31 Days of Horror Begins Year 10 Tomorrow But Let's Begin With a #HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #57 Today!

Today's giveaway is MY NEW BOOK! In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of 31 Days of Horror [beginning tomorrow], I am celebrating big time. But first, the rules:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. 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. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. 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 giveaway #56. The winner was Meghan from Sargent Memorial [MA] Library  

And now on to my latest giveaway.

I have a copy of my BRAND NEW book: The Readers' Advisory Guide to Horror, third edition. Literally hot off the presses as my author copies arrived this past Sunday. And I have reserved 1 of those copies for one of you. I will even sign it.

I am extremely proud of this book. Maybe the third time really is a charm. It has everything you need [and more] to help readers find horror through the local public library. And, it doesn't matter how comfortable you or your patrons are with the genre. From novice to hardcore terror-fiend, all can learn something from this book. 

I hope your libraries all order a copy, but in the mean time, here is the link to the official press release and below. I am also re-posting this piece, an excerpt from the opening of the book that ran in the August 2021 issue of The Corner Shelf, a Booklist newsletter. 

As a Booklist contributor, I am not allowed to have my book reviewed in the magazine, but because the book is also published by the same arm of the ALA, they have been very supportive.

Click here or see below to get a taste of what you can expect from the book. And don't forget, if you are ordering a copy for your library, click here, use an ALA member's login, and enter the coupon code below [expires today] or at the top of this blog [which does not expire today but is not as good a coupon].

But also, enter today for a FREE, SIGNED copy. Only 1 winner. Good luck! 

Excerpts from the Experts: The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror By Becky Spratford.
		FEATURE. First published August 13, 2021 (Booklist Online).

Horror reads are intriguing, terrifying, and very popular. Unfortunately, guiding horror readers can be a daunting undertaking if you fear the genre or are unfamiliar with it. In The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror (ALA Neal-Schuman, 2021), author Becky Spratford shares the many reasons why readers seek horror, how to have conversations with them about their favorite types of terrifying reads, where to find titles, who the most popular authors are, and, of course, many annotated lists to help you match books with readers. In this excerpt taken from the book’s preface, she answers the all-important first question, “Why do we need horror?”

Here’s a special offer for Corner Shelf readers: Get 10% off (20% for ALA Members) The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror with coupon code CSRA21 (expires 9/30/21).

Why We Need Horror
by Becky Spratford 

Readers love fantasy, but we need horror. Smart horror. Truthful horror. Horror that helps us make sense of a cruelly senseless world. —Brian K. Vaughan^[1]

Horror has seen an explosion in mainstream popularity, one that I don’t think anyone saw coming. Here are just a few obvious examples: The Walking Dead went from a cult graphic novel series to a pop culture, television obsession; Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties (2017) was a National Book Award finalist for fiction; multiple horror titles by people not named King made the New York Times year-end Notable Books list; and new horror voices, authors who were not even mentioned in my previous edition, have appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

It is clear, as Brian K. Vaughan noted in the above epigraph, that people need horror, and, in fact, they have always needed it. But why has it been in such demand over the last ten years? I am sure many of you can posit some reasons, but quite simply, our current world is a dumpster fire, with crisis after crisis piling up day after day, unfolding in real time through social media and phone alerts. It is nearly impossible to avoid being bombarded with messages of doom and gloom from the real world. As one of the hottest authors in horror today, Stephen Graham Jones, noted in 2019, “Horror is the perfect vehicle for our current set of concerns, horror ismost definitely booming.”^[2]

He elaborated on this concept further in a podcast appearance earlier that year: “It [horror] makes me feel alive because if I’m feeling fear, it’s fear for something that can be taken away which is to say I still have something, that I am still alive.”^[3]

