Double posts today since this finally went online and I have many days of posts already planned out. Click here to read the interview on LJ's site:
Becky Spratford | Reviewer of the Year 2025
When librarian Becky Spratford isn’t busy training library staff on readers’ advisory, she’s reading and reviewing horror novels. Her love, excitement, and in-depth knowledge of and for the genre shine through her reviews and author interviews. She surfaces small gems from independent publishers, identifies potential blockbusters, and notes both appeal factors and read-alikes. She’s also excellent at capturing the experience of reading horror, describing all the ways these books captivate, unsettle, and terrify readers. I always look forward to reading her reviews.
‘‘There is an intensity, a breathless desperation that lurks just under the surface, giving the sense that everything that is about to happen, no matter how terrible, is inevitable and cannot be stopped.”
From Becky’s review of The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
When did you start reviewing for LJ?
I started covering horror for LJ in 2018 when I was asked to do the genre preview. I began LJ’s stand-alone horror column in January 2020, an unfortunately well-timed moment for its debut.
What are your favorite kinds of books to review?
My favorite kinds of books to review fall into three categories. First, I love reading debuts and discovering new voices. Second, about once or twice a year a book lands in my lap to review, by an author I know nothing about; I read it with zero expectations, and then, wow, it blows me away. Third, horror can make me feel so much discomfort that I need to take a break from reading and go get a breath of fresh air, which still gives me a thrill.
What do you find most rewarding about the reviewing process?
Sharing horror with library workers who may not be a fan of it themselves but know that they need to help their readers who crave it. I write every review to the audience of its best reader. I think of the perfect reader that I would hand this book to, knowing they will love it, and channel that energy into my words. It is hard to capture the unique appeal of a book in 200 or so words, but I relish the challenge. I work hard to drop in key words or phrases that very deliberately refer to something that will happen in the book but still give nothing away to people before they read it. I often giggle to myself while writing the reviews knowing the little Easter egg I have left for future readers.
Can you share three books that you have enjoyed reviewing for LJ?
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones: the second I finished this heartbreakingly beautiful revenge novel, I knew I had read the best book of 2020. In 2021, I heard about Hailey Piper and her debut novel, Queen of Teeth, which featured a vagina monster. I was intrigued, but little did I know I would be introduced to one of horror’s brightest stars and treated to a visceral and sensual story, tackling issues of gender identity and marginalization head on, with fast-paced body horror and an awesome creature in a thought-provoking tale that was both utterly terrifying and adorably sweet, even if the end of the world may be imminent. Gabino Iglesias’s The Devil Takes You Home is another reviewing high point. This book is special for so many reasons, but what I remember is how Iglesias managed to perfectly balance brutal and graphic violence with lyrical and staggering beauty.
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