Published April 21, 2026 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books/12:01 Books

Published October 20, 2026, by St. Martin's Press

From the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence comes a new, genre-bending supernatural horror about a vampire broodmother fighting against her own monstrous descent.

Beatrice is a broodmother: a vampire responsible for nursing newly made fledglings through the first years of their unlife. She nests in an abandoned, isolated warren of office space beneath her patron's skyscraper, raising two fractious fledglings: Gorgeous—once a heartthrob, now to all appearances a living corpse—who longs for the return of the lover who made him immortal with all the fervor of a rebellious teen, and Fortunata, the scion of Beatrice's mistress, alien and ambitious in her desires.

But when Beatrice decides to take on a third fledgling, the product of an attempted siring gone wrong, teetering between vampiric purity and ghoulish depravity, Beatrice finds herself strained to breaking between the societal and physical demands of her position, her own ravenous hunger, and an obsessive need to discover what’s happening to her—because her body is changing too, transforming her into something even more monstrous. She begins to crave the taste of flesh, something anathema to all vampires, and to swing between desperate hunger and vicious power.

Desperate to master herself once more, Beatrice courts a mortal OBGYN who might be able to unravel the secrets of her unnatural anatomy. But soon their connection threatens the secrecy of her vampiric coven as well as the safety and development of her dependent nurslings… and the humans they stand to slaughter if left to their own devices.

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Motherhood in horror seems to be all the rage these days, but Milkteeth takes it in a brand new direction. Who knew vampires need mommy too?

Most vampire stories are focused on the change to vampire. Someone gets bitten by a vampire, dies, wakes up again, and bam, new vampire. Milkteeth takes it in a different direction and questions what happens in between life and undeath and life again. What steps have to be taken for a newly turned vampire to become a productive member of vampire society? What does feeding look like as a hungry newly undead? How does a fledgling learn to control its hunger so the world isn't littered with dead bodies? 

As a broodmother, Beatrice does all that and more for newly turned vampires or "fledglings". However, while she's trying to keep her fledglings fed, teach them to control their hunger, and generally trying to keep them from becoming a menace, strange things start happening to her too. The changes become more and more concerning, and her hunger is getting worse, her body is changing, and none of it makes sense. Beatrice turns to a mortal doctor for help, which brings a whole other set of problems. 

Instead of treating the fledgling as a finished vampire the second they rise from the transformation, Starling gives us the messy, prolonged, very physical process of becoming one. It made me look at her vampires as an entirely different creature instead of just a human with fangs. The broodmother angle brought something new and different, of course, but I think what I liked most about Milkteeth is that it made vampires feel weird again. Not sexy and brooding. Not tragic and moody. Just weird and very unhuman. I guess what I'm saying is that mothering made vampires less human instead of more. See? Weird. 

Looking for more scary reads? Browse all of my horror book reviews.

I Am The Monster Under Your Bed by Emily Zinnikas 

Published September 15th 2026 by St. Martins Press

Something lives under Willa’s bed. As an adult, her fondest childhood memories are of the invisible entity under her bed who taught her how to read. Now thirty-two, Willa is a reclusive but successful painter until a bombshell news report exposes her identity as the controversial survivor of the unsolved Rapture Mystery Slayings, a small-town tragedy that splashed across headlines during her senior year of high school. Six teenagers died in the woods while Willa walked free, and everyone thinks she killed them.

When an old classmate calls about a funeral, Willa reluctantly travels to her sleepy hometown, where the possessed forest that stole her friends looms. The trees whistle for her attention, but she knows better than to listen. And the unexplained knocking from the shadows in the basement of her decaying childhood home is honestly the least of her problems.

As her past pulls her back to the place where she swore she’d never return, Willa is drawn toward the monster she left behind—and becoming the villain her hometown has always believed her to be. 

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I Am the Monster Under the Bed is an ambitious debut that dreams big, and Zinnikas has some nightmares to share.

There is a lot happening here: multiple plot threads, timelines folding in on each other, flashbacks woven throughout, and there are definitely moments where it gets in its own way. 

Willa is an unreliable narrator with survivor's guilt. She's impulsive, possibly a little bonkers, and has childhood trauma dragging her down as well. I actually liked her a lot. 

The supernatural elements left me wanting more. The rules of the monster-verse, in particular, were fuzzy. I kept wanting Zinnikas to slow down and really let the weirdness breathe. Maybe that filling-in-the-blanks is why it works in the end though. (I'm also leaving this review a little vague to not give anything away.)

It has the kind of finale that makes you sit with the book closed for a second because you didn't see it coming, but it lands exactly right. Surprising, yet satisfying in equal measure, which is pretty difficult to pull off for a debut novel.

