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Your Blood, My Bones: A twisted, slow burn rivals-to-lovers romance from the author of THE WHISPERING DARK
by Kelly AndrewWyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she's just inherited -- to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement -- Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family's property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can't really live, either. Not while he's bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There's only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.He needs to kill Wyatt.With Wyatt's parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter -- the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who's sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.
100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Café
by Julian SedgwickAbducted by spirits from his village, lost boy Akira must make the long journey in north Japan to find his family and save his young sister, before time runs out. Voyaging deeper and deeper into a Japan ‘between the worlds’, Akira and his companions encounter a host of yokai monsters and famous ghosts, discovering a sometimes comical and sometimes terrifying world of interlinked and ghostly short stories along the way.
Would You Rather? Halloween: A super silly this-or-that choosing game! (Would You Rather? #1)
by Donna DavidA super silly this-or-that choosing book – the perfect Halloween treat for little monsters everywhere!Would you rather have eight legs to scurry through the night?Or would you rather spread your wings and take a midnight flight?Spider or bat? Skeleton or monster? Cute cat or wily werewolf? Get ready to play Would You Rather: Halloween! In this laugh-out-loud rhyming picture book, preschool readers are given a fun choice on each page, with bouncy read-aloud text, bright, colourful illustrations and loads to spot along the way.Would You Rather? Halloween by Donna David and Eamonn O'Neill is packed full of spooky fun, plus an amazing fold-out game at the end and reading tips for grown-ups.
The Snow Ghost and Other Tales: Classic Japanese Ghost Stories
by VariousEnter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told and retold across the centuries. From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms: the world of everyday and the world of supernatural.It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation.The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally commited to writing during the turn of the twenieth cenutry by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.For readers of Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell and Shirley Jackson
Female Identity in Contemporary Fictional Purgatorial Worlds
Examining fictional purgatorial worlds in contemporary literature, film and video games, this book examines the way in which the female characters trapped within them construct identity positions of resistance and change. With the rise of populism, the Alt. Right, and isolationism in world politics in the second decade of the 21st Century, parallel, purgatorial worlds seem to currently proliferate within popular culture across all media, including television shows and films such as The Handmaids Tale, Us, Watchmen, and Margaret Atwood's The Testaments among many others. These texts depict alternate worlds that express the darkness and violence of our own, arguably none more so than for women. Featuring essays from a broad range of international contributors on topics as wide-ranging as mental health in the Silent Hill franchise and liminal spaces in the work of David Mitchell, this book is an original, timely and hope-filled analysis about overcoming the confines of a patriarchal, fundamentalist world where the female imaginative might just be the last, best hope.
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight
by Kalynn BayronThis heart-pounding slasher by New York Times bestselling author and TikTok sensation Kalynn Bayron is perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson's White Smoke, Friday the 13th, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Get Out.Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.But in the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they'll need to figure out what this killer is after. Is there more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?
The Silver Bayonet: Castle Fier (The Silver Bayonet)
by Joseph A. McCulloughRecruit new soldiers, face new foes, and explore the mysteries of the Carpathian Mountains in two new campaigns, one competitive and one for solo or cooperative play.High in the Carpathian Mountains stands the crumbling Castle Fier. Once home to a powerful warlord, the castle cast a dark shadow across the nearby villages, until crusaders attacked with sword and flame to put an end to its menace. Though history passed into folklore, the ruins of Castle Fier remained shunned by all as a cursed site. Now, horrors have been seen moving at night. An army gathers. Something has awoken in the ruins. With the political situation in the surrounding region becoming increasingly unstable, France, Prussia, Britain, and the other powers have dispatched their best agents to investigate the ruins, eliminate any threats, and acquire any treasures that could prove useful in the ongoing fight against the harvestmen… and each other.The Carpathians: Castle Fier is a supplement for The Silver Bayonet: A Wargame of Napoleonic Gothic Horror, in which the special units must fight their way through the ruins of a menacing haunted castle. It features two campaigns – one competitive and one for solo or cooperative play – as well as new monsters to fight, soldiers to recruit, and treasure to unearth.
