4 New Horror Books Filled With Eldritch Terrors and Other Frights

Powerful. Brutal. Bursting at the seams with cosmic horror, ennui, violence and self-annihilation. There are many ways to describe Laird Barron’s latest collection, NOT A SPECK OF LIGHT: Stories (Bad Hand Books, 370 pp., paperback, $19.99), but superb works just fine.

A murderer recounts his most memorable kills and how his victims have haunted him in “The Glorification of Custer Poe.” In “Joren Falls,” a retired couple learn to live with the hungry abomination that dwells in their attic. “The Blood in My Mouth” follows a man whose partner will do anything to see her dog again, even if it means delving deep into the supernatural.

Recurring elements across the 16 tales in this collection — space as a threatening place full of monsters; Alaska as the cold, unforgiving backdrop where death lurks at all times; violence as the answer to most questions — give it a pleasing sense of cohesion. Barron’s work is where eldritch horrors and unflinching brutality collide with poetry. “Not a Speck of Light” proves Barron belongs on the Mount Rushmore of dark speculative fiction.

Hildur Knutsdottir gives readers a lot in her new novella, THE NIGHT GUEST (Tor Nightfire, 208 pp., $19.99), but she doesn’t give any answers, and that’s a good thing.

Idunn is always tired. She’s tried everything to fix her fatigue, but nothing works. Her friends suggest that exercising more might improve her rest, so she buys a watch with a pedometer to take up walking. One evening she forgets to remove the device before bed and, much to her surprise, it reveals that she unconsciously takes lengthy hikes at night while she’s asleep, always to a harbor in a district that is “an industrial blight.”