Horror Spotlight is a feature highlighting the newest in horror fiction. If you would like to connect with me or contribute to my Horror Spotlight posts, please feel free to drop me a comment or send me an email at bookdenblog(at)gmail(dot)com.
Yesterday I posted my
most anticipated releases for September. Be sure to check out that post as well. There are horror books listed there that will not be repeated here. Some of the titles listed here - like the Mark West and Greg Gifune titles - I discovered after writing the original September post or they would have certainly been listed there.(
Which is 100% why I do these spotlight posts.) Here are 10 additional horror titles releasing in the month of September.
September 6, 2016
We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson
An ambitious debut novel by an original young writer, We Eat Our Own blurs the lines between life and art with the story of a film director’s unthinkable experiment in the Amazon.
When a nameless, struggling actor in 1970s New York gets the call that an enigmatic director wants him for an art film set in the Amazon, he doesn’t hesitate: he flies to South America, no questions asked. He quickly realizes he’s made a mistake. He’s replacing another actor who quit after seeing the script—a script the director now claims doesn’t exist. The movie is over budget. The production team seems headed for a breakdown. The air is so wet that the celluloid film disintegrates.
But what the actor doesn’t realize is that the greatest threat might be the town itself, and the mysterious shadow economy that powers this remote jungle outpost. Entrepreneurial Americans, international drug traffickers, and M-19 guerillas are all fighting for South America’s future—and the groups aren’t as distinct as you might think. The actor thought this would be a role that would change his life. Now he’s worried if he’ll survive it.
Inspired by a true story from the annals of 1970s Italian horror film, and told in dazzlingly precise prose, We Eat Our Own is a resounding literary debut, a thrilling journey behind the scenes of a shocking film and a thoughtful commentary on violence and its repercussions.
The Boys of Summer by Richard Cox
Both a haunting coming-of-age story set in North Texas against the backdrop of a deadly tornado, and a character-driven, deeply-affecting supernatural thriller.
In 1979, a massive tornado devastates the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, leaving scores dead, thousands homeless, and nine-year-old Todd Willis in a coma, fighting for his life.
Four years later, Todd awakens to a world that looks the same but feels different in a way he can’t quite grasp. For Todd, it's a struggle to separate fact from fiction as he battles lingering hallucinations from his long sleep.
The new friends Todd makes in 1983 are fascinated with his experience and become mesmerized by his strange relationship with the world. Together the five boys come of age during a dark, fiery summer where they find first love, betrayal, and a secret so terrible they agree to never speak of it again.
But darkness returns to Wichita Falls twenty-five years later, and the boys—now men—are forced to reunite and confront the wounds from their past. When their memories of that childhood summer refuse to align with reality, the friends embark upon a search for truth that will threaten their lives, and transform their understanding of each other—and the world itself—forever.
The Rib From Which I Remake the World by Ed Kurtz
What begins with a gruesome and impossible murder soon spirals into hallucinatory waking nightmares for hotel house detective Jojo in World War II Arkansas. Black magic and a terrifying Luciferian carnival boil up to a surreal finale for the town of Litchfield, and Jojo Walker is forced to face his own identity in ways he could never have imagined.
Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror by The Light Brothers, Edward Lorn, Jason Parent, Gregor Xane, Mark Matthews, John McNee and Craig Saunders
The Bad Apples crew is back with its biggest Halloween anthology yet! Join The Light Brothers, Edward Lorn, Jason Parent, Gregor Xane, Mark Matthews, John McNee and Craig Saunders for a fresh delivery of all-new macabre tales for the haunting season.
• On Halloween night, an artist intends to use humanity as his canvas, to mold flesh into his greatest masterpiece. In Adam and Evans Light’s BELLE SOUFFRANCE, suffering has never been so beautiful.
• Everyone knows you are what you eat. So Cam probably shouldn’t munch on those chocolate eyeballs he stole. Sins of the past are only one bite away in John McNee’s CHOCOLATE COVERED EYEBALL.
• Halloween comes once a year for most people. Unfortunately for Harvey, it might be coming around a little more often in Craig Saunders’ OCTOBER’S END.
• The girl behind the counter at the local costume shop reads horror novels and only horror novels. She's perfect. And she's hosting an intimate Halloween get-together in Gregor Xane's THE UNCLE TAFFY'S GIRL.
• Charli is usually lonely, but tonight she’s on a bus headed to a party where she hopes the man of her dreams might finally notice her. But when a masked man enters the bus, it’ll be the ride not the party she never forgets in Edward Lorn’s LAST STOP.
