Archives de catégorie : Horror

DEAD WEIGHT de Hildur Knútsdóttir

An Icelandic night may hide secrets and affairs – or even bodies – in this gruesomely cathartic horror thriller from the author of The Night Guest.

DEAD WEIGHT
by Hildur Knútsdóttir
Tor Nightfire, May 2026
(via The Gernert Company)

Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door.

When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life.

It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn.

The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.

Hildur Knútsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1984. She has lived in Spain, Germany, and Taiwan and studied literature and creative writing at The University of Iceland. She writes fiction both for adults and teenagers, as well as short fiction, plays, and screenplays. Hildur is known for her evocative fantastical fiction and spine-chilling horror. The Night Guest is her first book translated into English. She lives in Reykjavík with her husband, their two daughters, and a puppy called Uggi.

POPPY CREEK d’Ivy Fang

A con woman posing as an exorcist must trust in ghosts—and confront her own—when she’s called to a remote bed and breakfast for a job…but she’ll soon learn that the spirits are not the most dangerous guests in residence.

POPPY CREEK
by Ivy Fang
Tor Nightfire, Spring 2027
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

Laurel Meng calls herself an exorcist, but she’s never performed a real exorcism. All she needs to secure her paychecks—spread ever thinner in the face of her mother’s mounting medical bills—is her white clients’ overactive imaginations and boundless ignorance.

So when Annie Shaye-Matsuda calls, convinced her late son Taika’s restless spirit is haunting her quaint bed and breakfast, Laurel is relieved to have found a new mark—not a moment too soon, given the mortgage payment she’s defaulted on. But when voices in the walls warn her to leave, she begins to suspect something far worse than Taika lingers in the bones of Poppy Creek Bed and Breakfast. And that something is intent on trapping her there.

Confronted with the real deal—crawling specters made of dirt, doors that lead nowhere, blood running through the plumbing—Laurel can’t fake her way out of this one. She must ally with a ghost to perform a true exorcism if she hopes to uncover the truth and escape with her money in hand. But secrets are buried amidst the flowerbeds of Poppy Creek, and if Laurel’s not careful, she’ll end up just like them…or worse.

For fans of The Eyes are the Best Part, We Used to Live Here, and Pet Sematary, POPPY CREEK is a novel about love and loss, and the horror that grows from them. It is the author’s debut.

Ivy Fang grew up along the briny California coasts and now lives and works in the Bay Area. When she’s writing, Ivy is usually digging into horror, fantasy worlds, blood-spattered romance, and families that weather every storm. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing video games or enjoying a good scoop of ice cream with a Chinese drama.

I AM THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED d’Emily Zinnikas

In this horror debut, the only survivor of an unsolved teen massacre returns to her hometown and confronts her stalker with the help of her childhood boogey man and the possessed forest that surrounds her haunted house. For fans of Final Girls by Riley Sager and September House by Carissa Orlando.

I AM THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED
by Emily Zinnikas
St. Martin’s Press, October 2026

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 Greene is a reclusive but successful painter. But when a bombshell news report exposes her identity as the controversial survivor of the unsolved Rapture Mystery Slayings, her tentative peace is shattered.

It was a small-town tragedy her senior year of high school. Six teenagers died in the woods while Willa walked free, and everyone thinks she did it. Collectors who once fought over her paintings can’t distance themselves fast enough. Reporters arrive by the dozens and park themselves on her lawn.

So when an old classmate calls about a funeral, Willa reluctantly escapes to the last place anyone would look: her sleepy hometown, overshadowed by the possessed forest that stole her friends. But her troubled past is waiting there to haunt her. The trees whistle for her attention, there is an unexplained knocking from the shadows in the basement of her decaying childhood home, and a past stalker is creeping on her once again. She is determined to show the stalker the rage of a grown woman; but nights spent pursuing her stalker draws Willa to discover a chilling truth—another stalker is behind the stalker, and one of them is determined to destroy her.

Her defense will draw her closer to the hungry forest she swore she’d never return to, to the monster at home she chose to forget—and to becoming the villain her hometown has always suspected her to be.

Emily Zinnikas has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and lives in New York. Emily loves all things spooky – and considers a ghost tour the highlight of any vacation.

WANT ME, TAKE ME, HAUNT ME, MAKE ME d’Isabel Crowley

The Conjuring takes a turn for the dark and spicy in this chilling horror romance by debut author Isabel Crowley, for fans of Sophie Lark and H.D. Carlton

WANT ME, TAKE ME, HAUNT ME, MAKE ME
by Isabel Crowley
Sourcebooks Casablanca, August 2026

Hazel Lewis has a serious problem. The guy who hired her to conduct a seance before he died turned out to be a serial killer with a demonic contract, and the seance itself was a trap. Hazel escaped with her life, but not as she knew it: the bite of a demon is spreading through her body, letting the supernatural bleed into the world around her, and the now-dead serial killer is waiting to take over her body if she dies.

Hoping to contain the damage, Hazel moves to a small house in a remote location. She figures she’ll stay on her own until she gets a handle on her new dark reality, but she soon finds out that she’s not alone. There’s the reporter demanding answers, the friendly neighbor with chemistry she doesn’t need and problems he can’t talk about… and the mysterious face she sees beyond her window, watching her every night with glowing red eyes.

Making her hunger.

Hazel knew a little bit about the world beyond the physical. Now she’s learning how much she doesn’t know, including who she can trust…and who she can become if she trusts herself enough to give in to the shadows stalking her dreams.

Blending the chills of a horror movie with the spicy thrills of sexy dark romance plus a propulsive mystery underscoring the heroine’s haunting, this book has something for every reader.

DIRECT DESCENDANT de Tanya Huff

This cozy horror novel set in modern-day Toronto includes phenomenal characters, fantastic writing, and a queer romance—the perfect balance of dark and delightful. This stand-alone novel from the bestselling author of the Peacekeeper novels mixes the creepy with the charming for plenty of snarky, queer fun—for fans of T. Kingfisher, Grady Hendrix, Sangu Mandanna and Erin Sterling.

DIRECT DESCENDANT
by Tanya Huff
DAW, April 2025
(via JABberwocky)

Generations ago, the founders of the idyllic town of Lake Argen made a deal with a dark force. In exchange for their service, the town will stay prosperous and successful, and keep outsiders out. And for generations, it’s worked out great. Until a visitor goes missing, and his wealthy family sends a private investigator to find him, and everything abruptly goes sideways.

Now, Cassidy Prewitt, town baker and part-time servant of the dark force (it’s a family business) has to contend with a rising army of darkness, a very frustrated town, and a very cute PI who she might just be falling for…and who might just be falling for her. And if they can survive their own home-grown apocalypse, they might even just find happiness together.

Queer, cozy, and with a touch of eldritch horror mixed in just for fun, this is a charming love story about a small-town baker, a quick-witted PI, and, yes, an ancient evil.

Tanya Huff spent three years in the Canadian Naval Reserve then earned a degree in radio and television arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. She is the author of numerous short stories and more than twenty novels, including the bestselling Blood books, the Smoke series, and the Keeper’s Chronicles. She has been the guest of honor at numerous American and Canadian conventions, and her work has been nominated for several awards, including winning the Aurora Award for Best Novel. She lives in Ontario, Canada.