Bochica by Carolina Florez-Cerchiaro is as much a story about grief and loss as it is about a haunted mansion and the demons within it. At its heart, it’s a story about fighting a demon and the cult that summoned it, yes, but it’s also about letting go and overcoming trauma.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell is a creepy yet charming monster-slaying fantasy romance, told from the monster’s perspective. While the idea of humanizing the creature isn’t entirely new, this take feels fresh, featuring an amorphous shapeshifter trying to pass among humans and unexpectedly finding companionship. That twist alone hooked me.
Join Mikie & Darnel as we talk about Sinners. Directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B Jordan (twice!), it’s an unapologetically black film steeped in culture. It’s equal parts a horror movie and a celebration of the legacy music has to the black diaspora.
Vampire of El Norte by Isabel Cañas had me hooked from the start. The creatures here are exactly what I want from a vampire story. They were dark, menacing, and genuinely terrifying.
Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal could have been a fascinating supernatural mystery set against the backdrop of Puerto Rico, but instead, it ends up feeling like a messy pile of privilege, colorism, and bad character work.
Piñata by Leopoldo Gout is a fantastic grotesque horror steeped in Indigenous lore. This was a genuinely terrifying read, dripping with atmosphere and imagery that burrows under your skin.
With an atmosphere is thick, unsettling, and dripping with unease, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the kind of book that crawls under your skin and refuses to leave.
Picture this: You finally move into the perfect house with your new husband, except it’s haunted…by his ex-wife… and everyone gaslights you about it. The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas takes the classic haunted house trope and drapes it in the rich texture of a gothic nightmare set in post-independence Mexico.
Taking well-known concepts and stories and breathing new life into them is a concept that I absolutely rock with and Silvia Moreno-Garcia shows a great a talent for it in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a haunting dive into cursed film, a skin-crawling horror romp that will leave you unsettled.