Dark Books Coming Out in July 2024 part 2 of 2

Memories of the Lost, by Barbara O’Neal (Lake Union Publishing, July 30, 2024)

Months after her mother dies, an artist sees a painting in a gallery that makes her lightheaded and dizzy. A handsome stranger comes over to help her. She later discovers a document in her mother’s papers that makes her realize her whole life has been a lie. She enters into a fugue state, finds a lead to the painting that started it all, and retreats to a remote seaside village to discover the source of her uncanny inspirations.

https://amzn.to/45NhdTW

Midnight Rooms, by Donyae Coles (Amistad, July 2, 2024)

In 1840s England, the orphaned daughter of a white man and black woman is offered marriage by a wealthy stranger. She accepts the opportunity, and is whisked off to his surprisingly decaying family manor. The servants are skittish, and she’s never allowed to be outside unaccompanied. Her husband is kind, but she begins getting drowsy at dinners, having macabre nightmares and waking up hearing screams in the night. In the morning, she finds bruises on her body.

https://amzn.to/3VM1QGD

The Moonlight Market, by Joanne Harris (Pegasus Books, July 2, 2024)

I am a huge fan of Joanne Harris and I’m extremely excited for this book. It’s set in London, where young orphaned photographer Tom walks around the city photographing interesting things. He meets Vanessa. He followers her into a mysterious secret alternate world that’s hiding in plain sight on the streets and rooftops of London. It’s inhabited by strange colorful beings who are at war with each other – one nocturnal, and one in the light.

https://amzn.to/3L8Hxyl

My Mother Cursed My Name, by Anamely Salgado Reyes (Atria Books, July 30, 2024)

Felicitas finally meets her estranged grandmother, who turns out to be cold, strict, and dead. The grandmother decides the only way she can cross over is to make sure her daughter is in a better place in life (work, husband, God, etc) and the only person who can hear the grandmother is Felicitas.

https://www.amazon.com/My-Mother-Cursed-Name-Novel/dp/1668038005/

Nicked, by M.T. Anderson (Knopf/Doubleday, July 23, 2024)

Set in Italy in 1087, where a pox is sweeping through the city. A lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams; and a charismatic treasure hunter seeks the monk’s help to steal a mysterious liquid from Saint Nicholas’ grave to cure the plague.

https://amzn.to/4eHK0xc

Pink Slime, by Fernanda Trias (Scribner, July 2, 2024)

Dystopian. An algae bloom has poisoned the air and a city is ravaged by plague. A mysterious corporation makes the only food people can safely eat, a disgusting pink paste made out of who-knows-what. A woman struggles to stay and survive in the city and keep her few tenuous relationships alive.

https://amzn.to/3zhzQmD

State of Paradise, by Laura van der Berg (Farrar Strauss Giroux, July 9, 2024)

In Florida, a mysterious illness arrived, made people sick, then disappeared. Weird things start happening, and a company called Electra starts handing out a mind bending virtual reality device. A ghostwriter for a thriller author notices weird things happening, and then her sister disappears after a violent rainstorm.

https://amzn.to/462WqvT

Toward Eternity, by Anton Hur (HarperVia, July 9, 2024)

In a near-future world, a new therapy is eradicating cancer by replacing the body’s cells completely with nanites. A man who has received nanotherapy vanishes into thin air, then comes back and is changed. Nano humans thrive and begin to replicate. Sci fi book.

https://amzn.to/4cpRCTE

We Burn Daylight, by Bret Anthony Johnston (Random House, July 30, 2024)

Star-crossed lovers fiction based on a true story at the Branch Davidian cult compound.

https://amzn.to/4bsT2Lw

The West Passage, by Jared Pachecek (Tordotcom, July 16, 2024)

“When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.

Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer, foretelling the coming of the Beast. The too-young Mother of Grey House and the Guardian's unnamed squire set out to save their people.”

https://amzn.to/4bpF0ub

Wilderness Reform, by Matt Query and Harrison Query (Atria Books, July 2, 2024)

When naughty thirteen year old Ben is sent to a remote wilderness reform program, he immediately senses an undercurrent of menace in the too-cheerful counselors. He and the other boys in his cabin team up to make it out alive. Surprisingly this isn’t a YA book.

https://amzn.to/45MOYVm

The X-Files: Perihelion, by Claudia Gray (Hyperion Avenue, July 30, 2024)

Mulder and Scully are still reeling from the death of their son William. The FBI calls to ask their help finding a serial killer in Washington DC. The serial killer targets pregnant women, and has an uncanny power of electricity, which is why they call in Mulder and Scully.

https://amzn.to/3zA0A1K