#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR.
Happy Monday, and hope your week is off to a good start! It’s time for another #5OnMyTBR, and as we’re in Blogtober right now, my 5 picks for this week are 5 horror books.
#5OnMyTBR October 21st: Titles Starting with U
Unshod, Cackling, and Naked
Tamika Thompson
Genre: Horror – Short Stories
Age: Adult
Format: Paperback
Published: January 26th, 2023
Published By: Unnerving
A beauty pageant veteran appeases her mother by competing for one final crown, only to find herself trapped in a hand-sewn gown that cuts into her flesh. A journalist falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman but discovers his beloved can vanish and reappear hours later in the same spot, as if no time has passed at all. A cash-strapped college student agrees to work in a shop window as a mannequin but quickly learns she’s not free to break her pose. And what happens when the family pet decides it no longer wants to have ‘owners’?
In the grim and often horrific thirteen tales collected here, beauty is violent, and love and hate are the same feeling, laid bare by unbridled obsession. Entering worlds both strange and quotidian, and spanning horror landscapes both speculative and real, asks who among us is worthy of love and who deserves to die?
Undead Folk
Katherine Silva
Genre: Horror – Dystopia
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: May 1st, 2024
Published By: Strange Wilds Press
Beyond the smoke-choked skies of an apocalyptic United States, a woman travels the desolate railroad tracks of a small town in search of revenge and a quiet place to settle. Her only companion is an undead fox: animated with backwoods herbal magic and the soul of a middle-aged father who died before the world fell into darkness.
Undead Folk is a short, harrowing tale of sacrifice, loss, and damnation.
Unnatural Creatures: A Novel of the Frankenstein Women
Kris Waldherr
Genre: Horror – Gothic
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: October 4th, 2022
Published By: Muse Publications
For the first time, the untold story of the three women closest to Victor Frankenstein is brought to life in a dark and sweeping reimagining of Frankenstein by the author of The Lost History of Dreams.
The Mother
Caroline Frankenstein will do anything to protect her family against the nightmarish revolutions engulfing 18th-century Europe. In doing so, she creates her own monster in the form of her scientist son, Victor, whose obsession with conquering death leads to forbidden realms.
The Bride
Rescued by Caroline as a four-year-old beggar, angelic Elizabeth Lavenza understands the only way she can repay the Frankensteins is by accepting Victor’s hand in marriage. But when Elizabeth’s heart yearns for someone else, the lives of those she most loves collide with the unnatural creature born of Victor’s profane experiments.
The Servant
After an abusive childhood, otherworldly Justine Moreau is taken in by Caroline to serve the Frankensteins. Justine’s devotion to Caroline and Elizabeth knows no bounds … until a family tragedy changes her irrevocably. Her fate sets her against Victor’s monster, who is desperate for a mate—and desperate to wreak revenge against the Frankensteins.
Stunningly written and exquisitely atmospheric, Unnatural Creatures shocks new life into Mary Shelley’s beloved gothic classic by revealing the feminine side of the tale. You’ll never see Victor Frankenstein and his monster the same way again.
Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror
Edited by Lee Murray, Angela Yuriko Smith
Genre: Horror – Non-Fiction
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: February 14th, 2023
Published By: Black Spot Books Nonfiction
From hungry ghosts, vampiric babies, and shapeshifting fox spirits to the avenging White Lady of urban legend, for generations, Asian women’s roles have been shaped and defined through myth and story. In Unquiet Spirits, Asian writers of horror reflect on the impact of superstition, spirits, and the supernatural in this unique collection of 21 personal essays exploring themes of otherness, identity, expectation, duty, and loss, and leading, ultimately, to understanding and empowerment.
Unquiet
E. Saxey
Genre: Horror – Gothic
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: July 18th, 2023
Published By: Titan Books
A young woman discovers her long-thought dead brother-in-law in her garden and sets about unravelling the mysterious circumstances of his disappearance in this gripping and unsettling Victorian gothic horror, perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson and Sarah Waters.
London 1893. Judith has been living alone in her family home for four months, the rest of her family travelling around the world whilst she tries desperately to get over the death of Sam, her brother-in-law, who drowned in an accident a year ago.
One icy evening, she discovers Sam, alive, in the garden. He has no memory of the past year, and remembers little of the accident that appeared to take his life.
Desperate to keep his reappearance a secret until she can discover the truth about what happened to him, Judith journeys to the scene of Sam’s accident, only to unearth secrets she never thought she would find.
As always, if you have read any of these I’d love to hear what you thought of them. And what books starting with u you have on your TBR, too!
Unwrapping Words 