Author: Jessica Avery

When it comes to Frankenstein adaptations, this is one of my favorites! White recenters Mary Shelley’s original novel around the figure of Elizabeth Lavenza, who as a young child was taken in by the Frankenstein family to be a companion to their strange, frightening son Victor. She grew up doing her best to become indispensable to the family, cementing her place in luxury and ease through her ability to manage Victor’s dark and dangerous moods. But behind Elizabeth’s calm, sweet, tame-the-beast exterior she has teeth and ambition of her own.

I love including graphic novels on this list when I have the chance, particularly when they’re as beautifully illustrated and compellingly written as this. Destroyer drags Mary Shelley’s novel into the new century and continues the creature’s journey hundreds of years after the death of Victor Frankenstein. Gone, however, is the sympathetic creature who wanted only love and human connection. After so many long years alone, all the creature wants is to destroy humanity completely. At his side is one of Frankenstein’s own descendents, Dr. Baker, a grieving mother who’s son was killed in an encounter with the police, and who wants to see humankind wiped out almost as much as the creature does.

I’m breaking my own rules a bit here, because I really do try (though I don’t always succeed) to not talk about the same book two years in a row. However! Not only is Anatomy an exciting new January release (out almost exactly one week from today), it’s also a delightfully gruesome Frankenstein-inspired YA horror. Hazel Sinnett’s only desire in life is to be a surgeon, healing bodies and maybe even finding a cure for the terrible Roman Plague that claimed her older brother’s life. She will do whatever it takes to overcome the barriers in her way, even dressing as a boy in order to attend classes on anatomy. When her ruse is discovered, however, Hazel finds herself thrown out of the classroom, leaving her no choice but to continue her studies of the human body in private. By any means necessary.

You’ll have to wait until August to get your hands on this Frankenstein adaptation, but everything I’ve read so far suggests it will be well worth the wait! Billed as a queer gender reversal of Mary Shelley’s original novel, the narrator of Unwieldy Creatures is a medical intern who finds her prized internship in the the country’s most prestigious embryologist lab upended when the renowned star scientist of the lab, Dr. Frank, has a breakdown and ends up couch surfing in the intern’s house. While she recovers, Dr. Frank tells the intern her story of an experiment gone wrong. A tale of ambition, murder, and bloody revenge.

Unwieldy Creatures doesn’t have a cover yet, nor is it available to pre-order, but the link above will take you to the publisher’s forthcoming titles page, so keep an eye out as we get closer to August!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of those early teen influences in my life that pretty much guaranteed I’d end up a horror fan. So obviously it is my great delight to include Kendare Blake’s forthcoming Buffy Universe novel on this list! Frankie Rosenberg, daughter of our favorite local witch, Willow, is a sophomore at New Sunnydale High (RIP old Sunnydale HS, you went through some shit) when her life is suddenly upended by a new girl who arrives at the school with word of an attack on the annual Slayer convention. With all the Slayers potentially slain (ba dum tish), a new hero must rise to take their place. But as a Slayer-Witch Frankie is the first of her kind, and it will take all the help her new friends can give if she has any chance of preventing (you guessed it!) the opening of the Hellmouth.

Alright my gruesome Gothic lovers, this one’s for you. Get ready for some corpse-stealing hijinks in 19th century Edinburgh and a whole lot of Frankenstein vibes. I had the chance to read this one a bit early and it’s honestly so entertaining, and just the right bit of creepy meets gross. (Like, corpse gore in your hair gross). Hazel Sinnett may have been born a lady, but her only desire in life is to be a surgeon, healing bodies and maybe even finding a cure for the terrible Roman Plague that claimed her older brother’s life. But when her disguise as a boy is uncovered and she’s expelled from her anatomy classes, Hazel finds herself forced to use more nefarious means to continue her studies. Enter Jack Currer, a resurrection man walking a thin line between poverty and plague. Hazel needs bodies, and Jack needs coin. It’s a perfect (and perfectly dreadful) arrangement.

Bonus points for having a cover that is drop dead GORGEOUS.

