What I'm Reading: May 2026 Booklist Reviews Part 2 of 2

I have 6 (!) reviews in the May 2026 issue of Booklist. I am breaking them up into 2 posts. Yesterday I had my two starred review and a very hotly anticipated title that was also excellent. Today, I have few lesser known titles but they are going to be popular with a lot of readers, so don't sleep on these.

As usual, these posts contain my draft review with bonus appeal into and more readalikes. Basically, all the stuff I could not fit into the review. Let's get back to it.

I am posting these review in the order in which I turned them in to be edited throughout the month of March. Reminder, since Booklist is a print magazine, we reviewers are turning things into the editors 2 months before publication.

With Blood Upon His Teeth

Adam McOmber

June 2026. 398p. Lethe, paper, $25  (9781590218037). 

First published May 1, 2026 (Booklist).

It is the early 1970s and Jim, a college writing instructor, is caught engaging in a (consensual) sex act with a male student. Fired and disgraced, his Dad sends Jim off to Harrow’s Cross, a rotting manor house, on the foggy Cornish coast, owned by a family friend. Hired to teach poetry to their their precocious teenaged daughter, Jim is immediately met with odd behavior from the staff and an inability to navigate the maze-like hallways. McOmber cleverly uses readers’ expectations of the classic British Gothic to immerse them in a story they think they know, and then rather quickly, begins making them question not only what is going on, but why, and how. A refreshingly original, discomfiting, and well paced story of family secrets, queer desire, monsters, and the cursed house at the center of it all. A book for a wide swath of horror fans from those who enjoyed Gothics like Midnight Rooms by Coyles, intensely disorienting haunted houses like Slade House by Mitchell, and meta horror like How to Survive a Horror Story by Arnold.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Disorienting, Original Use of Gothic Framework, Fast Paced

Further Readalikes: House of Leaves by Danielewski. Although this is HORROR, I did get some Flavia de Luce vibes here, as in, if Bradley's series took a straight up horror turn. That is not a negative thing about this book, rather, it enhanced my reading experience to make this connection.

The Way It Haunted Him 

By Laura R. Samotin

June 2026. 288p. Titan, paper, $18.99  (9781835412312). 

First published May 1, 2026 (Booklist).

Michael arrives at the largest Judaic Studies archive in America a physically and mentally broken man. He is barely recovered from the accident that left his boyfriend, Noah dead and himself severely injured. Grief and guilt have consumed him, but he hopes to find closure and forgiveness completing Noah’s research on Mazzekin (household demons from Jewish mythology). After the recent death of the institute's founder, Michael is greeted by his grandson, Jacob, and the two have an immediate and intoxicating connection. Told with a slow burn pacing that enhances the research based plot and Michael’s character development as a serious academic, readers will dig in the archives with Michael, interact with demons, watch him fall in love and celebrate as he finds his truth, even if that truth is extremely unsettling. A solid example of the emerging Horroromace subgenre and a grownup option for readers who loved theYA novel When The Angels Left the Old County by Lamb or the academic Horror research and queer romance of A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper

Three Words That Describe This Book: Jewish Folklore, Horroromance, slow burn

Further Appeal: "May you find truth here." a quote from the Schechter Institute itself but also the phrase that describes this book in one sentence. And as you can feel from the phrasing, this is ominous. The books reflect that. What is the truth? When you know the truth, it is not always neat and pretty. Truth carries horrors as well. All of it.

Michael has travelled to a most comprehensive Jewish archive in America to complete the research on his recently deceased boyfriend Noah. But from the start, Michael has made it clear that he holds scars from their relationship-- psychical and mental. He is the sole narrator and he makes it clear to readers that he has secrets that make him look bad. [I will say the author overdid it on that part. Too many pages about his guilt and telling the reader how "bad" he is. some editing on those pages and pages of guilt and then beefing up the end stuff after the twist is revealed (see below) would have made this book got from very good to excellent.

After trying for months, Noah could not get an appointment at the institute-- the best place in the world to do his research on Mazzekin-- the minor demons/sprits known to cause mischief in Jewish folklore. The founder had died, but after Noah dies and Michael has healed from the attack [accident] that killed Noah and resulted in his own severe injuries, Michael gets an invite from Jacaob, the grandson of the founder. He is finally able to open again and Michael will be the first researcher.

