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She Made Herself a Monster
by Anna Kovatcheva
The best kind of vampire story--one in which the real evil is us.--Peng ShepherdDeliciously monstrous and demanding of our attention, Anna Kovatcheva crafts a feminist vampire story like no other. --Ms, MagazineA heady, dark-hued Gothic gem of a debut novel: in nineteenth-century Bulgaria, a self-proclaimed vampire slayer--in truth, a traveling con artist--joins forces with a teenage girl to create a monster deadly enough to vanquish their own demons. We make monsters in order to destroy them. For thousands of years, we've named witches and burned them, suspected demons and exorcised them. When crops die and children fall ill, who better to blame than a monster?Yana rides from one desolate town to the next, staging grisly displays while the villagers sleep: animal corpses in the public square, eggs filled with blood in the chicken coop. She tells the stricken villagers stories of vampires that stalk the night. Then she eliminates the threat, and sows seeds of hope in her wake.The village Koprivci is plagued by exceptional illness and misfortune, its children rarely surviving infancy. There, Yana meets Anka: a headstrong orphan who the villagers blame for their curse. As Anka approaches womanhood, the village Captain is grooming her for marriage against her will. Anka is powerless against him--that is, until Yana arrives. Together, the orphan and the vampire slayer hatch a plan: to conjure a monster so vile, it might provide cover for Anka to escape. But their plan quickly takes on a horrifying life of its own...Inspired by Slavic folklore, She Made Herself a Monster concocts a clever mix of witchery, ghost stories, heresy, and deception to spin a feminist fable about agency and the power of collective action. It is a haunting and astoundingly cathartic tale of two women who will stop at nothing to take control of their fate.
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A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing
by Alice Evelyn Yang
A devastating yet hopeful family saga set during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Cultural Revolution, and the present day that explores the effects of intergenerational trauma, the legacy of colonialism, and the inescapability of fate through the prism of Chinese and Japanese folklore--Provided by publisher.
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The Red Winter
by Cameron Sullivan
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY AND INDIE BESTSELLER DELUXE EDITION--the hardcover edition of The Red Winter features beautiful red sprayed edges A LibraryReads Pick An Indie Next Pick A devastating love story. A bewitching twist on history. A blood-drenched hunt for purpose, power, and redemption. In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the terrible Beast of G vaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake. Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, he joined the hunt for the creature twenty years ago and watched it slaughter its way through a long and bloody winter. Even with the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel - who takes payment in living hearts - it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down. Now, two decades later, Sebastian has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d'Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. Drawn by both the chance to finish the Beast for good and the promise of a reconciliation with Antoine, Sebastian cannot refuse. But G vaudan is not as he remembers it, and Sebastian's unfinished business is everywhere he looks. Years of misery have driven the people to desperation, and France teeters on the edge of revolution. Sebastian's arcane activities - not to mention his demonic counterpart - have also attracted the inquisitorial eye of the French clergy. And the Beast is poised to close his jaws around them all and plunge the continent into war. Debut author Cameron Sullivan tears the heart out of history with this darkly entertaining retelling of the hunt for the Beast of G vaudan. Lifting the veil on the hidden world behind our own, it reimagines the story of Europe, from Imperial Rome to Saint Jehanne d'Arc, the madness of Gilles de Rais and the first flickers of the French Revolution. An absolute feast of a book: rich, red, sinfully delicious. I've rarely been this satisfied--or this hungry for more. --Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House So bloody good. The Red Winter is absolute ripper entertainment--miss it at your peril --Shelley Parker-Chan, bestselling author of She Who Became the Sun A gorgeous tangle of history and fresh-made myth. You'll eat this one up. --Cassandra Khaw, bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth Charming, haunting, ambitious, and a great deal of fun. --T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes to Call
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The Forest on the Edge of Time
by Jasmin Kirkbride
The Future of Another Timeline meets The Bone Clocks in this dazzling piece of time-travel climate fiction. Recruited by the mysterious Project Kairos to change history and save the future from ecological disaster, Echo and Hazel are transported through time to opposite worlds. Echo works as a healer's assistant in Ancient Athens, embroiled in dangerous politics and wild philosophy. Hazel is the last human alive, in a laboratory on a polluted island with nothing but tiny robots and an untrustworthy AI for company. Both women suffer from amnesia, but when they fall asleep, their consciousnesses transcend time and they meet in their dreams. Together, they start to uncover their past - but soon discover the past threatens humanity's survival. If Echo and Hazel have a chance of changing the future, they must remember to forget... THE FOREST ON THE EDGE OF TIME is a novel about family and duty and the worlds we try to save along the way.
