By Willow Symonds
Staff Writer
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
After receiving a distressing letter from her newly-wed cousin, socialite Noemi Taboada travels to High Place, an old mansion in the 1950s Mexican countryside. An English family unlike any she’s met before, old-fashioned and shut off from the world, greets Noemi coldly. Concerned for her cousin’s safety, she refuses to leave, even though the house itself isn’t any less strange, and her dreams in the guest bedroom might be trying to tell her something. This book suits its title extremely well, with gorgeous writing and a dark yet vivid atmosphere.
Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White
Trans teen Benji is on the run from the cult that made him a living bioweapon, the last stage of their manufactured Armageddon. Even with most of the world’s population wiped out, he finds an LGBTQ+ Center willing to provide shelter, as long as Benji can use his unique mutations to help protect them in return. Soon enough, Benji discovers that the center, ACL, has an agenda of their own. This debut novel is labeled as young adult, but it still features plenty of unique body horror and a gritty apocalypse.
Jackal by Erin E. Adams
Liz Roacher returns to her predominately-white town for her best friend’s wedding. She already wasn’t too fond of being back in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but the wedding day proves worse than she imagined: The bride’s daughter disappears, leaving behind only white fabric covered in blood. No one seems to notice a pattern, but Liz does: This happened before, many years ago, when the only other Black girl in school followed a man into the same woods and was found with her heart missing. Liz ties herself to this case and to the many missing Black girls in this town’s history. This debut novel releases on October 4 of this year, just in time for Halloween.
