June brings with it summer weather, day trips, and plenty of reading time spent on the porch with a cool drink–and, of course, so many new books! This month we’re looking forward to new titles from V. Castro, Philip Fracassi, Ramsey Campbell, Laura Lippman, Riley Sager, and more!
Also, a note: we’re continuously updating release dates and newly announced books both here and on our 2021 horror releases master post.
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June’s new horror titles:
- Bacchanal, Veronica G. Henry (June 1): Evil lives in a traveling carnival roaming the Depression-era South. But the carnival’s newest act, a peculiar young woman with latent magical powers, may hold the key to defeating it. Her time has come.
- For The Wolf, Hannah Whitten (June 1): The first daughter is for the Throne. The second daughter is for the Wolf. For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes a dark, sweeping debut fantasy novel about a young woman who must be sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn’t the only danger lurking in the Wilderwood.
- The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris (June 1): Urgent, propulsive, and sharp as a knife, The Other Black Girl is an electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.
- The Shape of Darkness, Laura Purcell (June 1): A struggling silhouette artist in Victorian Bath seeks out a renowned child spirit medium in order to speak to the dead – and to try and identify their killers – in this beguiling new tale from the queen of Gothic fiction, Laura Purcell.
- Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Eric LaRocca (June 1): Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000’s — a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?
- Till We Become Monsters, Amanda Headlee (June 1): After the death of their grandmother, seven-year-old Korin, blaming his older brother Davis for her demise, tries to kill him. Sixteen years later, wracked with guilt, Korin comes to terms with the fact that Davis may not be the monster after all. Korin agrees to a hunting trip with his brother and father. But they never make it to their destination. An accident along the way separates the hunters in the dark forests of Minnesota during the threat of an oncoming blizzard. As the stranded hunters search for each other and safety, an ancient evil wakes.
- Wendy, Darling, A.C. Wise (June 1): A lush, feminist re-imagining on what happened to Wendy after Neverland, for fans of Circe and The Mere Wife. Now a grown woman, a mother, a patient and a survivor, Wendy must follow Peter back to Neverland to rescue her daughter and finally face the darkness at the heart of the island…
- The Ghost Finders, Adam McOmber (June 4): Henry Coxton, a fledgling occult detective, has taken up recent stewardship of a ghost finding firm, investigating gaslit mysteries in the damp cobblestone streets of Edwardian London. Along with his friends and associates—Violet Asquith, a telekinetic with a mysterious past, and Christopher X, a monster of dubious origins—Henry must work against the clock to solve the agency’s most terrifying case, one that threatens to destroy all he holds dear and perhaps even the very fabric of reality itself. Strongly influenced by the weird horror of Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, and William Hope Hodgson, The Ghost Finders explores the darkest corners of London’s occult realities.
- Shutter, Melissa Larsen (June 15): A young woman agrees to star in a filmmaker’s latest project, but soon realizes the movie is not what she expected in this chilling debut novel.
- Beneath a Pale Sky, Philip Fracassi (June 18): Eight stories of horror, including an original novella, that will take you from the high-security ward of a mental hospital to the top of a Ferris Wheel on an ocean pier. Combining old-school horror with the modern weird, Beneath a Pale Sky will take you places you’ve never been before, and show you sights you won’t soon forget.
- Among the Lilies, Daniel Mills (June 22): A new short story collection from the author of Moriah, Revenants, and The Lord Came at Twilight.
- The Bridge, J.S. Breukelaar (June 22): Meera and her twin sister Kai are among thousands of hybrid women—called Mades—bred by the Father in his Blood Temple cult. Meera is rescued by a mysterious healer and storyteller, Narn, but her sister, Kai, does not survive the Father’s “unmaking. Years later, Meera meets a woman whose stories open her up to memories she’s never acknowledged, secrets she’s never wanted to know, about Narn’s and the Father’s connection to a violent campus stalker. Time is closing in and Meera is afraid of where she stands on the bridge between worlds—fearful of what waits on the other side.
