A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust.
Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin…
The end times are coming.
BURY YOUR GAYS by CHUCK TINGLE
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.
But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, “for the algorithm,” in the upcoming season finale.
Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.
Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future—before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.
EVIL IN ME by BROM
Aspiring musician Ruby Tucker has had enough of her small rural town and dysfunctional family. But a falling out with her best friend and bandmate has killed her dreams of escaping and making it big in the Atlanta punk scene.
While helping her eccentric neighbor organize his religious artifacts, an ancient ring clamps down on her finger—possessing her with the spirit of a blood-thirsty demon. There’s no exorcizing it unless hundreds of people chant a spell to set Ruby free. And what’s worse, the ring is a beacon for evil, drawing an unimaginably wicked mob straight to Ruby, hungry for her flesh.
If Ruby can get her band back together, she has a shot at salvation. It’s time for her to face the music and put her whole soul into a song—one powerful enough to raise some Hell.
Are any of these books on your current TBR? Which books do you have?
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For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo’s mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.
Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.
Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide.
GRADE: A
REVIEW:
I’ve read Gabino Iglesias’ Bram Stoker-winning debut novel and enjoyed it very much. So I was very excited when I received an ARC for his latest novel. I decided to go in blind, not reading the plot summary because I feel like his books are a real treat if you experience them as the protagonist does, learning on the way. In House of Bone and Rain, Gabe gets lured into avenging the death of his best friend Bimbo’s mother, Maria. Coincidentally, the hurricane that’s approaching Puerto Rico is also named Maria. Residents of Puerto Rico have a lot of trauma when it comes to hurricanes, as mentioned in the book, it devastates whole populations, kill so many, and keeps the island without electricity and water for months.
Prior to the hurricane, Gabe along with his friends Tavo, Paul, and Xavier helped Bimbo gain more info about who killed his mother – but someone is now targeting the friend group, and it looks like Gabe might be next. The horrors of the book are both real and supernatural, as they intermingle and you can’t decide what’s worse, the horror done by humans or the ones brought by the supernatural, because they’re both equally horrifying.
This is a tale of grief, processing colonialism and racism, and coming of age. I love how Gabino writes his characters and how they act how one realistically would, meaning that there isn’t a character that is only good and one that is only bad, they all have good traits but also are heavily flawed because of their loyalty to each other (which I can’t blame them because a strong friendship won’t have you bailing when things get tough). Although this book is fiction, I feel like there are a lot of living situations that the writer experienced himself and it shows, which makes the book even more poignant and powerful.
I recommend this book for those who love fast-paced thrillers with supernatural elements woven into the plot.
*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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During my teens, I read this novel several times and even made a little skit to perform for my high school’s Drama Fest. I saw the movie more times than I can count, and those intense teenage years, were filled with the Vampire Chronicles. I read the new installment of Price Lestat a few years ago, and it felt like revisiting an old friend. I was devastated when Anne Rice passed away as she was my favorite living author.
With the series Interview with the Vampire, my love for the characters resurfaced, and I decided to revisit the original novel. I instantly fell in love with the world that Rice created and its three central characters, Louis, Lestat, and Claudia. Only this time, I didn’t find myself sympathetic towards Louis as I always was in the past. This time, I felt like he was always placing the blame on Lestat when it was obvious that some of the terrible choices he made were his and his alone.
New Orleans is as much as a character in the book as the characters themselves, with its lush vegetation, Spanish houses, churches, mausoleums, and jasmines. I loved reading about Louis’s encounter with Lestat who proposes to him a better life and offers him the gift of immortality (although Louis sees this more as a curse). Claudia, a young child who cannot grow up is by far the most interesting and complex character. She has reasons to detest the ones who made her, and yet, like Louis she places the blame only on Lestat when they both share this blame.
Lestat, the charismatic maker who later becomes the protagonist of the Vampire Chronicles is depicted as violent, ill-tempered, a spend thrift, and arrogant vampire. But as we later learn in the books that follow, Louis’ interpretation of events were not always correct.
I absolutely loved revisiting this vampire world and it also reminded me that the new TV series follows the events of the novel much more faithfully than the movie ever did (although some things were altered for the series).
Anne Rice created a lush, alluring world with characters that are worth loving (and disliking sometimes, like Armand!) but ultimately remain in your heart forever.
