Gabino Iglesias

Forgotten Sisters, Cynthia Pelayo (Thomas & Mercer 978-1-66251-391-6, $16.99, 303pp, tp) March 2024. Cover by Olga Grlic.

Cynthia Pelayo has made a name for herself in horror by bringing to the table a mixture of horror, crime fiction, and folklore that always contains a dash of poetry and by telling stories that invariably take place in Chicago, a city that Pelayo always turns into a character in her work. ...Read More

Small Town Horror, Ronald Malfi (Titan Books 978-1-80336-565-7, $27.99, 400pp, hc) June 2024.

It’s hard to find fresh, unique ghost stories. It’s probably even harder to find original narra­tives – horror, mystery, crime, whatever – in which someone is forced to go back to their home­town to face their past. In Small Town Horror, author Ronald Malfi manages to do both. At once a spooky tale about a ...Read More

Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino (Farrar, Straus, Giroux 978-0-37410-928-8, $28.00, 336pp, hc) January 2024. Cover by Abby Kagan.

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is one of the most unique novels I’ve read in a while. A wonderful mix of science fiction and literary fiction, this story is full of humor but also packs a treasure trove of witty observations about the human condition and a sharp dissection of life in small-town America through ...Read More

Black Sheep, Rachel Harrison (Berkley 978-0-59354-585-0, $27.00, 304pp, hc) September 2023. Cover by Katie Anderson.

Horror, perhaps the best dancing partner when it comes to genre because it gets along very well with everyone else, can be a lot of things, and that includes hilarious. Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep contains all the elements you’d expect from a horror novel – a creepy presence, dread, emotional turmoil, bloody sacrifices, Satan. However, ...Read More

What Kind of Mother, Clay McLeod Chapman (Quirk Books 978-1-68369-380-2, $21.99, 304pp, hc) September 2023.

Clay McLeod’s Chapman’s What Kind of Moth­er is a great horror novel in which creepiness and body horror take a back seat to grief and the horror it pushes people to do. A story that’s as harrowing as it is sad and strange, What Kind of Mother is a superb addition to McLeod’s catalog and ...Read More

The September House, Carissa Orlando (Berk­ley 978-0-59354-861-5, $27.00, 352pp, hc) Sep­tember 2023. Cover by Daniel Brount.

Books that can make you feel things are special, and Carissa Orlando’s The Sep­tember House will make readers feel a lot of different things. The September House is a strange horror novel in which the horror elements are mostly dealt with using the kind of nonchalance people display while waiting in line at the ...Read More

Dead Eleven, Jimmy Juliano (Dutton 978-0-59347-192-0, $27.00, 448pp, hc) June 2023.

Jimmy Juliano’s Dead Eleven is one of the most impressive debuts of 2023. The narrative, which follows a woman’s disappearance on a strange island, has a unique approach that makes it read like a found-footage film. It also mixes a lot of creepy lore, a secretive community stuck in the past in a strange island, and something stalking people ...Read More

Touched, Walter Mosley (Atlantic Monthly Press 978-0-80216-184-0, $29.99, 176pp, hc) October 2023.

Walter Mosley is one of the best-known crime writers out there. However, he’s a great story­teller whose skills aren’t tied to a single genre. In Touched, Mosley writes speculative fiction with the same aplomb he shows when delivering crime narratives. A strange tale of good versus evil with plenty of action, some big ideas, and Mosley’s ever-present ...Read More

Whalefall, Daniel Kraus (MTV Books 978-1-66591-816-9, $27.99, 336pp, hc) August 2023. Cover by Will Staehle.

Daniel Kraus’s Whalefall straddles the line between science and science fiction and pulls readers into a world that is at once familiar and completely alien. As full of action and gore as it is packed with science and emotional turmoil, Whalefall is a superb reimagining of Jo­nah’s tale as well as a narrative that cements ...Read More

The Deep Sky, Yume Kitasei (Flatiron 978-1-25087-533-4, $29.99, 416pp, hc) July 2023.

