#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: A Special Edition of Their Monstrous Hearts

Today I have an ARC of one of the hottest books of Spring (a book so hot I lost out on the chance to review it) and a finished book by a lesser known voice making this a 2 book prize-pack 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 Jennifer from Ohio. Now on to this week's giveaway. 

Turkish author, Yiğit Turhan, is getting a lot of buzz for his debut Horror novel, Their Monstrous Hearts, drawing attention and advanced praise from authors as diverse as Clay McLeod Chapman, Cynthia, Pelayo, Douglas Coupland, and Andrew Sean Greer, Pop star Dua Lipa is even a fan. 

Catching the hint of the buzz early, I reviewed the novel in the January 2025 issue of LJ:

Three Words That Describe This Book: 2 narratives, family secrets, slow burn leading to existential terror

Draft Review: Time has run out for Riccardo, a 20 year old orphan, living off the advance of a book he is unable to even start, let alone deliver to his publisher. Until a stranger knocks on his door, alerting him that the Turkish immigrant grandmother he adored as a child, died rather suddenly and left her Italian villa and cherished butterfly collection to him. Once in Milan, Riccardo finds more questions than answers about her death, her life, and her obsession with butterflies. When he stumbles upon a manuscript written in her script with the label “To Riccardo,” readers and Riccardo begin to unravel the mystery. But why did no one give him this text when he arrived? And why does he still feel unsafe? Told in both points of view, what begins as a slow burn Gothic Fable ventures out of its cocoon and transforms into a compelling, suspenseful and lush Dark Fantasy, completing its metamorphosis with one final twist, emerging as an existentially terrifying tale that will take readers through the emotional wringer and leave them distrustful of butterflies forevermore.

Verdict: A solid debut that can be given eagerly to fans of Horror framed by dark and dangerous family secrets such as Midnight Rooms by Coles, Mexican Gothic by Moreno-Garcia, and Now You're One of Us by Nonami.

"Nobody ever suspects the butterfly" I mean with that cover they might. But no, that is a great premise to shape this book around. That's a quote from the middle-ish of the novel and it is the heart (pun intended) of why this story is so terrifying.

Well it finally comes out next month (April 8th), but I received a finished copy earlier this week, a first edition, with gorgeous red edges with black butterflies (photo of this exact copy above). Since I have already read and enjoyed the book, I want to give it away to one of you. And since it is a finished copy, I am encouraging you to get it on the shelf. But good news, you have some time to read it for yourself before it is released as well.

A solid debut horror novel by a Turkish author...I know you don't have one of those already. What a way to introduce your readers to a new voice. And with the list of people who have blurbed it and my list of readalikes, you can see how wide the appeal is here.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this amazing finished, first edition for me to share with one of you.