade.


The Collectors by Lorien Lawrence

The Ladies in White want you to join their family—forever. . .

After defeating the Oldies, Quinn and Mike thought that things would settle down on Goodie Lane. But then new neighbors move in. Maybe it’s because they all work at the interior design firm, but Abigail, Eleanor, Jade, Brea, and Cami seem to always be together, dressed in only white.

After everything that happened last summer, Quinn’s a bit wary of the Ladies in White, but her friend Lex is thrilled that someone in town finally has some style. But when Lex starts volunteering at the Ladies’ design firm, things get strange. Lex is acting less like herself, and Quinn begins seeing strange shadows lurking in their neighborhood. She knows the Ladies are to blame; she just has to prove it.

Twisty and haunting, The Collectors is the second book in the Fright Watch series, which SLJ called “Perfect for fans of Goosebumps and Stranger Things” and Booklist called “Reminiscent of R. L. Stine’s Fear Street . . . [Fright Watch] can be counted on to deliver chills.”

Published August 31, 2021 by Amulet Books | Goodreads | Bookshop

Congratulations to Lorien Lawrence and the 2021 nominees for Best Middle Grade:

The Dollhouse, Charis Cotter
Ghost Girl, Ally Malinenko
Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, Kaela Rivera
Root Magic, Eden Royce


Stay tuned as we continue to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

Monday, June 20, 2022

LOHF Award for Best Young Adult

The Ladies of Horror Fiction team is pleased to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Young Adult.



Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

For fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes a witchy story full of black girl magic as one girl’s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.

Katrell doesn’t mind talking to the dead; she just wishes it made more money. Clients pay her to talk to their deceased loved ones, but it isn’t enough to support her unemployed mother and Mom’s deadbeat boyfriend-of-the-week. Things get worse, when a ghost warns her to stop the summonings or she’ll “burn everything down.” Katrell is willing to call them on their bluff, though. She has no choice. What do ghosts know about eating peanut butter for dinner?

However, when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go.

But magic doesn’t come for free, and soon dark forces are closing in on Katrell. The further she goes, the more she risks the lives of not only herself, but those she loves. Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it’s too late.

Published August 24, 2021 by Delacorte | Goodreads | Bookshop

Congratulations to Jessica Lewis and the 2021 nominees for Best Young Adult:

The Dead and the Dark, Courtney Gould
White Smoke, Tiffany D Jackson
Our Last Echoes, Kate Alice Marshall
Girl in the Walls, Katy Michelle Quinn


Stay tuned as we continue to announce the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards!

Friday, June 17, 2022

2021 Readers' Choice

It’s time for the Readers’ Choice results. We decided to implement this for the first time in order to give the wider horror community the opportunity to highlight their favorite read published in 2021 by an LOHF author. As this was our first try, we kept it very simple and asked for only ONE vote; an impossible task, we know. To our delight, the responses were varied and wonderful. This, however, means that we decided to highlight more than just one. 

The top 10 Readers’ Choice (in alphabetical order): 

“Become a Flute, Become a Spy Glass, Become a Knife” by Elou Carroll; Grimm & Dread: a Crow’s Twist on Classic Tales from Quill & Crow Publishing House, December 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

Earthly Bodies by Susan Earlam; Speleorex Press, April 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

Till We Become Monsters by Amanda Headlee; Woodhall Press, June 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

The Night Library of Sternendach: A Vampire Opera in Verse by Jessica Lévai; Lanternfish Press, April 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis; Delacorte, August 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

The Sound of Breaking Glass by Christine Makepeace; Son of the Land Press, October 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

“A Study in Ugliness” by Hache Pueyo; The Dark Issue 71, April 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

​​Lady of the House by Grace R. Reynolds; Curious Corvid Publishing, December 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

Within Me, Without Me: A Book of Dark Poetry and Prose by Sumiko Saulson; Dooky Press, October 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward; Tor Nightfire September 2021 | Goodreads | Bookshop


Thank you to all who participated. We hope everyone checks out these wonderful selections!

Thursday, June 16, 2022

Teresa Visits the 1st Ever Ghoulish Festival!

Ghoulish Festival 2022 by Teresa Ardrey

When Max Booth III announced his idea to do a festival dedicated to the love of all things horror, I was interested and excited. I hadn’t been to a convention since 2019 and Ghoulish was the first one that I thought might be worth trying to venture out into the public after being in lock down for so long. I still struggled with going, though. It would be the first trip I have made that didn’t involve being at a friend’s or family member’s house. But, then the list of special guests, vendors, and panelists was announced and I knew it was going to be a festival for the ages. And I signed up; it helped knowing that I would get to be a part of the inaugural Ghoulish Festival. I wanted to be able to say I was there in the beginning and to support this endeavor, so that it could continue happening.

