#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Girl in the Creek by Wendy Wagner

Today I have an ARC of a book to which I gave a STAR in the April 2025 issue of Library Journal.  Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American 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 for the previous giveaway. Our winner was from Jennifer from NC. Now on to this week's giveaway.  

Wendy Wagner is an award winning editor and her second Nightfire novel is coming this July. I read it for the April issue of Library Journal and was blown away. You need this one in your collections. 

Here is my draft review and three words:

Three words That Describe This Book: Sporror, Invasively creepy, Strong Sense of Place

Draft Review: Erin’s brother went into the Clackamas National Forest, in the shadow of Mt Hood and never came out. And he is not the only one. The small town at the forest’s edge is plastered with missing person’s posters. However, as readers know from the first chapter, the lush green hiking trails leading to natural hot springs and fascinating hotel ruins hide a dangerous, sentient fungus– the Strangeness– and it has been spreading, learning, and gathering strength for years. Now that it has found a dead girl in the creek, this invasive species makes the leap from creepy nuisance to terrifying threat. Told from the perspective of Erin and the Strangeness itself, as it unfurls across the landscape, creating a network of living creatures, what begins as an atmospheric “Scooby-Doo”-esque investigation by a group of well-meaning 20 somethings, quickly devolves into violent chaos as monsters both human and supernatural are revealed and the true terror emerges. A tightly written masterclass in horror, a short, well paced novel where every detail matters, this story stretches it tendrils out menacingly from the page, striking readers with both awe and fear, quite possibly leaving them unable to ever take a walk in the woods again.

Draft Verdict: Hugo Award winning editor of Nightmare Magazine, Wagner’s latest, features a compelling true-crime meets “sporror” frame and reads like Into the Wild by Krakeur meets What Moves the Dead by Kingfisher, with a pinch of The Girl With All the Gifts by Carey.

Click here for more appeal notes about this book.

Thanks to Nightfire I have an unread copy of this book to give away to one of you.

Enter once and you are entered going forward.

Good Luck!

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: The Night Birds by Christopher Golden and a BONUS Sarah Langan novella

Today I have an ARC of a book to which I gave a STAR in the April 2025 issue of Booklist and an ARC of a small press title by a major press author. Two books for one winner. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American 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 for the previous giveaway. Our winner was Juliana from IL. Now on to this week's giveaway.  

Look, I am going to be 100% honest here. Authors I like and know are good, they have to work harder to get a STAR from me. I think I have shown that with my track record of reviews for the last 10 years. So when I tell you I went into the upcoming Christopher Golden with the idea that he had to show me something great and he exceeded that....I need you to take it seriously.

The Night Birds (coming May 6th) is fantastic. And I really think it is a book a younger Golden could not have written, both from a technical writing standout, but also, the ending. I will not give anything away but it has an ending that hits hard and comes from life experience. I appreciated the authenticity of it. There would have been "easier" ways to resolve this story, but those would have made it a solid read, not a STAR. From my draft STAR review in Booklist:

Ruby Cahill and Charlie Book broke up almost 2 years ago, but during a hurricane, Ruby returns, without warning, another woman and baby in tow, at the Galveston dock where Book is about to leave to shelter on the sunken ship, where he commands a team studying the mangrove forest that has taken root there. They are on the run from an ancient coven of witches who will stop at nothing to have the baby, a baby whose mother is Ruby’s estranged sister, the woman, that sister’s partner, and the sister, dead. Drenched with unease from the opening pages, Golden [Road of Bones] takes readers on a bleak, but captivating ride told over one harrowing night, shifting the point of view to allow the characters to develop organically without ever sacrificing the quick pace. Heartbreakingly beautiful, filled with action, evil, shape-shifting witches, superior world building, and visceral terror, this is a tale where every detail matters, and reader’s emotions will be put through the wringer, but not left without hope. A strong choice for Horror or Thriller readers, this story will ring the most true in the space where fans of Hex by Olde Heuvelt overlap with This Wretched Valley by Kiefer. 

Three Words That Describe This Book: pervasive unease, multiple povs, captivating

I have much more to say about why this book is so great here, but after I turned in my STAR review, this book also got a star from LJ. I know you all probably have this on order, but I want you to make sure you position it for a wide range of potential readers.

I know a lot of eyes will get on this post because this is a prime ARC up for giveaway, so today I am parting it with an advanced copy of a novella from Raw Dog Screaming Press by Sarah Langan-- Pam Kowalski is a Monster!

If Janet Chow hadn’t been such a jerk to everyone at Sewanhaka High, they might have voted her Most Likely to Succeed. Twenty-plus years later, life hasn’t turned out how Janet expected. She’s rudderless, her career in journalism crashed, burned, and buried. How did it come to this?

But then one day, Janet recognizes her mortal enemy from high school—Pam Kowolski! Somehow, Pam’s become America’s manic pixie sweetheart, an online psychic predicting the end of the world. Pam’s rich, hawt, and famous, meanwhile Janet looks...middle aged. How did this happen? How did Pam Kowolski steal Janet’s life?