Despite the chaos of the middle, even the monster under the bed thinks the ending was worth the wait.

Published May 26, 2026 by Poisoned Pen Press

The year is 1635.

Sister Ursula, a young nun fleeing the ruins of her convent, and Elsebeth, a sharp-witted peasant, escape a band of marauding soldiers and disappear into the Bavarian forest. War scorches the land, and no one survives it alone. Amid the devastation, they find something in the arms of a dying the gilded skull of a saint.

It is said that if you reunite the saint's skull with her body, a wish will be granted. Desperate for salvation, and each with secret desires of their own, Ursula and Elsebeth follow a ragged map across the blighted countryside. But darkness follows them. A necromancer, drawn to the relic's power. The saint herself, whispering at night. And as the lines between blessing and curse blur, the women must face a harrowing the magic they seek comes at a cost.

At the journey's end, they'll face an impossible choice—one that could tear apart everything they know… or bind them to each other forever.

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In Bone of My Bone, the Thirty Years' War is never merely a vague historical backdrop. From the opening pages, van Veen establishes the destruction, fear, and complete upending of ordinary life, giving the horror real weight. It's the kind of historical detail that sends you looking things up afterward.

When the horror elements are firing, van Veen absolutely delivers on atmosphere. The necromancy feels eerie and grounded, rooted in the superstitions and religious anxieties of the period, and the gilded skull is its unsettling grinning centerpiece.  The Bavarian Forest setting drips with menace, and the threats surrounding it feel treacherous and urgent. 

My issues were more with the characters and pacing. The opening pulls you in fast, and the premise is strong, but somewhere in the middle, the momentum just stalls out. It picked back up towards the end, but there were definitely points where I found myself reading more out of commitment than interest. I also wanted more from the characters. Ursula and Elsebeth just didn't click for me the way I wanted them to, so I never felt super invested in what happened to them.  

Ultimately, this one hit differently than Blood on Her Tongue. The relationship between Lucy and Sarah was so tightly wound and emotionally raw that the horror felt deeply personal. The dread and the emotional stakes were completely inseparable, so even the quieter moments felt tense. Bone of My Bone has all of van Veen's signature atmosphere and remarkable sense of dread, but without that emotional core at its center, it didn't stick with me quite as much.

Published September 30, 2025 by Tor Nightfire

The next installment in the New York Times bestselling Sworn Soldier series, featuring Alex Easton investigating the dark, mysterious depths of a coal mine in America.

Alex Easton does not want to visit America.

They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do...

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The third installment in T. Kingfisher's Sworn Soldier series sends Alex Easton somewhere they emphatically do not want to go: America. More specifically, an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a unsavory reputation. When their old friend Dr. Denton calls in a favor to help locate his missing cousin, who was last seen heading into that very mine, well, a sworn soldier answers the call.

I've loved following Alex Easton through the crumbling Usher estate and the fog-draped forests of Gallacia, so naturally I was eager to see where Kingfisher would take them next. And I have to say, the setting of What Stalks the Deep is its strongest asset. The darkness is absolute, the walls press in from every direction, and the silence of the mine is almost intolerable. Imagine being underground with tons of rocks between you and the surface. Kingfisher leans into the claustrophobia beautifully, and we experience it alongside Easton.

Kingfisher has always excelled at writing characters who feel lived-in and real, and that hasn't changed. Alex's particular brand of practicality bumping up against the inexplicable never gets old, and watching them navigate the landscape of rural West Virginia with acerbic bewilderment is funny. Angus remains a steadfast, grounding presence, and there's something quietly satisfying about the way these three have settled into each other. If you've come to love these characters across the earlier books, revisiting them is still a joy, even if the horror is light. 

Where What Stalks the Deep loses a little steam, unfortunately, is in the horror itself. The monster at the center of this story never quite reached the level of wrongness that Kingfisher achieved with her possessed hares in What Moves the Dead — that specific, skin-crawling sensation of something familiar twisted just slightly out of true. Once the monster is revealed, it's almost...cute? 

What Stalks the Deep is by no means a bad book. Kingfisher is too skilled a writer for that, and I'll pick up whatever Alex Easton adventure comes next without hesitation. But for me, the Sworn Soldier series has yet to top What Moves The Dead. 

Published July 22, 2025 by Tor Nightfire

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and The Atlas Six who are hungry for something a little more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Can they band together and survive, or will the faculty eat its fill?

