Hello and welcome to the fourth annual celebration of all things Titan, where I will be looking forward, and backwards, and possibly doing myself an injury whilst trying to both at once!
I have quite the collection of e-books, audiobooks and paperbacks to deep dive into, all available via good bookshops or apps such as Kindle Unlimited or Audible Plus.

Not having a great deal of manoeuvre in my book budget, I am forever grateful to the wonderful team at Titan who send me proofs , otherwise I have bought them myself second hand, or had them as gifts etc-hey, who doesn’t want books as a Valentine, I ask you!

For this reason, I tend not to focus on the absolutely gorgeous , but slightly out of my range, coffee table art books but there will be a feature on them upcoming for those who like to find out the mechanics behind the magic in film making and design.

*Also given the fluctuating nature of publishing, I will update this page regularly throughout the year with any changes to release dates and newly added titles*

So, without further ado, let’s look at what is on the schedule for Titan in 2023!

January-June Releases

 

‘The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-Deathly Relics’ by Sam

Siciliano

While Sherlock Holmes and his cousin, Henry Vernier, are in Rome on a diplomatic mission involving the Vatican, the Pope asks the world’s greatest detective to help find a stolen relic: the missing forefinger of “doubting” Saint Thomas.

When the relic is quickly and mysteriously returned, all seems to be resolved. But events are turned upside down when the relic disappears again.

With fresh blood spilled, Holmes and Vernier must follow the trail of a sacrilegious murderer through the streets of Rome, the halls of the Vatican, and beyond.

Release Date 10/01/2023 

‘Such A Pretty Smile’ by Kristi De Meester

There’s something out there that’s killing. Known only as The Cur, he leaves no traces, save for the torn bodies of girls, on the verge of becoming women, who are known as trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.

2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she’s seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother―the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice―until she is punished for using it.

2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape―both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancé is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waives her “problem” away with pills. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can’t understand.

As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is a powerful allegory for what it can mean to be a woman, and an untamed rallying cry for anyone ever told to sit down, shut up, and smile pretty.

Release Date 10/01/2023 Twitter @kristidemeester / Reviewed here

 

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Your past and your family can haunt you like nothing else…

A hilarious and terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of ‘The Final Girl Support Group’. Every childhood home is haunted, and each of us are possessed by our parents. When their parents die at the tail end of the coronavirus pandemic, Louise and Mark Joyner are devastated but nothing can prepare them for how bad things are about to get.

The two siblings are almost totally estranged, and couldn’t be more different. Now, however, they don’t have a choice but to get along. The virus has passed, and both of them are facing bank accounts ravaged by the economic meltdown. Their one asset? Their childhood home. They need to get it on the market as soon as possible because they need the money. Yet before her parents died they taped newspaper over the mirrors and nailed shut the attic door. Sometimes we feel like puppets, controlled by our upbringing and our genes.

Sometimes we feel like our parents treat us like toys, or playthings, or even dolls. The past can ground us, teach us, and keep us safe. It can also trap us, and bind us, and suffocate the life out of us. As disturbing events stack up in the house, Louise and Mark have to learn that sometimes the only way to break away from the past, sometimes the only way to sell a haunted house, is to burn it all down.

Release Date 14/01/2023 /Twitter @grady_hendrix /   Reviewed here

 

‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ by Stephen Graham Jones

December 12th, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw from New York Times bestselling author, Stephen Graham Jones.

Four years after her tumultuous senior year, Jade Daniels is released from prison right before Christmas when her conviction is overturned. But life beyond bars takes a dangerous turn as soon as she returns to Proofrock. Convicted Serial Killer, Dark Mill South, seeking revenge for thirty-eight Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes from his prison transfer due to a blizzard, just outside of Proofrock, Idaho.

Dark Mill South’s Reunion Tour began on December 12th, 2019, a Thursday.

Thirty-six hours and twenty bodies later, on Friday the 13th, it would be over.

Release Date 07/02/2023 / Twitter @SGJ72 

‘Seven Faceless Saints’ by M.K Lobb

In the city of Ombrazia, saints and their disciples rule with terrifying and unjust power, playing favorites while the unfavored struggle to survive.

After her father’s murder at the hands of the Ombrazian military, Rossana Lacertosa is willing to do whatever it takes to dismantle the corrupt system—tapping into her powers as a disciple of Patience, joining the rebellion, and facing the boy who broke her heart. As the youngest captain in the history of Palazzo security, Damian Venturi is expected to be ruthless and strong, and to serve the saints with unquestioning devotion. But three years spent fighting in a never-ending war have left him with deeper scars than he wants to admit… and a fear of confronting the girl he left behind.

Now a murderer stalks Ombrazia’s citizens. As the body count climbs, the Palazzo is all too happy to look the other way—that is, until a disciple becomes the newest victim. With every lead turning into a dead end, Damian and Roz must team up to find the killer, even if it means digging up buried emotions. As they dive into the underbelly of Ombrazia, the pair will discover something more sinister—and far less holy. With darkness closing in and time running out, will they be able to save the city from an evil so powerful that it threatens to destroy everything in its path?

