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Thursday, December 21, 2023

2023 Horror Book Highlights by Me via The LineUp

One of my favorite writing gigs is my 4x a year column for The LineUp. I love it because it is one of the only times I can write directly to readers. Just about everything I am paid to write is meant to be read and used by library workers. But 4x a year, I get to speak to voracious readers directly.

Two columns a year are my choice. In 2023 I did a preview of the first ever Middle Grade Stoker Award by highlighting the finalists and giving them adult readalikes in the Spring, and in the Fall I highlighted some of the best Horror cover artists.

My other two columns are wrap-up pieces. Every Summer I do a post about the Bram Stoker Award winners with readalikes, and that brings us to today and my piece for December. I love that this year end "wrap-up" is not another "Best" list. Instead, I pick 4 trends I saw over the year and pick titles that best present it.

Click here to read my brand new 2023 Horror Book Highlights. Or see below where I have reprinted my draft, plain text, but honestly, the version that Lisa Quigley put up on the site is much prettier and more fun to read, and it has the links to buy the books.

I am particularly proud of my final trend. Also one of the things I loved about the trends this year is that many of the books could have fit in multiple categories. One in particular makes me giggle every time I see my column because it would be a HUGE spoiler if I had put it in a different category.

For those who are interested, here is the link to all of my columns in one place. But you should be promoting The LineUp and the entire family of Open Road Media sites. Their focus is on readers and promotion of backlist titles. They also have A Love So True (Romance), The Archive (History), Murder & Mayhem (Crime Fiction), The Portalist (SF/FSY), and more. 

This is the last post here on the Horror blog for 2023. Have a safe New Year and see you on 1/11 with a #HorrorForLibraries giveaway of this book. Click here for the latest giveaway post with details on how to enter.

From the Haunted Stacks: 2023 Horror Book Highlights 

A detailed look at 2023's wide range of horror fiction, from the "library world's horror maven."
By Becky Spratford | Published Dec 21, 2023

While there are many best lists out there for you to peruse this time of year, in true librarian fashion, I thought I would give you a more nuanced look at the year that was by taking you on a walk through some of the most interesting Horror trends I have noticed accompanied by 2023 titles that illustrate them best.

Siblings Steer Some of the Best Stories of the Year: In 2023, many of the very best novels focused on sibling relationships, but not as the cause of the terror, rather as the very reason that the characters were able to triumph over the monsters, ghosts, or evil puppets.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due 

Jim Crow Florida, 1950. Gloria and Robbie Stephens Jr, 16 and 12 respectively, are left behind after their mother dies from cancer and their activist father is forced to flee North to Chicago. When Robbie kicks a local white boy in the knee to protect his older sister, he is sentenced to 6 months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory with a notorious history. Told in the alternating perspectives of Gloria and Robbie, readers follow the action, set over 2 weeks, as Goria works to set Robbie free. The timeline may be short but the history of the horror that imprisons Robbie is long and the ghosts who live on the school’s grounds are unwilling to wait any longer for justice. An engrossing and heartbreakingly beautiful story that speaks to all situations where injustice occurs and compels its readers to act.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Perennial bestseller Hendrix’s early 2023 release navigated the well worn haunted house trope, inserting fresh horrors into its pantheon (including a terrifying puppet), while also crafting an emotional and thought-provoking story about trauma and loss. Louise, a single mother, lives in California with her 5 year-old daughter Poppy, a continent away from her hometown, Charleston, SC. She has spent her life trying to keep as much distance, physically and emotionally, as possible from her family, especially her overly indulged brother, Mark. But when their parents die suddenly, Louise is forced to return home and reckon with the secrets that have been haunting their family for generations, secrets that not only may be responsible for her estrangement with Mark, but may also be actively trying to kill them.

The Insatiable Volt Sisters by Rachel Eve Moulton B.B. and Henrie, the Volt Sisters, are the last in the line of the founding family of Fowler Island in Lake Erie, macabrely famous for the mysterious disappearances of its female visitors. Opening in 2000, as B.B. contacts Henrie about the death of their father. Henrie agrees to return home with her mother, Carrie. Told in two time frames, 2000 and 1989– the year Henire and her mother escaped the island– and from the perspective of four realistically flawed women-- B.B. Henrie, Carrie, and the island’s museum curator, Sonia, readers will be immediately hooked by their voices, the place, and the dark, mysterious history that surrounds it all. Think Shirley Jackson channeling HP Lovecraft and you get an idea of what to expect. 

Centering Love: Horror is a genre that purposely provokes terror in the reader. These are stories where terrible things can and do happen, but these three books excelled at invoking palpable fear while also allowing love, and the hope that stems from it, to blossom at the heart of these emotional tales. 

Lone Women by Victor LaValle 

The year is 1915. Adelaide Henry, 31 has lived her entire life in a California, Black farming community with her parents, but as the novel opens, Adelaide places her murdered parents in bed, burns the house down, and heads to catch a train to Montana, a territory that allows unmarried, Black women, the opportunity to claim a homestead. Taking only an overnight bag and a heavy, securely locked trunk containing her family’s curse, one that she is now solely responsible for controlling, Adelaide attempts to flee her past while still literally shackled to it. Readers follow Adelaide to the edge of civilization, Big Sandy, MT, to meet its marginalized and outcast citizens, feel the wide open, unforgiving landscape, and watch the captivating drama, both real and supernatural, unfold. This Horror-Western hybrid will grab readers from the start and threaten to never let them go. It is also my personal pick for the best Horror novel of the year.

A Light Most Hateful by Hailey Piper

If Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson could birth a book baby, this stunning novel would be the outcome. Olivia, 18, lives in Chapel Hill, PA, the small town she settled in 3 years ago, after running away from home when her father caught her kissing a girl. Even though the town is not fond of outsiders, she has found her place living in best friend Sunflower’s orbit. As the novel opens, a fierce storm brings torrential rain and what sounds like human screams from the hills. Olivia is working at the Drive-In as an angry monster emerges from the ground and most of the townsfolk enter a zombie-like trance. Olivia runs for her life, looking for Sunflower, trying to save them both, but what exactly is she running away from, and where is she running to? Olivia is about to have the longest night of her life; one that will change her world forever.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle 

Rose, a senior in high school, is a member of the Kingdom of the Pines, a church with deep ties to her local community and a national reputation for running Camp Damascus, a LGBTQ conversation camp with a 100% success rate. While hanging out with friends, Rose sees a decaying woman at the edge of the wood, wearing a red polo and nametag, staring straight at her. Engaging, curious, kind, and proudly neurodiverse, Rose carries the story as Tingle meticulously introduces distrust and confusion, even going so far as to sew unease with single word choices. As Rose’s situation gets more dire, she gathers her found family, embraces love, and fights against the monsters threatening to destroy everything Rose holds dear. 