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I've made no secret of the fact that Cassandra Khaw and I have history. They have a permanent spot on my auto-read list, for better or worse. These Deathless Bones was my introduction. The Salt Grows Heavy was vibrantly weird. And then The Dead Take the A Train with Richard Kadrey showed up and proved that Khaw's particular brand of chaos only gets grittier with a collaborator. I think it's worth stating upfront that I came into The Library at Hellebore with some goodwill because I know anything by Khaw requires a certain mood and commitment. 

The premise is pure, unhinged fun — a school full of the world's most genuinely dangerous kids who could end the world if left unsupervised. Anti-Christs, Ragnaröks, a boy who reads omens in his own entrails. Ya know, just your average kid. On graduation day, the eldritch faculty decide the student body looks delicious, and the school gets turned into a slaughterhouse. The survivors hole up in the library and try not to die while something ancient and hungry hunts them through the aisles. What follows is part melee, part dark academia fever dream, part Khaw being utterly themselves. It is exactly as chaotic as it sounds. 

But the prose! I stand by everything I've ever said about Khaw being a lot. Dense vocabulary, long sentences, writing that demands you gnaw your way through it. Khaw writes like they're conducting a symphony with a chainsaw at a tea party.  If you ever wanted to increase your vocab, it's here. Lush and sharp and genuinely strange, with a quality that makes even the most grotesque moments feel almost beautiful. It makes you feel slightly (okay, completely) unhinged for appreciating it. 

As far as characters go, Alessa is a solid protagonist. Prickly, damaged, dangerous in ways she's still figuring out. The crew she ends up trapped with is where it gets interesting. This is very much a found family situation, except everyone in the family could unmake reality if sufficiently pissed off. I liked them. I wanted more of them, honestly, which leads me to the complaint. Khaw tells this story in fragments which is...not my fav. I wanted more space with everyone trapped in that library than the fractured timeline allowed. It's the kind of structure that warrants a reread... maybe. On the first pass, it just got in its own way.

If you've never read Khaw before, I'd start with one of the shorter stories to calibrate your palate first and decide if you're a fan. But if you already know, The Library at Hellebore is the kind of book that reminds you exactly why you showed up in the first place. It's bloody, it's weird, it's gorgeous, and it's absolutely convinced of its own feral vision. 

Published November 4, 2025 by Berkley 

A woman must confront the evil that's been terrorizing her street since she was a child in this gripping haunted house novel from the national bestselling author of The House That Horror Built and Good Girls Don’t Die.

On an otherwise ordinary street in Chicago, there is a house. An abandoned house where, once upon a time, terrible things happened. The children who live on this block are told by their parents to stay away from that house. But of course, children don’t listen. Children think it’s fun to be scared, to dare each other to go inside.

Jessie Campanelli did what many older sisters do and dared her little brother Paul. But unlike all the other kids who went inside that abandoned house, Paul didn’t return. His two friends, Jake and Richie, said that the house ate Paul. Of course adults didn’t believe that. Adults never believe what kids say. They thought someone kidnapped Paul, or otherwise hurt him. They thought Paul had disappeared in a way that was ordinary, explainable.

The disappearance of her little brother broke Jessie’s family apart in ways that would never be repaired. Jessie grew up, had a child of her own, kept living on the same street where the house that ate her brother sat, crouched and waiting. And darkness seemed to spread out from that house, a darkness that was alive—alive and hungry.

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This is horror tucked inside a monster house, with an entire cosmos pulsing just beneath the floorboards. The house is alive in that constant, watching-you way, crowded with impossible voices and layered tragedy. Cosmic horror often feels vast and distant, but here it’s close. It presses in. It’s slow, suffocating, and painfully personal. The universe doesn’t just fail to care. It mocks.

What hit hardest was the found family at the center of it. These characters are bound together by shared damage, survival, and the kind of loyalty that forms after everyone else has already failed you. The house has taken so much from the neighborhood, and they stay behind to bear witness. To keep watch. To carry the guilt that refuses to be outrun.

Bleak, eerie, and still emotionally cutting.

Published April 9, 2024 by Tor Nightfire

A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.

Space exploration can be lonely and isolating.

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something.

While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure than opening up to her.

That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. Is this Ophelia’s worst nightmare starting—a wave of violence and mental deterioration from ERS? Or is it something more sinister?

Terrified that history will repeat itself, Ophelia and the crew must work together to figure out what’s happening. But trust is hard to come by…and the crew isn’t the only one keeping secrets.

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S.A. Barnes catapulted herself onto my must-read list with Dead Silence in 2022.  Space horror isn't something I typically pick up, but I adored her take on an abandoned ghost ship in space. Choosing to read Ghost Station was, therefore, a complete no-brainer for me. 

