Hairspray and Switchblades

Hairspray and Switchblades
Author: V Castro
Publisher: Unnerving
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2020-02-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9781989206355

When Maya and Magdalena lose their parents to a home invasion, Magdalena puts her dreams on hold and turns to exotic dancing. Cash is what the sisters need to stay together and keep Maya in an elite catholic high school that has set her on the path for an athletic and academic college scholarship.These sisters come from a bloodline of Jaguar shifters from Mexico and have gained unwanted attention. The San Antonio Stripper Ripper is stalking the streets, out for a specific kind of blood.Though Magdalena trades in skin, there is no way she will allow anyone to own her. Steamy. Bloody. Dangerous. Hairspray and Switchblades, what more could a girl need to survive the hot streets?

The Haunting of Alejandra

The Haunting of Alejandra
Author: V. Castro
Publisher: Del Rey
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2023-04-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593499700

A woman is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona in this “utterly terrifying and wholly immersive . . . story about generational trauma, colonization, systemic oppression, and the horror at the heart of motherhood” (Library Journal, starred review). “Castro is one of the most exciting genre authors on the scene right now, and this might be her most powerful book yet.”—Paste A POPSUGAR AND CRIMEREADS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. To her own adoptive mother, she is a daughter. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her. Nor can they see what Alejandra sees. In times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, the apparition of a crying woman in a ragged white gown. When Alejandra visits a therapist, she begins exploring her family’s history, starting with the biological mother she never knew. As she goes deeper into the lives of the women in her family, she learns that heartbreak and tragedy are not the only things she has in common with her ancestors. Because the crying woman was with them, too. She is La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican legend. And she will not leave until Alejandra follows her mother, her grandmother, and all the women who came before her into the darkness. But Alejandra has inherited more than just pain. She has inherited the strength and the courage of her foremothers—and she will have to summon everything they have given her to banish La Llorona forever.

Immortal Pleasures

Immortal Pleasures
Author: V. Castro
Publisher: Del Rey
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2024-04-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593499735

An ancient Aztec vampire roams the modern world in search of vengeance and love in this seductive dark fantasy from the author of The Haunting of Alejandra. “Hauntingly rendered and decadently written, Immortal Pleasures is a surprising and fantastical portrait of one of history’s most fascinating (and perhaps most misunderstood) figures.”—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke Hundreds of years ago, she was known as La Malinche: a Nahua woman who translated for the conquistador Cortés. In the centuries since, her name has gone down in infamy as a traitor. But no one ever found out what happened to La Malinche after Cortés destroyed her people. In the ashes of the empire, she was reborn as Malinalli, an immortal vampire. And she has become an avenger of conquered peoples, traveling the world to reclaim their stolen artifacts and return them to their homelands. But she has also been in search of something more, for this ancient vampire still has deeply human longings for pleasure and for love. When she arrives in Dublin in search of a pair of Aztec skulls—artifacts intimately connected to her own dark history—she finds something else: two men who satisfy her cravings in very different ways. For the first time she meets a mortal man—a horror novelist—who is not repelled by her strange condition but attracted by it. But there is also another man, an immortal like herself, who shares the darkness in her heart. Now Malinalli is on the most perilous adventure of all: a journey into her own desires.

Mestiza Blood

Mestiza Blood
Author: V. Castro
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 115
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787586197

A short story collection of nightmares, dreams, desire and visions centered around the Chicana experience. The stunning, star-reviewed V. Castro weaves urban legend, folklore, life experience and heartache in this intimate anthology of modern horrors. From the lauded author of The Queen of the Cicadas (which picked up starred reviews from PW, Kirkus and Booklist who called her "a dynamic and innovative voice") comes a short story collection of nightmares, dreams, desire and visions focused on the Chicana experience. V.Castro weaves urban legend, folklore, life experience and heartache in this personal journey beginning in south Texas: a bar where a devil dances the night away; a street fight in a neighborhood that may not have been a fight after all; a vengeful chola at the beginning of the apocalypse; mind swapping in the not so far future; satan who falls and finds herself in a brothel in Amsterdam; the keys to Mictlan given to a woman after she dies during a pandemic. The collection finishes with two longer tales: The Final Porn Star is a twist on the final girl trope and slasher, with a creature from Mexican folklore; and Truck Stop is an erotic horror romance with two hearts: a video store and a truck stop. FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

Goddess of Filth

Goddess of Filth
Author: V. Castro
Publisher:
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781951971038

"Five of us sat in a circle doing our best to emulate the girls in The Craft, hoping to unleash some power to take us all away from our home to the place of our dreams. But we weren't witches. We were five Chicanas living in San Antonio, Texas, one year out of high school."One hot summer night, best friends Lourdes, Fernanda, Ana, Perla, and Pauline hold a séance. It's all fun and games at first, but their tipsy laughter turns to terror when the flames burn straight through their prayer candles and Fernanda starts crawling toward her friends and chanting in Nahuatl, the language of their Aztec ancestors. Over the next few weeks, shy, modest Fernanda starts acting strangely-smearing herself in black makeup, shredding her hands on rose thorns, sucking sin out of the mouths of the guilty. The local priest is convinced it's a demon, but Lourdes begins to suspect it's something else-something far more ancient and powerful. As Father Moreno's obsession with Fernanda grows, Lourdes enlists the help of her "bruja Craft crew" and a professor, Dr. Camacho, to understand what is happening to her friend in this unholy tale of possession-gone-right.