Dazzling Debuts: While an author could write many books over their career, they can only have one first novel. Some are good, some meh, and then there are those that shine so brightly, it is hard to believe this is their first go at it.

Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

Henley’s Edge is that kind of small New England town where everyone knows each other, but it is also a place where evil, both human and supernatural, has taken hold. Senior women have been disappearing without a trace. The local cop, Malik, is unable to find any leads, while simultaneously facing violent, homophobic attacks in his own home. Heart Crowley is a rich, funeral plot salesman who wants to help people find everything they are looking for in this life, if only they will go into his basement first. And then there is Ghost, an unlikely hero, a young man grieving a huge loss, literally stalked by guilt. LaRocca doubles down on everything that has made his shorter works a viral success, enhancing the dread with scenes of palpable fear, deep-seated trauma, and visceral villainy, using his expertly built, messily realistic characters to move readers through every possible emotion.

Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede

Maeve spends her days performing as the famous ice princess at “the happiest place on earth,” while her nights are spent brazenly murdering people and hiding her crimes in plain sight. But when Maeve meets her best friend’s gorgeous brother, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about herself. Unapologetically dripping with graphic sex and violence, Leede is actively working every angle in an attempt to disgust and disturb her readers, balancing extreme scenes with dark humor and Maeve’s engaging narration. As sympathy builds for Maeve, readers will squirm even more, realizing just how much they are enjoying this illicitly alluring tale.

Chlorine by Jade Song

Speaking from adulthood, Ren recounts the pivotal year, when she exchanged her life as a good Chinese daughter, working hard to get into a top college, competing as an elite swimmer, for a life without terrestrial concerns, as a mermaid. No longer human, Ren shares her memories with a direct, confessional narration, effortlessly drawing readers in from the first lines. As Ren struggles with the pressures of her sport, the obsession of her coach, her feelings for her best friend Cathy, and her experiences as an immigrant, the rawness and pain are familiar, but it is Ren’s insistence on becoming a mermaid, where this tale leaves a lasting mark. Full of contractions, magnificently balancing and remarkably sustaining wonder and dread, magical realism and harsh reality, this is a story that will hold readers in its thrall, squirming with discomfort, yet, unable to look away from the page. This first novel is also one of the most spectacular novels I have read in recent years.

WTF For the Win: Maybe it is because we have all lived through some wild times recently, but this past year, there were a handful of books that took a left turn, sending the story down a path that, in less talented and imaginative hands, could have been disastrous. Instead, in these novels, it is exactly the authors’ willingness to take those risks that made them some of the most memorable reads of the year.

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

 Kadrey, Urban Fantasy mainstay, and Khaw, a Horror rising star, team up for a cinematic and immersive “eldritch whale” of a duology opener. Julie, 29, is starting to feel the aches and pains of her job, using her small, magic packed body to help keep NYC clear of monsters. She recovers with booze and drugs, barely making enough money to cover the rent. But when an old flame, the head of “Excision” for one of the top Wall Street firms, comes asking Julie for help, she starts a chain of events that threatens to eat up the whole world in its wake. Filled with monsters, action, and situations that are bonkers in all the right ways, this is a crowd pleasing, visceral, Cosmic tale worthy of a wide audience.

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus 

One of the most beautiful and moving novels of the year is disguised as a riveting, cinematic, survival thriller. Jay is a high school senior dealing not only with the loss of his local hero and diving legend father, Mitt, but also his unresolved anger with their complicated relationship. In an attempt to come to terms with his grief, Jay attempts a dangerous, solo dive that is cut short when he is swallowed by a sperm whale. Told from Jay’s point of view in short, alternating chapters set in the present from inside the whale’s stomach with chapter headings that note how little air is left in his tak, and the past, mostly between 2015 and 2021. The pacing is relentless, the awe, astounding, and the tension, palpably constricting, even as Kraus takes time to add the necessary scientific details. However, it is Jay’s growth throughout the story where this novel shines, allowing its beauty to emerge, and leave its mark on all who encounter it.

What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman

Madi, a palm reader in Brandywine, VA, may have just returned to town with her 16yo daughter, after fleeing as a pregnant teenager, but her roots run deep in the Chesapeake Bay region. While plying her trade at local farmer’s market, she sees her high school boyfriend, Henry, who has spent the last 5 years searching for his missing infant while mourning the suicide of his wife. When Henry, still a person of interest in these cases, gives his palm to Madi, she experiences disturbing images of the water and the boy, visions that have physical manifestations. Chapman immediately introduces suspense, hooking readers with Madi’s engaging but increasingly unstable narration, confidently and deliberately steering the tone from uneasy to weird to absolute terror with a twist so shocking, no one will see it coming. A disorienting, immersive, and thought provoking contemplation of hope, grief, and guilt, Chapman traps readers in a net of visceral Horror from which they cannot look away no matter how much detritus bursts forth. But beware, readers may never look at a crab the same way again.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Becky's Top Horror of 2023 w/ Links to a Few Other Major Lists

Today I have my official Best Horror of 2023. This is my personal best list with links to my review and a little more information as to why they made the list. But Tis the season for everyone's opinions and I wanted to make sure that I pointed you to 2 other great Best Horror of 2023 Lists.

Finally, before I get to my personal list, wanted to tease my 2023 Wrap Up Column for The Lineup Weekly which will go live tomorrow and I will post on both blogs because it is about trends as much as it is a "Best" list.

Here is Becky's Official, On the Record,  Top 10 (ish) Horror Books for 2023

These are in no particular order, but I will go on the record that if I had to pick a single BEST Horror novel of the year it is The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, which almost seems unfair to every other book because it was a masterpiece.

All titles link to my detailed review with plenty of appeal info and readalikes.

