I am busy moderating the horror panel for LJ's DoD this morning, but don't worry, you still get a post and a giveaway today. I have a debut I reviewed in this month's LJ (and an interview with the author), a novella whose author visited the blog yesterday to share why he loves horror, and the new book (came out this week) from one of the authors in my book. Details below, but first, here are the rules on how to enter:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
First up is an ARC of Bruja's Nest by Brenda LaTorre which I reviewed in the October 2026 issue of Library Journal. From my Goodreads review:Draft Review: Yolanda is no “good girl,” but readers also know she does not deserve to be sent away from her Mexican city home, back to the rural village of her grandmother’s youth, sent to work at Hacienda Cantera, as a maid. The family who owns the manor home clearly owe everyone in town money and are undeniably horrible humans. Instead of feeling hopeless, Yolanda channels her favorite telenovela star and decides she will get pregnant by the family’s son and work her way up to the Señora of the house. Desperate to get things started quickly, Yolanda visits the local witch, setting off a course of events, generations in the making, that go from bad to worse, as Yolanda’s becomes a mother, but at what cost? Told in confident prose, solely through Yolanda’s readers meet unforgettable characters, feel the female rage radiating from every corner, ultimately forcing all to question who the monsters really are.Verdict: This strong, immersive, and fierce debut has cemented LaTorre as a horror voice to watch. A great option for readers who enjoy stories that bluntly tackles the horror of being a woman as written by Isabel Cañas and Rachel Eve Moulton.Three Words That Describe This Book: Debut, Monsters, Immersive
I really enjoyed this book. It was an impressive debut. And then I also got to do this interview with LaTorre and I got even more excited to read more to come by her.
Click here for a lot more about this book by me.
Next book is the title I previewed yesterday, August by Jonathan Lees:
Discharged in disgrace and punished for the very thing done to him, a young veteran returns to his sweltering Massachusetts hometown, under siege by a heatwave, to find his parents won't open the door. They've left him a check and a note. They're hiding in their own house. And August, the boy he's loved since before either of them had words for it, is in a hospital bed wrapped in gauze, severely burned nearly to nothing in a fire that gutted a gay bar in town.
Something is wrong with the light here. Strangers dissolve into smoke at the edges of his vision. The men he finds in blacked-out bars shed their skin for something older and hungrier underneath. And every thread he pulls on, trying to find who set the fire, leads back to the people who raised him. August is a novella that burns at both ends-part elegy, part fever dream, part act of arson an inflammatory rant against everything that failed to protect family, country, God. Visceral, hallucinatory, and unflinchingly queer.
And last but 100% not least, Nuzo Onoh, who has an essay in my book, has a new horror novel out this week from Titan Books entitled, The Turning of Sally-Mae:
A historical African-Wild West horror story of supernatural vengeance and terrifying occultic magic from the winner of the Bram Stoker Award® for Lifetime Achievement. Two fearsome deities battle each other for the souls of white twins destined to either bring vengeful devastation or salvation to their community in Texas, USA, for a great injustice done to their mother.When Sally-Mae Jenkins is violated and impregnated by the twin scions of a wealthy rancher, she’s sent to join the African missionary ship as a widow. Pregnant and terrified, Sally-Mae vows vengeance on all those who abused her and her family.Amara is a young woman with the body and face of an old hag. The village outcast, Amara can ‘eat’ the diseases ravaging the villagers and cure the most deadly ailments. But her powers drain her youth and her strength and the only help she has is the fearsome entity that claimed her soul, the spirit known as Aja-Mmọ, the death-giver and physician of the dead.When Sally-Mae arrives in Amara’s village, her unborn twins become the focus of both the Python-Goddess, Asata, who wants the twins dead, and Aja-Mmọ, who wants the twins alive in her service, just like Amara. And suddenly, Sally-Mae finds the boys, with their unearthly and fearsome powers, have become the weapons of her vengeance against the unsuspecting citizens of her home town back in Texas….A gripping tale of supernatural horror, bitter revenge and battling deities, suffused with Onoh’s trademark thrilling storytelling, wit and dark humor.
Three top-notch horror titles for one lucky winner.
Enter now and you are entered going forward.
Good luck.
Back tomorrow with access to the podcast SGJ and I did with bestselling Romance novelist Sarah McLean and Romance editor Jen Prokop.
No comments:
Post a Comment