#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Final Curtain: Tales Inspired By The Phantom of the Opera

The giveaway a finished copy of an awesome, crowd pleasing anthology of Weird Fiction, featuring authors you already have books by on your shelves and a hook that will draw in many new readers, all from a  trusted small press. 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.

The most recent winner was Amber from TX . Now on to this week's giveaway.

Steve Berman, editor and owner of Lethe Press is someone who I trust to deliver great books and we he told me about his idea for an anthology of original stories based off of The Phantom of the Opera, I was so excited. He got the ARC to me too late for review, but now I have a hard cover, finished copy in hand and am excited to give it away to one of you to add to your library collection.

But first, here are more details about Final Curtain: Tales Inspired By The Phantom of the Opera, edited by Steve Berman, including the impressive TOC:

A mysterious dirge in human form, Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera is both man and monster, the villain of one of the more famous novels of the early 20th century. Fittingly, the Opera ghost has inspired grandiose movies and an award-winning musical. And now, an impressive anthology of horror and weird fiction, edited by Steve Berman. What has happened to the purloined body of Lon Chaney? Who is convinced that the Phantom is alive after the events of Paris? And contemporary haunting stories of youths drawn to the eerie music of an underground grotto or a pair of devious lovers trying to make it big on Broadway even if it takes a killing.

Featuring 15 brand new stories:

• "Selections from the Memoirs of the Countess of Chagny, Translated" by Nadia Bulkin
•  "La Belle de la Mer" by Jameson Currier
• "The Road of Mirrors" by James Bennett 
• "The Phantom of the Wax Museum" by Orrin Grey 
• "Now We Sing the Killing Song" by Josh Rountree 
• "Two for the Show" by L.A. Fields 
• "Trompe L'oiel" by Tim Newton Anderson 
• "The Music We Became" by Addison Smith 
• "Encore" by Steve Berman 
• "Little Rats" by Theresa DeLucci" 
• "The Lake" by Becky Thacker 
• "Exeunt. Flourish" by Peter Dubé 
• "Figaro's Children" by Jean-Marc Lofficier & Randy Lofficier 
• "The Ghost Singer" by Cara DiGirolamo 
• "Such Broken Souls" by John Linwood Grant

These are all original to this anthology stories, some, by authors for whom you have books and stories already in your collections. And as I said above, the frame is one that will draw in new readers to Weird Fiction in general.

Enter now to win his finished copy for your collection, but also, take a moment to go to Lether Press' site and order a copy as well. Only one of you will win, but all of you can add this book to your collection. There is currently a $5 off discount there as well. Good luck! 

Scheduling Note: due to my travel to New England next week for this event, there will not be a giveaway next week. The giveaway will return on February 5, 2026. But you can still enter anytime because when you enter once, you are entered going forward.

Resource Alert-- Macabre Daily and a Chance to Learn About How The Horror Writers Association's Library Committee Can Help Your Library

 Recently, Konrad Stump (my HWA Libraries Co-Chair) and I each appeared separately on the Macabre Daily's Paper Cuts Interview series to talk about our work with the Horror Writers Association as the co-chairs of the Libraries Committee.

Before I get into the specifics of our library worker focused episodes, I wanted to make sure everyone knew about the wealth of resources available via Macabre Daily for you to use to help readers and horror fans of reading and movies and graphic novels. They have lists of books a movies as well a tons of interviews and review. Please make sure you bookmark it as an essential horror resource across formats. I have added Macabre Daily to my archive of my preferred horror resources.

Okay, now back to our interviews.

In Konrad's appearance he talked about his work organizing Oh, the Horror! for Springfield Greene County Library, how libraries can use Summer Scares at their libraries, and what we offer every year at Librarians' Day on the Friday of StokerCon.

You can click here or on the graphic at the bottom of this post to access the landing page for his interview which is full of links and details as well as providing a place to watch the interview on that page.

In my interview, we talk about my book, the recent podcast I did with Emily Hughes and Robb Olson previewing the horror titles were are excited about coming for the first half of 2026, and more.

You can click here or on the graphic at the bottom of this post to access the landing page for my interview which is full of links and details as well as providing a place to watch the interview on that page.

There is a lot here for you to help your horror readers with new titles, backlist sure bets, and so many resources.