  • The Reformatory by Tananarive Due [engrossing, 360 degrees of fear, nuanced] 
  • Lone Women by Victor LaValle [pervasive unease, strong sense of place, masterfully paced] 
  • Whalefall by Daniel Kraus [harrowing survival thriller, moving character study]
  • Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones (which is EVEN BETTER now that I have read the final book in the trilogy) [multiple povs, fast paced, ingenious] 
  • How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix [terrifying, family trauma, evil puppets] 
  • The Shoemaker's Magician by Cynthia Pelayo [gripping, love letter to Horror, haunting] 
  • A Light Most Hateful by Hailey Piper [thought provoking, weird, small town Horror] 
  • Chlorine by Jade Song [Weird, wonder, extreme unease] 
  • Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle [neurodiverse MC, cinematic, religious cults]
  • Best Novellas: The first 2 novellas in Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Malerman and "The Beast You Are," the novella that closes out the collection by the same name by Paul Tremblay. Those three novellas are among the best Horror novellas I have EVER read.

Some of these books will end up on my Official Best Books I Read This Year list that will go up on the main blog on 12/28 at 7 am central in the regular blog.

Thursday, December 14, 2023

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: The Nighthouse Keeper [MG]

Today I have an ARC for a book that came out back in October but it is one that you need to know about. Details below, but first, here is how you 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 the previous giveaway. Our winner was Kelli from Lewis & Clark [MT] Library. Now on to today's giveaway.

Last year, Lora Senf burst onto the Middle Grade Horror scene with The Clackity. This year readers got the chance to return to Blight Harbor with The Nighthouse Keeper:
Evie once again leaves her world behind to rescue Blight Harbor’s ghosts in this second book in the bone-chilling middle grade Blight Harbor trilogy that’s reminiscent of Doll Bones and Small Spaces.

Evie Von Rathe has been home for only a few weeks from her adventure in the strange world of seven houses when Blight Harbor’s beloved ghosts begin to disappear. Did they leave without saying goodbye, or has something gone horribly wrong? Soon Evie is invited to a mysterious council meeting, where she learns about the Dark Sun Side and a terrible secret.

Yes, the ghosts have gone missing. And that means serious trouble.

With the help of an eleven-year-old (or 111-year-old, but who’s counting) ghost named Lark, trusty Bird, and a plump ghost spider, Evie must find a way to defeat the vicious Nighthouse Keeper responsible for the missing ghosts, save her otherworldly friends, and find her way home from the Dark Sun Side before she’s trapped there forever.

I have read both The Clackity and The Nighthouse Keeper and not only do I recommend this series for all libraries and readers from kids to adults, I think book 2 is even better than The Clackity (which I loved) mostly because it builds so well off of the world she created in the first book and starts Evie on a fascinating path which will continue in future books.

This is the ARC I read for my work on the MG Jury for the Stoker Awards. Winners should read it for themselves and then pass it on to their Youth Departments to make sure they have the series in their collections and remind them that they can use this copy as a prize for a lucky kid.

This is the last giveaway of 2023. The giveaway will return January 11, 2024 with plenty of awesome titles, including some of my STAR review titles from the January 2024 issue of LJ.

Enter now and you are entered going forward.

Good luck! 

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

The 2024 Horror Book Release Calendar is Now Live With a Chance to Learn More

If you use no other resource for your Horror collection development -- including my LJ and Booklist reviews-- it should be Emily Hughes's constantly updated list of upcoming releases in Adult and YA Horror. 

As I write on my Horror Resources Page

Emily just made the 2024 list live here. As she says in the introduction, she updates the entire thing constantly. 

And new this year....Hughes herself is on the list in September with her book, Horror for Weenies! I already have an early ARC promised to me by Quirk!

Bookmark this page and use it to help you craft your Horror collections in 2024. Use the previous years' lists to see what you might have missed and fill in some gaps. And if you don't have any purchasing duties, use it as a way to see what is coming out, by whom, and what subgenres and tropes seem to be popping up with more frequency.

But wait, there's more. Next week, Hughes and I are meeting up with Robb Olson from the ARC Party podcast to record an episode where we talk about Hughes' list and the books we are most excited about for the first half of 2024. It will go live just after the New Year. We hope that by pairing the list itself with the three of us chatting about it and some of titles we have already read, we will help give you even more context to the great work Hughes does. And if you all like it, we can do it again in July for the second half of 2024.

The last few years have seen Horror grow in the mainstream of popularity. 2023 upped the ante as we saw some Horror titles make general best lists regardless of their genre. But you haven't seen anything yet. 2024 is going to be even bigger for Horror and with even better books to back it all up. Get ready now with Hughes' help.

Check back on the Horror blog tomorrow for my last giveaway of the year, and, teaser, it is one of the top MG Horror titles of 2023. And if you enter my #HorrorForLibraries giveaway now, you will be eligible to win many of those awesome 2024 titles before they even come out.

Click here to enter Hughes' 2024 landing page


Thursday, December 7, 2023

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird

 Today I have an ARC for a book that came out back in June but it is one that has made a handful of best lists, is by an author whose novel you probably own, and is a title you may have missed. Details below, but first, here is how you 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 the previous giveaway. Our winner was Mary from Jervis [NY] Public Library. Now on to today's giveaway.

The Argentinian author, Agustina Bazterrica is well known here in America for her novel Tender is the Flesh which I shared my thoughts about when I first read it here.

Back in June, her story collection, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, which features many of her award winning stories, was released in English. From Goodreads:
A collection of nineteen dark, wildly imaginative short stories from the author of the award-winning TikTok sensation Tender Is the Flesh.

From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica, this collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica’s vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways—often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound. In “Roberto,” a girl claims to have a rabbit between her legs. A woman’s neighbor jumps to his death in “A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound,” and in “Candy Pink,” a woman fails to contend with a difficult breakup in five easy steps.

Written in Bazterrica’s signature clever, vivid style, these stories question love, friendship, family relationships, and unspeakable desires.

I received this ARC from the publisher last spring. Since the collection is showing up on year end lists, I wanted to remind everyone about it with a giveaway now. So, enter to win this copy, yes. Read it for yourself and then give it away as a prize. But also, everyone, go check and see if you added this to your collections when it came out, and if not, place your orders now.

Back next week with the last giveaway of 2023. 

Good luck!

Monday, December 4, 2023

Library Journal Best Books 2023: Horror

The Library Journal Best Books of 2023 portal is LIVE! From the landing page:

There are many ways to measure a year—in calendar days, school semesters, anniversaries, or birthdays; at LJ we measure the year in books. Our bibliometric datebook is marked by titles we look forward to for months, books we read in one big, delightful spree, and those we savor, re-read, and share. Every year we convene to ponder our top picks. We talk about what we’re reading, suggest titles to one another, and discuss, with growing excitement and anticipation, selections that we just know will be among our best books. Here are our choices: 149 titles across 15 categories; each a work we have treasured. We are excited that these books exist in the world, waiting to be found or read anew.

