SIX 2023 HORROR NOVEL RELEASES
Give me them all.
2023 seems to be the year for horror on all platforms. Movies such as Saw X, about 782 shows about preexisting horror franchises like Crystal Lake (prequel to Friday the 13th), and a Resident Evil 4 video game remake. So, basically it seems most of the new horror of 2023 is just building on existing horror favourites. But novels save the day once again with plenty of new releases. In fact, I’ve found that there is a boom in horror literature this year. I couldn’t be more thankful, even if my shelves are buckling.
From the long list I have chosen six I am counting down the days for, and shared them here. Hopefully you find one to look out for too!
WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS | KATE ALICE MARSHALL
17th January 2023, Flatiron Books
They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.
Kate Alice Marshall's What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies - and having the courage to face the past.
Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.
And they were liars.
For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.
Blurb taken from Macmillian Publishers, What Lies in the Woods
SHE IS A HAUNTING | TRANG THANH TRAN
28th February 2023, Bloomsbury Publishing
THIS HOUSE EATS AND IS EATEN…
A house with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.
But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.
Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.
Blurb taken from author's website, She is a Haunting
THE SALT GROWS HEAVY | CASSANDRA KHAW
2nd May 2023, Titan Books
From Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth, comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairy tale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself.
You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes.
On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them.
The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
Blurb taken from Macmillan Publishers, The Salt Grows Heavy
NIGHT’S EDGE | LIZ KERIN
20th June 2023, Tor Nightfire
Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge is a sun-drenched novel about how monstrous we can be to the ones we love most.
Moms can really suck.
“I’m always careful not to disturb mom. A rude awakening can definitely set her off, especially if she wakes up hungry. I can’t forget what she is. What she could do to me.”
Having a mom like Izzy meant Mia had to grow up fast. No extracurricular activities, no inviting friends over, and definitely no dating. The most important rule: tell no one of Izzy’s hunger – the one only blood can satisfy.
But Mia is tired of being her mother’s keeper. She’s in her twenties now and secretly longs for a life of her own. One where she doesn’t have to worry about anyone discovering their terrible secret, or breathing down her neck. When Mia meets rebellious musician Jade she dares to hope she’s found a way to leave her home – and her mom – behind.
It just might be Mia’s only chance of getting out alive.
Blurb taken from Tor Nightfire, Night's Edge
PENANCE | ELIZA CLARK
6th July 2023, Faber & Faber
Do you know what happened already? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did you listen to a podcast? Did the hosts make jokes?
Did you see the pictures of the body?
Did you look for them?
It’s been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time.
That story is Penance, a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling, where Eliza Clark manoeuvres us through accounts from the inhabitants of this small seaside town. Placing us in the capable hands of journalist Alec Z. Carelli, Clark allows him to construct what he claims is the ‘definitive account’ of the murder – and what led up to it. Built on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves, the result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.
The only question is: how much of it is true?
Blurb taken from Faber, Penance
I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME
29th August, Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
There will be blood.
Ace of Spades meets House of Hollow in this villain origin story.
Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood.
The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she’s dreamed of and worked toward. With retribution on her mind, she surpasses her bitter and privileged peers, leaving broken bodies behind her on her climb to stardom.
But even as undeniable as she is, Laure is not the only monster around. And her vicious desires make her a perfect target for slaughter. As she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her, she is faced with the ultimate choice: continue to break herself for scraps of validation or succumb to the darkness that wants her exactly as she is—monstrous heart and all. That is, if the god-killer doesn’t catch her first.
From debut author Jamison Shea comes I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, a slow-burn horror that lifts a veil on the institutions that profit on exclusion and the toll of giving everything to a world that will never love you back.
Blurb taken from Macmillan Publishers, I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me
I can’t wait to get my grubby hands on all of these! Especially their stunning covers. I hope you found something to add to your tbr and I can’t wait to see all the other releases coming this year so I can add them to my list too.
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