Finally, if you want our help connecting your library with authors and or resources, we are both one email away: libraries at horror dot org.

2026 Splatterpunk Awards Nominations Announced

As reported here in File 770, The 2026 Splatterpunk Award nominees were announced January 10. The awards honor superior achievement in the literary sub-genres of Splatterpunk and Extreme Horror fiction.

The Splatterpunk Awards are a great way to get more extreme horror into your library because these are judged as among the best. You can see this year's nominees here or below. And you can use this link courtesy of Locus Magazine to see all past nominees and winners.

In general, if you are a library who carries erotica (which is all of you), you should have extreme horror as well. However, it is mostly coming out from smaller presses and is not widely reviewed-- not because it is not worthy of reviews, but because it is hard enough to get the mainstream Horror titles review. But with this award, you now have a vetted list of current titles and backlist options with just a click.

If you still need more arguments as yo why these books are 100% for your library, look at the nominees below. We have Stephen Graham Jones, Eric LaRocca, Mary SanGiovanni, Hailey Piper, Joe Lansdale, Bracken MacLeod and multiple stories from the Stand anthology all listed there. Authors whose books you already have on your shelves. Some NYT Bestsellers.

I added links to my reviews of the books where applicable to help you understand how mainstream these titles are.

These books are not just for extreme horror fans, they are for everyone.  See below for the full list of nominees via Locus Magazine.

2026 Splatterpunk Awards Nominees

Best Novel

• Janitors vs. The Living Dead, Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason (Death’s Head)
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga)
• At Dark, I Become Loathsome, Eric LaRocca (Blackstone)
• The Home, Judith Sonnet (Madness Heart)
• Music to Sacrifice Virgins To, Kristopher Triana (Bad Dream)

Best Novella

• Playground: Child of Divorce, Aron Beauregard (Bad Dream)
• Disco Rice, Robert Essig (Infected Voices)
• Strange Stones, Edward Lee & Mary SanGiovanni (Clash)
• The Freakshow: Rebirth in Drayton Falls, Bryan Smith (Grindhouse)
• Runts, Daniel J. Volpe (Bad Dream)

Best Short Story

• “Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time”, C. Robert Cargill (The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand)
• Red Womb, C.M. Guidroz (self-published)
• “And She Was Made of Glass”, Lucas Milliron (Full Throttle)
• “Executive Decision”, Christine Morgan (Full Throttle)
• “The Tripps”, Wrath James White (The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand)

Best Collection

• The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale, Joe R. Lansdale (Tachyon)
• Let Not Your Sorrow Die, Bracken MacLeod (Bad Hand)
• Violent Nights, Candace Nola (Uncomfortably Dark)
• Teenage Girls Can Be Demons, Hailey Piper (Titan)
• This Is Splatterpunk: The John Skipp Primer, John Skipp (Fungasm)

Best Anthology

• Splatterpunk’s She Dotted Her Eyes, Jack Bantry, ed. (self-published)
• The Rack II: More Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks, Tom Deady, ed. (Greymore)
• Choices: An Anthology of Reproductive Horror, Dianna Gunn, ed. (Renaissance)
• Full Throttle, Candace Nola, ed. (Uncomfortably Dark)
• Stories From The Motel Sick, Michael Allen Rose, ed. (RoShamBo)

J.F. Gonzalez Lifetime Achievement Award

• Ryan Harding
• Christine Morgan

The awards will be presented at the 2026 KillerCon, to be held from November 6-8, 2026 in Austin TX. For more, see the official web page.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: The Night Ship by Alex Woodroe

The giveaway this week is an ARC of an upcoming book by a well known editor for a critically acclaimed small press whose book is coming out from a trusted and widely distributed press. 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.

The most recent winners were Rebecca from AL and  Kirsten from TN. Now on to this week's giveaway.

Alex Woodroe is a name you should know because she is part of the team behind the critically acclaimed Tenebrous Press. Click here to learn more about them.

Woodroe is the Editor-in-Chief and she does a great job with their titles in that capacity. As a result, I was very excited to she her novel. Unfortunately, I received it too late for a formal review in Booklist or LJ, but I want to say this book is worth a purchase by all of you for your collection.