101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered
Author: Sadie Hartmann
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Total Pages: 745
Release: 2023-08-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 164567794X

The Ultimate List of Must-Read Horror Curious readers and fans of monsters and the macabre, get ready to bulk up your TBR piles! Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann has curated the best selection of modern horror books, including plenty of deep cuts. Indulge your heart’s darkest desires to be terrified, unsettled, disgusted, and heartbroken with stories that span everything from paranormal hauntings and creepy death cults to small-town terrors and apocalyptic disasters. Each recommendation includes a full synopsis as well as a quick overview of the book’s themes, style, and tone so you can narrow down your next read at a glance. Featuring a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Josh Malerman and five brand-new essays from rising voices in the genre, this illustrated reader’s guide is perfect for anyone who dares to delve into the dark.

Aliens: Vasquez

Aliens: Vasquez
Author: V. Castro
Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2022-11-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1803361883

A groundbreaking Latinx Aliens novel by a rising star Latina author, featuring the fan-favorite character PFC Jenette Vasquez from the hit movie Aliens and the family she is forced to leave behind. For the very first time, the canonical background of the breakout Aliens hero Jenette Vasquez, as well as the story of the children she was forced to leave behind as written by the rising Latina horror star V. Castro (Queen of the Cicadas). Even before the doomed mission to Hadley’s Hope on LV-426, Jenette Vasquez had to fight to survive. Born to an immigrant family with a long military tradition, she looked up to the stars, but life pulled her back down to Earth—first into a street gang, then prison. The Colonial Marines proved to be Vasquez’s way out—a way that forced her to give up her twin children. Raised by Jenette’s sister, those children, Leticia and Ramon, had to discover their own ways to survive. Leticia by following her mother’s path into the military, Ramon into the corporate hierarchy of Weyland-Yutani. Their paths would converge on an unnamed planet which some see as a potential utopia, while others would use it for highly secretive research. Regardless of whatever humans might have planned for it, however, Xenomorphs will turn it into a living hell.

The Heroic Legends Series - Bêlit: Shipwrecked

The Heroic Legends Series - Bêlit: Shipwrecked
Author: V. Castro
Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2024-02-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1803366389

Capturing the electric short fiction energy that led Robert E. Howard to be one of the top fantasy writers of the century, with exclusive serialized eBook stories starring Conan, Solomon Kane, and more by many of today’s top writers in fantasy and sword-and-sorcery. Queen of the Black Coast and captain of the Tigress, Bêlit, and her pirate crew roam the seas in pursuit of treasure and adventure. The crew are utterly devoted to their leader, yet they can do little when a massive storm beaches their ship on unknown shores. She and her first mate Seneka send a trio of teams to search for resources and human habitation, but only two return. When Bêlit and her best swordsmen venture into the jungle, they discover a temple, silent warriors, and a charismatic leader who promises Bêlit a kingdom… But at what cost?

The Queen of the Cicadas

The Queen of the Cicadas
Author: V. Castro
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2021-06-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787586049

NOMINATED FOR A BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL 2018 - Belinda Alvarez has returned to Texas for the wedding of her best friend Veronica. The farm is the site of the urban legend, La Reina de Las Chicharras - The Queen of The Cicadas. In 1950s south Texas a farmworker- Milagros from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, is murdered. Her death is ignored by the town, but not the Aztec goddess of death, Mictecacíhuatl. The goddess hears the dying cries of Milagros and creates a plan for both to be physically reborn by feeding on vengeance and worship. Belinda and the new owner of the farmhouse - Hector, find themselves immersed in the legend and realize it is part of their fate as well. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

Steal This Book

Steal This Book
Author: Abbie Hoffman
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2002-02-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781568582177

A handbook of survival and warfare for the citizens of Woodstock Nation A classic of counterculture literature and one of the most influential--and controversial--documents of the twentieth century, Steal This Book is as valuable today as the day it was published. It has been in print continuously for more than four decades, and it has educated and inspired countless thousands of young activists. Conceived as an instruction manual for radical social change, Steal This Book is divided into three sections--Survive! Fight! and Liberate! Ever wonder how to start a guerilla radio station? Or maybe you want to brush up on your shoplifting techniques. Perhaps you're just looking for the best free entertainment in New York City. (The Frick Collection--"Great when you're stoned.") Packed with information, advice, and Abbie's unique outlaw wisdom ("Avoid all needle drugs--the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon."), Steal This Book is a timeless reminder that, no matter what the struggle, freedom is always worth fighting for. "All Power to the Imagination was his credo. Abbie was the best."--Studs Terkel