They fall for each other, but of course, there is more than meets the eye here. And don;t forget about the Jewish folk horror parts of this book.

This book though is a great example of the difference between Paranormal Romance and Horroromance. The ending is very horror, sinister, and unsettling-- in all the right horror ways. And the romance between Michael and Jacob was very satisfying-- and there were multiple sex scenes.

The slow burn of the pacing was appropriate for the story and Michael our narrator. Michael is a researcher and a translator, he needs time to use sources to come to his conclusions about everything. That being said, when it clicks for him, it clicks and he knows his truth.

The details matter in that slow burn pacing and in the research, even the first sex scene has a few key details that are revealed to be significant. Things that happen are there for a reason and I appreciate that as a reader.

I do think the end was a bit rushed though. The revelations were not shocking to me as a reader, but the implications needed a bit more time to be explored. The ending itself-- the last action that happens was satisfying though. I would read more by this author for sure. 

The author has a trigger warning statement at the start of the book. She lets you know where to go for more. This is needed. There is heavy stuff here.

As a Jewish person, I really loved reading a book that used my religions folklore and history to tell a Horror story without it having to have anything to do with the Holocaust. We are more than the people who were the victims of the Nazis. 

Further Readalikes: This  a VERY grownup read for people who loved the Jewish mythology of Angels and Demons in one of my favorite books (mentioned above)-- the YA title-- When The Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb. Mix that up with the academic research and queer romance of A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper and that is your readalike. Those two titles are the best way to describe what you will find here.

There is some grief horror here, but not as much as the description would lead you to believe.

The Historian by Kostova is also a good readalike here. There is a lot of research. 

Look this is not disparaging, but I do think Colleen Hoover fans would like this. It would satisfy a lot of itches. They need to know it is a gay romance though.

The Red Sacrament: A Vampire Novel

By Sara Hinkley

July 2026. 512p. Titan, paper, $19.99  (9781835410820). 
First published May 1, 2026 (Booklist).

Interview with the Vampire fans will rejoice as Hinkley sweeps them back to both the first time they read Rice’s seminal novel and 1869 Paris, a time of growing political unrest. Arnault leads a clan of vampires, running the most exclusive theater in town. As the novel opens, readers are promised a five act play complete with a cast list. The troop is completing one season and readying another. Drama on and off the stage abounds as a strange witch visits, new vampires come to town, and the immortal actors quarrel constantly. Arnault pulls the reader through this slow burn, atmospheric, and immersive tale; his thoughts, conflicted feelings, foreboding premonitions, and unease give the novel a confessional tone, while bursts of bloody action and sensuality keep the reader invested in seeing the story through to its theatrical conclusion. Beyond Rice, fans of the pacing and narrative style of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Jones or the demon spectacle with social commentary in Below the Grand Hotel by Scully will also enjoy this lush debut. 

Three Words That Describe This Book: theatrical, confessional tone, lush

Further Appeal: Interview with the Vampire fans rejoice. This is the book you have been longing for. 

This is a debut set in Paris beginning in 1869. It is all narrated by Arnault, the leader of a clan of vampires who also run the most exclusive theater in Paris. You cannot buy a ticket. You must be given a black invite. All the performers are vampires. The "action" surrounds putting not he shows, how the vampires feed themselves, and the incursion by other vampires and a witch.

That is all I will give about the plot because you don't read this for the plot. You are reading it for the theatrical nature-- of the storytelling and the putting on plays. The plot is a slow burn, but the details of the setting and the characters and their interactions/relationships is why you read. It is everything about the plot you should know.

This story is atmospheric, detailed, and sensual. It reads like a play as well, brought to the reader in 5 Acts with some "inter-act" breaks which work very well.  This is all the drama you would expect from a HUGE 5 Act opera. 

Paris at a time where wealth is being accumulated and with it, power, the beginning of major industrialization which will change the city and its workers, it is all here. You can feel the tension, the huge change that is about to come for everyone, not just the vampires. And it seeps through the story.

Arnault carries the story. It is third person omniscient through him and the reader is invested. He is clearly going through it in this book and we are with him. But again, slow burn. I think saying it is for Interview with the Vampire fans makes that clear, but don't come to this book for fast paced, vampire action. The right readers will LOVE this book. I could see a BookTok thing happening here. We will see.