Set on a remote research outpost far from Earth, Ghost Station follows a team sent to investigate an abandoned space station with a dark history. Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray is sent along with them to ensure everyone remains in a good mental state while away. Of course, that makes her the outsider. The crew, who have been on previous missions together, is tense, secretive, and clearly hiding something from Ophelia. 

Ghost Station delivers Barnes' blend of sci-fi horror stout with atmospheric dread, deep psychological apprehension, and a feeling of aloneness.  The tension that Barnes creates in the station and between the characters is prominent. You feel the seclusion, the anxiety, the creeping sense that something is very wrong, even as you still aren't sure what. 

Here's where it went wrong for me. There's a lot of telling, not showing, in this book.  Granted, there's a lot of backstory to get through, but so much of it is given to us in the form of Ophelia's inner monologue. Ophelia is deeply unreliable with herself while trying to portray herself to her team as a reliable psychologist. She second-guesses every sensation, every memory, every emotional reaction. While I understand the results, it was exhausting to read. I wanted more horror, less emotional vacillation.

While Ghost Station didn’t absolutely blow me away, it definitely kept me interested in some of the mysteries and had some really creepy moments. If you’re into slow-burn sci-fi horror with great atmosphere and unreliable characters, it's worth a read. It just didn't quite make it into the territory of Dead Silence.

Published February 4, 2025 by St. Martin's Griffin

Twenty-five-year-old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.

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Listen to Your Sister caught me completely off guard. The cover and blurb hint at a haunted house story, maybe a slow-burn spookfest. That’s not what this book is doing. It’s sharper, stranger, and far more emotionally intense than that.

Calla Williams is holding her family together with white-knuckle perseverance. She’s stepped into the adult role by default, trying to parent two brothers who resent her for it, even as they rely on her completely. She’s haunted by nightmares of their deaths, and the pressure of those dreams colliding with real life begins to warp her reality in genuinely horrifying ways.

This book runs on raw emotion. Grief morphs into rage, rage into guilt, guilt into love, and the whole thing barrels forward like a broken roller coaster that never slows down enough for you to catch your breath. Reality and the supernatural blend so seamlessly that you’re never quite sure what’s happening in Calla’s mind and what’s happening in the world, which only deepens the unease.

The sibling dynamics are messy and authentic. Calla is exhausted, grieving, angry, guilty, and stubbornly refusing to let go. She loves her brothers fiercely with all her heart, but they only see it as suffocating. There's grief, rage, love, and guilt—all tightly interlaced. Viel turns that emotional knot into horror, not with cheap scares, but by forcing you to sit inside the mess with her characters. The fear comes from love curdling under stress, from responsibility turning into a trap, from knowing everyone is hurting and no one knows how to stop it.

If you’re not a fan of fever-dream-like books that prioritize emotion over straightforward truths, this might not be your book. But if you enjoy horror that creeps under your skin because it acknowledges how difficult family can be, obligation can be stifling, and that you sometimes can love people too much, Listen to Your Sister is unforgettable.

Published March 24, 2026 by Tor Nightfire

Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in Wolf Worm, a new gothic masterpiece from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher.

The year is 1899 and Sonia Wilson is a scientific illustrator without work, prospects, or hope. When the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use. But soon enough she finds that there are darker things at work than the Carolina woods. What happened to her predecessor, Halder’s wife? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thiefs?”

With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a dark road full of parasitic maggots that burrow into human flesh, and that his monstrous experiments may grow to encompass his newest illustrator as well.

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Wolf Worm is T. Kingfisher's latest offering: a Gothic horror set amid the dense undergrowth of body horror on the lush, forest floor of Southern charm and weirdness. This time, facing down the absurdity is Sonia Wilson, an illustrator hired to draw insects for the unsociable and ill-mannered Dr. Hader. Kingfisher once again takes an everyday somebody and drops them right into her gruesome biological catastrophe.

Some readers might struggle with the slow-burning, atmospheric build-up of Wolf Worm. It's an insidious, creeping dread as Wilson discovers the wrongness of her environment. The horror doesn't leap out and wail. It encroaches on your awareness with little by little, with phantom sensations of wriggling bodies and tickling wings. This is the perfect hallmark of Gothic fiction, so I wasn't upset at the slow pacing.

No one really does weird like Kingfisher, yet her voice always has this peculiar balance between cozy and unsettling, mingling with the absurd. Her characters are just average Joes, wandering into the nightmareish, and having to totally wing it. They face their fear, yes, but not with superhuman prowess, but in the same way a child clutches a flashlight and faces the proverbial boogeyman under their bed. They just do, because the only way is through. Wilson is a perfect example of this; she's unnerved, but she keeps going anyway. 

