Paul G. Tremblay, a two-time nominee of the Bram Stoker Award, has sold over fifty short stories to markets such as Razor Magazine, CHIZINE, Weird Tales, Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis Three, and Horror: The Year's Best 2007.
He is the author of the short speculative fiction collection Compositions for the Young and Old and the hard-boiled/dark fantasy novella City Pier: Above and Below. He served as fiction editor of CHIZINE and as co-editor of Fantasy Magazine, and was also the co-editor (with Sean Wallace) of the Fantasy and Bandersnatch anthologies.
The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale (2025) Joe R Lansdale "Joe Lansdale is a wholly unique and quintessential American author. No one better understands and communicates the horrors, the absurdities, and the tattered hopes of our everyday lives."
Crafting for Sinners (2025) Jenny Kiefer "Crafting for Sinners is a relentless, grueling survival story, one that displays the horrors that too many of our hateful and ignorant neighbors are capable of perpetrating. You will compulsively turn these pages well into the dead of night."
We Are Always Tender with Our Dead (2025) (Burnt Sparrow, book 1) Eric LaRocca "Not since Twin Peaks has there been a town quite like Burnt Sparrow, where nightmares, secrets, cruelty, and longing are the currency. Your visit will be harrowing and it will cut you to the quick, but you'll want to return as soon as possible."
Play Nice (2025) Rachel Harrison "Play Nice packs a prickly punch by cleverly nesting its possession story within another kind of familial and familiar possession. While the demon at the center of it all terrorizes the women in Clio's family when they are most vulnerable, the book is scary because there's more than one kind of demon."
The October Film Haunt (2025) Michael Wehunt "Michael Wehunt's rabbit punch of a novel is as beautifully written as it is affecting. The October Film Haunt cleverly deconstructs horror stories while at the same time constructing one that is so unique and steeped in 21st century paranoia and dread you won't be able to read this alone at night. Speaking for a friend, of course."
Coffin Moon (2025) Keith Rosson "Epic, horrific, heartbreaking, and written with a punk poet's soul, Coffin Moon reads like the pre-Near Dark, 1970s vampire novel you always wanted. This book will leave its mark."
Secret Lives of the Dead (2025) Tim Lebbon "Secret Lives of the Dead deftly mixes folk horror and the grand heist-goes-wrong tale, as well as introduces us to a truly unforgettable villain in Lem. This book is a tense, moody white-knuckler sure to send a creeping chill up your spine."
Departure 37 (2025) Scott Carson "DEPARTURE 37 is a rollicking, and at times terrifying, machup of the 20th and 21st century political, nuclear, and technological tensions and ambitions. It's smart, inventive, breathlessly paced, and most importantly, humane."
Pan (2025) Michael Clune "This strange anti-love child of Arthur Machen, Philip K. Dick, and William S. Burroughs infected my brain with odd humor, paranoia, and existential dread. Bursting with truly breathtaking prose, Pan is an ontological coming of age story for, well, the ages."
An Oral History of Atlantis (2025) Ed Park "An Oral History of Atlantis is a snapshot of who we are and where we are as well as an offbeat map to where we might dare to go. The stories are mordant, inventive, heartbreaking, and above all else, profoundly human, and I'm already looking forward to a re-read."
Basilisk (2025) Matt Wixey "Thomas Ligotti goes cyberpunk by way of House of Leaves in Basilisk, a compulsive, ambitious, audacious book that will worm into your head much like the viruses it details. It's the kind of book that takes over your life and leaves you afraid to be with your own brain. Damn you, Matt Wixey."
The Unworthy (2025) Agustina Bazterrica "The Unworthy is unflinching, uncompromising, and unforgettable. Agustina Bazterrica shines a light at the end of the brutal and bleak path we are on so that maybe, just maybe, we can turn around and forge a new one."
rekt (2025) Alex Gonzalez "Alex Gonzalez fearlessly plumbs the depths of our present and future online hell and the result is a visionary book that is at once pensive, rollicking, and truly, bone-deep unsettling. rekt is an absolute stunner."
The Haunting of Room 904 (2025) Erika T Wurth "The Haunting of Room 904 deftly mixes humor, scares, and the weight of personal and generational grief. The book is a heady, haunting, righteous, and spiritual exploration of our political mess through the lens of paranormal exploration and, sometimes even scarier, interpersonal relationships. You'll want to follow Erika and her Olivia into any dark, creaky room."