If you’ve already read your way through Castro’s 2021 releases, Goddess of Filth and The Queen of Cicadas, fear not! Because she’s ready and waiting to kick off your new year with a gorgeous, dark collection of short stories that you won’t want to miss. On the other hand, if you haven’t read any of Castro’s books yet, Mestiza Blood will make an excellent jumping off point! I’ve said more than once that when it comes to exploring a new author, I always go straight for a collection to get the best idea of their range and style. The stories in Mestiza Blood, for example, draw their inspiration from a variety of sources – from urban legends and Mexican folklore, to traditional horror archetypes and personal experience – and once again Castro delivers up the chills and nightmares her readers have come to expect.

This book kind of wrecked me, I’m not going to lie. I mean I expected it to be amazing, but I did not at all expect it to get under my skin the way it did. Such a Pretty Smile is about two figures, a mother and a daughter, and two timelines: Caroline in 2004, the young and talented artist finds herself married to a loser, struggling with her mental health, and unexpectedly pregnant just as a dark, buried secret from her past begins to reveal itself. Then there’s Lila in 2019, Caroline’s young daughter who is secretly in love with her (terrible) best friend Macie, and facing a mental crisis of her own as she chafes under her mother’s anxious control. Though there is evil a plenty to face, and monsters both literal and figurative, at its heart, Such a Pretty Smile is about not just survival after terrible trauma, but also the way in which mothers can hand their trauma down to their daughters, even when trying to protect them.

Content Warnings: there are definite content warnings for rape and sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and kidnapping, among other associated factors, which some readers might wish to avoid. If in doubt, check the early reviews.

This is how you do an anthology, people. This is the kind of TOC I would like to see more of! Over half of the authors in this collection are authors of color, and of the thirty, some total contributing authors about two-thirds are women. And not only is the TOC diverse, it’s also loaded with talent. If you’re looking for an anthology to kick off your 2022, definitely start here. Now, technically, Trouble the Waters is more broadly a SFF/Spec Fic anthology, which means that it’s not 100% horror, but with Nalo Hopkinson, Linda D. Addison, and Maurice Broaddus contributing to the collection, you know at least a few of the stories will be delightfully dark.

May I offer you some queer short fiction in these trying times? No but seriously, this anthology is everything that I want an anthology to be. Not only is it full of delightfully dark stories, but almost half of the thirty-some authors and artists who contributed to Unfettered Hexes are authors and artists of color, and two-thirds are women or nonbinary, or otherwise gender-nonconforming. You know there’s nothing I hate more than a largely white, straight, cis anthology – I’ve never bothered to hide my frustration about that – and I went through easily a dozen anthologies for this list trying to find one that had actually representation in its TOC. Thankfully, I remembered that Unfettered Hexes exists. This collection of dark speculative fiction is diverse, delicious, witchy perfection, and you couldn’t ask for a better collection of stories to fill out your midwinter evenings.

A.C. Wise’s 2021 new release, Wendy, Darling, was the first book of hers I’d ever read, and it instantly made a fan of me. So when I found out that one of my favorite indie horror presses, Undertow Publications, was publishing her new collection of short fiction (complete with that absolutely gorgeous cover) I made sure to pre-order my copy asap. Wise is one of those authors whose work is so gorgeous that it leaves you feeling starry-eyed when you finish reading, like you’ve just emerged from a dream. The synopsis for The Ghost Sequences describes these stories as “profoundly and intimately human” even when brimming with horrors and darkness – and I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to describe the appeal of Wise’s work. No matter the external monsters or dangers her stories present, the real heart of her work will always be its humanity.

Like a lot of single author collections – and a lot of anthologies, honestly – stories in Never Have I Ever veer freely to either side of the genre lines, from sci-fi to horror to fantasy and back again. Honestly that’s why I love collections by authors of dark fiction! You get the best of all possible variations. This is Yap’s debut collection, and I’m honestly so excited to see where she goes from here, because every one of these stories was a gem. They’re a mix of urban legends and stories inspired by the legends of the Philippines, and many of them also feature queer themes and/or characters. Which is always a plus! It’s such a great, creepy, creative collection that’s also suitably gruesome for folks who want their horror stories to contain a certain amount of viscera and monsters devouring children.