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Becoming the star is easier when the rest of your band is dead…
All drummer Vienna Taylor ever wanted was to make music. If that came with fame, she’d take it—as long as her best friend, guitarist Madison Pierce, was sharing the spotlight and singing lead. And with their new all-female pop rock band gaining traction, soon everyone would hear their songs…
Except, on the way to an event, the Bittersweet’s van careened off an icy mountain road during a blizzard—leaving one member dead and another severely injured.
In order to survive the frigid night, the rest took shelter in a nearby abandoned cabin. But Vienna’s dreams devolved into a terrifying nightmare as, one by one, her fellow band members met a gruesome end…and Madison simply vanished in the night.
What really happened to the Bittersweet? Did Vienna’s closest friend finally decide to take center stage on her own terms?
She doesn’t want to believe it.
But guilty people run.
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Be happy you weren’t there. Be happy you’re only reading about it.
PLOT SUMMARY:
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, the unfairness of being on the outside, through the slasher horror he lives but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.
GRADE: A
REVIEW:
All hail the slasher king. Stephen Graham Jones is to horror books as Wes Craven was to horror movies. Meaning that he absolutely knows the genre and all the tropes of said genre. I love that the book was written in a confessional sort of way, with Tolly, the protagonist, trying to have us understand what happened that summer of 1989. With book is steeped in nostalgia and feelings – but at the same time is hella hilarious. I love that Jones is a huge fan of slashers and that he knows how to deliver unhinged violence, but at the same time truly tug at our hearts.
This book is filled with all the fun of a horror film, but also all the feelings of a coming-of-age novel. I loved Tolly’s friendship with Amber because the friendships of your youth are never quite the same as an adult. Childhood friendships are so intense, and truly ride and die – and I loved how that was presented and explored.
I don’t want to discuss too much about the plot because I think it’s best to jump into this blindly but rest assured, if you loved SGJ’s The Indian Lake trilogy series, you will absolutely love this novel too. This is top-tier horror at its finest and if you’re new to SGJ it’s a good book to start!
*Thank you so much to Saga Press for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos’ life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos’ backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection.
Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable.
Then, someone is murdered.
Poor, alone, and with a history of ‘hysterics’, Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she’ll have to prove who—or what—is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.
GRADE: B+
REVIEW:
The first few chapters completely reeled me in this intriguing and particular story about Roos a girl who holds seances with her mother for money. But when a widow Agnes Knoop comes in for a séance but decides to buy Roos company instead, is when we enter the gothic novel era. All the while, in the present time, we the readers know that something has happened because Roos is being held responsible for the murder and a psychiatrist is trying to figure out exactly what happened.
As much as the writing is lush and descriptive, the pacing kind of lags – but I find myself much more interested in the story when we’re in the present time. Perhaps because the writing is mostly dialogue in those cases and the pacing is swift during those scenes. The mystery is intriguing, and I love the sapphic romance in this – and the two main characters, Roos and Agnes, are very interesting and unique.
I recommend this book if you’re into Gothic literature, love ghost stories, and want a mystery worth reading.
*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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“Can you hear me?” A male face peers into mine. Midthirties, glasses, expressive eyebrows. Andy. Kind.
“Yes,” I say. There’s an overwhelming barrage of hot sensation, then click, it all evens out—light, sound, the air on my skin—settling like embers, then cooling.
I breathe in, feel my chest balloon, breathe out. Lift my hands to face level and flex my fingers, mapping how the smooth pale skin with its smattering of freckles shifts and ripples over my knuckle ridges.
I’m sitting. Dressed in what seems to be an evening gown. I register how tight the skirt is around my thighs. How beautifully the blue sequins catch in the ice-white light from above. Palms down, I skim the fabric, tickling the pads of my fingers as the sequins catch, lift, fall. It’s like wearing a party. I like it.
“Do you know who you are?” says Andy.
I look up and feel myself smile. He’s in baggy jeans, a gray T-shirt with a buffalo plaid shirt open over top and a pen hooked on the breast pocket. A dark five-o’clock shadow travels down his neck. His look screams sleepless nights.
“Of course,” I say. Everything is simply there, no effort, natural as breathing. “I’m Julia Walden.”
“Do you know where you are? What year it is?”