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng (2025) Kylie Lee Baker "Bat Eater is a compelling, gory, ghostly romp, and it's a righteous battle cry aimed into the racist heart of the pandemic hellscape. You won't be able to stop turning pages while rooting for Cora."
Curdle Creek (2024) Yvonne Battle-Felton "The nightmarish and allegorical Curdle Creek is a gorgeously written, surrealist folktale that goes bone deep. Compelling, thought-provoking, thrilling, haunting, Yvonne Battle-Felton's Curdle Creek is simply a marvel."
Coup De Grace (2024) Sofia Ajram "Coup de Grace is a harrowing exploration of the expanding labyrinth of despair and the self. Its liminal melancholy will linger. Sofia Ajram is a writer to watch."
The Bog Wife (2024) Kay Chronister "The Bog Wife is a creeping, Appalachian folktale, an astute allegory for a decaying America, and a haunting, brilliant novel. This one is going to stay with me for a while."
A Sunny Place for Shady People (2024) Mariana Enríquez "A Sunny Place for Shady People reveals as much about ourselves as it does our ineffably strange, horrific world. Enriquez's characters' desperate, longing struggle for meaning and hope has never been so poignant and beautiful, nor so damned chilling. A collection of brilliant nightmares from one of our best."
Crypt of the Moon Spider (2024) (Lunar Gothic Trilogy, book 1) Nathan Ballingrud "A wicked, pulpy, hideously gorgeous phantasmagoria that will leave you helplessly twitching in its grand web. Nathan Ballingrud once again demonstrates that he's one of our finest writers."
No Road Home (2024) John Fram "In the darkly spellbinding No Road Home, John Fram expertly mixes the Fall of the House of Usher and a twisty closed-room mystery into a unique kind of Texas gothic epic. A compelling, thought-provoking, page-turning read."
The Dissonance (2024) Shaun Hamill "The most impressive magical feat of The Dissonance are the four teen friends and their complicated, cringy, familiar wart-filled relationship, one imbued with enough love to refill your soul. The result is that this wildly imaginative, thrilling, time-hopping, magic and monsters epic feels authentic and lived in. Not sure how Shaun did it. The jerk."
Private Rites (2024) Julia Armfield "Lyrical, haunting, unsettling, and J.G. Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope... Deeply, passionately, messily human."
Old King (2024) Maxim Loskutoff "A Cormac McCarthy-esque story of a deeply troubled American west, Old King is lyrical, haunting, humane, and unflinching. It reads like an approaching thunderstorm, one from which you cannot shelter."
Cuckoo (2024) Gretchen Felker-Martin "Cuckoo is a breathtaking novel of body horror; a heartbreaking, angry, terrifying, unflinching indictment of Christian America's cruelty; and it's a soaring, boundless ode to queer survival. It's flat-out mesmerizing."
The Garden (2024) Clare Beams "THE GARDEN's gender politics, barbed wit, moral complexity, and genuine sense of unease recalls the best of Shirley Jackson's work - This swirling marvel of a novel cements Clare Beams as a read-everything-she-ever-writes writer."
Forgotten Sisters (2024) Cynthia Pelayo "Forgotten Sisters is a haunting fairy tale, a haunted parable of loss and grief, a history of Chicago's tragedies, and a thrilling, page-turning, creepy who-done-it. Take me to the river..."
The Pale House Devil (2023) (Discreet Eliminators, book 1) Richard Kadrey "A thrilling, inventive, pulpy, bi-coastal romp with a bloody beating heart. The roguishly principled and endearing Ford and Neuland can kill for me anytime. I have a list ready."
Nestlings (2023) Nat Cassidy "Nestlings cleverly pays homage to classic horror while also filling its Manhattan highrise with post-2020 frights and concerns. Nat Cassidy has written a creepy page-turner where the scariest things of all are what reside in the human (or inhuman) heart."
A Haunting on the Hill (2023) Elizabeth Hand "The lines of paranoia, art, and reality are terrifyingly blurred . . . only the brilliant Elizabeth Hand could so expertly honor Jackson's rage, wit, and vision with a twenty-first century twist."