I am getting ahead of my self though. The book is entitled, The Night Ship, and it is out from Flame Tree Press on January 20th. From Goodreads: 

An apocalyptic world turned into a pitch-black sea of nothingness, but smuggler Rosi and her crew of survivors aren't alone. Something hungry lurks below... 

Driving a logging truck through the Romanian mountains, smuggler Rosi and her crew come across a radio signal that hints at impending doom. As the world goes completely dark, their truck becomes a vessel sailing across a sea of nothingness.  

But they’re not alone.

Transmissions trickle in through the radio from similar isolated islands across the country, from amateur radio hobbyists and police cars and customs facilities. Attempting to rescue survivors and find a way out, the group save more lives, but soon discover that something hungry lurks below, and it's sending up agents – and transmissions – of its own.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Band of survivors, strong sense of place, Lovecraftian

Woodroe has given readers a unique, compelling, and immersive supernatural apocalypse story. Of note is the fantastic setting-- 1908s soviet Romania. Woodroe lives in Romania so she understands the landscape, but the Soviet era vibes and how people living there are disconnected from a lot of the world already and the reliance on radio in their every day lives-- all of it is incorporated into the horror seamlessly.

The history components are key as well. This era was defined by the fear of nuclear war. The idea that an apocalypse could come at any time was a real fear in those days, and that historical context comes though.

And I love that there is a great supernatural threat here and that it is not just the Cold War. And that is all I will say about that.

These types of stories do not work well without solid characters. Readers need to be immersed in the place and intrigued by what is ending the world and how it could be stopped (if at all) yes, but without a hook for how the band of survivors are connected, it will fall flat. We need humans good, bad, and in between to keep us reading. Woodore nails this as well.

I hope you add this book to your collections whether you win this giveaway or not. It is a great read for all of your band of survivor fans, especially those who like horror stories set outside America. 

Thank you to Flame Tree Press for the ARC.

Enter once and you are entered going forward.

Good Luck

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Japanese Gothic and The Glowing Hours (2 Winners)

The giveaway is back for 2026. Today I have 2 ARCs from my January 2026 LJ Horror Review Column available for 2 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.

The most recent winner was Krista from IL. Now on to this week's giveaway.

I have two books from my January Horror Review column in Library Journal to offer up to 2 winners today. You can use the links below to read my full draft reviews.

First up, Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker (two time frames, dreamlike/nightmarish, strong sense of place), a title that was an unequivocal star for me. The only problem with this book is that the title is not great. I know they did it to make reference to Mexican Gothic, but here's the thing, this book is not a readalike for that book. Baker's novel is a spectacular, thought provoking, and chilling story about how the past ties itself to the present in ways humans cannot comprehend or explain, and that may be the most terrifying realization of all. There is also an interview by me with Baker in the print issue. I will add the link to my review when it comes up online.

The second name I draw will win a copy of The Glowing Hours by Leila Siddiqui (Gothic, retelling, menacing). This novel injects supernatural horror and very real danger into the story of the creation of Frankenstein, the novel, as it tells the "real" story behind a minor character in the source material-- Safie an Arabian maid. Retellings are popular in Horror, especially those that tell the classic's story from a marginalized perspective (and this one even put s twist on "marginalization" as Mehr is rich, but because she is brown, she is not equal), but The Glowing Hours is not a product of simply following a trend. This is a solid horror novel that will find a wide audience, especially as we enter Oscar season and del Toro's Frankenstein film will be up for awards.

Winners will be drawn for the books in the order they are listed here. Remember, if you enter once, you are entered going forward.

Good Luck!

2026 Horror Books Preview Part 1 with Backlist Access

Right before the end of 2025, I made what has become an 2x a year appearance on ARC Party with Robb Olson and Emily Hughes. This time we did the Jan-June 2026 Horror Preview. You can watch and/or listen here.

We have been doing these in December and June every year since December 2024, previewing the entire year in 2 epic podcasts where we each highlight 2 books per month for 6 months.

Robb made this amazing playlist of 5 existing podcasts so you can pursue them all. And without my prompting Robb did this and said it is because these books don't have a shelf life, you can read them anytime. 

