#jemc

[devoutjunk]

In March I’m opening full-time for freelance editorial work. You can read more about my packages and rates here: https://caroline-fitzgerald-shea.squarespace.com/editorial-consultations

I’ll also be relaunching my Patreon (patreon.com/carolineshea) featuring free weekly interviews with writers, editors, booksellers & more!

Feel free to reach out at cfitzgeraldshea@gmail.com with any questions about editorial packages. March's Patreon interviews feature conversations with Alix Harrow and Jac Jemc among others, so subscribe for free now so you don't miss them: patreon.com/carolineshea

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

note: If you did not finish but feel you read enough to form an opinion, you may choose a ‘Yes’ option instead of 'Partly' (e.g., Yes, I didn’t like it). Interpret "neutral or complicated" however you like, I intended this category to be a broad option between like and dislike.

A collection of horror–inspired flash fiction, featuring over 40 new stories from literary, horror, and emerging writers—edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto, the twisted minds behind Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder. In this playful, inventive collection, leading literary and horror writers spin chilling tales in only a few pages. Each slim, fast–moving story brings to life the kind of monsters readers love to fear, from brokenhearted vampires to Uber–taking serial killers and mind–reading witches. But what also makes Tiny Nightmares so bloodcurdling—and unforgettable—are the real–world horrors that writers such as Samantha Hunt, Brian Evenson, Jac Jemc, Stephen Graham Jones, Lilliam Rivera, Kevin Brockmeier, and Rion Amilcar Scott weave into their fictions, exploring how global warming, racism, social media addiction, and homelessness are just as frightening as, say, a vampire’s fangs sinking into your neck.

submit a horror book!

[book0ftheday]

The Grip of It by Jac Jemc, cover illustrations by Alex Metro, published 2017.

[blogthefiresidechats]

Horror

Are you looking for some books to read for Halloween? Well, here are 10 books you can read to get in the mood for Halloween. I’ve always included which age group I think each book is suitable for. White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson (teens) The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (adult) The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (adult) Don’t Turn Out the Lights by Jonathan Maberry (teens) Nothing But Blackened…

[lynorlane]

April reads

Apparently April is the month where I catch up on horror. It’s such a weird genre for me. I am fascinated by horror but also easily annoyed by it. I dislike people being cruel to each other for no reason. I dislike people suffering for no reason. And I really dislike nihilistic downer endings. It’s one of the things that turned me off of Supernatural—Sam and Dean had made everywhere hostile to…

[librarycards]

Hello, would y'all have any recommendations for books/media on the theme of Hungry Homes, in the same vein as Model Home by Rivers Solomon and White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi? Please and thank you!

hungry homes! i love that phrasing - did you come up with it or is it like, a Thing? either way, here are some (I'm assuming you're already familiar with the work of Shirley Jackson, as well as Toni Morrison's "Beloved," so I'm including only more recent novels):

Jac Jemc, The Grip of It

GennaRose Nethercott, Thistlefoot

Julia Armfield, Private Rites

Jenny Hval, Paradise Rot

Samanta Schweblin, Fever Dream

Private Rites in particular will give you the delicious, agonizing family conflict underlying/amplifying these hauntings and offer some similarities to Model Home. On the other end of things, Fever Dream's connection to the haunted house genre is a little more distant and best understood within the oppressive social contexts in which the house/private property acquires some sinister quality.

[calamitydaze]

get to know your mutuals!

tagged by @tanktopdiaz ♡♡

favorite color: orange :^)

currently reading: the grip of it by jac jemc and by currently reading i mean it's been sitting in my bag for a month while i tell myself every day that i'm gonna start it

last song: first love/late spring by mitski

most recent film: conclave LOL

most recent series: andor! rewatching s1 with my dad before we get into s2

sweet/salty/savory: i love all three but i have a Huge sweet tooth i'd eat sweets all the time if i could. unrelatedly, i have cavities

tea or coffee: it's cliche but coffee all day every day i'd die without my iced latte <3 i actually don't like tea at all! ;'(

working on: the friends to fiances fic that's been Almost finished for ages and mayyybeee something for bpregweek! and also a little buck&bobby poetry edit

no pressure tagging @punksalmons @team-118 @roosterseresin @moonlightbuck @buddieroommates and if you hate tag games or already did this and i missed it just pretend u didn't see this ok

