Put Mira Grant’s science in T. Kingfisher’s fantasy folk horror, and you’ll get something that approximates Wendy Wagner’s Girl in the Creek, which follows Erin who finagles a work trip to a forest in the Pacific Northwest so she can look for her missing brother.

Glass Girls is an effectively scary ghost story, as Alice (and later her niece) are haunted by earth-bound spirits by virtue of their innate powers as mediums.

Ten Sleep has everything I want in a weird west novel and some things I didn’t even know I wanted - part folklore, part body horror, part personal and interpersonal demons, and part Watership Down.

Part Hollywood tell-all, part rags to riches story, Cassandra appeared not to pull any punches in naming names or sharing painful memories from her life. 

It Was Her House First was a thrilling haunted house story that was hard to put down. Cherie Priest’s style is casual and makes for an easy read, but full of all the dread and emotion I look for in a ghost tale.

Reading Orbital was like reading a long poem about the vastness and smallness of Earth - in part through the eyes of four astronauts and two cosmonauts as they experience a sunrise every 90 minutes in their space station orbiting the planet.

Johanna van Veen has become a must-read author for me. Blood on Her Tongue has all the hallmarks of a gothic novel (twin sisters, mysterious illnesses, atmospheric castles) with 100% more body horror and a dash of spice.

Horror authors are invited to the creepy estate of recently deceased Mortimer Queen - Arnold’s fictional stand-in for a Stephen King-like icon in How to Survive a Horror Story - for the reading of his will - and a game whose prize for the last author standing is the manor - and their life.

This book may have suffered from over-hype as I felt like I saw it being recommended everywhere, and, even at its modest length, it dragged at times.

The novellas Killer on the Road and The Babysitter Lives are must-reads for any fan of Stephen Graham Jones - especially of his Angel Lake trilogy.

The Covid pandemic serve as the stage for the serial killings, it serves as a shorthand to communicate the fear, anxiety, loneliness, irrationality, and all the other things that came with it in the months (now years) after it began. 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is full of native folklore and packed with emotion - humor, sadness, terror - and definitely worth a read, especially for Jones’ fans.

Requiem is a cosmic gothic horror novel that explores the familiar trope of what can happen when AI goes wrong (in space!) but the familiarity did not detract from the story and as advances in AI technology continue, is even more relevant.

Salt Bones is a riveting mystery of lost girls filled with folklore, generational trauma, family secrets, and class politics in the California desert.

With all due respect and many fond memories of Christopher Pike, R.L. Stone, and Lois Duncan, YA in general and especially YA horror today excels in both quality and quantity. That being said, something I would have killed to read when I was 15 is not always what I’m looking for at 50.

After listening to a strong, atmospheric New England Gothic novel, I realized it was less than half over, and the ride was just beginning.

The Unkillable Frank Lightning is a riveting witchy weird western retelling of the Frankenstein story, with a sympathetic monster (whether we’re talking about the creator or creation) and a cast of characters straight out of the Wild West.

Dark Cloud on Naked Creek is a thoroughly Appalachian novel, steeped in the folklore and traditions of the mountains I grew up in, but it will resonate with anyone who empathizes or sympathizes with the challenge between honoring the past and resolving generational trauma without letting it define you.

Queer horror and urban fantasy resting on an intriguing plot revolving around a mysterious set of magical paintings had me staying up past my bedtime to keep reading The Macabre.

Packed with tips and tricks for novice and experienced bartenders along with images of the concoctions in creepy dressing, every night can be a Spooky Cocktail (or Mocktail!) night.