Horror feels real right now, but the complex, biological processes that elicit fear, dread, and anxiety in humans have their roots deep in the evolution of all animals. Every person experiences fear, and in their own unique way, and that is why horror tales go back to the dawn of storytelling. However, that is not to imply that the genre is stagnant. Each time horror reemerges and stretches its tentacles into the mainstream public consciousness, it does so because of fresh voices and perspectives. Take 1922 and the birth of Weird Tales. H. P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries created an entirely new type of horror, cosmic horror,^[4] a subgenre that is seeing a resurgence 100 years later as its current practitioners grapple with its racist and misogynistic history. Or 1974, when Stephen King’s Carrie was published and our current era of modern horror began. And into the twenty-first century, when horror is being embraced by those whose voices have been marginalized by the hegemony of a constructed white, heterosexual norm, those who have lived in real fear and horror, and are now turning their experiences into the best examples of the genre, causing a renaissance, as John Fram, debut author of The Bright Lands, which features an unapologetically queer hero, noted in Library Journal: “It’s a trend I don’t see stopping anytime soon. We live in a gaslit era, a time when straight, white society is finally being visited by the fears and uncertainties that the rest of us have been battling all our lives. Horror seems ready to tell us that yes, things really are more terrifying than you could have imagined. . .What a time to be alive.”^[5]

As best-selling horror author Brian Keene has noted, “The writers may change, but the genre prevails.”^[6]That was as much the case when Mary Shelley published Frankenstein as it was when Jordan Peele won an Oscar for Get Out, and it remains to this day.

---

[1]. Brian K. Vaughan, introduction to Locke and Key: Crown of Shadows, by Joe Hill, illus. Gabriel Rodriguez (Idea and Design Works, 2010).

[2]. Becky Spratford, “Stephen Graham Jones Primes Us for the Second Wave of Summer Scares,” RA for All: Horror (blog), February 13, 2020, http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/2020/02/stephen-graham-jones-primes-us-for.html.

[3]. Stephen Graham Jones, “Episode 38: Why Does Horror Matter?,” in Ladies of the Fright, produced by Lisa Quigley and Mackenzie Kiera, podcast, recorded live at StokerCon 2019, www.ladiesofthefright.com/podcast/2019/6/28/lotf-38-why-does-horror-matter-stoker-con-2019-panel. Transcribed by the author.

[4]. Cosmic horror will be discussed at length in chapter 12.

[5]. Becky Spratford, “Rise of the Monsters: Top Horror Titles and Trends Coming This Season,” Library Journal, July 8, 2020, www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=rise-of-the-monsters-horror-genre-preview-2020.

[6]. Brian Keene, End of the Road (Baltimore, MD: Cemetery Dance, 2020).

#Horror For Libraries Giveaway #56: Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

Today's giveaway is an upcoming fantasy-horror hybrid novella that I gave a STAR review to in the October issue of Library Journal. Since the review went up early, and is free to all because it is a star, I am giving it away today. But first, here is how to enter:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. 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. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. 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 giveaway #55. The winner was Sarah from Poudre River [CO] Public Library District. 

And now on to my latest giveaway.

I love the Tor.Com Publishing line of novellas. I have never read a bad one, especially those that are from the Dark Fantasy and Horror genres. So, when I saw the announcement of Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn I knew I wanted to review it. 

Please click here to read my STAR review in the October issue of Library Journal. Since it is a STAR, the review is free for all to view. I was very proud of the review. This is a book for which you cannot give away any of the plot both because it is so short and it is a joy to watch it unfold. But it is also a book that is all about how the story is told. I think I captured that in my limited word count. Again click here for the full review, but you can also see my Goodreads notes below:

Three Words That Describe This Book: captivating, disquieting, all senses engaged

Many reviews say how you can't say much about this book in a review beyond the set up in the plot summary, I didn't understand until I finished. This is correct.

There is so much here in 100 pages. All five senses are engaged when reading. It is both spare and lyrical, dense and easy to follow. Like the very best of stories it allows you to feel actual feelings but also leaves you desperately wanting more.

Dark fantasy that laps at the edges of horror-- tentacles from the sea and razorfangs from the sky

Readalikes: other novellas from Tor.com that walk the line between dark fantasy and horror and also leave you wanting so much more-- Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma and Black God's Drum by P. Djeil Clark

I cannot stress enough that the only thing wrong with this one-sitting read is that after you finish, you want more. But that's why it was so great. I want to be left wanting more and feeling real emotions; it did both.

