Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
Arriving 24 October from writer Beau Johnson and Down & Out Books, Old Man Rider
It’s all come down to this. The past, the present, and the conclusion of man who’s chosen to end so many colliding for the final time. From an unimaginable start within the pages of A Better Kind of Hate to a bitter, bloody end throughout All of Them To Burn, Bishop Rider remains what he’s always been. What a certain type of predator forced him to become. His life and struggle not only a journey of choice driven by necessity, but one decades in the making. There will be carnage. There will be blood. But through it all, a sliver of hope. And perhaps, if he’s lucky, a chance at brighter days. Time to go to work. Available for pre-order in paperback and eBook formats, you can guarantee your copy here.
Reborn, the follow up to folk horror classic The Five Turns of the Wheel, out now from writer Stephanie Ellis and Brigids Gate Press
Return to the Weald, the world Stephanie Ellis introduced us to in The Five Turns of the Wheel. Reborn is the story of Cernunnos, the Father of all, who has risen. Born of blood offerings, he travels to the Layerings—one of those places, like Umbra, which sit just beyond the human veil. Reborn is the story of Tommy, Betty and Fiddler, the infamous troupe whose bloody rituals were halted by Megan, Tommy’s Daughter. Rendered weak by Megan’s refusal to allow them to hunt in the human world of the Weald, they seek their rebirth and forgiveness from the Mother and Cernunnos. Reborn is the story of Megan, who follows Cernunnos and Hweol’s sons on a pilgrimage of hope—one that would see her husband restored to her and the dark presence of Hweol removed. Ultimately, though, Reborn is the story of Betty, the most monstrous of the three brothers. He is Nature, red in tooth and claw. He is what the Mother made him. And who are we to judge? With Reborn, Ellis delivers another powerful tale of folk horror that will captivate the reader from the first page until its final bloody climax. Available now in eBook and paperback, you can grab your copy here.
Out now from Strange Wilds Press and writer Katherine Silva, Hallowed Oblivion
On Halloween Night, Forest Ranger Hank Feld is called out to the White Mountain National Forest to search for a group of lost hikers. Crushed at not being able to spend the evening with his daughter, Hank sets off into the cold, misty mountains along side volunteer, Gerard Castle. But they are not the only things in the woods that night. When they come upon a massacred camping site, they realize there’s something hunting them: a malevolent creature that hungers for the souls of the lost. A novelette from The Wild Oblivion universe, readers follow one of The Wild Dark‘s characters into the woods for a ghastly adventure, one that might eventually alter the world as we know it … Available now in eBook format, you can grab your copy here.
Arriving 25 October from writer Philip Fracassi and Talos, A Child Alone With Strangers
When young Henry Thorne is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest, he finds himself connecting with a strange force living in the woods—using that bond to wreak havoc against his captors. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this ancient being has its own reasons for wanting the interlopers gone—there is something hidden beneath the house, tucked away in the dark, damp root cellar . . . waiting for its return. Available for pre-order now in eBook and hardcover editions, you can guarantee your copy here.
Halloween Beyond: Piercing the Veil, the fourth entry in the Dark Tide series, featuring stories by Lisa Morton, Lucy A. Snyder, and Kate Maruyama, coming 21 October
When the Halloween Beyond stores appear across America, they intertwine the lives of three visitors in a web of mystery and magic.
‘The Talking Board’ by Lisa Morton: Can ancient magic exist in the modern world? When Kayla’s sister Hailey went missing in the nearby Ghost Woods on Halloween night, the last person to see her was the solitary, elderly Brigid. Kayla, who has long suspected Brigid of being involved with Hailey’s disappearance, dreads the first anniversary of her sister’s vanishing even as her best friend Sophie urges her to put the past behind her. Halloween nears and Kayla pays a visit to the pop-up Halloween Beyond store, where an enigmatic clerk named Maeve convinces her to buy a talking-board. Kayla begins receiving messages which claim to be from Hailey, but is it actually something more sinister calling out from beyond the veil? Brigid—who may be a witch—offers to lead Kayla into the Ghost Woods on Halloween in search of answers. Kayla discovers dark truths about herself as she and Brigid confront the terrifying supernatural forces that claimed Hailey.
‘New Blood’ by Lucy A. Snyder:Maddie is keen for Halloween, but when she moves to a strange coastal town, a Devils’ Night party forces her to face eldritch dangers that threaten her entire family.
‘A Gentelman’s Suit’ by Kate Maruyama: Halloween Beyond is magic. The store’s inscrutable clerk finds Lex exactly the right costume which somehow makes people see the nonbinary Lex for who they really are.
It’s Lex’s last Halloween at home before college, and it had better be good. When Lex’s father, Beto, known locally as the King of Halloween adds an enormous animatronic Death on a boat to the collection in his elaborate front yard haunt, Halloween night takes a deadly turn. Lex is having trouble letting go of old friendships, of home, of Halloween itself, but they now face the hardest kind of letting go.
Available to pre-order now in paperback and eBook editions, you can grab your copy here.
New from writer and poet Cynthia Pelayo and Raw Dog Screaming Press, Crime Scene
Cynthia Pelayo sings a song for the least of us, the victim we want to forget as soon as possible, the one who disappeared before ever really appearing. With a fairy tale gaze and a heart bigger than the world, her siren song insinuates itself past our defenses, past the hardened calluses and apathy we’ve erected to protect ourselves from the everyday horror of another missing girl. Pelayo relates the familiar story, poem by poem; a body is found, a brutal crime investigated, clues take us in circles, and lead us nowhere. We are on an epic journey, the hero’s journey, and it must play out to the end in all its painful, ticking moments. Pelayo imbues her hero, Agent K, with the entirety of our dedication and that crumb of hope we’ve been hiding, saving for later. We will need to save for years, for decades, if we want to come out the other side. The job takes its toll, the answers are never complete and whys fracture, crack and spread. Still there is no turning away. We must bear witness, though it changes and contorts us. Available now in hardcover and paperback, you can pick up your copy here.
KEV HARRISON
