Start Your Library Holds for Spooky Season

If you are the type of Reader who loves to fill the month of October with spooky, magical stories, like I am, you need to start your Library Holds now. Here are six books that I have read recently with elements of horror, magic, all things supernatural, and a book series that takes place in a Library in Hell. Click on the covers for more information about each title and ordering information.

Set in a strict, religious colony led by a feared polygamist patriarch, Immanuelle Moore was born a crime. Her mother was one of the many wives of the leader and her betrayal led to the death of her lover and her banishment from the colony. A dark forest on the edge of the colony is rumored to be inhabited by dark witches and when Immanuelle finds herself drawn to it, she discovers her mother’s ties to the darkness and inadvertently releases a plague upon her colony.

Claire is the Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing of the Library in Hell. Yep, a Library in Hell. Charged to protect the books of the Unwritten, books unfinished by authors and whose characters are always trying to escape the Library, her retrieval of a missing character goes horribly wrong when fallen angels interfere. I loved this book and the second book, The Archive of the Forgotten, comes out on October 6.

This one gave me nightmares! Four high school friends go on a hunt that violates their tribal law. Now, ten years later, something is hunting them. It is bloody, gory, intensely graphic, and absolutely terrifying. It’s so good.

One of the best books I’ve read this year! When her cousin sends her a cryptic letter fearing for her life, Noemí is sent to determine if it’s just new marriage nerves or an actual crisis. Noemí discovers her cousin horribly ill and surrounded by her in-laws that give Noemí the absolute creeps. What the family doesn’t understand, is Noemí is far from a shrinking violet and is more than willing to do whatever it takes to free her cousin. Set in a dark, damp mansion, this is one of the most atmospheric books I’ve ever read.

This is a fabulous collection of short stories that will leave you terrified. I love short stories for when you have limited time but still need to get some reading in. Each story in this collection is unique and chilling and Machado’s writing is so deceptively beautiful. Beautiful words should not terrify you, but she does it.

Told through multiple points of view, this book tells the story of a mother and daughter who have the ability to heal through magic and the lengths they will go to survive through the tumultuous years of the Civil War. This is a heavy one-enslavement, torture, kidnapping, and dark secrets that could tear apart an entire community. At the core, this story is about the secrets women keep to protect those that they love.

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