#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: King Sorrow (ARC) and Who Is the Liar (Finished Copy)

Today I am giving away 2 books to one winner: 1 is a title that everyone is excited about and 1 that you would be excited about if only you knew more about it.  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 Ellen from CT. Now on to today's giveaway.

First up, the first Joe Hill novel in 9.5 years. Here is my post from when the review was published in Booklist:

STAR

King Sorrow
By Joe Hill
Oct. 2025. 896p. Morrow, $38  (9780062200600); e-book (9780062200624). 
First published August 2025 (Booklist).

Hill’s first stand alone novel in nearly ten years, taking inspiration from Tolkien, introduces readers to Arthur, Colin, Allison, Donna and Donvan (twins), students at a small Maine college 1989, and Gwen, a high school townie, whose mom works for Colin’s wealthy family. When Arthur falls into debt with local drug dealers, the group tries to summon a dragon to take care of the problem. When King Sorrow actually emerges on that winter evening, the friends are forced to pay by providing the name of a person to be sacrificed to the dragon each and every Easter. Set between 1989 and 2022, readers are brought back every 5 years, watching the unintended consequences of their choices reverberate through time and space. Real history overlaps with unsettling verisimilitude as the six friends bear this secretive, unshakable burden, one that is not easy to hide. Hill’s remarkably well-paced character-centered epic, blanketed in unrelenting dread, escalating to pure terror every Easter is perfectly suited for this moment. Pitting the computer age vs folktales this is a story that seriously contemplates the costs of power. However, the real horror may be that there are plenty of dragons to go around. For fans of terrifying tomes like The Wanderers Duology by Wendig, or Our Share of Night by Enríquez.

Three Words The Describe This Book: epic in length but moves well; blanketed in unrelenting dread; the horrific costs of power

That is a picture of me interviewing Joe Hill at ALA Annual on June 30th. 

This book is almost 900 pages but it is worth your time. I am sending that giant honker of a book which I read for my review to someone today. 

But wait! There's more!

The giveaway will be off the next two weeks while I am on vacation, so while you wait, I am adding a book by an author who is a legend in the Bizarro genre-- Laura Lee Bahr. The Wonderland Book Award is the highest honor in that genre. Click here to see a list of winners, which includes Gabino Iglesias and Bahr. Haunt, one of Bahr's award winning novels is consider a favorite Bizarro novel of all time by many readers and writers. 

Well she has a new mainstream novel that just released, Who Is the Liar:

An ingenious novel of suspense about sisterhood, innocence, murderous games, and how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love.

In a tight-knit town in the 1980s, a child-killer is on the loose. And Topaz’s parents are on edge. At ten years old, Topaz is so vulnerable. But she has nothing to worry about. Her eldest sister, Ruby, has made sure of that. Swearing Topaz to secrecy, Ruby reveals she has trapped the monster in their root cellar. 

Bound and bloodied in the cold space is kindly Brother Johnson from the Church. Pleading with Topaz to cut him loose, he says her reckless sister is a liar. Brother Johnson is right about that: Ruby does lie. She also likes to scare people. Still, even Ruby wouldn’t lie about this. Would she? The game—and the secret—is in her hands. But Topaz just wants to do the right thing.

Let Brother Johnson die in the cold space? Or try to set him free—and then see what happens next?

The August issue of Booklist even had a glowing review here. An excerpt from that review:

Bahr’s twisted tale, told solely from Topaz’s point of view, is an unnerving walk in the shoes of an impressionable child who has no one to trust. At times a coming-of-age story and at times pure suspense, this dark and disquieting book will keep readers off balance all the way to the last page.

This book will have wide appeal for general library audiences. This is for fans of Zoje Stage, Catriona Ward, and Sarah Pinborough.

With a Booklist Review and my seal of approval, you should be able to order this for your collections. But one winner this week will get a finished copy to add to their collections in the same package as the Joe Hill ARC.

That's 2 books for 1 winner!

Enter once and you are entered going forward, and forward is full of great books. I have the giveaway set up for the rest of September already.

Good luck!

