Horror | Prepub Alert, October 2024 Titles

LJ Best Book author Hailey Piper offers a twist on vampire mythology; plus new books from Kelley Armstrong, Richard Chizmar, and Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Nuzo Onoh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Armstrong, Kelley. I’ll Be Waiting. St. Martin’s. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781250284211. 336p. $29. HORROR

Bestselling Armstrong (Hemlock Island) returns with a supernatural horror story. After Nicola loses her husband in a car accident, she holds a séance at a beach house that her husband’s family once owned. As the ritual starts, mysterious things begin to happen, and then Nicola finds a body. With a 75K-copy first printing.

Battle-Felton, Yvonne. Curdle Creek. Holt. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781250362018. 304p. $27.99. HORROR

Following her Women’s Prize–longlisted debut, Remembered, Battle-Felton’s latest is a literary horror tale set in Curdle Creek, an all-Black town that is governed by sinister rules and traditions. When a test of allegiance unexpectedly transports protagonist Osira back in time and then to another realm, she is faced with the crimes committed by Curdle Creek. With an 80K-copy first printing.

Chizmar, Richard. Memorials. Gallery. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781668009192. 448p. $28.99. HORROR

Bestselling and award-winning Chizmar (Becoming the Boogeyman; coauthor with Stephen King of the “Gwendy’s Button Box” trilogy) writes a road-trip novel set in 1983, full of supernatural terror. Three college students are filming a documentary about roadside memorials, but as they travel deeper into Appalachia, their experiences make them wonder if the deaths on the road were truly accidents.

Chronister, Kay. The Bog Wife. Counterpoint. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781640096622. 336p. $28. HORROR

Chronister (Desert Creatures), whose short fiction has been nominated for Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy Awards, pens an Appalachian gothic of eco-horror. The Haddesley family tends a cranberry bog, which in turn sustains them as long as they uphold their ritual exchange. When the bog doesn’t honor the bargain, however, the siblings face an uncertain future and long-buried secrets.

Clements, Mikaella & Onjuli Datta. Feast While You Can. Grand Central. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781538742259. 304p. $30. HORROR

Angelina is trying to be content in her small hometown. Then she runs into Jagvi, whose arrival might have awakened an ancient evil that comes to possess Angelina—and only Jagvi’s touch can repel it. A literary social horror with a queer love story, from the married coauthors of The View Was Exhausting, a Goop and Good Housekeeping book club pick.

Cooke, C. J. The Book of Witching. Berkley. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780593816967. pbk. 368p. $19. HORROR

Cooke, whose novel The Lighthouse Witches was nominated for an Edgar Award and is being adapted for TV, offers another witchy tale. Clem’s 19-year-old daughter Erin is in the hospital and not herself after a hiking trip went wrong in the Orkney Islands, where she may have an encountered an ancient curse from a woman put to death for witchcraft centuries ago.

Leede, CJ. American Rapture. Tor Nightfire. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781250857927. 384p. $27.99. HORROR

Leede follows up her Stoker Award–nominated debut, Maeve Fly, with this apocalyptic horror story. A virus is spreading across the Midwest, carried by strong winds, and turning the infected feral with lust. As the world around her falls apart, Sophie risks everything to travel across Wisconsin in search of her family. With a 100K-copy first printing.

Onoh, Nuzo. Where the Dead Brides Gather. Titan. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781835410561. pbk. 384p. $17.99. HORROR

Recipient of the Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award, Onoh (A Dance for the Dead) writes a Nigeria-set ghost story. After a supernatural possession, a battle with a ghost bride, and a botched exorcism, young Bata finds herself in the realm of dead brides, where she receives powers to fight malevolent ghost-brides in the human realm.

Piper, Hailey. All the Hearts You Eat. Titan. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781803367644. pbk. 448p. $17.99. HORROR

The latest from Piper (author of the LJ Best Book A Light Most Hateful) offers a twist on vampire mythology. In the small town of Cape Morning, Ivory discovers the body of Cabrina Brite. As she searches for answers, Ivory begins to see the ghost of Cabrina, and soon Ivory and her friends encounter more supernatural mysteries.

Pullen, Nicholas. The Black Hunger. Redhook. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780316573054. pbk. 400p. $19.99. HORROR

Pullen debuts with this queer gothic horror, a historical epistolary novel. Lord John Sackville and his secret lover have been outed in India and are sent away on a secret mission to Tibet and Mongolia to stop a cult of Buddhist heretics from completing an ancient ritual that will end all life.

Ryan, Lindy. Cold Snap. Titan. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781835410080. 144p. $18.99. HORROR

Award-winning Ryan follows up her debut, Bless Your Heart, with a chilling novella. After Christine’s husband falls to his death while hanging Christmas lights, she and her son retreat to a cabin in the Pennsylvania Wilds. There Christine starts hearing strange noises in the forest and spots a horned figure watching—and calling her name in her dead husband’s voice.

Sandeen, Del. This Cursed House. Berkley. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780593639528. 384p. $29. HORROR

Sandeen’s debut offers a Southern gothic horror story. In 1962, Jemma Barker moves to New Orleans for a job as a live-in tutor. When she arrives, however, she learns that she was actually hired because her employers think her abilities can break their family curse—and there are even more secrets to uncover.

Shine, A. M. Stay in the Light. Head of Zeus. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9781804547939. 320p. $28.99. HORROR

After her terrifying experience in The Watchers (adapted for a film produced by M. Night Shyamalan), Mina has escaped to a cottage on the Irish coast, but she’s not safe for long. In this sequel, no one believes her stories of malevolent beings, and the Watchers’ power is growing.

Solomon, Rivers. Model Home. MCD. Oct. 2024. ISBN 9780374607135. 304p. $28. HORROR

Lambda and Stonewall Award–winning Solomon (Sorrowland) writes a haunted-house social horror novel. In an exclusive neighborhood where they were the only Black family, the Maxwells experienced strange and inexplicable things inside their house, but their mother refused to move out. Years later, when their parents die unnatural deaths, the Maxwell siblings return home to figure out what happened.

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