 Today on Typical Books, we're going to talk about new books coming out for February. So February has a lot of horror offerings more so than January did. But I've called a lot of the thrillers out of the pile. There's still a lot of thrillers here for whatever reason. I think that the newer styles of horror are getting closer and closer to thriller and thrillers are getting darker and darker. So horror and thriller are like slowly combining forces more so than ever before. So this chilly horrible month has a lot of chilly horrible reads in store. As an update before we get into what has come out this month, I've just finished reading Duncan Ralston's Skin of Flicks, which I really enjoyed. That'll be on the next wrap up as far as what I've read. Anthony Berg is a clockwork orange and I had to actually go online to read the last chapter because this is an old American version which they deleted the last chapter so that they could have a little more bleak ending. That's a switch. Usually the U.S. doesn't like a bleak ending and I finished reading Richard layman's Friday night and the beast host and it has a bonus novella the wilds which I'm going to read tonight which I haven't finished yet but that's what I read this week so I'm pretty happy about getting some more books under my belt. Closer to the 25 books off my shelf I wanted to read before I buy anymore and even before I unbox like Book of the Month Club which I have one sitting there in a pre-order that I haven't unpackaged yet. So hopefully soon I can pick up some of these books. Some of them actually are on the Patreon poll so people can pick what I'm going to read next and we'll get to that in a second. So to start we have some January books, Hunted Highways, Road Trip Horror by Roland Bursey Jr, Lucas Magnum, and Carver Pike. So this is promising to be an extreme thing. This comes out from Crystal Lake and they've been doing these triage inspired collections of three authors writing novellas and short stories so that's really interesting to me and to have these authors who typically write darker fare write something about hunted highways. I love it because I am a big fan of like the I-91 killer or whatever he is an I-91 killer, the trucker killers and highway of tears all those sorts of true crime stories really speak to me because there's nothing more terrifying than driving across country being stranded or if in the olden days hitchhiking so it says embark into a journey onto terror where each mile is marked by suspense and horror. These three horror novellas transform travel into a treacherous adventure where the next stop could be your last. Terrifying, terrifying stuff. That is January 29th from Crystal Lake and three awesome authors. January 30th we have Midnight on Beacon Street, a novel by Emily Ruth Barona. This comes out from Harper and this has been doing the rounds. A lot of people seem to be reading this when people are asked their new horror for 2024. This is usually on the list. It struck me as more of a thriller but I can see where the horror vibes be at as the kids say. It is a babysitter killer kind of thing. The evening starts out normally enough with games, pizza, and dancing but as darkness falls events in this quaint suburban New Jersey house take a terrifying turn. Unexpected visitors at the door, mysterious phone calls, and by midnight little Ben is in the kitchen standing in a pool of blood with a dead body at his feet. Okay I'm tempted. The cover looks quite interesting if you'd like things with a house on the cover because you know I do. This really speaks to it and this sort of has a retro feel in a way because it takes place in 1993 and 1993 is probably retro now isn't it? January, getting into February we have the House of Last Resort, a novel by Christopher Golden and a lot of people mean talking about this one too. Not only does it have a house on the cover, it has a house on the title. Wow this comes out from Saint Martin's press. Across Italy there are many half-empty towns nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to other cities. The beautiful crumbling hilltop of Bachina is among them but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild, selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single euro if the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. Okay let's get to the horror here. It's no brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi who work remotely and because of Bachina's home of Tommy's grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure and opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. Wow they're really really hedging on the bet that that the author's name has probably sold me into reading this much of a description but from the moment they move in they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy's grandmother is furious even a little frightened when she realizes which house they've bought. Okay wow I could have cut out that whole middle part really in a way but yeah okay I want to know what is wrong with the house right? What is wrong with the house? But yeah very colorful cover, very plain cover with a heavy on the typography. Heavy on the typography with a sans serif font so that's a little boring to me but we have one that has a house on the cover. Well so many of these with a house on the cover. What are we doing here? We ate the dark a novel by Mallory Pearson. It comes out February 1st so this comes out from 47 North which is Amazon's publisher. It's not Kindle, it's not self-published, it's published by Amazon. Five years after Sophia Lyon disappeared her remains are found stuffed into the hollow of a tree bursting through the floorboards of an abandoned house in the woods. Wonderful. The woman who loved her flock home to North Carolina hills to face their grief. Frankie, Sophia's twin is in furious mourning. Poppy is heartbroken, Cass never felt more homesick and Maya knows something the rest of them don't. And the description goes on from there but