Yume Kitasei’s The Deep Sky is three books wrapped into one. At once a locked-room (locked ship, in this case) whodunit, an interstellar adven­ture that discusses a very plausible future, and a story that explores mother-daughter relationships as well as friendship, The Deep Sky is a very timely science fiction narrative that looks at some of the dark ...Read More

Camp Damascus, Chuck Tingle (Tor Nightfire 978-1-25087-462-7, $25.99, 256pp, hc) July 2023.

The mysterious Chuck Tingle built a career out of making all the right people angry. His work has always been out there, inclu­sive, and wildly entertaining; constantly pushing the boundaries while inhabiting a space between internet sensation and obscure indie writer. How­ever, despite being a two-time finalist for the Hugo Award, many people looked at Tingle’s titles – ...Read More

The Legend of Charlie Fish, Josh Rountree (Tachyon Publications 978-1-61696-394-1, $16.95, 192pp, hc) July 2023. Cover by John Coulthart.

One of the best things about reading and editing anthologies is that you’re exposed to the work of many talented writers who are new to you or new to writing in general. I remember reading Josh Rountree’s work here and there and then publishing his work in an anthology. Every ...Read More

Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey 978-0-59335-536-7, $28.00, 336pp, hc) July 2023. Cover by Fritz Metsch.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia seems to reinvent herself with every novel. Known for jumping around and mixing literary fiction, science fiction, crime, historical fiction, and horror, Moreno-Garcia, who has won numerous awards and built a huge readership that goes with her wherever she goes, obeys the demands of every narrative instead of sticking to the ...Read More

Mother Howl, Craig Clevenger (Datura 978-1-91552-303-7, $17.99, 300pp, pb) June 2023. Cover by Kyerin Tyler.

The Contortionist’s Handbook, published in 2002, and Dermaphoria, published in 2005, made Craig Clevenger a household name and both became huge cult hits. Then readers had to sit and wait for whatever Clevenger did next. That long wait came to an end this year with Mother Howl, and the wait was ...Read More

Lone Women, Victor LaValle (One World 978-0-52551-208-0, $27.00, 304pp, hc) March 2023.

Victor LaValle is an outstanding storyteller known for his gripping narratives and the elegant flair he brings to speculative fiction. In Lone Women, his latest novel, he mixes these elements with historical fiction and commentary on racial tensions in 1915 Montana to deliver his best novel yet.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide Henry is alone, ...Read More

The Puzzle Master, Danielle Trussoni (Random House 978-0-59359-529-9, $27.00, 384pp, hc) June 2023.

Right before the pandemic got really bad in March of 2020, I received a galley of Danielle Trussoni’s The Ancestor. I dug in two or three days before the first lockdown and spent the next two weeks deeply engrossed in that novel, which brought together the best elements of literary fiction and thrillers with a ...Read More

The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw (Tor Nightfire 978-1-25083-091-3, $21.99, 112pp, hc) May 2023. Cover by Morgan Sorensen.

Cassandra Khaw is one of the most dis­tinctive voices in contemporary fiction. From science fiction to horror and from literary fiction to surrealism, they can do it all, and their prose is always impeccable. With The Salt Grows Heavy, Khaw has pushed their work into new territory, and it’s a ...Read More

Black Tide, KC Jones (Tor Nightfire 978-1-25079-269-3, $10.99, 256pp, hc) May 2022.

KC Jones’s Black Tide is a blend of horror, sci­ence fiction, and romance that somehow works. Weird, tense, and at times unexpectedly funny, this novel, which is Jones’s debut, has a cinematic atmosphere and a last third that contains enough alien monsters and action to hook fans of science fiction, adventure, and horror equally.

Mike and Beth ...Read More

Where Darkness Blooms, Andrea Hannah (Wednesday Books 978-1-25084-262-6, $18.99, 320pp, hc) February 2023.

YA fiction has grown by leaps and bounds in terms of diversity and the topics it deals with, and Andrea Hannah’s Where Darkness Blooms is a perfect example of how inclusive, deep, and complex the genre of young adult fiction can be, especially when mixed with speculative fiction. At once the story of a group of ...Read More

Bad Cree, Jessica Johns (Doubleday 978-0-38554-869-4, $27.00, 272pp, hc) January 2023.