Eraserhead (BFI Film Classics)
by Claire HenryA surreal and darkly humorous vision, David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977) has been recognised as a cult classic since its breakout success as a midnight movie in the late 1970s.Claire Henry's study of the film takes us into its netherworld, providing a detailed account of its production history, its exhibition and reception, and its elusive meanings. Using original archival research, she traces how Lynch took his nightmare of Philadelphia to the City of Dreams, infusing his LA-shot film with the industrial cityscapes and sounds of the Callowhill district. Henry then engages with Eraserhead's irresistible inscrutability and advances a fresh interpretation, reframing auteurism to centre Lynch's creative processes as a visual artist and Transcendental Meditation practitioner. Finally, she outlines how Lynch's 'dream of dark and troubling things' became a model midnight movie and later grew in reputation and influence across broader film culture. From the opening chapter on Eraserhead's famous 'baby' to the final chapter on the film's tentacular influence, Henry's compelling and authoritative account offers illuminating new perspectives on the making and meaning of the film and its legacy. Through an in-depth analysis of the film's rich mise en scène, cinematography, sound and its embeddedness in visual art and screen culture, Henry not only affirms the film's significance as Lynch's first feature, but also advances a wider case for appreciating its status as a film classic.
Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition
by Alan G. Smith Robert Edgar John MarlandThomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition takes the uncanny and unsettling fiction of Thomas Hardy as fundamental in examining the lineage of 'Hardyan Folk Horror'. Hardy's novels and his short fiction often delve into a world of folklore and what was, for Hardy the recent past. Hardy's Wessex plays out tensions between the rational and irrational, the pagan and the Christian, the past and the 'enlightened' future. Examining these tensions in Hardy's life and his work provides a foundation for exploring the themes that develop in the latter half of the 20th century and again in the 21st century into a definable genre, folk horror. This study analyses the subduing function of heritage drama via analysis of adaptations of Hardy's work to this financially lucrative film market. This is a market in which the inclusion of the weird and the eerie does not fit with the construction of a past and their function in creating a nostalgia of a safe and idyllic picture of England's rural past. However, there are some lesser-known adaptations from the 1970s that sit alongside the unholy trinity of folk horror: the adaptation for television of the Wessex Tales. From a consideration of the epistemological fissure that characterize Hardy's world, the book draws parallels between then and now and the manifestation of writing on conceptual borders. Through this comparative analysis, Thomas Hardy and the Folk Horror Tradition posits that we currently exist on a moment of fracture, when tradition sits as a seductive threat.
Let's Play Murder
by Kesia LupoSquid Game meets Agatha Christie in this locked-room virtual reality murder mystery, where the only option is to win – or die trying…_______________Video games have never been more murderous. Veronica wakes up trapped with four strangers in a sprawling manor house in a snow storm with a dead body, a mystery right out of an Agatha Christie novel. It feels so real – but it isn't. This is VR and this is THE Game; a rumoured Easter Egg hidden in other VR games that draws you into a competition for a prize beyond your wildest dreams. And there's no escaping the VR world until the Game is won.But while Veronica and her fellow players are trying to figure out the puzzle, something is not right in the VR world. Blackouts, glitches, NPCs acting strange, and a mysterious figure haunting their footsteps. Then when a player dies, and also dies in real life, all hell breaks loose. Without warning, the game Veronica thought she was playing gets overshadowed by a much darker, and much more real, mystery: who is killing us?'It may not be a game Veronica wanted to play, but it's one that she has to win – or die trying.
