The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Horror

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

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Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
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A modern literary gothic take on the Frankenstein story that is low on the scares but high on thoughtful explorations of what makes a monster. That being said, this fits well into the horror genre- both beautiful and horrifying imagery, body horror wrapped up in parental love, and cannibalism nested among the dangers of living for someone else. Tender and surprisingly sweet, the heavy topics of grief and the search for personhood are handled expertly. Just a gem of a debut novel!

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, (List Price: $17, Zando, 9781638931607, January 2024)

Reviewed by Tyler, Wild Aster Books in Chamblee, Georgia

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The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J. Moore

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The Henchperson's Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J. Moore
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This is a fun, fairly light-hearted riff on Frankenstein, the novel, and the Universal horror films. Narrated by the hunchback Igor, the novel features memorable characters who are vampires, werewolves, zombies, evil witches, and a few that defy easy categorization. Fun, with a nice message about being oneself, community, and found family, I enjoyed this book. This one will be fun to hand sell.

The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J. Moore, (List Price: $21, Bantam, 9798217374168, September 2026)

Reviewed by David, novel. in Memphis, Tennessee

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A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young

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A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young
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A bodyguard takes a chance: running with her young niece into a disaster area to prevent the girl from being raised by her mother. After the earthquake and flood, a disease strikes Haewon Village, and Mu-young helps enforce strict quarantine measures. She loses her niece to the plague. When an irritating bureaucrat from Seoul visits the quarantined community, he brings even greater danger. H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, reimagined through the lens of COVID and a government’s abandonment of its citizens, has a fishy chill as deep as the bottom of an ocean.

A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, (List Price: $24.99, Tor Nightfire, 9781250380753, August 2026)

Reviewed by Kelly, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA

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A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young

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A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young
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If you’ve enjoyed contemporary Lovecraftian stories like The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, N.K. Jemesin’s The City We Became, Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark, or Hiron Ennes’ Leech, then Kim Bo-Young’s A Plagued Sea should tickle your cosmic horror fancy with its Korean cultural take on oceanic terrors, and smart twists on classic tropes of the subgenre.

A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, (List Price: $24.99, Tor Nightfire, 9781250380753, August 2026)

Reviewed by Jonathan, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, KY

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Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun

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Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun
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I am still buzzing as I write this. This book is tapped so hard into my subconscious that it feels magical. Bethany Peters is a hero our times need and are still waiting for.

Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun, (List Price: $33, Hogarth, 9780593978382, October 2026)

Reviewed by Zack, novel. in Memphis, Tennessee

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Behind the Gate by Amparo Davila

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Behind the Gate by Amparo Davila
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As the world grows more and more deranged, I find myself seeking the most bizarre, oppressive, incomprehensible horror available. But there’s something strangely comforting about horror like Amparo Dávila’s. Stories that seem mostly normal, albeit odd, until something twists at the last moment and you’re left wondering. Seeing things in the corner of your vision, shadows on the walls, yawning eye sockets. Dávila’s writing makes the terrifying feel quiet, almost intimate.

Behind the Gate by Amparo Davila, (List Price: $16.95, New Directions, 9780811240581, October 2026)

Reviewed by Charlie, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA

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The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

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The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
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This story deepens into itself; it spreads into the darkest corners and sinks into the dirt beneath your feet. An eerily original portrait of 1600s Denmark, plagued by witch trials and the doom that follows thick paranoia and cursed accusations. It’s told in a way I’ve never quite witnessed before: from the perspective of a tiny wax doll whose maker was just accused. It feels as though these pages have been waiting for a reader for hundreds of years…just aging, fuming, materializing until now. A perfect, pleading horror story.

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, (List Price: $19.95, New Directions, 9780811238830, September 2025)

Reviewed by Emma, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC

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Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun by Mónica Ojeda

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Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun by Mónica Ojeda
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Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun is hard to describe. Ostensibly, it follows two young women fleeing their home in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to attend a week-long experimental noise festival held at the foot of an active volcano. Their experience is strange, frightening, and revelatory. But this book is so much more than a bad trip. Ojeda’s writing forces emotion on you. It’s brutal, and beautiful, it contorts your brain into a shape you didn’t know it could fit into. As the story progresses, the lines between reader and character blur, and you become part of the noise, the fear, the feeling, the cruelty, the obliteration.

Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun by Mónica Ojeda, (List Price: $20, Coffee House Press, 9781566897556, May 2026)

Reviewed by Charlie, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA

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The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager

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The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager
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Meandering and claustrophobic, you will be lost in more ways than one along with Professor Beck and his crew. Caro’s dark past hangs over her head as horribly as it hollows her out– and yet the others on the expedition allude to some less than savory backgrounds themselves. Do we deserve retribution for our sins? Or are the divine’s motives just as sordid as our own?