I am very happy to have been part of the team who looked at the year that was and prioritized the reading experience of these titles as we weighed their status as best. It is a refreshing way to look at the "best" tag.

As I went through the Horror selection experience over a couple of meetings with my editor and list mate, Melissa DeWild, the conversations we had about all of the titles we considered was enlightening.

Please note, this is the LJ Best Horror list. It it is similar to, but not exactly my personal Horror Best List for 2023. As we look at the genre, only titles that got a star in the Horror category in LJ can be considered. So there are titles I gave a star to in Booklist that did not get a star in LJ or, as is the case with Whalefall, it was a star but in SF.

The experience of working on this list is very fulfilling even when my absolute favorites are excluded. I also had the pleasure of writing all the annotations for the Horror list.

Below, I have reposted the list which lives here permanently. The links go to my reviews of each title. 

Also for ease of use, here is access to past lists, all of which I was involved with: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018.

Due, Tananarive. The Reformatory. Gallery/Saga. ISBN 9781982188344.

Set in Jim Crow Florida in 1950 and following Gloria and Robbie during the two weeks Robbie is (wrongly) sent to the Gracetown School for Boys, the horror in this story has a long tail, and the ghosts who live on the school’s grounds are unwilling to wait for justice any longer. A masterpiece of fiction, this novel speaks to all situations where injustice occurs, and compels its readers to act.


Hendrix, Grady. How To Sell a Haunted House. Berkley. ISBN 9780593201268.

After the sudden death of her parents, Louise must clear her family home, which is filled with creepy dolls and a terrifying clown puppet. Are the toys moving on their own? Why is the attic door clumsily barricaded? The only way for her to get out alive may require Lousie do the scariest thing of all—reckon with the secrets that have haunted her family for generations. Inserting fresh horrors into the haunted-house pantheon, Hendrix also crafts an emotional and thought-provoking story about trauma and loss.


Jones, Stephen Graham. Don’t Fear the Reaper. Gallery/Saga. ISBN 9781982186593.

Final girl Jade Daniels is back, but this time it is December, an epic blizzard is blowing, and serial killer Dark Mills South is on the loose in Proofrock, ID. Over the next 36 hours, Jade, armed with her horror-movie knowledge, indefatigable spirit, strong moral center, and trusted group of friends, will fight to save it all. Jones effortlessly blends bloody slasher action with contemplation of the genre itself; his novel honors its past while also plowing its own trail.


Khaw, Cassandra. The Salt Grows Heavy. Tor Nightfire. ISBN 9781250830913.

What if the Little Mermaid laid eggs, and her hatched children’s hunger laid waste to her prince’s land? Khaw poses this sinister question with a brutally visceral but seductive opening sequence. When the mermaid connects with a plague doctor, the unlikely pair go on an imaginative and thought-provoking journey told through lush language, innovative uses of the body-horror trope, and a captivating direct narration that will make readers contemplate what it means to be “saved.”

LaValle, Victor. Lone Women. One World. ISBN 9780525512080.

It’s 1915, and Adelaide leaves her California home as it burns down to head for a Montana homestead that accepts unmarried Black women. She carries an overnight bag and an extremely heavy, securely locked trunk containing the family curse that she is now responsible for controlling. Told with a pulp sensibility, LaValle’s story is a women-centered Weird Western that is at turns both utterly terrifying and heart-breakingly beautiful

Malerman, Josh. Spin a Black Yarn: Novellas. Del Rey. ISBN 9780593237861.

In this intensely unsettling, utterly original collection of five novellas, Malerman takes well-known horror tropes and twists them, pushing both readers and characters to the edge—and he’s not afraid to push everything over. Whether it’s a house that is only half haunted, a deathbed confession from a would-be serial killer, or a dark satire featuring an awful couple, his stories will be relished by readers new and returning.

Pelayo, Cynthia. The Shoemaker’s Magician. Agora. ISBN 9781957957104.

Polly, an expert in horror history, has always found comfort in horror movies and passed that love on to her autistic son, Bela. But after her Chicago detective husband starts investigating a brutal murder with ties to a famous occult film, it appears someone else is sharing ominous fables with Bela that connect the murder to their family, the history of horror films, and Chicago’s deteriorating movie palaces. Both a gripping narrative and a love letter to the genre.

Piper, Hailey. A Light Most Hateful. Titan. ISBN 9781803364209.
Olivia, 18, who came to the small, insular town of Chapel Hill, PA, as a runaway three years ago, has found a home living in best friend Sunflower’s orbit. As the novel opens, a fierce storm brings torrential, infecting rain that turns most residents into zombies. And where is Sunflower? If Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley, and Shirley Jackson could collaborate, this stunning novel would be the result.

Song, Jade. Chlorine. Morrow. ISBN 9780063257603.

Ren, speaking from adulthood, recounts her final year of high school, the year she exchanged her life as an elite swimmer and perfect Chinese daughter for her current life as a mermaid. Told with a confidence rarely seen in a debut, this remarkable novel expertly balances the contradictions of wonder and dread, magical realism and harsh reality, beauty and discomfort, inundating readers in emotion and a tale in which they’ll willingly drown.

Tingle, Chuck. Camp Damascus. Tor Nightfire. ISBN 9781250874627.

Engaging, curious, and proudly neurodivergent, Rose belongs to a church that runs a popular LGBTQIA+ conversion camp with a 100 percent success rate. While out with friends, she spies the decaying body of a woman at the edge of the woods, wearing a red polo and nametag and staring straight at her. Confusion and disorientation build until it all bursts open with full-blown terror. This novel is chilling and thought- provoking, but what makes it remarkable is the immense love at its center.

Thursday, November 30, 2023

#HorroForLibraries Giveaway: Womb City

Today I have a book that I reviewed in the October 2023 issue of Library Journal and now that it is closer to coming out, I thought I would promote it again with a giveaway of my ARC.  Details below, but first, here is how you 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 the previous giveaway. Our winner was Addison from Portage County [WI] Public Library. Now on to today's giveaway.

In the October 2023 Issue of LJ, I reviewed Womb City by Tlotlo Tsammaase: 

Three Words That Describe This Book: strong world building, compressed time frame, psychological horror

This book is a lot, but in a good way. There is much here to enjoy.

Give easily to your fans of Blake Crouch. They will love it. Similar pacing and world building and themes. It is Africanfuturim with SF and Horror combos. A strong revenge horror frame and lots of psychological suspense. Strong world building but also time stamps for a compressed time frame. Keeps pacing up. Race against time aspects.

