It’s April, and this month, like every month, we delight in literary horrors large and small. Prancing through flowers freshly blooming in graveyards; dancing in the rain that falls on our black parade. Here are the 4 freshly terrifying books we’re reading this month!
April 6: Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
Pedro Páramo is our first book of the month, by famed Mexican writer Juan Rulfo. Recently adapted for the screen, this book follows a man to a haunted village to find his father. It is a classic of Mexican literature. A visceral, time-shifting tale, dense but readable, set in a desolate world of magical-realism.
This book was part of @Fossie’s Folked Up Finds: 6 Folk Horror Books.
Photo credit: @Fossie
April 13: Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
Can you believe Black Sheep is the first Rachel Harrison book we’re reading as a club? I think every one of us has read one of her books, but we’ve never had a chance to actually discuss one together!
A woman who left her toxic family as soon as she turned 18 returns to the family farm to attend her cousin’s wedding. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG. Nothing. Nothing at all. Go on, Vesper Wright, with a name like that, you’re just going to have to prove to us that NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.
It all goes terribly wrong, of course.
This was from @Adam’s list, Faith and Fear: 6 Religious Trauma Horror Books.
Photo credit: Peter Ong Cook
April 20: The Bone Mother by David Demchuk
The Bone Mother is our second book club selection by David Demchuk. We were floored by his novel, Red X, which we read back in 2022.
This one is rich in slavic folklore: strigois, witches, vampires, and the bone mother herself, Baba Yaga.
This book was recommended as part of @psyche’s list, Aaa! Canada!: Books So Chilling, They’re 0 Degrees Celsius: 6 Horror Books by Canadian Authors.
Photo credit: @wytwavedarling
April 27: Lone Women by Victor Lavalle
Victor Lavalle’s Lone Women follows up his remarkable novel The Changeling, which the HOWLS Book Club read back in 2021.
The story takes place in 1915 Montana, where lone women like Adelaide take advantage of a homesteading program. Can she lay claim to the land? She drags a mysterious trunk with her, one she keeps locked, because when it opens, bad things happen.
Lone Women was brought to us by HOWLS President, Chris O’Halloran, with his list, Playing Today’s Hits: 6 Horror Bestsellers (from 2024). Black Sheep also featured on this list!
Photo credit: Peter Ong Cook
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Peter Ong Cook
Peter Ong Cook has published stories in 2 HOWLS anthologies so far: HOWLS from the Dark Ages and HOWLS from the Scene of the Crime. His short fiction can also be found in Cosmic Horror Monthly and the anthology Trouble In Paradise. His husky resembles a wolf, the wolf featured in the HOWLS logo, but receives no royalties. The husky would just spend it on the dog-equivalent of booze.
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