What I'm Reading and Doing With Library Journal This Month

Below are the links to my reviews appearing in the October 2020 Library Journal Horror Review column with my three words added. They are all also in the Horror Review Index and on Goodreads.

There were three starred reviews:

• Clark, P. Djèlí. Ring Shout [thought provoking, fun, satire]
• Danforth, Emily M. Plain Bad Heroines  [immersive, character centered, intricately plotted]
• Kiste, Gwendolyn. Boneset & Feathers  [lyrical, fluid style, social justice]

And five glowing reviews:

• Jenkins, James D. and Ryan Cagle, eds. The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories [translation, meticulously researched, wide range of scares]
• Kingfisher, T. The Hollow Places  [haunting, unsettling, cosmic]
• Michel, Lincoln and Nadxieli Nieto. Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Stories of Horror [fast paced, wide range of scares, unsettling] 
• Miller, Sam J. The Blade Between [cosmic, intense dread, childhood trauma]
• Waggoner, Tim. Writing in the Dark [appeal of horror, engaging, participatory]

I highly recommend adding all of these books to your collections. I work hard to curate this column to provide a wide range of titles for a general horror audience. I have greatly enjoyed this, my first year as the first ever Horror Review columnist for Library Journal and look forward to year two beginning with the January issue.

But there is more than just my reviews in the October issue. As I wrote about on Friday on the horror blog, this month I am also involved in an online discussion of Lovecraft Country with Library Journal. Please read that post to see the free discussion we are doing all month long.

To support that larger project, I asked horror author and the Queen of Cosmic Horror, Mary SanGiovanni to help us all out. We worked on this Q&A abut Lovecraft and the subgenre he inspired for Library Journal. We aimed at providing you, the average library worker, a primer on Cosmic Horror. The piece is just that, an excellent place to start and it includes a list of SanGiovanni's must know titles in the subgenre.

Click here to read our conversation and bookmark it for future use. It is an indispensable tool for understanding Lovecraft, his horribleness as a person, and his lasting impact on a new generation.