Tell Me Something Tuesday: Which Books Are You Looking Forward to Reading This Winter? (December-February)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). After Heidi stopped blogging (apparently for good), five of us took over as hosts while providing new questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHICH BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THIS WINTER? (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY)

I don't know if I'll ever get around to buying all these books or when, since 1) early reviews and excerpts might cause me to change my mind in the future, and 2) given my current situation (see: unemployment status), book money is scarce...(I got a few of these in eARC form though! See below). Anyhow, I wanted to give a bit of exposure to all the winter books that caught my eye, so here's my list (complete with pub dates)...

DECEMBER

2nd. Darya Bobyleva (translator: Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse): The Village at the Edge of Noon (Adult)

The residents of a village outside Moscow wake up to discover that the road out to the motorway has disappeared without a trace and the usual paths into the woods somehow lead back into the village. And the woods? Overnight their weedy and rubbish-strewn copse has become a dark and overgrown forest inhabited by something mysterious and unfriendly. Anyone who makes it into the trees either vanishes into thin air or returns, not quite themselves…And, of course, the Internet, radio and TV have stopped working and the weather never changes. And time seems to loop seamlessly from one crop of apples and cabbages into the next.

There are strange noises, and strange visitations. The villagers are plagued by odd thoughts and desires, and quiet but pervasive voices call from the river. Objects mutate; phones and radios emit strange mutterings; people disappear. What begins as a one-sided manifestation of the weird, becomes weirder still as the villagers split into factions and odd alliances with the new “neighbours” are formed. Meanwhile the forest looms closer every day.

Is Katya, a solitary young woman, the only one beginning to glimpse what is going on?

Note: I got an ARC of this one! It originally came out in 2017, but it's only been translated into English this year. Folk/supernatural horror, a little slow and episodic, but I liked it!

***

JANUARY

6th. Seanan McGuire: Through Gates of Garnet and Gold (YA)

After Nancy was cast out of the Halls of the Dead and forced to enroll at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, she never believed she'd find her door again, and when she did, she didn't look back. She disappeared from the school to resume her place in the Halls, never intending to return.

Years have passed. A darkness has descended on the Halls, and the living statues who populate them are dying at the hands of the already dead. The Lord and Lady who rule the land are helpless to stop the slaughter, forcing Nancy to leave the Halls again, this time on purpose, as she attempts to seek much-needed help from her former schoolmates.

But who would volunteer to quest in a world where the dead roam freely?

And why are the dead so intent on adding to their number?

Note: Book 11th in the Wayward Children series - and while Nancy and her world aren't faves, I'm intrigued by this premise (not to mention, when it comes to this series, I usually enjoy the ensemble/quest stories more than the solo/origin ones...). Alas, while at the end of 2023 I managed to score an ARC of the latest installment in the series, the publisher went back to ignoring me afterwards 😂 😢 (well, not ignoring...they flat-out rejected my requests LOL). But of course, I'll buy a physical copy anyway...I'll only have to wait a tad longer to read it!

***

13th. Carly Racklin: Funeral Song (Adult)

No one mourns the living dead.

In the remote town of Cairney, a gift from the Angel of Death allows the dead to miraculously return to life — after a fashion. For Friede Inkerman, pianist to Cairney’s sacred funerals, Death’s gift is a curse, not a blessing. All she wants after being murdered by her wife and resurrected against her will is to finally rest in peace, free from the grief that ostracizes her from the rest of her death-worshipping town.

On Allhallowsmas, Friede’s hope of passing on to eternal rest is dashed when Death’s gift is stolen and the acolyte who guards it murdered, putting all the dead souls in Cairney at risk of fading into oblivion at sunset. Friede also can’t ignore how much the murder resembles her own.

Clinging to her last happiness, her oldest friend Bastian, Friede races to set things right and see her last wish granted. But Cairney is a town where nothing stays buried, and Friede’s search for answers unearths new horrors that threaten everything she holds dear to her dead heart.