She Is a Haunting
by Trang Thanh TranThis deliciously spooky, yearningly romantic ghost story from a brilliant debut author will thrill fans of Kalynn Bayron and Wilder Girls by Rory Power.Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough – at least for this summer with her estranged father in Vietnam. Just five weeks of ignoring the quietly decaying French colonial house he's fixing up, then college and freedom are hers.But soon Jade begins waking up every morning certain that something has clawed down her throat … from the inside. Then the ghost of a beautiful bride visits her with a cryptic warning: DON'T EAT.When her father and little sister don't believe her, Jade decides to scare them into leaving by staging some haunting events of her own. She recruits Florence, the daughter of her dad's business associate (and more of a distraction than Jade bargained for) to help. But the house has other plans. It's hungry. A home, after all, is only as powerful as those who breathe new life into its bones. And this one is determined never to be abandoned again …
The Whispering Muse: 'Spooky, atmospheric, brilliant' - Bridget Collins
by Laura Purcell'Spooky, atmospheric, brilliant... I think I love it the best out of all Laura's books. Watch out for it - but beware...' Bridget Collins, author of number one bestseller, The Binding'Deliciously creepy, riveting and full of heart with compelling characters and brilliant twists. The theatrical setting and use of the tragedies on stage that are woven expertly into the unfolding story is glitteringly dark and mesmerising' Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne and ElektraBe careful what you wish for... it may just come true.At The Mercury Theatre in London's West End, rumours are circulating of a curse. It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees. What Jenny finds is a woman as astonishing in her performance as she is provocative in nature. On stage, it's as though Lilith is possessed by the characters she plays, yet off stage she is as tragic as the Muse who inspires her, and Jenny, sorry for her, befriends the troubled actress. But when strange events begin to take place around the theatre, Jenny wonders if the rumours are true, and fears that when the Muse comes calling for payment, the cost will be too high.'Gloriously gothic' Erin Kelly'Immersive' Beth Underdown 'Fantastic' Rebecca Netley 'Darkly seductive and artfully realised' Susan Stokes-Chapman LAURA PURCELL'S THRILLING NEW NOVEL IS AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOW
The Mystery in Flat 6B: A Bloomsbury Reader (Bloomsbury Readers)
by Karen McCombieBook Band: Dark Blue, ideal for ages 9+A heart-warming story about friendship and finding your place in the world with a contemporary urban setting, ideal for children practising their reading at home or in school.Twelve-year-old Jojo is going through a difficult time: his dad has lost his job, his best friends have completely forgotten he exists, and he's even developed an annoying nervous tick. So when he and his dad move into a new flat, the last thing he needs is a scary new neighbour! This contemporary mystery features black-and-white illustrations. The Bloomsbury Readers series is packed with book-banded stories to get children reading independently in Key Stage 2 by award-winning authors like double Carnegie Medal winner Geraldine McCaughrean and Waterstones Prize winner Patrice Lawrence. With engaging illustrations and online guided reading notes written by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), this series is ideal for home and school. For more information visit www.bloomsburyreaders.com.'Any list that brings together such a quality line up of authors is going to be welcomed … Bloomsbury Readers are aimed squarely at children in Key Stage 2 and designed to support them as they start reading independently and while they continue to gain confidence and understanding.' Books for Keeps
48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister
by Joyce Carol OatesWhen a woman mysteriously vanishes from her small town home, her sister must tally up the clues to uncover the truth behind the mystery.Beautiful sculptor Marguerite has disappeared from her small town in upstate New York. But was foul play involved? Did she merely get away for some fun? Or did she finally make the decision to leave behind her claustrophobic life of limited opportunities?Younger sister Gigi wonders if the flimsy silk Dior dress, so casually abandoned on the floor, is a clue to Marguerite's vanishing. The police puzzle over the footprints made by her Ferragamo boots, which end abruptly close to her home.Bit by bit, revelations about both women are uncovered, as Gigi, not so pretty as her sister, reveals her true feelings about the perfect, much-loved Marguerite. The fate of the missing beauty slowly and subtly comes to light In this suspenseful story about the complex relationship between two sisters.48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister is an exquisitely suspenseful tale from Joyce Carol Oates, literary icon and author of Blonde and We Were the Mulvaneys.'This elegant, captivating tale is un-put-downable.' Publishers Weekly 'Perfect for all the Daisy Jones & the Six fans out there.' Katie Couric Media'Another masterpiece of storytelling.' Booklist'Not just a ripping good mystery, but a meticulous character study.' Los Angeles Magazine
Alchemy (Giordano Bruno #7)
by S. J. ParrisThe new 2023 historical thriller in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor in the The No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling series, perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
All The Dead Lie Down
by Kyrie McCauleyBLY MANOR meets MEXICAN GOTHIC in this haunting romance about a dark family lineage, the ghosts of grief, and the lines we’ll cross for love.