The Sea Hides Its Dead by Megan Bontrager, (List Price: $19.99, Run For It, 9780316588010, July 2026)

Reviewed by Lana, E. Shaver, Booksellers in Savannah, Georgia

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The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig DiLouie

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The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig DiLouie
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I’ll tell you a secret: some of the best slasher films and stories are whodunits. Think Scream, The Prowler, Psycho , etc. Craig Dilouie understands it and works it from a new angle. “What,” he asks, “if the slasher story was told from the perspective of the skeptical cop who arrives too late to save the day?” And that’s how we get The Summer Fun Massacre. This is a fun one, a guaranteed darker beach read. I read it all in one sitting, and you’re sure to do it, too.

The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig DiLouie, (List Price: $19.99, Run For It, 9780316578240, June 2026)

Reviewed by Rowan Rodriguez, Books & Books in Coral Gables, FL

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Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero by Erin Entrada Kelly

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Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero by Erin Entrada Kelly
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A little bit Holes, a little bit Hunger Games, a little bit Minecraft. Sofia’s parents send her to a dystopian camp straight out of her favorite video game, Sandbox. At first, this seems like a great thing, especially the 1 million in-game credits that she has the chance to win at the end of camp! But things quickly turn dark as mechanical vultures begin snatching up campers and a terrifying game master pits the campers against one another. Sofia is a complex character, and things are not at all what they seem. This series opener will definitely leave you wondering what the next volume of the series has in store!

Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero by Erin Entrada Kelly, (List Price: $14.99, Stonefruit Studio, 9781464241048, July 2026)

Reviewed by Amanda, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, AR

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School Bus Graveyard, Volume 1 by Red

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School Bus Graveyard, Volume 1 by Red
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I loved this cursed Savannah field trip!! Six main characters? No way they could all be interesting and given time to develop– but they are! Reclusive and independent Ashlyn is forced to bond quickly with her new high school classmates when they wake up each night in a shared nightmare world. With lively art and scary monsters, this Webtoon is wonderfully translated into graphic novel form. And very funny!

School Bus Graveyard, Volume 1 by Red, (List Price: $18.99, Ink Pop, 9798217122868, June 2026)

Reviewed by Ross, E. Shaver, Booksellers in Savannah, Georgia

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Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle

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Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle
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This book is such a fun, wacky, action-packed, cartoonishly gory thrill ride. Fashion blogger by day, grave-robber by night, Poppy Stringer, in an attempt to provide a better life for her daughter, gets thrown into a crazy night of murder and mayhem. Chuck Tingle is an auto-read for me and many of our team.

Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle, (List Price: $27.99, Tor Nightfire, 9781250398567, July 2026)

Reviewed by Michael, Philosophers & Fools in Charleston, SC

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Decomposition Book by Sara van Os

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Decomposition Book by Sara van Os
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Ooooh, yes. The premise grabbed me immediately, the cover is perfection, and the story is engrossing, if a wee bit unfulfilling at the end. College student Savannah is reeling (well, spiraling) after a friendship breakup and has retreated to an isolated cabin to drink away her woes. It’s not going particularly well, given her OCD and other mental health challenges. One morning, she wakes up next to a corpse in the woods. Awkward. There’s a journal next to the corpse, which recounts the harrowing set of circumstances that led to the young woman’s death. Instead of reporting the body, Savannah…bonds with it? For lack of a better phrasing. She starts reading the journal and visiting the corpse, and before long, she has formed an emotional attachment with the ghost of the dead hiker. If it sounds trippy, it is. It’s wild and unhinged and occasionally messy and gory. And I’m here for the mess. We also get to read along in the hiker’s journal. Her name is Ava, and watching her story unfold keeps you on the edge of your seat, even as you know where the story ends. The ending was a bit unsatisfying, but not so much that it detracts from the thrill of the story to that point. Great themes of mental health, toxic friendship, and how we heal.

Decomposition Book by Sara van Os, (List Price: $30, Hanover Square Press, 9781335001894, May 2026)

Reviewed by Kate, Plaid Elephant Books in Danville, KY

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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
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This is my favorite Stephen Graham Jones novel to date; this writing is the most poetic I’ve ever read in a horror novel. I felt so invested in Good Stab’s journey and experiences, in a way that includes the more “monstrous” feelings he has. Jones perfectly balances the horror of his becoming a vampire and eventually reconciling his life by the end. And his take of a vampire narrative is so unique and new; it will make you think about the effects of colonialism in a new way.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, (List Price: $29.99, S&S/Saga Press, 9781668075081, March 2025)

Reviewed by Meghan, The Lynx in Gainesville, FL

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