Each year I have the honor of taking over Neal Wyatt's Readers' Shelf column on the second to last page of Library Journal. Wyatt is also my book editor and we have a great relationship. This means she allows me to pick the topic for this column. I have a linked list of past columns here, but this year I wanted to highlight some of the best books I had not had a chance to review elsewhere. Below [or here] you can find my column but first....
This week's giveaway announcement is also tied to the column. As a reminder, here are the basic rules followed by this week's giveaway.
- You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
- If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
- Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week.
- If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.
Click here to see double giveaway #21. Our winners were Glenda from Russell County [KY] Public Library and Stephanie from the Salt Lake City Library System.
Good luck to all of the entrants. But please note, now that all of these books have been mentioned in Library Journal, you have no excuse not to order them for your collections. Also note the readalikes which are also must adds.
Click here for the full published column or see the draft version below.
Recent Horror You May Have Missed
Help your readers navigate the scariest season with a few recent, under the radar crowd pleasers.
Two of the hottest genres, horror and true crime, collide in THE REMAKING by Clay McLeod Chapman [will be new in paperback if you want to use that ISBN], a mobious strip of a novel that intertwines four related stories of murder and witchcraft across time and space. Beginning with an actual crime from 1931 involving the murder of two suspected witches, the narrative shifts to the 1970s, and the cult classic film about the murders, then moves to the details of a 90s movie remake, and finally into a 2016 podcast. The effect, both the characters and readers become trapped inside the web of menace and curses that the novel has spun. A disorienting and immersive read that anchors itself in history but stretches its terrifying tentacles into the present, producing intense chills. Read-alike: For another unconventional, character centered, unsettling tale framed by a cursed film try the cult classic, EXPERIMENTAL FILM by Gemma Files.
Ironically, TRUE CRIME by Samantha Kolesnik, is centered around a fictional crime spree, but one that is so realistically portrayed that the graphic horror is palpable with all of the readers’ senses. Suzy and Lim, siblings who have been terribly abused at home, escape, killing their mother and strike out on their own, leaving a trail of murder in their wake. The narrative told mostly from Suzy’s point of view, forces the reader to reckon with the physical and emotional damage of abuse with Suzy, in real time, as she struggles to live fully for the first time in her horrible life. It’s a eerily enchanting tale, sucking the reader in despite the horrors, short and fast paced, visceral and psychologically intense, yet also beautiful and hopeful at the same time. An honest tale about human monsters, and the truth that hides behind the headlines, one that will force readers to look deeply into their own souls. Read-alike: For another critically acclaimed short, visceral, and thought provoking horror-crime hybrid try ZERO SAINTS by Gabino Iglesias.
Unnerving Magazine has capitalized on the popularity of the horror novella, mixing in yet another huge genre trend-- nostalgia for the gore and camp of 1970s, 80s and 90s horror films with their Rewind or Die series. Entry 8 in the series, HELL’S BELLS by Lisa Quigley, is a terrifying and humorous take on the “Satanic Panic” trope, featuring teen girls who mistakenly summon Satan in their suburban basement, but use rock n roll to save themselves and the world at large. The characters jump off the page, the action and terror are perfectly realized, and the musical allusions are fun and frequent. Quigley is also a host of the award winning Ladies of the Fright podcast, so her name may ring a bell with patrons, despite this being her debut. The awesome cover art surrounding this tale, and every entry in the series, will help the book sell itself to patrons. Read-alike: The fourth entry in this series, CIRQUE BERSERK by Jessica Guess is another great choice. Both feature witless teens, slasher tropes, and are bunches of gory, fun to read.
Finding an awesome debut can feel like winning the lottery to the right reader, and this year’s Bram Stoker Award Best First Novel winner is no exception there. THE BONE WEAVER’S ORCHARD by Sarah Read is a engrossing Gothic tale set in North Yorkshire in the mid 1920s within the creepy walls of The Old Cross School for Boys. Charley, a young insect loving, misfit student knows there is something sinister going on in the tunnels under the building, but he has no idea just how far into the past, how deep, and yet also, how close to home the horrific truths are. This is a haunted house tale that begins like you have read before, filled with dark secrets and monsters hiding in plain sight, but it is also surprisingly original featuring a fresh voice telling a compelling, character driven, sympathetic story of friendship, bravery, and coming of age that is filled with nightmares and hope and Charley is a boy who will resonate with many readers. Read-alike: Fans of the new take on the old Gothic trope as seen in MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia with its escalating dread, sympathetic protagonist, and sinister family secrets will also enjoy Read’s lesser known novel.
Back in 1996, Owl Goingback won the Bram Stoker for Best First Novel himself for CROTA, and then this past April, he won again, this time earning the Best Novel statue for the captivating, dark fantasy COYOTE RAGE. The story follows two parallel dimensions: our human world and one of the shapeshifters. A change at the top of the Great Council in Galun'lati gives Coyote an opening to destroy the human world, but some of the shapeshifters are committed to keeping the peace and will fight alongside humanity against Coyote. The mythology and world building are fantastic, the action scenes and pacing exciting, and the language is engaging, even poetic at times. This novel is so much more than it’s plot; it is thought provoking, engaging, and original. Readers will get so much more than they expect, and isn’t that why we are here, to introduce them to new voices they would have missed without us? Read-alike: For another award winning dark fantasy-horror hybrid that uses shapeshifters, lyrical prose, and own voices mythology to craft a complex tale wrapped in an immersive world try BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF by Marlon James
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