A wrenching, elegant work of supernatural horror about a devout small town’s reckoning with death and the love that transcends it. Perfect for fans of Mike Flanagan and Caitlin Starling.

Note: This was free to download on EW, so this afterlife aficionado HAD to add it to her reads 😉. I expected something with a more contemporary feel - this one is very gothic - and a bit more action, but it was good.

***

20th. Simone St. James: A Box Full of Darkness (Adult)

Strange things happen in Fell, New York: A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For Violet, Vail, and Dodie Esmie the final straw was their little brother's shocking disappearance, which started as a normal game of hide-and-seek.

As their parents grew increasingly distant, the sisters were each haunted by visions and frightening events, leading them to leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people—spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. Now after nearly two decades it’s time for a homecoming—because Ben is back, and he’s ready to lead them to the answers they’ve longed for and long feared.

Note: I'm a sucker for this kind of premise. Too bad my EW request is still in limbo LOL - and the book is Wish for It! on NG, so I'll never get it - but I'm keeping this one on my radar. I haven't read St. James before, but while ABFOD is said to have Easter eggs from her previous books, it's a standalone, so I guess it's safe to read...

***

27th. Rebekah Faubion: Lost Girls of Hollow Lake (YA)

Eight were lost. Five were found. None will ever be free.

For Evie Williams, life is about to get a lot more complicated. Haunted by the events of a school trip to Hollow Lake National Park that went disastrously wrong, Evie and her friends returned changed, their lives forever marked by the mysterious Island they encountered—and the three girls they left behind.

Now, someone is picking off those who were involved, one by one. Their families, friends, and even online investigators are all caught in a deadly game. The stakes are raised when Evie receives a chilling message: to save her loved ones, she must return to the Island.

As Evie and the other "Lost Girls" navigate the treacherous terrain of the Island once more, they must confront the secrets they’ve buried, the horrors they witnessed, and the person—or thing—that’s hunting them. But some secrets refuse to stay hidden, and the Island demands a price for freedom.

Note: Another premise I'm a sucker for...another request still in limbo on EW/Wish-for-It!-coded on NG...another book I'll get nevertheless. I mean, C'MON 😃.

***

FEBRUARY

3rd. Christine Ferko: The Darkness Greeted Her (YA)

Penny's abusive father is dead…but she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can't go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewood—an exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.

She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can't possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor...a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it's clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn't all in her head.

As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.

Note: This one was Read Now on NG, so I jumped at the chance. A supernatural slasher with a mental health angle and an unusual monster - I didn't "love-love" it as a whole, but it was good, and I particularly enjoyed the horror bits.

***

10th. Jarod K. Anderson: Strange Animals (Adult)

After a series of inexplicable encounters upends his life, Green finds himself alone and terrified in the Appalachian mountains, full of questions about the transformation he’s undergoing and the impossible creatures he’s starting to see.

When he meets a hermit named Valentina, he realizes that something more than chance has brought him to her door. For she has devoted centuries to researching the hidden world of cryptids that Green is only now beginning to perceive.  

As Green begins his studies beneath her watchful eye, he comes face to face with time-stopping giant moths, cyclops squirrels, and doorways to elsewhere. Along the way come clues about his own nature and the powerful beings who led him here—and, most wondrous of all, a sense of fulfillment like nothing he’s felt before.

But Green’s new happiness promises to be short-lived, because alongside these marvels lurks a deadly threat to this place he’s already come to love.

Featuring incredible creatures and an unforgettable cast of characters, Strange Animals is a charming, addictive fantasy about the magic all around us.

Note: Cryptids? time-stopping moths? portals to elsewhere? in an adult book, too? Wowowow. See above for request (limbo, Wish for It!), but sure as heck I'll get to this one!

***

17th. R.L. Boyle: Temple Fall (YA)

Flynn heads with her boyfriend, Jackson, and a group of their friends to spend the night in Temple Fall, a mysterious house up on the moors with a strange history. Breaking in for a night of drinking and teenage debauchery they instead find themselves trapped in a strange nightmare after a joke seance goes wrong. Suddenly forced into strange acts and behaviours outside their character, the tight-knit group starts to fall apart - and then Jackson falls to his death.

