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paperbackbish, Denver, CO (2026)

09/24/2026

Thank you Farrar, Straus & Giroux for my free ARC of Fallow by Sarah Anderson — out now!

» READ IF YOU «
💼 want corporate dystopia and dark humor
🍸 love a hot-mess FMC making questionable choices
🤰 think 7 pregnancies in 10 years is objectively horrific

» SYNOPSIS «
Natalie is broke, uninsured, and sick of every job she’s ever had. So when a big tech company offers her a ten-year gig as an in-house surrogate (including a luxury condo, personal chef, cleaning service, and grumpy assistant), she jumps at the chance to sign on. Between pregnancies, she lives like a degenerate party girl. But then, one of her pregnancies goes a bit awry, and the company decides she’s outlived her usefulness...

» REVIEW «
I loved the first half of this SO much! Natalie is an absolute mess of a human (though the dentist thing was relatable as hell), and watching her stumble into this arrangement while genuinely convincing herself it’s a win was black comedy done well. The corporatization of surrogacy is such an incredible horror concept, and for the first half, Anderson really dug into it.

But the second half kind of lost me? It’s frustrating, because there was (with no spoilers) so much setup for the situation to turn truly, completely horrific, but we just didn’t get to go there. It ended up feeling more like a whimper than the gut-punch I was steeling myself for. Not a bad back half, exactly, just a step down from how strong that setup was. Worth reading for the premise and Natalie’s antics alone! Even if the ending didn’t fully deliver on the promise of its first half.

» RATING «
🍾 I’m Clocked Out 🍾
Swipe through for read-a-likes ➡️

09/23/2026

🖤✨2027 HORROR✨🖤

I know it’s only September, but it’s time to start getting hype for next year’s horror titles!!! Neon green and yellow are for sure making a statement in cover art. So many gorgeous books!!

I would never claim that this is a comprehensive list of current 2027 titles, but it is a whoooole gaggle of the ones I know about and/or saw on NetGalley 👀

Which are you most excited for?! It’s so hard to pick—but as of this second, mine are:

🐰 EARS by Stephen Graham Jones
🌟 LIQUID GOLD by Wendy Dalrymple
😈 HELL TO PAY by Kylie Lee Baker
🔥 KILL ME WITH FIRE by Chris Panatier
🎲 IT’S ONLY A GAME by Sam Rebelein

I doooo have several of the others, if you’re wondering why they’re not on the list 🥳 okay back to my kindle BYYYYEEEE

09/21/2026

Thank you Soft Skull Press for my free copy of The Flayed Man by Chloe Lauter — out now!

» READ IF YOU «
🌵 love a setting that does double duty as a character
🩸 want a curse that stands in for real caregiving exhaustion
💔 enjoy complex mother-daughter dynamics

» SYNOPSIS «
Ellis spends her nights working in a Las Vegas emergency room, then spends her days as the exhausted caregiver for a mother with early-onset dementia. Oh and did she mention the family curse? The one that requires daily blood consumption to stave off a monstrous transformation? Well, that too. To complicate things, Ellis’ uncle (and the blood he supplies) suddenly vanishes, and her mother has begun insisting that the infamous “flayed man” is out to get them all...could she be right?

» REVIEW «
Lauter’s style was an absolute delight in this debut novel; I was enthralled by the writing and the desert and the STRESS from page one, and it carried me through to the end. It’s horror, yes, but wow the prose and the atmosphere. The desert landscape is written so sparsely and precisely that the emptiness itself starts to feel dangerous. But also...that flayed man...

The relationship between Ellis and her mother, though, is the beating heart of this story. Ellis is trapped in that suffocating space of loving someone while resenting being their primary caregiver, because WOOF is it a lot to carry when someone you love starts to fade away inside themselves. Lauter renders her guilt and frustration so well, and I think that the curse is sort of the perfect way to describe a crushing sense of familial obligation—without ever feeling heavy-handed.

This book is tense, complex, and beautifully written. It’s not “vampire” in a Dracula sense, but in a quieter, “this s**t is draining me” way. Definitely recommend if you lean toward literary horror!

» RATING «
🌵 I’m Parched 🌵
Swipe through for read-a-likes ➡️

09/18/2026

If you like stories that mock literal colonizers and colonizer mythologies, Álvaro Enrigue is the author for you. Both of these books are five stars for me, and I have bought them as gifts for other people several times over now!