And who wouldn't be unnerved? Kingfisher has scripted her most cringeworthy horror yet—bugs. This book gets under your skin, literally. A "wolf worm" is the larva of the Cuterebra botfly that burrows under the skin and lives there, growing, until it drops out to start the cycle again. I was previously familiar with "warbles", as they are sometimes called, having worked in vet medicine before. (I once horrified a female client by plucking one out of a lump on her cat with forceps. In hindsight, I probably should have explained first. Oops.) These things have always icked me out, but hearing that they are also called wolf worms was new to me. As if the typical creepy crawlies aren't bad enough, Kingfisher's larvae come with... let's just say, abnormal capabilities. 

Reading a story by Kingfisher is like Wilson searching through the bug library drawers. There’s always something peculiar and something enormously endearing awaiting discovery in the next drawer. I can't wait to read whatever she comes up with next. 

Published June 10, 2025 by Wicked House Publishing

For fans of "The Haunting of Hill House" and "The Haunting of Bly Manor".

Noelle, a tragedy-ridden hospice worker with a unique connection to death, accepts a job caring for the dying patriarch of the reclusive August family at their lakefront manor just outside the town of Bell River, Oregon. The house does not have electricity, and the eccentric nature of the family is displayed through the grotesque artwork that lines the walls of the manor.

As Noelle wrestles with her own struggles with understanding her connection to death, she is also plunged headfirst into the dark mysteries surrounding the August family. The dying patriarch who she is strangely never able to see. The head of the household incapable of giving a straight answer, and a boy unable to speak but clearly terrified of something.

But above all, she must uncover the answers behind the ashen footprints she finds all over the house at night and the withered figure she sees looming at the tree line across the lake.

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Ashes of August Manor has the moody, unsettling atmosphere Blaine Daigle is known for. Its dark halls, foggy forests, and falling ashes only solidify the ghosts that haunt the manor and Noelle. The slow-burning tension, the creeping dread, and the feeling that something is inherently wrong are all present here, and Daigle’s descriptive style once again shines. August Manor is eerie and intriguing, and the family that inhabits it only lends strangeness to the place.

The mystery itself is solid, and the final reveal is satisfying enough, but the journey there didn’t seize me as his other stories have. There are plenty of supernatural elements at play, some villainy, and a bit of folk horror that I wish had a better seat at the table. There's some truly creepy imagery in Old Crow, the local legend that haunts the woods in its tattered red cloak, taloned hands, and beaked face. Daigle speaks of writing quiet horror, the type of horror that is macabre and melancholic, and he accomplishes that with every turn of the hallway, every squeak of the wood floors, and flash into the psyche of his characters. 

Compared to some of Daigle's other titles, this one doesn’t quite reach the same level of emotional weight. While his best books balance emotional depth with encroaching horror, the characters in Ashes of August Manor didn't stick with me the way his others have. A book centered around death and grief should have been emotionally devastating, but instead, due to its inconsistent pacing left me struggling at times, dipping into stretches that felt repetitive.  

 Overall, Ashes of August Manor is a respectable, gothic read with some classic Daigle elements. If you are looking for a slow-burning gothic horror, this one would sit well on your shelf. However, for long-time readers of Daigle's, it doesn’t quite reach the intensity or emotional profundity of his best work.

I loved Johanna Van Veen's previous novel Blood on Her Tongue (You can read my review here.) so I'm very excited to be able to share with you the cover for her next novel Bone of My Bone. Her covers are deliciously dark and moody. I can't wait to read this one. 

One saint. One Sinner. One Skull.

Sister Ursula, a young nun fleeing the ruins of her convent, crosses paths with Elsebeth, a sharp-witted orphan, after narrowly escaping a band of marauding soldiers. Deep in the Bavarian Forest they encounter a dying man clutching a wooden box, inside it, the gilded skull of a saint. Pursued by a necromancer drawn to the relic’s power and haunted by visions of the saint herself, the women soon realize that what they carry may be both miracle and curse and the growing love between them will come at a cost. 

On sale 5/26/2026 Trade Paperback Original by Poisoned Pen Press

This book is perfect for fans of Robert Eggers’ The Witch and readers of Agustina Bazterrica’s The Unworthy. BONE OF MY BONE is a visceral, cannibalistic exploration of cruelty and passion set amid the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War. Told through an intimate and unflinching lens of daily survival, Johanna van Veen examines how devotion can be manipulated to justify both good and evil, and how love, faith, and the struggle to endure demand devastating sacrifices.

JOHANNA VAN VEEN grew up in the Netherlands with her two sisters. She received an MA in English Literature with a specialization in early modern literature, as well as an MA Book and Digital Media with a specialization in early modern book history. She enjoys spending time with her girlfriend, her sisters, and her dog, though not necessarily all at the same time. 

