July always marks the beginning of spooky season for me because this is the month when I switch into overtime. Why so early?
Well, as you will see next week, because my reviews for upcoming horror need to be to Booklist 2 months before they run in the print combined with the fact that September and October have the most horror titles, all of this means July is when many of those reviews start appearing. So many that I will have 2 posts highlighting my 7 horror reviews in the July 2026 issue of Library Journal.
July is also the month when Library Journal runs the Horror Genre Preview article I write for them every year. Again, I will be posting that and writing more about it next week as well.
And there is one more thing that comes out around this time, part two of the preview podcasts I do with Robb Olson and Emily Hughes on Robb's ARC Party podcasts. So now you can see why my Spooky Season begin July 1.
At the end of June, I made what has become an 2x a year appearance on ARC Party with Robb Olson and Emily Hughes. This time we did the July-December 2026 Horror Preview. You can watch and/or listen here. That link incudes time stamps to each book if you want to skip around.
We have been doing these in December and June every year since December 2024, previewing the entire year in 2 epic podcasts where we each highlight 2 books per month for 6 months.
Robb made this amazing playlist of all 6 existing podcasts so you can pursue them all. And without my prompting Robb did this and said it is because these books don't have a shelf life, you can read them anytime.
My backlist promoting librarian heart was filled with joy when he made this comment. He is 100% correct. And if you pair our previews with Emily Hughes' much more comprehensive lists, you get a very full picture of the horror genre over the last 6 years.
Emily's lists are always accessible-- current and backlist going back to 2020-- here. From that link you can break things down by year and even month.
Emily's lists should be your first stop for all of your horror collection development needs. What you should order ahead of time. What you missed that you can go back and add. There is even some readalike information in there with titles including annotations and comps.
We love bringing you this episode 2x a year. It is a good amount of work but we all know it is worth it. It highlights Emily's work while also shining a spotlight on the horror genre specifically.
Take a peek at the list for 2026 and give our most current podcast a listen or visit the playlist of all 6 episodes and use it all to help you plan to help your horror readers anytime of year. You can also watch on the embedded video below.
That's all for this week, shortened at its start by ALA and at its end by the 4th of July holiday, but I am back on a regular schedule for the first time in a month next week with no plans to be off from blogging until the end of August.
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