Release Date 07/02/2023 / Twitter @mk_lobb

 

‘The Hollow Kind’ by Andy Davidson

From the acclaimed author of The Boatman’s Daughter, a gripping, achingly atmospheric tale about the horrors that lurk in the dark corners of family history. And a young woman striving to break free of that tragic past. Nellie Gardner is looking for a way out of an abusive marriage when she learns that her long-lost grandfather, August Redfern, has willed her his turpentine estate.

She throws everything she can think of in a bag and flees to Georgia with her eleven-year-old son, Max, in tow. It turns out that the “estate” is a decrepit farmhouse on a thousand acres of old pine forest, but Nellie is thrilled about the chance for a fresh start for her and Max, and a chance for the happy home she never had. So it takes her a while to notice the strange scratching in the walls, the faint whispering at night, how the forest is eerily quiet. But Max sees what his mother can’t: They’re no safer here than they had been in South Carolina. In fact, things might even be worse.

There’s something wrong with Redfern Hill. Something lurks beneath the soil, ancient and hungry, with the power to corrupt hearts and destroy souls. It is the true legacy of Redfern Hill: a kingdom of grief and death, to which Nellie’s own blood has granted her the key. From the author of The Boatman’s Daughter, The Hollow Kind is a jaw-dropping novel about legacy and the horrors that hide in the dark corners of family history. Andy Davidson’s gorgeous, Gothic fable tracing the spectacular fall of the Redfern family will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

Release Date 07/02/2023 / Twitter @theandydavidson

‘The Endless Song’ by Joshua Phillip Jackson

After setting fire to the Forever Sea and leaving the surface world behind, Kindred Greyreach dives below to find a Seafloor populated by roving bands of scavengers. Among them, Kindred discovers a familiar face working to save the Sea from the continued spread of the Greys and the ravages of the world above. But when Kindred finds herself at odds with them, she and her friends will have to use every power available to them—including their link to the surface world—to forestall disaster.

Meanwhile, above, a boy named Flitch, son of the Baron of the Borders, finds himself caught in a dangerous political crisis as survivors from Arcadia and the Once-City arrive on the Mainland. When Flitch begins to receive messages from someone below the Sea, the denizens of the Mainland see it as a sign that ancient enemies from across the Forever Sea are returning. The resulting crisis forces Flitch and his siblings to flee, as they seek out the truth hidden in old stories.

Above and below, Flitch and Kindred will have to work together to save themselves, their loved ones, and the Forever Sea itself.

Release Date 14/02/2023 / Twitter @johnsonjoshuap

‘Sister, Maiden, Monster’ by Lucy A Snyder

A bloody and unforgettable tale of transformation and survival, told by three women surviving in a world devastated by a disastrous transformation from multiple Bram Stoker Award-winner.

Humanity has been irrevocably changed by a virus that radically alters its victims…yet life goes on.

Three women must band together to try to survive. Erin and Savannah are helping usher in the new world, while Mareva has been burdened with a very special task ― one she’s too horrified to even acknowledge.

A beautifully written, cosmically horrifying, wholly unique story that examines the roots of our belief systems and completely defies all expectations.

Release Date 21/02/2023 / Twitter @LucyASnyder

 

 

‘Arch-Conspirator’ by Veronica Roth

A brand-new novella from the New York Times bestseller of Divergent

A thrilling, profoundly moving science fiction retelling of the Greek tragedy Antigone filled with inevitable doom, heart-break and one final act of courage. Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but Antigone’s parents were murdered, leaving her father’s throne vacant.

As her militant uncle Kreon rises to claim it, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest. But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.

Release Date 21/02/2023 / Instagram @veronicaroth / Reviewed here

 

‘One For All’ by Lillie Lainoff

This fierce story transports you to 17th century France, to a world of heart-racing duels and seductive soirées as our heroine fights against her chronic illness to train as a Musketeer, uncovering secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.

Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl.” But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father―a former Musketeer and her greatest champion. Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for new Musketeers: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a sword fight.

With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels that she has a purpose, that she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming―and might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.

Release Date 08/03/2023 / Twitter @lillielainoff 

‘The Strange’ by Nathan Ballingrud

Cormac McCarthy meets The Martian in this chilling tale of Mars first colony, fallen to madness after all contact with Earth ceased, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer.

Anabelle Crisp is fourteen when the Silence arrives, severing all communication between Earth and her new home on Mars. One evening, while she and her father are closing the diner they run in the colony of New Galveston, they are robbed at gunpoint. Among the stolen items is a recording of her mother’s voice, taped on the eve of a trip back to Earth, just before the Silence descended.

Driven by righteous fury and desperation to lift her father’s broken spirits, Anabelle sets out to confront the thieves and bring back the sole vestige of her mother. Accompanied by her loyal robotic companion, Watson; an outcast spaceship pilot named Joe Reilly; and the hardened outlaw Sally Milkwood, Anabelle must first pass through Dig Town, a derelict mining community where a mineral called the Strange has warped the residents in frightening ways, and then brave the Martian desert. As she nears the shadowy Peabody Crater–the epicenter of bizarre goings-on in the colonies–Mars is revealed as a vast haunted house, infested with ghosts, alive with malignant intent-and New Galveston, once a safe haven, nothing more than a guttering candle in a dark world.