Published September 2, 2025 by Poisoned Pen Press

It's a Midsommar night's Scream in this blood-soaked thriller set at a remote healing retreat from horror author Brian McAuley.

Hannah has been running from her demons ever since she emerged from a harrowing wilderness trip without her fiancé. No one knows exactly what happened the day Ben died, and Hannah would like to keep it that way... even if his ghost still haunts her with vivid waking nightmares that are ruining her life. So when her friend group gets an exclusive invitation to a restorative spiritual retreat in Joshua Tree, Hannah reluctantly agrees in search of a fresh start.

Despite her skepticism of the strange Guru Pax and his belief in the supernatural world, Hannah soon finds healing through all the yoga, sound baths, and hot springs offered at the tech-free haven. But this peaceful journey of self-discovery quickly descends into a violent fight for self-preservation when a mysterious killer starts picking off retreat attendees in increasingly gruesome ways. As the body count rises and Hannah’s sanity frays, she’ll have to confront her dark past and uncover the true nature of a ruthless monster hellbent on killing her vibe for good.

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If you're a fan of slashers, unreliable narrators, and the kind of mystery that keeps you second-guessing —Breathe IN, Bleed Out is a wickedly fun ride. Brian McNulty delivers a fast-paced, genre-savvy novel that’s as much a love letter to horror tropes as it is a clever psychological mystery.

This book throws you into a world that feels like it was born out of a late-night horror movie marathon of Friday the 13th. You’ve got the tension between characters, the looming sense that someone (maybe everyone?) is hiding something, and the unreliability of the main character who is already seeing the ghost of her dead fiancé. 

The isolated setting adds so much creeping dread and the growing paranoia builds until you are yelling "The killer is right behind you!". Mix that with a little bit of gritty angst and dark humor. McNulty really leans into the “whodunit” energy while still delivering all the bloody, campy, adrenaline-pumping thrills you expect from a slasher. 

If you’re a fan of books that keep you guessing and characters who keep you suspicious, Breathe IN, Bleed Out is well worth your time. What really sets this apart from your typical slasher is the way it messes with your head. It’s a bloody good time — in every sense.

Published April 15, 2025 by Quill & Crow Publishing House

Carve the bones. One for the gate, one for the door, two for the mantel, and three for the floor… Hyacinth Turning knows the terrors beyond her village, the insatiable hunger of the Teeth. She listens to the sermons given by the Elders in their hare-skin masks. She watches as the heathens hang and the witches burn. They tell her to be good and quiet. But Hyacinth is neither good nor quiet. After a series of tragic events, Hyacinth finds herself hastily wedded and sent far away from all she has ever known to a settlement at the edge of the sea. Where more than just the Teeth are hungry. Another horror swims below, leviathan shadows kept at bay by offerings of flesh and bone.

But no sooner does Hyacinth take root in her new home do the Teeth and the Deep come to feed. Suspicion soon falls upon the outspoken Hyacinth, who spends more time with the outcasted Morgan Carroway than her own husband. The Elders want her burned, her husband wants her hanged, and a long-lost love claws at her dreams, but Hyacinth only wants one thing. A life and death of her choosing.

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Hyacinth Turning is sent away to a remote village near the forest and sea, where ancient horrors like the Teeth and the Deep are kept at bay through sacrifices. She’s reeling from personal tragedy, isolated in a new marriage to a man she doesn't like, and immediately flung into a new claustrophobic community ruled by folklore, fear, and blood rituals...exactly like the one she left. She’s not just unwelcome, she’s disposable. Her body, her grief, and her silence are all things to be used, suppressed, or sacrificed for the “greater good.”

Hyacinth is constantly acted upon rather than acting. She’s shipped off, married off, silenced, accused, watched, threatened… and she endures all of it, often with the emotional affect of a ghost—just a resigned shuffle through escalating misery. She’s worn down by it until she’s just absorbed into the horror. I'm sure that's the point but it doesn’t make for satisfying character development. It makes for bleak existential rot. No sharp turns. No big “aha” moment. Just damp misery, sprinkled with vague dread.

Folk horror ofttimes tries to fake the ancient, the ritualistic, the uncanny, but The Bone Drenched Woods feels authentic. The bone offerings, the hare-masked Elders, the silent submission to the Deep? It all feels like it could have grown out of some obscure corner of real folklore. It’s primal and unnerving.

