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3 Spooky New Releases to Read for Halloween & Hispanic Heritage Month
I don’t know about you, but I love October! It’s got gorgeous colours of leaves in trees, pumpkin spiced everything, and the perfect weather for curling up under a cozy blanket and reading a good book. Bonus points if it’s written by a Latinx author in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and a spooky tale just in time for Halloween~ 🎃✨
With that in mind, here are three books I’m personally looking forward to reading that fit the bill on both accounts – featuring haunted houses, ghost summonings, and magical worlds of sorcerers and werewolves – all of which have STELLAR reviews.
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Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets...
After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemà Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find – her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemà knows little about the region.
Noemà is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing.
But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by NoemÃ; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemà but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemà digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And NoemÃ, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
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A trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family summons a ghost who refuses to leave in Aiden Thomas’s paranormal YA debut Cemetery Boys, described by Entertainment Weekly as “groundbreaking.”
Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.
Lobizona by Romina Garber
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Some people ARE illegal. Lobizonas do NOT exist. Both of these statements are false.
Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who’s on the run from her father’s Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida. Until Manu’s protective bubble is shattered.
Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past—a mysterious “Z” emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own.
A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.
As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it’s not just her U.S. residency that’s illegal…it’s her entire existence.
Do you want to read any of these books? Or have you already?
If so, what did you think of them?
Let me know!
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Liza
Liza is a twenty-something book blogger who spends way too much time with her nose in books and feels way too much. She loves cooking, baking, reality tv show watching and, of course, reading. She can be found most often with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. Her blog, Literary Liza, features bookish content like reviews, recommendations, and author interviews.
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8 Comments
lilbooktopus
These are lovely/spooky picks for the season! I hope I could get to Mexican Gothic soon!
Liza @ The Inharmonious Heroine
Thank you! I’m also hoping to read Mexican Gothic soon! (Just gotta wait for my library to let me know my hold is available to borrow…)
JustReadingJess
I’m hoping to read Mexican Gothic this month!
Liza @ The Inharmonious Heroine
Me too!!
bookshelflife
I loved Mexican Gothic and I feel it is just perfect for spooky season. I hope you enjoy it too!!!
Liza @ The Inharmonious Heroine
Thank you, I’m really looking forward to reading it!
Ali @ In the Lost & Found
I haven’t read any of these yet, but I’m hoping to get to Mexican Gothic soon!
Liza @ The Inharmonious Heroine
Me too!