Trends in Horror

Tender Is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica

“It all happened so quickly. First, animals became infected with the virus and their meat became poisonous. Then governments initiated the Transition. Now, ‘special meat’ – human meat – is legal. Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans – only no one calls them that. He works with numbers, consignments, processing. One day, he’s given a gift to seal a deal: a specimen of the finest quality. He leaves her in his barn, tied up, a problem to be disposed of later. But she haunts Marcos. Her trembling body, and watchful gaze, seem to understand. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost – and what might still be saved.”

Check out our Matty and Sywert’s reviews of this book.

Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake

“Being accepted into The House would be Nina Kaur’s first step into a bright and shining future. The most exclusive sorority on campus, its members are beautiful, high-achieving and respected. Nina craves this security. Adjunct professor Dr Sloane Hartley is struggling with new motherhood and a return to work. Her clothes don’t fit right, her husband isn’t as present as he thinks and her dissatisfaction is increasingly paralyzing. When Sloane is invited to join The House as their faculty advisor, she drinks in the collective perfection on display. Nina and Sloane are drawn ever deeper into the sisterhood’s arcane rituals. But living well comes with bloody costs. And how much can they really afford to pay?”

Check out our Else’s review of this book.

The Lamb by Lucy Rose

“Margot and Mama have lived by the forest since Margot can remember. When Margot isn’t at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies. But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, little Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires and make a bid for freedom.”

Check out our Bruna’s review of this book.

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

“Ji-won’s life is in disarray. Her father’s affair has ripped the family to shreds, leaving her to piece their crappy lives back together. Then her mother’s new white boyfriend enters the scene, bragging about his knowledge of Korean culture. As he swaggers around their claustrophobic apartment ogling her teenage sister, Ji-won’s grip on reality begins to slip. She finds herself growing obsessed with his brilliant blue eyeballs, resolving to do the one thing that will save her family – and curb her cravings…”

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

“Etsy Beaucarne is an academic who needs to get published. So when a journal written in 1912 by Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and her grandfather, is discovered within a wall during renovations, she sees her chance. She can uncover the lost secrets of her family, and get tenure. As she researches, she comes to learn of her grandfather, and a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who came to Arthur to share the story of his extraordinary life. The journals detail a slow massacre, a chain of events charting the history of Montana state as it formed. A cycle of violence that leads all the way back to 217 Blackfeet murdered in the snow.”

Never Whistle at Night, ed. Shane Hawk

“Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear – and even follow you home.
These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.”

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

“Night after night, Mackenzie’s dreams return her to a memory from before her sister Sabrina’s untimely death: a weekend at the family’s lakefront campsite, long obscured by a fog of guilt. But when the waking world starts closing in, too, Mackenzie knows this is more than she can handle alone. Traveling north to her rural hometown in Alberta, she finds her family still steeped in the same grief that she ran away to Vancouver to escape. They welcome her back, but their shaky reunion only seems to intensify her dreams – and make them more dangerous. What really happened that night at the lake, and what did it have to do with Sabrina’s death? Only a bad Cree would put their family at risk, but what if whatever has been calling Mackenzie home was already inside?”

Taaqtumi by Aviaq Johnston et al.

“Taaqtumi is an Inuktitut word that means ‘in the dark’ – and these spine-tingling horror stories by Northern writers show just how dangerous darkness can be. A family clinging to survival out on the tundra after a vicious zombie virus. A door that beckons, waiting to unleash the terror behind it. A post-apocalyptic community in the far North where things aren’t quite what they seem. These chilling tales from award-winning authors Richard Van Camp, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Aviaq Johnston, and others will thrill and entertain even the most seasoned horror fan.”

Milkteeth by Caitlin Starling

“Beatrice is a broodmother: a vampire responsible for nursing newly made fledglings through the first years of their unlife. She nests in an abandoned, isolated warren of office space beneath her patron’s skyscraper, raising two fractious fledglings. But when Beatrice decides to take on a third fledgling, the product of an attempted siring gone wrong, teetering between vampiric purity and ghoulish depravity, Beatrice finds herself strained to breaking between the societal and physical demands of her position, her own ravenous hunger, and an obsessive need to discover what’s happening to her—because her body is changing too, transforming her into something even more monstrous.”

Brokeula by Michael J. Seidlinger

“James Sugre spends most of his time in his coffin, too broke to go out in public. As the video game industry reaches record-breaking heights, Sugre tries his luck one more time with his own game studio. When he encounters a game developer and self-professed fan of vampire lore named Lauren, Sugre becomes hopeful that his luck might finally be on the up-and-up. But the market is rocky, and nothing is as stable as ‘un-death.’ Sugre learns the hard way that a dollar is worth more than a drop of blood. Trading immortality for cash, Sugre and Lauren create a – not entirely legal – business of turning humans into vampires for a fee. The business expands, but Vampire Nation has to protect their own investments, and Sugre learns the hard truth of the system he can’t escape.”

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

“Three women share one desire: to break the rules men use to bind them.
1532. León, Spain: María, wild and wily, knows beauty is her only currency. So when an alluring stranger offers her a dark alternative path, María makes a desperate choice.
1827. London: Charlotte lives a cloistered life, her heart full of impossible wants. Swept away by a beautiful widow’s invitation, Charlotte discovers she can buy her freedom – if she sells her soul.
2019. Boston: Alice moved across the world to escape her past. But a one-night stand gives her a thirst for answers… and retribution.
Defying time and all odds, these women’s fates become tangled like roots. This is a story about life: how it ends, and how it starts again.”

Check out our V.E. Schwab author spotlight.

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison

“Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn’t need a reminder she’s getting older, or that she’s feeling indifferent about her own life. Her husband surprises her with a birthday-weekend getaway – not with him, but with Sloane’s longtime best friend, troublemaker extraordinaire Naomi. Sloane anticipates a weekend of wine tastings and cozy robes. But when they arrive at their rental cottage, it becomes clear Naomi has something else in mind. She orchestrates a wild night out with a group of mysterious strangers, only for it to take a horrifying turn that changes Sloane’s and Naomi’s lives literally forever. The friends are forced to come to terms with some pretty eternal consequences in this bloody, seductive novel about how it’s never too late to find satisfaction, even though it might taste different than expected.”