L.V. Russell absolutely nails that oppressive, damp, rot-soaked feeling of being somewhere ancient and uncaring. This book is all aesthetic. The prose is undeniably pretty, damp and bloody and yet frustratingly vague. Atmosphere can only carry you so far when the plot is doing the slowest, saddest shuffle toward nowhere. If you enjoy slow-burn folk horror where nothing is explained, and everyone is miserable, this one is for you.

Published February 13th 2024 by Tor Nightfire

The follow-up to T. Kingfisher’s bestselling gothic novella, What Moves the Dead .

Retired soldier Alex Easton returns in a horrifying new adventure.

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.

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T. Kingfisher returns to the eerie world of gothic horror with What Feasts at Night, the second novella in her Sworn Soldier series following the acclaimed What Moves the Dead. This novella once again follows Alex Easton, a gender non-binary former soldier with a dry sense of humor, a haunted past, and a knack for running into things that go bump in the night.

This time, Easton heads to their family's old hunting lodge in Gallacia in search of some rest. Naturally,  rest is the one thing they don’t get. The lodge is falling apart, the caretaker has died under bizarre circumstances, and the quiet feels wrong. The longer they stay, the more the atmosphere closes in: disturbing dreams, strange local legends, and plenty of superstition. Familiar faces return, including the ever-delightful Miss Potter, a no-nonsense mycologist who continues to steal every scene with her fungal fanaticism. New faces charm as well, like the sharp-eyed Widow Botezatu with her baleful looks and no-nonsense ways.

While What Feasts at Night trades some of the first book’s energy for a slower, more reflective pace, it still delivers plenty of dread. The horror here is quieter, more psychological, and steeped in folklore and PTSD. Kingfisher’s uniquely dry humor is still present, with sharp, witty banter and Easton's internal dialogue. Easton’s internal battle adds emotional depth to the creeping horror, and the camaraderie between characters brings just enough warmth to offset the gloom. 

While it’s not as fast-paced as What Moves the Dead, What Feasts at Night is haunting in its own way: moody, thoughtful, and quietly chilling. It’s another strong entry in Kingfisher’s growing collection of uniquely strange horror stories.

Published February 20, 2024 by Wednesday Books

E>nemies-to-lovers doesn't get more high stakes than a witch and a witch hunter falling in love in bestselling author Kristen Ciccarelli's latest romantic fantasy
On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe - a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution - who she can't help but find herself falling for.

Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?

Kristen Ciccarelli’s Heartless Hunter is the thrilling start to The Crimson Moth duology, a romantic fantasy series where the only thing more treacherous than being a witch...is falling in love.

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Heartless Hunter is a romantic, fantasy tale of forbidden love, political intrigue, and rebellion. As the first installment in The Crimson Moth series, readers are introduced to a world where witches have been relegated to outcasts, hunted by those who once revered them. 

The story follows Rune, a witch in hiding under a false identity in a kingdom where magic is forbidden. By day, she plays the part of a spoiled noble. By night, she becomes the Crimson Moth, a masked vigilante aiding fellow witches escape persecution. But when a mission goes awry, she finds herself on the radar of Gideon Sharpe, the kingdom’s most feared witch hunter. To protect her identity, Rune makes a bold move: seduce the enemy. What begins as strategy quickly tangles into something far messier.

Rune and Gideon’s relationship is laced with suspicion, chemistry, and tension, hitting many of the hallmarks of an enemy-to-lovers romance. Both characters carry trauma and conflicting loyalties, and watching them unravel each other is one of the book’s major appeals. Gideon is the typical brooding anti-hero, but while Rune is a strong lead, her inner conflict isn’t given quite enough nuance to make her stand out. Their chemistry simmers, but the development of trust and intimacy feels somewhat rushed, given how high the stakes are.

Ciccarelli writes in a clear, accessible style, and the pacing is solid, so there’s rarely a dull moment. But the world-building feels surface-level. The political structure, the history of the revolution, and the rules of magic are underdeveloped, making the stakes feel less grounded than they could be. The blood magic system had potential, but it was never really explored the way I wanted it to be.

Heartless Hunter has all the ingredients for a standout romantasy: witches in hiding, a ruthless hunter, a masked vigilante, and a steamy enemies-to-lovers dynamic. I found it entertaining, but it didn't quite rise above the crowd in the increasingly crowded romantasy genre. That being said, it does set the stage for the continuation of the series.  Here’s hoping book two, Rebel Witch, brings more depth to this dangerous world.

Published May 2, 2023 by Entangled: Teen

My twin sister is the true queen of Aryd. She survives, hiding and clinging to life in the desert, while I reign as the false queen alongside the monstrous King Eidolon. There’s only one escape from this gilded prison: Reven. My Shadowraith. My heart. Only the shadows that he struggles to control are growing more sinister, more powerful.

