All the Fear of the Fair: Uncanny Tales of Circus and Sideshow British Library Tales of the Weird #66 / 68 by Edward Parnell
Release date: October 16, 2025 (British Library Publishing)
Step right up to see the enchanted Ferris wheel whose magical gifts are to die for! Marvel at the man-eating menagerie and dreadful secrets of ‘Satan’s Circus’! Behold the nightmare waxworks of Mrs. Groby’s Chamber of Horrors! Carnivals and sideshows are settings closely entwined with the history of horror cinema, but in the realms of literature, there is a strain of uncanny fairground fiction with even deeper roots. Home to a sinister troupe of conjurers, puppeteers, beast tamers and crowds baying for blood beneath the Big Top, the performance spaces of these classic weird tales are borderlands where the unearthly meets the darker cravings of the human heart. Presenting sixteen sensational short stories, hailing from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1840s through to Robert Aickman’s 1960s, Edward Parnell invites you to enjoy a cavalcade of uneasy thrills courtesy of Gerald Kersh, Ray Bradbury, Margery Lawrence and many more.
***** ***** *****
Cathedral of the Drowned Lunar Gothic Trilogy #2 / 3 by Nathan Ballingrud
Release date: October 21, 2025
The sequel to Crypt of the Moon Spider, Cathedral of the Drowned is a dripping, squirming, scuttling tale of altered bodies and minds.
There are two halves of Charlie Duchamp. One is a brain in a jar, stranded on Jupiter’s jungle moon, Io, who just wants to go home. The other is hanging on the wall of Barrowfield Home on Earth’s own moon, host to the eggs of the Moon Spider and filled with a murderous rage.
On Io, deep in the flooded remains of a crashed cathedral ship, lives a giant centipede called The Bishop, who has taken control of the drowned astronauts inside. Both Charlies converge here, stalking each other in the haunted ruins, while a new Moon Spider prepares to hatch.
Also known as Crypt of the Moon Spider Book 2.
***** ***** *****
The Harvest Moon Pact by George McMurty
Release date: October 24, 2025
Our debt comes due when the moon turns red.
In the isolated Midwestern town of Crow’s Bend, Illinois, the annual harvest festival promises pumpkin pie, hayrides, and autumn charm, but beneath the golden leaves lies a secret as old as the soil itself. When the harvest moon turns crimson, the townsfolk must pay their blood debt to something ancient that dwells in the woods.
Mara Whitlock left Crow’s Bend years ago, but caring for her dying father drags her back just in time for the festival. She notices strange rituals, whispers in the cornfields, and a brand-like mark appearing on her brother’s skin. The more she digs, the more she uncovers a hidden history of disappearances, folklore, and a pact sealed generations ago.
As the red moon rises, an ancient creature awakens, able to mimic voices, twist memories, and lure its victims into the dark. To save her brother, Mara must face the truth: in Crow’s Bend, the harvest always comes, and it always demands a sacrifice.
Fans of folk horror, small-town horror, and creature horror novels like The Ritual, The Only Good Indians, and The Fisherman will be hooked by The Harvest Moon Pact, a chilling blend of Midwestern Gothic atmosphere, ancient evil, and the terrifying cost of tradition.
***** ***** *****
The Black Carnival by Harlequin Grim
Release date: October 25, 2025
The year is 1886 in New Sarum, England, and Atherton Graves only knows a life surrounded by corpses. Amidst a rash of child deaths, he alone suspects they are the product of murder. At least, that’s what the ghosts in his mortuary tell him. But there’s hardly time to hunt the killer; Atherton has just sold a cadaver to a spiritualist at the notorious Black Carnival, and the town gang known as the Disciples is not going to take that lightly.
Caught between a serial killer, a circus bursting with foul characters, and his spiraling madness amongst the restless dead, Atherton will undoubtedly become the villain of his own story. The question remains: who, if any, will be unscathed by the rampant destruction he’s invited?
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