This Year in Horror

https://amzn.to/41k1FXy

Alone in the desert and covered in blood, Josiah Dennis comes across an abandoned town, and two unlikely storytellers burdened with sharing its history—past, present, and future.

Rogue gangs of vampires, young witches, flayed cadavers, giant lizards, and men with dark hearts dwell in these pages, looming over Buzzard’s Edge, a town full of people struggling to survive in an unforgiving Arizona frontier.

So, sit down a spell, and settle where the daybreak ends.

The cover features a faceless family at a table - tall sans-serif font over red and white imagery. Very liminal and evocative  of the 50s.

https://amzn.to/3B5okMm

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from his home in Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trancelike state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get them medical help.

A face made up of forest green circulatory system on a black background, set off by bright yellow bold print brush text.

https://amzn.to/4fBMgWZ

1988: Thirteen-year-old Andy Miller and his friends – Carl, Brian, Johnny and Gavin – become witnesses to the vicious attack of their classmate, Poppy, and the brutal murder of her sister at a flooded railway line they call the frog ponds. They lead the police to a suspect, a vulnerable older boy whose differences single him out. But when he commits suicide, his guilt is never proven. And the crime goes unpunished, until . . .

Now: Carl’s body is found beside the same body of water – and the lives of the four remaining friends start to unravel. Is the hag-like woman terrorizing their every waking moment really a grown-up Poppy hellbent on revenge? Or something else . . . something steeped in childhood nightmares? Something determined to reveal the truth and punish the wicked.

Red and black oil paint style - a man in a leather mask holds a camera aimed at the reader. Nice plain rounded serif font in white. 

https://amzn.to/4fb5EJf

There are casual fans, and then there are genuine fanatics. Gary has been obsessed with the extreme side of cinema since he could remember, and has been on a quest to see every infamous film possible, the more shocking, the better.

He has even tried his hand at making his own films, but tonight he will be part of an urban legend, the thing people like him fantasize about: tonight Gary is going to see an actual snuff film.

But what he witnesses on a small screen at a secret location is only the beginning of a downward spiral where entertainment and fate collide…where Gary discovers there was a latent reason for his life long fascination with the dark side…

The cover is a winter scene of a person walking in a snowy glen with a blood spot on the front right of the cover and large Neptune like planet looming close in the sky.

https://amzn.to/3WyTofl

In this collection of 15 science fiction and horror tales, endure nuclear winter with Earth’s last desperate survivors, help a woman trapped in her laundry room battle something terrifying in her clothes dryer, or travel with a convicted man on his lonely walk to prison across a desert planet—going from the most crowded cities to the loneliest reaches of the galaxy, in the now and in the future, exploring humankind’s darkest depths and noblest aspirations.

The cover is black with muted yellow and green featuring a hand floating in a lava lamp. Text  dominates in a retro style fat serif in orange.

https://amzn.to/4hStpbw

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
 
Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. 
 
Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid...and it’s usually paid in blood.

The cover features a red-lit head with a hand grasping it on a black background.

https://amzn.to/3P6kc2p

A single line of text, glowing in the darkness of the internet. 
"If you're reading this, you've likely thought that the world would be a better place without you."

Written by Ashley Lutin, who has often thought the same--and worse--in the years since his wife died and his young son disappeared. But the peace of the grave is not for him--it's for those he can help. Ashley has constructed a peculiar ritual for those whose desire to die is at war with their yearning to live a better life.

Struggling to overcome his own endless grief, one night Ashley finds connection with Jinx--a potential candidate for Ashley's next ritual--who spins a tale both revolting and fascinating. Thus begins a relationship that traps the two men in an ever-tightening spiral of painful revelations, where long-hidden secrets are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light.

The cover featured yellow sans-serif text over a loose pastel sketch of a woman's face.

https://amzn.to/3ZGMjet

In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko, miss a flight, and over dinner, discover they've both brutally lost loved ones whose paths crossed with the same beguiling woman no one has seen since.

Following traces this mysterious person left behind, Jake travels from country to country gathering chilling testimonies from others who encountered her across the decades—a trail of shattered souls that eventually leads him to Theo, a dying sculptor in rural New Mexico, who knows the woman better than anyone—and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is.

Red text in a stretched bold serif style over what looks like a stylized ice cavers. All black, red and white.

https://amzn.to/49te11y

For the last year, Holly and Brian have been out of sync. Neither can forget what happened that one winter evening; neither can forgive what’s happened since. Tonight, Holly and Brian race toward Pinebuck, New York, trying to outrun a blizzard on their way to the ski village getaway they hope will save their relationship. But soon they lose control of the car—and then of themselves.

Now Sheriff Kendra Book is getting calls about a couple in trouble—along with reports of a brutal and mysterious creature rampaging through town, leaving a trail of crushed cars, wrecked buildings, and mangled bodies in the snow.

To Kendra, who lost another couple to the snow just seven weeks ago, the danger feels personal. But not as personal as it feels to Holly and Brian, who are starting to see the past, the present, and themselves in a monstrous new light . . .

The cover is tan with river stones arranged in the shape of a skull with the authors names repeated in a warbled circle around the stones. 

https://amzn.to/4fGFQ94

Professor Everard, weird fiction scholar and proclaimed critic of H.P Lovecraft's works, is no stranger to making people mad. Giving convention presentations on the triteness and melodrama of Lovecraft's work pays the bills, though. Sometimes he even gets laid.

When he angers a beautiful but dangerous witch and devotee of Lovecraft's work, she casts a spell on him, sending him to a dimension where Lovecraft's works are very real—and very deadly. Everard must find a way through this alternate dimension to get home, before the worst of Lovecraft's horrors prove what a master of monstrosities he really was.

Beautiful cover of black with a red relief evoking minimalist film poster art. Blackletter style font. Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).

https://amzn.to/4gLd3jU

Steeped in the sexual tension between two young women, this is a beautiful, brand-new edition of the original cult classic.

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest - the beautiful Carmilla.

A black and white stripy affair similar to the other books in the  series - skulls and roses adorn the title.

https://amzn.to/4j4U4m6

Dark Moon Books and editor Eric J. Guignard bring you this introduction to her work, the seventh in a series of primers exploring modern masters of literary dark short fiction. Herein is a chance to discover the evocative voice of Gemma Files, as beautifully illustrated by artist Michelle Prebich.

A beautiful cover of a woodcut style black background featuring a cabin in the piney woods, the relief is a muted red to dark teal gradient. The type is soft serifs.

https://amzn.to/4gLLhDV

Twenty-five year old Calla is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

The cover is a gorgeous black with red text featuring a plump red steak plated directly on green herbs.

https://amzn.to/3PS68JY

Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember.

When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.

Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful stray named Eden turns up in a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make a bid for freedom.

The cover has a porcelain doll's face with yellow fluted block text over top - reminds me somewhat of Incident in a Ghostland. I've requested an ARC.

https://amzn.to/3BQLsPo

Winifred arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew; tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze. 

Compounded with her disdain for the children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . .

The cover looks like a techno thriller - skyscrapers with ghastly red skulls leering over a city street. Strange but it works. White sans serif font. Very nouveau Tom Clancy

https://amzn.to/42tOjs7

In the aftermath of a catastrophic New Year's Eve explosion in the heart of the city, Miki embarks upon a treacherous odyssey into the devastated area in search of her famous photojournalist sister, Jennifer, who has mysteriously disappeared.

With only the help of a former homicide detective, a cagey teenage street dodger, and a set of lurid photographs her sister left behind, Miki will come face to face with the manifestations of malevolent psychic energy called Paramentals-and the sinister conspiracy that created them.

Ochre text in stretched bold serif over a very creepy woodland lake - very lonesome umber, red, brown with many verticals in the tree trunks. Haunting. 

https://amzn.to/429jQzx

With its long history of countless deaths and disappearances, Aiken Mill, Virginia, has become known to law enforcement as “The Cold Case Capital of the World.” A mutilated body has turned up in town and Sheriff Parrott discovers frightening clues that lead him to believe some ghostly force—or entity—may be responsible for the killing.

Meanwhile, psychology professor Martin Pritchett and his brother, Phillip, happen upon a crumbling, century-old house beside a body of water called Black Tooth Pond. A strange compulsion leads both men back to the house time and time again, but neither can remember any of the events that occur there.