I had not actually been to a convention dedicated solely to horror before; the conventions I have attended have been general pop culture. Ghoulish set the bar high for what a horror festival could be. The panels were diverse and interesting!  They were about the love of horror in all forms, and not strictly about craft or how to break into the genre. But, with panels with titles like “Horror Cartoons of Our Youth” “Cryptids!” “Small Town Horror” and “Urban Legends” there was a large range of panels to interest any horror fan. And the conversations among the panelists were interesting and insightful. Everyone was given a chance to talk, and the moderators did a great job of engaging the audience and the panelists. Trust me, I have attended a vast number of panels in my time of going to conventions, and it is hard to have an entire weekend of excellent panels. Ghoulish succeeded. Along with the panels, there were live readings which were also diverse and interesting. Some were funny, some were terrifying, and every emotion in between, but they all varied, and showed such talent!  I love attending author readings, even authors I don’t know because they could be my new favorite author that I just haven’t discovered yet. Many authors I had not known before, but now I am a certified fan. Other authors I have been following on Twitter for awhile, and was ecstatic to meet in person and cheer them on from the audience. (And, if you end up listening to the panels when Max posts them to his Ghoulish podcast, or watching the readings on the Ghoulish YouTube page, you can probably hear me laughing from the audience). 

Since it was the first year, attendance was small. As a fan, I thought this was great; I really got to talk with and interact with creators and other fans (and the creators were also fans of the genre, so it was just one big happy, smiling, glorious weekend).  It was intimate and special, and truly, I could not stop smiling throughout the entire weekend.  And I made some really excellent friends; we bonded over our love of horror.. As a data head/logistics nerd, I worried that attendance wouldn’t be enough to keep the festival going in future years. But, after the weekend ended, and the amount of enthusiasm shown, I think it is going to be a success for years to come. I hope so, certainly. And I haven’t even mentioned the bookstore!  What a dream. I bought so many books! I am glad I drove because I would have had to pack a suitcase just for my book purchases. 

I thought my face may break in half from grinning and laughing all weekend long. It was just such a great atmosphere; everyone was just so happy to be there. It really was a festival, a celebration, rather than just a convention. Max Booth III and Lori Michelle did an amazing job.  I am really looking forward to next year. And the rumors are true, The Annual Ghoulish Book Festival Spooky Campfire Storyteller’s Horror Storytelling Contest ™ AKA TAGBFSCSHSC, was a highlight of the festival, and every story told was a masterpiece. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention the venue, Hermann Sons Home Association Building, was the perfect setting for a spooky weekend of horror delights.  

But enough about me; I asked some of the Ladies of Horror Fiction who attended the festival a few questions and they were gracious enough to take the time to answer them!  And I know this is really why we are all here. I would like to thank each of these authors for their time! 

Without further ado, I present Eve Harms, Laurel Hightower, RJ Joseph, and Jessica Leonard. If you haven’t checked their stuff out yet, what are you waiting for?!

Eve Harms

What made you decide to attend/table at Ghoulish?

Max and Lori are some of the most passionate and hardworking folks in the genre and I’ve always been a fan of the work they do with their press PMMPublishing. I felt confident they’d put together something special, and wanted to support their endeavor. And after so many years of isolation and getting to know everyone online, it was time to meet my friends in the horror community in person. When the festival was announced, I asked my friend Lucas Mangum if he’d be interested in sharing a table, and we made it happen!

If you did a panel, did you get to pick which panels you were on, and did you feel like the panels were a good representation of the genre?

Max sent out an email with the panel topics and asked if I was interested in any of them, and then graciously accepted my request to be on the DIY Horror panel. I didn’t get a chance to see the other panels as I was at my booth, but they sounded pretty cool! I’m definitely going to give them a listen on the Ghoulish podcast when I get a chance. 

Favorite moment?

Meeting everyone! The horror community is such a warm and welcoming group of people, and you can really feel the good energy in person. The festival overall was fantastic, a ton of awesome writers and a ton of readers who wanted to buy books!

Is there anything you will do differently next year, if you are able to attend (and, of course, they are able to host again)?

I would love to attend next year, and it’s looking like it’s going to happen. Hopefully I’ll have more titles to sell and have a  chance to make better signs. I’ll also probably spend a little more time away from my table to get to meet new people and see some of the readings and panels. 

If you want to talk about your work, upcoming or already out, please do!

Thank you so much! I recently re-relaunched my books and zine store! You can find it here: Eve’s Books and Zines

Transmuted by Eve Harms

Laurel Hightower

What made you decide to attend/table at Ghoulish? 

When Max and Lori announced it last summer I was interested, because I’m all about getting more accessible horror cons, plus it’s PMMP so you know it’ll be fun. Having published BELOW with their new Ghoulish imprint sealed the deal, and it helped that so many folks I wanted to see were coming!

If you did a panel, did you get to pick which panels you were on, and did you feel like the panels were a good representation of the genre?

I did three panels, and we all got to name our preferences, similar to other cons I’ve been to. It’s fun, too, when you get a panel you’re not knowledgeable about, because it’s not about creating a lecture to students, it’s a discussion, and having a range of folks at the table sparks great conversation. One of the coolest contributions to the Cryptids panel I was on was from Johnny Compton’s partner in the audience!

I felt like the panels were a great cross section of con- specific horror subjects – in particular the DIY horror panel was immensely informative and fun. 

Favorite moment?

Hands down the campfire storytelling competition Saturday night. All three participants kicked ass and really put work into creating the fun, campfire atmosphere. 

Is there anything you will do differently next year, if you are able to attend (and, of course, they are able to host again)?