Bloom (2023) Delilah S Dawson "Sensual, smart, biting, and downright nasty, Bloom is a dizzying, heady feast for the discerning palate. I devoured this book in one greedy sitting."
What Kind of Mother (2023) Clay McLeod Chapman "What Kind of Mother mixes Southern Gothic, a missing child story, and body horror into an entertaining brew sure to inform your nightmares."
Rouge (2023) Mona Awad "A brilliant, biting critique of western beauty standards as well as a soaring, phantasmagoric, Angela Carter-esque fairy tale about trauma and the loss of self. Rouge is deeply unsettling, funny, obsessive, and unlike anything I've read. A truly mesmerizing read."
Wild Spaces (2023) S L Coney "Wild Spaces is an eldritch coming-of-age-story done right. It's lyrical, emotionally complex, creepy, and there's not a drop of poisonous nostalgia. I loved it and I can't stop thinking about it."
What Never Happened (2023) Rachel Howzell Hall "What Never Happened opens with a gut punch and doesn't let up from there. Rachel Howzell Hall's twist on the you-can't-go-home-again story is smart, dizzying, and thrilling. She not only handles the mystery elements expertly but she honors the grief and rage of our past and present."
Bridge (2023) Lauren Beukes "Bridge spiders out into alternate universes, alternate selves, yet manages to be very much about us and our fractured now. It's a humane, thought-provoking puzzle box, and a wildly entertaining novel."
Infested (2023) Angel Luis Colón "Infested expertly mixes mystery and monster story with family drama and very now political concerns. It's a thrilling, I-can't-stop-reading page-turner. If Infested doesn't make your skin crawl, check your pulse."
How Can I Help You (2023) Laura Sims "How Can I Help You is an insidiously readable psychological trap set by and for its two unforgettable and unforgiving protagonists. Skillfully constructed and observed, Laura Sims's novel is a sly meditation on art and identity and the depths we'll go to protect our constructs. I couldn't have loved this book more."
Burn the Negative (2023) Josh Winning "Burn the Negative is a creepy, twisty, compulsively readable haunted house of a book built from horror movies and our obsessive response to them. You'll root for Laura and fear the Needle Man. Be sure to make the popcorn and dim the lights."
The Quiet Tenant (2023) Clémence Michallon "The Quiet Tenant is a humane thriller, one that doesn't shy from asking the most difficult questions of its characters and its readers, and dares, ultimately, hopeful answers. Intelligent and suspenseful, I couldn't stop turning the pages."
The Salt Grows Heavy (2023) Cassandra Khaw "A feverishly gory, grotesquely beautiful and baroque fairy-tale-meets-love-sonnet. Cassandra Khaw's imagination is limitless."
Sisters of the Lost Nation (2023) Nick Medina "With the excellent Sisters of the Lost Nation, Nick Medina expertly balances Native mythology, a grounded coming of age story, and a modern, all too real and terrible mystery of Native girls going missing. Gripping, heartbreaking, and vital, this is a novel you won't soon forget, and Anna Horn will no doubt become one of your most cherished fictional characters."
White Cat, Black Dog (2023) Kelly Link "Kelly Link's stories are generous with their intellect, wit, humanity, and the hope and dread of what was, of what might be, of what is. White Cat, Black Dog is a marvel."
A House With Good Bones (2023) T Kingfisher "A House With Good Bones grapples with a thorny family legacy with heart, wit, and creeping horror. I was compelled to read the book in one breathless, white-knuckled sitting. Vultures, ladybugs, and underground children, oh my!"
Bad Cree (2023) Jessica Johns "Bad Cree deftly explores the permeable boundaries of dreams, reality, and culture, as well as complex family dynamics and relationships. A compelling novel that is a mystery and a horror story about grief, but one with defiant hope in its beating heart."
Holy Ghost Road (2022) John Mantooth "-a souther-fried coming-of-age road novel mashed with an epic goodvs evil yarn. Thrilling from page one..."
A History of Fear (2022) Luke Dumas "A History of Fear is a disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing reimagining of the devil-made-me-do-it tale. A clever, twisty novel, imbued with emotional and psychological insight. Luke's vision of Old Scratch left me thrilled and looking over my shoulder."
