2026 Horror Genre Preview is Live

Click on over to RA for All to read it and get all the links. Or click on the image below.

Also, always head over to my Archive of Becky's Lists, Articles, and Presentations for a great cache of article and more. It is always in the right gutter, page list.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: ARCs of Rachel Harrison and Scott Hawkins for 1 winner

Today I have two books for 1 winner. In fact, I will be offering two books for one winner for the foreseeable future. This week I am featuring 2 titles are featured in the July issue of Library Journal which contains my Genre Preview article. And which I reviewed in Booklist here and here. 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.

Last week's winner was from John from WA. Now on to this week's giveaway. 

Today (and next week), I am offering 1 lucky winner to high demand ARCs. First up one of my favorite books of 2026. I gave this novel a starred review in the July 2026 issue of Booklist.

Kiss Slay Replay

By Rachel Harrison Sept. 2026. 336p. 

Weddings can be horror, especially for Willa, just a few months out from cancelling her own wedding, reuniting with her college besties (and her ex), for a wedding at a former summer camp deep in the Hudson Valley. But at this wedding, the horror is all too real as a masked man goes on a murderous rampage, killing everyone, including Willa. That is, until she wakes up in her own bed to find it was all a nightmare. Or was it? The day she just dreamed of appears to be happening again. Bestseller Harrison (Play Nice) doubles down on what is expected from a time loop tale – intense unease, existential terror, deep character development, and dark humor– while also presenting original and compelling twists. Harrison puts Willa through hell; however she will need to push past her own anxiety and depression to truly find herself because the only way out is for her to find a way through. Clearly for fans of time loop stories, but don’t pigeon hole this brilliant novel because it is also a tale that actively investigates the horror genre itself much like I Was a Teenaged Slasher by Jones or Lucky Day by Tingle.

Three Words That Describe This Book: time loop, character driven, wholly original 

Please use this link to read all of my thoughts on this book. Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison comes out on 9/8/26 from Berkely who provided this ARC for me to give away to one of you.

The second title is a long awaited book by the author of a modern cult classic which I also reviewed here in the July 2026 issue of Booklist.

Blacktail 

by Scott Hawkins 

Ten years after the publication of The Library of Mount Char, Hawkins is back with another original and riveting, horror-fantasy hybrid, but this time, featuring animal narrators. After Blacktail, a young wolf, watches humans destroy everything he holds dear, word of his strength, anger, and blood-thirsty actions reach Old Kitty Mother, a feline witch whose power and influence extend around the world. She channels Blacktail's unique gifts, sending him on a quest to reconnect the animal world with their Forest God, who has forsaken them. This is eco-horror at its most primal and visceral. The various animal narrators make it very clear not only how horrible humans are, but also show how far they are all willing to go to get their revenge. Hawkins pulls no punches, and at times, Blacktail's violent choices are intensely discomfiting. However, this is also a mythical journey following a flawed but sympathetic loner hero who meets new creatures along his way, hears their stories, before moving on toward his destiny. Fans of Adam’s Watership Down who can handle the blood thirsty vengeance in Malerman’s Pearl will devour this one.  

Three Words That Describe This Book: animal point of view, dark fantasy quest/journey, nature is not happy with us

Please use this link to read all of my thoughts on this book. Blacktail by Scott Hawkins comes out on 9/1/26 from Crown who provided this ARC for me to give away to one of you.

Enter now and you are entered going forward. 

Both books, one winner.

Good luck.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: LJ Horror Preview Special

Today I have two books for 1 winner. In fact, I will be offering two books for one winner for the foreseeable future. This week I am featuring 2 titles are featured in the July issue of Library Journal which contains my Genre Preview article. It is in the magazine now and it will be available online 7/15/26 [link added 7/16/26]. 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.

Last week's winner was from Kristin from MI. Now on to this week's giveaway. 

First up I have a book I gave a starred review to in the June issue of Library Journal-- Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore Van Alst Jr:

Three Words That Describe This Book: Indigenous Horror, Range of Scares, Unapologetic

Spending more than a year on the bestseller list, and sent into 20+ printings, the success of Never Whistle at Night cannot be exaggerated. That first volume leaned more heavily on atmosphere, cautiously testing the market’s appetite for Indigenous horror, but this time the editors are unafraid to lean on the horror with a full throttle because “Back for Blood,” is not just a title, it’s a promise. Some readers will come looking for new stories by Stephen Graham Jones, Tommy Orange, or Ramona Emerson, but half the stories came from an open call, and it is those new voices whose stories are among the most memorable here. Beginning with visceral body horror, moving through stories featuring werewolves, found footage, and Indigenous monsters (such as a tulpa and “That One”), to stories that contemplate the horrors of racism, addiction, and the murder of Indigenous women, leading to an unforgettable science fiction-horror hybrid, a tale that reverberates its terror across time, Hawk and Van Alst Jr lay bare their commitment to unapologetically represent the full range of Indigenous horror voices. The result is a captivating, chilling, and menacing anthology perfectly suited for readers of all genres.

Verdict: The rare sequel that is better than its original. Suggest to fans of any horror stories or anthologies featuring non-dominant culture authors such as Out There Screaming or Our Shadows Have Claws.

The July issue features an interview I did with Shane and Ted who are also part of Summer Scares this year with the first anthology in this series. 