I’d plan to stay Sunday night as well so as not to be rushed and spend time exploring the city – also bring more books to sell because WOW. The foot traffic was incredible and people were there to buy. 

If you want to talk about your work, upcoming or already out, please do!

BELOW came out March 29th, it’s my take on Mothman and I’d love if you checked it out! I also just put out SHATTERED & SPLINTERED with James Sabata, a charity anthology benefiting the Glen Haven Area Volunteer Fire Dept. We have some amazing stories in there, and the cover is gorgeous!

Below

Shattered and Splintered

RJ Joseph

What made you decide to attend/table at Ghoulish?

We have so few literary events here in Texas, especially ones that are horror focused. When I saw the announcement, I made sure to get in from the beginning. Then all the cool people started showing up on the roster and at the tables. . . YAY! I knew I’d made a good decision. Early, for a change. Also, I’ve long admired Max’s writing and the work he and Lori do with Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. I figured any festival they organized would be something I’d enjoy being a part of. I wasn’t wrong. 

If you did a panel, did you get to pick which panels you were on, and did you feel like the panels were a good representation of the genre?

I did get to pick the panels I wanted to participate in, and I especially loved the offered topics of childhood cartoons, cryptids, and fake monsters. All the panels offered light hearted vehicles for talking about the horror genre in ways we don’t always view it: as something fun many of us have engaged in since childhood. Every conference/festival has a vibe and Ghoulish Festival has already established itself as a much needed entertaining venue where no one person within, or the horror genre as a whole, takes themselves too seriously to enjoy what we’re doing. 

Favorite moment?

My favorite moment was being able to finally meet people I engage with online and see a dear friend, Cina Pelayo, again. We chat all the time and I love that, but there’s just something about being in the presence of great people that I find really motivating. 

Is there anything you will do differently next year, if you are able to attend (and, of course, they are able to host again)?

Seeing how well the campfire stories went this year, I may have to try my hand at doing one next time. Okay, not really. I’m not great at coming up with stories on the fly like that LOL. What I will try to do next time is recruit one or two of my children to work my sales table so I can attend more activities at the festival. There were so many cool things I wanted to go to and couldn’t because I figured I needed to try to be at my table some time. 

If you want to talk about your work, upcoming or already out, please do!

I’m staying busy! The Cemetery Gates Media anthology, Picnic in the Graveyard, released early May and includes my short story “The Crazy with Daisy”. This August I have my first horror collection, Hell Hath No Sorrow like a Woman Haunted, coming out with Seventh Terrace. I’m super excited about this because the whole experience has been nothing short of awe inspiring. I love working with them and I can hardly wait for readers to see what we created. Also, in November, my short story “Where the Horizon Meets the Sky” will be included in the anthology Into The Forest, an anthology of stories about Baba Yaga. People can also find me as a co-host on the Genre Blackademia podcast and as an instructor at the Speculative Fiction Academy. 

Hell Hath No Sorrow like a Woman Haunted

Jessica Leonard

What made you decide to attend/table at Ghoulish?

I was excited to support them with their first festival in any way I could. My book, ANTIOCH, was published through PMMP and they’ve been amazingly supportive to me and my career. I wanted to return the favor in a small way. You hear a lot of stories about small/indie presses being nightmares to work with, so when one is exceptional it makes sense to throw your money in that direction. 

If you did a panel, did you get to pick which panels you were on, and did you feel like the panels were a good representation of the genre?

I did a panel! There was a lot of conversation before the programming was set in which they asked what sorts of panels we’d like to see/possibly appear on. From there, once they decided on panels you got to let them know the ones you’d be interested in being on. 

I thought they were a good representation, and also pretty unique. I was happy with the panels and the places the panelists took them. 

Favorite moment?

This is such a hard question! I think the campfire storytelling was great. After a long day it felt like a perfect way to decompress and unwind in a fun relaxing setting. The overall vibe of the event was just one of happiness and I think that event embodied that. 

Is there anything you will do differently next year, if you are able to attend (and, of course, they are able to host again)?

I don’t know that I’d do anything differently. Maybe take more breaks? This was my first event like this as a published author and I wanted to see and take part in everything. Which was great but also kind of exhausting. 

If you want to talk about your work, upcoming or already out, please do!

My current book, ANTIOCH, is available through Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing and you can find it on their website – Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing

It came out in 2020 and so any in-person events around it had to be put onhold due to global pandemic, so it feels really nice to be around people who have read it or are excited about it now.


Teresa creates our Shelf Edition posts and is one of our LOHF Awards readers. You can find Teresa on Goodreads, on Twitter as @teresa_ardrey, and lurking in a corn maze.

If you got to attend The Ghoulish Book Festival, Teresa would love to hear about your experiences in the comments! 

Photo of the Ghoulish Book Festival program was taken by Teresa.  The Festival logo artwork designed by Betty Rocksteady.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Shelf Edition: TC Parker

We are thrilled to welcome writer TC Parker to the June 2022 Shelf Edition!

Where I Buy Books

My reading tends to be a mix of physical titles I buy online, Kindle copies I can read on my phone when I’m waiting for my kids to fall asleep… and books I pick up second-hand at charity shops and stores I happen to walk past. The latter choices especially tend to be quite eclectic; I’m reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo at the moment, and I’m pretty sure I’d never have picked it up, had I not seen it in my local branch of Age UK…

Recent Favourite LOHF Titles

I have quite a few current LOHF favourites. 