My backlist promoting librarian heart was filled with this comment. He is 100% correct. And of you pair our previews with Emily Hughes' much more comprehensive lists, you get a very full picture of the horror genre over the last 6 years.

Emily's lists are always accessible-- current and backlist going back to 2020-- here. From that link you can break things down by year and even month.

Emily's lists should be your first stop for all of your horror collection development needs. What you should order ahead of time. What you missed that you can go back and add. There is even some readalike information in there with titles including annotations and comps. 

We love bringing you this episode 2x a year. It is a good amount of work but we all know it is worth it. It highlights Emily's work and provides an entry into the mass of information she has gathered while also shining a spotlight on the horror genre specifically. We even talk about trends we are seeing now that we have 5 of these under our belts.

Take a peek at the list for 2026 and give our podcast a listen as you are thinking about helping your horror readers in 2026 and beyond.

Speaking of that, I will have a whole bunch of reviews (by me) of upcoming 2026 Horror from the January 2026 issues of Library Journal and Booklist to round out the week here on the blog, and a giveaway of 2 of those titles on the Horror blog. Stay tuned!

Click here to access 2026 Part 1

Becky's Best Horror of 2025

Tomorrow on the general blog I will have my annual Becky's Best Books I Read in 2025 post which will include a link to this post listing my favorite Horror books of the year.

Before I get to my personal list, here is my annual recap of the year in Horror 2025 edition in the Lineup. From my introduction:

...I promise you, this is not your run-of-the-mill, end-of-the-year best books list. As I do each year here at The Lineup, I try to give you a more nuanced look at the year that was by walking you through some of the more interesting trends I have noticed accompanied by the example titles that illustrate them best.

We were blessed with an abundance of great horror this year, and while I would never be able to fit all of my favorites in this one article, I did see three distinct trends emerge, all of which took the genre in original and vibrant directions, drawing in new readers, and providing us all with amazing reading experiences.

Click here to read the entire post for free.

Now in terms of my personal favorite Horror reads of 2025, I am not going to give a top ten because this was a strange year for my favorite. Why was it strange? Well because the best book I read in every category and for every reason regardless of genre is the same book-- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. And what is even more jarring, I read that book in December of 2024 and I knew then, I would not read a better book in 2025. 

In my 25 years of being a librarian, this has never happened to me. I have always been able to say that I have a few favorite books especially when considering genre. That makes this year very special, but also a little strange. 

To that end, I am going to embrace the strangeness which this year presented to me and give you some books that I loved this year with links to my reviews. You can see all of the horror I read and even more that I consider 5 Stars by following my reviews at Goodreads. I use Goodreads to keep everything in one easy and searchable place for you to see all of the books I read each year, but especially all of the horror. And you can always find this link to my reviews in the right gut of the blog in the page titles-- Horror Review Index.

Another easy way to see everything I was paid to review (this will not have the books I read for fun many of which are not horror) is to use the "What I'm Reading" tag on the general blog here.

Once again, I officially read just under 70 Horror books for review in 2025. Some of those books I read in 2025 but the reviews won't post until 2026. In fact, I have 1 more to read and review before the end of the year.

You should 100% check out all of the books I read for review in 2025 because all of these are horror books I would recommend for all public libraries. And these reviews all appeared in Booklist or Library Journal, so you can have a resource to site when making the purchase. Even if you are backtracking now and into January, you can still easily get all the books I have recommended in those magazine with this simple click. Buying horror is an all year long activity. And like every popular genre, sometimes we have to catch up after the fact. 

Okay now on to the books I loved and gave a star to in print; these are the books that stayed with me all year. As I revisited everything, these all flew to the top of the top. Each book came out in 2025 even if I read it in 2024. I have them listed in the order by reviews were published.

[Please note, one title I loved and read but it was not for review is Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. I did include it in the article above though.]

• Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
• At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
• The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
• When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Country Under Heaven By Frederic S. Durbin
• Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
• Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
• A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia
• Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
• Killer on the Road/The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
• We Are Always Tender With Our Dead by Eric LaRocca
• Black Flame by Gretchen Felker Martin
• Acquired Taste (stories) by Clay McLeod Chapman
• Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• The Long Low Whistle by Laurel Hightower

I will elaborate more on a few of these on the main blog tomorrow but that is a wrap on Becky's Best Horror I read in 2025.