Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
Arriving 25 October from writer Stacey L. Pierson and Anuci Press, Static
Jesse Stapleton’s life could not be more perfect, except that she’s being haunted. Every night, she tries to record as many incidents as possible, from the footsteps in the hall, to the nagging feeling that someone is there with her, breathing down her neck. Unfortunately, Jesse never finds out what they are or what’s causing them, because she’s in a never-ending groundhog day. Something shifts and sends Jesse to the local dream reader. She reveals the nightmares she’s been having only to be told she’s dead and being haunted by the living. Now Jesse must embrace the ghost that she is and save Tatum, the living entity in her house before it’s too late. Available for pre-order now in paperback, with other editions to follow, you can guarantee your copy here.
Available now from author James Brogden, The Strandling
Nineteen-year old Megan Howatt lives in a house on the edge of a crumbling sea cliff, waiting for her life to fall into the North Sea. Her mother is dead, and her father has lost his mind, obsessively hoarding the junk that he salvages from the shoreline. Her only friends are Lou, the eccentric owner of a beach-side cafe, and Kelpy, the large black dog that she rescued from the sea as a puppy. Desperate to escape, but unwilling to abandon her father, she scratches a living working at the Dry Dog Inn in the nearby village of Salwick.
A violent storm hits the village, and the killings begin. A flock of sheep is torn apart, and suspicious eyes turn towards Kelpy. The owner of a local antiques shop goes missing. Something prowls the village streets at night – something that smells of rot and endless hunger. Megan finds herself drawn to the story of Mad Annie, a local woman accused of witchcraft who died on the island of Nine Mothers. With Lou’s help, Megan must reckon with the occult powers awakening in her, face the ghosts of her childhood and save her home from a shape-shifting horror of the ancient world. Available now in eBook and paperback, you can grab your copy here.
Coming 10 October from writer Sarah Clegg and Granta Books, The Dead of Winter
As winter comes and the hours of darkness overtake the light, we seek out warmth, good food, and good company. But beneath the jollity and bright enchantment of the festive season, there lurks a darker mood – one that has found expression over the centuries in a host of strange and unsettling traditions and lore.
Here, Sarah Clegg takes us on a journey through midwinter to explore the lesser-known Christmas traditions, from English mummers plays and Austrian Krampus runs, to modern pagan rituals at Stonehenge and the night in Finland when a young girl is crowned with candles as St Lucy – a martyred Christian girl who also appears as a witch leading a procession of the dead. At wassails and hoodenings and winter gatherings, attended by ghastly, grinning horses, snatching monsters and mysterious visitors, we discover how these traditions originated and how they changed through the centuries, and we ask ourselves: if we can’t keep the darkness entirely at bay, might it be fun to let a little in? Available for pre-order now in eBook and hardcover, you can guarantee your copy here.
KEV HARRISON
