Only two weeks are left until the end of the year and it is already hard to escape all book websites and social media channels madly posting hundreds of anticipated-books lists for the upcoming year. Of course, I too have been peeking a little, although my experience has taught me that the best books in life come surprisingly and the most promising ones usually end up disappointing. I still get a special kind of childish joy from making lists of brand new books, so I made a little compilation here too.
The reading challenges I joined in the past year (I will make a separate post on them when the year is really over) have clearly and painfully showed me my Achilles heel - I have way too many books in my backlist that I bought or received or traded coupons for. My shelves at home, my kindle, my kobo are full of older books I haven't read yet. To tackle this pain, I decided to not fill my challenges with new releases anymore, but with the books I already own. This will be tough for me considering I will presumably not be able to even complete the Mount TBR'23 chalenge for which I'm not allowed to read any new books and which I joined because I thought I could read at least one old book a month, and thus cross twelve titles from my backlist by the end of the year. This didn't happen and I failed to attain even those puny twelve books. I nevertheless want to make the reading of older books a priority for myself. (So I say, but do I believe it? Not really.)
That being said and on a contradictory note, let's take a look into the future, here are the new horror releases I am excited for in 2024!
Flesh Communion and Other Stories by Holly Rae Garcia (January 19, 2024)
The reason this book is among my most anticipated of the year is not the awesome, wonderful cover, as you might falsely assume, but the fact that a couple of years ago Garcia published a novella/short story which was praised unusually highly and I noted it back then and she stayed in some distant corner of my mind. The novella's title is Parachute, and is currently available on kindle unlimited Germany, so I will read it soon, but also her new short story collection Flesh Communion which will be released in January.
Apparently Garcia's collection features twenty-six tales (on 260 pages, so they will probably be shortish) and cover themes such as cults, nightmares, pandemics, alien abduction, werewolves and much more.
It's nice to discover a new author and follow their work, with Garcia I have a good feeling this might be a rewarding discovery!
Even though it won the Goodreads Choice Award in the horror category, Stephen King's latest novel Holly was wildly controversial and the reactions and ratings were really all over the place, with more than a few people whose opinion I value branding it a terrible book.
I am aware that King tends to get carried away by the political developments in his country and he wants to process them in his work, and he should. But even before Holly, which I haven't read and don't intend to read (because, have you seen how many pages?), I was getting less and less enjoyment from his books. So what's different with this new book? It's a short story collection and I was always of the opinion that that's King's forte, if anything I dare to claim that his skill in the shorter form remains unsurpassed. So I absolutely want to read it. Luckily, it is a given that King's books are available at the public library almost immediately after their publications, so it shouldn't be a problem to find a copy.
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones (March 26, 2024)
The second installment of the Lake Witch Trilogy, Don't Fear the Reaper, was so absolutely great that I don't even know how SGJ plans on topping that in order to finalize his trilogy.
Apparently a final showdown between JD and the Lake Witch awaits us in this third book, and knowing SGJ, I am expecting nothing short of legendary! I even think I'll re-read the first two books in one go to seemlessly go ahead and enjoy the last installment, just because I forget so much throughout the years and it's nice to recognize details that appeared in previous books. I hope the publication date stays at March 26 and doesn't get postponed like so many times before, so I can re-start the trilogy with My Heart is a Chainsaw at the beginning of March.
I can't for the life of me identify what it is that's on the cover, are those talons? Something else?
Myrrh by Polly Hall (April 9, 2024)
OK, this book sounds really interesting and I hope it holds what is promises, which is a "dread-inducing climax you will never forget". That's all I ever expect from a book and I'd love to experience that!
Myrrh is about two women: the titular main character who is searching for her birth parents in the South coast of
England and Cayenne who lives in a loveless marriage with her estranged husband who pushes her further and further out of his life.
It is unclear how these two women are connected or how their paths will cross, but in the book description the word group "horrific climax" appears twice and apart from it being a dark psychological horror, I now really expect a horrific climax.
Supplication by Nour Abi-Nakhoul (May 7, 2024)
The description doesn't give away too much for Nour Abi-Nakhoul's Supplication, only that the protagonist finds herself in a basement, tied to a chair, with a man looming over her. She then is somehow in a nightmarish city and the words fever dream, haunting tale, alienation are dropped.
From that description I actually have the minimum amount of hope that this will be good, if I can be brutally honest. But I will give this book a chance none the less, and if you now guessed it's because of the cover, then you guessed right. Doesn't this look wonderful?
I had to look up the word "supplication" for this one, and it means to beg for something earnestly and that lowers my expectations even further. I'll try to stay optimistic, though.
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima (June 18, 2024)
Now here comes a short story collection which raises those smashed hopes. Ananda Lima's name is mentioned in the same breath as Ted Chiang, Michael Bulgakov, Clarice Lispector, Carmen Maria Machado and you don't need to say anymore for me to be very much impressed already.
The frame story is apparently a one night stand at
a Halloween party in 1999 occurring between a writer and the devil. She keeps on seeing him
throughout her life and writes stories for him.
The collection encompasses nine short stories and promises humor, imagination, and an original style.
To tell you the truth, Craft is already everything I ever wanted to read and I literally can't wait!
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim (June 25, 2024)
Look at this cover!!! It makes me want to cry with joy, I love this so so much...
A feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective? Yes, yes, yes!!
According to the description we are following college student Ji-won whose father leaves their family for another woman and who develops a grudge towards her mom's new western boyfriend, who truly sounds like an asshat.
Ultimately she appears to have enjoyed the killing, since we're talking about a serial killer, so there will probably be more. Also it's a family story, of them falling apart and finding back to each other. I'm excited, I wish we didn't have to wait until the end of June to read it.
The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir (September 3, 2024)
Another book I'm not one hundred percent sure of is Hildur Knutsdottir's The Night Guest, the story of Iðunn, who suffers constant fatigue, but is dismissed by her doctors, family and friends. She ultimately finds out that she is sleep walking and tries to find out what in the world is going on.
The reason I wasn't as positive about this book is its publisher tor nightfire. I have nothing against them, I even really enjoyed a title or two that they released in the past couple of years, but in general they're way too heavy on social messages (which is great) but light on horror (which is not so great). So I am hoping that what Iðunn finds out about herself is really really blood curdling! I will give it a chance.
So, my book friends, this is it, these are my anticipated books for the year 2024. I can already see myself lost in even more new releases, but I don't lose my hope to finally dust off my old books too. I was also thinking of doing some kind of giveaway, like sort out some books, leave them at the Otherland for whoever comes first and gets them? Sounds good to me!
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