What I’m excited to read, for the week of 10/1/2024
The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister – “Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured“. An Appalachian gothic set in West Virginia. Supernatural and folk horror. Ritual sacrifices to keep family farmland (a bog in this case) from decaying. Family secrets, grief, and dedication to family while wanting to become one’s own person.
Antenora by Dori Lumpkin – “Antenora: Dante’s ninth circle of hell reserved for traitors to their country.“. In this tender and horrific debut, religious dogmatism sniffs out two girls whose innocent affections threaten an entire town and way of life, making one a traitor to a homeland in which only Abigail and Nora know the bittersweet truth. A homeland in which Nora can only say, “There’s a snake speaking to me, Abby-girl.”
The Great When by Alan Moore – First in a fantasy series about post-WWII London, full of magic, murder, and more. “The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital stumbles Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How? “
Transference by Ian Patterson – “Nicholas Fiveboroughs is a Sicko, someone that takes on others’ illnesses.” In a city where diseases can be transferred, the rich buy longer lives without pain, and the poor get a short life of constant sickness. Maybe it was fate, or maybe someone is looking out for him, but after Nicholas barely survives his latest affliction, he gets the chance to try and change things. To finally stop the whole disease transfer network.
Temple of Dead Trees 
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