As both the Sherrif and Pritchett brothers attempt to solve their respective mysteries, their paths begin to converge—paths that lead inexorably to the ancient, foreboding house at Black Tooth Pond.

This title has one of those kindleprenure titles that has added to it: "Creepy Gothic Horror with a Haunting Thematic Atmosphere, Perfect for Winter 2025, Don't Read Alone" which I find annoying as that is not the title

Really great cover in red and black with a twisted tree that has glowing eyes peering out from a hollow knot in the trunk.

https://amzn.to/4j7yjBZ

There’s something wrong in Renfield County.

It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew "The Giant" in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.

A beautiful red on black cover with a Dungeness crab illustrated on the cover. One of those kindle books that have a long 'kindlepreur' title that tells us it is unputdownable. This is not the title. "Scuttler's Cove: A chilling, unputdownable folk horror thriller" as the cover says  it is 'a seaside idyll with horror at its heart'. It still sounds good though. 

https://amzn.to/4hwhOy4

Scuttler’s Cove is a working village, nestling in dramatic coastal scenery in Cornwall, where life has gone on uninterrupted for centuries… until this seaside idyll was discovered by the rich. Now the quaint cottages have been snapped up by time-share and rental companies, and the locals can barely afford to live in their own town.

It is a very different place for Merrin Moon, who left for university at the age of eighteen and never looked back. Now in her thirties, she returns to the Cove for the first time since, after the death of her mother. She soon discovers that there are forces at play in the village that she could never have imagined. Something old and terrible is awakening beneath the town’s hallowed ground. And with it comes a horror that the residents have fought for generations to keep a secret.

The cover in red with white text reminds me of the Mallus Malleficarum or Withcraft and Superstition. Plain but effective.

https://amzn.to/404hgIB

Blood on Satan's Claw is widely regarded as part of the ‘unholy trinity’ of cult classics which gave birth to the film genre that would become known as folk horror. Along with The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, it found new ways to terrify audiences using elements of superstition and folklore.

Now, fifty years after its release, readers can experience the unearthing of this terror in the film’s first official novelisation: a compelling and frightening retelling of the fate of unfortunate villagers sacrificed by their own children as devil worship infiltrates their rural existence.

Written by the film’s original screenwriter Robert Wynne-Simmons and featuring haunting new illustrations from Richard Wells, it is an atmospheric and defining cult classic in the making.

A poison green background with a oiled fish tin of eyeballs. Fittingly weird and cosmic, as the twitter account it was spawned of is. 

https://amzn.to/4fRGEa6

Noah desperately needs a new job that involves less blood and piss than his current one as a janitor. So, when he spots an ad for a newspaper seeking an ad rep with ‘No experience preferred’, he puts on his good shirt and marches down to their average-looking office to unknowingly sign his life away.

Malachia is the only human left in the City of Silence and she spends her time wandering its empty, bone-filled streets. Until one day she finds a lone figure hunched over a typewriter, his fingers enmeshed with the keys. Could he be the answer to finding her lost love?

Propelled by their pursuits for rent money and truth, Noah and Malachia are pushed to their limits in this tightly-plotted satire of occupational hazards and conglomerate powers.

Dread Singles (@hottestsingles) 
HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA, FLESH UNDULATING IN TIME TO THEIR FERAL KEENING

A lovely cover evoking The Nightmare without the gremlin. Green block calligraphic text.

https://amzn.to/420XpfZ

It’s the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore’s marriage to steel baron Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla; weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed with terrible hunger . . .

As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk.

The cover is in keeping with the rest of this series featuring a litho-style graveyard in black over a gradient of red to orange. Tall sans-serif white text.

https://amzn.to/4h3T3Zz

Keira is caught in a deadly battle. Her ability to help ghosts move on from the mortal world has made her a threat to Artec, a powerful corporation intent on trapping the tortured dead for profit. They've been tracking her for years and now, finally, there's nowhere left for her to run.

Artec fears Keira and everything she's capable of. They will stop at nothing to eliminate her―including sending armed men after everyone she holds dear.

A rather boring cover of a door hanger on a motel room door. Fitting rolled serif typography of the 30s perhaps. 

https://amzn.to/40llLQd

These short stories evoke an alluring voice, sure to make the reader shiver in arousal and horror, never quite knowing what could happen next. Castro pushes past the limits of gothic terror and fantasy to carve a dangerous path of lust and violence, all throughout the reader’s charming stay at The Pink Agave Motel.

The cover has a howling wolf illustrated in green ink on a black background. Yellow chunky serifed text. Strange choice for the  title as it is often used so this book would be confused with others easily. Blurbed by George R. R. Martin. 

https://amzn.to/3CesN05

Under cover of the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff—gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon, after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world.

All manner of participants, both human and not, are about with their ancient tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night. The witch, the mad monk, the vengeful vicar, the Count who sleeps by day, the Good Doctor and the hulking Experiment Man he fashioned from human body parts, and a wild-card American named Larry Talbot—all the while Snuff is keeping Things at bay and staying a leap ahead of the Great Detective, who knows quite a bit more than he lets on.

the cover is beautiful and evocative of the yellow wallpaper being a  slat and plaster wall with a hole in some faded and stained old wallpaper. The font is a distressed black sans-serif.  

https://amzn.to/3PQHCco

Newly-minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she’s been unable to get her feet wet. The only reprieve from her small world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. 

Alice is a thirteen year old girl who claims she’s being haunted by a witch. Living with her family in their crowded home in a remote village, Alice’s symptoms are increasingly disturbing, and money is tight. Taking this job will give Mina some experience and Alice will get better, Mina is sure of it.

But instead of improving, Alice’s behaviour becomes increasingly inexplicable and intense. The town has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand.

A red cover with massive blood spatter stylized over a DSLR camera on a city street.

https://amzn.to/4hwPcEQ

Rick is a young, struggling filmmaker with big dreams but no direction. By day, he’s trapped in a soul-crushing job he despises; by night, he pours his heart into low-budget short films, hoping to break into Hollywood. When he meets Sergio, a charismatic yet enigmatic producer, Rick is convinced he’s finally found his big break.

Behind the allure of success lies a twisted underworld of snuff films–gruesome, underground creations blurring the line between art and depravity.

As Rick becomes entrenched in Sergio’s world, but the deeper he dives, the more he loses: friendships, love, and the last fragments of his humanity. What starts as a desperate attempt to make a name for himself spirals into a waking nightmare of violence and betrayal.

Rick never imagined his pursuit of success would lead him here. Now, as the horrors he’s complicit in mount, he’s left to question whether he can escape–or if he even wants to.

https://amzn.to/4kfbVaJ

Lovely cover but hard to describe - a tree rendered in dark charcoal black on a white cover. The illustration is beautiful - a skeleton in the hollow of a tree - with stark red text in a script for the word Bella, surrounded by chunky serif text for the rest. Really pretty. Very simple. Very pretty.

When Dr Emma Lloyd relocates to the quaint English parish of Hagley, she hopes to leave her painful past behind and reinvent herself as a forensic investigator. But her fresh start takes a sinister twist when she’s drawn into the parish’s most infamous cold case: the mysterious 80-year-old murder of a Jane Doe found discarded in a tree’s hollow. A woman the locals have come to know as Bella.

As Emma digs deeper and secrets come to light, she faces unexpected resistance—from her superiors to Bella herself. Haunted by Bella’s vengeful ghost, Emma begins to suspect the case is far more dangerous—and personal—than she ever imagined.

https://amzn.to/41DryRN

I love this cover. Bubble gum pink on black - but mostly pink - image of a heart made of screaming mouths full of white teeth surrounded by tentacle-like arteries. Wild. The font is like what I call a Bootleg Serif, kind of 70’s western porno look.

Jennifer Plummer and the Divine Flesh have exactly three things in common: 1) they're trapped inside Jennifer's body; 2) they despise each other; and 3) they're in love with Daryl Plummer, Jennifer's ex-husband. But when Jennifer takes an experimental wonder drug to free herself from the Divine Flesh's control, it only makes things worse. Expelled from Jennifer's body, the Divine Flesh can now "love" everyone in existence to death, which in this case, means being assimilated forever into the beast. With time running out, it's somehow up to Jennifer and Daryl to save the universe from complete and total destruction. Can a dysfunctional drug mule and an electrician from rural Idaho stop the cosmic abomination before it's too late? Jennifer thinks, maybe.

https://amzn.to/4iicPRR

I fucking love this cover. This reminds me of Mastodon by Steve Stred, the end of 1310 Clover filed Lane, The creature features of The Mist or Troll Hunter. The twist is having two dogs overlooking a cornfield where a titanic creature is making it's way across the landscape. Not a person in sight - condensed text - perfection. 

