by Maria Haskins
This month, my reading recommendations are all about us, Ruadán Books. We’ve been around for over a year now, and we have some excellent books for you to buy and read, or maybe buy and give away to someone else during the holidays.
If you need another great reason to buy our books, there’s this: until December 23, Ruadán is donating 50% of all profits on our books to the Greater Boston Food Bank. In addition, our CEO, R.B. Wood, will personally match this donation.
You can get all our books directly from us in our shop, or you can pick them up wherever books are sold.
Five Funerals by Jeff Somers (Pre-Order)
The graduating class of Bishop Carlbus Prep has a secret.
The Outing Party is a tradition at Bishop Carlbus, a semi-illicit party hosted by a Senior student after the annual Outing, a weekend field trip taken by the graduating class every year. In 1995, Amy Keaton was determined to host a legendary Outing Party, but everything goes wrong. Her classmates are rude. Someone seems to be sabotaging her plans. And as the night goes on resentment and rage start driving everyone to extremes. The party spins out of control, and by the next morning Amy Keaton is dead, and twenty-five kids have a soul-crushing secret.
In 2015, six Bishop Carlbus Prep alumnus—Victor, Kate, Leo, Titus, Ida, and Winnie—gather for the funeral of their old high school classmate Zillah. They soon realize that they are now the sole surviving members of the Class of 1995—everyone else who attended Amy Keaton’s Outing Party is dead. And many of those deaths are bizarre and shocking. Sucked dry by leeches. Consumed by mice. Swept out to sea.
The survivors begin piecing together the events of the last two decades, and wonder: Is someone hunting them? Are they next?
And, maybe, do they deserve to be next?
BONUS: Each Pre-order is 20% off and comes with a free pocket-sized 1995 Bishop Carlbus Prep yearbook with drawings by Ruth Ann Sellars of Barnacles and Moss! This book is set for release on February 22nd, 2026.
You can read more about the book, and the gothically whimsical cover by Ruth Ann Sellars, in the press release.
Sinister Societies: Six Novellas of Secrets and Horrors, edited by Linda Hartley
To quote Ruadán’s founder and CEO: “What if you combined the darkness within human nature with a covert organization? That thought should terrify anyone, and our sinister cabal of six horror writers lean into this question with gusto!”
From the esoteric to the pragmatic, history is built on secret societies made as much of myth and rumor as blood and bone. Some societies are real organizations with documented histories. Some are patchwork figments of speculation, malevolence, conspiracy theory, and perhaps even the delicious specter of world domination.
It’s no secret these societies change lives.
Six of today’s best horror writers explore those changes for better or worse alongside the darker implications and motivations of such Sinister Societies–the existence of which has never been proven.
Table of contents:
- “The Secrets We Dare to Share: A Not-So-Furtive Foreword” by John Skipp
- Cult of Least Resistance by Cindy O’Quinn
- Agent Josephine Baker Against the Island of Horrors by Errick Nunnally
- The Secret Witches of Paradise by Mercedes M. Yardley
- Vengeful Spirits by Michael Burke
- TUNNEL 17 by Tom Deady
- Cult of the Rat King by Sarah Read
This anthology is set for release on December 9th. Pre-orders come with a randomly selected art card of one of the illustrations from the book. We’re also having a launch party on release day: register to join us here.
Portraits of Decay by J.R. Blanes
Hell hath no fury…
Up-and-coming young artist Jefferson Fontenot has everything going for him: The hot New Orleans art scene has noticed him, and he’s finally found his true love, Nevaeh Parker.
But Fontenot’s bright future hides a darkness known as Gemma Landry— the artist’s lover and art scene influencer. Gemma believes Jefferson’s talent holds the key to her seizing control of the popular Carondelet Street Gallery. But when Gemma discovers Jefferson’s infidelity, she enslaves the artist with a poison she acquired from swamp-dwelling witch Mirlande St. Pierre.
Now trapped in a rotting body and plagued by hellish visions, Jefferson finds himself reduced to a zombie-like servant for his unhinged ex, while Nevaeh is forced to embrace her past, hoping to save the man she loves. As the dark curse courses through Jefferson’s veins, everyone involved soon discovers—in the most brutal of fashions—the terror that awaits when you cross Gemma Landry.
To quote author Marissa Yarrow: “Portraits of Decay is Velvet Buzzsaw meets American Horror Story: Coven; full of magic, gore, and the worst kind of ex.”
You can find out more about J.R. Blanes and this book in his Big Idea piece featured on John Scalzi’s blog Whatever:
Portraits of Decay started as a short story about a young woman who travels to see a swamp witch to buy a poison that will trap her cheating boyfriend under her control. As far as story plots go, it was very thin, which was why I shelved it for a while for other projects. Yet I kept coming back to it, knowing there was something there. I just didn’t know what. I really wanted to write about New Orleans and the effect the city had on me during the years it was a home away from home while I worked for a private passenger train company out of Chicago. I yearned to invoke its culture, its traditions, and its folklore through the lens of my imagination. Still, all I had was a somewhat cliché revenge tale. I knew there needed to be more.
Spring in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction, edited by R.B. Wood & Anna Koon
Spring.
Even in the shadows of skyscrapers, spring sees an awakening in the concrete jungle that we call “the city.”
Spring in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction is the next anthology in Ruadán Books’ “…In the City” series that takes place in the different metropolises around the world during the changeable, unpredictable return of life from its cold slumber.
But what awakens is not always beautiful.