It’s just a matter of time before they turn on him…and on me.

Even escape doesn't mean true freedom, though, when we're still on the run from Eidolon’s unstoppable armies. And when we discover there’s a traitor among us, I have no choice…I must become the queen I was never meant to be.

Because as one evil hunts me, the other loves me more than himself.

And my fate lies with both.

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Abigail Owen turns up the heat in this darker, emotionally intense sequel. The Stolen Throne picks up right where The Liar’s Crown left off, with Meren caught between who she was raised to be and who she needs to become. The stakes are higher, the danger sharper, and the emotional force between the main characters even more devastating. I'm always concerned that I won't remember enough to pick up additional books in a series to follow along, but Owen does a fantastic job of catching you up. 

Meren's personality continues to shine. Her struggle with identity, especially as someone who was born to be a placeholder for her twin sister,  feels real and unpretentious. She's done hiding. She's making impossible choices, stepping into danger, and claiming a destiny that no one ever showed her.  Her entire life has been about pretending to be someone else, so watching her come into her own is super satisfying. And Reven, our brooding shadow wraith? He remains a doozy, so full of angsty feelings. He’s torn by loyalty, by love, by the past, and that quiet control of his starts to unravel. Their chemistry is just as electric as it was in book one, maybe even desperately so now that secrets are unraveling and the stakes are climbing higher and higher. 

There's an urgency to book two that wasn't there for The Liar's Crown. The pacing is tight, with plenty of action and suspense, but what really stands out is how Owen balances that with quieter, softer moments. There are moments of vulnerability that hit just as hard as the big twists. With a lot of moving pieces to keep track of in this story, as well as more twists and higher stakes, it's nice that Owen finds the time to let things pause before the next hit comes. 

The Stolen Throne leaves everything behind, carrying us towards book three, The Shadows Rule All. This YA fantasy takes no prisoners. Do I want a happy ending eventually? Sure. But only after they’ve been torn apart, emotionally flayed, and stitched back together by choosing each other, through the wreckage.

Published January 23, 2024 by Page Street Kids

Labyrinth meets folk horror in this darkly romantic tale of a girl who wishes her baby brother away to the Lord of the Wood

Growing up in the small town of Winston, Pennsylvania feels like drowning. Leah goes to church every Sunday, works when she isn’t at school, and takes care of her baby brother, Owen. Like every girl in Winston, she tries to be right and good and holy. If she isn’t the Lord of the Wood will take her, and she’ll disappear like so many other girls before her.

But living up to the rigorous standards of the town takes its toll. One night, when Owen won’t stop screaming, Leah wishes him away, and the Lord listens. The screaming stops, and all that’s left in the crib is a small bundle of sticks tied with a ribbon.

Filled with shame and the weight of the town’s judgment, Leah is forced to cross the river into the Lord of the Wood’s domain to bring Owen back. But the devilish figure who has haunted Winston for generations isn’t what she expects. He tells her she can have her brother back―for the price of a song. A song that Leah will have one month to write.

It’s a bargain that will uncover secrets her hometown has tried to keep buried for decades. And what she unearths will have her questioning everything she’s been taught to fear.

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My Throat an Open Grave is a exploration of folklore, guilt, and the complexities of good and evil in small-town America. Set in Winston, Pennsylvania, the story follows 17-year-old Leah, who, after wishing her baby brother Owen away, must confront the Lord of the Wood—a mythical figure who has taken children for generations. 

Drawing comparisons to Labyrinth might be unfair. Yes, she wished the child away, and has to journey to get him back, but there is no jewelry-crazed Hoggle, tricksy labyrinth, or singing fireys swapping limbs and heads in this story. Nothing as fantastical as the world in which Sarah finds herself. Instead, Leah has to cross the river, find the terrifying Lord of the Wood and trade something of meaning to get her brother back. 

Leah's inner voice takes center stage often. She speaks to and about herself with a level of cruelty that’s difficult to stomach at times. Throughout the story, she repeats the idea that she’s broken, bad, or unlovable, and this negative self-talk becomes a major lens through which we see her experiences. Leah's self talk becomes a way to unravel not just who she is, but how others have defined her. It's heavy (and sometimes annoying).  Leah's journey isn’t just about confronting the Lord of the Wood—it’s also about confronting the narrative she’s been forced to believe about herself. 

While there are supernatural elements, the true horror in My Throat an Open Grave isn’t from the Lord or the forest, it’s in the silence of the town, in what people are willing to ignore, and in the way fear and guilt twist Leah’s choices. While those looking for more in-your-face horror will be disappointed, keep in mind this is rated young adult. I found it less eerie than just sad.