Álvaro’s witty writing and deft storytelling defies explanation—he is easily one of the most intelligent fiction writers I’ve encountered on the page. Both are translated from the original Spanish by Natasha Wimmer. I recommend starting with Empires!

» YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES «
“Cortés is accompanied by his captains, his troops, his prized horses, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn friar, and Malinalli, an enslaved, strategic Nahua princess. After nearly bungling their entrance to the city, the Spaniards are greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely Aztec princess Atotoxtli, sister and wife of Moctezuma. As they await their meeting with the emperor – who is at a political and spiritual crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get by – Cortés and his entourage are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the chances of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire. And what if... they don’t?”

» NOW I SURRENDER «
“Orchestrated with a stunningly imagined cast of characters, both historical and purely fictional, Now I Surrender radically recasts the story of how the West was “won.” In the contested borderlands between Mexico and the United States, a woman flees into the desert after a devastating raid on her dead husband’s ranch. A lieutenant colonel in service to the fledgling Republic, sent in pursuit of cattle rustlers, discovers he’s on the trail of a more dramatic abduction. Decades later, with political ambitions on the line, the American and Mexican militaries try to maneuver Geronimo, the most legendary of Apache warriors, into surrender. In our own day, a family travels through the region in search of a truer version of the past.”

QOTD: weekend reading plans?!

09/17/2026

🦌✨THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS: RECAP✨🦌

If you’re too pressed for time to reread The Only Good Indians before Off the Reservation comes out on October 13, here’s your somewhat-chaotic plot recap 📣

Instead of saxophones getting louder, it’s Canadian geese 🪿

Also, snag your OTR shirt from Threads of Dread to match me!!!

Featuring my Pit Viper admirers 🤪🕶️ since everyone always asks

09/16/2026

Thank you Tor Nightfire for my free ARC of Rooted by Leopoldo Goût — out now, as of yesterday!

» READ IF YOU «
🗿 know how terrifying Aztec mythology can be
🏙️ want your horror steeped in colonial reckoning
🐢 can handle a slow pace and an MC who does silly things

» SYNOPSIS «
Aurora returns to Mexico City to celebrate the repatriation of a stolen Aztec artifact, a statue of a god known as the Flayed One. But the city seems foreign to her now, and she keeps seeing odd things. Caring for her sick mother, Aurora starts to question her grip on reality as old family secrets resurface and it becomes clear the Flayed One has no intention of resting quietly.

» REVIEW «
Firstly, I will be upfront and let y’all know that this book was a genuine struggle for me. Mostly because of the FMC, Aurora. She is described as 34 years old and an accomplished lawyer, but she reads more like 14 years old for a lot of the story. Her actions were sometimes so baffling that I had a hard time rooting for her, even when I wanted to. The disconnect between who she’s supposed to be and how she actually reads on the page made it tough for me to invest in her unraveling.

Something that might have contributed to this, for me anyway, is the audio narration—I’d (for once) recommend reading this one with your eyeballs rather than your earballs. The narrator is wonderful, but her performance leaned youthful, and it might have influenced me even further in that direction. So if you go in via text instead, Aurora’s age might land more convincingly for you. Let me know if so!

The mythology and the setting are the strongest, most enjoyable parts of the book. Goût clearly knows how to make Mexico City itself feel alive and unstable, and the Aztec lore woven into the heart of the story is compelling and terrifying. The prologue alone SLAPS! I just wish I had connected with the character carrying us through this journey.

» RATING «
🗿 I’m Uprooted 🗿
Swipe through for read-a-likes ➡️

09/15/2026

👻 IT’S TIME TO GHOST STEPHEN KING 👻

Why yes, I did wake up and choose violence, thank you for noticing 🫶

Okay but seriously, read Stephen King if you want. I don’t care. I respect the man’s IMMENSE contribution to writing in and popularizing our beloved genre, but that doesn’t mean I want to support him and his actions in 2026.

SO HERE ARE SOME OTHER AUTHORS, MKAY? You’ll notice my picks are skewed away from white men, which is nothing new.

And please, do not come in my comment section talking about “he’s just old” and “horror wouldn’t exist without him” because I literally do not have time for that 🙃

SK, should you see this, it’s nothing personal, my dude. I just chose a different Stephen 🤷‍♀️

THE TEXTS ARE FAKE OBVIOUSLY I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU.

