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| Dreamland by Olivie BlakeLooking for an opportunity to break into the film industry, aspiring actress Anya Morris takes a job working as caretaker for Julian “Jude” de Witt, the epileptic adult son of movie star William de Witt. Drawn into a world of opulence and excess, Anya finds herself falling for mysterious Jude. But secrets plague the de Witt household, and Anya begins to suspect the family may be connected to a rash of murders happening throughout Los Angeles. Fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia will want to check out this menacing modern gothic. |
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The Ship of Death
by Kyle Winkler
The dice roll. Darkness answers.House of Leaves meets Jumanji in this brilliantly original and twisted novel composed entirely of found documents, following an unwitting couple ensnared by a sinister tabletop role-playing game. Cole and Lorraine playtest board games for some extra cash as they save up to buy a home. But after a series of bizarre coincidences, and signing a strange NDA, the couple finds on their porch a mysterious indie developer's tabletop role-playing game called The Ship of Death. The game relies heavily on the players' imaginations, and takes up an ever-growing amount of space: in their kitchen, and in their minds. As its true sinister nature becomes clearer, and its forces capture more in its web, the boundary between the game and reality begins to dissolve. . . and the pair are instructed to possess a stranger's soul.Told entirely through game reports, emails, game forum posts, personal journals, and police reports, reading The Ship of Death feels like a dangerous dice roll. It's a sleep-stealing, possession-inducing work of intense, intelligent found cosmic horror that announces Kyle Winkler as a spectacular voice in the genre.
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Mazywood
by Tananarive Due
All the Sinners Bleed meets Erasure in this literary thriller from the award-winning author of The Reformatory following the grandson of a famous Black actress who returns to his grandmother's cabin retreat in the California mountains only to encounter the legacy of her rage born in Old Hollywood. When Johnny--a filmmaker and grandson of the famous Black actress Mazelle Washington--brings his family to Mazywood, the secluded California mountain lodge left behind by his grandmother, he expects a quiet retreat. Instead, he uncovers a legacy of rage, secrets, and terror that has haunted his family for generations. Set primarily in the present day, with haunting flashbacks to Hollywood's Golden Age, Mazywood explores three generations while following Johnny as he pieces together the true story of his grandmother. As a young Black actress whose career spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s, Mazelle brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel. But beneath her public appearance, she carried a secret she had kept and nurtured since she was a child, when a dark wish came true and changed the course of her life forever. Now, fifty years after Mazelle's death, Johnny finds himself confronting the truth she buried--and the consequences she left behind. For a monster lurks outside Mazywood, hidden for generations, and Johnny brought his family to its hunting grounds.
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| Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel HarrisonShaken after a run-in with her ex-fiancé at a mutual friend’s wedding, Willa Sullivan’s night goes from bad to worse when a masked figure kills everyone at the reception. But then Willa wakes up…and discovers she’s re-living the day of the wedding. Stuck in a time loop in which she is killed in increasingly disturbing ways, Willa alone must fight back to unmask the killer and save herself and her friends. Try this next: Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle |
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| Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (editors)This creepy and visceral follow-up to bestselling Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology collects 21 horror stories from established and emerging Indigenous authors, including Stephen Graham Jones, Ramona Emerson, and Tommy Orange. It’s “a rare sequel that is better than its predecessor,” says Library Journal. Try this next: Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror edited by Cynthia Pelayo. |
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| Blacktail by Scott HawkinsScott Hawkins’ violent and thought-provoking folk horror/fantasy follow-up to The Library at Mount Char stars Blacktail, an orphaned wolf seeking vengeance against the humans who killed his pack. Feline sorceress Old Kitty Mother aids Blacktail in his quest, tasking him with reuniting the animal world with the sleeping Forest God. For fans of: eco-horror novels like Something of a Calling by Zoje Stage. |
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| Pictures of You by Josh MalermanAfter a drunken night out with her boyfriend, Jack, Emily wakes up trapped inside a painting. With no exit in sight, she discovers her movements are being controlled by Helen, a mentally unstable artist who reassures her that Jack is fine. But Jack’s distant screams suggest otherwise. Now Emily will have to think like a painter if she wants to save them both. Fans of fast-paced novels that explore the destructive power of art, like Kosoko Jackson’s The Macabre, will want to check out bestselling author Josh Malerman’s haunting latest. |
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| Stay Buried by Jennifer McMahonOne hundred years after a rabies-like plague destroyed isolated Boone’s Ferry, Vermont and turned the town’s knackerman into a monster, siblings Ashley and Malcolm inherit a property in the area. Still haunted by the spirit of the knackerman, locals perform a series of unusual rituals to appease him, and anyone who fails to do so dies a horrific death. When Ashley discovers the knackerman’s mark on her hotel room door, she and Malcolm must learn the truth about Boone’s Ferry’s traumatic history. For fans of: Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester. |
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Crone
by Keith Rosson
Eli Lamp is a broken man. An ex-detective, ex-addict, and long-grieving father whose daughter, Hannah, disappeared a decade before, Eli decimated his old life investigating her abduction and is now indebted to the Crooked Wheel, a local drug gang, as an enforcer. He lives in a rundown trailer at the edge of the woods, where he keeps Hannah's room in pristine condition and tries to make it through one day at a time. But when the son of the Crooked Wheel's boss is found viciously murdered in a crime scene that doesn't seem to add up, Eli receives a new order: Find out who the killer is and your debt to the Crooked Wheel is clear forever. You're free. This pursuit brings him into the orbit of Avery Bryant, Hannah's best friend and the last person to see her before she went missing. Soon, Eli and Avery are entwined in a hunt for answers that spans decades, stretches the realm of possibility, and brings churning to the surface a conspiracy linking not only these current tragedies but the buried sorrows of Eli's past. And though none of them dare say the word witch, at least not out loud, something lurks in the woods, bent-backed and black-eyed, clawed and vengeful, looming ever closer. . . .
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| Reliquary by Hannah WhittenWhen Elias Ashbury suddenly dies, his fiancée Claire Sutherland reluctantly accepts an invite to a memorial service at his family’s private, subterranean island compound. But it’s not long before Claire suspects why Elias stayed away, as she finds herself grappling with the Ashburys’ grotesque, otherworldly legacy. Try this next: Please Enjoy Your Stay by Tara Goedjen. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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The Public Library
501 Copper NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102
505-768-5141abqlibrary.org |
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