You won’t find the Eris Ridge Trail on any map. You won’t find the people who go missing on it, either. The Eris Ridge Trail has no beginning. No end. It runs forever, connecting realities across space and time. Four travelers find themselves lost on the Trail…

A novice reporter who learns that some shortcuts are anything but. A grieving author who’s reunited with his dead dog in the tunnels beneath a haunted hotel. A young man who tries a new ride-share app that abandons him in the space between Nebraska and Colorado. A seasoned hiker and his aging dog who discover the remains of a six-legged rodent near the sign for a trail they’ve never heard of.

Disoriented by an ever-changing landscape and hunted by otherworldly predators, can they work together long enough to find their way home, or will they fall prey to the cosmic beast that guards the Trail?

https://amzn.to/3Panh1d

The cover is black with red and white text arranged in a circle that surrounds an off-centre nun who is rejoicing to the heavens or something like that. Plain, brutalist, Bazterrica.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

https://amzn.to/3XrPi8X

Four colour comic book teens running at a dutch tilt awy from a werewolf masked killer with a knife. Interesting to a certain crowd for sure! 

CJ has survived the horror movie that is her life by following one rule: blend in and stay out of it. But that's hard to do when your trauma gets turned into a bestselling book series. The Slasherville books are a true crime phenomenon, documenting the Wolf Man massacres that changed CJ's life forever. CJ hates everything about the books and their fans, but at this point she's just grateful there aren't any more murders to write about.

Until one day when an unpublished Slasherville book shows up on her doorstep predicting new Wolf Man killings. CJ is sure it's a bad prank. But then the events in the book start coming true, and when CJ breaks her one rule, the Final Girl-the person who, according to the book, was supposed to stop the Wolf Man-ends up dead. Suddenly, blending in and staying out of it is not an option, and CJ will have to use everything she knows about the rules of horror to make it out alive.

https://amzn.to/41E8K4Y

Features an overgrown ivy on the cover with a dimly candle lit window in the centre through which we can see the silhouette of a woman.

It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.

The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.

https://amzn.to/3EYW3Zv

Dark blue on black featuring a raven perched in the foreground and a farm house in the back. What more could you want! Stylized serifed creepy toggle size text, that's what! I like it. 

Death can come for anyone at anytime. There's no escaping it. There are a million ways to die, not all of them expected. What starts as a peaceful day can end in the worst possible way.

So brace yourself for the inevitable.

Memento Mori contains thirteen stories filled with curses, monsters, and deteriorating minds that will leave you with the reminder that one day, you too will die.

Stories Include:

A Concert to Die For: A struggling musician finally gets the opportunity he's dreamed of, but how many lives will he be willing to trade for it? Dolls: After an incident at a high school reunion, voodoo dolls start appearing around town. Wherever they go, tragedy follows. Footsteps: When a medium learns the truth of her powers, she meets her biggest challenge yet in an entity that gets its powers from hunting psychics. Stockholm Syndrome: Avera wakes in an experimental facility with no memory of who she is or how she got there.

https://amzn.to/4bs8aL4

A very neat and corporate heavy Helvetica black text on blue - this cover features a blue sky, with head office floating on a boulder. Odd. Soothing.

Welcome to the Organization.
Employees of the organization contribute to its mission to apply non-traditional methods to the non-traditional problems of today.
To ensure that all employees have the same opportunity to thrive, the organization's state-of-the-art live and work facility has all the comforts of home, plus technology that maximizes their opportunities for collaboration.
Without the organization, Clarissa Knowles would have nowhere else to go. That is, unless she can make it to Dick's house, the professor she's been talking to online. Haunted by her failed relationship with Maurice (the existentialist), and the deaths of her parents, can Clarissa shake off the values of the organization, pack up her cat - and go?

https://amzn.to/41L2M2z 

The cover features the head of a stately buffalo, from the side, on beige. Unremarkable. The text is a red corroded western font mixed with a marker font not unlike lipstick. Interesting - just not interesting enough. 

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

https://amzn.to/3DqtP9D 

Love this photographic cover - it is a white door, slightly ajar, with a woman's hand just coming around the edge to either close it further or open it more. A mystery already. The shadows of vertical blinds fall across the door and text - mainly white bowed serif. Lovely. 

Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of her sister, Naiche. But when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, somehow Olivia suddenly can’t stop seeing and hearing from spirits.

A few years later, she’s the most in-demand paranormal investigator in Denver. She’s good at her job, but the loss of Naiche haunts her. That’s when she hears from the Brown Palace, a landmark Denver hotel. The owner can’t explain it, but every few years, a girl is found dead in room 904, no matter what room she checked into the night before. As Olivia tries to understand these disturbing deaths, the past and the present collide as Olivia’s investigation forces her to confront a mysterious and possibly dangerous cult, a vindictive journalist, betrayal by her friends, and shocking revelations about her sister’s secret life.

https://amzn.to/3XowU0Q

The cover is the red on red of blood cells with red and white text on a black parallelogram in the centre. Boring, just like the actual book. Best cover for it I have ever seen! 

Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure.

The Nebula Award-finalist reinvention of the vampire novel, described as a "masterpiece" by Guillermo del Toro.

Edward Weyland is far from your average vampire: not only is he a respected anthropology professor but his condition is biological ― rather than supernatural. He lives discrete lifetimes bounded by decades of hibernation and steals blood from labs rather than committing murder. Weyland is a monster who must form an uneasy empathy with his prey in order to survive

https://amzn.to/4ko02Pv

Hot pink skies over a strip of wet highway heading into forever with black pine forests on the sides. Glowing white hot Helvetica. Impressive and tense looking already. The eponymous white line beckons. 

At a passing glance, County Road 951 is an entirely unremarkable stretch of blacktop, a two-lane scar across the Cascade foothills of Central Oregon.

But the road is known by another name, coined by locals who’ve had to clean up after all those scenic detours went horribly wrong: The Devil’s Driveway.

When Livia and her long-time friends take the Driveway as a shortcut to a much-needed weekend getaway, what begins as a morning joyride quickly becomes anything but. Soon, they’re driving for their lives, pursued by a horror beyond anything they ever imagined.

The Devil’s Driveway might be only 15 miles long, but with danger at every turn, it will take the four women to the very limits of their friendships and their sanity.

https://amzn.to/3EYfMbM

Red corroded serif text on a black and white image of a graveyard featuring a freshly dug grave; pile of dirt, shovel and all.

With his daughter in a casket and his wife in a cult, David Eden is on the brink of losing touch with reality. So when he begins conversing with his daughter’s ghost and then encounters a nightmare monster in the cemetery that can’t possibly be real but is most certainly deadly, he is convinced he’s lost it. But David is also out to get vengeance on the white supremacists he blames for his child’s death, and he’s about to learn that sometimes it takes a monster to defeat one.

Buy on Indigo

Very cool impressionistic pastel cover of a woman standing on the edge of a forest, facing the camera. Wild and fantastical mushrooms crowd the foreground while a polluted cloud rolls in behind her. Clashes of orange and blue create a visual miasma. White text. Looks great. 

Living in a post-climate disaster world protected by a layer of artificial cloud, Mallory knows every shade of darkness, their world lit sparingly by bioluminescence. But when Rein stumbles across their path—radioactive light bleeding from their teeth, their skin twisted and burned—Mallory's worldview implodes, and the true cost of their survival becomes all too clear.

A haunting cli-fi novella ideal for fans of Tiffany Morris and Stephanie Feldman, EVERY DARK CLOUD combines a dystopian setting and class-conscious narrative with a glimmer of hope for our shared humanity.

https://amzn.to/3F1aGf4

Duotone red on black, this features dried rose stems with thorns and a fittingly gothic blackletter style font in stark white.

