#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Three Cli-Fi Titles for 1 Winner

Today I have the ARCs of the three books by the authors who appeared on a panel I moderated at ALA. 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 Kristie from NJ, Ilyssa from NJ, Susan from MA, and Maggie from CO.

On Sunday during the ALA 2025 Conference, I had the opportunity to moderate this panel:

Cli-Fi Panel: Exciting Forthcoming Environmental Fiction: 

Join authors Anna North (BOG QUEEN, Bloomsbury), Wendy N. Wagner (GIRL IN THE CREEK, Tor Nightfire), and Yume Kitasei (SALTCROP, Flatiron), as they discuss their forthcoming novels, which explore environmental issues in bold new ways and through various genres, including literary fiction, eco-horror, and sci-fi. This panel will be moderated by librarian Becky Spratford, RA for All. After 30 minutes of discussion and Q&A, please join the authors for a 20-minute galley signing. 

During our 20 minute conversation we talked about how "Cli-Fi" is not a genre-- as these three books demonstrate. It is more of a frame. All three of these books have an environmental frame and add unsettling speculative elements to provide entertainment, yes, but also some fear about our very real climate.

We have titles here that would be most commonly cataloged as Historical Fiction (North), Horror (Wagner), and Science Fiction (Kitasei), and yet, they also a have clear "cli-fi" lens.

In this more general part of the conversation we talked about why they felt that this lens was so important to them and how it works I tandem with their genre elements. 

All three have a deep connection to the natural world and shared how they work it into everything they write. (So if you like these books or what I am sharing here, check out all of their books.)

We also talked about how they approached their novel so differently. We went back and forth about some more specifics of how their stories are told. Here is a summary of that part of the conversation:

• North's novel is a historical story going all the way back to ancient times and alternating with the present. And we talked about how the bog gets a voice as well. She talked about her research as well.
• Wagner talked about the overlap of true crime, being a hiker and things she has seen, and the narration of her fungus-- the strangeness. We talked about the animals having a voice and her love of trees.
• Kitasei shared stories about having three sisters herself, how the story is as much about a journey as it is about the environment, and how when she wrote it, she thought it would be way more SF, but now it feels to real.

It was a great chat and I highly recommend all three books for all libraries. I am giving these ARCs away together precisely because I love how they represent the broad range of what would have been considered "Cli-Fi," even just a few years ago. These are solid historical, horror, and science fiction novels with strong message about the problems of climate change.

These ARCs were went to me by the publishers before ALA so that I could read them to prepare. And now, they are being passed on to one of you.

Enter this week and you are entered going forward.

Good Luck!

Back from ALA But First Unfinished StokerCon Business

 I got back late last night from ALA Annual in Philly but while I was there, my annual Stoker Awards wrap up article went live on The LineUp. I take the top 5 fiction categories, give you an annotation for the winner and offer two read likes (w/ annotations as well).

Please click here to read the full article. I have also posted the introduction below.

Also, don't forget I have 15 backlist columns available on the site for free as well. All of them contain excellent Horror suggestions for a wide range of readers. Click here to access them all.

From the Haunted Stacks: 2024 Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ Wrap Up

Some of the darkest, scariest, and all around superior works of horror from last year.

Each year, the Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ for Superior Achievement in thirteen categories. There are a few interesting things about these, the most prestigious awards in the horror genre. 

One, the award itself is very cool, an eight-inch replica of a haunted house, designed specifically for HWA by sculptor Steven Kirk. The door of the house opens to reveal a brass plaque engraved with the name of the winning work and its author. 

Two, the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ are not for the “best” works of the year; rather, they are “for superior achievement” which leaves room for more titles to be considered in a broader context.

And three, the awards are chosen by a hybrid system of juries (one for each category) and member input. 

When you put all of this together, the results are always a cause for celebration.

And that is exactly what happened on June 14, 2025, when the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ for books published in 2024 were presented live in Stamford, Connecticut, as part of StokerCon. 

Visit the Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ  official website for a full list of winners here. Or you can watch the entire ceremony for yourself in the YouTube video here. 

