Psychopomp and Circumstance by Eden Royce is a quiet Southern Gothic tale of family secrets and the power of choice that takes place in an alternate magic-filled version of Reconstruction-era South Carolina.

Herculine by Grace Byron is a funny, sad, horrific story about friends, family, and being sacrificed to or otherwise ripped apart by demons.

And bonus points for the reference to the dark Americana popularized by shows like Twin Peaks. I don’t even like pie, but, thanks to Dale Cooper, I always want to have pie in diners.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow is a thrilling, time-traveling fantasy adventure about the lust for power and the power of love, about heroes and villains, about history and mythology and the stories we tell and how those stories change us and the world. 

Girl Dinner follows two women, college sophomore Nina Kaur, eager to join the most exclusive sorority on campus, known as “The House”, and adjunct professor Sloane Hartley, returning to work after giving birth to a daughter Isla, now 18 months old. Nina becomes the first sophomore to join the sorority, and Sloane is asked to be the House’s academic advisor, and they both realize that something sinister is going on as the benefits of being a part of this feminine space are unusually exceptional as all the girls are extremely healthy and beautiful- and go on to be extraordinarily successful in their chosen careers - more than can be accounted for by simple sisterhood.

Rebecca Cuthbert’s The Hauntings Back Home is a beautiful, haunting, sweet, sad, funny collection of stories that explore grief, death, and fear.