The email that lands in Billie Hope’s inbox seems like a gift from the universe. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home in Juliana, Georgia, a small town eager to boost its economy in the wake of the pandemic. She can leave behind her cramped New York City rental and the painful memories of shuttering her once thriving restaurant and start over with her husband and her daughter. Plus, she’ll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. It seems like a dream come true…or a devil’s bargain.

https://amzn.to/3XkSR0U 
 
Black tress on red with white Helvetica all caps text. Lovely. The trees are in the shape of a skull which is quite a feat using what looks like Jack Pine. Plain, effective.

In the aftermath of a painful breakup, Mike and his friend Wade seek solace in the remote beauty of Devil's Cup State Park, Colorado. Their quest for peace is abruptly ended when a meteor strike causes a rock to fall, trapping them and a diverse group of campers within the ancient volcanic caldera. As they grapple with their new reality, a far more sinister challenge emerges from the depths of the earth.

The sanctuary they sought becomes a hunting ground as the group discovers the ground infested with lethal, flesh-piercing worms. The situation turns dire when they realize these predators are merely the heralds of something far more terrifying: the NAMELESS THINGS. With no way to call for help, survival hinges on their ability to outsmart the unseen terror lurking beneath their feet.

https://amzn.to/41F4KB2 

Cool cover in teals, cyan, blues and blacks with fuchsia highlights, a cyberpunk looking face bisected with digital lines with Helvetica or terminal text. Effective, reminds me of the film hardware already. 

Once, Sammy Dominguez thought he knew how the world worked. The ugly things in his head—his uncle’s pathetic death, his parents’ mistrust, the twisted horrors he writes for the Internet—didn’t matter, because he and his girl, Ellery, were on track for the good life in this messed-up world.

Then a car accident changed everything.

Spiraling with grief and guilt, Sammy scrambles for distraction. He finds it in shock-value videos of gore and violence that terrified him as a child. When someone messages him a dark web link to footage of Ellery dying, he watches—first the car crash that killed her, then hundreds of other deaths, even for people still alive. Accidents. Diseases. Suicides. Murders.

The host site, chinsky, is sadistic, vicious, impossible. It even seems to read his mind, manipulate his searches. But is chinsky even real?

https://amzn.to/43rT8D0

(Ferris wheel pupil in a burning eye with hot pink on teal and tall yellow text - the cover tells us nothing but to expect the bizarre.)

It is the summer of ‘97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change.

Enter the Freakslaw―a travelling carnival of deviant queers and architects of mayhem. There’s Gloria, fortune teller and worm charmer; her daughter Nancy, a contortionist witch; big-hearted tightrope walker, Werewolf Louie; not to mention illusionists and conjoined twins, Cass and Henry, and tattooed human pincushion, the Pin Gal. Against Pitlaw’s miserably grey landscape, the carnival shines electric and bright, and it doesn’t take long for the town’s teenagers to be seduced by its neon charms and the possibility of escape.

https://amzn.to/4kooXCQ

(Not a fan of the yellow text this time around, but love the braided hair with rose thorns sticking out of it. It looks like a physically crafted editorial, it is so well done.)

Touch a line, you break your spine.

Stacey is the dusty air, the cracked soil, the drought. To thirteen-year-old Bethany Sloane, she’s everything.

Abandoned by her mother at a remote African boarding school, Bethany will do anything to stay in Stacey’s good graces. And that means learning the rules of each twisted game.

Touch a crack, you break your back.

Years later, Bethany is a bestselling author. Disabled now, she can’t remember what happened back in the bush. But there’s no mistaking Stacey Preston’s name in her inbox.

Glassy, glassy, cut my arsey.

That email brings Bethany’s childhood rushing back. The Glass Man was just a story the Thorns invented, a game of wits. But every game has its rules―and consequences for breaking them. To stay alive this round, Bethany needs to play right into Stacey’s hands.

https://amzn.to/41PtMhc

(We are still on the woodcut look from last month - white on black trees surround a small cottage with a red circle in the upper half with the title in white. Helvetica font for a modern look though. Nice!)

An old house turns out to not be as empty as its new owners supposed. A nobleman barters his soul in exchange for arcane knowledge. A stranger with a terrible curse looks for an unsuspecting victim to take her place. Monsters, killers and unquiet spirits stalk these stories, drawn from the places where folklore, the Gothic and modern fiction intertwine – Irish literature’s dark and ever-present shadow.

https://amzn.to/4hU7bET

(A modern blocky sans serif tells us this is sci-fi where there is a shadowed monstrous claw reaching over a person in cryo-sleep. Cold blues and greys are set off by the title in bold red text.)

Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago…

The cryo program, created by trillionaire tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram "hosts," ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld’s three adult children, are glitchy. The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there’s a constant scraping, slithering, and rattling echoing in the vents.

https://amzn.to/3Y1tKAD

(Nice use of Helvetica like black text on white. The simple cover features a wormy red tentacle squirming from ashower drain. Creepy. I have a review copy!)

A historic hotel long past its prime and huddled along The Cut, a questionable Lake Erie beach, isn’t Sadie Miles’ ideal place to raise a toddler while also navigating her second pregnancy. After finally fleeing her abusive ex-fiancé, though, Sadie’s new housekeeping position and free room at L’Arpin Hotel are the best she can manage.

On her first night, Sadie runs to help a guest struggling in the hotel’s pool only to find the water calm and empty when she gets there, leaving her with a lingering unease. When a guest then goes missing and her manager insists they simply left without checking out, Sadie suspects he’s covering up darker goings-on in the hotel.

https://amzn.to/3RwnE7i

(Another one with a kindleprenure title : Their Monstrous Hearts: A Gothic Horror Novel with a Dual Timeline and a Suspenseful Mystery. A lovely cover with red blocky Impact text of black featuring a woman’s hands holding a butterfly and caterpillar - the red text colour is mirrored in long red nails. Effective!)

A mysterious stranger shows up at Riccardo’s apartment with some news: his grandmother Perihan has died, and Riccardo has inherited her villa in Milan along with her famed butterfly collection.

The struggling writer is out of options. He’s hoping the change of scenery in Milan will inspire him, and maybe there will be some money to keep him afloat. But Perihan’s house isn’t as opulent as he remembers. The butterflies pinned in their glass cases seem more ominous than artful. Perihan’s group of mysterious old friends is constantly lurking. And there’s something wrong in the greenhouse.

https://amzn.to/3DVlP0P

(A woman with long red hair floats across the middle of the book. Compelling while telling us nothing. The text is Trajan Pro or something used on many books but works here. I have a review copy on NetGalley!)

When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in the desert on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the detective assigned to the case can't deny the similarities between this murder and one that occurred a year prior…

Toby Kampen, the self-proclaimed Human Fly, begins an obsession over a woman who is unlike anyone he has ever met. A woman with rattlesnake teeth and a penchant for biting. A woman who has trapped him in her spell. A woman who may or may not be completely human…

https://amzn.to/42fysMp

(Compases and mapping tools decorate the cover which is yellow and white on black. Not quite a woodcut look but clipart style. A proper mix of sans serif for large text and serif for small.)

What you hold in your hands is a travel guide to the strange and surreal. From arcades along a boardwalk and jetties at the edges of tourist towns, to a rural village in Pakistan and hollows hidden deep within a forest in Pennsylvania, strange things can happen no matter where you are.

With twenty-two stories by authors such as Brian Keene, Maurice Broaddus, Ai Jiang, Samit Basu, and KS Walker, editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner take readers on a tour of places where weird things happen. Places where ghosts are real, old gods are hungry, and towns are not as idyllic as they appear to be.

https://amzn.to/3YbBv6O

(A dark overhead of a cull-de-sac that ends in a pit leading to teh earths molten core. As per usual. You know, how your street ends in a helllmouth? Yeah, that. With butter yellow bold serif text for the title and Trajan Pro for the name.)

Jerry Campbell just wants to be left alone. Grief-stricken over the death of his wife Abigail, the elderly widower and recent retiree is desperate for a change of scenery. When his realtor suggests a new home in Fairview Acres, a retirement community in the Poconos, Jerry figures it will be a nice place to spend the rest of his days in solitude.

Until he moves in.

His neighbors all say Katherine suffers from a form of dementia called Sundowner's Syndrome, but as the weeks progress and the strangeness mounts, Jerry begins to suspect there is something else going on in his neighborhood. Something that has to do with the huge stone in the community park...

https://amzn.to/3E8tfxC

(A black wolf dog in a window snarls at the reader. Nice stark white tall serif text works well with a classic looking book.)