Oh and one last thing, if you have a moment, click on over to RA for All to watch the unboxing video for my book.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Veil by Jonathan Janz

Today I am giving away an ARC of a book that was part of the Booklist/LibraryReads Read N Rave at ALA Annual.  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 Kelsey from AZ. Now on to today's giveaway.

Jonathan Janz is an example of a midlist horror author who your patrons would love, if only you had books by him to hand out. He has a story in the Stand anthology-- The End of the World As We Know It--which is going to be a bestseller next week. Janz is always a great readalike for Stephen King. And in my book, Why I Love Horror, I suggest Janz for fans of Josh Malerman. When Josh was giving his essay a final once over and saw my suggestion of Janz for his readers, he emphatically gave me a "Hell Yeah!" for that comp. 

Janz has a book coming out September 16th from Blackstone Publishing entitled Veil. From the publisher's summary (with a blurb from Malerman):

“The voice in Veil is as present, strong, charming, singular, and desperate as any I’ve read. The story of a family man who will stop at nothing to protect those he loves. Even if those threats are beyond sanity, reason, and a once agreed upon reality. Janz has written another absolute gem of the genre.” —Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box

From beloved horror author Jonathan Janz, Veil is a heart-stopping story of one father who will stop at nothing to save his family.

It begins at night. People vanish from parks and city streets. Then in broad daylight, they’re dragged screaming into the woods, into the water, into the sky. People take refuge in their homes, but still the invisible creatures come, ripping people away from their horrorstruck loved ones. Spouses. Parents. Children. Nowhere is safe and no defense can stop them. Because nothing can save you from what you can’t see.

High school teacher John Calhoun loses his son the first night. A day later, they take his wife. For two months, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter manage to survive, but in the end, she is abducted too. In John’s darkest moment, he meets a motley group of survivors who have a a near-fatal car accident has given one of them the ability to detect what normal human eyesight cannot.

The survivors believe they can replicate the brain injury that will enable them to see the creatures. To discover how they’re invading our world. To fight them. Desperate to save his family, John volunteers. And after the veil of invisibility is lifted, he and his new friends will risk everything to achieve the enter an alien world and bring their loved ones back.

This is a book you need in your collections. It is an example of a book people would love if only they knew about it. 

Thank you to Blackstone for this ARC to giveaway to one of you.

Enter now and you are entered going forward. Click here for a preview of next week's giveaway. It's huge both literally and figuratively.

Good luck!

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: An ARC of My Book and a Virtual Appearance for All

Today I am giving away an ARC of my book. Literally the last ARC left. One I have saved solely for this purpose today. 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 Renée from WI. Now on to today's giveaway.

I am offering an ARC of my book, courtesy of Saga Press. From the starred review in Booklist magazine:

“Horror isn’t just a genre, it’s a calling,” writes Sadie Hartmann in her introduction to this fine collection of essays that delves deep into the appeal of the macabre. Spratford, well-known in the library world as a horror expert, has gathered the most important voices in the genre today—Brian Keene, Stephen Graham Jones, Tananarive Due, and more—and invited them to respond to the simple titular prompt. The results are illuminating, moving, and inspiring. Many of the authors were scared kids or faced trauma (Cynthia Pelayo’s harrowing tale comes to mind) and found comfort in the monstrous. Gabino Iglesias reflects on his grandmother’s belief in ghosts and spirits. Alma Katsu, who worked for “a few three-lettered government agencies,” talks about what historical horror can teach us about the present. Nuzo Onoh describes how horror helped her escape the real-life terrors of the Biafran War. Rachel Harrison masterfully relates the terror of low-fat yogurt. Each essay is put into context with an introduction by Spratford, who, like a good librarian, also provides read-alikes for each author. A treasure trove for readers of horror, this collection will also serve as a useful readers’ advisory tool and may convince the horror-curious to give the genre a try. — Susan Maguire

The book is out in just over 6 weeks and I have a lot of events lined up-- in person, virtual, and podcasts-- starting tomorrow. You can see all of those details including how you can participate and a bookstore that is currently offering personalized books via a pre-sale, on the main blog here. 

Head over to the main blog for more info, but first, enter for your chance to win an ARC of Why I Love Horror, the book that Daniel Kraus calls,"A celebration, an incantation, and a revelation."

Ever now and you are entered going forward.

Good luck!