- In Stockholm, the vengeful goddess of spring awakens, ready to begin her hunt once again…
- Faced with an impossible choice, Detroit teens must confront a malevolent entity to protect their urban neighborhood from the creature’s insatiable hunger…
- A journalist escapes to Cape Town to research folklore and only encounters terrifying creatures from local legends, blurring the lines between reality and nightmare…
- When mysterious fireballs devastate Tel Aviv, a young girl is gifted with extraordinary powers which she must embrace to confront a prophesied cosmic entity…
Featuring new stories by: V.L. Barycz, Ross Baxter, J.R. Blanes, Die Booth, E J Delaney, Jeff Enos, Maria Haskins (that’s me!), Amanda Cecelia Lang, Rich Larson, Avram Lavinsky, Tim Lees, D.F. McCourt, Jonathan Papernick, Xan van Rooyen, John Joseph Ryan, Troy Seate, and Su J Sokol.
This anthology is set for publication on December 2nd, 2025, and you can join us for an online launch party that day! Register now.
The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen
A prisoner inside a ghoul-infested fortress, Erzelle must play her harp for the entertainment of the flesh-eating cult that murdered her parents.
Her nightmare’s upended in the space of a day by the arrival of Olyssa, a fellow musician, and so much more.
Erzelle joins the quest to find Olyssa’s missing sister, a journey across a mutated landscape that leads to an enemy responsible for the deaths of millions.
To end the slaughter, the pair has no choice but to draw on the deadly magic that reshaped the world … a power that’s consuming Erzelle even as she fights to control it.
Ruadán Books welcomes author Mike Allen, and delights in bringing the first of his Stormblight Symphony series to our readers!
You can find out more about this book, and Mike Allen, in his Big Idea feature on John Scalzi’s blog:
Whatever could have possessed me to write The Black Fire Concerto, a post-apocalyptic secondary world body horror novel in which a pair of heroines who cast spells through their music face off against hordes of undead monstrosities?
My heroines, warrior-sorceress Olyssa and her teenage apprentice Erzelle, draw inspiration from the likes of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Elric and Moonglum, Roland the Gunslinger and his sidekicks, and more. They are musicians traveling through a world overrun with ghouls.
Many scenes from the book, if a painter chose to illustrate them, could serve as death metal album covers. (Hint, hint, to any horror-loving artists out there.)
Winter In the City, edited by R.B. Wood and Anna Koon
The city.
Noisy, crowded, ever in motion, the city can be more than a setting—it can be a character, as nuanced and as fickle as a human being, with as many traits and quirks as the best mapped out characters. The city can be the ever-present and constant companion (or foe) to the protagonist and antagonist alike.
Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction is an anthology of dark speculative fiction tales that takes place in 18 different cities around the world during the bleak—sometimes harsh—season of winter.
- In Paris, a vagrant artist confronts a terrible truth while traveling across a frozen Seine and the well-walked paths of l’empire de la Mort…
- Children depart on a mystical quest to find their parents among the icy tombs of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem…
- In the snow-begotten slums of Manila, a young fighter must disobey her family and society to finally find freedom…
- The white-out conditions in Brooklyn are not nearly as dangerous as deals made in blood and bone…
Stories by:
Mars Albian, Mike Allen, Lily Childs, Anjum Noor Choudhury, Brian Evenson, Matt Hollingsworth, Richard Kadrey, Gwendolyn Kiste, Rich Larson, Tim Lees, Bracken Macleod, Nick Mamatas, Jonathan Papernick, Sarah Read, Sam Rebelein, Christian Fiachra Stevens, Katherine Traylor, and Xan van Rooyen.
120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era, edited by Nick Mamatas
“Generation X is the cynical generation of dark romantics,” says Nick Mamatas. “We love dark fiction. Our idea was to create something unique while paying tribute to the songs, bands, and lyrics of this generation. 120 Murders is an anthology of power chord crimes and keyboard horrors—the best noir, dark fantasy, and transgressive fiction from writers inspired by grunge, goth, ska, synthpop, and every eclectic sound of the alternative era.”
Contributors include Josh Malerman, a novelist, short story writer, film producer, and one of two singer/songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. He is best known for writing his post-apocalyptic novel Bird Box. Cara Hoffman, author of the feminist classic So Much Pretty, which sparked a national dialogue on violence and retribution, brings us a haunting story of loss entitled “How Soon is Now?” Underground sensation Jeff Chon, author of Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun, channels the vibe of classic black and white music videos and jangle pop with “Equations for a Falling Body.” Guardian First Book Award and IMPAC Dublin Literary Award nominee Elena Mauli Shapiro delivers us to Ground Zero in her hard-rock inflected “Never Forget.”
If you want to find out some of Nick Mamatas’s editing secrets, check out his essay in our Thoughts From the Writer’s Desk column: “How I Edit an Anthology”:
I don’t typically swing an axe around my apartment while editing an anthology, but this time, I did. For my latest, 120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era, one of my favorite writers sent me a thematically appropriate and well-observed story, but also included an axe fight. I wasn’t sure about the choreography, so I borrowed the hatchet that my landlord keeps in the laundry room and gave it a whirl. I was pantomiming solo rather than in a death struggle with another person, but after a few sweaty minutes, I had my notes. The axe would need to be hung at the rear of the apartment, not by the door; the attacker would need more room and an uncontested grip on the handle to get a good swing. Easy fix! I love good writers.
And there are many more books to come from us.
- Naomi Eselojor’s African Steampunk Novella
- Errick Nunnally’s Novella Series Starring Josephine Baker
- Mercedes M. Yardley’s Darling and Paradise
That’s just for starters. Sign up for our newsletter to get the scoop on all our books, right in your inbox!