“We’re in LA. It’s January 2022 and Biden is President.” I tilt my head. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic.”
“Do you know what’s about to happen?”
I register, out of the corner of my eye, a boom mic operator to our deep left, but keep my attention on Andy.
“I’m about to compete on The Proposal.”
“God,” breathes Andy, putting a fist to his chest like my answers are slaying him. “You—you’re—” He crooks a finger at his lips.
“Here?” I suggest with a light laugh. Now I’m rubbing my arms, the rough skin at my elbows, allowing my hands to touch my own face, then wander up to my hair, long and loose. I fish it around my shoulder. It’s a fiery, sun-gleam red. I love it. I love everything about being Julia Walden.
“Real,” says Andy when he’s recovered his speech. “Working. Amazing. I kind of want to hug you?”
“You don’t have to ask.” I stand in my high heels, taller than Andy by nearly a head. His glasses collide with my shoulder as applause bursts around us. After a second, he hooks my hands in his and pulls back, eyes moist.
“Wow, Julia. Just wow.”
I scan our surroundings as flashes pop. We’re in a warehouse. To the right, large machines quietly rest. I note hydraulics, robotic arms, big sheets of pale, rubbery material. Skin, I realize, and my own skin seems to respond, tiny goose bumps racing up my arms.
It’s not a bad feeling, exactly. Just…unpleasant, like touching something wet that you thought would be dry.
To my left, a film crew makes a crescent shape. One hefty man shoulders an equally hefty camera, trained on me. I know without being told they’re here from The Proposal.
It’s a little strange to be having this intimate moment with Andy while everyone watches. Then again…that’s about to be my life. Fully on camera.
Andy claps his hands. “So. Ready to meet Josh?”
“I was born ready,” I say with a laugh. My eyes flicker up to the answering sound of laughter from the film crew. But while I did mean to be funny, I also mean it.
Andy pulls out a cell phone. “This is yours. Let’s break it in.” He leans into me and we smile for our first selfie.
“Should we post it to Insta?” he says. “Your handle just went live—we had to wait until the other contestants’ phones were taken away. Oh, and we can’t mention you’re on The Proposal yet—” But I reach for the phone.
“I got it.” My fingers navigate the screen easily. Also, wow— how does @TheRealJuliaWalden already have close to a million followers…and counting? I caption the picture the journey be-gins!!!, noting the tug of resistance within me as I put the phone down. I guess part of me wanted to watch the reactions roll in. Immediately I wall up this thought. I’m not here for everyone. Just one man.
Andy has pulled out a blue pen while I’ve been messing with the phone, and is nervously gnawing on the clicker end. Weirdly, I want to reassure him, It’ll be okay. You’ll see.
“Julia!” the producer calls out. “Could you introduce your-self? For our viewers?”
I look at the camera’s cold eye across the distance and imagine that I’m looking into the face of a friend who can’t wait to see me. I smile.
“Sure! I’m a Synth. My name is Julia. And I’m here to find love.”
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Nothing matters, the sky is burning, love isn’t real.
PLOT SUMMARY:
The American dream is dead, and Los Angeles is burning. Hopeless and anesthetized, four lost souls contend with the darkest elements of the human experience in a desperate attempt to quench their thirst for meaning and connection in a world without a future. For Arden Coover, a spun-out acid junkie with the ink still drying on a useless philosophy degree from Berkeley, it’s in the potential salvation offered by a new relationship rife with promise but fraught with uncertainty. His fresh-out-of-high-school sister, Tess, is struggling to accept that her best option in life may lie in a convenient but loveless marriage to a rich, narcissistic novelist. Ryland Richter, an alcoholic insurance executive with too much money and too few scruples, seeks toxic solace in the arms of a dangerously unhinged subordinate. And Baxter Kent, a stoned surfer who’s addicted to AI pornography and afraid of women, tries to make things work with a prototypal sex robot that’s incapable of even the most rudimentary forms of communication.