One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.

As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them―the boy can turn his every fear into reality.

And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.

https://amzn.to/3XFHxwl

(A chunky screen print of a woman a black habit on a beige background, but she has a popart style green face with red almost lipstick crayon text scrawled across the front for the title.)

Sister Rafaela, a newcomer to the cloistered Sisters of Divine Innocence, yearns for redemption from her horrific past. However, her new abbey, bound by a vow of silence and a disturbing burial ritual, hides its own sinister secrets.

When a mysterious stranger arrives and dies soon after, her body resists decomposition, sparking fevered claims of sainthood among the nuns... but Rafaela suspects something far darker.

As the abbey teeters on the edge of madness, Rafaela and local priest Father Bruno race to uncover whether the Sisters of Divine Innocence are graced by a divine miracle-or consumed by unspeakable evil.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

https://amzn.to/43DiFt7

(Yikes - a beautiful cover with a kindlepreneur title Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng: A Darkly Funny, Gory, and Ghostly Horror Novel)

A very pretty bat splayed over a dried flower arrangement kind of a play on orange and teal with brown umbers and grey blue tones. Gorgeous microserif text in stark white.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train.

Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater.

So the bloody messes don’t really bother Cora—she’s more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can’t be sure what's real and what’s in her head.

https://amzn.to/4lepXda

(I love this large hot pink blocky Impact text over a dark background featuring a bif ominous arcade cabinet. OOOOOoooo)

October, 1982. Forced to move to the quiet seaside town of Tasker Bay by her mother, the only thing on high schooler Andi’s mind is saving up enough money to return to her old stomping grounds in Silicon Valley. Her self-taught skills with all things electronic make her a perfect fit for a job at the dingy local arcade where she can tune out from life and bankroll her eventual escape.

When Polybius—a new bleeding-edge game of unknown origin arrives—the shop is suddenly overwhelmed with players fighting for time on the machine. After a grisly act of violence goes unsolved, the town descends into chaos. Is the arrival of this mysterious game and the disorder in Tasker Bay a coincidence?

https://amzn.to/4iKz3fP

(Comes as advertised - the cover features a spiral staircase in the dark yellow lit woods. Unsettling morning shot with all caps white Gill Sans looking text.)

Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what. Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods. . . .

https://amzn.to/3F2ohmu

The cover is red on black: an inverted pentagram and candles with Roman text what more do you need? 

What’s the difference between humans and monsters? Is there a fine line, or is it more gray and blurred? Rami Ungar, author of Rose and Hannah and Other Stories, explores this question in his latest collection, Symphony for Walpurgis. From legendary cryptids to malevolent spirits and from Ohio in the 1950s to modern-day California, readers will be treated to nine terrifying stories of the weird and macabre. So settle down and be prepared. For you have bought your ticket to Symphony for Walpurgis.

https://amzn.to/3GSSvsH

A man walks down a lonely country road in blue moonlight on the cover. Red blood paint text. Plain but effective complementary colours. 

Deep in the Cumberland Mountains awaits an evil and Three Forks, Virginia is at the center. An old legend merges with a being beyond human comprehension, and Silas Sword has fallen face-first into it.

Evicted from his apartment, and fired from his job as a detective, he is forced to return home to Three Forks, where he finds his parents brutally murdered. Silas is pulled into the local police to help investigate. As things unfold, he finds a mysterious cabin that morphs with each visit. Add in a mysterious blue mist, and a freak snowstorm, and you have a recipe for disaster.

https://amzn.to/3SkswwN

Gold intaglio on black - a very effective art deco cover. It looks like an old menu cover. Display font for the title and Futura for the author’s name. 

Mabel Rose Dixon will do anything to become a Ziegfeld girl—including picking the pockets of the wealthy NYC elite to fund her way to stardom. When she picks the wrong pocket, Mabel loses her soul to a hotel run by demons and tumbles into the world of The Grand Hotel, a place where any artist can make it big.

Mabel’s greatest wish to be famous is granted. Every night, she performs as the starring act to a crowded theater and finds she is never without patrons. But Mabel quickly learns that losing her soul to get everything she ever wanted comes at a much steeper cost than what she bargained for. She must steal her soul back before the Grand’s annual May’s Eve Ball or become a demon herself forever.

https://amzn.to/3YwJ9ZL

A vivid green and red vine grows up to encircle a tiny planet earth. Mainly black background of outer space. White roman text for the title and sans-serif for the name. Eye catching! 

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has believed her.

Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

https://amzn.to/4mfcz98

A victorian lady holding a mince pie that looks quite bloody with a black background. Red text in various styles of serif display font and letterforms with some subtitling in an Antiquarian font.

London, 1887: At the abandoned apartment of a missing young woman, a dossier of evidence is collected, ordered chronologically, and sent to the Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police. It contains a frightening correspondence between an inquisitive journalist, Miss Emily Gibson, and the woman Gibson thinks may be the infamous Mrs. Lovett—Sweeney Todd’s accomplice, “a wicked woman” who baked men into pies and sold them in her pie shop on Fleet Street. The talk of London Town—even decades after her horrendous misdeeds.

As the woman relays the harrowing account of her life in the unruly and perilous streets of Victorian London, her missives unlock an intricate mystery that brings Miss Gibson closer to the truth, even as that truth may cost her everything. A hair-raising and breathtaking novel for fans of Sarah Waters and Gregory Maguire, The Butcher’s Daughter is an irresistible literary thriller that draws richly from historical sources and shines new light on the woman behind the counter of the most disreputable pie shop ever known.

https://amzn.to/3RO6wKE

All kinds of stuff here! A woman's face in red peers through a tear in a victorian mansion surrounded by lilies on a black background. White Futura text.

Vivian Yin is dead. The first Chinese actress to win an Oscar, the trailblazing ingénue rose to fame in the eighties, only to disappear from the spotlight at the height of her career to live out the rest of her life as a recluse.

Now her remaining family members are gathered for the reading of her will, and her daughters expect to inherit their childhood home: Vivian’s grand, sprawling, Southern California garden estate. But due to a last-minute change to the will, the house is passed on to another family instead—one that has suddenly returned after decades of estrangement.

In hopes of staking their claim, both families move into the mansion. As Vivian’s daughters race to piece together what happened in the last weeks of their mother’s life, disturbing visions and bizarre behaviors start to take hold of everyone in the house, forcing them to realize they are being haunted by something far more sinister and vengeful than their regrets. After so many years of silence, will the families finally confront the painful truth behind the house’s origins and the last, tragic summer they spent there—or will they cling to their secrets until it’s too late?

https://amzn.to/4jHC29w

Charlie Book and Ruby Cahill have history. After their love ended in heartbreak years ago, they never expected to see each other again.

Now, as part of his work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Book lives aboard the Christabel, a 19th century freighter half-sunken off the shore of Galveston. Over many years, a massive forest of mangrove trees has grown up through the deck of the ship, creating a startlingly beautiful enigma Book calls the Floating Forest. As a powerful storm churns through the Gulf, he intends to sleep on board as usual.

But when he arrives at the dock, he’s stunned to find Ruby there waiting for him. And she’s not alone. With her are a mysterious woman and her infant child, asking Book to hide them safely aboard the Christabel while they're on the run. Only it isn’t the police who are after them, it’s a coven of witches the woman, Mae, has fled, stealing away the helpless infant for whom they had hideous plans…or so Mae claims.

It’s lunacy and Book wants nothing to do with it. But after the way he and Ruby ended things, and the unspoken pain between them, he can’t refuse. Yet even as he brings them out to the ruined ship and its floating forest, there are shadowed figures looming back in Galveston, waiting out the storm. And despite the worsening wind and rain, the night birds are flying, scouring the coastline for their prey.

https://amzn.to/4jWenlg
Black woodcut on a fleshy paper background features an old house in the forest with one red light on in the attic. Ominous. Very interesting almost felt marker font that somehow fits.

On the anniversary of her sister’s death, Talia returns home after curfew, bloodied and bruised. She’s desperate to keep it from her parents; she knows what they’ll do.

But when Autumn and Colin realize what’s happened to their daughter, they don’t intend to stay idle.

Leaving Talia with friends, her parents go after the monsters who hurt their child … but they never expected to find real monsters. They aren’t prepared for what is behind the urban legends of Red Walls House. Monsters with white eyes, clawed fingers, and sizzling tongues who ate pieces of their daughter.