In the aftermath Flynn must confront the traumas of her childhood, her upbringing in captivity with her mother who suffered from crippling paranoia and OCD. As a foster child she has been forced to make her own place in the world, to forge a new family out of the few scraps of hope and compassion she has been offered in her life. And everywhere she looks she sees the ghostly figure of a Victorian woman, that no one else can see.

The woman that pushed Jackson.

Reeling from the tragedy the group find themselves split apart, each grieving and trying to survive on their own. But when they start to die, one-by-one, on the very second of their 18th birthday, Flynn must keep them all together to keep her found family alive. And she must dig into the lost secrets of her family past, to stop the curse being passed down to the next generation again.

Note: Another killer (no pun intended) premise...NG request denied, and the book isn't on EW (yet?), but on my list it stays...

***

17th. Channelle Desamours: They Call Her Regret (YA)

Every year horror-loving Simone Washington throws an epic Halloween party for her classmates. Party-planning is her favorite escape from the dark secrets in her past, and this year, she’s taking things up a notch with an invitation-only event to celebrate her eighteenth birthday—something that will leave the halls of Pinegrove Academy flooded with gossip about the big ghoulish bash. The overnight stay at Doll’s Head Lake will be filled with spooky pranks and scary stories told by the fire—including the legend of a local witch named Regret.

But those dark secrets from Simone’s past are forced to the surface at the party when her best friend Kira dies under questionable circumstances. The witch appears and offers Simone a deal: if Simone can figure out how to release Regret from the curse trapping her at the lake within fourteen days, all of Simone’s regrets will be erased. If Simone accepts, Kira’s life will be immediately restored. But if she fails, Kira will die again—and Simone will be the one to kill her.

Note: This sounds different! I only hope there aren't catty girls involved LOL. EW request denied, and the book is Wish for It! on NG, so I'll have to wait for it to be released.

***

24th. Kelsey Day: The Spiral Key (YA)

At the start of each school year, Madison Pembroke, the most popular girl at Lincoln Academy, sends out invitations to her epic birthday party in the form of custom forged spiral keys. For that one night, a few lucky teens get to enter Ametrine, a virtual paradise designed to be the party of the year—an unforgettable celebration that will secure their social status in the real world. As Madison’s hated ex-BFF, Bree Benson never receives a key.

Until this year.

Despite warnings from her boyfriend, Bree sees the invite as an olive branch, the perfect opportunity to rekindle her once-amazing friendship with Madison. But as the party games begin to turn provocative and violent, Bree finds that Ametrine might not be the virtual paradise she was promised. And that Madison may have let Bree enter Ametrine, but she has no intention of ever letting her leave...

Kelsey Day’s gripping debut shows that while best friends know each other the best, ex–best friends know how to hurt each other the worst.

Note: Another (deadly?) party LOL - only not in a supernatural setting, but a VR one. I'm not completely sold on this one because it has the potential of being tropey, and the early reviews seem to agree on this...but I'm keeping it on my radar for now. Request pending on NG, already denied on EW.

***

Well, that's it for now. Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to participate in the meme on a regular or semi-regular basis, and get emailed the prompt list? Just head over here and fill in Jen's form! (Of course, you can jump in anytime you like - you are under no obligation to actually do all the posts, or even most of them, just because you signed up, and you can remove yourself from the list at any time). And if you're interested in participating in a more casual manner, or only in commenting, here is the TMST prompt list for the month of December:

• December 2nd: What underrated books or authors would you recommend? (a question I submitted)
• December 9th: Which superpower do you wish you had? (a question I submitted)
• December 16th: Have you been disappointed by the end of a series? If so, did you read that author again?
• December 23rd What's a song that always makes you want to dance?
• December 30th: What are your favorite books/audiobooks that you read in 2025?

I'll be back for the meme on December 2nd, singing the praises of some books that flew under the radar...

Now tell me something...which winter books are on your TBR list?