It’s time to get our 2024 TBR organized! Here are five of my most anticipated reads that are sliding up my TBR!
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase
This is an Africanfuturistic horror genre blend that I CAN’T WAIT to read!! Here’s the back:
Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah's perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.
The truth claws its way into Nelah's life from the grave.
As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing--or risk losing everyone.
Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana's cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?
Release Date: January 23, 2024
Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors
I desperatly wanted to submit to this open call horror anthology when it was available but life got in the way. This b-horror, camp-vibe, killer escalator mall setting sounds like it’s going to be a blast! Here’s the back:
Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors is a collection of neo-gothic tales, nostalgic yarns, capitalist monstrosities, and one stop shopping gone very wrong (or a little too right!). Featuring 22 stories by established and new horror writers from around the world examining the dark side of malls, including: Connor Boyle, Liam Burke, Pines Callahan, Anjum N. Choudhury, Wendy Dalrymple, Cassandra Daucus, Jude Deluca, Coyote Victoria Dembicki, Derek Des Anges, Cyrus Amelia Fisher, Lor Gislason, Eirik Gumeny, Ria Hill, Rick Hollon, Somto Ihezue, Wan Phing Lim, Angela Liu, Avra Margariti, J.A.W. McCarthy, Christi Nogle, Jennifer Lee Rossman, and J.R. Santos.
Edited by Jennifer Jeanne McArdle and Michael W. Phillips Jr.
Release date: Feb 20, 2024
Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo
If you haven’t read the haunting voice of Cynthia Pelayo, now is your chance! Her new book is coming out in the spring of 2024 and it sounds amazing! Here’s the back:
A city's haunted history and fairy-tale horrors converge for two women in an addictive novel of psychological suspense by a multiple Bram Stoker Award-nominated author.
Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River. They're tethered to a disquieting past, and with nowhere else to go, nothing can part them from their family home. Not the maddening creaks and disembodied voices that rattle the old walls. Not the inexplicable drownings in the area, or the increasing number of bodies that float by Anna's window.
To stave off loneliness, Anna has a podcast, spinning ghostly tales of Chicago's tragic history. But when Anna captures the attention of an ardent male listener, she awakens to the possibilities of a world outside.
As their relationship grows, so do Jennie's fears. More and more people are going missing in the river. And then two detectives come calling.
They're looking for a link between the mysteries of the river and what's housed on the bank. Even Anna and Jennie don't understand how dreadful it is--and still can be--when the truth about their unsettled lives begins to surface.
Release Date: March 19, 2024
Song of the Tyrant Worm (The Worm and His Kings #3) by Hailey Piper
Finally! The conclusion of the Worm saga has arrived! I’ve been hooked and patiently (okay, not so patiently!) waiting for the thrilling conclusion and it’s here! Check out the tiny teaser:
Time breaks and starlight dies beneath uncompromising gods in this reality-shattering conclusion to The Worm and His Kings saga.
Release Date: June 1, 2024
Midnight Moons by Donyae Coles
I feel like Donyae Coles doesn’t get nearly enough publicity! If you haven’t had a chance to experience this incredibly talented voice, Midnight Moons is a great chance! Here’s the back:
England, 1840. Orabella Mumthrope spies an unexpected visitor in her uncle's parlor. Scruffy in appearance yet claiming to be the scion of a fabulously wealthy family, Elias Blakersby declares a deep desire to make Orabella his wife. The orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman--an outsider with no fortune or connections--Orabella never expected to marry. But her uncle has many debts, and Orabella, curious about the seeming devotion Elias bestows upon her, agrees.
The new bride is quickly whisked away to Korringhill Manor, the Blakersby family estate, and far from everything she knows. Expecting splendor, Orabella is shocked to find decay, skittish servants, and curt elders. But her kind new husband's loving touch, promises of a happy life together, and his assurances she'll never want for anything soothe her concerns.
Yet there is a darkness deep within this house. Rooms are locked or hidden away, and the walls seem to thrum with secrets. Orabella can never venture outside unattended; she spends her days having tea with a catatonic sister-in-law and evenings at Elias's side, dutifully hosting lavish dinners. The darkness soon begins to engulf her, too. Becoming dizzy and drowsy after dinner, she falls into a fitful sleep filled with macabre dreams, and is awakened by blood-curdling screams in the night. In the morning she rises from her bed covered in mysterious bruises. Confused and terrified, she begins to question where her dreams end and reality begins. The longer Orabella stays in this place, the more she loses parts of herself . . . how long until she no longer exists?
Release Date: July 2, 2024
Bonus Entry: Static Screams by Nico Bell
My book is also coming out in 2024! If you’re looking for a sci-fi grief horror with an all women cast, check it out:
Carmen Franco's untethered mind twists reality into a nightmare filled with relentless hallucinations.
Her greatest desire is a peaceful life, but despite countless doctors and swallowing a pharmacy's worth of pills, she can't escape her disturbing delusions brought forth from a past tragedy.
Enter Dr. Barbara MacDonald, a brilliant psychologist proposing an innovative and experimental treatment program. Barbara ignites a flicker of hope, but Carmen quickly realizes the doctor's motives aren't exactly pure. Carmen holds the key to the one thing Barbara covets most in the world, and the determined psychologist intends to obtain it by any means necessary.
Now, Carmen races against the clock to save herself as madness and deception converge. Will she unravel Barbara's menacing motives before time runs out or will Carmen fall prey to the dark abyss pulling her in?
Happy Reading!