Others: Negative Ten years ago, Lila Devlin was an A-list actress with a movie star husband and a beautiful baby girl, Josie. When Josie was kidnapped out of her home and never seen again, Lila’s previously pristine public image twisted into that of an Unfit Mother. Driven mad by the hungry press, incompetent cops, and relentless true crime–obsessed “fans,” she disappeared into anonymity. Now, Lila Devlin returns to LA with a grand vision for a radical new skincare brand to reinvent herself and honor Josie’s legacy. She's prepared to move into the next chapter of her life with forgiveness in her heart, when an encounter with a parasitic blogger ends with him dead. Lila suddenly discovers forgiveness isn’t nearly as satisfying as a body hitting the floor. With the help of her devoted publicist Sylvie, Lila begins a relentless, blood-soaked hunt through LA. Giving her skincare the edge it needs, they introduce a secret ingredient—revenge-sourced—from the bodies piling up. But as the company’s success skyrockets and Lila begins unraveling the truth behind her daughter’s kidnapping, her murderous side hustle threatens the life she’s painstakingly rebuilt. Both a striking portrayal of grief and womanhood, and a twisting, cynical satire on celebrity and toxic beauty standards, Cruelty Free is an ambitious debut from a talented star on the rise.
Genres: horror, mystery, thriller
Lists: …
Gemma Amor
2025 · 352 pages · 3 reviews
Others: NegativeREADERS LOVE GEMMA'S DARK, ITCHY WORLD 🐜'If you are after something that is both shocking and horrifically beautiful then take a journey and discover this little atrocity for yourself' 🐜 'I kept telling myself I really should turn off the light and get to bed now, eyes dry, head heavy, but every sentence in this book commands the reader keep turning the pages and press onward...' 🐜 'Gemma pulled me in with this compelling tale. Each page turned yielded me to another. I couldn't stop. Seriously!' 🐜 Josie is at rock bottom, living a haunted existence after returning to her isolated hometown on the edge of the Forest of Dean. But the tall, dense pine trees are not the only things casting shadows across her skin.When Josie stumbles across a decaying, ant-infested body in the woods, she plummets into a downward spiral, facing uncomfortable truths about the victim and her own past - all whilst battling a growing infestation of her mind . . . and her flesh.Desperate to solve the case, Josie scratches the surface of an age-old mystery - a masked predator stalks the forest around Ellwood, a place deeply gripped by folklore. As the village prepares for its annual festival, Josie gets closer and closer to unveiling a monster, and begins to ask Are these dark crawling insects leading her to uncover the truth? Or is she their next victim? 🐜 🐜 'From the first page, this story is already under your skin, building a nest in your heart' KYLIE LEE BAKER, New York Times bestselling author of Bat Eater 🐜 🐜 'A chilling and tremendously disturbing examination of a wounded mind . . . Sinister and utterly fiendish, ITCH! is a shocking and truly surprising blend of mystery, folk horror, and body horror that will burrow deep in your softest places, into your tenderest, most unspoiled secret parts' ERIC LAROCCA, award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke 🐜
What made the match, strongest first
Mónica Ojeda
2022 · 2 reviews
Others: NegativeFernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise? When Fernanda, Annelise, and their friends from the Delta Bilingual Academy convene after school, Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned, Dior-scented, drag-queen god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love. Meanwhile, their literature teacher Miss Clara, who is obsessed with imitating her dead mother, struggles to preserve her deteriorating sanity. Each day she edges nearer to a total break with reality. Interweaving pop culture references and horror concepts drawn from from Herman Melville, H.P. Lovecraft, and anonymous 'creepypastas', Jawbone is an ominous, multivocal novel that explores the terror inherent in the pure potentiality of adolescence and the fine line between desire and fear.
What made the match, strongest first
Riley Sager
2026 · 4 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveIn 1926, five women disappeared from a remote island in Vermont. Now, one hundred years later, it’s happening again. Struggling actress Marin Keane is shocked when she lands a role in a major motion picture about the unsolved mystery of New Avalon, an island on sprawling Lake Faraday in Vermont. She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot. Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished in 1926. The only trace of them was five dresses hanging from the branches of an old oak tree in the middle of the island, one for each missing woman. Some locals say they simply left. Others think they were murdered. But the prevailing opinion, thanks to a diary left behind by one of the vanished, a young woman named Daisy Rue, is that a séance gone wrong conjured something supernatural that took them all one by one. Not long after arriving, Marin and her castmates, including legendary actress Violet Wright and white-hot director Ronan Peters, begin to realize all is not right with New Avalon. They hear strange noises in the night and notice mysterious symbols left behind by the island's previous occupants. And after a sudden health emergency leaves Marin, Ronan, and the other actors stranded on the island, the disappearances begin again. Is it the work of someone trying to derail the movie? Or is the island’s alleged supernatural past catching up with the present? As fear and suspicion mount, Marin turns to Daisy’s diary, hoping it holds the key to figuring out what really happened to the women of New Avalon—and how to keep the island’s terrible history from repeating itself.
What made the match, strongest first
Mallory Arnold
2025 · 368 pages · 6 reviews
Others: Mostly negativeSeven authors enter the manor Can they survive the story within? When legendary horror author Mortimer Queen passes, a group of writers find themselves invited to his last will and testament reading expecting a piece of his massive fortune. Each have their own unique connection to the literary icon, some known, some soon to be discovered, and they've been waiting for their chance to step into the author’s shoes for some time. Instead, they arrive at his grand manor and are invited to play a game. The rules are simple, solve the riddle and progress to the next room. If they don’t, the manor will take one of them for itself. You see, the Queen estate was built on the bones of Mortimer’s family, and like any true horror story, the house is still very, very hungry. With the clever, locked-room thrills of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone with the ghostly horror of The Fall of the House of Usher, How to Survive a Horror Story is a bright, biting, thrill-ride that begs us to contemplate how the best horror stories come to be.
What made the match, strongest first
Richard Chizmar
2021 · 336 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Negative"In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman--and he's playing games with them. For a once peaceful community trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end."-- Provided by publisher.
What made the match, strongest first
Heather Gudenkauf
2022 · 352 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedTrue crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace. As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by the secrets contained within its walls—haunted by secrets of her own. Then she discovers a small child in the snow just outside. After bringing the child inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. But soon it becomes clear that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought, and someone is willing to do anything to find them.
What made the match, strongest first
Not a fanCruelty-Free by Caroline Glenn, a beautiful book that I think just wanted to fit in with the current market trends in publishing. Ultimately, it was about a mad lady killing everybody, and I didn't love the revenge story as much as I wanted to.