I recently finished, and loved, Catriona Ward’s Sundial – a tense, unrelentingly oppressive story that marries isolation horror with some genuinely unsettling domestic psychodrama. 

Hailey Piper is a perennial favourite, not to mention a genuinely wonderful human being, and The Worm & His Kings and (the Stoker-winning!) Queen of Teeth take pride of place on the shelves – they’re queer masterpieces, both of them.

Sonora Taylor’s Little Paranoias is one of the best short story collections I’ve ever read (… someone needs to adapt Weary Bones for TV, and soon…), and Grindhouse Press’ Worst Laid Plans is a hell of an anthology: V. Castro’s Cucuy of Cancun and Hailey’s Unkindly Girls are standouts. 

Older favourites include Lauren Beukes’ Broken Monsters, which leaves you with the kind of grotesque after-images of murder it’s impossible to shake, and Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned, which I’ve loved since I was a teenager. (If I were ever to be a vampire, you’d better believe I’d be the kind of vampire who speaks a dozen extinct languages, keeps extensive genealogical records and lives in a compound carved out of the side of a mountain in Wine Country). Tananarive Due’s collection Ghost Summer is also wonderful; I’m looking forward to checking out her vampires soon, too. (My Soul To Keep is already waiting for me on the Kindle).

LOHF TBR

My TBR is absolutely enormous and forever growing (…isn’t everybody’s?) – but I’m very excited to dive into Laurel Hightower’s creature feature Below. Everything Laurel does is miraculous – Whispers In The Dark blew me away when I read it, and I’m not sure Crossroads needs much of an introduction. I’m halfway through Hailey’s space-horror Your Mind Is A Terrible Thing right now, and have been dipping in and out of Scott J. Moses’ anthology What One Wouldn’t Do, which features stories from a number of LOHF, including Laurel, Hailey and Steph Ellis – whose Five Turns of the Wheel, incidentally, is one of the best folk-horror novels I’ve read. I’m looking forward to finally reading Eve Harms’ Transmuted, as well as Alex Woodroe’s anthology Your Body Is Not Your Body – the profits of which go to trans youth in Texas, and which everyone should pick up immediately.     

LOHF Releases I’m Excited About

I love Cina Pelayo, and her upcoming (early cinema-inspired) sequel to Children of Chicago is already filling me with anticipation. I’ve got Hailey’s No Gods For Drowning on pre-order, as well as RJ Joseph’s Hell Hath No Sorrow Like A Woman Haunted. April Yates’ sapphic horromance Ashthorne is going to be awesome, as is Catherine McCarthy’s A Moonlit Path of Madness … and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the recent WIPs I’ve read from Lynn Love and Shauna Mc Eleney, both of which have left me broken in all the right ways.   

There are almost certainly many, many more I’ve left out here… as so many others have pointed out, this is a particularly good time for women writing horror, and I want to read them all!

What’s New For Me

I’ve just released a new novel, Hummingbird, which was a bit of a labour of love – but a lot of my energy lately has been spent on growing a small press, Hold My Beer Publishing, with my friends (and regular collaborators) Edward Lorn and Daron Kappauff. We’ll be reissuing some of the titles from my back catalogue this summer, as well as a few new releases – but also have some other, very exciting plans up our collective sleeve, so… watch this space, I guess…


Author Bio

TC Parker is a writer and researcher based in the fox-ravaged wilds of Leicestershire, where she lives with her kids and partner.

The author of the El Gardener feminist heist trilogy (The Debt, The Push and The Remembrance) and the horror novels Saltblood, A Press of Feathers, Salvation Spring, Maiden (with Ward Nerdlo) and Hummingbird, she’s been a copywriter, a lecturer and, very briefly, an academic; now she runs a semiotics and cultural insight agency by day and dreams up horror and crime fiction at night, when the kids are asleep.

Visit her online at www.tcparkerwrites.com and follow her on Twitter: @tcparkerlives

Thank you for joining us, T.C! Our TBR piles also thank you! 

If you would like to be featured on a future shelf edition please leave a note in the comments. We’d love to see your shelves!


Teresa creates our Shelf Edition posts and is one of our LOHF Awards readers. You can find Teresa on Goodreads, on Twitter as @teresa_ardrey, and lurking in a corn maze.

Monday, June 13, 2022

Ladies of Horror Fiction Award Nominees

This month the Ladies of Horror Fiction team has been unveiling the nominees for the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards. Please join us in celebrating these amazing authors and their outstanding works of horror fiction.

