Eric LaRocca's horror fiction has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies published in the US and abroad. He is also the author of several plays that have been produced across the country.
Quaint Folk (2026) Bitter Karella "To experience Bitter Karella's cheerfully unhinged fiction is to surrender to a spectacularly fierce and uncompromising literary force. Quaint Folk astonished me with its charming, mythical weirdness threaded with genuine moments of pure tenderness. A bold, potent brew of all the best elements of folk and queer horror."
Bruja's Nest (2026) Brenda Latorre "Bruja's Nest is a potent and startling literary incantation that invokes the most powerfully complex elements of magic, motherhood, and unflinchingly grotesque body horror. This is an uncompromising and deeply affecting work exquisitely scrawled in blood, fury, and pain."
Stay Buried (2026) Jennifer McMahon "Brooding and profoundly melancholic, Jennifer McMahon's Stay Buried is a gripping, chillingly atmospheric exploration of folklore and how myth takes root, how it spreads and grows deep inside the blighted charnel pit of a person's heart. There's a perfect escalation of dread that saturates the pages of this rotted, poisoned tale until the crescendo is nearly unbearable. Certainly one of the most unsettling and terrifying books I'll read this year."
Tillinghast (2026) Clare Cavenagh "A somber hymn of loneliness, of ancient wounds still tender, raw, and healing, of an insatiable, eternal yearning. Tillinghast is a soft chant in the dark - a tone poem etched in blood, agony, and utter cruelty. Lyrical and devastating, this remarkably heartfelt debut filled me with the same intense emotion I felt when I first watched Park Chan-wook's Thirst or read Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite for the very first time."
I Know a Place (2026) Nat Cassidy "Poignant and nasty as hell, Nat Cassidy's Rest Stop is a thoughtful and sharply written chamber drama that veers off the rails into a profoundly devastating cosmic splatter spectacle."
Itch! (2025) Gemma Amor "A chilling and tremendously disturbing examination of a wounded mind, of a fragile soul pushed to the limits of her very existence because of trauma, ritual, and obsession. Sinister and utterly fiendish, ITCH! is a shocking and truly surprising blend of mystery, folk horror, and body horror that will burrow deep in your softest places, into your tenderest, most unspoiled secret parts."
Herculine (2025) Grace Byron "Devious and diabolical, Herculine is a jaw-dropping and completely unpredictable literary bewitchment about trauma, desire, and identity. One of the most artful and stunning debuts I've read this year. This book is irreverent, playful, and utterly irresistible."
Futility (2025) Nuzo Onoh "Gleefully demented and simmering with such wit and verve, Futility by Nuzo Onoh is an unpredictable and fiercely inventive literary entree centred around retribution and punishment. Onoh's masterful prose is so unique, so captivating. She remains a singular voice in horror fiction, impossible to imitate."
Play Nice (2025) Rachel Harrison "Play Nice is an exorcism of a haunted heart-a singular, obsessive, and deeply palpable examination of the wounds we mend from the trauma, the excruciating cruelty we inherit from our loved ones. Harrison deftly balances between moments of quiet, poignant reflection and unhinged brutality in this eerie shocker about possession, family, and secrets. An impressive and equally unforgettable work, Rachel Harrison is the new Queen of Horror."
The October Film Haunt (2025) Michael Wehunt "A labyrinthine and devastatingly complex exploration of lore and trauma, Michael Wehunt's impressive debut novel The October Film Haunt recalls the exemplary unease of his short fiction while forging exciting, new territory in horror. Each page of Wehunt's novel sighs with the terrifying promise of dread, the soft whispers of legends and mythologies aching to be exposed. I remain a dedicated fan of Michael Wehunt."
A Blood as Bright as the Moon (2025) Andrea Morstabilini "Baroque, lyrical, and marvelously operatic. A Blood as Bright as the Moon is a fever dream written in blood and unlike anything I've ever read before. A haunting, surreal examination of monstrousness and fate, this remarkable queer horror novel is evocative and powerfully chilling."
Secret Lives of the Dead (2025) Tim Lebbon "Secret Lives of the Dead is a riveting, wholly absorbing crime-chiller rooted in trauma and friendship. Tim Lebbon is a true master of unrelenting suspense and he continues to shock me and impress me in equal measure with his dark literary powers book after book."
A Game in Yellow (2025) Hailey Piper "Surreal, disquieting, and wholly absorbing, Hailey Piper's A Game in Yellow possesses such suffocating power to bewilder, to enchant, and to completely overwhelm the reader. Written with the provocativeness of a Lynchian fever dream and the sophistication of a story by Lovecraft, this is Piper's most arresting and satisfying work yet. A novel centered around mythology, obsession, sexuality, fetish, and the facade of the dramatic and the theatrical - I surrendered gladly and this book melted my brain."