Saturnalia (2022) Stephanie Feldman "This short novel packs a powerful, fever-dreamy bite. On one hand, Feldman's striking novel is an unblinking side-eye at our apocalyptic near-future. On the other, it's a soaring dark fantastic romp full of alchemy, blood, and life. Pick up this book and party like it's Saturnalia."
Jackdaw (2022) Tade Thompson "Jackdaw blurs the lines of fiction and memoir and reality itself, and the result is as disturbing as it is thrilling. Tade Thompson, this mad genius, somehow created a literary equivalent of a Francis Bacon painting. I'm in awe."
The Hollow Kind (2022) Andy Davidson "The Hollow Kind is a gloriously wild, twisted family saga with buckets of body horror and is going to mess you up good."
The Devil Takes You Home (2022) Gabino Iglesias "Pure noir, overflowing with the rage and sorrow of our times, The Devil Takes You Home is brutal, hallucinatory, and somehow, beautiful. This novel confirms what some of us already knew: Gabino Iglesias is a fierce, vital voice."
The Splendid City (2022) Karen Heuler "Karen Heuler's soaring imagination is matched only by her integrity of vision and humanity. She's always a must read."
Never the Wind (2022) Francesco Dimitri "Susanna Clarke meets Robert Aikman in this heady, melancholic, nuanced coming of age story. I was utterly entranced by Never the Wind."
Ruin (2022) Cara Hoffman "The stories of RUIN deftly display the horror and ugliness of our culture of violence and consumption, yet also reveal the delicate humanity within our collective yearning. Reading Cara Hoffman's fiction makes me not only want to write better, but to be better."
Sundial (2022) Catriona Ward "Holy moly, Sundial plumbs the psychological depths and traps of toxic relationships, expertly mixing suspense, shocks, and menace. It's a wild, twisted family gothic unlike any you've read before, and one you won't soon forget."
Ocean State (2022) Stewart O'Nan "In the opening paragraph Marie (who would be right at home in a Shirley Jackson novel) tells us the awful thing that's going to happen, but of course, she doesn't reveal the whole mesmerizing, devastating story. O'Nan has the integrity to not flinch, not even once, while expertly imbuing his characters with empathy, insight and authenticity. A uniquely 21st Century American tragedy, Ocean State wraps its hand around your heart and squeezes."
Echo (2022) Thomas Olde Heuvelt "A compulsive page turner mixing supernatural survival horror and pulp adventure."
The Book of the Most Precious Substance (2022) Sara Gran "Sara Gran's THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE is a mix of book buying mystery, erotica, and a pinch of Clive Barkerian obsessive existential horror, but it's all Gran. And it's all brilliant."
Such a Pretty Smile (2022) Kristi DeMeester "Kristi DeMeester's novel is a menacing, mysterious, and righteously angry fever dream, one that hooks into you from page one. SUCH A PRETTY SMILE is unafraid to bare its feminist fangs."
Road of Bones (2022) Christopher Golden "Two men willing to risk their lives for a last-chance reality TV pitch find themselves on a white-knuckle hell ride on Siberia's infamous Kolyma Highway. Road of Bones is unrelenting and will chill you to your core."
All the White Spaces (2022) Ally Wilkes "ALL THE WHITE SPACES is a heady and haunting mix of historical fiction, polar survival horror, and a meditation on gender, identity, and the enduring mysteries of the self. You won't soon forget Jonathan Morgan and his trial by ice."
This Thing Between Us (2021) Gus Moreno "As original as it is affecting . . . left me genuinely creeped out, unsettled, and shaken. An existentially frightening book."
Revelator (2021) Daryl Gregory "Daryl Gregory never fails to conjure a uniquely enthralling reading experience. With Revelator, he expertly mixes Tennessee bootlegging, the fervor of old time religion, and a new, hungry god in the mountain. Humane, heady, and thrilling, you'll believe in Revelator."
The Final Girl Support Group (2021) Grady Hendrix "Take slasher movie adoration, critique, and satire, mix with compelling, flawed characters and neck-breaking plot twists, and drop it all into an industrial blender with large blades. Voilà, you now have Grady's maniacally clever and compulsively readable The Final Girl Support Group."