I honestly can’t believe that I haven’t recommended Hailey Piper’s new collection yet in The Fright Stuff. Someone ring the shame bell. I have made no secret of my adoration for Piper’s work. Her novella The Worm and His Kings is still one of my top horror reads, so obviously I was beyond excited to read Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy and get familiar with her short fiction as well. There are 18 stories in this collection, and they cover a range of themes and subgenres, which means there’s a little something for every kind of horror reader. If you want more queer horror in your life (and you know you do) then I highly recommend picking up a copy of Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy and filling your long evenings with a collection of stories that span everything from cosmic terror to terrifying fantasy.

Now, it’s true that the towns folk of Amity Falls aren’t forbidden from leaving, and other people aren’t forbidden from visiting. But buried as deep in the shadow of Blackspire Mountains as the village is, and surrounded as it is on all sides by a nearly impenetrable forest rumored to be full of devils, it’s safe to say that trips out of the village and visitors to it are… uncommon. Usually only supply parties travel through, providing the village with much needed goods that they aren’t able to produce themselves. When one of those parties goes missing, however, and a series of strange, unfortunate occurrences start to plague Amity Falls, it gets the locals wondering whether the devils in the forest have returned, with their dark promises and too tempting bargains.

You might remember A History of Wild Places from the December new releases newsletter last week! It is a brand new, shiny horror release that begins with two unexplained disappearances: Maggie St. James, author of dark, macabre children’s books, and Travis Wren, the private investigator who was hired to look for her. Years later, we have Theo, who has lived in Pastoral all his life, and knows very well that the community rule is no one in, no one out. People don’t leave Pastoral, and outsiders definitely don’t come to Pastoral. So when Theo discovers Travis’ long abandoned truck outside the border of the settlement, it raises a lot of questions about the supposedly isolated world into which he was born.

Technically, people can leave Bethel for the outside world in The Year of the Witching. But though it is possible to physically leave Bethel (though only with permission), leaving Bethel doesn’t really mean you’ve escaped Bethel, as we see all too clearly at one point in the book. On the whole, Bethel is a forbidding, insular community of people whose lives are dictated by a rigid, religious ruler. Their Prophet. Immanuelle, our heroine, is the unwanted child of the disgraced daughter of a once powerful man of the church, her birth brought her whole family down into the dust, and no matter how hard she tries to obey the laws of Bethel, she can never scrape free of her mother’s shame. But when a trip to the market gone awry finds Immanuelle deep in the confines of the forbidden Darkwood that surrounds Bethel – a place of witches, spirits, and evil – new secrets about her mother emerge and turn Immanuelle’s life on its head.

The Beauty is one of the strangest books (in the best possible way) that I have ever read. So, personally, I think its brilliant, and not just because it’s about creepy fungi. The Valley of the Rocks is a secluded, traditionalist society of people who have retreated from the outside world, seeking a new way of life. But the peaceful balance of the village is upended when a frightening fungal plague sweeps through the population, affecting and killing all the women. Now only a small population of men and boys survive, gathering each night to hear tales of the women they lost and believing themselves to be the last generation of humanity. Whether the fungal plague exists outside of the Valley of the Rocks is something we’re never told, it’s really up to the reader to decide, but the unexpected fallout from the plague is on full display as peculiar mushrooms start growing from the graves of the dead, taking human form.

I think Sorrowland might be the only title on this list where most of the action actually takes pace out in the “don’t go out there” zone, as a pregnant Vern flees the strict religious compound in which she was raised, Cainland, fleeing to the woods to give birth to her children. In the outside world, Vern does her best to survive in an unfamiliar world while evading the compound’s grasp. Unfortunately, wherever Vern goes, Cainland follows after, making true escape almost impossible. When Vern’s body begins to transform, metamorphizing into something new, powerful, and strange, it becomes clear why Cainland is so reluctant to let her go. Whatever she’s becoming is evidence of how deep the cult’s corruption goes.