All the Dead Shall Weep: An enthralling fantasy thriller from the bestselling author of True Blood (Gunnie Rose)
by Charlaine Harris'Immersive, involving, suspenseful, and intriguing, with a main character you'll love' LEE CHILDNo. 1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Charlaine Harris returns to her alternate history of the United States where magic is an acknowledged but despised power in this fifth installment of the Gunnie Rose series.Following the murderous events of The Serpent of Heaven, Lizbeth Rose is awaiting the arrival of her sister Felicia and her husband's younger brother Eli in Texoma. Both needed to leave the seat of the Holy Russian Empire in San Diego after Felicia's burgeoning wizardly power in death magic became the reason for kidnapping and assassination attempts from her mother's family of high-powered wizards in Mexico.Yet bad news has travelled ahead of them, as Eli is called back to San Diego, taking Peter along with him, splitting them apart in more ways than one as their enemies' plans for revenge come to fruition . . . Love The Walking Dead, Westworld or True Blood? You will ADORE this gritty and wildly entertaining tale, set in a parallel reality of the United States where magic is an outlawed power.__________Praise for Charlaine Harris:'A gripping, twisty-turny, thrill-ride of a read' Karin Slaughter'Harris has a remarkable talent for world building' Booklist'Will leave readers enthralled. [A] fascinating setting and a heroine who's sure to be a new fan favourite' Publishers Weekly (starred review)'A master of her craft . . . dazzling' Seanan McGuire'A gritty, action-filled story with a touch of magic' Anne Bishop
The Apology
by Jimin HanThis &“sweeping intergenerational saga" tells the story of a pampered and defiant South Korean matriarch thrust into the afterlife from which she seeks a second chance to make amends (Kirstin Chen)—and fights off a tragic curse that could devastate generations to come. In South Korea, a 105-year-old woman receives a letter. Ten days later, she has been thrust into the afterlife, fighting to head off a curse that will otherwise devastate generations to come. Hak Jeonga has always shouldered the burden of upholding the family name. When she sent her daughter-in-law to America to cover up an illegitimate birth, she was simply doing what was needed to preserve the reputations of her loved ones. How could she have known that decades later, this decision would return to haunt her—threatening to tear apart her bond with her beloved son, her relationship with her infuriatingly insolent sisters, and the future of the family she has worked so hard to protect? Part ghost story and part family epic, The Apology is an incisive tale of sisterhood and diaspora, reaching back to the days of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, and told through the singular voice of a defiant, funny, and unforgettable centenarian. Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2023 • Shondaland's The Best Books to Read for Summer 2023 • San Francisco Chronicle's 17 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Summer • Publishers Weekly's Fall 2023 Adult Announcements: Literary Fiction • Goodreads's 88 Upcoming Books the Goodreads Editors Can't Wait to Read • Los Angeles Times's 10 Books to Add to Your Reading List in August • Apple Books's Best Books of August
The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth
by John RobbThis is the first comprehensive history of goth music and culture. Across more than 500 pages, John Robb explores the origins and legacy of this enduring scene, which has its roots in the post-punk era.Drawing on his own experience as a musician and journalist, Robb covers the style, the music and the clubs that spawned the culture, alongside political and social conditions. He also reaches back further to key historic events and movements that frame the ideas of goth, from the fall of Rome to Lord Byron and the romantic poets, European folk tales, Gothic art and the occult. Finally, he considers the current mainstream goth of Instagram influencers, film, literature and music.The Art of Darkness features interviews with Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Damned, Nick Cave, Southern Death Cult, Einstürzende Neubauten, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, Throbbing Gristle, Danielle Dax, Lydia Lunch and many more. It offers a first-hand account of being there at the gigs and clubs that made the scene happen.