• Christians say Halloween is a pagan holiday, and Keagan’s mother doesn’t think Jesus would approve of celebrating it. Little does she realize that they’re about to find out if that’s true from Jesus himself in Mark Matthews’ BODY OF CHRIST.
• Any cornfield Halloween party filled with teenagers dressed like iconic horror villains is bound to end with murder and mayhem. But when a grim reaper throws in a twist, the killing really gets out of hand in Jason Parent’s PULP.
(This book contains adult content and is suitable for mature readers only.)
September 15, 2016
Savages by Greg F. Gifune
It began as a vacation to the Cook Islands. But when seven friends are lost in the South Pacific after their boat goes down in a storm, they must survive at sea for several days in a small raft. Blown miles off course from their original position, and deep into open waters, they eventually encounter a small uncharted island.
Grateful to be alive, they begin their quest for survival, hopeful they’ll be rescued sooner than later. But the island is not the paradise it appears to be. Instead, it is a place of horror, death, torture and evil, of terrible secrets thought long buried and forgotten.
And they are not alone.
Something guards those horrible secrets, something evil and relentlessly violent, an ancient horror born of rage and vengeance, a blood-crazed predator that lives to kill and will stop at nothing to protect the island from those intruding upon its dark legacy.
The savage is loose, and there is no escape.
September 20, 2016
Children of Lovecraft edited by Ellen Datlow
Howard Phillips Lovecraft's stories shaped modern horror more than any other author's in the last two centuries: Cthulhu, the Old Ones, Herbert West: Reanimator, and more terrifying nightmares emerged from the mythos of this legendary writer.
Dark Horse teams up with Hugo and Bram Stoker award-winning editor Ellen Datlow to bring you this anthology of original prose stories that are "inspired" in theme and plot by Lovecraft's mythos. No pastiches and no stories in his style. Using variety in tone, setting, point of view, time, but no direct reference in the story to Lovecraft or his works. Featuring work by Laird Barron, Brian Evenson, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jeffrey Ford, Nathan Ballingrud, and many more, with a stunning cover by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.
September 24, 2016
The Factory by Mark West
Twenty years ago at college, Martin, Paul, Jane, and Gwen were members of the GLUE Club - the Gaffney Legendary Urban Explorers - run by the charismatic Tom. Now, following his mysterious death, they agree to meet up again and undertake one final exploration to honour his name.
Aside from Paul who never left, none of them have been back to Gaffney since and the reunion is awkward, re-opening old wounds. As they begin to explore the long-abandoned Pocock Factory, it seems they might be intruding on something better left alone. As they succumb to the spirits in the darkness, it quickly becomes a battle to see who will survive the night...
September 27, 2016
The Fall of the House of Cabal (Johannes Cabal #5) by Jonathan L. Howard
The fifth novel in the acclaimed, cult-favorite series starring Johannes Cabal, necromancer.
Johannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy, has come into possession of a vital clue that may lead him to his ultimate goal—a cure for death. The path is vague, however, and certainly treacherous as it takes him into strange territories that, quite literally, no one has ever seen before. The task is too dangerous to venture upon alone, so he must seek assistance, comrades for the coming travails.
Assisted—ably and otherwise—by his vampiric brother Horst and by the kindly accompaniment of a criminologist and a devil, they will encounter ruins and diableries, mystery and murder, the depths of the lowest pit and a city of horrors. London, to be exact.
Yet even though Cabal has risked such peril believing he understands the dangers he faces, he is still underestimating them. He is walking into a trap of such arcane complexity that even the one who drew him there has no idea of its true terrors. As it closes slowly and subtly around them, it may be that there will be no survivors at all.
Zeus' Warriors (The Legacy of the Gods #3) by Michael West
Zeus’ warriors, the defenders of humanity, have suffered terrible losses.
Presumed dead, Earl Preston has been forced to retreat into a forgotten underworld beneath New York City, but he is still far from safe. Hades’ disciples need only to recover the two remaining crystal skulls — ancient vessels of indescribable power — and their dark quest to return the vanquished gods to earth will be all but complete. To save civilization as we know it, Earl must rise to confront his greatest challenge yet, but this is a fight he cannot win alone.
Trapped inside an alien environment, Alan Everson and Kari Hannigan must put aside their differences and work together to help a gravely injured Carol Miyagi — a woman they both claim to love. Theirs is a journey to discover the secret of life itself. And they may not like what they find.
September 28, 2016
The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones
The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones is a horror novelette about a middle-aged chef whose nightly bicycle ride home is interrupted by an unexpected encounter.
