Two teenage girls went into a movie theater in 1994, and only one came out.
Thirty years later, she still cannot find the film that took her friend, because as far as anyone can tell, it does not exist anymore. That is the premise of the best new horror novel out this month, and it is one of five new releases worth clearing space on your nightstand for before Halloween gets here, plus one bonus pick if you just want something short.
This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want, by Hailey Piper
Three teenage girls sneak into a screening of an obscure 1994 creature feature. Two of them never walk out of the theater. Thirty years later, the survivor is still hunting for the film that took them, and what she finds suggests it might have been hunting her the whole time.
Piper already holds a Bram Stoker Award for her novel Queen of Teeth, and this one earned a real review from Publishers Weekly right out of the gate. Early Goodreads ratings are sitting in the high 3s, which is completely normal for a book this new and this strange, not a warning sign. If cursed media and analog horror are your thing, this is where to start.
Rooted, by Leopoldo Gout
An art lawyer flies to Mexico City to help return a statue of Xipe Totec, the Aztec god known as the Flayed One, to the family that lost it generations ago. The statue does not particularly want to go back in a box, and it does not want to stay in a museum either.
Gout, who also wrote Piñata, spent release week talking mythology with Katie Couric Media, which is more mainstream attention than most horror novels get. Early critical response is a little split on how scary it actually plays. Some readers wanted more dread and less history lesson. This is folk horror built on real research rather than jump scares, and that trade-off will land differently depending on what you came for.
All Hallows Eve, edited by Ellen Datlow
If you only have room for one pick this month, make it this one, it is also the most literally Halloween book on the list. All Hallows Eve is 21 original stories built on the idea that the veil gets thin every Halloween, and the contributor list reads like a who’s who of literary horror: Stephen Graham Jones, Nathan Ballingrud, John Langan, Josh Malerman, Brian Evenson, Livia Llewellyn, Clay McLeod Chapman, Alma Katsu, Christopher Golden, and more.
Datlow has been editing horror anthologies since long before most of us started reading them, and her name alone is a quality signal in this genre. Amazon ratings do not mean much yet since the book just came out, but the lineup does the talking. Read one story a night through the rest of October, or pull one for narration, and you have got a recommendation and a piece of content in the same book.
Kiss Slay Replay, by Rachel Harrison
A bride’s wedding weekend turns into a loop. A masked killer shows up, everyone dies, and then it is Friday again, except the method of death changes every single time.
Harrison’s debut novel, The Return, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, and this one already has close to two thousand Goodreads ratings sitting above four stars just a few weeks after release. That is a genuinely strong early signal for a horror title. It is also the fastest, nastiest, most purely entertaining book on this list. If a monthly roundup needs one pick that is not quiet dread, this is it.
Traps and Specters, by Philip Fracassi
Talking corpses. A prison riot that turns into something much worse. An exorcism that goes wrong in a way exorcisms are not supposed to. Fracassi’s new collection runs fourteen stories and novellas deep, with an introduction by Matt Dinniman.
Fracassi already carries a Bram Stoker Award nomination for an earlier collection, Beneath a Pale Sky, and horror readers who take short fiction seriously already rank him near the top. Early word is that not every story in the new one lands with equal force, which is normal for a book this size, but the strongest stories here are genuinely strong.
This Movie Doesn't End the Way We Want, by Hailey Piper
Three teenage girls sneak into a screening of an obscure 1994 creature feature. Two of them never walk out of the theater. Thirty years later, the survivor is still hunting for the film that took them, and what she finds suggests it might have been hunting her the whole time.
Piper already holds a Bram Stoker Award for her novel Queen of Teeth, and this one earned a real review from Publishers Weekly right out of the gate. Early Goodreads ratings are sitting in the high 3s, which is completely normal for a book this new and this strange, not a warning sign. If cursed media and analog horror are your thing, this is where to start.
Rooted, by Leopoldo Gout
An art lawyer flies to Mexico City to help return a statue of Xipe Totec, the Aztec god known as the Flayed One, to the family that lost it generations ago. The statue does not particularly want to go back in a box, and it does not want to stay in a museum either.
Gout, who also wrote Piñata, spent release week talking mythology with Katie Couric Media, which is more mainstream attention than most horror novels get. Early critical response is a little split on how scary it actually plays. Some readers wanted more dread and less history lesson. This is folk horror built on real research rather than jump scares, and that trade-off will land differently depending on what you came for.
All Hallows Eve, edited by Ellen Datlow
If you only have room for one pick this month, make it this one, it is also the most literally Halloween book on the list. All Hallows Eve is 21 original stories built on the idea that the veil gets thin every Halloween, and the contributor list reads like a who’s who of literary horror: Stephen Graham Jones, Nathan Ballingrud, John Langan, Josh Malerman, Brian Evenson, Livia Llewellyn, Clay McLeod Chapman, Alma Katsu, Christopher Golden, and more.
Datlow has been editing horror anthologies since long before most of us started reading them, and her name alone is a quality signal in this genre. Amazon ratings do not mean much yet since the book just came out, but the lineup does the talking. Read one story a night through the rest of October, or pull one for narration, and you have got a recommendation and a piece of content in the same book.
Kiss Slay Replay, by Rachel Harrison
A bride’s wedding weekend turns into a loop. A masked killer shows up, everyone dies, and then it is Friday again, except the method of death changes every single time.
Harrison’s debut novel, The Return, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, and this one already has close to two thousand Goodreads ratings sitting above four stars just a few weeks after release. That is a genuinely strong early signal for a horror title. It is also the fastest, nastiest, most purely entertaining book on this list. If a monthly roundup needs one pick that is not quiet dread, this is it.
Traps and Specters, by Philip Fracassi
Talking corpses. A prison riot that turns into something much worse. An exorcism that goes wrong in a way exorcisms are not supposed to. Fracassi’s new collection runs fourteen stories and novellas deep, with an introduction by Matt Dinniman.
Fracassi already carries a Bram Stoker Award nomination for an earlier collection, Beneath a Pale Sky, and horror readers who take short fiction seriously already rank him near the top. Early word is that not every story in the new one lands with equal force, which is normal for a book this size, but the strongest stories here are genuinely strong.
Bonus Pick: In These Gilded, Ghostly Hearts, by Gwendolyn Kiste
Want something you can finish in one sitting? Kiste’s new novella reimagines The Great Gatsby as a haunted house story, and it does not ask for a whole week of anyone’s reading time. Small, gothic, and sharp.
What Are You Reading This Month?
That is the list for September. Halloween is still about six weeks out, plenty of time to get through two or three of these before the season hits full swing, and we will be back in October with picks timed for the final stretch before the holiday itself.
If one of these ends up under your pillow with the lights on, or you already know what belongs on next month’s list, we want to hear about it.
Have you seen something unexplained? Email Reports@ParaRational.com, and that goes for ghosts, glitches, and any book that made you check the closet twice.