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On Sundays She Picked Flowers
by Yah Yah Scholfield
A ferociously talented writer. Scholfield writes with insight, beauty, and the wildness of real art. --Victor LaValle In this sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut, a woman escapes into the uncanny woods of southern Georgia and must contend with ghosts, haints, and most dangerous of all, the truth about herself. When Judith Rice fled her childhood home, she thought she'd severed her abusive mother's hold on her. She didn't have a plan or destination, just a desperate need to escape. Drawn to the forests of southern Georgia, Jude finds shelter in a house as haunted by its violent history as she is by her own. Jude embraces the eccentricities of the dilapidated house, soothing its ghosts and haints, honoring its blood-soaked land. And over the next thirteen years, Jude blossoms from her bitter beginnings into a wisewoman, a healer. But her hard-won peace is threatened when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Ensnared by her desire for this stranger, Jude is caught off guard by brutal urges suddenly simmering beneath her skin. As the woman stirs up memories of her escape years ago, Jude must confront the calls of violence rooted in her bloodline. Haunting and thought-provoking, On Sunday She Picked Flowers explores retribution, family trauma, and the power of building oneself back up after breaking down. One of the most visceral, intense, brutal, and yet honest, works of horror I have read in a long time. --P. Dj l Clark Scholfield tells a story that's as haunting as it is cathartic, as beautiful as it is devastating. --Arts Atlanta
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Nowhere Burning
by Catriona Ward
A USA Today bestseller Anyone who has reached a hand toward the night sky will understand the beautifully incurable ache for belonging at the heart of Nowhere Burning, the latest unsettling fairytale from Catriona Ward.--Christopher Buehlman, New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Fires Secrets in the flames. Answers in the ashes. Riley and her brother Oliver set off in the pitch-black night, fleeing their troubled home. They are heading for Nowhere--an abandoned ranch, once the playground of its former eccentric movie-star owner, now a haven for runaways. What awaits could be the freedom they crave. But this mysterious clan guards dark secrets, and the scorched grounds hold the ghosts of the past. Riley quickly realizes that while she and Oliver may have escaped the devil they knew, something darker lurks in the burnt shell of Nowhere. Something which asks a terrible price for sanctuary... Nowhere Burning is a harrowing tale of survival that places the dark fairy tale of Peter Pan and the ruthless dangers of Lord of the Flies into the unforgiving maw of the Colorado Rockies. Also by Catriona Ward: Looking Glass SoundSundialLittle EveThe Last on Needless Street
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Judge Stone
by James Patterson
#1 New York Times Bestseller Academy Award winning actress Viola Davis and the world's #1 bestselling author James Patterson's Judge Stone delivers first-class courtroom drama, small-town excitement, and strong characters all wrapped in a moral dilemma. Tense, readable, and relevant. (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) Talk about a power combo ... With Davis's razor-sharp emotional insight and Patterson's mastery of rocket-fuel pacing, this is the dream team to deliver an up-all-night read that will keep the group chat buzzing. --Oprah Daily Wonderfully satisfying ... This legal thriller from a] superstar duo ... demands attention from its opening pages and never lets go. --Booklist, starred review All rise... for Judge Stone. The most respected citizen in Union Springs, Alabama (population 3,314), is Judge Mary Stone. She holds two responsibilities sacred: running her family farm and presiding over her courtroom. It's there she draws the most controversial case in the history of the South. Criminally, it's open-and-shut. Ethically, there is no middle ground. Essentially, it's a choice between life and death. No judge can satisfy everyone. It would be dangerous to try. But Judge Stone is willing to fight to bring justice to the people and place she loves.
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Theo of Golden
by Allen Levi
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING PHENONEMON A Katie Couric Book Club Pick - A Jen Hatmaker Book Club Pick A] word-of-mouth smash hit. --The New York Times A treasure. --Hoda Kotb One spring morning, a stranger named Theo arrives in the small Southern city of Golden. He doesn't explain much about where he came from or why he's there--but when he visits the local coffeehouse, where pencil portraits of the people of Golden hang on the walls, he begins purchasing them, one at a time, and giving each portrait to the person depicted. In exchange, he asks only for the person's story. And so portrait by portrait, person by person, secrets are revealed, regrets are shared, and ordinary lives are profoundly altered. A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is an unforgettable novel about the power of generosity, the importance of connection, and the quiet miracles that happen when we choose kindness and wonder.
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Where the Wildflowers Grow
by Terah Shelton Harris
From acclaimed author Terah Shelton Harris comes a poignant story of survival and redemption that questions what it means to stop existing and start living.Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die.Grief never truly fades and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in her blood. So, when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what's in her nature. She survives. While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn't expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm's owner, who sees through Leigh's defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. Maybe she's not beyond redemption, not too broken for something good. And maybe, just maybe, Leigh starts to heal.But the past isn't so easily buried.No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow. And when those secrets catch up to her, threatening everything she's come to love, Leigh will have to truly face what she can survive.
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Served Him Right: A Twisted Thriller of Betrayal, Vengeful Murder, and Long-Buried Secrets
by Lisa Unger
Edgy and complex. --People, Best New Books A twisty and pacy thriller. --Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid seriesA woman's brunch with friends quickly turns dark in this gripping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa UngerAna Blacksmith has gathered her closest friends and sister Vera for a brunch to celebrate her recent breakup from her boyfriend Paul. But when shocking news about Paul arrives, all eyes are on Ana, the angry ex with a bad reputation. Suspicions only intensify when Ana's best friend falls deathly ill after the brunch.But Ana is not the only one who had a score to settle with Paul. As the investigation unfolds, rumors of a secret network that uses ancient methods to obtain justice begin to emerge. Vengeance is sweet, but it can also be deadly. Ana and Vera are determined to find the truth before Ana takes the fall and their own long-buried history comes to light.Check out these other gripping thrillers from Lisa Unger: Confessions on the 7:45 Last Girl Ghosted Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six The New Couple in 5B
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