 

Janet knows the truth: there’s no way a dumb ass like Pam earned her success. She’s lying about her powers. The world isn’t ending. Pam’s a FRAUD. It’s time for Janet to wake up and claim what’s hers by writing an article that TAKES PAM DOWN.

But to reveal Pam, she’s got to dig deep into their shared past. There’s bad stuff back there, scary stuff, and the more Janet learns, the more she worries: what if Pam Kowolski is right?

Sarah Langan is a big time author for your Horror-Thriller fans, but since this one is not Big 5 and a novella, you might have missed it. This is the same publisher that gave us The Ghost That Ate Us by Daniel Kraus, which I not only gave a STAR, but also it ended up on the short list for best Horror of the year from the 2023 RUSA CODES Reading List here.

Don't sleep on trusted small presses. EVER. Whether the author is known to you or not. 

Thanks to all of the publishers for the ARCs to give away to one of you today.

Enter once and you are entered going forward. And if you win, you can enter again in 4 weeks. Keep entering. Lots of MAJOR titles are coming up soon. Stay tuned and keep reading Horror.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: THE STARVING SAINTS by Caitlin Starling and a Bonus Title You May Have Missed

Today I have an ARC of a book to which I gave a STAR in the April 2025 issue of LJ and a hardcover finished copy of a debut supernatural thriller you probably missed when it first came out. Two books for one winner. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American 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 for the previous giveaway. Our winner was John from Washington. Now on to this week's giveaway.  

As you probably already know, Caitlin Starling is one of our 2025 Summer Scares authors. I have read and reviewed many of her novels and always enjoy them, but this upcoming one-- The Starving Saints--blew me away. From my LJ Draft review:

Three Words That Describe This Book: richly detailed, highly unnerving, 3 points of view.

Draft Review: Aymar Castle is filled with refugees, huddled inside the walls, protected by their King over the course of a six month siege. With mere days to go until the food stores are depleted, four saints appear out of nowhere to save them from starvation. Readers enter this world, closely modelled after Medieval times, through the perspectives of three women: Phosyne, an excommunicated nun who can perform miracles, Ser Voyne, a trusted knight, and Treila, a serving girl with a thirst for revenge. While many immediately bow to the strangers, the protagonists are not willing to trust what is clearly too good to be true. But what can they do to stop the saints? Richly detailed with an engrossing pace and pervasively menacing tone, Straling quickly transports readers inside the castle walls as they watch the horrors unfold. From cannibalism, increasingly dangerous magic, and betrayals to monsters, hidden tunnels, and swarms of bees, this fantastical story is transfixing on its own, but it also serves to underscore a very unsettling truth– no matter the time or place, humanity’s obsession with power may be the biggest horror of all, a horror that may be too much for these three deeply flawed women to overcome, a horror that may doom their people, unless the can find the strength to embrace their true selves.

Verdict: A brilliantly constructed and thoroughly unnerving fever dream, Starling’s fans will ravenously gulp this novel down,* but it will also appeal to readers nestled in the space where Slewfoot by Brom, The Unworthy by Bazterrica, and The Queen by Cutter overlap.

There is more, from me, about this book here.

Get this book pre-ordered. You will thank me later. Speaking of, thanks to Harper Voyage for the ARC.

And as a bonus this week, I have a Hardcover finished copy of a debut title that came out in August which you can add to your collection today, Dead Socials by Jeff Hill. 

Disgraced reporter Jed Hollingsworth returns to his hometown of Sarah Falls to document the story of the worst school shooting in the history of the country. Except it’s the people who didn’t survive he’s interviewing, in preference to those who did. For he’s got no qualms asking the dead to tell their stories. And when a friend reaches out from beyond the grave via social media, Jed knows there’s more to the story than he could have ever imagined. What dark secrets could possibly link this small town in the Midwest to a haunted mansion in upstate New York where every inhabitant has taken their own lives? This is a scoop to die for. Dead Socials is a supernatural thriller that explores the world of mass media hysteria. Sometimes the most dangerous weapon is a cell phone. And the only thing more terrifying than ghosts are the people who killed them.

This book is a timely supernatural thriller that will appeal to a lot of our library readers. Plus, it has a great title for display. Even if you don't win this week, I highly encourage you to check this one out and consider adding ti to your collections. 

Enter once and you are entered going forward. This week's winner gets both titles. 

Good Luck!

COVER REVEAL: Why I Love Horror Edited by Me with an Excerpt from Grady Hendrix

Pre-Order now

Today CrimeReads has the cover reveal of my upcoming book. Out 9/23/25.

Click below to read the excerpt. I picked Hendrix's essay for the excerpt because it is right in the middle of the book and it is one of the best in the book. It leaves you on a cliff hanger and let me tell you, the rest of the essay is totally worth it. Early readers agree. I have received MANY comments as they finish this essay.

You can pre-order WHY I LOVE HORROR anywhere books are sold. Here is the Bookshop.org link. Digital ARCs will be available at Library Journal's Day of Dialog on 4/17 where Alma Katsu and I will be there to discuss her essay and her upcoming book FIEND and soon on NetGalley and Edelweiss. Paper ARCs will be at StokerCon and ALA Annual.

Thank you to CrimeReads for hosting the cover reveal.

Here is the link.