horror

Our Sister’s Keeper

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by Jasmine Holmes
First sentence: “Lucas Fulton was Marah’s least favorite client.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: June 9, 2026
Content: There is a lot of Black trauma in this one – lynchings, abuse, racism, general violence – and a lot of violence against women, both overt and passive. It will be in the Horror section of the bookstore.

On the surface, East Cobb, Mississippi, sounds like heaven. It’s a Black town where everything is perfect: men have good jobs, there are good homes, and best of all, there isn’t any violence. It should be the perfect place for newlyweds Thea and Kidd Elliott to make their home. Except, once they get there, Thea starts to realize that not everything is as it seems. There is a patriarchal order that she is uncomfortable with; everyone in town, both men and women alike, looks down on her for wanting to be like Ida Wells and make a living writing and reporting. She’s supposed to be supporting her husband and having babies, right? And then, when she starts to see and hear things – women screaming, lynchings, echoes of crimes past – the women in town start gaslighting her: there are no ghosts. There isn’t anything wrong. You’re just going crazy, dear.

Marah, on the other hand, is trapped as a carrier in East Cobb – a woman to takes away, literally, the burdens of the men in town. She – and the other carriers – are “experiments” of a white doctor, and of the Black mistress who runs the house. Then, after a couple of the girls die under suspicious circumstances, Marah starts trying to figure out how she got to be a carrier and how to break out of the prison she is in.

There was so much anger baked into this book. Anger at the way Black people are treated. Anger at the way women are treated. But there is also a lot of hope: the community of Black women who band together (instead of hiding and giving into the patriarchy) is Strong, and not only are they survivors, they will Flourish despite all that has been done to them. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I felt like I was witnessing the anger of Black women and the retribution that will (eventually) come.

I was thinking when I started that this would be Mexican Gothic-like, but as I went on, I found it was less Horror and more speculative fiction. The “magic” of the carriers was never really explained, which I didn’t mind, but I also wasn’t terrified by it all. It’s a good work of historical fiction, and I appreciated looking at what an all-black town could be like. It’s also a warning, though: if we don’t heal from the past, there is no way to have a good future.

All this to say: it wasn’t what I expected, but I am glad I read it.

Wolf Worm

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by T. Kingfisher
First sentence: “The rail station was very new, the paint still bright on the lettering that read Siler Station.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: March 24, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There are some pretty gross moments, so it’s not for the squeamish stomach. I will be in the Horror section of the bookstore.

Sonia Wilson is a naturalist and an artist, but since it’s 1880 and she doesn’t have a husband, and her father recently passed, she doesn’t have many options for work. She grew tired of teaching at a girls’ boarding school, and so when a job opened up in rural western North Carolina with a naturalist looking for an artist to complete his book, she took the job. What she got, however, was much more than she bargained for.

(Read: There’s something very creepy going on in the woods.)

I don’t read horror. I don’t like being creeped out, I don’t like being grossed out. And yet, I adore Kingfisher. I haven’t read any of her horror before (maybe I will after this one), but when this one came across my desk, I couldn’t say no.

On the one hand, it was very creepy, and VERY gross. A lot of that gross was natural grossness; if you are made squeamish by bugs, this may not be for you. But it did get pretty disgusting. On the other hand, Kingfisher (like always) gave us a heroine who was smart, practical, independent, and a critical thinker. Sure, she was probably too curious for her own good, but she was a delight. And it was shot through with Kingfisher’s wit and the way she is able to create a sense of place. It’s not a delightful read, but it is a compelling one.

Just don’t read it at night.

Animus

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by Antoine Revoy
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There are some unsettling images. It’s in the graphic novel section of the bookstore, but I’d give it to a 5th/6th grader who wants something weird and unsettling.

Tucked away in Kyoto, Japan is a small, unassuming playground. No one things about it, not parents, not kids who play there. Except, one day, friends Hisao and Sayuri see a masked ghost. That tells them the playground is alive: the swings can transport you into people’s dreams, the statues can hear everything, and the slide… well, the slide ages you super fast.

Which might explain all the missing children.

So, Hisao and Sayuri embark to figure out what makes the playground tick, and to perhaps find some of the missing children, and maybe put things back to rights.

I think I expected this to be creepier than it was. It was odd more than unsettling, Weird more than disturbing. The mystery wasn’t terribly mysterious. And I kept thinking that maybe Japanese kids being drawn by a Frenchman was a bit, well, problematic. That said, the art was gorgeous, and I appreciated that Revoy kept the traditional manga black and white instead of coloring it.

Maybe I just went in with too high of expectations.