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Horror
December 2020
Recent Releases
A Cosmology of Monsters
by Shaun Hamill

What it's about: Noah's family runs a popular haunted house attraction in Texas, and they're all in denial about the cosmic horrors that have plagued them for years.

What sets it apart: the unlikely (and...sexually charged?) friendship that forms between Noah and the wolfish supernatural creature that lurks outside his bedroom window.

Want a taste? "My monster suit always fit better than my regular skin."
Plain Bad Heroines
by Emily M. Danforth; illustrated by Sara Lautman

Then: In early 20th-century Massachusetts, a series of mysterious deaths at a girls' boarding school are linked to the provocative (and real) 1902 queer memoir The Story of Mary MacLane. 

Now: On the set of a high-profile horror film about the incident, creepy phenomena begin plaguing the cast and crew.

Read it for: a sardonic metafictional storyline that blurs the lines between past and present; evocative black-and-white illustrations that capture the novel's eerie gothic tone. 
The Low, Low Woods
by Carmen Maria Machado; illustrated by Dani

Welcome to... Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, a small coal-mining community beset by an illness that causes women to forget the grotesqueries they've witnessed.

Starring: best friends El and Vee, two queer teenage girls investigating the bizarre goings-on in their town.

Art alert: Dani's darkly expressive and scratchy artwork complements the graphic novel's creepy tone. 
Books You Might Have Missed
Abigale Hall
by Lauren A. Forry

In postwar Britain, orphans Eliza and Rebecca are sent to a remote, rundown Welsh manor to work as servants. There, the housekeeper keeps them under her thumb in order to prevent them from learning the house's evil secrets. But 17-year-old Eliza finds disturbing evidence of old crimes and must act quickly to protect herself and her 12-year-old sister. Escalating tension and a dramatic climax make this gothic debut a true page-turner.
The Unsuitable
by Molly Pohlig

Starring: Iseult Wince, a young Victorian woman who communicates with her dead mother; Iseult's cruel father Edward, who is determined to marry off his "old maid" daughter at any cost; and Jacob Vinke, a damaged young man and Iseult's most likely marriage prospect -- if Iseult can quiet her mother's increasingly worried voice.

For fans of: darkly humorous gothic fiction such as Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye or Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy.

Reviewers say: "Bloody and bizarre" (Kirkus). 
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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