I love reading books that aren’t supposed to work and somehow not only work but they’re good. The ARC of Jessica Johns’s Bad Cree starts comes with a letter from Doubleday Senior Editor Margo Shickmanter talking about how Johns was told by a writing instructor to never write dreams unless she wanted to bore readers. Johns is Cree, ...Read More

No One Will Come Back for Us, Premee Mohamed (Undertow Publications 978-1-98896-442-3, $18.99, 290pp, pb) May 2023. Cover by Slug Draws.

It’s still early in the year, but I can already tell you Premee Mohamed’s No One Will Come Back for Us is one of the collections I’ll be writing about months from now when I sit down to write about the best books of 2023. Dark, strange, and ...Read More

Ascension, Nicholas Binge (Riverhead Books 978-0-59353-958-3, $16.95, 352pp, hc) April 2023. Cover by Daniel Lagin.

Nicholas Binge’s Ascension is the biggest surprise of 2023 so far. Binge’s first book to be published in the United States, Ascension is a great mix of science fiction, adventure, and horror in which science, history, religion, and philosophy collide in an explosion of ideas and action that will un­doubtedly make its author ...Read More

The Donut Legion, Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland 978-0-31654-068-1, $28.00, 304pp, hc) March 2023.

Author Joe R. Lansdale is one of the most entertaining storytellers working today, and he does it across a plethora of genres and styles. The Donut Legion, Lansdale’s latest, is a mystery novel wrapped in crime fiction and garnished with a dash of horror, a lot of snappy di­alogue, and enough humor to almost overshadow the ...Read More

The Merry Dredgers, Jeremy C. Shipp (Meerkat Press 978-1-94615-446-0, $16.95, 200pp, pb) April 2023. Cover by Tricia Reeks.

Jeremy C. Shipp’s work is always wonderfully weird, and in their latest, The Merry Dredgers, they have embraced weirdness like never before. At once a story of sisterly love, a strange noir nar­rative about a young woman trapped in a crappy job, and a whodunit with a surreal touch that ...Read More

The Haunting of Alejandra, V. Castro (Del Rey 978-0-59349-969-6, $28.00, 272pp, hc) April 2023

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro is a horror novel that’s not afraid to explore touchy subjects. At once a creepy story of ghosts, curses, and apparitions and a complex narrative that explores identity, grief, loneliness, depression, suicidal thoughts, and the difficulties of a crumbling marriage, The Haunting of Ale­jandra mixes together a ...Read More

The Scourge Between Stars, Ness Brown (Night­fire 978-1-2508-3468-3, $16.99, 176pp, tp) April 2023.

Ness Brown’s The Scourge Between Stars is a perfect blend of science fiction and horror that has enough elements of each to fully satisfy lovers of both. Short, fast, engag­ing, wildly entertaining, and unexpectedly gory, it almost demands to be devoured in one sitting, but packs more than pulpy entertainment and alien forms spilling guts across ...Read More

The Spite House, Johnny Compton (Nightfire 978-1-25084-141-4, $27.99, 272pp, hc) February 2023.

Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a rare haunted house novel that manages to subvert some of the most common plots associated with this kind of story. It’s also a novel that stays close to horror and the elements of a haunted house narrative while also exploring history, racism, and what it means to protect your family ...Read More

All Hallows, Christopher Golden (Nightfire 978-1-25028-029-9, $17.99, 336pp, hc) January 2023.

Almost every horror lover I’ve ever met has a spe­cial place in their heart for Halloween, the one time of the year when everyone likes the same things we do and it’s okay to enjoy horror without having to explain yourself. Well, Christopher Golden’s All Hallows is the perfect novel for anyone who enjoys the horror, movies, candy, ...Read More

Sister, Maiden, Monster, Lucy A. Snyder (Night­fire 978-1-25082-565-0, $17.99, 272pp, pb) Febru­ary 2023.

I always knew the COVID-19 pandemic was going to inspire some amazing fiction, and Lucy A. Snyder’s Sister, Maiden, Monster is a perfect example of it. At once a horror story of cosmic proportions, a smart deconstruction of pandemic mayhem, and a timely narrative that delves deep into what happens when we collec­tively face something new, ...Read More