We are honored to present to you the entire list of nominees:

Nominees

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Young Adult

The Dead and the Dark, Courtney Gould
White Smoke, Tiffany D Jackson
Bad Witch Burning, Jessica Lewis
Our Last Echoes, Kate Alice Marshall
Girl in the Walls, Katy Michelle Quinn

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Middle Grade

The Dollhouse, Charis Cotter
The Collectors, Lorien Lawrence
Ghost Girl, Ally Malinenko
Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls, Kaela Rivera
Root Magic, Eden Royce

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Novella

Goddess of Filth, V. Castro
Transmuted, Eve Harms
& This Is How to Stay Alive, Shingai Njeri Kagunda
Waif, Samantha Kolesnik
Salvation Spring, T.C. Parker

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Short Fiction

“Sister Glitter Blood,” Gwendoyln Kiste (Violent Vixens: An Homage to Grindhouse Horror)
“A Cold Grip,” Christi Nogle (Boneyard Soup)
“The Sharps,” Sonora Taylor (Someone to Share My Nightmares: Stories)
“Eating Bitterness,” Hannah Yang (The Dark Issue 74)
“Syringe,” Isabel Yap (Never Have I Ever)
“First Harvest,” April Yates (Blood & Bone: An Anthology of Body Horror by Women and Non-Binary Writers)

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Poetry

Strange Nests, Jessica McHugh
Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken., Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, Christina Sng, & Geneve Flynn
Exposed Nerves, Lucy A. Snyder
The Smallest of Bones, Holly Walrath
Monstrum Poetica, Jezzy Wolfe

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Collection

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories, Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell (Translator)
Sometimes We’re Cruel, and Other Stories, J.A.W. McCarthy
Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, Hailey Piper
The Ghost Sequences, A.C. Wise
SEEDS, Tabatha Wood
Never Have I Ever, Isabel Yap

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Debut

The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris
When the Reckoning Comes, LaTanya McQueen
Queen of Teeth, Hailey Piper
The Forest, Lisa Quigley
Tidepool, Nicole Willson

LOHF Award Nominees for Best Novel

The Queen of the Cicadas, V. Castro
Cackle, Rachel Harrison
Good Neighbors, Sarah Langan
The Burning Girls, C.J. Tudor
The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward


Congratulations to all of the nominees! The winners will be announced via the website beginning June 20th.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

June 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!


The Wasp Child by Rhiannon Rasmussen

Kesh is afraid-of his classmates, his abilities, and his prospects for the future.

Born into Meridian Colony, where corporate values dictate human worth, Kesh longs to escape. Then, his classmates kidnap and dump him in the middle of the alien rainforest. Alone.

Faced with certain death, Kesh locates the sansik, giant bugs native to the planet. Though the sansik seem to care for him at first, they set off a horrific metamorphosis in Kesh, and when they trade him back to Meridian, he becomes a living scientific curiosity. A bleak future of analysis without autonomy awaits him.

Trapped between the grasp of Meridian’s laboratories and a harsh alien world, Kesh must escape to have any chance of finding his purpose-and place-in the world.

Expected publication June 6th 2022 by Vernacular Books Goodreads | Bookshop


For the Throne (Wilderwood #2) by Hannah F. Whitten

The First Daughter is for the Throne
The Second Daughter is for the Wolf…

Red and the Wolf have finally contained the threat of the Old Kings but at a steep cost. Red’s beloved sister Neve, the First Daughter is lost in the Shadowlands, an inverted kingdom where the vicious gods of legend have been trapped for centuries and the Old Kings have slowly been gaining control. But Neve has an ally–though it’s one she’d rather never have to speak to again–the rogue king Solmir.

Solmir wants to bring an end to the Shadowlands and he believes helping Neve may be the key to its destruction. But to do that, they will both have to journey across a dangerous landscape in order to find a mysterious Heart Tree, and finally to claim the gods’ dark, twisted powers for themselves.

Expected publication June 7th 2022 by Orbit Goodreads | Bookshop


From Below by Darcy Coates

No light. No air. No escape.
Hundreds of feet beneath the ocean’s surface, a graveyard waits…

Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course…a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean’s surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life.

Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia’s rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.

But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them.

Because once they’re trapped beneath the ocean’s waves, there’s no going back.

Expected publications June 7th 2022 by Poisoned Pen Press Goodreads | Amazon


Little Bird by Tiffany Meuret

The skeletons in the closet have nothing on the one in your backyard.

Freshly divorced and grieving the death of her father, Josie Lauer has caged herself inside her home. To cope with her losses, Josie follows a strict daily routine of work, playing with her dog, Po, and trying to remember to eat a decent meal—and ending each night by drinking copious amounts of vodka. In other words, she is not coping at all.

Everything changes when Josie wakes to find a small shrub has sprouted in her otherwise dirt backyard the morning after yet another bender. Within hours, the vine-like plant is running amok—and it’s brought company. The appearance of the unwieldly growth has also heralded the arrival of a busybody new neighbor who insists on thrusting herself into Josie’s life. The neighbor Josie can deal with. The talking skeleton called Skelly that has perched itself in Josie’s backyard on a throne made of vines, however, is an entirely different matter.

As the strangely sentient plant continues to grow and twist its tendrils inside Josie’s suddenly complicated life, Josie begins to realize her new neighbor knows a lot more about the vines and her bizarre new visitor than she initially lets on. There’s a reason Skelly has chosen to appear in Josie’s suddenly-blooming backyard and insists on pulling her out of her carefully kept self-isolation. All Josie has to do is figure out what that reason is—and she has only a few days to do it, or else she might find herself on the wrong side of catastrophe.

LITTLE BIRD is a story about found family, no matter how bizarre. 