Enter to win an ARC for yourself today. Thanks to the publisher for the copy.

And FYI, all of my October reviews are up on the LJ site but I am going to wait until October 1st to post them as a kick off for 31 Days of Horror.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #55: 2 Horror Adjacent Titles

Today's giveaway includes a new collection of weird fiction by a trusted small press and a popular Horror adjacent SF that came out this week But first, here is how to enter:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. 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. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. 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 giveaway #54. The winner was Corban from Maricopa [AZ] County Library District. 

And now on to my latest giveaway.

In the upcoming 9/15/21 issue of Booklist I will have a glowing review of Among the Lillies by Daniel Mills. I was unfamiliar with Mills but Undertow Publications sent me this book unsolicited. I have been very impressed by their collections up to this point, so I agreed to squeeze it in. 

In the meantime, I am not the only one to give this press accolades. As I reported here, Undertow Publication won the This is Horror Award for Publisher of the Year.

Back to this book specifically, I was impressed because one, the stories were very enjoyable and well constructed, and two, I knew they would have wide appeal. 

They are light on gore but high on anxiety, and while mostly falling within the Horror umbrella, the stories definitely play with the genre confines in a satisfying way. I suggest this collection for fans of Alma Katsu or Andy Davidson-- who have wide appeal as well.

My Three Words-- expertly controlled unease, strong narrative voice, unsettling format choices

Definitely worth a purchase. This is a finished copy, so the winner can add I to their collections immediately.

To sweeten the pot today, I also have my ARC of Dare to Know by James Kennedy, the YA author's adult debut. Click here for the Quirk Books page on this just released title and for a blurb by horror author Daniel Kraus. 

From Goodreads:

Dark Matter meets Annihilation in this mind-bending and emotional speculative thriller set in a world where the exact moment of your death can be predicted–for a price.

Our narrator is the most talented salesman at Dare to Know, a prestigious and enigmatic company in the death-prediction business. While he has mastered the art of death, the rest of his life is an abject failure. Divorced, estranged from his sons, and broke, he's driven to violate the cardinal rule of his business by forecasting his own death day. The problem: apparently he died 23 minutes ago. 

The only person who can confirm his prediction is Julia, the woman he loved and lost during his rise up the ranks of Dare to Know. As he travels across the country to see her, our narrator is forced to confront his past, the choices he's made, and the terrifying truth about the company he works for--and his role there.

Highly ambitious and totally immersive, this adrenaline-fueled thriller explores the destructive power of knowledge and collapses the boundaries between reality, myth, and conspiracy as it races toward its stunning conclusion.

I am guessing you have this title already, but there are probably holds. In many ways it is more chilling than a traditional Horror title because the concept, while still 100% speculative, feels 100% possible. 

This will make an excellent giveaway for fans of Blake Crouch. 

Big thanks to Undertow Publications and Quirk Books for providing these books to me so that I can give them away to you.

Good luck!

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #54: Ramsey Campbell Novel and a Steve Berman Collection

Today's giveaway includes the second book in Ramsey Campbell's epic and critically acclaimed  second book in his Three Births of Daoloth Trilogy and a new collection of queer horror by a well known small press owner.  And both have reviews to help you hand-sell these titles. But first, here is how to enter:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win.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. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. 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 giveaway #52. The winner was late to respond due to vacation, but it was Aaron from Altadena Library District [CA]. Click here to see giveaway #53. The winner was Miranda from Joliet Public Library [IL]. 

And now on to my latest giveaway.

Ramsey Campbell is Britain's great living horror author and also a genuinely nice human. [One of my fondest StokerCon memories is spending the dinner preceding the Bram Stoker Awards ceremony in Providence sandwiched between him and his wife and Caitlin Kiernan and their wife.] And of all the books he has written, published, and won awards for, his Three Births of Daoloth Trilogy is his most personal [and has won a bunch of awards]. The trilogy has already been published in England, and it is now being released by Flame Tree Press here in America. 