[goryhorroor]

Hi! No idea of this is your wheelhouse at all, but do you have any recs for horror novels? In particular more modern books. Not sure if this is your thing at all so no worries if the answer is no, just curious! Have a lovely day!!

sure! these are some of my favorites

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

Whisper by Chang Yu-ko, but you can find the translation by Roddy Flagg

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, translation by Megan McDowell

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

The Hole by Pyun Hye-Young, translation by Sora Kim-Russell

You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry

The Shadow of Book of Ji Yun, translated by Yi Izzy Yu & John Yu Branscum

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

A Good House for Children by Kate Collins

Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell

The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

The Gingerbread Men by Joanna Corrance

Sisters by Daisy Johnson

The Lonely by Andrew Michael Hurley

Served by Scott Snyder, Scott Tuft & Attila Futaki

The Lost Ones by Anita Frank

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

From Below by Darcy Coates

The Fisherman by John Langen

[sinusproblem]

I'm very excited to share the news that an excerpt of my comic, Lime Dill Halloween, will be featured in McSweeney's, issue 79! Here is their copy for the issue:

"Coming to you at the intersection of book and tapestry, the seventy-ninth issue of our National Magazine Award–winning quarterly is embroidered from head to toe—using precisely 133,095 stitches of thread—with the art of Marta Monteiro. Inside this tactile, textile, tangerine-backdropped, cloth-bound art object are nine new stories, three fresh novel excerpts, six timely letters, an essay as sharp as a blade, a stunningly surreal slice of a graphic novel by Patrick Keck, and a shockingly beautiful, hot-pink suite of Mary Magdalenes painted by Leanne Shapton.

As your fingers caress the raised topography of this issue’s beyond-belief weave, marvel at a story by Joseph Earl Thomas in which time stops mid-dunk; a novel excerpt by Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff in which invented languages make a play; a story by Ahmed Naji that circles Cairo rap clashes; a captivating, climate-terror portrait of a story by T.C. Boyle; three totally crisp, sentence-gem-adorned stories by Diane Williams; dazzling letters by Jac Jemc, Meng Jin, Rebekah Bergman, and so much more!

Blow a kiss goodbye to summer, and brush your hands over the neon-threaded landscape of Issue 79 to feel a magazine that, both inside and out, is truly like no other."

Issue 79 with be coming out in September, but you can pre-order the issue now at the link below:

[selkiestudies]

mid year book freakout tag 2025

Thanks for tagging me @the---hermit!!

Best book you have read so far in 2025

My Friends by Fredrik Backman was probably one of the best books of my life. It is hard to imagine that is a 5/5 stars because it should be a 10/5 honestly. I don't think I have run the gambit of emotions so poignantly, violently, or beautifully as I did while reading My Friends.

Best sequel you have read so far in 2025

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir blew all competition out of the water. I loved the lore and the way the story was written and it made me crazy but it was so good!

New release you haven't read yet but want to

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab is definitely one I want to try to read before the year is out. I actually just got a beautiful copy so I am stoked to read it!

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree is definitely up there. I am usually so bad about knowing when new books are coming out by my beloved authors. Luckily, I saw the announcement for this one a few weeks ago!

Biggest disappointment

The Other Side of Never (story story collection) was not what I wanted at all. I guess I should have read the description better but it was a bunch of Peter Pan adjacent stories and none of them held the wonder or bizarre fear that the original story gave me. It all felt too focused on being "Adult".

Biggest surprise

Bride by Ali Hazelwood was fantastic! I honestly am not a romance kinda guy, but this one really got me invested. I think it would be cool to read more in the world she built.

New favorite author (debut or new to you)

Fredrik Backman is definitely at the top of the list. He just has a way of writing that I love. I felt so human reading his book.

Newest fictional crush

Palamedes Sextus from Nona the Ninth is probably it, but I don't really have fictional crushes from books typically. So he's a stretch but the closest I have.