Expected publication June 7th 2022 by Black Spot Books Goodreads | Amazon


Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous edited by Ellen Datlow

A bone-chilling anthology from legendary horror editor, Ellen Datlow, Screams from the Dark contains twenty-nine all-original tales about monsters.

From werewolves and vampires, to demons and aliens, the monster is one of the most recognizable figures in horror. But what makes something, or someone, monstrous?

Award-winning and up-and-coming authors like Richard Kadrey, Cassandra Khaw, Indrapramit Das, Priya Sharma, and more attempt to answer this question. These all-new stories range from traditional to modern, from mainstream to literary, from familiar monsters to the unknown … and unimaginable.

This chilling collection has something to please—and terrify—everyone, so lock your doors, hide under your covers, and try not to scream.

Contributors include: Ian Rogers, Fran Wilde, Gemma Files, Daryl Gregory, Priya Sharma, Brian Hodge, Joyce Carol Oates, Indrapramit Das, Siobhan Carroll, Richard Kadrey, Norman Partridge, Garry Kilworth, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Chikodili Emelumadu, Glen Hirshberg, A. C. Wise, Stephen Graham Jones, Kaaron Warren, Livia Llewellyn, Carole Johnstone, Margo Lanagan, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Evenson, Nathan Ballingrud, Cassandra Khaw, Laird Barron, Kristi DeMeester, Jeffrey Ford, and John Langan.

Expected publication June 7th 2022 by Tor Nightfire Goodreads | Bookshop


We All Fall Down (The River City Duology #1) by Rose Szabo

The first book in a dark fantasy YA duology by the author of What Big Teeth, about the power and danger of stories and the untold costs of keeping magic alive, perfect for fans of Aiden Thomas and Marie Rutkoski.

In River City, where magic used to thrive and is now fading, the witches who once ruled the city along with their powerful King have become all but obsolete. The city’s crumbling government is now controlled primarily by the new university and teaching hospital, which has grown to take over half of the city.

Moving between the decaying Old City and the ruthless New, four young queer people struggle with the daily hazards of life―work, school, dodging ruthless cops and unscrupulous scientists―not realizing that they have been selected to play in an age-old drama that revives the flow of magic through their world. When a mysterious death rocks their fragile peace, the four are brought into each other’s orbits as they uncover a deeper magical conspiracy.

Devastating, gorgeous, and utterly unique, We All Fall Down examines the complex network of pain created by power differentials, even between people who love each other―and how it is possible to be queer and turn out just fine.

Expected publication June 7th 2022 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr) Goodreads | Bookshop


Wretched Waterpark (Sinister Summer Series #1) by Kiersten White

From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes her middle grade series debut! Part Scooby Doo, part A Series of Unfortunate Events, and entirely genius! Meet the Sinister-Winterbottom twins, who solve mysteries at increasingly bizarre summer vacation destinations in the hopes of being reunited with their parents—or at the very least finally finding a good churro.

Twelve-year-old twins Theodora and Alexander and their older sister Wilhelmina Sinister-Winterbottom don’t know how they ended up with their Aunt Saffronia for an entire summer. She’s not exactly well equipped to handle children. The twins are determined to make it a good vacation, though, so when Aunt Saffronia suggests a waterpark, they hastily agree.

But Fathoms of Fun is not your typical waterpark. Instead of cabanas, guests rent mausoleums. The waterslides are gray tongues extending from horrible gargoyle faces. The few people they encounter are very, very odd. And the owner disappeared under bizarre circumstances, lost to the Cold, Unknowable Sea—the wave pool.

When Wil goes missing, rule following, cautious Alexander and competitive, brave Theo will have to work together to solve the mystery of Fathoms of Fun. But are they out of their depth?

Expected publication June 7th 2022 by Delacorte Goodreads | Bookshop


Blood Mountain: Stories by Brenda S. Tolian

In this mosaic of Southwestern Gothic Horror, a primordial goddess awakens deep within the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The mountain hungers for revenge as invaders leave her emaciated with their greed and brutality. She cries out for blood, infusing the minds of those who do not belong—twisting them outwardly into the dark forms of their true intentions.

An Under Sheriff struggles to grasp brittle threads of hope within the valley and mountains, his soul tormented by the unanswered questions of crimes he can’t explain and the dead and missing he could not help. The demented Red Women fracture the meaning of being maiden, mother, and crone within the shadows of twisted belief systems. Men and women devolve into the grotesque, drowning in their greed and violence transmuting into creatures too hideous to name. Others find seduction on her rocky hips and release within the baptism of her blood. The valley steeped in cults and crime hides something dark, where mirage plays with the senses, disappearances go unexplained, UFOs and creatures await watching in hunger.

This composite novel of interwoven stories and brief vignettes invites the reader to hear the hypnotic call of the Blood Mountain. Will she ask you into her vortex or swallow you whole?

Expected publication June 8th 2022 by Raw Dog Screaming Press Goodreads | Bookshop


Go Hunt Me by Kelly DeVos

For Dracula lovers and fans of Diana Urban’s All Your Twisted Secrets, this spine-tingling thriller follows seven horror buffs as their dream trip to a remote Romanian castle turns into a nightmare when they begin to be killed one by one.

Alex Rush is ready for the trip of a lifetime.

