Horror

For fans of Stephen King's The Mist and the HBO hit show The Last of Us comes a wildly inventive, sinister thriller following an estranged father and daughter who find themselves trapped in a diner by a living body of water.

Don't let the water drag you down...

It's been six years since Glen Masters lost his wife in a tragic accident. In hopes of reconnecting with his grieving teenage daughter, Lauren, he decides to take her on a road trip through the Appalachian mountains, where he has fond memories of their past as a family. But what was supposed to be a quick diner pit stop suddenly transforms into a nightmare when armed men stumble in, ranting about a mysterious and deadly "living water" that attacked several people up the road. The story the men spin seems to be the rantings of drunken lunatics, but soon Glen, his daughter, and the other diners find themselves hostages to both the gunmen and the inexplicably terrifying entity.

Because there's truly something wrong with the water, and it has no mercy.

Panic grows as the diners play witness to a nature-defying being that seeks only to swallow everything in its path. With help nowhere in sight, the group of strangers must work together to devise an escape, and ultimately, Glen will have to face his worst fears to reconcile with the past or risk losing everything.

A chilling story from a brand-new voice in fiction, Body of Water explores the complicated nature of grief, terror, and the ghosts we must confront to survive.

FINALIST FOR THE WORLD FANTASY AWARDS

"A lush, beautifully written novel about trying to be a person in our strange world . . . Pick this one up for its exquisite characterization, decaying settings and a dash of Southern gothic horror." --Kiersten White, The New York Times Book Review

A "haunting, brilliant" Appalachian folktale evoking the Southern gothic suspense of Sharp Objects and the eco spine-tinglers of Jeff Vandermeer (Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts)

Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured

Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a "bog-wife." Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails--or refuses--to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.

Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.

At once a gothic eco-horror, a psychological drama, and a family saga, The Bog Wife is a propulsive read for fans of Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, and Matt Bell that speaks to what is knowable and unknowable within a family history and how to know when it is time to move forward.

A chilling horror-thriller debut where a mother's search for her missing daughter battles against the shadows of a historic, dangerous legend.

Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who's disappeared from their London home. She has no idea why-all she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.

As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.

As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the village's grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea. Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is next...

The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day she'll collect.

"Smart, seething social horror...Rumfitt gives her worms the grotesque and triumphant glory they demand." --The New York Times Book Review

From Alison Rumfitt, the author of Tell Me I'm Worthless -- "a triumph of transgressive queer horror" (Publishers Weekly) -- comes Brainwyrms, a searing body horror novel of obsession, violence, and pleasure.

A Shirley Jackson Award finalist - A Best Book of 2023 (Reactor)

"Alison is like the twisted daughter of Clive Barker and Shirley Jackson." --Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author on Tell Me I'm Worthless

When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie's workplace, she blows up Frankie's life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, sleeping with strangers, pushing away her friends. Then, she meets Vanya. Mysterious, beautiful, terrifying Vanya.

The two hit it off immediately, but as their relationship intensifies, so too does Frankie's feeling that Vanya is hiding something from her. When Vanya's secrets threaten to tear them apart, Frankie starts digging, and unearths a sinister, depraved conspiracy, the roots of which go deeper than she ever imagined.

Shocking, grotesque, and downright filthy, Brainwyrms confronts the creeping reality of political terrorism while exploring the depths of love, pain, and identity.

"[An] intimate, vulnerable triumph." --Library Journal, STARRED review

"Rumfitt's talent for portraying the deplorable, disgusting, and grotesque shines throughout her masterful sophomore horror outing." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

Also by Alison Rumfitt:
Tell Me I'm Worthless

Creepy, sumptuous and incredibly gripping, The Brides is a feminist gothic horror about the three women who became the brides of Dracula - and the fourth who managed to escape . . .

"Come to me, and be mine for eternity."

1884. When Mafalda journeys to Budapest to care for her grieving aunt, her secret love, Lucy, hurries from London to comfort her, with chaperone and lady's maid in tow.

But lady's maid Alice, blessed and cursed with the Sight, is tormented by terrifying visions. When chaperone Eliza falls prey to a disturbing wasting illness, the women hope to seek the healing waters of Transylvania. At a nobleman's invitation, they set out for Castle Dracula.

In the depths of the forest, miles from civilization, their host reveals his true intentions; a monstrous ambition which will tear the women apart.

And not all of them will survive.

The Love Witch meets Monstrilio in Bruja's Nest, where a young woman's abuse history and ambition erupt into body horror, class war, and monstrous motherhood.

Raised amidst poverty, alcoholism, and sexual abuse, Yolanda is determined to seize control of her future. When she starts work as an indentured servant on the Fernández De la Rosa estate, she realizes she can secure a place as the lady of the house: with a spell from the local bruja, she can trick their naive son into getting her pregnant.

But the fertility ritual--piercing her flesh, tucking a rooster's heart inside herself--begets more than she expected. Yolanda's body swells and seethes with infection, her few allies dwindle, and she delivers a massive egg under the watchful eye of Santa Muerte, the Mexican folk saint of death. The hacienda where she's been promised a permanent home is full of blasphemies, secrets, and bodies, and the family she's tied herself to is loyal only to wealth and power.

But Yolanda will do anything to protect her child, who deserves the love and safety she never had. Even if everyone insists he's a monster.

Selected as One of The New York Times's 100 Notable Books of the Year
A Barack Obama Summer Read
Libby Award for Best Horror
Nebula, Bram Stoker, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award Finalist
A Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Shelf Awareness, Toronto Star, and Publishers Weekly Best of the Year
Kirkus Reviews Best Historical Fiction

The New York Times bestseller and "horror masterpiece" (NPR) from Stephen Graham Jones--the master of modern horror--is a chilling historical horror novel tracing the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.

"Jones has written his Interview with the Indigenous Vampire. A landmark of horror and historical fiction alike, perhaps the closest thing we have to horror's Moby-Dick." --Vulture

"Inventive and spine-tingling...a master class in voice. Queasy, uneasy, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter plays with the interplay between religion and historical guilt, identity and appetite." --The Washington Post

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.