Now it’s Talia and her friends who must return to Red Walls House on a rescue mission. Talia’s just praying she can get everyone out of there alive.

https://amzn.to/4jOG4gf

Very cool futuristic font in white and teal over a distressed photo of an astronaut standing as if for a portrait on a moonscape.

Ava must fight an entity locked in on taking out the crew of the Eden, a moon-sized cemetery in space, as it brings back the souls of the dead buried aboard. One such soul is Ava’s lost love, Roland.

The spirits of the interred on the Eden haunt those aboard, including a visiting musician is tasked with writing a new song for the dead. Her Requiem calls a cosmic entity that illuminates their darkest fears and secrets. One by one, they’re driven mad. Ava fights her grief and must rise up before they’re lost and the entity reaches Earth.

https://amzn.to/3RJIaBM

Konstantin Duhovny is a haunted man. His father died when he was ten, and ghosts have been hovering around him ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth,a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.

Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. He thinks his life’s purpose might be to offer closure to grieving strangers, and sets out to learn all he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him.

https://amzn.to/3ENoryc

An ugly cover with black and cyan green showing chat bubbles in yellow with emojis. Red sans serif fonts complete the disjointed design.

When a video depicting the brutal murder of a former classmate leaks online, Kylie Bennington’s—whose dreams of becoming a successful influencer remain frustratingly elusive—curiosity gets the better of her, leading to the discovery of an off-the-grid social media app called MonoLife. As it turns out, there are certain cryptic rules in the user agreement that must be adhered to, such as interacting with other users at least twice daily or risk losing it all…and never, ever speaking of MonoLife’s existence to non-users or risk dire consequences.

For this is a platform that primarily rewards the worst in human behavior, and which begins chipping away at Kylie’s sanity across post after post for an ever-increasing audience of immoral fans. Now Kylie’s going to find out just how far she’s willing to go on her unyielding rise to the top—even if that means coming face-to-face with the frightening and ruthless forces behind MonoLife, who see all from deep within the shadows…

https://amzn.to/4jVugZ6

Another kind of ugly cover of a photo of a small town with the title as large sans serif letter propped up in the town. Neat looking.

As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer, and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams―and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. Don’t they remember people lapsing into comas back then? And those people always awoke…didn’t they?

After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But Rebecca, Bobby, and Spencer begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him.

https://amzn.to/3RKwm2d

A very pretty monotone red cover with near-watercolour layers showing a swamp and old house, birds and a lovely serif font in white over top.

After an accident that nearly kills her, Emily and her husband, Freddie, move from London to a beautiful Dartmoor country house called Larkin Lodge. The house is gorgeous, striking―and to Emily, something about it feels deeply wrong.

Old boards creak at night, fires go out, and books fall from the shelves, and all of it stems from the terrible presence she feels in the third-floor room. But these things happen only when Emily’s alone, so are they happening at all? She’s still medically fragile; her postsepsis condition can cause hallucinatory side effects, which means she can’t fully trust her own senses. Freddie doesn’t notice anything odd and is happy with their chance at a fresh start.

https://amzn.to/4iOIWtk

Lady justice in alabaster white on a white background. This sets off the scrawled black crayon title. Her blindfold is red and dripping blood. Stark and jarring!

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.

https://amzn.to/3ETw3iH

Backlit shadows of men walking in a blue and black forest. Blood is spattered and dripping behind blocky Impact style sans serif white text. Impressionistic but effective.

When Roger Brenner leaves the house because he has the urge to take a walk, no one, not even him, realizes he is about to change the world as we know it.

Roger's sudden desire quickly turns into something more as both his mind and body begin to change. He is consumed by his need to keep walking, and soon he is leaving the small town of Rocky Point behind. By the time his family realizes he's gone, he's miles away and entering an altered state of consciousness.

As the days go by and Roger continues his unnatural journey, his body begins to deteriorate. He also attracts followers, all of them murmuring the same chilling words. The growing horde travels down the East Coast, growing in size every day

In less than a week, the phenomenon spreads across the world, causing religious and political upheaval. The governments fear it's a disease. Religious leaders claim it's a sign of the apocalypse. And scientists say it's nature correcting overpopulation.

https://amzn.to/43exWQb

Cover: Sort of a speeding lights at night time-lapse in blues and purples over a washed out oil paint effect of a woman's face. Thin sans serif font that is barely there. A whole LA vibe to this. Or, well, it is trying for that. 

Johnny spots her ex, Alice, at the local cafe with a vague sense that she’s been there before. Though she’s still angry about their breakup and Alice’s subsequent ghosting, Johnny can’t resist the draw of a second shot at their relationship and accepts Alice’s invitation back to her apartment. Once there, promises are exchanged. There’s talk of wonder and change and dreams made real. But after spending the night together, they face a morning in which Alice is still Alice, Johnny is still Johnny, and the dog has doubled in size.

Over the course of a week, increasingly bizarre changes in the world around them force Johnny to consider whether the pair can change just as easily, if they can change at all. Or if both her relationship and the bounds of reality are destined to implode. The narrative of I Can Fix Her operates on nightmare logic, putting forth an irresistible tale in which the world, the narrator, and time itself are not to be trusted.

https://amzn.to/4d2ag53

Cover: A lush and nearly delicious looking red and orange bayou landscape with tall trees flanking large serif text in white on the cover. There is a person making their way through te swampy water as a focal point. Really effective.  

In 2008, a serial killer known as the Cajun Cannibal brutally murders and consumes the flesh of eight people in a small Louisiana parish. With law enforcement closing in on him, he takes his own life before he can face the inside of a courtroom.

Ten years later, when forensic psychiatrist Dr. Vincent Blackburn discovers he and the Cajun Cannibal are more closely connected than he realized, he begins a case study into the sociopathy behind the killer’s grisly deeds, only to find a torrent of small town politics, interracial family dynamics, and whispers of the supernatural muddying once clear waters.

When copycat killings start anew, Vincent is thrust into the center of it all, putting his life, his family, and his own sanity at risk. As monsters—both figurative and literal—begin to manifest, Vincent discovers that untangling the truth from the lies is only the beginning of his nightmare.

https://amzn.to/4lW3wK5

Cover: A giant glinting steel knife with a blood red penis shaped hilt, or shaft if you prefer, held aloft in a striking motion, point angled downward. This creates a pleasing angular layout with the most groovy stylized blackletter text in puke green that I have ever seen. Love this. 

Beyond the Planet of the Vampires is a gay pulp horror novel of chance. The narrative erratically loses and regains consciousness during an apocalyptic space invasion of psychic vampires, reaching across intergalactic fathoms in search of future victims.

Smoldering in a social alienation reminiscent of Genet's outlaw anti-heroes, and screaming with Joycean word play in an entirely new and unique idiom, where theories of Kant are situated with reckonings of identity and postulations on the nature of evil.

https://amzn.to/4kIWW8g

Cover: looks like a greek mythology text book. dark tertiary analogous palette using fuchsia, purple, blue, and black feature a woman's face and snake separated by a sans-serif art deco font in yellow for the title and purple for the authors name. Neat! I have no idea what this is about from the cover though.

Lena wants her life back. Her wealthy, controlling, humorless husband has just died, and now she contends with her controlling, humorless son, Drew. Lena lands in Naxos with her best friend in tow for the unveiling of her son's, pet project--the luxurious Agape Villas.

Years of marriage amongst the wealthy elite has whittled Lena's spirit into rope and sinew, smothered by tasteful cocktail dresses and unending small talk. On Naxos she yearns to rediscover her true nature, remember the exuberant dancer and party girl she once was, but Drew tightens his grip, keeping her cloistered inside the hotel, demanding that she fall in line.

Lena is intrigued by a group of women living in tents on the beach in front of the Agape. She can feel their drums at night, hear their seductive leader calling her to dance. Soon she'll find that an ancient God stirs on the beach, awakening dark desires of women across the island. The only questions left will be whether Lena will join them, and what it will cost her.

https://amzn.to/4d3aA3w

Cover: A woman stands between two red sandstone cliff faces looking toward a night sky with creatures eyes instead of stars with a giant raven overhead. Large distressed white sans serif, like Impact, then a serif font for the authors name, A little too much going on here but I like it. 

