#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: 2 Books for 2 Winners

This week I am offering two books for two winners. One is my review ARC of book that comes out next week; it is the novel I am pushing this year to give to any reader who wants to try Horror; a book I had this glowing review of in the the July issue of Booklist. The second is an ARC of an essential story collection by a legendary bestselling author, out 10/7. 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 winners in order were, Catherine from IL and Sarah from NC.

Now on to this week's giveaway.

First up is a book that you need to give out to anyone who wants to try horror. It is The Thursday Murder Club meets Scream. Seriously. From my post back in July:

The Autumn Spring Retirement Home Massacre

By Philip Fracassi

Sept. 2025. 416p. Tor Nightfire, $28.99 (9781250879066); e-book (9781250879073). 

 First published July 2025 (Booklist). 

Step aside, teenagers. Make way for Rose DuBois, a final girl for the over 70 set. Quick witted and active, Rose enjoys her full life at Autumn Springs surrounded by so many friends, especially her best friend, Miller. However, when two residents end up dead in quick succession, Rose starts to suspect that they were murdered, and she may be the only person able to stop the killings. Like the best slashers, this is an emotionally resonant tale, more about its characters than the violence being perpetrated against them (of which there is plenty). But it is also a well-paced, age appropriate, kick-butt, final girl story led by Rose’s point of view with cinematic, darkly humorous glimpses into the residents’ lives as they are about to be murdered. But at the horror at the heart of this story is the terrifying reality of how disposable society views mature adults. In the tradition of the Scream films, this story will appeal to fans of Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and Hendrix’s Final Girl Support Group.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Slasher, Mature protagonists, emotionally resonant

Click here for more of my thoughts about this book. As I said above, it comes out next week and you need to make sure you have it pre-ordered. 

Thank you to Tor Nightfire for the paper copy that I am giving away.

Next is a book from a smaller press that you might have missed but you need to get on it NOW. The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale with an introduction by Joe Hill:

In this career horror retrospective, World Horror Grandmaster Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-tep; Hap and Leonard) tackles racism and human cruelty as de­ftly as he conjures demon nuns and Elder Gods.

Featuring an original introduction from Joe Hill, this much-anticipated volume showcases the best of Lansdale’s terrifying short stories—menacing, astute, and wildly inappropriate. Bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale is known for his gritty mysteries and his eccentric horror.

As an eleven-time Bram Stoker Award winner, Joe Lansdale cooks up an inimitable recipe of Southern Gothic and Southern fried chicken that continues to delight his many fans and influence generations of horror legends.

Lansdale mashes up crime, Gothic, mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction, filtered through a raw, violent world of dark humor and unique characters. Lansdale is one of the early American horror writers to portray racism not as abstract but as realistic, intimate, and impossible to ignore.

In Lansdale’s nightmarish visions, you’ll discover psychotic demon nuns, a psychopathic preacher, cannibals, 80-year-old Elvis, undead strippers, ­ flying ghost fish, Elder Gods, possessed cars, and the worst evil of all: mankind. 

 This is one you NEED to order. Thanks to Tachyon for the ARC.

I will pull 2 winners this week and give these books away in the order they are listed here.

Good Luck.

Enter now and you are entered going forward.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: 2 Books for 2 Winners

This week I am offering two books for two winners. One is my review ARC of book that came out 2 days ago which I reviewed in Booklist here and the second is a book which comes out at the end of the month, a book I wanted to review but just did not have time to get to. Both are a great choice for all libraries. 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 winners were, in order, Kristin from MI, Andrea from NJ, and Ashley from CA.

Now on to this week's giveaway. I have two books that go together very well. Both lean in to dark humor without sacrificing the thought-provoking terror.

First up, Galloway’s Gospel by Sam Rebelein. From my draft Booklist review in the August 2025 issue: 

Rebelein’s (Edenville) third book in his Renfield County mythos (connected but can be read in any order) sets loose imaginative humour and unrelenting dread on a cult themed horror novel. Told in 2 timelines, narrated by 2 Rachels– Galloway and Durwood– readers know from the terror-inducing opening that something very dangerous has escaped through a previously collapsed tunnel. Teenager Galloway, bored in her history 2009 class, makes doodles about a lost American colony where a pig eats her teacher’s arm and poops out flowers. In 2019, Durwood, a member of the X-Files-esque Renfield County Guard, is trying to solve the mystery of what happened ten years ago when Galloway and her disciples sowed a path of death and destruction before sealing themselves off from the rest of the world. As the two timelines collide, Rebelein organically morphs the attention grabbing, comic aspects of the story into a nuanced, compelling, and thought-provoking tale of terror that will linger with readers. For fans of Kiste’s The Haunting of Velkwood and Khaw’s The Library at Hellebore.