Kicking off our list this month is Samantha Kolesnik’s newest novella, Waif, and can we just take a moment to admire that gorgeous pulp-style cover? You know I’m a sucker for clever cover design, and I just love everything about this one. Plus I think it really sells the gritty feel of the novel itself as we follow former housewife Angela on a strange, dangerous sexual journey into a treacherous underground of pornography and plastic surgery as she tries to escape the “dream” life that was killing her slowly. When Angela falls for a fetish film performer named Reena, and falls in with a queer gang called The Waifs, she finds herself forced to choose between the woman she used to be and the woman she’s becoming.

You know I love it best of all when fairy tales go bad, and twisted, and horrific. So of course I zeroed right in on Shea Earnshaw’s forthcoming book A History of Wild Places. It begins with two unexplained disappearances: Maggie St. James, author of dark, macabre children’s books, and Travis Wren, the private investigator who was hired to look for her. Travis has a talent for locating the missing, but when his search for Maggie leads him to a mysterious commune called Pastoral that’s not supposed to exist, he too vanishes into thin air. It’s only years later that Theo, who has lived in Pastoral all his life, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck outside the border of the community and begins to question the isolated world in which he was raised. But as Pastoral’s secrets begin to unravel, Theo may find himself faced with a truth far darker and more dangerous than expected.

Technically, Ahdieh’s The Beautiful Quartet series is more on the dark fantasy side of the dark fiction line than the horror side, but you know I love my dark fantasy novels, so I’m playing my Basically Weened on Anne Rice Card, and declaring that if vampires, then horror. Or horror-ish, anyway. Though I guess in the case of the The Righteous, if dark, menacing fae, then horror. I mean an angry Good Neighbor will fuck you up, let’s be honest. And Pippa knows that, she does, but when her best friend Celine (heroine of the first two books) suddenly disappears, Pippa has no choice but to travel into the treacherous world of the fae and try to bring Celine back. She’s done losing everything she loves, and she’ll do what ever it takes to find Celine, even if it means dealing with the dangerously charismatic Arjun Desai.

Speaking of ongoing series, if you’ve been waiting on novella number three in Sriduangkaew’s Her Pitiless Command series, your wait is almost over! Shattersteel continues the story that began in Sriduangkaew’s gorgeous dark, queer sci-fi/fantasy novella Winterglass, which you might remember from last month’s fairy tale retelling newsletter! But where in Winterglass Nuawa was a bold insurgent, determined to destroy the Winter Queen and end her reign of cold and darkness, Shattersteel finds her laid low. Her attempt to assassinate the queen has failed and now the weapon that Nuawa had so carefully turned herself into is just a tool that the Winter Queen can use. And one that the Queen would happily sacrifice to make her lover, General Lussadh, immortal at last. Unless Nuawa can stop her, and is willing to pay the cost to do so. This final attempt to kill the Queen might just succeed, but if it does, Nuawa will lose not only her soul, but Lussadh as well.

I mean, was I supposed to NOT include Alex White’s new Star Trek book? What, when I am still absolutely obsessed with their recent Alien tie-in novel, Into Charybdis, and when I’m such a Star Trek fan? Please. Now excuse me, I have to marathon Deep Space Nine so I can read this book when it comes out. When Trill Trade Commissioner Etom Prit askes Jadzia Dax to help recover his wayward granddaughter from a resort casino while on shore leave, it seems like an easy favor to do for an old friend. But the Nemi she finds when she arrives planet side isn’t the young woman she remembers, and Dax’s struggle to find the truth of what happened to Nemi will expose a terrifying web of secrets and lies.

Sarah Moses’ translation of Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica’s 2017 horror novel was released this year, unleashing it’s nightmarish dystopia on a whole new audience of English speaking readers. The premise is harrowing: in a world in which all animal meat has become poisonous to ingest, humans have become the new livestock of choice. It is a chilling look at how far humanity might go, if only they are given permission. Marcos makes a living processing this “special meat”, all the while trying to focus on numbers, consignments, and processing not on who it really is that he makes his living. Until the day he’s given a “gift”. But the longer he spends with this “live specimen of the finest quality”, the less he is able to see her as just another number and begins to see and treat her like a human being. And with that comes the need to acknowledge the truth of what humanity has become.