Universally thought provoking, on so many levels. AI, dystopian, spiritual, personal relationships, love, family, motherhood, body horror, deadly secrets, political intrigue, so much.

Touches of Philip K. Dick but reminded me a lot of Nicky Drayden [Prey of Gods and Temper] and Oghenechovwen Donald Ekpeki as a writer and editor.

Going to be easy to get into people's hand's if you say Blake Crouch set in Botswana. Marketing copy says Handmaid's Tale. I don't agree. Much more Blake Crouch.

Please note: Author uses xe/xem/xer pronouns

Draft Review: Critically acclaimed Motswana* author, Tsamaase’s strong debut combines African Futurism and Revenge Horror to tell the story of Nelah, a woman living in a near future Botswana, where crime, especially murder, is nonexistent, but that is only because most people have a microchip that monitors their behavior. Readers are swept into the story immediately, as the complicated details of the world and its characters are relayed with confidence, and the dangerous plot, including Nelah’s race against time, unspools at a compelling pace with intrigue coming at them from multiple angles– the thriller-esque twists, deadly secrets, and the history and mythology of the place itself. But like the very best dystopian tales across the subgenre’s history, Womb City is universally thought provoking as it seriously contemplates topics such AI, spirituality in modern society, bodily autonomy, grief, love, motherhood, and family. Verdict: Tsamaase, like Oghenechovwen Donald Ekpeki, is a rising star in African Speculative fiction whose work will appeal to readers from across the globe especially because while the influence of Philipp K. Dick and Margaret Atwood are easy to see, this novel is a perfect suggestion for fans of Blake Crouch. 

*I had to look it up but “Motswana” is a person from Botswana

Enter now. And remember, you enter once and you are entered going forward. 

Also, if you are reading this and you entered a while ago, feel free to use the directions above to check in on your entry and/or update your contact info. I have had people who retired and or changed libraries enter and not update me, so they have missed out. 

Good Luck!

Thursday, November 16, 2023

#HorroForLibraries Giveaway: The Daughters of Block Island

Today I have a book that I reviewed in the October 1, 2023 issue of Booklist and now that it is coming out next month, I thought I would promote it again with a giveaway of my ARC.  Details below, but first, here is how you 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 the previous giveaway. Our winner was Emily from Springfield-Greene County District Library. Now on to today's giveaway.

Today's book is The Daughters of Block Island by Christa Carmen.  I first posted the review during 31 Days of Horror, but it was buried with 4 titles. Today I have reposted my longer review with commentary about this must buy book.

Blake heads to Block Island, 14 miles off Rhode Island, to confront her birth mother. Arriving in a winter rainstorm, she heads to a haunted mansion, now a Bed and Breakfast, where she sets out to untangle the complicated history of her family. Blake feels like the heroine in a Gothic novel, that is, until she is murdered, but not before she got a letter off to the sister she never knew. A few weeks later, Thalia returns to Block Island, the home she left behind ten years ago, to finish what the sister she never met started. However, whoever silenced Blake will stop at nothing to keep the secrets of the island and its generations of sisters quiet. Told in two parts, from Blake’s and Thalia’s perspectives, no one is safe in this compelling and atmospheric thriller that pays homage to classic Gothic novels while still adding something fresh to the beloved genre. An easy sell to fans of the Brontes but also, those who enjoy the creepy, psychological suspense of Simone St. James or Gwendolyn Kiste's LAMBDA award-winning Reluctant Immortals.

Further Appeal: This is a classic Gothic fiction fan's dream of a book. It is consciously a book about books and a book about storytelling itself. Everything Gothic is perfectly rendered. It is Rebecca dialed up to 10. 

Other themes explored, family secrets (so many both secrets and families interconnected in those secrets), addiction issues, lesbian MC. The setting is the biggest character: the island, the weather, the house, its place on a cliff, all the other buildings. Carmen double down on the atmosphere and it shows; it enhances the reading experience. 

The novel also has some modern psychological suspense twists that work very well with the Classic Gothic frame.

This book will have wide appeal to a huge swath of library patrons.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Gothic, Psychological Suspense, Atmospheric

Readalikes: Of course the dozens of books mentioned in the book-- the classic Gothic titles. Jennifer McMahon is another good option here. I would not suggest to every fan of Mexican Gothic or The Hacienda though, because those have supernatural monsters at the center of the story; this does not.

I would like to note, I called out Carmen's story in Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror edited by Mark Matthews as amazing. I said it would be on year end best lists, and I was correct. It was nominate for a Stoker this past year. This is Carmen's first novel, an it is with Amazon so it will have wide distribution. You need to be aware of it.

Speaking of her publisher, she is joining Zoje Stage who I would also list as a readalike, especially Mothered, which I reviewed here.

Enter today and for an advanced reader copy of The Daughters of Block Island, and add at least one copy to your collections. It is a perfect winter Horror story filled with atmosphere and chills-- real ones because the weather plays a big role here. 

And remember, you enter once and you are entered going forward. 

Which reminds me, if you are reading this and you entered awhile ago, feel free to use the directions above to check in on your entry and/or update your contact info. I have had people who retired and or changed libraries enter and not update me, so they have missed out. 

Next week we are off for Thanksgiving but after that I will be back with a SF-Horror cross over, set in Botswana that is a great readalike for your Blake Crouch fans. 

Thursday, November 9, 2023

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror

The #HorrorForLibraries giveaway is back after a busy October where 16 books were given away and I lost track of what number giveaway this is. So going forward, I am no longer numbering these weekly giveaways. Besides that, nothing else has changed.

Today I have a finished book. An anthology by one of my vetted small presses you can trust, featuring some of you patron's favorite Horror authors. Details below, but first, here is how you 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 the previous giveaway. Our winner was Sara (who entered back in 2020) from Marshall County [KY]  Public Library. Now on to today's giveaway.

Never Wake: An Anthology of Dream Horror is edited by Kenneth w. Cain and Tim Meyer and includes stories by Eric LaRocca, Cynthia Pelayo, Gwendolyn Kiste, Lee Murray, Philip Fracassi and more. Please note I have given multiple stars to all four of those authors for their work.

Even without know what the anthology's theme is, this a book you need in your general Horror collections. 

However, that theme is also a draw and will bring people who don't always consider themselves Horror readers to this book. From the publisher's description:
Where do we go when we dream?