Release Date 21/03/2023 / Twitter @NBallingrud

‘Hel’s Eight’ by Stark Holborn

Who controls the future, controls it all…

Ten “Doc” Low is a medic with a dark past, riding the wastes of the desert moon Factus, dispensing medicine to the needy and death to those who cross the laws of the mysterious Seekers. Cursed by otherworldly forces, she stays alone to keep herself safe, and to keep others safe from her… But when she experiences a terrifying vision of conflict, and foresees the deaths of those she once called friends, she must drag herself back to the land of living to stop a war before it begins.

With a rebellion brewing, the Accord’s grip on the Outer Moons weakening and a sinister tycoon buying up all the land in sight, Ten must find allies where she can and face the past, in order to save the future. Even if the cost might be greater than she could ever have imagined…

A wild, adrenaline-packed, whip-smart crash of storytelling and shoot-outs, ideal for fans of Gideon the Ninth, Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers and Alex White’s Salvagers.

Release Date 21/03/2023 / Twitter @starkholborn / Reviewed here

 

‘A House With Good Bones’ by T.Kingfisher

Dark and twisted family roots threaten to strangle their home’s foundations in this chilling haunted house novel from the award-winning master of modern horror, T. Kingfisher.

Samantha Montgomery pulls into the driveway of her family home to find a massive black vulture perched on the mailbox, staring at the house.

Inside, everything has changed. Gone is the eclectic warmth Sam expects; instead the walls are a sterile white. Now, it’s very important to say grace before dinner, and her mother won’t hear a word against Sam’s long-dead and little-missed grandmother, who was the first to put down roots in this small southern town.

The longer Sam stays, the stranger things get. And every day, more vultures circle overhead…

Release Date 28/03/2023 / Twitter @UrsulaV / Reviewed here

‘The Basilisk Throne’ by Greg Keyes

For centuries those on the Basilisk Throne have ruled every continent, brutally enslaving the human inhabitants. But now, after endless wars, the three human empires of Ophion, Velesa, and Modjal have pushed the inhuman Drehhu back to their heartland and are united in one final, massive assault to defeat them forever. It’s been tried before, but the infernal weapons and dark magic of the Drehhu have always triumphed. Basilisk has never fallen.

Commanding his merchant fleet in support of the human forces, Alastor Nevelon and his son Crespin set sail against the enemy—and this time they have their own secret weapons. The Drehhu, however, do not have a monopoly on deceit. or ambition. Alistor is forced to send his daughter Chrysanthe to the capitol city Ophion Magne as a “token” of his loyalty. He does so freely, for he is certain of treachery within the very empire he serves. After all, whomever controls the Basilisk Throne can control the world. He instructs Chrysanthe to use her considerable intellect to discover whatever plots may be afoot in the heart of Ophion. Chrysanthe agrees, knowing that in doing so she enters a dangerous place where courtly manners hide murderous intentions.

While nations collide and the conflict explodes, the true key to defeating the Drehhu may lie in a remote mountain stronghold, a wild rogue known as Hound, and Ammolite, the young slave of a sorcerer more ancient than any nation and whose true loyalties are entirely unknown.

Released 04/04/2023 /  Twitter @gregzillia

‘Arca (The Five Queendoms) By G.R Mcallister

An ambitious page-turning fantasy, full of deadly magic, court politics and ruthless women, perfect for fans of House of the Dragon, R.F. Kuang, and Tasha Suri

Return to the Five Queendoms in the sequel to Scorpica, a sweeping epic fantasy that Rebecca Roanhorse called “ambitious and engaging,” in which a centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born.

The Drought of Girls has ended, but the rift it broke open between the Queendoms is not so easily healed. Political tensions roil the senate of Paxim, where Queen Heliane vows to make her son Paulus the nation’s first ruling King or die trying. Scorpican troops amass on the border of Arca, ready to attack. And within Arca itself, its young, unready queen finds her court a nest of vipers and her dreams besieged by a mysterious figure with unknown intentions.

As iron and magic clash on the battlefield and powerful women scheme behind the scenes, danger and violence abound. Can anyone stop chaos from ripping the Queendoms apart?

Release Date 04/04/2023 / Twitter @theladygreer

‘Multiverses’ edited by Preston Grassmann

A mind-blowing anthology of 18 stories bringing you the infinite Earths of the multiverse.

Featuring Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald, Lavie Tidhar, Eugen Bacon and more.

INFINITY. HERE. NOW.

What if every decision you’ve ever made created a new reality. A new life, a new world of possibilities for what you could become? What if the best of all possible worlds is just around the corner? Or the worst?

This anthology brings together an international cast of luminaries to explore the infinite worlds of what could be. The smashed together chaos of multiple Londons piled on top of each other; a world where a tunnel turns Japan and the United States into close neighbours; catastrophic accidents on multidimensional spacecraft; shadowy organisations and the merciless assassins they control; the unstoppable force of your infinite grandmothers.

Explore the infinite beauties and terrors of the multiverse with the finest minds writing in science fiction today, and see what could have been…

Release Date 11/04/2023 / Twitter @prestongrassmann

‘The Other Lives Of Miss Emily White’ by A.J Elwood

An eerie tale of young girls’ obsession and what happens when it grows out of hand, perfect for fans of dark academia, The Secret History and Picnic at Hanging Rock.