- Dream Girl, Laura Lippman (June 22): Following up on her acclaimed and wildly successful New York Times bestseller Lady in the Lake, Laura Lippman returns with a dark, complex tale of psychological suspense with echoes of Misery involving a novelist, incapacitated by injury, who is plagued by mysterious phone calls.
- Moon Lake, Joe R. Lansdale (June 22): Edgar award-winning author Joe Lansdale returns with a standalone novel following the gripping and unexpected tale of the lost town and dark secret that lie beneath the glittering waters of an East Texas lake.
- The Queen of the Cicadas, V. Castro (June 22): In 1950s south Texas, Milagro, a farmworker from Mexico, is murdered. Her death is ignored by the town, but not the Aztec goddess of death, Mictecacíhuatl. The goddess hears the dying cries of Milagros and creates a plan for both to be physically reborn by feeding on vengeance and worship. 70 years later, the new owners of the farmhouse find themselves immersed in the legend of Milagros and realize it is part of their fate as well.
- Somebody’s Voice, Ramsey Campbell (June 22): Alex Grand is a successful crime novelist until his latest book is condemned for appropriating the experience of victims of abuse. In a bid to rescue his reputation he ghostwrites a memoir of abuse on behalf of a survivor, Carl Batchelor. Carl’s account proves to be less than entirely reliable; someone is alive who shouldn’t be. As Alex investigates the background of Carl’s accusations his grasp of the truth of the book and of his own involvement begins to crumble.
- Star Eater, Kerstin Hall (June 22): In this dark fantasy debut novel, an order of cannibal nuns pay an unimaginable price in order to preserve their magical bloodline, but Elfreda wants out, whatever the cost. A phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power, Star Eater takes readers deep into a perilous and uncanny world where even the most powerful women are forced to choose what sacrifices they will make, so that they might have any choice at all.
- Unfortunates, Leo X. Robertson (June 24): In this collection of stories a sadistic blogger gleefully documents the murders of Hollywood celebrities. A journalist infiltrates a sex club for the physically impaired, finding he has more in common with them than he first assumed. A soon-to-be-dad gets seduced by a water spirit, which questions everything he thought he could impart as a father. And a primary school teacher meets his most difficult class yet: a horde of undead children.
- Cinders of Yesterday, Jen Karner (June 29): Paranormal Hunter Dani Black wants nothing more ardently than she does revenge. A year ago, the rogue Necromancer Spectre murdered her partner during a hunt gone wrong, and she’s been looking for a way to kill him—and keep him dead—ever since. When rumors of a weapon capable of killing anything surfaces in Dawson Maryland, she sets out on a mission to get her hands on it.
- Survive the Night, Riley Sager (June 29): It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana’s in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.
- Queen of Teeth, Hailey Piper (June): Within forty-eight hours, Yaya Betancourt will go from discovering teeth between her thighs to being hunted by one of the most powerful corporations in America. She assumes the vagina dentata is a side effect of a rare genetic condition. But, when a pharmaceutical company upend her life, she realizes her secondary teeth might be evidence of a new experiment for which she’s the most advanced test tube… a situation worsened when Yaya’s condition sprouts horns, tentacles, and a mind of its own. Note: This title was available in a limited hardcover run in June 2021 and is in paperback as of November 1.
As always, if we missed anything, let us know in the comments!
View our 2021 new horror release masterlist here, and view previous monthly new releases posts here.
I hope it’s not against rules, but, my book, The Despicable Fantasies of Quentin Sergenov, was released June 1st by Encyclopocalypse Publications. 35% of proceeds are being donated to The Trevor Project, so I’m trying to raise its profile. It’s a splatterpunk horror comedy set against the backdrop of the 90s wrestling boom and tells the story of a pro-wrestler who’s blacklisted after he’s outed by a homophobic coworker; subsequently transformed into a prehistoric monster, he makes an ill-advised attempt to reintegrate into society and seek vengeance against those who wronged him.