March is for leprechauns, pots of gold, and lucky charms.
Maybe you'll be lucky enough to find your next read in this roundup of the month's anticipated horror releases!
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A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed
Nick Prasad is piecing his life together, and has joined the secretive Ssarati Society to help monitor threats to humanity – including his former friend Johnny.
Right on cue, the unveiling of Johnny’s latest experiment sees more portals opened to Them, leaving her protesting her innocence even as the two of them are thrown together to fight the darkness once more…It’s been a year and a half since the Anomaly, when They tried to force their way into the world from the shapeless void.
The Ghost Variations by Kevin Brockmeier
A spirit who appears in a law firm reliving the exact moment she lost her chance at love, a man haunted by the trees cut down to build his house, nefarious specters that snatch anyone who steps into the shadows in which they live, and parakeets that serve as mouthpieces for the dead--these are just a few of the characters Kevin Brockmeier presents in this extraordinary compendium of spectral emanations and their wildly various purposes in (after) life.
The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston
Publication Date: March 9th
In a world which believes her to be a monster, a young striga fights to harness the power of her second heart, while her mother sacrifices everything to stop her...In an isolated mountain community, sometimes a child is born with two hearts. This child is called a striga and is considered a demon who must be abandoned on the edge of the forest. The child's mother must then decide to leave with her infant, or stay and try to forget.
Nineteen year-old striga, Salka, and her mother, Miriat, made the choice to leave and live a life of deprivation and squalor in an isolated village. The striga tribe share the human belief that to follow the impulses of their other hearts is dangerous, inviting unspoken horrors and bringing ruin onto them all.
Salka, a headstrong and independent young woman, finds herself in a life threatening situation that forces her to explore the depths of her true nature and test the bonds between mother and child... .
Redder Days by Sue Rainsford
Twins Anna and Adam live in an abandoned commune in a volatile landscape where they prepare for the world-ending event they believe is imminent. Adam keeps watch by day, Anna by night. They meet at dawn and dusk.
Their only companion is Koan, the commune's former leader, who still exerts a malignant control over their daily rituals. But when one of the previous inhabitants returns, everything Anna and Adam thought they knew to be true is thrown into question.
In Nightmares We're Alone by Greg Sisco
In Nightmares We’re Alone presents three interconnected tales of terror and otherworldly horrors:
'Good Little Dolly': A young girl is stalked by the hypnotic eyes of her mother’s new doll.
'Growth': A womanizing con artist can no longer contain the plants that sprout from his fingernails.
'That Thing We Don’t Quite See': A bitter woman is haunted by the cryptic messages on her dead father’s typewriter.
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.
All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...
You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.
In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...
Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left—a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn—have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened.
But there will be no turning back.
Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:
They are not alone.
They’re looking for the truth…
But what if it finds them first?
All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...
You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.
In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...
The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
But there will be no turning back.
Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:
They are not alone.
They’re looking for the truth…
But what if it finds them first?
I Would Haunt You If I Could by Julia Fine
The debut short story collection from Seán Padraic Birnie does indeed haunt. Sown with seeds of sorrow and grief, and imbued with disquieting bodily horrors, the tales in "I Would Haunt You If I Could" are the product of an uncanny and febrile imagination. Birnie's writing balances on the knife's edge of the horror and literary divide. Stories that cut and bleed. Stories that linger and haunt.
...if I could.
Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Wagoner
Publication Date: March 23rd
Goddess of Filth by V. Castro
Publication Date: March 30th
One hot summer night, best friends Lourdes, Fernanda, Ana, Perla, and Pauline hold a séance. It’s all fun and games at first, but their tipsy laughter turns to terror when the flames burn straight through their prayer candles and Fernanda starts crawling toward her friends and chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors.
Over the next few weeks, shy, modest Fernanda starts acting strangely—smearing herself in black makeup, shredding her hands on rose thorns, sucking sin out of the mouths of the guilty. The local priest is convinced it's a demon, but Lourdes begins to suspect it’s something else—something far more ancient and powerful.
As Father Moreno's obsession with Fernanda grows, Lourdes enlists the help of her “bruja Craft crew” and a professor, Dr. Camacho, to understand what is happening to her friend in this unholy tale of possession-gone-right.
A Bright Enchanted Suffering by Eric LaRocca
Publication Date: March 30th
Author Eric LaRocca brings together two chilling never-before-published novelettes which explore the darker aspects of humanity – a world in which horrible things can and will happen in the light of day.
In “You’re Not Supposed to Be Here,” a married couple and their infant child find themselves at the mercy of a seemingly benevolent couple who are eager to play a game with horrifying consequences.
In “Where Flames Burned Emerald as Grass,” a widower and his daughter meet a peculiar gentleman in the Costa Rican rainforest with sinister intentions.
Shocking and disturbing, A Bright Enchanted Suffering plumbs the depths of human depravity and showcases the most fearsome monster of all – our fellow man.
Darkness can still touch you even when the lights are on.