1864. Banished from her parents’ farm to a boarding school for young ladies, Ivy feels utterly alone. In a crumbling and isolated seminary that has seen better days, she is shunned by the other pupils for her working-class origins, and mourns for her sister, who died not long after she was sent away. Hope comes in the form of a new teacher, Mademoiselle Emelie Blanc, but almost immediately, suspicions are raised that she is not all she should be. Ivy, however, is captivated, and the teacher is the only one to encourage her artistic talent.

Yet as Ivy’s devotion grows, odd reports begin to circulate that Mademoiselle Blanc has unusual powers. She has been glimpsed in the garden picking flowers whilst also teaching a class, leaving the school but stalking the halls at the same time. A book in another pupil’s possession tells of a teacher overseas who had a doppelganger, their sinister powers driving pupils to hysteria. Soon Ivy’s fellow students are convinced Mademoiselle Blanc – Emily White – can appear in two places at once. As increasingly strange rumours abound, Ivy’s obsession spins out of control, and with Emily White’s future at stake, she will do anything to keep her only friend.

Release Date 14/04/2023 / Twitter @Ali_L

‘Twice Cursed’ Edited by Marie O’Regan

From the fun of the fair to the depths of hell, experience sixteen more curses in this sequel to the bestselling Cursed: An Anthology. A blend of traditional and reimagined curses from fairy-tales to Snow White, from some of the best names in fantasy.

In this sequel to the bestselling Cursed: An Anthology are more tales from some of the best names in fantasy.

Following on from the hugely successful first volume, in this book Joe Hill gives us a chilling interpretation of a carnival curse in ‘Dark Carousel’, Sarah Pinborough offers a hellish curse in ‘The Confessor’s Tale’, both A.C. Wise and Laura Purcell tackle fairy-tale curses from the female protagonists’ perspective in ‘Shoes as Red as Blood’ and ‘Awake’, while Neil Gaiman gives us a very different take on Snow White in ‘Snow, Glass, Apples’, Kelley Armstrong draws us into her unique mythos with a troublesome toy in ‘Just Your Standard Haunted Doll Drama’, and Helen Grant imagines a curse on a much bigger scale in ‘A Curse is a Curse.’

Release Date 18/04/2023 / Twitter @Marie_O_Regan

‘Silenced’ by Ann Claycomb

A powerful feminist fairy tale of four women each cursed by the same abusive man. Gripping and essential, it will captivate readers of Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne, Heather Walter’s Malice and Menna van Praag’s The Sisters Grimm.

Four women. Four enchantments. One man. But he is no handsome prince, and this is no sugar-sweet fairy tale. Jo, Abony, Ranjani, and Maia all have something in common: they have each been cursed by the CEO of their workplace after he abused his power to prey on them. He wants them silent and uses his sinister dark magic to keep them quiet about what he did. But Jo, Abony, Ranjani and Maia are not fairy-tale princesses waiting to be rescued. They are fierce, angry women with a bond forged in pain, and they’re about to discover that they have power of their own.

In this sharply written, bitingly relevant modern fable, the magic is dark and damaging, and the women are determined to rescue themselves.

Release Date 25/04/2023 / Twitter @AnnClaycomb44 / Review here

‘A Portrait In Shadow’ by Nicole Jarvis

Enter the sumptuous world of 17th century Florence, where art and magic are interwoven. Artemisia Gentileschi is a bright talent mired in shadows and will stop at nothing to make her mark, or exact her revenge – perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke.

When Artemisia Gentileschi arrives in Florence seeking a haven for her art, she faces instant opposition from the powerful Accademia, self-proclaimed guardians of the healing and necrotic magic that protect the city from plague and curses. The all-male Accademia jealously guards its power over art and architecture, and has no place for an ambitious young woman arriving from Rome under a cloud of scandal.

Alone and fighting for every commission, Artemisia begins winning allies among luminaries such Galileo and Michelangelo the Younger, as well as the wealthy and powerful Cristina de’ Medici. But when the shadow of her infamous rape trial in Rome turns her thoughts to vengeance, and an incendiary preacher turns his ire from Galileo to Florence’s art world, Artemisia must choose between revenge and her dream of creating a legacy that will span the generations.

Release Date 02/05/ 2023 

‘Such Sharp Teeth’ by Rachel Harrison

A witty, moving tale of monsters and modern life from the award-winning author of Cackle and The Return. For readers looking for a story of sisterhood, complicated families and love with a bit more bite…

Rory Morris isn’t thrilled to be moving back to her hometown, even if it is temporary. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant, estranged from the baby’s father, and needs support, so Rory returns to the place she thought she’d put in her rearview.

After a night out at a bar where she runs into an old almost-flame, she hits a large animal with her car. And when she gets out to investigate, she’s attacked. Rory survives, miraculously, but life begins to look and feel different. She’s unnaturally strong, with an aversion to silver-and suddenly the moon has her in its thrall. She’s changing into someone else-something else, maybe even a monster. But does that mean she’s putting those close to her in danger? Or is embracing the wildness inside of her the key to acceptance? A darkly comedic, part horror, part love story and a brilliantly layered portrait of trauma, rage, and vulnerability.

Release Date 09/05/2023 / Twitter @rachfacelogic  / Reviewed here

‘The Other Side Of Never’ edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane

Dark tales inspired by J. M. Barrie’s classic stories of Neverland, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, and of course Peter Pan, from some the masters of science-fiction, horror and fantasy including A. C. Wise, Claire North, Lavie Tidhar and more.