I am excited about a body being stuffed into a tree that is spreading through the floorboards of an abandoned house in the woods. I think that's all it takes to really get me. It's called We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson and the cover is like a moody blue sort of teal vignette on a really weird looking abandoned house. It has like ochre colors is really cool and a scribble kind of text. I really dig everything about the description and the look of the book itself. February 10th we have a book that does not have a house on the cover. It's called Symbols Eat Guitars by Josh Hansen and this comes up from Black Hair Press. It has got a very iconic cover in my opinion. They've taken something that looks like the cover of The Clash I believe it's the London Calling album and they have similar text on it. I don't know how much trouble they could get in for doing that but I mean it looks cool but there's a demonic visage superimposed over the face and it looks very very creepy. It looks very cool. It speaks to me as a former post-punk type kid, punk clash fan kid. Three friends take their punk trio into a remote mountain town for an unplanned stop on their farewell tour. When the show is interrupted by catastrophic train derailment the little resort town is transformed into a landscape of terror and the three friends must fight for survival against a populace turned to suddenly monstrous. Okay sounds like any Thursday night for a punk band doesn't it? Interesting I like music, horror, band horror. I love road trip horror like a road show kind of concert thing. I like punk rock horror too so I think this is really cool and that cover just really got to me so very interested in this from a press I've never heard of and an author that's new to me as well. Back to an author whose name we know Tim Levin has a book coming out on February 13th called Among the Living. The cover is sort of weird to me. It's like mostly white with like very fine saucerophances among living authors name in red and it's got sort of like a mountainous snowy thing. I'm not sure if it's a photo or if it's like a impressionistic sort of design. It's really hard for to tell even what it is but it looks cool whatever it is. A strange friends Dean and Bethan meet after five years where they are drawn to a network of caves on a remote arctic island. Bethan and her friends are environmental activists determined to protect the land but Dean's group of exploration of rare earth minerals deep in the caves unleashes a horrific contagion that has rested frozen and undisturbed for many millennia. Fleeing the terrors emerging from the caves Dean and Bethan and their rival teams undertake a perilous journey. Everyone loves a perilous journey on foot across an unpredictable and volatile landscape. Now in the arctic everything's unpredictable and volatile. The ex-friends must learn to work together again if they're to survive and more importantly stop the horror from spreading to the wider world. I really like this idea and Tim Levin is great with the environmental horror, eco horror is really his forte which he's been doing for a number of decades it seems to me so very interested to read this. I do like arctic horror cold horror winter horror snowy horror and yeah contagion eco horror stuff very interested. On the same date we have fractured fables by alexie harrow this comes up from tour and I really did enjoy the last alex, first last only alexie harrow book that I read. Maybe it's only two stories it's called a spindle splinter it is one of the stories and a mirror mended. I thought there were three stories but I'm not really sure but retellings you know I'm not that interested in fantasy retellings for whatever reason even though I really like fairy tales and I'm a very big Hans Christian Andersen and Grimm's fairy tale fan retellings usually aren't for me so if you read fractured fables I want to hear all about it. On the same day what are we February 13th we have a new Darcy Cote's book it is the fourth in a quadrilogy trilogy series The Hollow Dead. There are still mysteries to uncover for curious foggy memories as she prepares to fight for the souls of the tormented dead what she doesn't know about her own past may come back to haunt her. I am suspecting you will have had to read the rest of them I have the first in this series on my shelves I haven't got to it yet because series are really daunting to me you'll notice I usually don't talk about series but I really like Darcy Cote's and I love the cover of this has a very artistic things interwoven on a distorted sort of sans-serif font, great big bold lettering really enjoy the look of it. Still on February 13th so the day before Valentine's Day if you're looking to pick up books as a gift what feasts at night by T. Kingfisher this comes out from Torah as well so I've never read any T. Kingfisher books so if you have let me know if you think that they fit into horror specifically after their terrifying ordeal at Usher Manor so this is a second in I forget the name of the other one but it had a darker cover not a red cover Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war all they crave is rest routine and sunshine but instead as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter they find themselves heading to their family hunting lodge deep in the cold damp forest of their home country Galatia so yeah I don't know much about the Usher angle in the first book so if you have read it let me know coming up on February 20th we have Island Witch which has a really traditional looking cover it has a very cool witchy looking woman on it it's got very cool text up top and it has a verdant looking island with a sunset behind it reminds me somewhat of course of island from Richard layman always anything about an island with the sunsetty photo wood comes up from Berkeley and it's written by Amanda Jatissa being the daughter of the village Kapawa or demon priest Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British