In Haunted Stacks style though, I am not here to simply list the winners for you. Rather, I will focus on the titles that won in five of the categories and offer you two read-alikes to continue your superior reading adventure.  

 Click here to read the article.

Back to morrow to begin the post ALA discussions.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: 8 Books for 4 Winners, Featuring 4 Titles From my June 2025 LJ Column

Today I have ARCs for 4 of the titles I reviewed in my June 2025 Library Journal Horror Review column. I have paired each book with another title which I got while attending StokerCon last week. 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 Juli from Utah. Now on to this week's giveaway. 

Before I get to the books I am giving away, this giveaway is massive for a few reasons. First, I did not have a giveaway last week due to StokerCon and I will not have one next week due to ALA Annual. I am doubling up so I stay on schedule. Second, I still have 4 paper ARCs from the 8 book LJ column, and I would like them to go out this month. And finally, I got some great lesser known titles (ARCs and finished copies) at StokerCon and by pairing them with better known titles, I can give them a bigger spotlight.

Also since I have 8 books to giveaway here, I am going to rely on you click through on each title to read my reviews and learn more. 

1. A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper (discomfort, original retelling of a classic, cursed book). This book is paired with an ARC of the already released Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel.
2. The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw (Dark Academia meets Visceral Body Horror, conversational style, race against time ). This book was also on the July 2025 LibraryReads list. I have paired the Khaw with an ARC of the already released rekt by Alex Gonzalez.
3. Fiend by Alma Katsu (Ancient Evil, Multiple Points of View, Thriller-Horror Hybrid). This book is paired with an ARC of the already released Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (who I will also be appearing with this Fall as part of my book tour).
4. How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold (meta, cozish horror, multiple points of view) This book was also on the July 2025 LibraryReads list. I have paired the Arnold with a finished copy of Broken Things by Diane Corso who I met at StokerCon. This one is a good readalike for the Arnold and you can add it with confidence to your collections.

The books will be given away in the order I have them listed here. 4 winners, 2 books each! 

I still have more books from StokerCon, including a finished copy of a title that was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, plus whatever I am going to pick up at ALA and my backlog of ARCs for which I have already turned in reviews. And of course, I have one of the few HUGE Joe Hill King Sorrow ARCs.

If you want in on any of this, enter now and you are entered going forward.

Good Luck!

Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read

Below is the text ion my Keynote address at the 2025 Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ. Given on June 14th in Stamford, Connecticut. You can watch the entire awards and see me give this keynote address at this link.

Please note: this speech was directed at Horror authors, but I hope all of my readers use it as a template to speak to their community members about the importance of speaking out for the freedom to read and use the "how-to" component in the speech to give them the tools they need to take action.

Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read

Hello. As many of you know, my name is Becky Spratford and I am the Secretary of the Horror Writers Association and the Co-Chair (with Konrad Stump) of our Libraries Committee. I have been a librarian for 25 years– the entirety of this century– and I don’t think this will shock any of you, but the last 5 years have been some of the most Horrific times to be in this profession in the 150 year history of the American Public LIbrary. 

So yes, you can see where this is going now. Right? Where better to talk about the Horror that we library workers have been facing then at a celebration of Horror Writers?

I am not trying to bring the mood down here. This is THE Keynote for our Bram Stoker Awards ceremony– our Horror prom if you will. What I am trying to do is quite the opposite, however. I am taking advantage of my time here, in front of a ballroom full of Horror professionals, along with everyone watching on YouTube, to enlist every single one of you in the fight to protect the freedom to read for all. Because who is better to talk about the horror of book bans and the terror of suppressing intellectual freedom than those of us who ply our trade in horror and terror every single day?

It’s true. We know Horror, and when it comes to intellectual freedom, we are all living in a Horror novel right now.

The freedom to read what we want, when we want, is under serious attack. The freedom for parents to make their own choices for their own kids is gone. Both have been replaced by nefarious groups who are trying to remove everything from our schools and libraries that does not uphold the white, cis, heteronormative agenda they are pushing.