A reader forewarned is a reader forearmed, so considered this your warning if you haven’t yet had the chance to read any of his work: Wrath James White is an exceptionally talented horror author. But he is also known for his extremity. Violent (frequently sexually), gory, disturbing, and grim, his books are not for readers who prefer their horror to be a bit less… visceral? But even as someone who doesn’t prefer hard-core horror, I do think that it’s worth reading at least one of his books, if only to appreciate his talent for the profoundly disturbing. Take Succulent Prey, the story of Joseph Miles who, as a child, was abducted and tortured by a cannibalistic serial killer. Joey was his only surviving victim, but now he may be in danger of becoming a monster in his own right. And unless he can find a way to cure himself of the killer growing inside of him, the woman he loves may pay the ultimate price.

I don’t know if you can really have a cannibalism horror list without including at least one example of survival cannibalism, which is a different kind of horrible than the deliberate cannibalism of some of the other titles. The desperation. The terrible necessity, driven to live at any cost. Katsu’s The Hunger takes a historical example of real survival cannibalism and adds a sinister, supernatural twist to an already harrowing event. The Donner Party makes their way into the mountains plagued by disaster and the gut feeling that something terrible is stalking them. When the group becomes stranded in the Sierra Nevadas, struggling to survive the elements, members of the party begin to disappear and fear and suspicion grow.

Manhunt won’t be out until February of next year, so you’ll have to wait a couple of months to get your hands on it. But early murmurings suggest it will be worth waiting for. Just be aware that, like Succulent Prey, Manhunt is not going to be a horror novel for those who prefer their nightmares a little less violently vivid. This is going to be a gorefest of cannibalism, violence, and cruelty. But for all that, the story Felker-Martin is telling is not bereft of humanity, or of softer feelings, like the tendency to band together for safety and to carve out families for ourselves in a world that has rejected us. Beth and Fran are trans women, trying to survive in a decimated future New England, in a world where anyone possessing too high a level of testosterone is doomed to become a cannibalistic monster. They end up banding together with trans man Robbie, and the three pit their survival against a terrifying army of TERFS, and any number of other horrors that the T plague has wrought.

My Heart is a Chainsaw was a massive success when it released earlier this year (and for good reason!), so it was an obvious choice for this list. But if you’ve already read it, consider substituting this with one of Jones’ other fantastic horror titles. Any of Jones’ books would make an excellent addition to your TBR. Jade Daniels has always been an outsider in Proofrock, a small lake town she grew up in that is now slowly being over run by gentrification. In her anger and her loneliness, Jade turns to horror for comfort, letting herself get lost in a world of masked killers and revenge. But when Proofrock’s wealthy newcomers begin dying in bizarre ways, Jade realizes that there is a familiar pattern to their deaths. A pattern that only she can see, and that may foretell a massacre in the making.

If you’ve been in the market for a werewolf novel with a folk horror twist, I highly recommend Dimaline’s Empire of the Wild. Joan’s husband Victor disappeared almost a year ago, following an argument, and she has been searching for him ever since. One morning, after stumbling into a revival tent in a Walmart parking lot, she encounters a man with Victor’s face, his voice, and none of his memories. The man claims to be a charismatic preacher called Eugene Wolff, who has been ministering to the local Métis population, and he’s never heard of Victor. If Joan wants her husband back, she will have to find a way to remind him who he really is, before the true mission behind Wolff’s ministry comes to light.

I shamefacedly admit that I still haven’t read Moon of the Crusted Snow, and from what I’ve heard, I am absolutely missing out on an amazing survival horror novel. Moon of the Crusted Snow is set in a small northern settlement trying to survive what may well be the end of the world. Anishinaabe has gone dark. They have completely lost contact with the outside world, and a long, dark Arctic winter is setting in. Then, even as their own society begins to fail and their supplies run short, strangers begin to arrive from the catastrophe in the south that left Anishinaabe a flagging beacon of life for the unexpected refugees. In the fallout from the disaster, a group of young friends will have to embrace Anishinaabe tradition if they hope to survive the scarcity and chaos and help their community withstand such dark, uncertain times.

