5 Horror Novels Coming Out Today, July 2 2024
From some haunting bi-racial Gothic horror from Donyae Coles to the highly-anticipated North American release of Fernanda Trías' Pink Slime, there are some great horror novels coming out today! We've
Hauntology Now! is the Substack of interdisciplinary artist, designer, musician, academic writer, and cultural critic J. Simpson, where he writes about all things hauntological, atemporal, philosophical, as well as sharing thoughts, reflections, and musings on music, movies, books, and life.
5 Horror Novels Coming Out July 2, 2024
The Dread Room – Michael Handy
A young couple gets more than they bargained for when they buy an abandoned house with a haunted, windowless room.
Kate and Derrick have just bought their first home in the sleepy town of Millston, MA. The previous owners of the house mysteriously vanished years ago, abandoning the home to foreclosure. Ready to give the house a new life, the young couple soon realize not all is as it seems. There’s a room on the first floor of the house that has been kept sealed away for decades. An odd, dusty little room without windows. A shadowy, disused space that’s somehow colder than the rest of the house. And what about that strange smell? It’s not the dust, but something deeper underneath. Something ominous and threatening. Bad things have happened in this room, and what’s been left in its wake is an overwhelming sense of loss and despair. Welcome to The Dread Room.
Strange noises and eerie sensations soon begin to emanate from the room, inexplicably centered around Kate. Is she losing her mind? Or does she have a latent psychic ability that allows her to detect such phenomena? Plagued by terrible visions and horrific apparitions, Kate becomes determined to uncover the truth behind the Dread Room and what happened to the house’s previous inhabitants. But the deeper Kate digs, the more things seem to escalate. Are the Dread Room spirits trying to hurt her and Derrick, or are they merely crying out for help? With their new home and her very sanity on the line, Kate needs to find the answer–no matter how sinister it may be–before the Dread Room drags her into the darkness for good.
A Misfortune of Lake Monsters – Nicole M. Wolverton
When legends bite back.
Lemon Ziegler wants to escape rural Devil's Elbow, Pennsylvania to attend college--but that's impossible now that she's expected to impersonate the town's lake monster for the rest of her life. Her family has been secretly keeping the tradition of Old Lucy, the famed (and very fake) monster of Lake Lokakoma, alive for generations, all to keep the tourists coming. Without Lemon, the town dies, and she can't disappoint her grandparents . . . or tell her best friends about any of it. That includes Troy Ramirez, who has been covertly in love with Lemon for years, afraid to ruin their friendship by confessing his feelings. When a very real, and very hungry monster is discovered in the lake, secrets must fall by the wayside. Determined to stop the monster, Lemon and her best friends are the only thing standing between Devil's Elbow and the monster out for blood.
For readers who enjoy Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis, House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland, Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain, and The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst.
Midnight Rooms – Donyae Coles
This gothic horror novel is set in England in 1840. Orabella Mumthrope is the orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman. She has zero prospects and no connections, so when a wealthy man named Elias Blakersby appears and declares his interest in marrying her, Orabella is surprised. She allows him to sweep her away to his family estate, Korringhill Manor, but the home is nothing like what she expected. Everything is falling apart, and the servants seem nervous. What’s more, Orabella starts having strange nightmares.
Wilderness Reform – Matt Query and Harrison Query
The authors of the "impossible to put down" (The Guardian) thriller Old Country return with a terrifying novel about a wilderness camp for troubled teens that is plagued by mysterious events and disappearances, taking survival and discipline to a frightening extreme.
Thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to a remote reform program for troubled teens by a juvenile court judge. But when he arrives at the camp, located on the edge of the vast wilderness of northwestern Montana, he immediately recognizes that there is something off about the counselors. They're too friendly and upbeat…yet Ben can tell there's an undercurrent of menace.
As he gets to know the boys in his cabin, he soon discovers that they each have far more going for them than whatever crime landed them there. And each has a different critical skill, one that could help them unearth what is really going on in this place--and how to make it out alive. They are inching ever closer to the truth, and the hidden evil beneath the camp's surface will make itself known in order to deter them.
Pink Slime - Fernanda Trías
Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías is being published in the U.S. on the heels of its initial South American release, and the award-winning novel promises to be one of the best horror books of July 2024. Translated to English by Heather Clearly, Pink Slime straddles the line between horror and science-fiction. It tells the tale of a woman who finds her world on the brink of collapse — a reality made worse by all the people she's tasked with caring for.
Pink Slime sounds devastating and relevant, and it speaks to a very relatable type of horror.
Pink Slime sounds devastating and relevant, and it speaks to a very relatable type of horror. Trías' novel promises to explore how people respond to the loss of control and deadly change that accompanies the apocalypse. It also boasts themes of family and motherhood through its intriguing character study. Needless to say, Pink Slime is a July release that sci-fi and horror readers should have on their radar.
What are you guys reading, watching, or listening to this week? Let us know in the comments or get in touch with J on Twitter!
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Article originally published on Forestpunk.
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