What began 5 years ago as a concerted effort by a few organized groups to infiltrate school and library boards and suppress access to information and leisure reading items by marginalized voices in a few states, has evolved into state sponsored censorship. 

Books by all writers, no matter their identity, need to be available for all readers– from the youngest children to teens to adults. When we remove them from public school curriculums and libraries (even if all the library does is move that book from a youth section to “adult”), access to that information is sacrificed. The books that will be the most easily accessed will only be about the lives of white, cis, heteronormative humans. 

Reading fiction, and Horror fiction in particular, has been shown time and time again as one of the best ways for people to build empathy for others. Reading is a foundational skill, critical to future learning, and to exercising our democratic freedoms. 

I could go on and on here, and I know I am preaching to the choir, but here’s the thing– being angry is not enough. I am here standing up before all of you to ask you to fight against this Horror and to help us defeat this monster. But I am also a Horror writer myself, and a good librarian, so I am also here to help you draft this horror story where we will all triumph over evil. 

I am asking you tonight to commit to attending a meeting (or 2 or 3) of your local library board in the next few months. Even if, and especially if, they are not experiencing any book challenges. Why? Well, first, they probably are and you just don’t know it. The Federal Government is actively striping money from every public library in the nation right now. They have put the American Library Association on their “enemies” list. We library workers are in the thick of this horror novel level chaos every single day. What we need is to see the public come out and support us.

And again, who better than those who truly understand Horror than all of you to help us. Go to your local library’s website and check when their meetings are. My board, for example, meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7pm. Most government and board websites post calendars and agendas for upcoming meetings, and some also livestream them. Even if book bans or collection policies aren't on the agenda, many boards and councils allow comments on issues of concern from any community member.

I will be including a link to the information from United for Book Bans with the recording of this event on YouTube because they have everything you need to know from how to contact your library to talking points to a few of these pointers I am going to mention now. 

Before you head to a board meeting, you'll need to know the following:

1. When and where will the meeting take place?
2. The policy around public comments:

• Where do public comments fall in the agenda?
• How long do you have to speak during public comments?
• Do you have to register ahead of time to make a public comment?
• Are there any rules for the contents of comments?

3. Is there a dress code or a code of conduct attendees are expected to follow? I suggest bookish tshirts if you can.

You don’t need to remember these pointers and questions, though, because I will have the resources available for all of you to consult. But, and I cannot say this enough– WE NEED YOU. Please don’t leave this for someone else to do. IT IS YOU– ALL OF YOU. We need you to be at meetings, speaking as an author, community member, and supporter of the freedom to read. Prepare your comments, but speak from the bottom of your hearts.

Go before there are problems, if you can. Go multiple times (you can make the same statement over and over again), so your voice against book banning and for intellectual freedom is in the public record. Bring your friends. Get them involved. Figure out a way to have someone there to speak favorably about the library every month, if you can.

Think that is overkill? Well, I am going to be honest with you here. That is the playbook for the groups working together to get books banned. They are organizing and having people speaking against intellectual freedom at every board meeting, every time, in many towns across America.

Now, if your community is already trying to actively ban materials, this is even more dire. And I also want to be honest here, speaking out in a meeting, in your community, where there is a consensus against you is hard. But it can be done. I want to take a moment and ask HWA member Doug Murano to stand up and be recognized because he did just this. He stood up in a contentious meeting, risking great harm to himself and his reputation, to fight for the freedom to read at a school board meeting. Doug, thank you. 

Hopefully, none of you will ever have to deal with what Doug faced, but know, the best way to not live that dystopian reality, is to speak up BEFORE there are problems.

I know we are an international organization and this talk may seem American-centric, but let me say to all of you in the rest of the world, two things. 1. I know many of you have dealt with an assault on intellectual freedom before. I also know when you dealt with those, American writers probably didn’t help because, well, we thought we were impervious to censorship and didn’t listen. So, let me apologize to you for that behavior now, and 2. I want to ask for your help as well. Share what you know with us. Let us know how you have fought already so that we might be able to learn from you.