I wanted to include Elatsoe on this list for those of you who – like me! – love to mix fantasy with dark elements in with your horror titles. Though I wouldn’t discount how creepy this book can be! Set in an alternate America whose history was shaped by magic and monsters, Little Badger’s book is about the titular heroine, Elatsoe, a young woman with the ability to conjure the ghosts of dead animals. When her cousin is murdered, Elatsoe sets out to use her powers to reveal all the secrets hiding behind Willowbee’s charming small town façade and unmask her cousin’s killer. But what she discovers may go far beyond the death of her cousin, and come to threaten Elatsoe’s entire family.

Technically, Taaqtumi (an Inuktitut word meaning “in the dark”) is an anthology of own voices horror short stories from Alaska and Canada, but I really wanted to include it on this list. It’s a phenomenal anthology and a must-have read for the dark winter months. Featuring award winning authors Richard Van Camp, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Aviaq Johnston, and more, Taaqtumi is made up of tales of the darkness and the cold, from zombies to mysterious doors, to post-apocalyptic towns deep in the Arctic. I have always loved fiction set in the Arctic. Something about all that ice and snow, and nothing for miles but freezing winds and the blinding whites and blues. It’s the best of isolation and survival horror, all rolled into one.

Rumpelstiltskin has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. So when I found out that Erin. A Craig – whose House of Salt and Sorrows was a retelling of another fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses – was writing a creepy YA fantasy novel loosely inspired by Rumpelstiltskin, I was over the moon! Ellerie Downing has lived in the town of Amity Falls all her life, in the shadow of Blackspire Mountains and surrounded on all sides by a nearly impenetrable fortress rumored to be full of devils the villagers defeated long ago. But a sudden disappearance disturbs the peace of Amity Falls, raising fears that the monsters may have returned, ready to tempt unwary villagers with promises of desires fulfilled. And in return they ask for so little! What’s a small favor in the face of all you’ve ever wanted?

So personally, I love Frozen. But if Disney’s (very, VERY) loosely Snow Queen-inspired film didn’t do it for you, may I recommend something a little more… violent? Sirapirat has been locked in endless winter ever since the Winter Queen captured the city-state. In search of the shards of a powerful magic mirror. General Lussadh carries one of those mirror shards in her heart, making her unwaveringly loyal to winter. Her job is to find the remaining “glass-bearers”, and her search eventually leads her to Nuawa, whose only mission in life is to destroy the Winter Queen. Add in one brutal, deadly tournament in which the victors become part of the Queen’s army, the loser’s souls are forfeit, and there’s a complicated romance growing between general and insurgent, and you’ve got all the makings of an epic queer retelling that also happens to be seasonally on point!

Little Red Riding Hood really is the perfect fairy tale for adaptation. It’s dark, borderline scary (some versions are downright gruesome). It pits a young girl against a violent, predatory, sexually coded figure, and it’s all set against the back drop of a vast, threatening forest. In other words, it’s pretty much the proto-plot for any number of horror stories. Red is the original final girl. And when it comes to dark retellings, For the Wolf definitely delivers! Red is a Second Daughter, the first in centuries, which means that her one purpose in life is to be sacrificed. The Wolf in the Wood holds the world’s gods captive and every second daughter born is sacrificed in hopes that he might release them. But what she finds in the depths of the Wilderwood is a tangle of lies, and everything she thought she knew about her world comes undone.

The release date of Comfort Me With Apples got delayed late last month because of the almighty and terrible supply chain issues that are currently plaguing publishing, but the day is finally here! Tomorrow this chilling, enchanting Bluebeard retelling enters the world, and I could not be more excited. Sophia knows nothing but the reality of her perfect, sheltered, beloved life behind the safe walls of Arcadia Gardens. She was made to be her husband’s little darling, that’s her whole life. Sophie has never questioned her existence, or how she came to exist. Until one day the arrival of a stranger in Arcadia Gardens threatens to overturn her peaceful existence and reveal the terrible truth that hides behind the basement door her husband forbids her to open.