Closing Costs (2021) Bracken MacLeod "An unflinching...first-rate mashup of home invasion nightmare and modern day noir."
Build Your House Around My Body (2021) Violet Kupersmith "A brilliant, sweeping epic that swaps spirits and sheds time like snakeskin, Build Your House Around My Body is a marvel. Thrilling, witty, disturbing, righteous—I won’t be able to shut up about how damned awesome this book is. Neither will you."
Beneath a Pale Sky (2021) Philip Fracassi "Philip Fracassi's fiction is a mix of old and new school horrors, chock full of frightening monsters, demons, and humans...I always look forwatd to what he's going to do next."
Such Pretty Things (2021) Lisa Heathfield "A masterful modern day Gothic that is dread inducing and melancholic in equal measure, Such Pretty Things is a thoughtful rumination on the wonder and horror of grief, of what it can become. By the end, holy hell, the book is a fist that slowly closes around your heart and squeezes."
The Low Desert (2021) Tod Goldberg "Tod Goldberg's stories are full of humor, pathos, and sharp knife-twists of plot and insight. Featuring best laid plans that have gone horribly awry, and heartbreakingly authentic characters broken by violence, longing, and hope, The Low Desert packs a heady, emotional wallop. More of this, please."
His Own Devices (2021) Douglas Wynne "A heady, entertaining cyber/techno thriller that feels very now. Don't let the game play you."
Good Neighbours (2021) Sarah Langan "Good Neighbors is a riveting critique of American suburbia. Langan deftly confronts social mores and beliefs as she tears all the ugliness down to make something dangerous and beautiful. The monsters of Maple Street have never been so us."
The Gulp (2021) (Gulp, book 1) Alan Baxter "Baxter delivers the horror goods."
The Blade Between (2020) Sam J Miller "A successful 'influencer' photographer returns to the gentrifying hometown that nearly broke him, and all hell breaks loose. The Blade Between is as addictive and brutal as it is smart and challenging. Miller unflinchingly confronts the sins of our past and present. The horrors here are rooted in there being no easy answers despite our individual and collective souls being ultimately at stake. Plus whales!"
Plain Bad Heroines (2020) Emily M Danforth "Emily Danforth's ingenious, jaw-dropping novel is a time-hopping epic about the history of a cursed New England girls' school, doomed lovers, and an equally cursed modern-day retelling via film, plus yellow jackets. Hell, those yellow jackets! The expertly rendered characters are as heartbreaking as they are written with an integrity of vision that saturates every page. Plain Bad Heroines is a queer roar and it's terrifying and it's a goddamned triumph."
The Ghost Tree (2020) Christina Henry "In the mid-1980s, a terrible curse mixes with the dark hearts of prejudice and misogyny to feed on small suburb of Chicago. This is no nostalgia trip. A true page-turner, The Ghost Tree is sharp, nasty, and unflinching in presenting its supernatural and everyday horrors."
Clown in a Cornfield (2020) (Clown in a Cornfield, book 1) Adam Cesare "Adam Cesare's CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD starts as a fun and scary retro-slasher but then cleverly twists and bloodies its way into being a very new kind of beast. Rejoice horror fans new and old, and be terrified of Adam's everyday clowns."
The Ancestor (2020) Danielle Trussoni "Danielle Trussoni's THE ANCESTOR is a lushly written, dream-like modern gothic with as many dark turns and twists as the Montebianco family tree has branches. Welcome to the family."
The Deep (2020) Alma Katsu "The Deep deftly mashes up spellbinding historical fiction, adroit commentary on class and gender, and a classic yet surprising ghost story. Annie’s tale is truly haunting."
Echoes of the Fall (2019) (Earl Marcus Mystery, book 3) Hank Early "A twisty, page-turning, modern southern Gothic."
One Night Gone (2019) Tara Laskowski "Featuring a brilliantly executed dual timeline with two unforgettable narrators, Tara Laskowski's One Night Gone is a timely and timeless mystery, one that will keep you obsessively reading well past your bedtime."
The Monster of Elendhaven (2019) Jennifer Giesbrecht "Pitch dark, whimsical, topical, wild, and lushly written, Jennifer Giesbrecht's The Monster of Elendhaven is the most reading fun you'll have this year."