We are here to celebrate another great year of Horror. We will give out awards, honor volunteers, and present Lifetime Achievement Awards. And while we will all come away with our dark hearts bursting with joy, I also hope you leave raring for a fight. I hope you are ready to, as one of my favorite bookish t-shirts says,ban the fascists and save the books. Because who better than to stop the Horrors of censorship than those who spend their days immersing themselves in stories of terror, fear, and unease. Who better to understand the monster we are dealing with? And most importantly, who is better prepared to fight it. 

We are. 

And your Halloween librarians are here to help you. We are but a quick email away– dozens of us, ready to help you stop the Horror of book bans in a free society. Simply email libraries @ horror dot org. Check out United Against Book Bans (link to be provided) for all of the talking points and tips you need to get yourself in front of your library board to speak out against the Horror of Book Bans.

Thank you in advance. We can do our best work to protect the intellectual freedom of all, no matter where they live, if we work together– one library board meeting at a time.

Becky Siegel Spratford

Secretary, HWA

June 14, 2025

RA for All is at StokerCon and I Have All the Details and Even Some Goodies for Everyone, No Matter Where You Are This Weekend

Click here to enter the StokerCon 2025 website

StokerCon 205 begins today in Stamford, CT. Here is what is going on over the next few days and ways you can get in on the fun from home.

I got there yesterday and will be presenting on a panel today-- Thursday-- about how to be a better juror for the Stoker Awards. My part is that I have created a training video for those who want to serve on a jury.

Friday the 13th is Librarians' Day which is a full day of CE training for library workers and Konrad Stump and I are overseeing a great team.

Librarians' Day is Sponsored by The University of Pittsburgh Libraries, LibraryReads, and NoveList and there are representatives from all three organizations there as part of the day. You can click here to see the full StokerCon Librarians' Day schedule.

Most of the day are panels but there is a Book Buzz and I have the link with the panelists and their picks. Thanks to Emily Vinci for organizing the panel and making the great slides. There are 24 horror books coming soon, all picked by Horror experts. These slides are collection development and horror suggestion GOLD! And we are sharing them with all of you.

Please note, we will also be encouraging everyone to vote for these titles for LibraryReads as well. Their release dates are on the slides. You should consider voting for thees titles as well. Click here for those slides. Click here for directions from LibraryReads on how to vote.

Saturday, the library team is giving a panel for HWA members about how to work with your library better. I will be in the audience for that one, but I did a version of this panel as part of a pre-taped virtual presentation. We are hoping to use that pre-recorded video to help connect libraries and authors going forward. Look for more information about that coming soon.

Saturday night the Bram Stoker Awards will be broadcast live on YouTube here. You can watch past awards shows there as well. Please note, these are the 2024 Bram Stoker Award presented in 2025. 

And here is the BIG NEWS-- I am giving the keynote address for the ceremony. It is entitled, "Why We Need Horror Authors in the Fight For the Freedom to Read." It is a plea to the authors to get their butts to their local library and school board meetings to speak up for the freedom to read BEFORE there are problems in their communities.

The blogs will be off until Monday, but I will be back with the full text of my keynote address so that everyone can use it to help inspire others in their communities to speak out as well. More about that Monday.

Please go to the StokerCon 2025 website to learn more about the full slate of actives and panels.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

Today I have an ARC of a book which I starred in the June 2025 issue of Booklist and it is a title all libraries should be ordering. 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 Juli from Utah. Now on to this week's giveaway. 

I had the opportunity to read and review one of the most hotly anticipated books of the summer and I can tell you, it is worth the hype. I gave it a star in the June 2025 issue of Booklist. You can access that review along with a lot of bonus info on the main blog here. But below I have the draft review and my three words.  

STAR

Lucky Day

By Chuck Tingle July 2025. 304p. Tor Nightfire, $27.99 (9781250398659);

e-book (9781250398666). First published June 1, 2025 (Booklist).

