Here is this month's roundup of anticipated horror releases!
The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
Publication date (rerelease): June 1st, 2021
A struggling silhouette artist in Victorian Bath seeks out a renowned child spirit medium in order to speak to the dead - and to try and identify their killers - in this beguiling new tale from the queen of Gothic fiction, Laura Purcell.
As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another... Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?
Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them. But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back.
As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another... Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?
Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them. But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back.
For the Wolf by Hannah F. Whitten
Publication date: June 1st, 2021
The first daughter is for the Throne.The second daughter is for the Wolf.
For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes a dark fantasy novel about a young woman who must be sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn't the only danger lurking in the Wilderwood.
As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose-to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.
Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again.
But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood-and her world-whole.
The author has provided a list of content warnings here.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
Publication date: June 1st, 2021
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death.
A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires.
What have you done today to deserve your eyes?
Malignant Summer by Tim Meyer
Publication date: June 1st, 2021
It’s 1998 in Hooperstown, New Jersey and people are getting sick. Some citizens blame the local chemical plant. A select few believe something far more terrifying is responsible, a dreadful force that causes nightmarish visions and aberrant illnesses. Bad things are blooming in Hooperstown, and the stench of death is growing stronger...
Standing on the edge of summer break after the longest last day of eighth grade ever, Doug Simms and his two best friends join a group of older kids for an all-night scavenger hunt. It’s supposed to be a celebration, an evening of fun and freedom. But what happens that night will change their summer in the darkest ways imaginable. And not just their summer...but their entire lives.
MALIGNANT SUMMER is a coming-of-age epic where innocence is lost and the path through adolescence is painful. Where dreamscapes merge with reality. Where love seems possible, and the best season feels like it can last forever.
City of the Creeps by Ernie Kaltenbrunner, Jr.
Publication date: June 3rd, 2021
The Crazies meets Day of the Dead, molded for a modern readership.
The virus is smart, learning as it goes, and finding opportunities to thrive.
People are changing. They’re quiet. They’re spacey. They’re harboring something foreign and looking mingle…People are biting. People are chasing. People are spreading a virus that turns even the most civilized into a creature of violence.
Can a small group of survivors make it through the day, will they survive the night?
Survive unscathed? No.
Survive unchanged? No.
Survive uncontaminated? Maybe.
Read now
The Crazies meets Day of the Dead, molded for a modern readership.
The virus is smart, learning as it goes, and finding opportunities to thrive.
People are changing. They’re quiet. They’re spacey. They’re harboring something foreign and looking mingle…People are biting. People are chasing. People are spreading a virus that turns even the most civilized into a creature of violence.
Can a small group of survivors make it through the day, will they survive the night?
Survive unscathed? No.
Survive unchanged? No.
Survive uncontaminated? Maybe.
Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro
Publication date: June 22nd, 2021
2018: Belinda Alvarez has returned to Texas for the wedding of her best friend Veronica. The farm is the site of the urban legend, La Reina de Las Chicharras - The Queen of The Cicadas.In 1950s south Texas a farmworker—Milagros from San Luis Potosi, Mexico—is murdered. Her death is ignored by the town, but not the Aztec goddess of death, MictecacÃhuatl. The goddess hears the dying cries of Milagros and creates a plan for both to be physically reborn by feeding on vengeance and worship.
Belinda and the new owner of the farmhouse, Hector, find themselves immersed in the legend and realize it is part of their fate as well.
Daniel Russell was only thirteen years old when his father tried to kill them both by driving their car into Moon Lake. Miraculously surviving the crash—and growing into adulthood—Daniel returns to the site of this traumatic incident in the hopes of recovering his father's car and bones. As he attempts to finally put to rest the memories that have plagued him for years, he discovers something even more shocking among the wreckage—a twenty-year-old relic that has ties to a twisted web of dark deeds, old grudges, and strange murders.
As Daniel diligently follows where the mysterious trail of vengeance leads, he unveils the heroic revelation at its core.
Camp Neverland by Lisa Quigley
Publication date: June 24th, 2021
Camp Neverland is special. At least that's what it said on the mysterious brochure. But when Max arrives to discover her tormentor Chuck Snyder is there, too, her hopes for a magical summer are dashed. Still, the bond she develops with her cabinmates feels almost too good to be true. And when kids start dying in gruesome ways, Max hides a frightening secret. She soon learns just how far she'll go to belong.
Read now
Camp Neverland is special. At least that's what it said on the mysterious brochure. But when Max arrives to discover her tormentor Chuck Snyder is there, too, her hopes for a magical summer are dashed. Still, the bond she develops with her cabinmates feels almost too good to be true. And when kids start dying in gruesome ways, Max hides a frightening secret. She soon learns just how far she'll go to belong.