Weaving a sickening tapestry of magical horror and human atrocities in the 70's and 80's of Argentina, this is a story of incantations and slammed doors, unlit hallways and decaying women who shouldn't be there, and golden claws that destroy held by hands that heal. Juan has always been straddling the line between life and death, kept as a medium for a coven obsessed with immortality to commune with their dark god. As he grapples with the loss of his freedom, his personhood and his wife, Juan is desperate to spare his son from a future just as bloodied as his own - even if he must maim them both. While brutal, disgusting and violently intimate, at the heart of this gorgeous horror is an epic about a father's love and the devastating sacrifices we'll make to give our children better than us.
Something that is loved can never be a monster. Not to those who hold it close. When Magos' son dies, she reaches into his chest and cuts off a piece of his lung. She carries it with her in a jar and eventually, she feeds it. Then it starts to grow. Interweaving the perspectives of a family dealing with loss, this horrifically tender story evokes memories of your parents' love, the way it overwhelms you, the way it can soothe, and the way it can make you ache. Written with poetic precision and beauty I have not experienced before, we explore family, queerness, and the gruesome way that grief permeates your entire life. This is a tale for those who dig their teeth and nails into what they love - and fear the moment that they will have to let go.
When Vera's mother calls from her death bed and asks her to come home, she does - to a home her mother barred her from, a home her father killed his victims in and a home that holds love and hate in equal measure. Filled with prose like pulling off a scab and pressing your fingers into the raw, open wound, this story takes us into the intersection of abiding love and visceral violence, how we conflate the two and build them into a home for ourselves. It is a love story above all else, that pulls you in and keeps you there, smothers you - but that's okay. That's love sometimes. Let it crawl inside your skin and live there.
Jade lives and breathes horror movies. Her world is built on the tenants of slashers, used to cope with her bleak life as the Weird Horror Girl, half-Indian reject of her small Idaho town. When a body is found and a new girl moves in, all signs are pointing to the slasher cycle she's been dreaming of starting but will she be ready to survive it? A love letter to the slasher genre, this book is for the weird girls, the broken girls, the Final Girls who refuse to die as they claw towards redemption... and revenge. Bloody, intimate and heart wrenching, when this ride takes off, don't let go.
Do you enjoy feral teenage girls with cultish mentalities around horror stories and their own womanhood? Do you have a soft spot for romantic twinships, monstrous girls whose love for each other has the potential to destroy them, and maybe should? Does Love Hungriness (figural and literal) make your heart ache? This is the book for you. In a story where predators and prey are one and the lines between desire and fear blur, you'll find yourself captivated by the weird, the tender, and the human. With a careful, loving translation by Booker that does everything to capture Ojeda's drawn out and lyrical prose as fully as possible, don't be surprised if you find yourself caught in its jaws.
"A girl comes of age against the knife." In this story about the love, terror and magic of family, Tiffany McDaniel takes your hand with her stirring words and refuses to let go. Betty doesn't feel like she fits in the world. The daughter of a white mother and Cherokee father, she's the only one of her siblings to take on her father's features, something inescapable when they settle in the town of Breathed, Ohio. Exploring generational pain that haunts and the way familial bonds blend love and violence, we watch a resilient heart survive, lead by her father's stories, brutal truths, and the power of her own words.
Drowning in rage and guilt after the death of his wife, Thiago needs to get away from everyone and everything. The house is sold, the car is packed, and he moves into a secluded cabin in Colorado to finally be alone - only to realize something larger than his grief has followed him. What starts as a haunting, a meditation on grief, begins to melt at the edges as Thiago loses his grip on reality, transcending genres and pooling into the cosmic. Told in the second person as Thiago speaking to his wife Vera, this novel acts as a love letter just as much as a confession. Gorgeous, chilling, bizarre, devastating; be ready to keep the lights on as you read.
One of the best novels I've ever read from an author who helped define how I engage with stories. A small town murder pulls our lead, Camille, back home to her estranged mother and half-sister as she attempts to report on the case. Old wounds open as she becomes tangled in the investigation, forced to face not only the pain of the young victims, but of her younger self. With revelations that will punch you in the solar plexus, a mother-daughter relationship that explores love both in absence and suffocation, and a young girl sharp to the touch, it's a story that will stick with you long after the last page. (And then watch the series!!!)
I've never wanted to kick my feet up and smoke a bowl with someone more than I do Greta. A charmingly cynical, excruciatingly intimate and reluctantly hopeful story about obsessive longing that cuts open the skull of the casually suicidal and takes a long, hard look at all the different ways we try to find meaning and reasons to stay, whether it be through people, bees, or donkeys. Bizarre and beautiful, come for the (hot) sapphic treachery and stay for the passive reflection of your own highs and lows.
After Abby Lamb's mother-in-law commits suicide, she must find a way to save her husband from her vengeful ghost. In this delightfully bizarre, darkly funny domestic horror we are pulled into the inner world of Abby, an unhinged, unreliable woman who is one of the most deeply human and lovable characters I have ever read. Exploring the dual roles of comforting and harming, of feeding and eating, we look at how the hurt seek out what they were denied as a child in others: a mother gained from marriage, a mother built in the love of your life, a mother found in the comfort of a couch. Sentimental and touching, this story will linger with you like a spoiled relationship.
When Miri's wife returns from a deep sea mission, she relieved to have her wife back... until she realizes Leah's not the same. An insanely gorgeous, haunting, claustrophobic novel that explores love and loss in a bone chilling way. Through dual narration where both women find themselves in inescapable situations, we explore the terror of being trapped, of being stuck where you have no control but to observe, of knowing an end is coming and there is nothing you can do but slowly and agonizingly get there. The language is beautiful and intricate, the emotion clear and painful - I adored it.