colonizers the villagers who once respected her father's craft have turned on the family yet they all seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise so yeah Island Witch if you're interested in something a little different especially in the middle of February where it might be snowing cold where you are depending Island Witch might fit the bill also on February 20th we have one book that is on the poll list I'll post it in a community post and put the link down below so that you can vote on it to voting's open till the 15th and you can pick what I read next month but my throat and open grave by Tori Bovalino an author I've never heard of with a very cool cover it's got like an upside down girl that's laying on the ground and the text is above my throat and open grave and there's a bloody handprint on her white neck gown so very interesting looking to me I think it may be a YA novel but I don't really know because it doesn't say entirely the publisher I've never heard of page street kids so I think that is like a YA growing up in the small town of Winston Pennsylvania feels like drowning Lee goes to church every Sunday works when she isn't at school and takes care of her baby brother Owen like every girl in Winston she tries to be right and good and holy if she isn't the lord of the wood will take her she'll disappear like so many girls before her but living up to the rigorous standards of the town takes its toll the description goes on from there I don't really want to ruin it but it reminds me quite a lot of slewfoot which came out last year from Brom Gerald Brom so this sounds really cool to me I like cult stuff I like sort of Amish inspired horror I think it's interesting and this sounds like it may be like the lottery Shirley Jackson sort of angle to it with of course old gods in the wood who can beat that February 22nd we have I'm Hello by Tim McGregor this comes from raw dogs screaming press and you may have heard me talk about Tim McGregor's work before I'm really looking forward to this it is one that I have pre-ordered so I gotta get my 25 bucks read Orkney Island 1797 Agnes Tullock feels a little cheated is not the island paradise her husband promised it to be when they wed now with four young children she struggles to revive for her family while her husband grows increasingly distant when a stranger comes ashore to rent an abandoned cottage Agnes and the other islanders are abuzz with curiosity who is this wealthy foreigner and why on earth would he come to Ein Hallow her curiosity is soon replaced with vexation when her husband hires her out as cook and washerwoman leaving Agnes with no say in the matter Agnes begrudgingly refriends this aristocrat in exile a mercurial scientist who toils night and day on some secret pursuit despite herself she's drawn to his dark brooding charm and who is this bironic stranger sweeping Agnes off her feet his name is Frankenstein and he's come to this remote island to fulfill a monstrous obligation okay so if like me you were reading that and being like oh I don't know I don't know it sounds kind of like a romance or something yeah just the name Frankenstein I'm glad that he saved it for the end of that because starting it out you might have had a different take you might have been like oh I don't know if I want to read anything derivative like this so I've read some really cool stuff from a fellow Canadian authors that do a take on Frankenstein or Dracula so I am looking forward to this sort of thing because I love Tim McGregor's work his voice and stories about Frankenstein coming up on February 27th we have bored gay werewolf by Tony Santorella and this comes from Atlantic books I don't know if I remember that publisher this is a new to me author I believe Tony Santorella and bored gay werewolf like aren't we all just a little Brian an aimless slacker works doubles at his shift job forgets to clean his room and lays about with his friends Nick and Darby he's been struggling to manage his transition to adulthood almost as much as his monthly transitions to a werewolf like I can relate really he's not that great at the whole werewolf thing but his recent murderous slip-ups have caught the attention of Tyler a millennial wear mentor determined to take the mythological world by storm Tyler has got a plan and weirdly his self-help punditry actually encourages Brian to shape up and stop accidentally making out guys who ghosted him on Grindr as potential monthly victims but Brian gets closer to Tyler's pack and alienated from Nick and Darby he realizes that Tyler's expansion plans are much more nefarious than a little loop line enlightenment okay really catchy written synopsis really really cool looking cover it's almost like in the brutalist fashion of whoever it was it did the KMFDM artwork for all of their album covers if you are a KMFDM fan you will know who I mean it very interestingly done like that and instead of just red black and white they're using like black purple and green it's like the symbolic colors of millennial emo punk kind of colors isn't it but yeah board gay werewolf I'm quite interested in that are you uh is it just me that's maybe wants a little more fun after such a dour little season maybe it will be a good perk up going into March from February but yeah that is what I have found in February that really spoke to me horror wise very interested in some of these cultish small town stories so many books with houses on the cover and board gay werewolves and frankensteins that is everything coming out for February there's quite a few titles that spoke to me of course things that are on the poll so you can pick what I read next month if you're interested is there anything on that list that you've already read or that you already have sitting on pre-order let me know or if there's anything that you are now going to pick up as a result of this video let me know in the comments below and as ever thank you very much for watching have an oaky spooky day