Since the beginning of time, people have argued the meaning of dreams. Are they symbolic visions that hold great meaning and personal significance? Are they portals into other worlds? Or are they just a series of random events our mind shows us when we fall asleep? Whatever the case, this much is true—the mind can be a scary place to venture, even for a few hours.

NEVER WAKE is an anthology of dream horror, bringing you several mind-bending tales of nightmares, hallucinations, and phantasmagoria from some of the hottest talent in horror fiction. But don’t worry—when you (wake up screaming) flip the last page, just remember to tell yourself, “It was only just a story…” Unless it wasn’t.

Featuring an introduction from Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann and stories Cynthia Pelayo, Philip Fracassi, Gwendolyn Kiste, Eric LaRocca, Lee Murray, Todd Keisling, Laurel Hightower, and many more!

Thank you to Amanda (who is also a library worker) from Crystal Lake Publishing, I am offering you a finished copy of this book that you can add to your library collections immediately. But everyone should consider buying a copy, in case you don't win.

Remember, when you enter now, you are entered going forward.   

Good luck! 

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

31 Days of Horror: Day 32-- Promoting Horror All Year Long with Lila Dennning

I wanted to remind you AFTER October Horror is still worth promoting. As reported in Publisher's Lunch in January 2023, Horror is up 79% in sales as its own category over the previous 2 years. 

While we see an increase in seasonal readers in the Fall, there is a steady amount of all year long Horror readers, and that number is growing.

I asked my colleague Lila Denning, a national expert on Book Discussions, and part of the HWA's Library Team, to share how she highlights Horror all year long.

Even if she does not convince you, at the very least, leave those displays up for another week as people trickery in who meant to read a Horror title this fall but forgot. They will be relieved that you are sill thinking of them.

Thank you to Lila for helping out here. To read other guest posts by her, click here. And now, Lila Denning:

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It’s the day after Halloween and you may be tempted to set aside the horror titles in your collection until next October. You may be sad that spooky season is over as we head into the winter holidays. But remember that it’s always spooky season because horror circulates all year and given the current rise in popularity, it is part of good patron service to include it in your passive and active readers advisory outside of Halloween season. By expanding how you think about genre and blending similar themes, you can continue to market horror to your patrons throughout the year.

Winter is dark, silent, cold and kind of scary. Look for those horror novels that take place in the winter and the snow. Lists like this one on Goodreads can guide a search of your library’s collection. There is also at least one winter or winter holiday themed short story collection released every year. Some readers may appreciate a small break from the push of joy and family visits to dive into something scary.

A theme like “Not Such a Happy Home” could include domestic thrillers, psychological suspense, haunted houses, and dysfunctional families. This would allow you to blend mysteries, suspense, and horror on one book display or online list. There are plenty of books with broad appeal that could be included. Using generic terms like murder for the title of the list or display, is another way to expand beyond one genre.

Witches cross genres – add paranormal romance, historical fiction, and horror. There are also creatures like shifters that appear in more than one genre. Add a sign that says “Shift Into Summer” and you can help circulate those titles in that time in between spring and summer. Of course, human monsters like serial killers appear in a variety of books, movies, and TV series.

When movie or series gains popularity during the year (studios don’t save all their horror features for October), remember to put up a display or list with read-alikes for that title. Bird Box was released in December 2018 and was a huge success. Netflix released Wednesday in November. That series could be used to promote your backlist YA titles in addition to adult books. Harness the energy of things with momentum in popular culture to draw attention to your backlist horror.

Springtime is the season for baby birds, melting snow and…folk horror. The movie Midsommer demonstrated that people will flock to stories set in rural places about folk religions, paganism, and witches.

Don’t forget about scary beach reads. Not everyone wants light, humorous books while they are on vacation. I have book displays with horror empty out in the summer as patrons take them down the road to the beach to enjoy as they sit in the bright sun. One of the more iconic summer creature films is Jaws. Recently there have been some great beach/ocean/shoreline related horror released that could jump start a summer display – What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman and Whalefall by Daniel Kraus. Additional evidence for the allure of scary books in the summer is the number of big mystery and suspense titles that are released every summer.

Speaking of summer, don’t neglect horror on your YA and youth summer reading suggestion list. There are a lot of great middle grade and YA horror titles available. Seeing their favorite kind of books promoted in the library could be just what a child needs to draw them back into reading and the library. The Bram Stoker Award nominees are an excellent place to start.

There are also juvenile fiction titles and picture books that can be suggested to help younger fans keep reading while school is out. The Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with United for Libraries, Book Riot, and Booklist present Summer Scares every year. Three adult, YA, and middle grade titles are selected and can be worked into book clubs and displays. The most up-to-date resource page is here. Use these titles and the annual programming guide to make next summer a spooky one.

Hopefully, these ideas will give you a jumpstart on adding horror to your displays and lists all year. While Halloween is a wonderful celebration of the dark and spooky, horror can easily be worked into readers advisory year-round. If you are one of the library workers who loves horror, take it forward into every month.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

31 Days of Horror: Day 31-- Announcing Clay McLeod Chapman as the 2024 Summer Scares Spokesperson

Please note, the knife has been removed from our logo by request of
a few schools who use the program with their students 

HWA ANNOUNCES SUMMER SCARES READING PROGRAM 2024 Spokesperson and Timeline

The Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with United for Libraries, Book Riot, Booklist, and NoveList®, a division of EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO), is proud to announce the fifth annual Summer Scares Reading Program. Summer Scares is a reading program that provides libraries and schools with an annual list of recommended horror titles for adult, young adult (teen), and middle grade readers. It introduces readers and librarians to new authors and helps start conversations extending beyond the books from each list and promote reading for years to come.

Summer Scares is proud to announce the 2024 spokesperson, author Clay McLeod Chapman:

"To this day, I still have vivid memories of my grandmother escorting six-year-old me through our local library -- Go, Bon Air! -- and striking a deal: Pick two books, any two books, one for her to read to me and one for me to read to myself. When we both finished our individual reads, we could always come back and pick another pair. I can still list off practically every book I selected -- beginning with "Monsters of North America" by William A. Wise -- returning to the library to replenish our endless reservoir of reading every week of my childhood. Now I feel as if I'm returning to the library all over again, thanks to Summer Scares, where the deal this time is to pick those books that continue to make an impact on me and share them with as many readers as humanly possible."

Chapman is joined by a committee of six library workers who, together, will select three recommended fiction titles in each reading level, totaling nine Summer Scares selections. The goal of the program is to encourage a national conversation about the horror genre, across all age levels, at libraries around the world, and ultimately attract more adults, teens, and children interested in reading. Official Summer Scares designated authors will also make themselves available at public and school libraries.

