Lydia's Books of Terror: Horror Booktube Weekly

The new year brings new books so here we are with the January installment. Is there a secret cabal of popular horror authors who decided to all release in the first month? Is it all to give us a boost in the dawn of 2025 that good things ar to come? If so... I believe it is working!

I’ve read a good amount of books so far in January and had some amazing book mail too! I did get a chance to finish Linghun by Ai Jiang, and have wrapped up Strange Stones, The Rising: Selected Scenes from the End of the World, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, then jumped into The Ushers by Edward Lee, a short story collection by one of my most favourite extreme horror authors.

For every twenty Halloween and autumn horror books there must be at least one winter horror, or dare I say Christmas horror book out there. Chilly snowy horror is especially scary to me because for one, Christmas is creepy and unhinged, and most of all I can’t take the cold. I am not a Chrismtas fan, and indeed I resent capitalizing it. I love the look of winter, the idea of staying cozy, the starving wolves surrounding your cabin at night and firelight to fend off the shortening days. Winter sports are interesting to me but I’d rather chop wood over figure skating, ice fishing over downhill skiing. Snowshoeing and cross country skiing are really great but I’d rather take a winter stroll on a packed trail or winter market for sure.

Horror takes a holiday in the winter - but then, don't we all? Publishing agents, editors, bookbinders and print shops are no exception. Everything slows down in December, but we all still buy books. Sometimes many times more due to gifts! See all of the books I talk about today at https://typicalbooks.com/newhorror.

Happy December! There has been a lot of reading going on here as I've overlapped so many books the past month, and have just gotten around to finishing and reviewing some.

Some amazing books were gifted to me or picked up while thrifting for my 49th birthday. My wonderful husband knows my tastes better than I do! Here we find some Bradbury, Brom, Ballingrud, Ballen, and more! We talk about the Stephen King series The Dark Tower, where I was slowly collecting the old Plume editions—and have now completed that. I suppose I’ll have to find the Scribner ones to finish it off next.

Last weekend I was at dDread Con Literary Festival in Waterloo and - wow - was it an amazing time. 50 horror authors, some great panels and hundreds of books to be had!

There is a thrift store near me - the one I went to literally only 'look' at books during my book buying ban, no less. Now, since I can shop there once again, I try to stop in every month or two. I'm truly looking for one elusive book I want to find in the wild, but always find something interesting instead...

Heads Will Roll lives up to the cover and I enjoyed this quite a bit. It's skews a little young though not quite YA, but maybe not as brutal as I had hoped.

A 'short' update where I talk about the books I am reading - like the latest Stephen King book, You Like It Darker, and the short books I will get to the fall. Also, some gorgeous books my husband picked up on his travels. Have an ooky spooky day!