We all think we know what to expect when it comes to vampire novels, but Kohda's debut gives us a refreshing and strange take that dances along the edges of coming-of-age and horror. A young woman is alone in the world for the first time after placing her mother in a care facility and finds herself agonizingly hungry as she tries to navigate desire, emptiness, identity, and what it means to truly feed ourselves. Between talking to her puppet and obsessively watching youtube videos of humans eating there's a warmth in this meditative and darkly funny prose that cannot be ignored as it builds into its final message: what makes you a monster, is beautiful.
After losing her father and her home in the fall out of the Mexican War of Independence, Beatriz does the only thing she can to survive: she marries. Moving to the hacienda feels like refuge, a new beginning - until her husband leaves and the house turns malevolent, voices and visions taunting her in the dark. With nowhere to turn she finds herself searching out a local priest and witch, Padre Andres, but will his power be enough to save her new home? A gorgeous, atmospheric gothic horror with love at the root of it, centered around a woman forsaking love for freedom, a man whose love is forbidden, and a house whose loss of love has turned it rotten.
This one is for the girlies who love nasty women; cannibalistic MILFs; pulpy, luxurious manifestos of feminine rage; and support women's WRONGS only. Written as a mock memoir, Dorothy, a self-ascribed sociopath and food writer, recounts her romantic history and the intertwined (delicious) murder spree that has left her serving life in prison. Summer delves deep into Dorothy's psyche and reveals to us a woman fixated on desire and consumption, self-obsessed with a with that dances between pretentious and dark in the funniest of ways, and unwilling to compromise on her own pleasure. Erotic, nauseating, and absolutely craveable.
Something is wrong with Callie. She talks to imaginary friends, collects bones in her room, and now her mother Rob is worried she's going to hurt her sister. Unwilling to lose her family, Rob takes Callie on a trip to her childhood home out in the desert, Sundial, unearthing long-buried secrets to try and save her daughter. Stomach churning and flawlessly written, Ward takes you through a whirldwind of twists that make you question the nature of evil while pressing its fingers into the bruises of your own attempts to heal past injury. Obscenely weird, upsetting, creepy yet filled with tenderness, it's unforgettable. A nightmare of a read, it will shatter your heart and leave you wondering: how far would you go for your children?
When the end is coming, how will you know? Eric and Andrew are vacationing with their daughter Wen at a remote cabin when a group of four strangers arrive, telling the family that the world is going to end and they need their help to save it. Who are they? Will they hurt you? Do you believe them? A home invasion story with layers, this novel carries a sense of dread throughout its pages as the tension between the family and invaders grows to a fever pitch and your sense of reality begins to warp. Tremblay does what I love best in his work and plays with tense and story structure as things begin to bleed and blend together. Horror with a heart, this book will hurt your feelings.
Meredith and her young daughter have returned to her childhood home, to a mother whose mind is beginning to go but still remembers the stories of a family curse in the sea - and knows when her granddaughter finds the seashell, it will call for her next. This is a story of generational trauma and mental illness, of mermaids and witchcraft that haunt, of the grief and pain and love of motherhood. Alluringly written and atmospheric, with each turn of the page you will feel the salt coat your lungs and seaweed catch at your feet as you try to keep your head above water and escape the sense of dread that comes in knowing: you're doomed.
An atmospheric gothic taking place on a secluded isle in Scotland, Eve is being raised in a reclusive, closed family unit that is lead by a man they call Uncle, The Adder, their leader with mystic powers imbued by the ocean-deity the family worships. We open to the violent destruction of this family at the hands of Eve, leaving only Dinah alive, one eye pulled from her skull. The narrative weaves between present day Dinah and past Eve, exploring their childhood on the island and slowly unraveling the secrets of their family, the danger that looms in the corners of their home, and the terror of growing up when everything you do is to prepare for the end. A twisted tale of how love and corruption can be one in the same.
I feel so limited by words in trying to sell this novel to people! If you want queer horror that will rip your heart from your chest and devour it in its teeth, this is for you. A devastating exploration on the trend of 'gender plagues', viewed through the lens of trans people, Gretchen manages to take us down to the trenches, to show us the filth, monsters, and gore, while still holding empathy and love for us at our worst. Lacing body horror and eroticism together like clasped hands, this unapologetic work is sure to become a splatterpunk classic.
Evelyn's husband doesn't love her anymore. She is too sharp and too cold, a viper. So he created Martine, a clone of Evelyn. Defanged. Softened. He loves HER now. Yet when Martine calls one night desperately needing her, Evelyn finds herself at a crime scene and to save herself, she'll have to save Martine too. In this stunning domestic sci-fi, we explore the ache of humanity, what it means, who deserves it and why we think we get to decide. Gailey holds a mirror to the reader's face, exposing their reflection, their flaws, and confronts us with a harsh truth: how deeply we want to be seen this way by others and loved for it. A unique and at times horrifying story that explores the dark corners of intimacy, the different forms abuse and interpersonal violence can take, and how light can still manage to fight its way through.
When you are young, everything feels so much larger, so much more. This novel perfectly captures the intensity of those feelings, how easy it is to fall into obsession, and just how desperately we want to be part of something. Laura is obsessed with a writer, so she becomes obsessed with a boarding school and when she finally gets to go there, she becomes obsessed with Virginia. A dark academia piece that is filled to the brim with angsty teenage theatrics, queer desire, religious zealotry, the insular fragility of friendship, and 'not like other girls' energy turned deadly.
