Books on Bailey’s Fall Radar
I recently returned from a trip to Idaho, during which time I both read a lot and listened to a lot of audio books—after all, I had 22 hours in the car each way. The books that I’m including in this list certainly had the power to keep me awake, and most of them are brand-spanking new as of October (though not all) and they tend to be on theme for fall.
(As always with horror novels, I encourage you to check out the trigger warnings for all of these if there’s any potential triggers. Overall, there’s murder, suicide, spouse abuse, and manipulation amongst many other topics in these books.)
I use the word “strange” to describe a lot of these books, and that’s because it’s accurate.
unusual or surprising in a way that is unsettling or hard to understand.
not previously visited, seen, or encountered; unfamiliar or alien.
Many of these books are “hard to understand” in a way that warrants further interrogation, and horror often delves into what we define as “other” or “alien” whether it is a part of ourselves or something uncanny in the world around us.
The September House by Carissa Orlando
The protagonist of this novel is a woman who is sick and tired of being pushed around and wants, at last, a home that she can rely on. Empty-nesters, her and her husband Hal find a beautiful old house at an insanely cheap rate: insane enough to ignore the activity rising all around them, at least for a while. She is determined to find a way to coexist with the ghosts that grow more boisterous every September, from the disturbing disemboweled children to the man in the basement and the blood that drips from the walls. Everything changes when her husband has finally had enough and leaves, drawing her daughter in to investigate his disappearance.
This is a really fun one.
Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica
This is not as recent of a release, but it IS the upcoming (and first!) pick for Mariah and I’s horror BOO*k Club (*bloodcurdling, ominous, & otherworldly) in October. From the author of Tender is the Flesh, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird is a short story collection designed to make you uncomfortable as it interrogates the dark corners of loneliness, cruelty, and otherness, both internal and external. Opening with the story of a neighbor jumping to his death to spite(?) the woman whose patio he lands on, to the portrait of a woman experiencing the alienating, sublime terror of art, to a man cooking his own last meal. These stories will stay with you and make you question what you understand about human nature. Not for the faint of heart.
Death Valley by Melissa Broder
Strange and introspective, Death Valley follows a woman as she escapes the reality of her ailing father in the ICU and her chronically ill husband to write in a Best Western in the middle of the high desert. While there, she discovers a giant cactus that should not be in that region, and within it, a… door?
Broder deftly weaves together a tale of survival, both physical survival in the desert and anticipatory grief.
Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian
WOW! This book is simultaneously SO fun and incredibly violent and gory, and I’m not one who is into violence for the sake of it. This is plains horror and a Western at its finest. A motley crew consisting of a witch hunter, some outlaws, a silent child, a widow, and, and… travel north so that the witch hunter can collect a bounty, but it really does lie in the journey, not the destination. The group encounters ghosts, cannibals, bandits, demons, and more as they continue to get to know each other and get to know their own motivations. (It’s important for everyone to know that in the audiobook, when there are songs in the text, there are SONGS IN THE AUDIOBOOK.) Words can’t describe the feeling of listening to this as I drove the long, long, loooong road across Montana.
Nestlings by Nat Cassidy
What a phenomenal piece of horror! Ana and Reed are drawn in a lottery for low-income housing at the prestigious [building] ten years after they initially entered, which happens to be a year after the birth of their child, during which Ana suffered a traumatic injury that left her bound to her wheelchair. Despite her initial trepidation at the high floor—how would she get out of the building in an emergency if the elevators were down?—they take the apartment. Things get more and more disturbing as they hear strange noises in the night, their baby acts weirder and weirder, and they discover a secret lobby used by the old, rich tenants of the building.
The Rock Eaters by Brenda Peynado
What an incredible collection! Speculative and weird, these short stories take a fantastic approach to belief, othering, and the experience of being part of a marginalized identity particularly in the US. In one, aliens face xenophobia and one alien is an incredible kite-maker. In another, the children of immigrants who gained the power of flight eat stones in order to stay grounded. Each one of these stories builds a rich world - you can practically smell the animal bodies of the angels that perch on the rooftops, the shingles covered in angel guano.
PLEASE read this. It’s good for you, I promise.
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
Family secrets come to roost but make it more goth. Vesper left home at 18, and years later receives an invite to her cousin’s wedding, setting off a string of events that descend into chaos. All families have things they keep hidden, but Vesper’s mother Constance is in an entirely different league.
Rouge by Mona Awad
This is a sumptuous and strange gothic fairy tale retelling. Following the sudden, suspicious death of her mother, Belle travels to California to settle her affairs. Set amidst the sunshine and glistening perfection of SoCal, Belle is already disquietingly obsessed with skincare and the image of pale, glowing perfection, making her the perfect victim candidate for the exclusive, shadowy “spa” that her mother was entangled within leading up to her death. This is an atmospheric deep dive into complex mother-daughter relationships, inter-generational trauma, and the terrifying cult of the beauty industry. Belle would give anything to achieve that glow—even herself.
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The 90’s setting is powerful in this. Montserrat is a sound editor and her best friend, Tristán, is a washed up soap opera star. Their lives follow a familiar pattern: Montserrat gets overlooked despite her talent, and Tristán languishes in his self-hatred for an accident that occurred over a decade ago. That is, until their favorite horror director moves into Tristán’s building. They develop a relationship with him, believing him to be a somewhat crazy and lonely old man, but when he pulls out an old reel of film and asks their help restoring it, he restarts a malevolent cycle that began decades earlier. Occultism, Nazi witchcraft, film history… and more.
Drop a comment with your favorite seasonal reads this year—I’m dying for more.