When Greta Molina’s old friend Tiller offered her the job, a ten-day cattle drive across the Wyoming prairie from the ranching town of Ten Sleep, it sounded like a well-paid break. Three hundred and twenty cows and calves, two guys her age she’s known since college, and a few long days on an ATV will give her time to sort out the mess in her head. The canyon along the trail has a history, sure, but nature has a tendency toward violence. Greta can accept that, even if it makes her insides squirm.

What Greta doesn’t know is the legacy of murder and rot that runs deep into the rocks of this land. As each night passes on the prairie, the trio faces mounting supernatural dangers: a ghost train of the damned, wild animals walking alongside dead ones—and evidence of a gigantic creature in the skies, one that’s supposedly been extinct for eons. And Tiller may be hiding even darker secrets the further they go. Safety is only ten sleeps away, but Greta soon realizes that may be too long for all of them to survive.

https://amzn.to/3RKQz83

Cover: This is my kind of cover. Just a photo of a human skull close up in red - all the text is white, sans-serif for the author and slight serifs for the title. Text-forward, memento mori. Nice. 

It’s the ultimate haunted house challenge. A crumbling stone mansion nestled in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, it may be the best-kept secret in Europe—a little-known attraction featuring nine escape rooms to explore, nine puzzles to solve, and a large cash prize for anyone who makes it to the end. There’s just one catch: no one makes it to the end of The No-End House. . . .

When Joe Hadfield hears about the house from a pair of backpackers, he’s intrigued but not interested. He’s trying to escape a nightmare of his own: the trauma of witnessing his wife’s grisly death. Traveling the world to ease his pain and grief, he meets a beautiful stranger named Helen who convinces him to try The No-End House challenge together. Joe reluctantly agrees. But as soon as they enter its walls, meet its mysterious host—and sign an ominous contract—Joe begins to understand the seductive power of The No-End House . . .

It knows his darkest secrets. It feeds his greatest fears. It makes him do things he would never do. And there is no end to what he will do . . . to make it out alive.

https://amzn.to/40w5BTG 

Cover: Slanted sans-serif comic headline text in pumpkin orange over a grainy black and white image of a masked face. Very creepy and effective!

When Come Knocking came to Los Angeles, the interactive theater production that took over six floors of an abandoned building was met with raves, lines for tickets, and reviews calling it the “must-see experience of a generation.” But after dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured on a bloody night of chaos during the show’s run, the nation was captured by one inescapable question: How could this happen?

As the dust settles, investigative reporter Adam Jakes is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the massacre. Through a series of gripping interviews with survivors, cast members, and witnesses, Jakes pieces together the chilling reality behind what was supposed to be the ultimate theatrical experience.

https://amzn.to/449Vqqh 

https://ironfangpress.com/dark-canadiana 

Cover: A Canadian flag torn in the centre showing blood spatter. Nice! 

Canada. A land packed full of beautiful landscapes, wildlife, diverse people, and poutine. A land overflowing with a dark history, local legends, cryptids, serial killers, and so much more. Explore the dark side of Canada in this anthology of short stories by these truly Canadian authors: John Adam Gosham, Steve Stred, Joe Powers, K.A. Mielke Konn Lavery, Leonard George, Dana Gricken, Anthony Michael Murphy, Stephen Coghlan, Robert Dawson, Kristal Stittle, Jon Gauthier, Alix Kampen, Debbie Powers, Dwain Campbell, Eva Roslin, Daniel Fox, Dean Italiano, Angelique Fawns, Spencer Keene, Carson Fredriksen, C. K. DeLeskie, Justin Allec, Nadia Steven Rysing, Kevin Cull Edited by James Seamone And a special Foreword by MJ Preston

https://www.amberhathaway.com/ 

When she and her brother venture to Evanston, Maine to clean out an estranged relative's estate, horror enthusiast Alice Drayon's life begins paralleling her favorite page-turners. The sojourn in their grandmother's "wicked" hometown provides the perfect opportunity for Alice to delve into Grammie's mysterious past. However, she soon discovers that the horrific event that drove Grammie away is but one small piece of the town's blighted history. Confronted with increasing hostility from Evanston's insular religious community as she closes in on the truth, Alice must risk everything to save lives. Her soft-spoken new neighbor, Riley Moore, seems to have answers ... and some dark secrets of his own. Can Alice trust him to help her put an end to Evanston's wicked practices, or will she become yet another casualty?

https://amzn.to/4mwierh

Cover: Mainly black as all the red text is laid over a black album vinyl. The sans serif text is set off by using a white cross as a 'T' with a mix of letterforms and sans-serif  almost calligraphic text.  

1998: Lily Lawlor and Drake Morgan form a punk band. Drake inspires faith in some. Fear in others. Lily is a believer.

1999: A Battle of the Bands ends in a shocking death, and a riot that claims the lives of three teenagers.

2009: At the height of her stardom, Lily walks into a police station and confesses to murder.

Now: The band has refused to talk to the press about the night of the riot, Lily’s confession, or anything else. It's been over a decade, but Lily has finally agreed to an interview. And the band is following her lead.

What follows is a story of prophecy, death, and apocalypse. A story about love and love lost. A story about the antichrist. Maybe it’s all true. Maybe none if it is.

Either way, this is their story. And they’re sticking to it.

https://amzn.to/44biHIv 

Cover: Quite plain magenta text on a black background resembling an invitation envelope, evidenced by an ornate wax seal in the centre. Intriguing! 

When legendary horror author Mortimer Queen passes, a group of writers find themselves invited to his last will and testament reading expecting a piece of his massive fortune. Each have their own unique connection to the literary icon, some known, some soon to be discovered, and they've been waiting for their chance to step into the author's shoes for some time.
Instead, they arrive at his grand manor and are invited to play a game. The rules are simple, solve the riddle and progress to the next room. If they don't, the manor will take one of them for itself.

You see, the Queen estate was built on the bones of Mortimer's family, and like any true horror story, the house is still very, very hungry.

https://amzn.to/4kITMRW

Cover: this is a two-for as they say. One book printed upside down and bound to the back of the other. In Canada, we would expect bilingual publications like this. Doutone image of a farm house on one and a face on the other in yellow on black adorn each cover with fat serif text. According to the publishers mark on the spine, it seems that Killer on the Road is the front of the book. 

The Babysitter Lives

Charlotte’s last babysitting gig almost ended in tragedy when her young charge sleepwalked unnoticed into the middle of the street, only to be found unharmed by Charlotte’s mother. Charlotte vows to be extra careful this time. But the house is filled with mysterious noises and secrets that only the twins understand, echoes of horrors that Charlotte gradually realizes took place in the house eleven years ago. Soon Charlotte has to admit that every babysitter’s worse nightmare has come true: they’re not alone in the house.

The Killer on the Road

Sixteen-year-old Harper has decided to run away from home after she has another blow-out argument with her mother. However, her two best friends, little sister, and ex-boyfriend all stop her from hitchhiking her way up Route 80 in Wyoming by joining her on an intervention disguised as a road trip. What they don’t realize is that Harper has been marked by a very unique serial killer who’s been trolling the highway for the past three years, and now the killer is after all of them in this fast-paced and deadly chase novel that will have your heart racing well above the speed limit as the interstate becomes a graveyard.

https://amzn.to/3SluVrk

Cover: I love this - a watercolour look image of a girl in a nightgown flowing downriver, surrounded by lily pads, Mushrooms and lichen sprout form her chest. A brushstroke yellow font for the title and pond scum green heavy serif for the text. I have an ARC audio for this one, 

Buried secrets only spread.

Erin's brother Bryan has been missing for five years.

It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mt. Hood where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn’t the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved.

When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces―from this world and beyond―hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

https://amzn.to/4mwwG2y

Cover: Hard to describe, yellows and ochers make up a face with a bloodless tear in the throat showing snakes writhing within like an anatomical drawing. Snakes abound, medusa-like. Striking pale yellow stretched serif text surrounds all. Art Deco but with serif fonts - crazy, I know. 

Having always preferred the company of microbes, Kesta has spent her life looking down the barrel of a microscope rather than cultivating personal relationships. But that changed when Kesta met Tim—her cheerleader, her best friend, her absolute everything. So, when he was one of the last people in London to be infected with a perplexing virus that left the city ravaged, Kesta went into triage mode.