Can I just say how much of a struggle it was to choose a Sleeping Beauty adaptation when I had three amazing, queer retellings to choose from? But ultimately I chose Briar Girls because I’m a sucker for a mysterious forest. Lena has spent her whole life living in fear of her curse, a touch that can kill. She and her father live in a tiny village near the Silence, a dense forest that few are foolish enough to enter, and fewer still return from. Until the day that Miranda emerges from the trees, on a quest to wake a fabled sleeping princess that may be able to save her home city. Miranda promises to break Lena’s curse in exchange for the other girl’s help in completing her mission, but the further into the forest they travel, the more Lena beings to suspect that not everything is as it seems.

Oh my sweet decaying jack-’o-lanterns, this is going to be the perfect post Halloween read. I could not be more excited. As opposed to the other anthologies on this list which are short and fiction based, A Conjuring for All Seasons is a collection of novelettes from five practicing witches and talented horror authors. Hailey Piper leads the way with “Magic Loves the Hungry” about a woman being haunted by an unknown entity that seems to feed on her anxieties and her hunger to belong. Stephanie M. Wytovich’s “Drawing Down the Sun” is about Anne, the first Clement daughter in over 200 years, who sets out to discover the truth behind the curse that was placed on her family. “Milk Kin” by K.P. Kulski is about a young woman called Ruby who is haunted by the memory of her mother’s abduction by a long-fingered woman from the forest, who returns every year to pierce Ruby’s heel with a long silver needle. Donyae Cole’s “The House of the Heart” is a story about the living practice of hoodoo, family, and knowing when things have gotten too out of hand and it’s time to call in the ancestors. And last but certainly not least, “Longest Night” by Gaby Triana is about two witches “recently out of the broom closet” who decided to throw a Yuletide party that takes an unexpected and deadly turn when it’s crashed by some uninvited guests.

Oh look, Jessica is talking about eco-horror again. But in my defense, this forthcoming anthology from Ghost Orchid Press looks like it’s going to be absolutely amazing. There are a few horror authors that I recognize, like Nico Bell and Sonora Taylor (and Stephanie M. Wytovich, making her second appearance on this list), but there are a lot of new to me authors as well, which is exciting! Chlorophobia explores the many ways in which the earth can turn against us in its attempt to destroy us or drive us off the planet. Everything from killer plants, to dangerous viruses and obliterating fogs!

My only complaint about the Chlorophobia anthology is that the TOC is very white. A lot of horror anthologies have this problem, so I’m not picking on just this one, but lack of diversity in horror anthologies is an ongoing issue, genre wide, and it should be kept in the spotlight. However, to give credit where credit is due, Chlorophobia features a number of queer horror authors!

Shadow Atlas is more heavily dark fiction inclined than strictly horror, but take a look at the list of contributors and you’ll find a lot of familiar horror names! It includes fiction and poetry by, among others, Kay Chronister, Gwendolyn Kiste, Owl Goingback, Josh Malerman, Lee Murray, Christina Sng, Betty Rocksteady, and E. Lily Yu! The premise for the anthology is that a secret organization call the Umbra Arca Society was created to discover the truths the ancients knew about the haunted places of the world that have long since been relegated to myth and superstition. A private league of explorers, the Society dedicated itself to the secret mysteries of the Americas, and each story in the collection represents the work of one of these intrepid adventurers as they set out to explore the dark and dangerous landscapes long forgotten by the modern world.

Just as a note, since I pointed out a similar problem with Chlorophobia, Shadow Atlas does feature work by several authors of color, which I’m really excited about, but we’re still talking about maybe 20% of the total authors featured in the collection. Of course, editors work with both time constraints and, in the case of an indie publisher like Hex Publishers or Ghost Orchid Press, somewhat limited resources, so again I’m definitely not assigning blame to a single anthology. And every TOC that includes authors of color, as Shadow Atlas’ does, helps to promote their work and increase the likelihood that future anthologies will become even more diverse!