Newest favorite character

Joar from My Friends is 100% my favorite. Loyal to a fault, troubled, and so emotional. I think about him constantly.

Book that made you cry

My Friends by Fredrik Backman made me sob every other chapter and I am not exaggerating. It was beautiful and the emotional twists and turns were so good!

Book that made you happy

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh was really sweet! I think it was a lovely premise and I want to see more by this author. The graphic novel just made my day!

Favorite book to film adaptation

Paddington in Peru was excellent! Not sure that it actually followed the plot of one of the Paddington books but I have only seen so many new movies.

Most beautiful book you have bought this year so far

I recently bought a beautiful special edition of Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and the two other books in the series. They are gorgeous with painted edges, foil covers, and just beautiful dust jackets.

What books you need to read before the end of the year?

So many omg. Currently the list to finish this year is:

Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Empty Theatre by Jac Jemc

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Extremophile by Ian Green

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch

Ireland Legends & Folklore by Aoife Curran

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole

And that's so many but hopefully it gets me close to 40 like I want.

Tagging: @alexistudies @godzilla-roars @dutch-polyglot and anyone else who wants to do it!

[armandyke]

Would love to hear about the books u read in 2024, surprise bests, biggest disappointments?

I think I will do a multi part post over the coming weeks with reviews of all the books I read since I have about half of them written up already. For now I'll just say my two absolute favourite reads of the year were Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock and Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova. Two very different books but both of them permanently altered my brain chemistry.

Below are my ratings for all the books I read and as I say, I'll try to post more in depth reviews over the next few weeks. My aim this year is to try and do proper reviews of the books I read as I'm reading them instead of having to go back several months later lmao.

Oh, and because it's something I'm always looking for specific recs for, I've highlighted the books with queer rep (that I remember) in pink, and the extreme horrors/books I advise checking trigger warnings for are marked with a lil skull.

1) Gone to see the River Man by Kristopher Triana (4⭐) 💀

2) Skeleton Crew by Stephen King (4⭐)

3) The Butcher by Laura Kat Young (5⭐)

4) The Hollow Places by T.Kingfisher (5⭐)

5) Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (4.5⭐)

6) The Shuddering by Ania Ahiborn (3.5⭐)

7) Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (5⭐)

8) Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandraw Khaw (3.5⭐)

9) Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (4⭐) 💀

10) Good Girls Don’t Die by Christina Henry (1⭐)

11) The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino (3.5⭐)

12) Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley (4⭐)

13) The Dead of Winter curated by Cecily Grayford (3⭐)

14) Off Season by Jack Ketchum (3⭐) 💀

15) Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt (3.5⭐) 💀

16) Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison (4⭐) 💀

17) The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum (5⭐) 💀

18) Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (4⭐)

19) Caraval by Stephanie Garber (2⭐)

20) The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (4⭐)

21) Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims (5⭐)

22) Nod by Adrian Barnes (4⭐)

23) How to sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (5⭐)

24) Among the Living by Tim Lebbon (2⭐)

25) 19 Claws and a Black Bird by Augustina Bazterrica (3⭐)

26) House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson (4.5⭐)

27) Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (DNF)

28) The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Perry (DNF)

29) A House with Good Bones by T.Kingfisher (5⭐)

30) A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock (5⭐)

31) Cujo by Stephen King (5⭐)

32) The Dark Net by Benjamin Percy (3.5⭐)

33) The Dinner Guest by B P Walter (4.5⭐)

34) The Cloisters by Katy Hays (1⭐)

35) Diavola by Jennifer Thorne (5⭐)

36) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (4.5⭐)

37) Nettle and Bone by T.Kingfisher (3.5⭐)

38) The Hatching (3.5⭐) Skitter (1⭐) and Zero Day (1⭐) by Ezekiel Boone

39) Come Closer by Sara Gran (4⭐)

40) Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison (5⭐)

41) The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (DNF)

42) Wranglestone by Darren Charlton (3.5⭐)

43) Piñata by Leopoldo Gout (4⭐)

44) Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca (1⭐) 💀

45) Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle (5⭐)

46) The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice (I didn't rate this because this was less like reading a book and more like studying for an exam)

