What I'm Reading: Booklist June 2025 Issue

As I mentioned yesterday, the June 2025 issue of Booklist is the spotlight on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. It is filled with goodies that you can access through that post.

Today I have the two STARRED reviews I contributed to this issue. They are wildly different but both awesome.

First up: 

STAR
Killer on the Road/The Babysitter Lives
By Stephen Graham Jones

July 2025. Saga, paper, $19.99 (9781982167677). 

First published June 1, 2025 (Booklist).

Jones returns with a single volume featuring 2 short novels, reminiscent of taking in a double feature by a favorite horror director. On the surface they appear vastly different in tone, gore, and scare level, yet both are firmly united by Jones' unique narrative voice and his unique ability to pull fresh takes from established tropes–  in this case the hitchhiking serial killer and the hungry haunted house. The never before published “Killer on the Road,” is the action driven, visceral, in your face, final girl tale of Harper as she attempts to run away but ends up in a fight for her life at high speeds on Interstate 80 headed west from Laramie. While in the previously audio-only “The Babysitter Lives,” readers watch helplessly as Charlotte’s routine babysitting job sets her on a harrowing hunt through a house of inexplicable terror. Both stories will hold readers rapt, with their sympathetic and well developed heroines, begging them to finish each in as few sittings as possible, even as their emotions are put through the wringer, while simultaneously forcing them to confront a fear that jumps off the page, straight into their guts. But, they will love every second of it. 

YA Statement: Jones, the recipient of numerous Alex Awards, will see readers flock to his latest as it features two strong, but very different, teen girls at their center.

Three Words That Describe This Volume (2 novellas): cinematic, new takes on established tropes, strong teen girl narrators

Further Appeal: First of all, how cool are these double shot books from Saga (there will be more). It is like getting 2 paperback horror titles in one. And you have to physically flip the book around when you finish the first one. And the order is your choice. So cool.

SGJ is here doing what he does best– taking a trope– the hitchhiking serial killer and the haunted house– and not only making it new but breaking it down and explaining why it existed in the first place and how it is “real.”

Killer was never before published, Babysitter only in audio. 2 very different teenaged girl narrators. One a “bad” girl with no future with nothing to lose (Killer), the other a studious rule follower on her way to college with everything to lose (Babysitter). They also come to very different ends in each story. 

They are very different in tone and scares and gore. Killer is high octane, action driven, in your face danger and terror. High body count. High speed chases. Race against time. Babsysitter is quieter, the horror slower to build but the danger intense. The overall feel is harrowing and upsetting but the gore level– technically low. I would argue though, that Babysitter is way more frightening and upsetting.

I have included my notes from when I first listened to Babysitter as well. 

Notes from Babysitter personal review: 3 words that describe this book: disorienting, character centered, original haunted house. This is a terrifying story of a haunted house but a super original haunted house. 

Charlotte is a great character. Is this an actual haunted house story or is Charlotte, strong Charlotte who is trying to manage being Native and a high achiever and gay and do it all- is it finally too much. 

This story is gripping, the horror elements immersive and compelling. I don’t want to give any details away but this is a haunted house with a backstory and it can eat people. 

The trippy storyline and looping of time and space is the key. It could have been a gimmick but it all works. And the ending is horror perfection. 

Readalikes: in my word count, I had no room to include them above but I gave my editor a list for the side bar of the online version-- My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Hendrix, A Head Full of Ghosts by Tremblay, You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Bayron (YA), The Weight of Blood by Jackson (YA), Clown in a Cornfield by Cesare (YA),  Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Khaw, but also if I had to pick 1 of each of SGJ’s I would link Babysitter with Mapping the Interior and Killer with I Was a Teenaged Slasher.

Next up: 

STAR 

Lucky Day

By Chuck Tingle

July 2025. 304p. Tor Nightfire, $27.99  (9781250398659); e-book (9781250398666). First published June 1, 2025 (Booklist).

Tingle’s latest is an absurd romp, but underneath the off-the-wall mayhem lies his most sophisticated work to date. Vera, a statistics professor, is celebrating the release of her first book– about a casino in Las Vegas where, impossibly, the odds are tipped in the visitor’s favor– when the world experiences the Low Probability Event [LEP], a convergence of the most unlikely things that kills almost 8 million people. Four years later, as Vera is still struggling to come to terms with what happened, Federal LEP Agent Layne convinces her to join the investigation into how the casino is involved. Vera must overcome her own worst fears and use her mathematical gifts to rebalance the scales of luck before it is too late. Tingle brilliantly allows the more bonkers and visceral scenes to give readers the space and time necessary to emotionally handle the existentially bleak and terrifying reality staring them in the face. Even if “nothing” matters, readers know not to fear because love always wins when Tingle is in charge. For fans of satirical, tongue-firmly- planted-in-cheek speculative works as wide ranging as Everett’s Dr. No, Fforde’s Lost in a Good Book, and the novels of Jason Pargin.

Three Words That Describe This Book: existentially terrifying, absurdly fun, bleak undertones despite love winning

Further Appeal: I have enjoyed (and starred) every one of Tingles three books for Nightfire, and this, the third, is his best yet-- in every way. It is the most thought-provoking, sophisticated, and darkest. What price does humanity have to pay when luck is manipulated for corporate greed?

Other words I could have picked from for the 3 words: witty, off beat, satire, tongue in cheek, thought provoking– there are some serious undertones and issues here– amidst the fun.

I also think this book is a great introduction to the ideas and concepts of Cosmic Horror. IT could lead people to try more in that subgenre.

I kept it out of the review because I think it cheapens the story but you can totally book talk this one as – What happens in Vegas most certainly does not stay in Vegas. Which is part of the brilliance here because DUH, and it never did, but also, Tingle takes that tagline to existentially terrifying places.

This is a bleak and visceral story, but readers will not mind it as much as other tales with that tone and level of squishy, gorey descriptions because Tingle’s offbeat plot and promise to readers is that love will win. A “happyish” ending will always come to fruition

Even though Vera comes to understand that nothing matters, readers know not to fear because despite this bleak realization at the heart of Lucky Day, Tingle keeps his promise that that love will always win in his novels.

Vera and Agent Layne have great Mulder and Scully vibes, but this is a Horror novel– not a SF cop show. 

Vera is a great narrator. She explains how statistics work in a way that makes even the number challenged understand. The entire book is centered around the math of statistics and Tingle does a great job not losing that important thread. Even as absurd things are happening, even as there is a very Blake Crouch esque scientific explanation, even as "nothing" becomes something, even as people die in bonkers ways (must have been fun to write), Vera keeps the story grounded-- in the science and in her humanity.

A great description of what it would feel like to live through an apocalyptic event-- 8 million people died-- and just be unable to deal-- to keep existing but in a suspended state of not handling it. And then how she slowly is brought out of it.

It is important to note that Tingle does not tell the reader-- don't worry, things matter. Rather the acknowledgement that nothing matters and yet Vera still wants to live and thrive and love-- that is a very important distinction here. 

Libraries should have ALL OF THEM. Because he promises and delivers on an ending where "Love is Real," you can give these confidently to a wide range of readers-- especially those who want to give today's horror a try. This is not a cozy horror story. It is bleak, and upsetting, and visceral throughout- but especially with this new one-- the absurdity provides enough of a buffer to give readers distance while they are reading while still allowing them to think about the important dark themes after-- just with some space-- and you can assure them that love will win in the end.

Readalikes: Besides the ones above, I also felt like The Haunting of Velkwood by Kiste and Blake Crouch fans would also like this book– Dark Matter the best fit. But those two have none of the satire/humor like the three above so I did not include them in the review.