GRADE: A
REVIEW:
If you like ensemble multiple POV books where characters eventually come in contact ala Bret Easton Ellis Rules of Attraction, then you will enjoy this book that takes the reader on a dark journey in a Los Angeles that’s burning. The characters reek with cynicism, but deep down they’re all searching to feel something – but they’ve become so desithetized that they’re unable to feel anything at all. Each character is trying to figure out a meaning for their life, whether it’s Arden who has just graduated from college and finds himself aimless, Tess who dates a famous author but feels as though people only like her for her beauty, Ryland who’s obsessed with his job and gets involved with an unhinged young woman, and Baxter who would like to have a relationship but porn addiction has made him unable to enjoy the company or sex of real women, and gets involved with a sex robot. Throughout this twisty, dark journey, each character witnesses a strange man following them, while the city burns around them. What does it mean? Are they all doomed? Those are the questions you’ll be asking yourself when reading this novel, and also realizing that many of these characters feel familiar because you either know someone like them, or you’ve been that person before (or still are) – which then brings you to wonder if you’re on the brink of self-destruction as these beautiful but tragic characters.
No answers are really offered, and maybe, like a burning Los Angeles, that’s crumbling like your dreams, you realize that life offers very few answers, and then you die.
Readers who enjoy self-absorbed, inherently flawed, and broken characters living luxurious lives, then this is for you – and if you like dark novels that only get darker and darker pushing you to the absolute abyss.
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From New York Times bestselling author Randy Wayne White, after the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in a century, Doc Ford must stop a gang of thieves—and worse—during the twelve hours of chaos that follow the passing of a storm’s eye.
A Russian diplomat disappears while Doc is tagging great white sharks in South Africa, and members of a criminal brotherhood, Bratva, don’t think it’s a coincidence. They track the biologist to Dinkin’s Bay Marina on the west coast of Florida, where Brotherhood mercenaries have already deployed, prepared to pillage and kill in the wake of an approaching hurricane.
No one, however, is prepared for a cataclysmic event that will forever change the island and leaves Doc to deal with escapees from Russia’s most dangerous prison, including a serial killer—the Vulture Monk—who has a taste for blood. His only ally is an enigmatic British inventor whose decision to ride out the storm might have more to do with revenge than protecting a priceless art collection.
Doc has a lot at stake—the lives of his fiancée, Hannah Smith, and their son, plus the fate of his hipster pal, Tomlinson, whose sailboat has disappeared in the Gulf of Mexico. The greatest threat of all, though, is a force that cannot be escaped—a Category Five hurricane that, minute by minute, melds sins of the past with Florida’s precarious future.
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An engrossing and atmospheric debut that follows young Weatherly Wilder as she uses her unique gift to solve her cousin’s mysterious murder and prove her own innocence, set in the beautiful wilds of Appalachia and imbued with magic realism.
In a small town in rural Georgia, Appalachian roots and traditions still run deep. Folks paint their houses blue to keep the spirits way. Black ferns grow, it’s said, where death will follow. And Weatherly Wilder’s grandmother is a local Granny Witch, relied on for help delivering babies, making herbal remedies, tending to the sick—and sometimes serving up a fatal dose of revenge when she deems it worthy. Hyper-religious, she rules Weatherly with an iron fist; because Weatherly has a rare and covetable gift: she’s a Death Talker. Weatherly, when called upon, can talk the death out of the dying; only once, never twice. But in her short twenty years on this Earth this gift has taken a toll, rooting her to the small town that only wants her around when they need her and resents her backwater ways when they don’t—and how could she ever leave, if it meant someone could die while she was gone?
Weatherly’s best friend and cousin, Adaire, also has a gift: she’s a Scryer; she can see the future reflected back in a dark surface, usually her scrying pan. Right before she’s hit and in a bicycle accident, Adaire saw something unnerving in the pan, that much Weatherly knows, and she is certain this is why the mayor killed her cousin—she doesn’t believe for a moment that it was an accident. But when the mayor’s son lays dying and Weatherly, for the first time, is unable to talk the death of him, the whole town suspects she was out for revenge, that she wouldn’t save him. Weatherly, with the help of Adaire’s spirit, sets out to prove her own innocence and find Adaire’s killer, no matter what it takes.
Author Bio:
Dana Elmendorf was born and raised in small town in Tennessee. She now lives in Southern California with her husband, two boys and two dogs. When she isn’t exercising, she can be found geeking out with Mother Nature. After four years of college and an assortment of jobs, she wrote a contemporarty YA novel. This is her adult debut.
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The Inkblotters 