Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff
Maya was a rising star in the political world – until her ex-husband’s high-profile sex scandal nearly derailed her career. In need of a fresh start, she accepts an unusual job… staging a comeback for her former favourite boyband member. Sexy, unexpected, and serving up a sizable dose of boyband nostalgia, this debut offering from brand new indie imprint 831 Stories is my ideal book: think Shonda Rhimes’s Scandal meets Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy!
I’m already a big fan (pun intended) of this publishing house: they’re like the Fitzcarraldo Editions of the modern romcom (Fitzcaromance? Kisscaraldo?). I can’t wait to see what they do next!
Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker
An exceptional blend of social and supernatural horror that will chill you to your core.
April 2020. The world has gone into lockdown and the streets of New York are quiet. Sisters Cora and Delilah Zeng stand on a subway platform, awaiting a train they aren’t sure will arrive. But as the platform floods with light and the telltale rumble of the approaching train, a masked man grabs Delilah’s arm and pushes her onto the tracks, uttering two words that will haunt Cora forever: bat eater.
Four months later, Cora is a crime scene cleaner, unbothered by scrubbing viscera off carpets and walls but unable to scrub the feeling of her sister’s blood off her skin. Her aunt encourages her to burn an offering for Delilah as Ghost Month begins, but Cora doesn’t believe in ghosts… until a tall, impossibly thin figure begins to appear in every shadow.
Cora is desperate to rid herself of this ‘hungry ghost’, but when she begins finding mutilated bats at all the crime scenes she cleans in Chinatown, Cora wonders if the ghost might be the least of her worries…
Equal parts a harrowing tale of real-world discrimination and a terrifying ghost story, this is the perfect horror novel for fans of Chlorine, Ring Shout, and The Eyes are the Best Part.