The award-winning Marie O’Regan & Paul Kane bring together the masters of fantasy, science-fiction and horror, to spin stories inspired by J. M. Barrie’s classic tale. A murder investigation leads a detective to a strange place called Neverland; pupils attend a school for Peters; a young boy loses his shadow and goes to desperate lengths to retrieve it.

These stories take the original tales of Peter & Wendy, the Lost Boys and Tinkerbell, twisting and turning them. From dystopias to the gritty streets of London, these stories will keep you reading all night and straight on ’til morning.

Release Date 09/05/2023 / Twitter @Marie_O_Regan and PaulKaneShadow

‘Girls Of Little Hope’ by Dale Halvorsen and Sam Beckbessinger

A chilling and eerie tale of monsters, teen angst and small-town America for fans of Stranger Things, The Thing, and the 1990s

Three girls went into the woods. Only two came back, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Or did they?

Being fifteen is tough, tougher when you live in a boring-ass small town like Little Hope, California (population 8,302) in 1996. Donna, Rae and Kat keep each other sane with the fervour of teen girl friendships, zine-making and some amateur sleuthing into the town’s most enduring mysteries: a lost gold mine, and why little Ronnie Gaskins burned his parents alive a decade ago.

Their hunt will lead them to a hidden cave from which only two of them return alive. Donna the troublemaker can’t remember anything. Rae seems to be trying to escape her memories of what happened, while her close-minded religious family presses her for answers. And Kat? Sweet, wannabe writer Kat who rebelled against her mom’s beauty pageant dreams by getting fat? She’s missing. Dead. Or terribly traumatised, out there in the woods, alone.

As the police circle and Kat’s frantic mother Marybeth starts doing some investigating of her own, Rae and Donna will have to return to the cave where they discover a secret so shattering that no-one who encounters it will ever be the same.

Release Date 18/06/2023 / Twitter @beckbessinger / Review here

‘All Hallows’ by Christopher Golden

Perfect for fans of Stephen King and the 1980s nostalgia of Stranger Things. A gripping suburban nightmare from the New York Times-bestselling, Bram-Stoker Award-winning master of horror fiction.

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unravelling. The Barbosas have opened their annual Haunted Woods attraction in the forest behind their house―the house they’re about to lose. The Sweeneys are fighting about alcoholism and infidelity on their front lawn. Up the street, high-school senior Vanessa Montez is about to have her secrets exposed during the violent end to the neighbourhood’s block party, while down the street, the truth about Ruth and Zack Burgess turns out to be even more horrifying than the rumours ever were.

And all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. Children who seem terrified, and who beg the neighbourhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them…and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the community splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales…but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.

Release Date 20/06/2023 / Twitter @ChristophGolden

 

July-December Releases

‘The Others Of Edenwell’ by Verity M Holloway

A dark spirit haunts an isolated Norfolk retreat in this unsettling and sinister historical horror set in the early 1900s, perfect for readers of Michelle Paver, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Andrew Michael Hurley. Norfolk, 1917.

Unable to join the army due to a heart condition, Freddie lives and works with his father in the grounds of the Edenwell Hydropathic, a wellness retreat in the Norfolk broads. Preferring the company of birds – who talk to him as one of their own – over the eccentric characters who live in the spa, bathing in its healing waters, Freddie overhears their premonitions of murder.

Eustace Moncrieff is a troublemaker, desperate to go to war and leave behind his wealthy family. Shipped to Edenwell by his mother to keep him safe from the horrors of the trenches, he strikes up a friendship with Freddie at the behest of Doctor Chalice, the American owner of the Hydropathic.

As the two friends grow closer and grapple with their demons, they discover a body, and something terrifying stalking the woods. The dark halls of the spa are breached, haunted by the woodland beast, and the boys soon realise that they may be the only things standing between this monster and the whole of Edenwell

Release Date 04/07/2023  / Twitter @Verity_Holloway

‘The Beast You Are’ by Paul Tremblay

A haunting collection of short fiction from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club, A Head Full of Ghosts, and The Cabin at the End of the World.

Paul Tremblay has won widespread acclaim for illuminating the dark horrors of the mind in novels and stories that push the boundaries of storytelling itself. The fifteen pieces in this brilliant collection, The Beast You Are, are all monsters of a kind, ready to loudly (and lovingly) smash through your head and into your heart.

In “The Dead Thing,” a middle-schooler struggles to deal with the aftermath of her parents’ substance addictions and split. One day, her little brother claims he found a shoebox with “the dead thing” inside. He won’t show it to her and he won’t let the box out of his sight. In “The Last Conversation,” a person wakes in a sterile, white room and begins to receive instructions via intercom from a woman named Anne. When they are finally allowed to leave the room to complete a task, what they find is as shocking as it is heartbreaking.

The title novella, “The Beast You Are,” is a mini epic in which the destinies and secrets of a village, a dog, and a cat are intertwined with a giant monster that returns to wreak havoc every thirty years.

A masterpiece of literary horror and psychological suspense, The Beast You Are is a fearlessly imagined collection from one of the most electrifying and innovative writers working today.