Last year I reviewed the first book in the series in Library Journal. Here is a snippet of that review:

The Searching Dead, a finalist in the Horror category for the British Fantasy Award, is a slow burn with a fantastic pay off, this intense and menacing story framed by superior world building is a good suggestion for fans of It by King or the African Immortals series by Due.

Born to the Dark is book two and as the reviews and as critics have proclaimed across the pond, this is a title worth your time. The Flame Tree Press paperback American releases of this seminal, coming of age, Horror series are an excellent addition to all public libraries. Thanks to the publisher for this ARC. 

And don't forget, Flame Tree Press is one of my top Horror independent presses for libraries. They are distributed by S&S and you can stay on top of their catalog and read e-ARCs via Edelweiss. In general, I suggest adding all of their titles. They are well edited, easy to procure through your normal methods, hold up to multiple checkouts, and represent the breadth of scares and frames that today's Horror offers readers. 

Now on to a smaller press title, but one that is worth your effort to obtain. Fit for Consumption: Stories Both Queer and Horrifying is a story collection by Steve Berman who is also the owner of Lethe Press whose tag line is, "we're queer and you better be okay with that."

My colleague Cody Daigle-Orians reviewed this collection in the current issue of Library Journal. Here is a snippet from that glowing review:

Appetite is everything in Berman’s (Lambda Literary Award winner for His Seed) lush collection of dark queer tales that map the territory between a body that craves and the one it hungers for. It’s a wide-ranging offering of stories, from flamboyant tales that bring to mind Poe and Lovecraft, to quieter, introspective ones that feel piercingly autobiographical.

VERDICT Readers hungry for something dark and queer will find much to chew on in Berman’s bold collection.

Thank you to Lethe Press for a copy of this book to giveaway to one lucky winner.

Enter today and you can win both of these excellent titles. And whether you win or not, I suggest adding them to your collections. Both are out this month!

Good luck!

This Is Horror Award Winners

This week This Is Horror [one of my top resources for the genre] released their awards. Click here for the winners. And here for my Horror Awards index page which links to all nominees and winners past and present.

I have also re-posted the winners announcement below. But seriously consider visiting the Horror Awards page for a fuller picture of the horror landscape. Also, a final note, I have reviews of all of the winning books and a few collections by the winning publisher all here. Or just search the general blog by title or publisher.

Novel of the Year

Winner: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Runner-up: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

“Couldn’t be more thrilled, more honored, for The Only Good Indians to somehow be lucking into a This is Horror Award. Elk is the international language, maybe? No, no. Maybe terror is. Dread. Horror. But also redemption and hope, and all the good things. Because horror’s never just about the bad. Thanks to all the readers, the voters, for this, and thanks to my agent, BJ Robbins, and my editor at Saga, Joe Monti. None of this without y’all.”

—Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians
THIS IS HORROR NOVEL OF THE YEAR

Novella of the Year

Winner: Crossroads by Laurel Hightower
Runner-up: Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

Short Story Collection of the Year

Winner: Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies by John Langan
Runner-up: Velocities by Kathe Koja

Anthology of the Year

Winner: Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors, edited by Doug Murano and Michael Bailey
Runner-up: Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror, edited by Samantha Kolesnik

Fiction Magazine of the Year

Winner: Nightmare Magazine
Runner-up: The Dark

“It is such an honor to be recognized by the This Is Horror community! There are so many terrific magazines doing fantastic work in horror right now—it’s an incredibly exciting time to be working in the genre, and we just love doing it. We feel so grateful to all our wonderful readers, our talented creators, our amazing staff, and of course to Bob and Michael and the entire This Is Horror team. Thanks everyone!”