The Faceless Thing We Adore (2025) Hester Steel "Vivid, poignant, and refreshingly imaginative, The Faceless Thing We Adore is a powerfully absorbing exploration of trauma and fury laced with Eldritch terror. Hester Steel has crafted a vision so unique, so intensely arresting that I'll be thinking about this book and these richly drawn characters for quite some time..."
Oddbody (2025) Rose Keating "There's an impish playfulness and a deeply potent blight spreading from each story collected in Rose Keating's marvelously unnerving Oddbody. This superior collection of short fiction revels in the absurdity of human and non-human existence, gleefully celebrates the power of the uncanny, the atrocious and the bizarre... one of the most audacious and thought provoking collections I've ever read."
Basilisk (2025) Matt Wixey "Basilisk possesses everything I look for in weird, boundary-pushing, disorienting horror fiction. Disturbing, intricately complex and utterly maddening, this novel seems so impossible and yet completely inevitable at the same time. A remarkable literary achievement. This book feels dangerous to touch, let alone read."
The Night Birds (2025) Christopher Golden "There's an inky black wellspring of utter darkness rooted at the center of Christopher Golden's remarkably skin-crawling novel, The Night Birds-a horrible blight that leaches into and pollutes the haunted heart of each character confined within pages soaked with the aching torment of despair. Atmospheric, deeply unsettling, and irresistibly captivating, The Night Birds is a masterful and unforgettable, tautly written supernatural thriller from a literary titan."
rekt (2025) Alex Gonzalez "There are two versions of you: Before you read Alex Gonzalez's rekt and after you read it. In fact, this is not a mere book. It's a fucking experience to survive, to be endured. Like Danielewski's House of Leaves and Palahniuk's Haunted, rekt feels like a spiritual successor to those masterpieces with the frightening ability to actually harm the reader - to eviscerate them with such a singular style, such masterful prose, and such utter mercilessness. This is a bleak, vicious, and harrowing examination of grief, internet lore, and one young man's descent into the depths of depravity. Gonzalez's debut is one of the most shocking and cold-blooded novels I've ever read."
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng (2025) Kylie Lee Baker "There's a lovely touch of humor intricately woven throughout this otherwise brutal, tense, and daring story. I found myself totally enraptured with these characters, horrified at times and unable to pry my eyes away from the page. For some, there's such delight in the thrill of terror. If that's true for you, Kylie Lee Baker's exceptional book will carve a permanent grin into the face of even the most discriminating horror critic. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng has everything I look for in a compelling horror novel - strangeness, sensitivity, and empathy. This is easily one of the most exciting and unique books I've read in years."
Coup De Grace (2024) Sofia Ajram "Intricately woven and often too upsetting to bear, Ajram's debut novella pulsates with a dizzying, almost mystifying energy. You will not feel safe while reading this book. A gift to be savored, a transgression to be endured."
Catherine the Ghost (2024) Kathe Koja "Dramatic and remarkably alluring with such a rich sense of poeticism, Catherine the Ghost is a literary seance that invokes the restless spirit of Bronte while showcasing the verve and magnificence of one of our finest visionaries: Kathe Koja."
Guillotine (2024) Delilah S Dawson "Gruesome and laced with a delightful sense of humor, Delilah S. Dawson's Guillotine showcases the author's brilliant nerve and clever wit. A compelling and intelligently written shocker."
Midnight Rooms (2024) Donyae Coles "An overwhelming sense of unease and rich atmosphere practically drip from every page in this disquieting and equally compelling debut novel from a new, devastatingly original voice in speculative fiction. In Midnight Rooms, Donyae Coles has crafted a superb and intricately layered fever dream that I continue to think about long after having closed the book."
Small Town Horror (2024) Ronald Malfi "An eerie and deeply unsettling horror epic with faint shadows of Peter Straub and Robert R. McCammon flickering at the periphery . Small Town Horror is the kind of masterful and deftly written horror fiction that makes me fall in love with the genre all over again."
Horror Movie (2024) Paul Tremblay "A work penned by Paul Tremblay is always such an extraordinary gift. Probing, insightful, deceptively tender until it's not - until bodies are inevitably twisted, mangled and the blood begins to flow. His brand of horror is compassionate, nuanced, deeply intimate, and yet also spectacularly brutal. I dare you to turn the final page of any of his novels and claim that you are unchanged. To read a book by Tremblay is to partake in a sacred communion of the soul - to endure the terror and, more importantly, to learn about yourself."