😏

09/14/2026

Thank you Dutton Books for my free ARC of An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino — out now!

» READ IF YOU «
🕯️ love Gothic horror steeped in religious guilt and dread
⚡ want a twisty plot that’ll catch you off guard
👁️ don’t mind a POV shift that might change things

» SYNOPSIS «
Raised in a religious household in 1870s Brazil, Madalena finds herself suddenly pregnant and unmarried (how’d that get in there?). Her strict mother tells her she must marry, or else will have to give up the baby. Madalena isn’t worried that Leandro, the baby’s father, will propose once she tells him, but a storm interrupts her confession. Recovering in Leandro’s isolated home, he’s no longer the man she once knew, and Madalena fears she’s made a grave miscalculation...

» REVIEW «
The gothic atmosphere here is thick and immersive from the jump, which I love. A run-down and isolated home, religious guilt and familial obligation, dread that builds bit by bit instead of rushing at you. Livino clearly knows her gothic genre, and it shows in how confidently she builds her story in a fresh setting.

The plot’s twistiness was the real draw for me, though. If you enjoy a mid-book POV shift, you will vibe with this story, because that’s where everything you thought you knew starts getting questioned. I won’t spoil how or why, obviously, but it’s a well-executed pivot that really brings the story together. I do wish we hadn’t spent so much time going over the same events as in the first half, but I understand why we did. A confident, atmospheric debut with a hell of an ending—you’ll enjoy this if you want something fast-paced and devourable.

» RATING «
⛪ I’m Deceived ⛪
Swipe through for read-a-likes ➡️

09/11/2026

✨TBR BE LIKE✨ so I’m calling this my “next month-ish” TBR, because I truly cannot be beholden to strict timelines, I will add 74 more into this pile if you let me. Anyway. See any coming up for you?

I started a “low stress very chill no pressure bookclub” over on my patreon discord 😂 and we are reading Fallow this month. Can you guess my outfit for the review post? Hint, I’ve worn it before…

🔥 AMERICAN NIGHTMARE by Kelly McWilliams 🖤
🛏️ I AM THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED by Emily Zinnikas
🦴 YOUR BELOVED REMAINS by Quinn Connor
🕶️ PORTRAIT OF A HAUNTING by Madison Tyler Nelson (current! loving!)
🐊 THE HOUSE BUILT ON ALLIGATOR BONES by Sophia Huneycutt
🐮 FALLOW by Sarah Anderson
💦 THE WATER HOUSE by Nneoma Ike-Njoku
🎭 SHE ISN’T HERSELF TONIGHT by Hailey Piper

Oh wow, somehow they’re all from different publishers. I am impressed with myself.

09/10/2026

Cover photo is my impression of a te****le monster, so, you’re welcome. Thank you Orbit Books US for my free ARC of Reliquary by Hannah Whitten — out now!

» READ IF YOU «
🐙 are into te****les...wait, no...well, kinda?
🏚️ would be freaked tf out by a house that’s mostly underwater
🙄 need to see a set of awful in-laws get what they deserve

» SYNOPSIS «
Claire’s fiancé Elias dies suddenly and she’s about to sink back into the lonely life she’s used to. But Elias’s estranged, bajillionaire family reaches out to invite her to their private island off the coast of Maine. It might be nice to be around family to grieve, right? Right?! Well, just as long as you remember to feed ancient monsters and whatnot...

» REVIEW «
Ah, ocean horror. As a thalassophobic myself (look it up), it’s instantly freaky for me. I mean, the family mansion is literally sunk into the ocean. Cool, but terrifying. The story also has a locked room component because of the private island setting, AND Claire’s in-laws are just the worst (in-laws, right?) so this little book had a lot of atmosphere that was juuuust right for the horrors.

I love when authors show instead of tell, but there’s something to be said for not SHOWing the horrors themselves, and letting the reader’s imagination conjure up whatever they find most frightening. Which was happening for much of the book, for me. There’s also some very real emotional stuff going on under all the gothic trappings—the way Claire’s childhood trauma gets used to re-terrorize her is what really escalated all the horrors, in my opinion.

I could’ve stayed in this world longer, and now that I’ve finished reading, I find myself wishing this was the start of a series rather than a standalone.

» RATING «
🌊 I’m Drowning 🌊
Swipe through for read-a-likes ➡️

paperbackbish

09/24/2026

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