—Wendy N. Wagner, Nightmare Magazine Editor-in-Chief
THIS IS HORROR FICTION MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

Publisher of the Year

Winner: Undertow Publications
Runner-up: Death’s Head Press

“Wow! We’re absolutely thrilled to be named “Publisher of the Year” in the This is Horror Awards. A bit stunned, as well. Truly a great and humbling honour. Thank you to Michael David Wilson, Bob Pastorella, and the This is Horror team, and all the readers. Thanks to everyone who voted for us. This is especially gratifying considering the strength of this category. Congratulations to all my fellow nominees. Publishing is a truly collaborative endeavour, with a bunch of moving parts, so thank you to the writers, the readers, the librarians, the designers, the artists, the editors, the proofreaders, the booksellers, and the reviewers who help keep the wheel turning.”

—Michael Kelly, Undertow Publications publisher
THIS IS HORROR PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR

Fiction Podcast of the Year

Winner: The Other Stories (Hawk & Cleaver)
Runner-up: NIGHTLIGHT: A Horror Fiction Podcast

Nonfiction Podcast of the Year

Winner: Ink Heist
Runner-up: Post Mortem with Mick Garris

Cover Art of the Year

Winner: Todd Keisling for Arterial Bloom, edited by Mercedes M. Yardley
Runner-up: Mike Davis for grotesquerie by Richard Gavin

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway #53: Two Books-- A New Cult Horror and a Bonus Buzz Worthy SF

Today's giveaway is a doozy. The second novel by this year's Bram Stoker Winner for Best First Novel and a bonus "defiantly joyful speculative adventure" for fans of John Scalzi. Here is how to enter:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. 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 giveaway #52. A winner was picked but they have yet to respond, so I may pick 2 winners tomorrow. 

I have a huge stack of physical ARCs to giveaway as the Spooky Season begins in earnest so let's get to it with a 2-fer to kick off the speculative fun.

First up, is Children of Demeter by E.K. Knight. Knight won the the 2020 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for The Fourth Whore. Both titles are put out by Raw Dog Screaming Press who are one of my favorite independent presses [see the full list here]. Their books are well made, of excellent writing quality, and easy to get though our normal ordering channels. Please check out their other titles.

Summary of Children of Demeter via Goodreads: 

In 1973, a commune of almost twenty-five people—mostly women and children—disappeared overnight from the small town of West Burma, WI. What happened to the hippie Children of Demeter has remained a mystery until this day, which is what draws Sarah Bisset, a sociologist on sabbatical, to the place.

With her personal life in ruins Sarah is more than happy to lose herself in the secrets of the isolated farmhouse, but soon those revelations have her questioning her own identity, and even her sanity. Is she prepared to navigate the labyrinth of lies and cover ups to expose the truth concealed inside Demeter House despite the consequences?

Children of Demeter is an excellent, female fueled, cult horror story. Cult horror is very popular right now. I mean it always has been, but it is getting a marketed bump in readership right now. Check out this recent list from Book Riot of great cult horror and add this new title to the list. Side note, I have read just about every title on that Book Riot list and can confirm they are excellent and should be in your collections.

This is also a great example of a frame that would make a great display because it crosses many genres. There are a lot of readers who love cult stories and not all of them read horror. Not all cult stories are horror, but for people who really love the cult frame, genre doesn't matter, so these horror novels may be perfect. By the way, to this list I would also add a title I enjoyed very much and gave away here on the blog over a year ago [giveaway 14], The Children of Red Peak by Craig DiLouie. 

You can combine the Book Riot list with this Goodreads user generated list of books tagged "cults" to get a broader list of "cult" titles for all readers. Novelist also has "cults" as a searchable subject meaning you can also extend this list to your YA and Children's' display areas too. I do love when a display subject can be highlighted across a building. You can even have the AV department do movies and TV shows. I promise this will be very popular displays.

As a bonus, I have a copy of one of the buzziest speculative books coming this month. It is not scary but I am in a good mood and wanted to spread some of that joy. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki is from Tor [who sent me the ARC] to give away to all of you. Here is the publisher summary via Goodreads:

Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.

This book comes out on 9/28 and it is going to be popular. I am happy to provide it as a bonus for those who enter.

Good luck!