#horror read

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb:

Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia.

Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse.

Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant—and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost—Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply personal horror; a visceral statement about the lives of marginalized people in a hostile world, echoing the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Eric LaRocca.

Review:

THIS BOOK WAS INSANE. ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING. A MUST READ. A mixture of body horror, gore, and so so much more. The story follows a trans character named Crane who lives in a world plagued by an alien invasion in rural West Virginia. Crane lives in a hive, an entity that is made of insects that consume fresh corpses and offers struggling humans salvation... but there is a price. Crane lives with his fellow hive followers... but things begin to off the rails when Crane ends up pregnant... and the hive demands the child's birth despite how much Crane doesn't want it. This is a visceral book that left me stunned until the very last page. Every chapter was insane. This book is a gut punch. It's just the perfect horror read that will have your skin crawling.

Release Date: September 9, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

I. Think. Not.

Rating: 4/5

Book Blurb: The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away. After dropping out of college, all she wanted was to resume her life as a tobacco hand and taxidermist and try not to think about the boy she can’t help but love. Instead, a devil from her past has returned to court her, as he did her late mother years earlier. Now, Laurel must unravel her mother’s terrifying legacy and tap into her own innate magic before her future and the fate of everyone she loves is doomed. Elizabeth Kilcoyne’s Wake the Bones is a dark, atmospheric debut about the complicated feelings that arise when the place you call home becomes hostile.

Review:

Bones, rot, ghosts, and a devil who hungers. Laurel Early is the daughter of a woman who was known as the Daughter of the Devil, she was feared, she was hated, and she was magic. After her mother’s death Laurel has been living on the sleepy little farm with her uncle. After failing and dropping out of college she is back home and things have begun to get strange. Laurel has always had this knack for seeing through the bones of things, seeing how they died. So when dead animals filled with plants and blood start appearing in front of her and she starts seeing her mother’s ghost again... she knows something or someone is after her. To accompany her is her best friend Isaac, who wants nothing more than to escape this little town, the mechanic Garrett who is in love with him, and the mechanic’s brother Ricky, a boy who both irritates Laurel but might also be something more to her. With more dead creatures showing up and coming after Laurel and her loved ones she is going to have to face her mother’s past and see if she can fix the rot in the land. Sacrifices will be made and a price must be paid. This was a beautiful and dark read about finding your own fate and finding a place that you know is your own home. Throw in a little bit of romance, lots of bone and creature descriptions, and a little bit of ghosts and gore and you get a fantastic read.

Last Entry: 𝔸 ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨 𝔽𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪

By Tamsin St. James

1 serial unaliver

6 friends with secrets

A scare house on Halloween

No happy endings

Other info:

A spicy horror

Masked k!ller

Part of the Hallow Fest series

Hallow Fest is a yearly festival run by serial unalivers on Halloween

4 books in the shared world (Jess Cody, Agnes Henbane & Beth Kay)

Coming 31 October 2026

Available to preorder now

ARC applications open

Universal amazon link:

𝑀𝒴 𝑅𝐸𝒱𝐼𝐸𝒲

Bones by Yolanda Olson

Available Now

Blurb

Loss is not something I’m accustomed to.

However, it’s what I’m faced with now because I can’t remember.

I’ve tried so hard to find what I’m looking for, and while I’ve done my best, it still eludes me.

The memory comes and goes in glimpses of a faded past and possible future, yet I can’t grasp it.

Not yet.

Stay close and don’t look back.

This is going to be a hard road, but we’ll get through this together.

We have to.