Release Date 11/07/2023 / Twitter @paulGtramblay

‘Unquiet’ by E.Saxey

London 1893. Judith has been living alone in her family home for four months, the rest of her family travelling around the world whilst she tries desperately to get over the death of Sam, her brother-in-law, who drowned in an accident a year ago.

One icy evening, she discovers Sam, alive, in the garden. He has no memory of the past year, and remembers little of the accident that appeared to take his life.

Desperate to keep his reappearance a secret until she can discover the truth about what happened to him, Judith journeys to the scene of Sam’s accident, only to unearth secrets she never thought she would find.

Release Date 18/07/2023 / Twitter @esaxey

 

‘They Lurk’ by Ronald Malfi

From the bestselling author of Come with Me, five collected novellas from the master of terror, featuring possession, parasites and something monstrous lurking outside…

COME CLOSER…

Five terrifying collected horror novellas newly reissued from the “modern-day Algernon Blackwood”.

Skullbelly

A private detective is hired after three teenagers disappear in a forest and uncovers a terrible local secret.

The Separation

Marcus arrives in Germany to find his friend up-and-coming prizefighter Charlie in a deep depression. But soon Charlie’s behavior grows increasingly bizarre. Is he suffering from a nervous breakdown, or are otherworldly forces at work?

The Stranger

Set a rural Florida parking lot, David returns to his car to find a stranger sat behind the wheel. The doors are locked and there’s a gun on the dashboard. And that was when then the insanity started…

After the Fade

A girl walked into a small Annapolis tavern, collapsed and died. Something had latched itself to the base of her skull. And it didn’t arrive alone.

Now, the patrons of The Fulcrum are trapped, held prisoner within the tavern’s walls by monstrous things, trying to find their way in.

And one more novella to be revealed!

Release Date 18/07/2023 / Twitter @RonaldMalfi

‘Wild Spaces’ by S.L Coney

An eleven-year-old boy lives an idyllic childhood exploring the remote coastal plains and wetlands of South Carolina alongside his parents and his dog Teach.

But when the boy’s eerie and estranged grandfather shows up one day with no warning, cracks begin to form as hidden secrets resurface that his parents refuse to explain.

The longer his grandfather outstays his welcome and the greater the tension between the adults grows, the more the boy feels something within him changing—physically—into something his grandfather welcomes and his mother fears.

Something abyssal.

Something monstrous.

Release Date 01/08/2023 / Twitter @rockconey01

‘Thornhedge’ by T.Kingfisher

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

If only.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

Release Date 01/08/2022 / Twitter @UrsulaV

 

‘Medusa’s Sisters’ by Lauren J.A Bear

Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters Stheno and Euryale were unique among immortals. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned – too late – that a god’s love is a violent one.

Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from seaborne origins to the outskirts of the Pantheon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.

Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.

Release Date 08/08/2023 / Twitter @laurenjabear 

‘Bad Dolls’ by Rachel Harrison

In this stunning new collection of four horror stories, award-winning author Rachel Harrison explores themes of body image, complicated female friendship, heartbreak and hauntings.

In Reply Hazy, Try Again, an indecisive young woman finds a mysterious Magic 8 Ball that might just have the answers she’s been looking for…or might lead her down a path of self-destruction. In Bachelorette, a bridesmaid attends her childhood best friend’s bachelorette weekend only to discover the itinerary may demand more than she’s willing to sacrifice. In Goblin, an unusually brutal dieting app wreaks havoc on the life of a timid, insecure woman preparing to attend her ex’s wedding. In Bad Dolls, after the death of her younger sister, a wayward young woman comes into possession of a strange porcelain doll that could offer a connection to her lost sister, but could also just be pure evil.

These dark tales navigate the complications of modern life with humour, insight and the odd blood sacrifice..

Release Date 05/09/2023 / Twitter @rachfacelogic

‘Frankenstein’s Monsters’ by J.S Barnes

A bold, unique sequel to Mary Shelley’s classic work of literature from the author of Dracula’s Child and The City of Dr Moreau.

“He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance.” There are those who would swear that Victor Frankenstein is dead. Those who would swear his Creature died also.

They were wrong.

1842. Underneath the Thames, workmen digging Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s tunnel uncover something monstrous, asleep in the clay. In Norfolk, a ragged stranger arrives at the home of philosopher Samuel Greene and his wife and sets to work, conducting bizarre experiments.

1850. Stories spread across London: someone living in the shadows, helping those in need. In Newgate prison, Samuel Greene stands accused of murder. Philanthropist Edwin Melrose and investigator Arthur Phipps are determined to understand what happened, but the story Greene has to tell is almost unbelievable: monstrous, impossible creations made in an outhouse laboratory.

In this visionary sequel to Mary Shelley’s original classic of literature, old experiments resume, new mysteries arise, and the true question of mankind’s morality tested once more.

Release Date 12/09/2023 

‘The Collector’ by Laura Kat Young

A frightening dystopian horror novel where grief is forbidden and purged from the mind – a nightmarish mix of 1984 and Never Let Me Go

The Bureau has your best interests in mind

Some people kill themselves first. Dev is the Collector of the month. His job is to record memories of grief for the Bureau’s catalogue before the person is Reset. After all, sorrow is unproductive, inefficient.