Thank you to Vintage for the ARC I am giving away today.

I am pairing this title with a book I am very excited about, a title I highlighted in the preview's debut section-- An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino:

A debut Gothic horror set in 1870s Brazil—a tale of creeping suspense in which a young pregnant woman finds herself unable to escape her lover’s isolated family home, and a family’s deal with the devil goes terribly wrong.

1877, Pernambuco, Brazil: Raised in a deeply religious household, Madalena knows Dante’s Inferno by heart and fears her mother’s reaction as much as she fears God. When she falls pregnant with a child conceived in sin, her mother issues a threat: marry or surrender the baby. Madalena is confident that the father, the dashing Leandro Neves, will do right by her and propose. But just as she is about to tell him about the baby, a violent storm sends their carriage careening off the road.

Madalena awakens in Leandro’s sprawling, secluded home, under the care of the mysterious and larger-than-life Doctor Lobo. Leandro is there . . . but he is no longer the charming poet she knew. He’s silent. Obsessed. Always watching.

Strange perfume haunts a locked room. Pages vanish from books. Jewels lie untouched in a forgotten wardrobe. And mirrors begin disappearing after Madalena sees something—or someone—ghastly in the reflection.

Leandro is unraveling. Doctor Lobo may be hiding something even darker. Trapped in a decaying house of secrets, Madalena must uncover the truth before the men around her destroy her, and before the hell she fears becomes the one she’s living in.

This title was also included in Booklist's Read N Rave during ALA Annual. Thank you to Dutton for the ARC.

So two books from my upcoming Horror Genre Preview for 1 lucky winner. Enter now and you are entered going forward.

Good luck.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Poisoned Pen Prize Pack

Today I have two books for 1 winner. In fact, I will be offering two books for one winner for at least the next 5 weeks (probably more). This week I am featuring 2 titles that are perfect for libraries but I did not have time to fit them into my review schedule. 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.

Last week's winner was from Gary from IL. Now on to this week's giveaway. 

Poisoned Pen is an imprint of Sourcebooks that focuses on horror. They are putting out a solid slate of titles for horror readers all year long. Like Sourcebooks proper, every single one of their books is a perfect add for public library collections. They think about the reader experience first, full stop. And at libraries this is important.

I don't have time to review all of their books myself though. Last week, I featured a giveaway of The Burn Line, one of their title coming out this summer. But today, I want to feature 2 more, titles I did not personally review but which I am urging you to order for your libraries. I will present them in release order below.

First up Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die by Mallory Arnold:

One isolated cabin. One cheating boyfriend. One plan to get even.

When Nora, Ruby, and Cham discover that they've each been dating the same man, what starts as outrage quickly spirals into a plot for revenge. Together they hatch a plan to lure their boyfriend to a romantic getaway in a secluded cabin at the top of a snow-covered mountain.

Only what was meant to be harmless payback soon takes a chilling turn when their not-so-adoring boyfriend is found dead in the cabin.

Stranded and snowed in, the women begin to look at each other with increasing suspicion. And as tensions rise, hidden motives come to light. To survive, each woman must confront her own demons as they fight to uncover if one of them is the killer, or if something else lurks in the freezing wilderness, waiting to pick them off one by one.

I did read and review Arnold's debut How to Survive a Horror Story last year here. Arnold is a great readalike for your fans of Craig DiLouie, Christina Henry, Darcy Coates, and Simon St. James to name a few. Obviously you have an audience for Arnold. 

Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die by Mallory Arnold comes out soon-- July 14th. Make sure you have out already on order.

Second, a lesser known author but one you should definitely have in your collections. And by the Sea Gave Up the Dead by William Friend:

For fans of Jennifer Thorne's Diavola and We Have Always Lived in the Castle comes William Friend's latest stunning novel following a young woman's return to her family's crumbling chateau to stay with her aging aunt - but grief, mystery, and something undead haunts her family, and soon, a dark history will repeat itself.

"In the woods... between the trees..."

Morwenna knows she needs to visit Bethan. Her aunt is wasting away in the family's crumbling chateau by the French seaside, where she's lived alone since the mysterious disappearance of her husband. The locals claim Bethan is responsible, though Morwenna knows her aunt is simply declining and in desperate need of company.

Grief lives in that house, and Morwenna has avoided it for years. Until a disturbing phone call from Barbara finally pushes her to act. So she packs up her children and new partner to stay for a week.

But the chateau changes people. Old magic has seeped into the ground. The village remembers what happened at the grand old house, centuries ago. They remember who died, and what came back. Soon, this place will leave its mark on Morwenna's family. And she cannot escape the feeling that, unless she learns the truth about what happened to her uncle, something ancient and evil will rise, and a dark history will repeat itself at the chateau.

This book has some stellar blurbs here. It is for fans of Grief Horror, Gothic Horror, and Sea Soaked Horror (a current big trend).  And by the Sea Gave Up the Dead by William Friend comes out on August 18th so you have time to add this to carts.

Those are the 2 books for 1 winner for this week. Thanks to Sourcebooks for the ARCs. 

Enter now and you are entered going forward. Going forward I have many of the THE MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR coming out in the next few month going out to my winners. You have to be in it to win it.

Before I go, also check out today's post on RA for All which is about the second half of 2026 ARC Party podcast preview. 

Good luck!