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SIX STORIES by Matt Wesolowski

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One body
Six stories
Which one is true?
1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an outward bound centre. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who embarked on that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby.

2017. Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivalled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries' mysterious death. And who's to blame.
 

As every interview unveils a new revelation, you'll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth.

WHAT WE THINK

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The Book of Strange New Things: When people ask me for a science fiction recommendation, this is always my first choice. Michel Faber is probably better known for his Dickensian epic, The Crimson Petal and the White, or his alien horror, Under the Skin, both of which have been successfully adapted for television and film. But The Book of Strange New Things is arguably a book closer to Faber’s heart. Written while caring for his wife during a terminal illness, it explores what it means to be human, and the ways in which we rely on language and shared experience to connect with others. This book has something for everyone, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s been disappointed by it.

 

 

Six Stories: As a general rule, we won’t be introducing series as part of the BOTB subscription – but our first box is apparently about breaking the rules! Six Stories is the first installment in Matt Wesolowski’s ongoing series, although each novel happily stands alone. Wesolowski masterfully uses the podcast/transcript medium to explore a mystery that’s almost but not quite supernatural, although the reader might be left wondering on which side of that divide the mystery lies. Podcast host Scott is masterful at investigating the mystery from an objective point of view, but the witnesses he interviews always have their own agendas. How far can they be trusted?

This month’s box comes with signed bookplates and a letter from the author exclusive to Books Outside the Box.

 

THE BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS by Michel Faber

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Peter Leigh is a missionary called to go on the journey of a lifetime. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Bea, he boards a flight for a remote and unfamiliar land, a place where the locals are hungry for the teachings of the Bible - his 'book of strange new things'. It is a quest that will challenge Peter's beliefs, his understanding of the limits of the human body and, most of all, his love for Bea.

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The Book of Strange New Things is a wildly original tale of adventure, faith and the ties that might hold two people together when they are worlds apart. This momentous novel, Faber's first since The Crimson Petal and the White, sees him at his expectation-defying best.

Will Haunt You, Brian Kirk

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You don’t read the book. It reads you.

 

Rumors of a deadly book have been floating around the dark corners of the deep web. A disturbing tale about a mysterious figure who preys on those who read the book and subjects them to a world of personalized terror.

 

Jesse Wheeler―former guitarist of the heavy metal group The Rising Dead―was quick to discount the ominous folklore associated with the book. It takes more than some urban legend to frighten him. Hell, reality is scary enough. Seven years ago his greatest responsibility was the nightly guitar solo. Then one night when Jesse was blackout drunk, he accidentally injured his son, leaving him permanently disabled. Dreams of being a rock star died when he destroyed his son's future. Now he cuts radio jingles and fights to stay clean.

 

But Jesse is wrong. The legend is real―and tonight he will become the protagonist in an elaborate scheme specifically tailored to prey on his fears and resurrect the ghosts from his past.

 

Jesse is not the only one in danger, however. By reading the book, you have volunteered to participate in the author’s deadly game, with every page drawing you closer to your own personalized nightmare. The real horror doesn’t begin until you reach the end.

 

That’s when the evil comes for you.

What we think Will Haunt You:

 

I hadn’t really realised horror and surrealism went together until I read Will Haunt You. I remember about twenty pages in thinking, “What on earth is happening?” But hang on for the ride and what you’ve got is a glorious gory spooky ride of weirdness!

Suicide Club by Rachel Heng

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Lea Kirino is a 'Lifer,' who has the potential to live forever - if she does everything right. She has lived her life by religiously following the state directives that ensure she remains fit and healthy. She knows she wants to live forever, and she is going to green juice, yoga-cise and meditate her way to immortality.

Yet, when a brush with death brings her face to face with a mysterious group who believe in everything the state has banned, memories of now-forbidden childhood pleasures resurge alongside ghosts of her past. As Lea's long-held beliefs begin to crack, she is forced to consider: What does it really mean to live?

What we think of Suicide Club:

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In the, by now, frankly enormous genre of utopia/dystopia and particularly feminist dystopia, Suicide Club stands out for its focus on the wellness movement and the way capitalist society focuses so heavily on health for the sake of productivity. Suicide Club takes this to its Nth degree and asks where the point will come when our bodies aren’t really even our bodies anymore, while still delivering a heartwarming story about family.

Vast: Stories of Mind, Soul and Consciousness in a Technological Age

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Ten exciting, thought-provoking science fiction stories exploring the relationship between cutting-edge technology and the human psyche.