But after Dev records the memory donations, he returns home and secretly preserves them for himself in a notebook, kept hidden behind a wall in his tiny apartment. But the Bureau is always watching. And Dev’s small transgression leads to a terrible betrayal from which there is no way back.

Release Date 12/09/2023 

 

‘Playing The Witch Card’ by K.J Dell ‘Antonia

When Flair Hardwicke returns to the tiny town of Rattleboro to take over her grandmother’s beloved bakery, she believes she’s prepared for anything. All she needs is herself, her daughter Lucie, and to get as far away from her cheating ex-husband as physically possible.

But Flair soon discovers that sweet treats weren’t the only thing her grandmother was known for in Rattleboro. With the help of a misbehaving deck of tarot card-shaped cookies, Flair quickly finds herself being drawn back into the web of magic and mysticism she’s fought so hard to escape.

Even worse: her ex is in town. Flair hasn’t spoken to Jude Oakes, now a famous chocolatier, since he broke her heart at seventeen. And Flair would be perfectly happy to leave it that way – if only Jude’s mother would stop trying to force them to participate in Rattleboro’s famous Halloween trail together. When Flair finds she’s accidentally summoned Lucie’s father to town under a curse she can’t break, the recipe for Halloween chaos seems to be complete.

But not everything in Rattleboro is as it seems, and as danger unexpectedly threatens Flair’s family, she is forced to put aside everything she thinks she knows about love, witchcraft, motherhood – and herself. Because Flair might think she’s done with magic, but magic certainly isn’t done with Flair.

Release Date 12/09/2023 / Twitter @KJDellAntonia 

 

‘In These Hallowed Halls’ edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane

ENROLLMENT BEGINS NOW

A beguiling, sinister collection of 12 dark academia short stories from masters of the genre, including Olivie Blake, M.L. Rio, Susie Yang and more!

Darkened libraries at elite schools, looming Gothic towers, charismatic professors, the tang of autumn in the air… and the rivalries and obsessions that lead to murder. Within these Hallowed Halls is a chilling, compulsive collection of dark academia short stories.

Release Date 12/09/2023 / Twitter @PaulKaneShadow and @Marie_O_Regan

 

 

‘Maeve Fly’ by C.J Leede

A provocative, blood-soaked slasher about unsung villainesses – a nightmarish blend of Eric la Rocca meets American Psycho

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess.

By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes. But when Gideon Green – her best friend’s brother – moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet. Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona.

A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of American Psycho. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.

Release Date 19/09/2023

‘Vertical’ by Cody Goodfellow

A group of urbex explorers breaking into the world’s tallest skyscraper in Moscow grapple with dangers from all sides in this pulse-pounding cinematic thriller for readers of Greg Hurwitz and Patrick Hoffman.

Michael Foster, Cam Buckley and Maddie Acosta – all former activists in the infamous urbex crew Les Furies. Together they scaled buildings, broke into the spaces no-one else could, and chased a rush that still haunts them.

Now though, Michael is stuck recovering from an injury, coding in a dead-end start-up, But Les Furies cannot hide forever. A journalist has uncovered Michael’s identity and he is being sent anonymous videos of his time in the crew.

When he discovers that Cam and Maddie are planning on reuniting the crew one last time, to scale the Korova Tower in Moscow, he is sceptical. But the tower has never been scaled before. Breaking into the world’s tallest building on Russia Day is too good an opportunity to pass him by.

But Michael is about to discover that the vertical city has another purpose, one far more sinister than he could have imagined, and this one final ride for Les Furies might well be the last thing any of them ever do.

Release Date 26/09/2023 

‘The Fragile Threads Of Power’ by V.E Schwab

Seven years have passed since the doors between the worlds were sealed. Seven years since Kell, Lila and Holland stood against Osaron, a desperate battle that saved the worlds of Red, Grey and White London. Seven years since Kell’s magic was shattered, and Holland lost his life.

Now Rhy Maresh rules Red London with his new family – his queen, Nadiya, their daughter Ren, and his consort, Alucard. But his city boils with conspiracy and rebellion, fuelled by rumours he is causing magic to fade from the word.

Now Kosika, a child Antari, sits on the throne of White London. The new queen leads her people in new rituals of sacrifice and blood in devotion to the altar of Holland Vosijk, summoning vast power she may not be able to control.

Now Lila and Kell, living free on the waves, are charged by the captain of the Floating Market to retrieve an immensely powerful artefact, stolen by secretive forces.

Now Tes, a young woman with a knack for fixing broken things, is thrust into the affairs of Antari and kings, traitors and thieves. And only her unique powers can weave the threads of power together.

A triumphant return to the worlds of The Shades of Magic, The Fragile Threads of Power continues the stories of fan-favourite characters Kell, Lila, Rhy and Alucard, and introduces a new generation of magic, shadows and embers in the dark.

Release Date 26/09/2023 / Twitter @veschwab

‘The Undetectables’ by Courtney Smyth

Be gay, solve crime, take naps—A witty and quirky fantasy murder mystery if a folkloric world of witches, faeires, vampires, trolls and ghosts, for fans of Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey and T. J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door.

A magical serial killer is stalking the Occult town of Wrackton. Hypnotic whistling causes victims to chew their own tongues off, leading to the killer being dubbed the Whistler (original, right?). But outside the lack of taste buds and the strange magical carvings on the victims’ torsos, the murderer leaves no evidence. No obvious clues. No reason – or so it seems.