The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth (G - Reference,information And Interdisciplinary Subjects Ser.)
by John RobbThis is the first comprehensive history of goth music and culture. Across more than 500 pages, John Robb explores the origins and legacy of this enduring scene, which has its roots in the post-punk era.Drawing on his own experience as a musician and journalist, Robb covers the style, the music and the clubs that spawned the culture, alongside political and social conditions. He also reaches back further to key historic events and movements that frame the ideas of goth, from the fall of Rome to Lord Byron and the romantic poets, European folk tales, Gothic art and the occult. Finally, he considers the current mainstream goth of Instagram influencers, film, literature and music.The Art of Darkness features interviews with Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Damned, Nick Cave, Southern Death Cult, Einstürzende Neubauten, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, Throbbing Gristle, Danielle Dax, Lydia Lunch and many more. It offers a first-hand account of being there at the gigs and clubs that made the scene happen.
Ascension
by Nicholas Binge“Old-school creepy. . . a five-star horror novel.” STEPHEN KING A mind-bending speculative thriller in which the sudden appearance of a mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leads a group of scientists to a series of jaw-dropping revelations that challenge the notion of what it means to be human.
The Atlas Complex: The devastating conclusion to the dark academia phenomenon (Atlas series)
by Olivie Blake**PRE-ORDER NOW**The Atlas Complex marks the much-anticipated, heart-shattering conclusion in Olivie Blake's trilogy that began with the internationally bestselling dark academic phenomenon, The Atlas Six.Only the extraordinary are chosen. Only the cunning survive.An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment.Old alliances quickly fracture as the initiates take opposing strategies as to how to deal with the deadly bargain they have so far failed to uphold. Those who remain with the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities; elsewhere, an unlikely pair partner to influence politics on a global stage.And still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them — while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed with a plan foreseen to have world-ending stakes. It’s a race to survive as the six Society recruits are faced with the question of what they're willing to betray for limitless power — and who will be destroyed along the way.Discover the stunning finale to The Atlas Six trilogy that fans are dying to read'Desperately excited to be emotionally devastated' - @literamie'I never want the series to end but I need answers!' - @thelibraryofdais'Until I have a copy of the book in my hands, I will not know peace' - @vivafalastinleen'Words can't express how excited I am' - @joereads
Bad Magic (Skulduggery Pleasant)
by Derek LandyExperience Skulduggery Pleasant as never before – in this fully original graphic novel brought vibrantly to life in full colour
Batshit
by Kritika KapoorTwenty-something Pia Bhandari has the ideal life – or so it seems. As long as she puts on a happy face, no one is any the wiser about the sinister voices in her head. Not her boyfriend Raghav, or her soon-to-be-married younger sister Khushi, her long-time psychiatrist Dr Agarwal, her father Ajit or even her mother Neeta, who is otherwise obsessed with controlling her daughter’s life.But Pia’s demons follow her wherever she goes. One yellow-eyed demon in particular. Feral and bloodthirsty, it threatens to rip through Pia’s life, leaving a murderous trail in its wake. Hurtling between the opulent kothis of GK-2 to the plush bungalows of Sainik Farms, this twisted tale about a Delhi girl’s fight against the dark forces is about to get batshit.
The Battle Drum (The Ending Fire #2)
by Saara El-ArifiThe SUNDAY TIMES bestselling series continues… Murder. Secrets. Sacrifice. Three women seek the truth of the empire's past in the sequel to The Final Strife, the continuation of a visionary fantasy trilogy inspired by Africa and Arabia. The truth they find has the power to ignite a war.