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What would it mean for an artificial brain to become conscious? Is awareness always tethered to the body? Could we ever accept a virtual reality as our own? Perhaps our minds already have more impact on the fabric of reality than we realise.

What We Think of Vast:

 

With Vast, we come to our first collection of short stories. Vast features some really smart sci-fi technology and thinking, often questioning the relationship between human and machine, and the boundaries of artificial intelligence. Brilliantly curated, we hope you’ll love these bite-sized pure SF gems!

The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

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At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi—a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother—it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls.

Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house—despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumors of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored... and one of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi’s existence.

What We Think of The Tenth Girl:

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The Tenth Girl is my favourite book from last year. I read it right at the end of the year and it just had everything I love in a 21st century gothic story. The characters are really well realised, the story is told in an interesting way and, oh yes, there’s a twist! The sense of unease that runs through the book is subtle to begin with, but grows as the story goes on, leading to a deliciously unpleasant crescendo.

What We Think of Things We Say in the Dark

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Kirsty Logan’s prose is almost poetry in this collection of creepy short stories. Chock full of dark and sinister imagery reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Logan brings a queer flavour to reimagined horror folk tales and original stories of horror in domestic life. There is something for every horror fan in this beautifully dark collection.

Things We Say in the Dark by Kirsty Logan

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Alone in a remote house in Iceland a woman is unnerved by her isolation; another can only find respite from the clinging ghost that follows her by submerging herself in an overgrown pool. Couples wrestle with a lack of connection to their children; a schoolgirl becomes obsessed with the female anatomical models in a museum; and a cheery account of child's day out is undercut by chilling footnotes.

These dark tales explore women's fears with electrifying honesty and invention and speak to one another about female bodies, domestic claustrophobia, desire and violence.

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd

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The case of the extraordinary child...

London, 1863. A strange puzzle has reached Bridie Devine, the finest female detective of her age. To recover a stolen child, Bridie must enter the dark world of medical curiosities. The public love a spectacle and this child may well prove the most remarkable spectacle London has ever seen.

Things in Jars is a Victorian novel unlike any other, one that explores what it is to be human in inhumane times.

What We Think of Things in Jars

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Jess Kidd is a maestro when it comes to whimsical narration of grim and grisly subjects, and I would argue Things in Jars demonstrates this better than any of her other novels. Her prose is beautiful and flits effortlessly between characters. The story itself passes through a number of colourful and extraordinary characters, twisting and turning to an excellent conclusion.

The Explorer by James Smythe

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When journalist Cormac Easton is selected to document the first manned mission into deep space, he dreams of securing his place in history as one of humanity's great explorers.

But in space, nothing goes according to plan.

 

The crew wake from hypersleep to discover their captain dead in his allegedly fail-proof safety pod. They mourn, and Cormac sends a beautifully written eulogy back to Earth. The word from ground control is unequivocal: no matter what happens, the mission must continue.

But as the body count begins to rise, Cormac finds himself alone and spiralling towards his own inevitable death ... unless he can do something to stop it.

What We Think of The Explorer

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I love a book that leaves me yelling theories at my husband for basically the entire story. This one perplexed me from the beginning. I read a lot of books where everyone dies, but not usually on the first page! This book will boggle your mind and probably leave your perplexed right up to the last page, like the very best of sci-fi.

The Only Good Indians by Stephan Graham Jones

 

This novel follows four Native American men after a disturbing event from their youth put them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and tradition they left behind catch up to them in violent, vengeful ways. 

What We Think of The Only Good Indians

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In this native American horror, the supernatural is not the only terrifying element. Living in the UK, I knew very little about contemporary life as a native American, but some of the assumptions and facts relayed by The Only Good Indians -- about suicide rates, about lifestyles and livelihoods and the pressure to be a 'good' Indian and a 'good' American -- were really surprising to me. The gore and violence were pretty good too!

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

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Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker - she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she's swiftly packed off to live with a grandmother she's never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father's most iconic horror movie was shot.
The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map - and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.

There's someone - or something - stalking Lola's every move.

The more she discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola's got secrets of her own. And if she can't find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her...

What We Think of Harrow Lake

 

When I was a teenager I used to love Point Horror – horror and slasher books written especially for the Young Adult market. It was the golden age of teen slashers, and me and my friends watched Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer over and over again. It feels now like there is less gore aimed at teenagers, but this is a fantastically spooky offering with blood, mystery and things that creak in the dark. I’m hoping you guys enjoy Lola’s discoveries about her mother’s hometown and, like me, feel transported back to those slumber parties made tense with delicious chills.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

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It's been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty's life out from under her.

