THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT MY BRAIN  by R. L. Stine
WILL MY CAT EAT MY EYEBALLS by Caitlin Doughty
MYRRH by Polly Hall
WHERE THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by Cassondra Khaw
WHERE THE DEAD WAIT by Ally Wilkes

With the holiday shopping season kicking off this week, I thought I'd get my monthly reads out a bit ahead of schedule because if they're not already there, these books deserve a place on your TBR pile!

Look, I'm a sucker for two thing: craft books and Goosebumps​. As such, I'd long had Stine's craft book, THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE ABOUT MY BRAIN on preorder, and I tucked right in the second it arrived on my doorstep. A couple hours later, and I have more appreciation than ever for Bob and his work, and the way his wonderfully weird brain works. Even if you don't write MG, even if you don't write spooky stuff, this is still an excellent, accessible, easy read to inspire your inner-writer.

As November is "nonfiction November," and I'm hard at work on the BLESS YOUR HEART sequel, another read on weird, dead stuff was right up my alley, and Caitlin Doughty does not disappoint. Written in short-form Q&A style, WILL MY CAT EAT MY EYEBALLS answers, in essay form, some of our top questions about dead bodies, funeral processes, and other things macabre. Fun facts and filled with heart, you'll forget entirely that you're reading about decomposition.

​An advance copy of MYRRH came to me from the UK, and I was happy to read. A short novel (or long novella, depending on where you put 50k-words (about 260pp)), filled with twists and turns, this festering account of the horrors women hold in their wombs--and the ones their daughters inherit--will absolutely f*ck you up.

I red THE SALT GROWS HEAVY as an ARC over the summer, but decided to tuck in for seconds to support one of my MFA students this semester (and she won the Best Student Paper Award from the Brothers Grimm Society of North America based on her critical essay of mermaid in revisionist fairy tales and folklore!!!). On my second read, this novella continues to shine as my favorite Cassandra Khaw read. Vicious and breath-taking.

Already released in the US, WHERE THE DEAD WAIT came to me for the UK Titan release. Slow burning Polar Gothics aren't my go-to read, but Wilkes certainly has a new fan in me. Eerie, atmospheric, and immersive, this tales of how our deeds haunt us, cannibalism, and despair chills much deeper than the bone.

Today, Black Spot Books revealed the cover for MOTHER KNOWS BEST, a new women-in-horror anthology, edited by yours truly, featuring new and exclusive stories and poems from some of today's fiercest women in horror--with a foreword by MOTHER HORROR, Sadie Hartmann!

I AM STOKED ABOUT THIS NEW ANTHOLOGY.

Rue Morgue also got in on the cover reveal, with an exclusive look here.
 
More information is coming soon, including a full Table of Contents reveal. MOTHER KNOWS BEST releases just in time for Mother's Day 2024.