47) The Ghost Woods by C.J Cooke (4.5⭐)

48) Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (3.5⭐)

49) Too Late by Colleen Hoover (DNF)

50) Alice by Christina Henry (1⭐)

51) The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton (3.5⭐)

52) All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes (4.5⭐)

53) Violent Faculties by Charlene Elsby (4⭐) 💀

54) Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin (3.5⭐) 💀

55) Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison (4.5⭐)

56) My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino (3.5⭐)

57) Bloom by Delilah S Dawson (4⭐)

58) Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella (DNF)

59) Out There Screaming curated by Jordan Peele (3.5⭐)

60) The Watchers by A.M Shine (4⭐)

61) Whalefall by Daniel Kraus (4.5⭐)

62) My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham (3.5⭐)

63) Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix (4.5⭐)

64) Incarcerat by Garth Marenghi (4⭐)

65) Feast While You Can by Onjuly Datta and Mikaella Clements (5⭐)

66) The Whistling by Rebecca Netley (4⭐)

67) Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (4⭐)

68) Scuttle by Barnaby Walter (DNF)

69) Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (5⭐)

70) Revival by Stephen King (4⭐)

71) Blight by Tom Carlisle (3.5⭐)

72) The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw (5⭐)

[devoutjunk]

"I think of a lot of what I write-- and even some of the stuff that appears to have speculative elements-- as realist. Or I think of speculation as an aspect of realism. This could just as easily be flipped to say, you need realism in the speculative worlds you create." --Jac Jemc (An Interview with Jac Jemc)

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

Julie and James settle into a house in a small town outside the city where they met. The move—prompted by James’s penchant for gambling, his inability to keep his impulses in check—is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to leave behind their usual haunts and start afresh. But this house, which sits between ocean and forest, has plans for the unsuspecting couple. As Julie and James try to settle into their home and their relationship, the house and its surrounding terrain become the locus of increasingly strange happenings. The architecture—claustrophobic, riddled with hidden rooms within rooms—becomes unrecognizable, decaying before their eyes. Stains are animated on the wall—contracting, expanding—and map themselves onto Julie’s body in the form of bruises; mold spores taint the water that James pours from the sink. Together the couple embark on a panicked search for the source of their mutual torment, a journey that mires them in the history of their peculiar neighbors and the mysterious residents who lived in the house before Julia and James.

submit a horror book!

[fuzzkaizer]

John Hornby Skewes - DX99 Digitec Delay

"This DX99 has 512ms Delay. The factor dial can make this x2, so it's probably 1024ms of a delay in total. It also has a Hold Jack to maintain that Delay for lo-fi experiments. The factor knob is great for creating a bed of texture. Almost like an Eno style tape loop, or pad."

cred: reverb.com/JEMC

[blogthefiresidechats]

My picks for Halloween!

Besides the books listed below, you can try author Darcy Coates and/or Joe Hill. Either of them will help you get into the spirit of Halloween. If you are looking for a specific book to read then look no further… Yes, I just read this one recently. If you are interested in a haunted house situation then this may be of interest to you. It keeps a good pace so you don’t loose interest and I was…

[gorelesbian]

do you have any super scary ghost/supernatural horror book recs? 👻

sorry for taking so long to reply, i wanted to finish reading some books that i suspected would fit this! to be fair i sadly never get scared when reading, but i do know some good supernatural books :)

the grip of it by jac jemc is about a couple who move into a house and soon realise things are a little off. rooms don't line up, mold pours from the sink and massive bruises start forming on their bodies. this gets pretty strange and abstract.

the only good indians by stephen graham jones is about four native american men who are being hunted down by the entity of their past mistakes. this book is like seeing something out of the corner of eye but when you look there's nothing there.

this thing between us by gus moreno is about a couple who move into a new apartment where strange things start to happen. soon the wife dies and the husband is left alone with his grief and the haunting. this gets fucking crazy.

come closer by sara gran is about a woman who has a very successful life but starts experiencing weird symptoms and behavior. it gets worse and worse until she's unsure whether she's insane or possessed by a demon.

if you like silly/campy horror i'd recommend horrorstör by grady hendrix about a woman working in a haunted ikea.