Cuckoo (2024) Gretchen Felker-Martin "Tense and frighteningly visceral, Cuckoo is a masterwork of body horror thrumming with the high octane viciousness of a Richard Laymon novel while maintaining the literary sophistication of a piece penned by Clive Barker or Poppy Z. Brite."
Immortal Pleasures (2024) V Castro "V. Castro lures readers into a perilous netherworld charged with debauchery and primal sensuality. Hauntingly rendered and decadently written, Immortal Pleasures is a surprising and fantastical portrait of one of history's most fascinating (and perhaps most misunderstood) figures."
Forgotten Sisters (2024) Cynthia Pelayo "Of bruised and tenderly worn hearts, of poor, bedeviled minds, of raw and open wounds that have never closed - these are merely some of the cruelties and passions revealed in Cynthia Pelayo's magnificent novel, Forgotten Sisters. A startling and totally immersive gem, Pelayo's prose is evocative and chilling. Told with such care and thoughtfulness, this masterfully woven story of generational trauma and loss will hold readers captive until the final page is turned, until their beating hearts are filled with black water drawn from a poisoned river - to be marked, to be transformed by a secret mythology."
Midnight on Beacon Street (2024) Emily Ruth Verona "In her chilling debut novel, Emily Ruth Verona crafts a compelling and intricately drawn puzzle of home invasion populated with rich, palpable, and deeply authentic characters. Skillfully weaving the tensions of past and present together, Midnight on Beacon Street is a razor sharp and utterly surprising tale of suspense."
Organ Meats (2023) K-Ming Chang "Organ Meats is one of those rare novels that immediately seizes your attention because of its ferocity, its rawness, and its sheer poetic brilliance. A haunting and feverish exploration of a very complex (and somewhat disturbing) friendship, I read this book wide eyed with such wonder. My breath became ragged and loose as I raced through chapter after chapter. Every page of this book is an untreated, blackening wound, each printed word is sharp enough to draw the darkest blood. Certainly one of the most inventive and visceral novelists I've encountered in quite some time, K-Ming Chang's imagination is as rich as it is boundless. I am now a devoted fan."
Edenville (2023) Sam Rebelein "In Edenville, there's a captivating and equally irresistible kind of frenetic intensity pulsing from each and every page - the raw, powerful energy of a new, uninhibited talent in horror fiction. Sam Rebelein possesses the skillset of a venerated master and Edenville is a truly imaginative debut."
Deliver Me (2023) Elle Nash "Audacious, disturbing, and utterly unique, Elle Nash's Deliver Me is body horror at its most shocking and unforgettable."
Brainwyrms (2023) Alison Rumfitt "Brutal and terrifyingly visceral, Brainwyrms will slither inside unsuspecting readers and lay eggs there-an infection that can never be cured, a book that refuses to be ignored."
Black River Orchard (2023) Chuck Wendig "This will undoubtedly be heralded as one of the finest horror novels of the twenty-first century."
Unquiet (2023) E Saxey "Told with beguiling lyricism and compelling intensity, E. Saxey's novel Unquiet is an artful and complex masterwork of contemporary Gothic fiction that will leave readers unsettled and clamoring for more written by such an exciting and unique voice in horror."
No One Dies from Love (2023) Robert Levy "Robert Levy's No One Dies From Love is a masterful collection of dark fiction--a consecrated and intimate ceremony of human loss and longing. With sumptuous prose and a keen understanding of how grief reshapes us, it's impossible to not be enthralled with Levy's macabre vision."
Our Own Unique Affliction (2023) Scott J Moses "Unexpected and grim, Scott J. Moses' Our Own Unique Affliction is the most inventive and bombastically gruesome vampire story I've read since The Light at the End by John Skipp and Craig Spector. An exquisitely written meditation on grief, family, and trauma told with such empathy and care. I feel broken after reading this book, and I applaud Scott for obliterating my soul with such grace and tenderness."
Walking Practice (2023) Dolki Min "Elegantly written and deceptively humorous, Dolki Min's bombastic debut novel, Walking Practice, is a haunting examination of survival, gender, and the complexity of the human experience. A tremendous literary achievement."
Monstrilio (2023) Gerardo Sámano Córdova "Haunting and often bleakly humorous, Gerardo Samano Cordova's Monstrilio is a captivating tone poem of trauma, grief, and transformation. Cordova writes with the lyrical precision of a master surrealist and creates an uncompromising vision of literary horror that is so wholly unique and utterly his own."
Scorched (2023) (Juniper Trilogy, book 3) Ross Jeffery "Ross Jeffery has rightfully earned his place as one of modern horror's brightest shinning stars."