Though the government has rounded up and disposed of all the infected, Kesta is able to keep her husband (un)alive—and hidden—with resources from the hospital where she works. She spends her days reviewing biopsy slides and her evenings caring for him, but he’s clearly declining. The sedatives aren’t working like they used to, and his violent outbursts are becoming more frequent.

https://amzn.to/4eEKYL1

Cover: Black and gold on forest green; A hand in a warding mudra symbol hovers under a grosbeak or other seed eating bird that has pins in it or radiance, it is hard to tell. There are black ivy or wrought iron decorations on each side.  

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

https://amzn.to/3TfaoFg 

Cover: This could be an alternate cover for Horror Movie with a boy in silhouette down a hallway, waiting, his shadow elongated on the wall revealing branches surrounding him like antlers and claws. Green and yellow, orange and black dominate with the typical fat rounded serif font we now relate to this author. 

When Casey Wilson’s parents tell him that his friend is coming for a sleepover, he has no idea who that might be. Ever since the Zoom Incident, everyone treats him like a pariah, and his tics are worse than ever.  

When Morel appears, he’s not like any friend Casey has ever met. His skin is like clay, and he doesn’t speak. But Casey’s parents are charmed by the strange kid, and it’s nice to have someone to talk to besides his sister, Ally, who is away at college. As his normally loving parents grow distant from Casey, they gush and fawn over Morel. Casey knows something is wrong—but with no end in sight to the sleepover, he’s exhausted. And in the dark, out of the corner of his eye, Morel doesn’t look like a kid at all. . . .

https://amzn.to/3I657gZ 

Cover: A luscious gothic with damask wallpaper, a gilded mirror, candles, jewelry, and the most beautiful letter-formed scrolling and adorned script font ever. Very western gothic looking, all candle flame and smoke, I want this book. 

Mrs. Mina Braithwaite has never quite fit into Mydalla's polite society. Her features are so different from the other noblewomen, more like the city's foreign workers, and she chafes at all the rules. Then there's the furious entity that has followed her for years, crawling from shadows to hurt her and staining every memory with fear. Desperate for help, Mina crashes a private gathering to see the infamous occultist Alexandre DuMort in action. She doesn't expect the pull of attraction towards the man, nor his invitation to join him in his work.

But DuMort has enemies, dangerous ones, and they dog his steps as closely as Mina's entity does hers. Mina must choose between her old life, and the angry spirit that stalks her, or follow the famed occultist down a new path, where even worse things might haunt her.

Like the truth.

https://amzn.to/44xjqTn 

Cover: Multicolour oil or chalk pastel looking cover with a distinct Colour out of Space vibe or perhaps The Endless - lots of pink in the torn sky that shows a black expanse and a large supernova or eye all hovering over a rural or parkland landscape. The narrow sans serif font in lime green is hard to read. 

Caleb and Marley's first mistake was stumbling into the gruesome sacrifice to the grinding wheel and its gods. Their second was enjoying the benefits it gave them. Now, one of them can't get enough, and the other just can't get out. Nothing can ever stop the wheel.

https://amzn.to/3ZW0nka 

Cover: Nice tritone in black and red and blue. Font-forward with the title in white and the rest in black. A silhouette mansion in the sunset. Seems we have moved into a silhouette trend. 

Silent film star Venita Rost's malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls. And she's not alone. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan―her eternal nemesis―watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror, shackled by his own guilt and Venita's unrelenting wrath.

Now the house has yet another new owner. This time it's Ronnie Mitchell, a grieving woman who buys the run-down place sight unseen. She arrives armed with an unexpected inheritance, a strong background in renovation, and a blissful ignorance regarding the house's blood-soaked history. But her arrival has stirred up more than just dust and decay. In the shadows, unseen eyes watch. Then, a man comes knocking. He brings wild stories and a thinly veiled jealousy, as well as a secret connection to the house that can only lead to violence.

https://amzn.to/3G6XTIZ 

Cover: This has an Altered States look to it for some reason, or the Entity - a silhouetted person presses through a filmy substance, as if from behind a screen. Oranges and reds with black text, but stark white for the micro-serif title. 

Anita Walsh, still reeling from her husband's sudden death, finds herself haunted not only by grief, but his Negative Image, a new phenomenon where the deceased prey on those they loved in life, turning intimate memories into nightmares. This spectral figure uses their shared past as a weapon, systematically dismantling her friendships, career, and self-worth. Desperate for escape, Anita plunges into a quest to sever the ghostly bonds that tie her to her tormentor.

As society grapples with the rising terror of NIs, a charismatic extremist proposes a radical solution to isolate the haunted from the unafflicted, gaining dangerous followers. Anita, alongside another victim of this spectral affliction, must navigate their personal hauntings and societal threats to prevent the breakdown of their community.

https://amzn.to/3SqyOeB

Cover: duo-tone cerulean cyan with red. A rabbit in silhouette exploding with inky flowers resembling a circulatory system. Interesting, but tells me little, but similar to the cover of the book Grey Dog in a way which I loved. White serif font gives this a western feel. 

The town of Blacknot is not what it appears, and a place on its desolate edge known only as The Night House is calling...

What remains of Jesse’s mother can fit inside an old jerky tin. Photos, postcards, a single, worn-out bracelet. But nothing that can explain why she was found dead eighteen years earlier on the bank of a river, her infant son left wailing by her side. When Jesse starts to receive anonymous messages promising him answers, he returns home to the regressive town of Blacknot, North Carolina so that his lifelong obsession can finally be laid to rest.

https://amzn.to/4nrrPjx 

Cover: A black fig rotting with black hellebore flowers in an arched frame. Gothic inspired and lovely I am hoping this is the next trend in covers as it is wonderful to look at. Tells us little of the plot.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school’s cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together.

If they don't, this school will eat them alive...

https://amzn.to/44tfvqq 

Cover: The paperback is more striking with black sans serif font over a halftone explosion featuring a single white feather in the centre. Owes to the double entendre of the title. 

Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.

What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.

https://amzn.to/44nXQQY 

Cover: Art deco text in lilac over a photographic image is always a little discordant. Pleasing sunset colours with a hint of blue sea, but it looks more like a romance cover oddly. 

Aubrey is drawn to abandoned places with hidden histories, and the Hotel Seabrink—a once-glamorous 1920s seaside retreat now slated for renovation—is the perfect subject to photograph. Locals whisper that it's haunted by the ghosts of two young women who died there, and when Aubrey visits to capture photos, she meets Dimitri Petroff, a minor online celebrity who shares her obsession with the site. The next day, Dimitri is found dead at the base of a cliff, and though police rule it an accident, rumors of murder and past deaths tied to the hotel compel Aubrey to investigate. As she uncovers the building’s roots as an asylum, Dimitri’s rivalries, and a decades-old unsolved murder with chilling similarities, it becomes clear someone will do anything to keep the hotel’s secrets buried.

https://amzn.to/4kbwqUd 

Cover: The cover is striking - a chained hand perhaps crushing or grasping an old plantation house with large sans serif text in what looks like Gill Sans. The style looks like acrylic paint so reminds me of the Ghanaian film posters but good - see Deadly Prey Gallery for more on those. 

In 1710 in the Province of Carolina, freedom feels impossible for Willie, his beloved Gertie, and their unborn child, as they suffer under the brutal rule of plantation master James “Big Jim” Barrow. Escape means certain death—until one night, Willie is offered a terrifying hope by Rafazi, an enigmatic slave from the Kingdom of Ghana and the last of the Ramanga, a nearly extinct African vampire tribe. Rafazi, driven by a centuries-old hunger to restore his lost power, sees in Willie a willing subject to be turned and used in a bloody revolt against their oppressors. As Rafazi builds an army of blood slaves bent on revenge, Gertie grows fearful of the dark legacy driving them forward. But Willie, determined to end the cruelty that has plagued his people, believes only evil can fight evil—and when Gertie stands in the way of the Ramanga’s return, he must choose between love and vengeance, knowing one thing for certain: blood will spill.

https://amzn.to/43Fsk0m

A man lying in a bed of pain flees from physical torment into his own memories, and into speculations about life and reality. He was, once, employed by the Temporary Institute for the Study of Holes, a think tank pursuing research that ranges from occult studies to advanced physics, including black holes—or, as they are known in string theory, black branes.