Five Midnights (2019) (Five Midnights, book 1) Ann Dávila Cardinal "Ann Dávila Cardinal's inventive Five Midnights is topical, fun, frightening, and flat-out unputdownable. You'll want to follow Lupe and Javier all over Puerto Rico. Do keep an eye out for El Cuco, though. Especially at night, and after you turn off the lights."
Old Ghosts (2019) Nik Korpon "Nik Korpon’s Old Ghosts is about old friends and older dreams getting in the way of your present, and then totally kicking the shit out of your future. Plus rebar. Moody, smart, sexy, and tension-filled, Old Ghosts is a whip crack of a crime novella."
In the Night Wood (2018) Dale Bailey "Dale Bailey has written a literary puzzle box that deftly mixes the scary, nasty folktales of the 19th century and Daphne du Maurier’s classic Don’t Look Now. In the Night Wood is an affecting, weighty, and haunting book about the shackles of grief."
Halcyon (2018) Rio Youers "Rio Youers deftly mixes family drama, ESP, politics, and the collective insanity of cults into a heady cultural critique that also functions as a page-turning, white-knuckle thriller. Halcyon is a tornado of a novel."
(Hanna) Zoje Stage "Zoje Stage's Baby Teeth is cunning, sharp, and nasty, and wickedly funny until it isn't funny anymore. This intelligent, unrelenting, layered shocker can stand proudly alongside classics like The Other and The Butcher Boy, with their 'evil' children uncannily reflecting our own sins."
Providence (2018) Caroline Kepnes "Providence is an inventive, dark fairy tale/love story for the twenty-first century, a compulsively readable novel about the complexity of love, relationships, and the monsters we allow ourselves to become. Plus, I have a new favorite character, named Eggs."
Porcelain (2018) Nate Southard "A supernatural and pyschosexual romp that will make you squirm in more ways than one."
The Book of M (2018) Peng Shepherd "I was both disturbed and inspired by Max’s and Ory’s journey through apocalypses large and small. Peng Shepherd has written a prescient, dark fable for the now and for the soon-to-be. The Book of M is our beautiful nightmare shadow."
The Sky Is Yours (2018) Chandler Klang Smith "Chandler Klang Smith's The Sky Is Yours is a visionary, funny, infuriating dystopic romp, and it's full of carefully observed character details and revelations that simultaneously broke my heart and made it soar like a dragon."
The Infinite Future (2018) Tim Wirkus "Roberto Bolano meets Ursula K. Le Guin meets James Hynes meets, um, Kilgore Trout? I'm having a difficult time being clever in the shadow of having read Tim Wirkus's magnificently audacious The Infinite Future. How about this: it's a book about the power and melancholy magic of the stories we tell and of the stories we live."
The Twilight Pariah (2017) Jeffrey Ford "Richard Linklater meets Stephen King meets Indiana Jones meets, well, Jeffrey Ford."
Sip (2017) Brian Allen Carr "It's a post-apocalyptic wasteland and are you on team Dome, team Shadowless Army, team Doc, or team shadow-sipping junkies? I know which team I'm on. Brian Allen Carr's Sip is funny, literate, crass, dark, violent, lyrical, oddly touching, and totally bat-shit crazy. I loved it."
The Clairvoyants (2017) Karen Brown "Karen Brown's The Clairvoyants is an eerie and affecting dose of Gothic fiction. Martha Mary would've been right at home in a Shirley Jackson novel. Martha sees ghosts, and by the end of the twisting, quietly unnerving story, you will swear you do too."
Autumn Cthulhu (2016) Mike Davis "From Nadia Bulkin's sharp, politically savvy creeper to John Langan's stunning epic novella, Mike Davis's anthology is a compelling, eclectic collection of stories from some of today's best and brightest. AUTUMN CTHULHU does more than find its place within the Lovecraftian/weird fiction universe, it expands it."
Abigale Hall (2016) Lauren A Forry "I mean, come on, who doesn't love an atmospheric, creepy-as-hell Gothic novel featuring two tormented sisters? ABIGALE HALL recalls the classics of the genre while smartly pushing and prodding at the genre boundaries as well as the discomfort level of the reader."
Mind Prison (2013) Dave Zeltserman "The reader is never safe in Dave Zeltserman's hands. I love that. You should too."
(b.1971)
