#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: 2 Books for One Winner Including One of My Personal Best of 2024

This week I am offering a copy of a novella I recently gave a STAR review to in Booklist and am adding a  solid small press title as a bonus. More details below, but first here are the rules for the giveaway:

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 to see the previous giveaway. Our winners were Jennifer from West Boynton Bech [FL] Library and Mike from North Canton [OH] Public Library. Now on to this week's giveaway.

In the most recent issue of Booklist I have this STAR review:

STAR
Coup de Grâce
By Sofia Ajram
Oct. 2024. 128p. Titan, $18.99 (9781803369624).
First published September 1, 2024 (Booklist).

Ajram’s unforgettable novella lives up to its provocative title, delivering a gripping story that is as brutal as it is beautiful. Vicken is on the Montreal subway, making his way to the final stop where he plans to exit, walk to the St. Lawrence River, and end his life, except after exiting the train and going through the one-way turnstile, he is caught in an inescapable labyrinth of never ending gray corridors, moving in and out of rooms and levels that vacillate between blandly colorless to existentially terrifying and visceral. Vicken’s engaging first person narration draws readers into the story immediately as he shares his struggles and fears, ratcheting up the unease at critical moments by using dark humor or turning to speak directly to the reader. As Vicken continues to wander, Ajram cleverly transforms what seems like a deceptively simple plot into a complex, moving and immersive contemplation of the very real horror of living with severe depression. A stellar option both for fans of liminal space Horror like Travelers Rest by Morris or The Hollow Places by Kingfisher as well as those who enjoy intense tales of an unreliable narrator exploring a terrifying and mysterious landscape such as Annihilation by VanderMeer or The Luminous Dead by Starling.

Three Words That Describe This Book: liminal space, horror of mental illness, brutal yet beautiful

Click here for A LOT more about this book. I am not exaggerating when I say it will be on my list of the best books I read this year-- in any genre. 

I am offering this ARC-- courtesy of Titan Books-- to one winner and that same winner will also get a copy of a book I want more people to know about-- Around Eldritch Corners by Splatterpunk Award winning author, Christine Morgan. This collection comes out from Word Horde, one of my favorite small, Horror presses, next week. 

It is a collection of 16 stories described on the back of the book as such:

With strange aeons...where twin suns sink and towers rise behind the moon...in dark and lonely places where the stars are right...from the deadly light amidst black seas of infinity...unto a world which now trembles...

Yes it is cosmic, it's mythos, it's Lovecraftian/Chamersian, it's overwrought language and indescribable horrors. But it's also twisted takes and irreverent pastiches, with weird kids and lovelorn sequels. It's ancient times, different histories, and distant futures. It's cats and cult and candles, odd architecture, mysterious tomes.

Morgan is a great writer who has mostly published in very small, extreme horror focused presses. Her work while award winning, has been mostly left out of libraries. This collection, by a more mainstream, if small, Horror press means more of you can add it to your collections.

This collection is also part of the popular subgenre of those whom Lovecraft would have hated in life, taking him as an inspiration to tell his types of stories. These books are enjoyable to read on so many levels. 

Order both books for your libraries, but also enter now for a chance to win both this week.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Two Great Upcoming Anthologies, For Two Winners

This week I am offering 2 upcoming anthologies that are must buys for all libraries. Books that I already reviewed in Booklist, here and here. I will be offering one ARC to 2, separate winners. More details below, but first here are the rules for the giveaway:

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 to see the previous giveaway. Our winner was Pete from Hardwood Creek [MN] Public Library. Now on to this week's giveaway.

As I mentioned above, I have 2 ARCs courtesy of their publishers to give away to 2 winners. I will choose the winners in the order I have the books posted below. Both of these books are anthologies with a mixture of household Horror names and brand new voices, with all types of authors in between. Both are presented by award winning editors and have easy to book talk themes.

But most importantly, remember that anthologies are an excellent suggestion during Spooky Season (which we have officially entered). Why? Because all anthologies have some sort of missions statement by the author as to why the stories are collected together, usually presented in an introduction. This makes it easy for you to book talk the book-- just use their words. And, because with a variety of authors, readers can be introduced to new voices. Also, if there is an author who they are not vibing with, they can skip it and try another. Anthologies are your best friend during Spooky Season, especially for readers looking too dip their tow into Horror.

In this spirit, I have two solid anthologies for you to try for yourselves here today. 

First up, the latest Ellen Datlow Anthology. From my Booklist draft review:

Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror

Edited by Ellen Datlow

Sept. 2024. 336p. Tachyon, paper, $18.95 (9781616964221).

First published August 9, 2024 (Booklist Online).

Datlow’s latest themed anthology gathers 21 stories, all reprints that previously appeared across the publishing landscape since 2000 (except for one, the penultimate story by the late Charles Birkin originally published in1964). Together these tales illustrate the evolution of the Psychological Horror subgenre, moving these stories out of the hands of narrators with severe mental illness and into spaces where the fear can seep in from anywhere and anyone (a dinner party, your own family, random encounters, vacation), things are clearly not as they seem, and the monsters are more human than anyone wants to admit. The anthology has plenty of big names to draw readers in from Josh Malerman to Joyce Carol Oates to Stephen Graham Jones (who's previously out of print story “Teeth,” which closes the volume is a worthy draw here in and of itself), but like in previous books, Datlow has racked up the awards because she is able to identify and include excellent stories from authors that readers may be less familiar with; for example, the intense, atmospheric unease of an overburdened caregiver in Priya Sharma’s “My Mother’s Ghost” or the reality of a young girl’s father terrifyingly unveiled by Hailey Piper in “Unkindly Girls” and the existentially unsettling “Cavity” by Theresa DeLucci which lists the 32 times the main character has met a murderer, including her own. Clearly not for the faint of heart, but the legions of fans for both Psychological Suspense and Horror, mean that there is a built-in audience who will be eager to get their hands around this book. It also pairs well with the Bram Stoker Award nominated Dark Matter Presents Human Monsters edited by Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Sawyers, in which the Malerman story first appeared.

Three Words That Describe This Book: wide range of scares, reprints, “fear as precursor to terror”

Click here for a lot more about this book. And thank you to Tachyon for the ARC I am using for this giveaway.

Winner 2 will get a copy of this anthology of Canadian Horror: From my draft review: 

Northern Nights

Edited By Michael Kelly

Oct. 2024. 298p. Undertow, paper, $19.99 (9781988964478). 

First published June 20, 2024 (Booklist Online).

Award-winning Editor, Kelly presents 20 brand new tales of Canadian Horror. Inspired by Tor anthologies from the mid 1990s [Northern Stars and Northern Suns], which featured the best speculative fiction from Canada, Kelly asked bestsellers like Silvia Moreno-Garcia to newer award-winning voices like A.C. Wise to emerging writers such as E.C. Dorgan, to give him a dark story that would both pay homage to those classic volumes and serve as a showcase for the varied Canadian Horror landscape of the 21st Century. The stories themselves range from creepy to visceral, as two standout stories showcase– David Demchuck’s deceptively atmospheric “The Black Fox'' and Premee Mohamed’s abjectly terrifying, “The Night Birds.” While fans of some of the bigger name authors will be clamoring for this book, it is also a great choice for those who enjoy themed, Horror, anthologies, especially those focused around an identity, featuring original stories by current authors such as Never Whistle At Night edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. and Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Strong Sense of Place, range of fears, theme anthology

Click here for a lot more about this book. And thank you to Undertow for the ARC I am using for this giveaway.

Enter now and you are entered going forward. 

I will be offering 2 books to 1 winner next week! 

Good luck.