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don't dare wander outside the school's fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there's more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

What We Think of Wilder Girls

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This is a book that I genuinely wasn’t sure whether to categorise as spooky or speculative – so I guess this month you have two quite dark books to look forward to! Rory Power’s debut is again all about teenage girls, but these somehow feel much more adult, not to mention monstrous. Wilder Girls is a book about transformation, survival and selfish instincts. A real page-turner that will soon sink its talons into you!

Sanctuary by V.V. James

 

To Detective Maggie Knight, the death of Sanctuary's star quarterback seems to be a tragic accident. Only, everyone knows his ex-girlfriend is the daughter of a witch - and she was there when he died. Then the rumours start.

Bereaved mother Abigail will stop at nothing until she has justice for her dead son. Her best friend Sarah will do everything in her power to protect her accused daughter. And the women share a secret that could shatter their lives - and their community.

It falls to Maggie to prevent her investigation - and Sanctuary itself - from spiralling out of control.

What We Think of Sanctuary

 

We hear a lot of bemoaning about witch hunts these days, but what would a very literal witch hunt look like in the twenty-first century? This seems to be the question that sparked V.V. James’s debut novel, a character study of gossipy small town life and magical paranoia, with an ending that is literally sizzling.

Neon Horror, edited by Jessica and Jonas Holt

 

Neon Horror collects the works of some of the brightest horror creators from the LGBTQIA+ community. A diverse selection of short fiction, poetry, illustrated stories and artwork displaying the wide variety of voices that the horror genre genre can offer, which includes:

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Venting by Dark Lunch Studio

Silence, Entwines by Ava Kelly

Death and Her Bride by Anatasia Catris

There is an Old Lady Who Swallowed the Stars by Hailey Piper

Throat Line MMXX by Paul Jon Milne

Tunnel’s End by Die Booth

T.V by Ushrayinee Sarker

A Sponsered Dream by Eva ‘Wolfie’ Gnatiuk and Lisa Jones

Contorsion by Jonas Holt

What We Think of Neon Horror

 

Happy pride month! We are celebrating by including this Spooktacular anthology of queer short stories published by our amazing partners, Haunted Bouncy Castle. And I could tell you about some of the ghastly fiction within, but but I want to take a moment just to assure you that this will probably be the most beautiful book you ever own. Every story is gorgeously illustrated in Bouncy Castle’s signature style. This will be one to keep on the coffee table!

Halcyon by Rio Youers

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Halcyon is the answer for anyone who wants to escape, but paradise isn't what it seems.

A self-sustaining community on a breathtakingly beautiful island, Halcyon is run for people who want to live without fear, crime or greed. Its leader has dedicated her life to the pursuit of Glam Moon, a place of eternal beauty and healing, and believes the pathway there can only be found at the end of pleasure.

On the heels of tragedy, Martin Lovegrove moves his family to Halcyon. A couple of months, he tells himself, to retreat from the chaos and grind. Yet he soon begins to suspect there is something beneath Halcyon’s perfect veneer. As the founder captivates his young family, Martin sets out to discover the truth of the island, however terrible it might be, where something so perfect hides unimaginable darkness beneath…

What We Think of Halcyon:

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Rarely do I gobble up a book as quickly as I nommed my way through this one. From beginning to end, Halcyon is engaging and exciting in an action-horror way reminiscent of Joe Hill's NOS4A2. The characters are by turns hideous and loveable, and the story will keep you gripped right to the end.

Dark Lullaby by Polly Ho-Yen

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The world is suffering an infertility crisis, the last natural birth was over twenty years ago and now the only way to conceive is through a painful fertility treatment. Any children born are strictly monitored, and if you are deemed an unfit parent then your child is extracted. After witnessing so many struggling to conceive – and then keep – their babies, Kit thought she didn't want children. But then she meets Thomas and they have a baby girl, Mimi. Soon the small mistakes build up and suddenly Kit is faced with the possibility of losing her daughter, and she is forced to ask herself how far she will go to keep her family together.

What We Think of Dark Lullaby:

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After classics like The Handmaid's Tale and Children of Men, you might think the setup of a dystopic world in which the birthrate has dangerously dropped might be all wrung out. Think again! The tone of Dark Lullaby is similar to previous BOTB pick, Suicide Club, but somehow darker, more sinister, and more realistic. Dark Lullaby certainly doesn't shy away from placing its characters in impossible positions.