Features

Campy thrillers to chilling horror all available at library

From campy thrillers to chilling horror, here is a look at some new editions to Peter White Public Library's Adult Fiction Collection:

• "Cursed Daughters" -- a novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite tells the story of multiple women, each afflicted by a matrilineal curse: to pursue men but to always love in vain.

While the younger generations try not to pay attention to the curse, the older women of the family hold on to incredible superstitions, implementing spiritual guidance and supernatural tools in an attempt to sway fate. So when Ebun's daughter Eniiyi is born the same day as her cousin Monife's funeral, it is easy to feed into mystical reasoning -- especially when Eniiyi holds a striking resemblance to her older cousin.

In this story, love and grief churn as one, leaving readers to wonder how much power the curse really holds, and if there is any escaping it.

• "Herculine" -- a novel by Grace Byron is the author's horror debut which follows a nameless narrator, a failed writer and trans woman, trying to find her place in New York City.

Our narrator doesn't have it made -- caught up in dating struggles, the aftermath of conversion therapy, and unlearning religious trauma, her nightmares then begin to merge with her waking life. After losing her job and when her sleep paralysis demons transform into otherworldly horrors, our narrator moves back to rural Indiana to join her ex-girlfriend's all trans girl commune.

Named after Herculine Barbin, a 19th century intersex memoirist, the commune seems like a refuge where trans women can find solidarity and live freely. But it's not long after our narrator arrives that she realizes something is off about this supposedly safe haven.

• "Girl Dinner" -- a novel by Olivie Blank is dripping with anxiety, ambition and a mouth-watering need for belonging.

Drawn in by the allure of sisterhood, college sophomore Nina Kaur and adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley both become involved with an exclusive sorority on campus. The sorority, known as The House, presumably provides it all: top grades, successful alumnae, and, ultimately, status within the socially elite -- not to mention, every member is unbelievably, almost mythically, gorgeous.

As these two women become more entangled within Greek life, the dialogue turns into nuanced examinations of not only what it means to be a woman taking part in traditional gender norms but also what it means to be successful in modern society. The question, amongst many, must be asked: what is the cost of living deliciously?

• "We Are Always Tender With Our Dead" -- a novel by Eric LaRocca is the first novel in the new Burnt Sparrow trilogy.

This novel begins with a content warning from the author, which will help you decide if this, as LaRocca states, "profoundly distasteful" splatterpunk horror fiction is right for you.

When a horrific tragedy befalls the town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, its people are irrevocably unsettled by cruelty and grief.

Written from multiple perspectives and intermixed with newspaper reports, diary entries, and short stories of local Burnt Sparrow legends, the story unfolds in vignettes of a rotted, uncanny small town and the haunted inner lives of its community.

Eliot Shumate is an Adult Services Reference Desk assistant at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.