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The Fright Stuff

Get Excited for All the Fall Horrors

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Emily Martin

Contributing Editor

Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over at #BookSquadGoals (www.booksquadgoals.com). She can be reached at emily.ecm@gmail.com.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, horror fans: fall is the best time of year. It’s finally not a million degrees outside. Everyone is falling back into their comfortable routines after the chaos of summer. Football season has started. And most importantly, the horror that we love all year is suddenly mainstream. They’re selling skeletons at Target. You can talk about witches and ghosts and people don’t look at you like you’re a weirdo. So in honor of the best season, I thought today we would look ahead to some exciting horror books we can expect this fall. Stay tuned.

Bookish Goods

ghost reading book ornament

3D Spooky Ghost Reading Book Halloween Ornament by VHGCreative

Scary book readers and ghost lovers, our time has come. Display your love for Halloween AND your love of reading books with this cute lil “spooky” ghost-reading-a-book Halloween ornament. I am a sucker for a cute ghost. And this one is only $14.

New Releases

There are two books coming out this week that I’ve been hyping A LOT, and I’m so excited they’re both hitting shelves. Now I can stop yelling about them and you can find out for yourselves what all the fuss is about.

such lovely skin book cover

Such Lovely Skin by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

First up, Such Lovely Skin, a novel about Viv, a gamer who’s been having an impossibly difficult time after causing an accident that killed her little sister. When Viv finally returns to Twitch, she’s hoping she can make enough money off of streaming to offer her parents penance for what she has done. Then something strange happens. While playing a horror game, an NPC asks Viv for a secret, and she finally tells the truth about what happened to her sister. Little does Viv know that by doing so she has welcomed a demonic mimic into her life.

ruin road book cover

Ruin Road by Lamar Giles

I cannot stop singing this book’s praises, and when you read it, you’ll understand why. Ruin Road is the latest from one of my fave YA authors, Lamar Giles. It follows Cade Webster, a star football player at a prestigious high school. To everyone at his school, though, he’s an outsider from a “bad” neighborhood. People are afraid of Cade for being too big, too strong, and too Black. Meanwhile, all Cade wants is for people to see him for who he is. Then, one day, he stumbles into a pawn shop, and he gets his wish. Suddenly no one is scared around him. Of anything. And with this newfound courage, anything is possible. Even terrible, violent things.

For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.

Riot Recommendations

american rapture book cover

American Rapture by CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire, October 15)

We love a good, scary apocalyptic horror book right in the middle of spooky season, and this one is from CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly. Sophie is a good Catholic girl trying to make it in a world where everyone has been infected by a terrible disease that fills them with lustful thoughts. As Sophie travels the Midwest to return to her family, the world around her is collapsing and the horrors intensify. Is this a sign of the end times?

i am the dark that answers when you call book cover

I Am The Dark That Answers When You Call by Jamison Shea (Henry Holt and Company, November 12)

Acheron is back in Jamison Shea’s sequel to last year’s I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me. Ever since the Palais Garnier incident two months ago, Laure has given up dance and tried her best to put that life behind her. But her lifestyle of partying and drinking all night isn’t helping her much either. Then one late night, she discovers a dead body. What is going on below the streets of Paris? And do Acheron and Lethe have anything to do with it?

Fall horror is always such a fun ride, and I’ll be here with you to get you through the whole season. See you next time. Until then, you can follow me (and message me) on Instagram at emandhercat. Sweet dreams, horror fans!

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