Welcome to Spotlight on New Releases where we shine a spotlight on a few recent horror releases!
Sign Here by Claudia Lux
A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul.
Peyote Trip has a pretty good gig in the deals department on the fifth floor of Hell. Sure, none of the pens work, the coffee machine has been out of order for a century, and the only drink on offer is Jägermeister, but Pey has a plan—and all he needs is one last member of the Harrison family to sell their soul.
When the Harrisons retreat to the family lake house for the summer, with their daughter Mickey’s precocious new friend, Ruth, in tow, the opportunity Pey has waited a millennium for might finally be in his grasp. And with the help of his charismatic coworker Calamity, he sets a plan in motion.
But things aren’t always as they seem, on Earth or in Hell. And as old secrets and new dangers scrape away at the Harrisons’ shiny surface, revealing the darkness beneath, everyone must face the consequences of their choices.
Published October 25th 2022 by Berkley | Goodreads | Amazon
Glassheart by Kate Alice Marshall
The terrifying conclusion to Thirteens and Brackenbeast, for fans of Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Stranger Things.
First they defeated Mr. January.
Next they trapped his sister, Mrs. Prosper.
Now Eleanor and her best friends, Pip and Otto, have one last chance to escape the People Who Look Away.
The last of the evil siblings is their most formidable opponent yet, with two vicious hounds at her side and the ability to open roads across time and worlds.
When Eleanor and her friends flee into another world to escape her clutches, they accidentally disrupt the flow of time itself, plunging Eden Eld into chaos. Worse, the trio has a second curse to contend with: they've been infected by the Prime Stories, malicious fairy tales that take people over and erase their memories. But the power of these Stories may also hold the key to defeating the People Who Look Away, and Eleanor and her friends must decide what they're willing to sacrifice to stop the wicked siblings.
Eleanor has already lost so much. She's not sure if she can stand more heartache. So as the Stories continue to take over, she wonders if forgetting might be better after all. Or can she find a way to be a hero--and still stay Eleanor?
Published November 1st 2022 by Viking Books for Young Readers | Goodreads | Amazon
Toad by Katherine Dunn
A previously unpublished novel of the reflections of a deeply scarred and reclusive woman, from the cult icon Katherine Dunn, the author of Geek Love.
Sally Gunnar has been in love, has been mad, has been an agent of destruction, has been spurned; and now she has retreated from the world. She lives in isolation in her small house, where her only companions are a vase of goldfish, a garden toad, and the door-to-door salesman who sells her cleaning supplies once a month. From her comfortable perch, she broods over her deepest regrets: her wayward, weed-hazy college days; her blighted romance with a scornful poet; a tragically comic accident involving a paper cutter; a suicide attempt; and her decision to ultimately relinquish a conventional life.
Colorful, crass, and profound, Toad is Katherine Dunn’s ode to her time as a student at Reed College, filled with the same keen observations, taboo-shirking verve, and singular characters that made Geek Love a cult classic. Through the perceptive Sally, a fish out of water among a cadre of eccentric, privileged young people, we meet Sam, an unwashed collector of other people’s stories; Carlotta, a free spirit who nevertheless fails to escape the deception of marriage; and Rennel, a shallow, self-obsessed philosophy student. With sly self-deprecation and mordant wit, Sally recounts their misadventures, up to the tragedy that tore them apart.
Through it all, Toad demonstrates Dunn’s genius for black humor and irony, her ecstatic celebration of the grotesque. Daring and bizarre, Toad is a brilliant precursor to the book that would make Dunn a misfit hero—even fifty-some years after it was written, it’s a refreshing take on the lives of young outsiders treading the delicate lines between isolation and freedom, love and insanity, hatred and friendship.
Published November 1st 2022 by MCD | Goodreads | Amazon
Jen is one of our Horror Spotlight admins. Jen manages the technical side of the Horror Spotlight website. She also keeps a spotlight on new diverse horror releases, middle grade horror, 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.
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