Three Words That Describe This Book: cults, connected world, X Files vibes

Click here to read more from me about this fun read. 

Thanks to the Harper Collins Library Marketing Team for this ARC. The first name I pull this week will win this book.

The second name I pull will win and ARC of The Captive by Kit Burgoyne. From Goodreads:

A darkly comedic, cinematic horror about a revolutionary group who kidnap an heiress, only to discover she's pregnant with the antichrist, and she's about to give birth.

From Ned Beauman, the Man Booker Prize longlisted author of The Teleportation Accident and Clarke Award winning author of Venomous Lumpsucker. Perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix and Joe Hill. 

Underground revolutionary group, The Nail, and their newest member, Luke have kidnapped 23-year-old heiress Adeline Woolsaw, whose wealthy parents run the Woolsaw Group, a vast outsourcing company. They run everything from prisons and hospitals to military bases – quietly suffocating the country with the help of powerful friends in government.

The Nail's use the kidnapping to draw attention to the Woolsaw Group and their terrible practices. But with Adeline bundled into their van, The Nail discover two things. The first is that she's just about to give birth. And the second is that this isn't a normal baby. In fact, it has devastating supernatural powers. Because the father of this baby wasn't a man, it was… something else. Something that her parents make human sacrifices to on an altar in the basement of their Highgate mansion. And all this time the Woolsaw Group has been preparing the ground for the Woolsaws' real an infernal new kingdom that will rise with Adeline's son sitting on its throne.

Thank you to the Hell's Hundred (Soho Press) library marketing team for the ARC to giveaway to one of you.

Enter now and you are entered going forward. I have 2 more books for 2 winners next week as well. The number of entrants was inching up too high and I am trying to give away as many books to as many library workers as possible.

Good luck!

#HorrorForLIbraries Giveaway: 3 Books for 3 Winners (including a Signed HC of LaRocca's latest)

After the giveaway was off for 2 weeks while I was on vacation, it is back and bigger than ever, Seriously. I am making it all worth your wait because today I have a signed, finished hardcover of a book I starred in Booklist, an ARC of a LibraryReads title I loved, and a story collection I included in my LJ Horror Genre Preview that is out next week and I am so excited for the rest of you to read. But I am spreading the wealth here. 3 books for 3 winners. 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 Stephanie from CT. Now on to today's giveaway.

I am not going to bury the lead here. I have a signed Hard Cover finished copy of Eric LaRocca's just released We Are Always Tender with Our Dead, the first book in his epic Burnt Sparrow trilogy. It is signed because-- and this is BREAKING NEWS-- tomorrow night I am stepping in for Daniel Kraus to host Eric LaRocca's Chicago appearance at Exile in Bookville. Details are here.

I have a starred review of this book in the July 2025 issue of Booklist and when I tell you it was a star, understand that if I could have given it more than a single star I would have. Read the details of my feelings about this book here. My three words that describe this book: transgressive, engrossing, epic

Book 2 in the 3 book giveaway is  Breathe in, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley. It came out earlier this month, made the September 2025 LibraryReads list, and I had a glowing review in the September issue of Booklist here. My three words that describe this book: cinematic, dark humor, health influencer horror.

This is a consciously meta slasher in the Scream style. McAuley delivers readers interesting and flawed but always sympathetic characters, cinematic storytelling, a brisk pace, a tone that combines the darkly humorous with introspection, and most importantly, kills that are creatively over-the-top. Your readers are going to love this. I am giving away the ARC I read for my review, so you cannot add this one to your collections, but you can absolutely use it for a Spooky Season giveaway. 

And last but certainly not least is a collection that you CANNOT miss. Order this for your libraries ASAP. It is Uncertain Son and Other Stories by Thomas Ha. It will be out next week from Undertow Publications, one of my favorite speculative small presses. And it is not just me. The press has won many awards and has published authors you know and whose books you own. I feel so strongly about the need for you to order this books for your library collection that I included it in my Horror Genre Preview in the July 2025 issue of LJ here. From the publisher:

Uncertain Sons is a startling and masterful collection exploring familial love and trauma; societal and technological anxieties; identity and class; and alternate near-future irrealities. Sharp, incisive, imaginative, and visionary, Thomas Ha's debut heralds the arrival of a vital new voice.

The winner of this title will receive an ARC but again, this book releases to the world next week! 

That is 3 books for 3 winners. I will give them out in the order they are listed here. But remember, everyone is a winner when you order these titles for your library so you and your patrons can enjoy them now and for years to come.

Enter now and you are entered going forward and forward is going to be fun because it is October and I have many books to give away and lots of fun posts planned. Stay tuned. And Good Luck!