We Are Always Tender with Our Dead (2025) (Burnt Sparrow, book 1) Eric LaRocca "With We Are Always Tender with Our Dead, Eric LaRocca adds to his already remarkable body of work. Wielding his graceful prose with the deftness of a surgeon holding a scalpel, LaRocca cuts to the beating, bloody heart of a small New England town shocked by an act of unexpected brutality, then examines the network of consequences that results. In the process, he finds savagery, sorrow, beauty, and much, much more. The first in a trilogy, this novel signals an exciting new phase in Eric LaRocca's fiction. I can't wait for what comes next."
Horror Movie (2024) Paul Tremblay "A steadily escalating exercise in dread, shot through with moments of unexpected pathos ... With each new book, Paul Tremblay has continued to grow and challenge himself as a writer, in the process building one of the most substantial bodies of work of his generation. Horror Movie is a literary high-wire act, performed with aplomb high above the breathless crowd."
The Dread They Left Behind (2023) Gary Fry "Fry paints with a full palette of emotions: there is horror of the most ghastly sort, but there is also regret, and even guilt."
The Salt Grows Heavy (2023) Cassandra Khaw "Cassandra Khaw's steely prose is matched only by the inventiveness of their imagination. The Salt Grows Heavy demonstrates their continuing mastery of the novella form with a story Angela Carter would be jealous to have written."
No One Will Come Back For Us (2023) Premee Mohamed "In Premee Mohamed's elegant, arresting stories, flawed, fragile characters face entities and events vast and strange. The result is the best kind of fiction, moving and memorable."
Our Share of Night (2022) Mariana Enríquez "Our Share of Night is the kind of big book in which the reader becomes immersed, absorbed in the lives of its characters and their intertwined histories. Thrilling and engaging, it is a staggering accomplishment. Mariana Enriquez has written the novel that other novels will be compared to."
This Thing Between Us (2021) Gus Moreno "Dazzling . . . From its first, startling line, the narrative wraps the reader in graceful prose that refuses to let go until the striking end. Moreno has written a fine, fine book, one I am glad to recommend."
The House of Dust (2021) Noah Broyles "An ambitious first novel full of the mysteries, histories and rituals of a Tennessee town. Full of nightmarish imagery wrapped in elegant prose, this is a strong debut."
Whitesands (2021) (John Dark, book 1) Johann Thorsson "Johann Thorsson's fast-moving debut WHITESANDS, packs enough incident for a novel twice its size, until it's impossible to turn the pages fast enough."
Silvers Hollow (2021) (Grey World Universe, book 2) Patrick Delaney "Patrick Delaney's gripping Silver Hollow begins in amnesia and impossible memories, stuttering forward through disjointed experiences as its protagonist tries to make sense of a situation whose details continually slip, continually fail to add up. Wandering the moodily-lit landscape of a Hopper painting, navigating a narrative located at the intersection of Hitchcockian paranoia and the Lynchian surreal, Delaney's protagonist must solve the mystery of her surroundings, which also promises to solved the mystery of herself. The answer to her questions outer and inner combines in an ending surprising, memorable, and heartbreaking."
The Crying Forest (2020) Venero Armanno "With The Crying Forest, Venero Armanno delivers a tale of murder and magic, of dark desires and the even darker cost of their fulfillment. Swift-moving, brutal, with unexpected moments of tenderness, it compels the readers attention all the way to the end, then lingers in the mind afterward."
Devil's Creek (2020) Todd Keisling "In smooth prose, Keisling skillfully evokes the landscape and inhabitants of south-central Kentucky, as well as the struggles of his protagonist to deal with a past resurgent in the most immediate and frightening ways. Another step forward for him, Devil's Creek shows why Todd Keisling runs at the front of the pack."
Lake of Darkness (2020) Scott Kenemore "With Lake of Darkness, Scott Kenemore takes readers back a hundred years, to a Chicago terrorized by a series of horrifying murders. Blending trenchant social observations with vistas of cosmic horror, Kenemore crafts a narrative that rockets its hero and its reader to an ending unforgettable and resonant. Kenemore's previous novel, The Grand Hotel, was a standout; with this one, he takes another step forward."
Jesus and John (2020) Adam McOmber "In Adam McOmber's lucid dream of a novel, the beloved disciple follows the risen Yeshua on a voyage across the sea to the eternal city. Within the streets of Rome, they will come to the door of a mysterious structure known as the Gray Palace, within whose walls wait horrors and revelations. A contemporary descendant of such works as Par Lagerkvist's Barabbas and Nikos Kazantzakis's Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus and John looks at the greatest story ever told through fresh, kaleidoscopic lenses and discovers marvels."
Earth and Ember (2019) (Fearing, book 4) John F D Taff "Fast-paced, inventive, and compelling Grabs you and does not release its grip."