Tingle’s latest is an absurd romp, but underneath the off-the-wall mayhem lies his most sophisticated work to date. Vera, a statistics professor, is celebrating the release of her first book– about a casino in Las Vegas where, impossibly, the odds are tipped in the visitor’s favor– when the world experiences the Low Probability Event [LEP], a convergence of the most unlikely things that kills almost 8 million people. Four years later, as Vera is still struggling to come to terms with what happened, Federal LEP Agent Layne convinces her to join the investigation into how the casino is involved. Vera must overcome her own worst fears and use her mathematical gifts to rebalance the scales of luck before it is too late. Tingle brilliantly allows the more bonkers and visceral scenes to give readers the space and time necessary to emotionally handle the existentially bleak and terrifying reality staring them in the face. Even if “nothing” matters, readers know not to fear because love always wins when Tingle is in charge. For fans of satirical, tongue-firmly- planted-in-cheek speculative works as wide ranging as Everett’s Dr. No, Fforde’s Lost in a Good Book, and the novels of Jason Pargin.

Three Words That Describe This Book: existentially terrifying, absurdly fun, bleak undertones despite love winning

Get on this book. It is Tingle's best Nightfire novel to date. I also think it is a great introduction to the ideas and concepts of Cosmic Horror as well.

Thank you to Anthony at Tor Library Marketing for the ARC to give away to one of you. 

Enter once and you are entered going forward. Speaking of going forward, there will be no giveaway next week because I will be at StokerCon. 

However, I will also be getting some more ARCs while there too. Plus I have many from the June LJ column already. In other words, I have lots of big name books to give away. Including ARCs of WHY I LOVE HORROR which I will sign and personalize for people. AND, to make up for nothing next week, I will have at least 2 giveaways in 2 weeks. So get those entries in!

See you back here on the 19th. Good luck!

#HorrorFroLibraries Giveaway: The Unkillable Frank Lightning

Today I have an ARC of a book that I wanted to review for Booklist but someone else beat me to 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 Mike from Ohio. Now on to this week's giveaway.  

Josh Rountree wowed readers with his debut novel, The Legend of Charlie Fish, when it came out in 2023. It made the Locaus Recommended Reading List and was named one of Thebes books of the year by the Los Angeles Public Library.

When I received an ARC for his follow up, The Unkillable Frank Lightning, I immediately contacted my editor at Booklist and asked to review it. Alas, the person who reviewed his debut had grabbed dibs on this one immediately. But here's the thing, that says a lot about Rountree and his unique brand of historical horror. Here is the info on The Unkillable Frank Lightning:

In this riveting historical horror novel, Frankenstein is vividly reimagined in the Wild West. With equal parts Cormac McCarthy, Mary Shelley, and Stephen Graham Jones, Rountree deftly navigates the terrible aftermath of love and death.

Catherine Coldbridge is a complicated woman: A doctor, an occultist, and, briefly, a widow.

In 1879, Private Frank Humble, Catherine’s husband, was killed in a Sioux attack. Consumed by grief, she used her formidable skills to resurrect him. But Frank lost his soul after the reanimation, and disappeared after a killing spree. Unable to face her failure and its murderous consequences, Catherine fled to grieve.  

Twenty-five years later, Catherine has decided she must make things right. She travels back to Texas with a pair of hired killers ready to destroy Frank. But Frank has remade himself as the Unkillable Frank Lightning, traveling with the Wild West Show.

Reaching for a last chance at redemption, Frank and Catherine are at an impasse. As time runs out, their final choices may result in considerable bloodshed.

This book comes out on 7/15/25. Thank you to Tachyon Publications for the ARC.

You want to pre-order this one ASAP. 

Enter now and you are entered going forward.

Starting next week I will have many of the big name books I reviewed in the June issues of Booklist and Library Journal. Enter now and you are entered going forward. And forward includes Chuck Tingle, Cass Khaw, Alma Katsu, Hailey Piper, Eric LaRocca, Philip Fracassi, and MORE (including Joe Hill and my book). 

Good luck!