Enter the Undetectables, a detective agency run by three witches and a ghost in a cat costume (don’t ask). They are hired to investigate the murders, but with their only case so far left unsolved, will they be up to the task? Mallory, the forensic science expert, is struggling with pain and fatigue from her recently diagnosed fibromyalgia. Cornelia, the team member most likely to go rogue and punch a police officer, is suddenly stirring all sorts of feelings in Mallory. Diana, the social butterfly of the group, is hitting up all of her ex-girlfriends for information. And not forgetting ghostly Theodore – deceased, dramatic, and also the agency’s first dead body and unsolved murder case.

With bodies stacking up and the case leading them to mysteries at the very heart of magical society, can the Undetectables find the Whistler before they become the killer’s next victims?

Release Date 26/09/2023 / Twitter @cswritesbooks

‘Bloom’ by Delilah S.Dawson

A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella from the New York Times bestselling author.

Rosemary meets Ash at the farmers’ market. Ash—precise, pretty, and practically perfect—sells bars of soap in delicate pastel colors, sprinkle-spackled cupcakes stacked on scalloped stands, beeswax candles, jelly jars of honey, and glossy green plants. Ro has never felt this way about another woman; with Ash, she wants to be her and have her in equal measure.

But as her obsession with Ash consumes her, she may find she’s not the one doing the devouring…

Release Date 08/10/2023 / Twitter @DelilahSDawson

 

‘The Haunting Of Alejandra’ by V.Castro

The story of a woman haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona as she unravels the dark secrets of her family history in this ravishing and provocative horror novel from the author of Alien: Vasquez.

Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her. Nor can they see what Alejandra sees. In times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, the apparition of a crying woman in a ragged white gown.

When Alejandra visits a therapist, she begins exploring her family’s history, starting with the biological mother she only recently rediscovered. As she goes deeper into the lives of the women in her family, she learns that heartbreak and tragedy are not the only things she has in common with her ancestors.

Because the crying woman was with them, too. She is La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican legend. And she will not leave until Alejandra follows her grandmother, and all the women who came before her into the darkness.

But Alejandra has inherited more than just pain. She has inherited the strength and the courage of her foremothers―and she will have to summon everything they have given her to banish La Llorona forever.

Release Date 17/10/2023 / Twitter @vlatinalondon

‘Christmas and Other Horrors:An Anthology Of Solstice Horror’ edited by Ellen Datlow

Hugo Award winning editor, and horror legend, Ellen Datlow presents a terrifying and chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu and many more.

Even though many celebrate the winter solstice as a time of joy, a darker tradition of ghost tales and horror stories resides in the long winter nights. This anthology of all new stories will scour the world for the unholy, the dark, the dangerous, the horrific aspects of a time when families and friends come together―for better and worse.

Alongside Christmas celebrations, around the world are Makara Sankranti in the Hindu calendar in India, Yalda Night in Iran, Chanukah, the Roman Saturnalia, the Krampus, Dongzhi (solar term) in East Asia where sunlight passes through the 17 arches of Seventeen Arch Bridge, Summer Palace, Beijing, the pagan festival of Yule, St. Lucia’s Day in Scandinavia, the Druidic tradition of Alban Arthan, Soyal for Hopi Indians, Peruvian solstice festivals, and even Christmas in Antarctica at the research stations.

Because the weather outside is frightful, but the fire inside is hungry…

Release Date 24/10/2023 / Twitter @EllenDatlow

‘The Reformatory’ by Tananarive Due

A gloriously creepy Deep South horror story based on the infamous Dozier School for boys, perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians and Nothing But Blackened Teeth.

Jim Crow Florida, 1950.

Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens Jr., who for a trivial scuffle with a white boy is sent to The Gracetown School for Boys. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there.

In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school’s ghosts – only they have their own motivations…

Release Date 31/10/2023 / Twitter @TananariveDue

 

‘Welcome To Forever’ by Nathan Tavares

Fox is a memory editor – one of the best – gifted with the skill to create real life in the digital world. When he wakes up in Field of Reeds Centre for Memory Reconstruction with no idea how he got there, the therapists tell him he was a victim in a terrorist bombing by Khadija Banks, the pioneer of memory editing technology turned revolutionary. A bombing which shredded the memory archives of all its victims, including his husband Gabe.

Thrust into reconstructions of his memories exploded from the fragments that survived the blast, Fox tries to rebuild his life, his marriage and himself. But he quickly realises his world is changing, unreliable, and echoing around itself over and over.

As he unearths endless cycles of meeting Gabe, falling in love and breaking up, Fox digs deep into his past, his time in the refugee nation of Aaru, and the exact nature of his relationship with Khadija. Because, in a world tearing itself apart to forget all its sadness, saving the man he loves might be the key to saving us all.

Release Date 07/11/2023 / Twitter @nathan_tavares

 

Is there anything that you are particularly looking forward to? Any titles that I have missed?

Keep checking back as I will be regularly updating this through the coming year as titles and covers are released!
Let me know over on social media what you plan reading via Twitter (RACHELb75@RachelReadIt) or Instagram (@booksinmyhallway)