The committee’s final selections will be announced on February 14, 2024, Library Lover’s Day. Chapman, along with some of the selected authors, will kick off Summer Scares at the 8th Annual HWA Librarians’ Day, Friday, May 31st, during StokerCon® 2024 at the San Diego Mission Bay Marriott.

Additional content, including podcast appearances, free webinar with Booklist, and lists of suggested titles for further reading, will be made available by the committee and its partners between the announcement of the Summer Scares 2024 titles and the kickoff event.

Of special note is the annual Summer Scares Programming Guide, courtesy of HWA Library Committee Co-Chair Konrad Stump and the Springfield-Greene County Library, which provides creative ideas to engage horror readers. Centered around the official Summer Scares titles, the guide offers tips and examples for readers’ advisory, book discussion guides, and sample programs, enabling librarians, even those who don’t read or especially enjoy the horror genre themselves, to connect their communities with Summer Scares. To see past year’s Summer Scares titles, spokespeople, and programming guides, please visit the program archive: http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/p/summer-scares-archive.html.

This year, Summer Scares is once again excited to partner with iRead and all ages Summer Reading Program developed by librarians for libraries. iRead is used by libraries across the United States and around the world through their partnership with the US Department of Defense, bringing Summer Scares to our military families deployed all over the world.

2024 also brings NoveList as an official partner after a few years of providing program support.

“The goal of connecting readers with their next favorite book shapes everything we do at NoveList. We know reading can transform and delight, including being delightfully frightened,” said Danielle Borasky, Vice President of NoveList. “The dedication of the Summer Scares program to connecting readers of all ages with horror aligns with our passion for matching every reader with their next book,” she added. “Our team includes devoted genre readers, including die-hard horror fans, so we understand the importance of genre fiction. We're thrilled to support a program that highlights how enriching horror can be for readers.”

“I've been unofficially involved in parts of the Summer Scares program for the last couple of years and have worked to spotlight the selections in the NoveList databases. While collaborating with Summer Scares, I've also become an HWA member and a more active member of the horror community, which has been a wonderful gift,” said Yaika Sabat, MLS, Manager of Reader’s Services for NoveList. “I am fortunate to channel my lifelong love of horror into helping readers discover the genre in my work, both in NoveList and beyond,” she added. “As someone who began reading horror as a child and considers every season the right time to read horror, I'm thrilled to join the Summer Scares selection committee.”

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates coming soon from Booklist, Book Riot, NoveList and United for Libraries, as well as at the HWA’s website: www.horror.org and RA for All Horror: http://raforallhorror.blogspot.com/p/summer-scares.html.

Questions? Reach out to HWA Library Committee Chairs Becky Spratford and Konrad Stump via email: libraries@horror.org.

Summer Scares Committee Members:

Clay McLeod Chapman writes books, comic books, children's books, as well as for film and television. His most recent novels include What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters. You can find him at www.claymcleodchapman.com.

Becky Spratford is a library consultant and the author of The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror, third edition. She reviews horror for Booklist Magazine, is the horror columnist for Library Journal and runs the Readers’ Advisory Horror blog, RA for All: Horror. Becky is also a member of United for Libraries and is currently serving as Secretary for the Horror Writers’ Association.

Konrad Stump is a Local History Associate for the Springfield-Greene County (MO) Library, where he co-coordinates Springfield-Greene's popular “Oh, the Horror!” series, which attracts hundreds of patrons during October. He created the Donuts & Death horror book discussion group, featured in Book Club Reboot: 71 Creative Twists (ALA), and co-created the Summer Scares Programming Guide. Library workers who are interested in cultivating horror programming can contact him at konrads@thelibrary.org for free assistance.

Carolyn Ciesla is an academic library director in the Chicago suburbs. She has worked as a teen librarian and reference librarian, and reviews horror titles for Booklist Magazine. She’s currently enjoying providing all the scary books to her teen daughter, and revisiting a few along the way. You can find her all over the internet as @papersquared.

Kelly Jensen is an editor at Book Riot, the largest independent book website in North America. She covers all things young adult literature and has written about censorship for nearly ten years. She is the author of three critically-acclaimed and award-winning anthologies for young adults on the topics of feminism, mental health, and the body. She was named a person of the year in 2022 by Publishers Weekly and a Chicagoan of the year in 2022 by the Chicago Tribune for her anti-censorship work. She has also earned commendation from the American Association of School Librarians for her censorship coverage. Prior to her work at Book Riot, she was a public librarian for children, teens, and adults in several libraries in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. She is currently enrolled in a clinical mental health counseling master's program to bolster her work with mental health.

Yaika Sabat (MLS) comes from a background in public libraries of various sizes. She nowworks at NoveList as the Manager of Reader Services, where she trains library staff nationwide on readers’ advisory, creates genre-focused content, and works on reader-focused products and services. As a Horror Writers Association’s Library Advisory Council member, she works to help librarians understand and embrace the horror genre. Her other passions include writing, graphic novels, film (the scarier, the better), and folklore.

Julia Smith joined the Books for Youth team at Booklist in 2015, where she is now a senior editor. Her love of middle-grade literature and all things unsettling and strange draws her to creepy children's stories. You can follow her at @JuliaKate32 on Twitter. 



Monday, October 30, 2023

31 Days of Horror: Day 30-- The HWA's Library Committee Wants to Help You All Year Long

We are 1 day away from Halloween, the day we have been leading up to. However, I need to remind you that Horror is popular all year long. 

At the start of the month, I demonstrated all the ways this blog can help you to help your scariest readers every day of the year. Today, I want to close out my blog-a-thon with how the entire team at the Horror Writes Association's Library Committee can help you as well.

Wait, Becky, "close-out?" We sill have one more day. 

Yes we do, but tomorrow is the announcement one of the flashier things our Library Committee does as we will be letting the world know about our 2024 Summer Scares Spokesperson with an official press release, but that is not all we do.