She and her friends have made some creepily awesome films together throughout high school, so with only a few months left before they go their separate ways for college, they’re determined to make the best one yet: an epic short film that reimagines the story of Dracula, filmed on location at a remote castle in Romania.

But when they get there, it’s not quite the majestic setting they planned for. Menacing weapons line the walls, the twisted halls are easy to get lost in, and with no connection to the outside world, the group is unexpectedly off the grid. After just a few hours spent under its roof, Alex and her friends have no trouble imagining how this dark, terrifying castle inspired one of the most enduring horror novels of all time.

Only soon they no longer have to use their imaginations to understand the location’s terrifying history—just as they get the film’s first shot rolling, one of Alex’s friends disappears, and she’s nearly certain she saw a cloaked stranger lurking in the shadows. As more members of the group begin to meet an untimely demise, Alex is desperate to stop the bloodshed, even if it means facing a monster she never thought would be let loose.

Expected publication June 14th 2022 by Razorbill Goodreads | Bookshop


The Path of Thorns by A. G. Slatter

Alone in the world, Asher Todd travels to the remote estate of Morwood Grange to become governess to three small children. Her sole possessions comprise a sea chest and a large carpet bag she hangs onto for dear life. She finds a fine old home, its inhabitants proud of their lineage and impeccable reputation, and a small village nearby. It seems an untroubled existence, yet there are portraits missing from the walls, locked rooms, and names excised from the family tree inscribed in the bible. In short order, the children adore her, she becomes indispensible to their father Luther in his laboratory, and her potions are able to restore the sight of granddame Leonora. Soon Asher fits in as if she’s always been there, but there are creatures that stalk the woods at night, spectres haunt the halls, and Asher is not as much a stranger to the Morwoods as it might at first appear.

Expected publication June 14th 2022 by Titan Books Goodreads | Bookshop


Metallurgy: Of Love and Death and Metal by Stephanie Ellis

Metallurgy is an homage to the world of heavy metal and its related genres.

In these pages are 100 dark found poems created from the lyrics of bands as varied as Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Korn, Behemoth and many more.

Although all poems are completely original works, the sources have been fully acknowledged and it is hoped that after reading the poems, the reader will then go on to listen to the artists who inspired them.

Expected publication June 15th 2022 by independently published Goodreads | Bookshop


Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology edited by Nico Bell and Sonora Taylor

Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology features twelve fat-positive horror tales of people who come into their own, celebrate their curves, and save the day. There are babysitters and bakers, thieves and roller derby stars. Young women unsure about their bodies meet demons and water spirits who offer assistance–in their own way, of course. Danger lurks in hospitals, in the mysterious occult shop in the local mall, and in a house filled with cats. Campers, trash collectors, and house flippers alike uncover nasty secrets underground. A myriad of horrors await you–none of which comes at the expense of fat bodies.

It’s time to reclaim the “f” word.

Expected publication June 21st 2022 by independently published Goodreads | Amazon


Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid

From highly acclaimed bestselling author Ava Reid comes a gothic horror retelling of The Juniper Tree, set in another time and place within the world of The Wolf and the Woodsman, where a young witch seeks to discover her identity and escape the domination of her wizard father, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson and Catherynne M. Valente.

A gruesome curse. A city in upheaval. A monster with unquenchable appetites.

Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. As Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist trap as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from the outside world. But at night, Marlinchen and her sisters sneak out to enjoy the city’s amenities and revel in its thrills, particularly the recently established ballet theater, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who quickly captures her heart.

As Marlinchen’s late-night trysts grow more fervent and frequent, so does the threat of her father’s rage and magic. And while Oblya flourishes with culture and bustles with enterprise, a monster lurks in its midst, borne of intolerance and resentment and suffused with old-world power. Caught between history and progress and blood and desire, Marlinchen must draw upon her own magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it.

Expected publication: June 21st 2022 by Harper Voyager Goodreads | Bookshop


Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino

Salem’s Lot meets The Darkest Part of the Forest in this horror-fantasy retelling of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.”

Lou never believed in superstitions or magic–until her teenage aunt Neela is kidnapped to the goblin market.

The market is a place Lou has only read about–twisted streets, offerings of sweet fruits and incredible jewels. Everything–from the food and wares, to the goblins themselves–is a haunting temptation for any human who manages to find their way in.

Determined to save Neela, Lou learns songs and spells and tricks that will help her navigate this dangerous world and slip past a goblin’s defenses–but she only has three days to find Neela before the market disappears and her aunt becomes one of them forever.

If she isn’t careful, the market might just end up claiming her too.

Expected publication June 21st 2022 by Page Street Kids Goodreads | Bookshop


This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2) by Kalynn Bayron

How much would you risk to save the ones you love? Would you tempt even the most dangerous fate?

Briseis has one chance to save her mother, but she’ll need to do the impossible: find the last fragment of the deadly Absyrtus Heart. If she is to locate the missing piece, she must turn to the blood relatives she’s never known, learn about their secret powers, and take her place in their ancient lineage. Briseis is not the only one who wants the Heart, and her enemies will stop at nothing to fulfill their own ruthless plans. The fates tell of a truly dangerous journey, one that could end in more heartache, more death. Bolstered by the sisterhood of ancient magic, can Briseis harness her power to save the people she loves most?