At the Illinois Library Association's Annual Conference last week, I was part of an entire panel where we discussed how the HWA can help any library. And today, I am giving you access to all of the presentations here in one folder. Also below, I have given you a linked list of the individual presentations as well:

  • I went first to give an overview of everything the HWA Library Committee can and does do for all of you, our libraries, including everyone on the panel. The moral of my presentation, you want any horror programming for your library, email libraries at horror dot org. But don't it early if you want help for fall 2024. Click here for my slides.
  • Next was Becca Boland from iRead presenting about the partnership between their summer reading program and Summer Scares. Click here for her slides.
  • Yaika Sabat from NoveList had a presentation about everything they do to support Summer Scares and Horror in general. Thanks to NoveList for sending her to our conference for this persentation. Click here for her slides.
  • And then back-to-back, 2 library workers from the Chicago area who both have been a part of awesome Horror programming because they emailed libraries at horror dot org and/or used the Chicago Chapter of the HWA as their starting point.
    • J9 from Glen Ellyn Public Library had an idea in early 2022: what if they turned the library into a haunted house by using scenes from actual horror stories, acted out by kids from the high school theater troop. They contacted me early in 2022 to start planning. I connected J9 with authors from the Chicagoland Chapter of HWA and the event went off with 650 people attending and the Chicago Tribune sending a reporter and a photographer. Then they did it again this year with over 1000 people showing up. Click here for their slides with pictures and more, including lessons learned
    • And rounding it all out, award winning author and library worker, Michael Allen Rose from Oak Park Public Library. His slides show off the nuermous activities and programs he has hosted and been a part of at his library and others, including an all day Book Festival at an IN library a few weeks ago. Michael is a great presenter on this topic and a wonderful resource himself as he is a bridge between the library and author worlds. Click here for his slides.
While these programs give an overview of some of the things the HWA Library Committee has done recently, it is not even close to everything. Anyone, anywhere, can email us-- libraries at horror dot org-- and we will connect you with the HWA chapter in your area or if you are doing virtual, help connect you with authors who can present for you. And of course, there is all that Summer Scares programming we offer. 

As we approach the sunset of another year of 31 Days of Horror, I leave you with my annual plea to NOT forget about Horror the other 11 months of the year. And know that you have me and an entire team of Horror loving library people, ready to help you.

Back tomorrow with our big Summer Scares 2024 spokesperson announcement as well as a special video message on all social media platforms. 

Sunday, October 29, 2023

31 Days of Horror: Day 29-- The Lineup, a Resource For Readers of Scary Reads All Year Long

As we inch toward the end of the Spooky Season I am going to be highlighting resources to help you all year long. 

One of my favorites is The Lineup, a champion of dark and spooky books. I like this resource so much, I am under contract with them to write for them 4x a year. I always do two wrap ups, one focused on the Stoker Awards and another as a Year End overview. The other 2 pieces are on topics Senior Editor Lisa Quigley and I agree on. To see all of my From the Haunted Stacks pieces, you can click here.

But The Lineup offers way more to you and your patrons than the four articles I contribute, so I invited Quigley herself to share more with all of you library workers about what both site she oversees, The Lineup and Murder & Mayhem, have for you all year long. And spoiler, one of my favorite parts about these sites is that they prioritize, the backlist. 

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I’m delighted to be back on RA for All once again! By now you will likely be familiar with my love of the horror genre as well as some of my own personal history as a fan and author.

This Halloween season, I want to share just how obsessed I am with my job as Senior Editor of The Lineup and Murder & Mayhem—sister sites owned by Open Road Integrated Media (ORIM). ORIM’s primary mission is to help voracious readers find books they’ll love.

Here’s the thing. In my humble opinion, there is just no other publisher + digital media company quite like ORIM. In the broader publishing industry, we are uniquely positioned due to our unapologetic emphasis on breathing new life, love, and readership into the backlist. A book doesn’t stop being worth reading just because it was published more than six months ago…and we help readers discover treasures in the backlist, whether the books are published by us or another publisher. After all, "a book is 'new' if is to the reader."

We are a publisher, yes—but we are first and foremost a champion of books. In addition to publishing our own diverse catalog of books, we also partner with 100+ additional publishers—from small press to Big 5—to market an astonishing number of backlist books with the ultimate goal of matching readers with books.

In many ways, our mission is complementary and often parallel with the mission of libraries and librarians. On that note, we do work extensively with Overdive and Hoopla to make tens of thousands of titles available to libraries in eBook form. We are a very library-friendly publisher, all about reading.

Most publishers would actually love to have the continual flow of reader interest in their backlist. That said, most marketing dollars and energy goes into making new books. So, the focus for most publishers will inevitably be on the frontlist. This strategy is often the result of both budgetary and manpower limits and constraints—and does not reflect the actual passion and hearts of people in the publishing industry. Everyone wishes they could give more time and love to the backlist, but as the publishing machine moves forward, some books inevitably fall out of the marketing schema.

Additionally, backlist marketing is an often a different type of marketing, done over a longer period of time and making use of ongoing reader interest using quite different ways of introducing them to that perfect next read. That’s where ORIM comes in with a number of innovative verticals aimed at matching hungry readers with a whole world of backlist books. But what’s most relevant for you as librarians—as well as your patrons—are our genre-specific content sites that match readers with books: Early Bird Books, The Lineup, The Portalist, The Archive, Murder & Mayhem, and A Love So True. With site content that’s regularly delivered directly to your inbox, these are excellent Readers Advisory resources for both librarians and readers alike.

Moreover, our site editors (hey, that’s me!) are avid and knowledgeable readers with a passion for books. We collaborate with our talented freelancers to produce helpful and informative content that’s actually grounded in knowledge, love, expertise, and respect for our genres and subgenres. Side note: if any of you are ever interested in writing for any of the sites, we LOVE it when librarians write for us! Feel free to send pitches to site editors at any time!

For example, as Senior Editor of The Lineup (our horror, true crime, and paranormal site), it’s crucial for me to work with freelancers who deeply know and love the genre. I’ve deliberately brought on freelancers who are invested in the horror world—genre leaders like Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Saywers of Night Worms, Gwendolyn Kiste, Eric LaRocca, Janelle Janson, Stephanie Sendaula, Gabino Iglesias, Kathryn E. McGee, Mackenzie Kiera, Mary K. McBrayer, Michael J. Seidlinger, and of course—the Library World’s Horror Maven we all know and love, Becky Spratford.

It’s important to me that we’re not only “producing content”, but that we’re writing stories, lists, and recommendations that actually reflect the community’s interests, tastes, concerns, and diversity. My ongoing mission is to make The Lineup a central hub for fans of horror literature.

And finally, I’ll introduce you to an exciting new initiative from this year from ORIM, one that is near and dear to my heart: the Free Voices campaign. Free Voices seeks to promote free speech, oppose book banning, and lift up the voices of the books being challenged across the country.

Additionally, here are some of the pieces published on Early Bird Books in support of books that are being challenged across the United States:
Wishing you all a very thrilling end to Spooky Season!