Expected publication June 21st 2022 by Bloomsbury Goodreads | Bookshop


The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

In the first book of a visionary fantasy trilogy with its roots in the mythology of Africa and Arabia that “sings of rebellion, love, and the courage it takes to stand up to tyranny” (Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree), three women band together against a cruel empire that divides people by blood.

The Final Strife is the real deal: epic fantasy turned on its head in the most compelling way imaginable.”—Kalynn Bayron, bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead and This Poison Heart

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Book Riot

Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.
Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.
Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.

Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.

Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts.

Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.

As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.

Book One of The Ending Fire Trilogy

Expected publication June 23rd 2022 by Del Rey Goodreads | Bookshop


It Eats Us From the Inside by Antonija Mežnarić

The only reason Doris agreed to go back to her hometown on the Northern Adriatic coast was her wife’s insistence to go and visit her father, house-ridden and slowly dying from a mysterious illness that eats at him from the inside.

But under the surface of the family reunion lie old tales and hidden regret, while from the sea comes a creeping threat to the town and beyond, slowly but surely spreading farther from the coast.

Taken at the tide of change, nothing and no one will stay the same.

It Eats Us From the Inside is a quiet, claustrophobic near-future horror novella about changes from the outside and from within, ecological disaster, aquatic dread and Slavic folklore.

Expected publication June 23rd 2022 by Shtriga Goodreads | Bookshop


The Clackity by Lora Senf

Reminiscent of Doll Bones, this deliciously eerie middle grade novel tells the story of a girl who must enter a world of ghosts, witches, and monsters to play a game with deadly consequences and rescue her aunt.

Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her.

There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie must embark on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls.

Expected publication June 28th 2022 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers Goodreads | Bookshop


Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia

From acclaimed author Francesca Zappia, American Horror Story meets the dark comedy of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as Cat searches for a way to escape her high school. Katzenjammer is a tale of family, love, tragedy, and masks—the ones others make for us, and the ones we make for ourselves. Eerie and thought-provoking, this novel will haunt fans of Chelsie Pitcher’s This Lie Will Kill You and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars. Features illustrations by the author throughout.

Cat lives in her high school. She never leaves, and for a long time her school has provided her with everything she needs. But now things are changing. The hallways contract and expand along with the school’s breathing, and the showers in the bathroom run a bloody red. Cat’s best friend is slowly turning into cardboard, and instead of a face, Cat has a cat mask made of her own hardened flesh.

Cat doesn’t remember why she is trapped in her school or why half of them—Cat included—are slowly transforming. Escaping has always been the one impossibility in her school’s upside-down world. But to save herself from the eventual self-destruction all the students face, Cat must find the way out. And to do that, she’ll have to remember what put her there in the first place.

Told in chapters alternating between the past and the present, Francesca Zappia weaves a spine-tingling, suspenseful, and haunting story about tragedy and the power of memories. Much like the acclaimed Eliza and Her Monsters, Katzenjammer features black-and-white illustrations by the author throughout the novel. Fans of Marieke Nijkamp’s This Is Where It Ends and Karen McManus’s One of Us Is Lying will lose themselves in the pages of this novel—or maybe in the treacherous hallways of the school. 

Expected publication June 28th 2022 by Greenwillow Books Goodreads | Bookshop


The Midnighters by Hana Tooke, illustrated by Ayesha L. Rubio

The Graveyard Book meets Nevermoor in this ghostly tale about two friends, one murder mystery, and a world of intrigue.

Find the courage to be extraordinary… Ema Vaskov has always felt different. In a family of famous scientists, there’s not much room for superstition or omens–but they seem to follow Ema wherever she goes. It doesn’t help that she appears to predict events before they happen, and has a peculiar fear of shadows… When Ema is sent to stay with her eccentric uncle in Prague, she fears she’ll lose the chance to ever fit in. But then she meets Silvie–a girl who finally sees Ema for the extraordinary girl that she is. Soon the girls are meeting for secret midnight adventures and facing Ema’s fears together. But then disaster strikes. Silvie goes missing–and it’s up to Ema to find her. Now she must gather the courage to hunt the city, find her friend, and uncover the secrets of the one clue Silvie left as to where she might be–inside the mysterious Midnight Guild…

Expected publication June 28th 2022 by Viking Books for Young Readers Goodreads | Bookshop


Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

THE SUBURBS, RIGHT NOW . . .

Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there’s more to her mother than meets the eye.

THE CITY, BACK THEN . . .

Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural, set in a city of magical possibilities and secret mystics. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.

Years after it began, Ivy and Dana’s shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with. 

Expected publication: June 28th 2022 by Flatiron Books Goodreads | Bookshop


Shagging the Boss by Rebecca Rowland

“Lesson number one: don’t get attached to anyone. Being a cannibal is the only way to truly succeed in this business.”

He placed one hand on the door handle, then thought a moment and smiled to himself. “The problem is, once you take a bite, it will never be enough.”

After a fortuitous encounter at a local book convention, a liberal arts graduate accepts a position at a flashy publishing company under the tutelage of its charismatic owner only to learn that the press is led, and fed, by a literal boogeyman.

Expected publication June 30th 2022 by Filthy Loot 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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