Cassandra Khaw

Bestselling authors Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey have teamed up to deliver a dark new story with magic, monsters, and mayhem, perfect for fans of unhinged eldritch horror. Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She's been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she'll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority. Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah - and the entire world - directly in the path of annihilation. The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Cassandra Khaw's cosmic horror and Richard Kadrey's gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York's magical underbelly. A 2024 Dragon Awards for Best Horror Novel nominee

"Khaw's got a sterling premise, enduring lore, and the fresh talent to voice it." -Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box. A gorgeously creepy classic haunted house story based on Japanese folklore, combining The Haunting of Hill House with The Ring. Cat joins her old friends, who are in search of the perfect wedding venue, to spend the night in a Heian-era manor in Japan. Trapped in webs of love, responsibility and yesterdays, they walk into a haunted house with their hearts full of ghosts. This mansion is long abandoned, but it is hungry for new guests, and welcomes them all - welcomes the demons inside them - because it is built on foundations of sacrifice and bone. Their night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as the house draws them into its embrace. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

Skies darken. Sirens wail. Buildings tremble with each distant boom. You grasp your loved ones close to you. Any second could be your last. Howls From the Wreckage will push you to the edge of imminent disaster-and drown you in the heartbreak of its fallout.HOWL Society Press presents its thrilling anthology of disaster horror, fittingly introduced by Nick Cutter, acclaimed author of The Troop and The Deep.Stories by: David WornP.L. McMillanCaleb StephensSolomon ForseL.P. HernandezRyan Marie KettererJoseph Andre ThomasTJ PriceMike AdamsonThea MaeveC.B. JonesCassandra KhawBridget D. BraveTimaeus BloomJennifer L. CollinsGully NovaroMichelle TangChelsea PumpkinsCarson WinterLindsey RagsdaleEdited by Christopher O'HalloranForeword by Nick Cutter

A sensuous and strange horror novella full of creeping dread and delicious gore, twisting mermaid myths into something sharp, dangerous, and hungry, for fans of Christina Henry, Carmen Maria Machado and Eric LaRocca.

"Khaw's poetic prose and stylish approach to gore make it a blood-soaked, unforgettable gem." --The New York TimesFrom Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth, comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairy tale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself. A Best Horror Book of 2023 (The New York Times, Library Journal) - A Best Book of 2023 (NPR) - A Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award Finalist - An Indie Next Pick You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three "saints" who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive. Includes the bonus short story, "And In Our Daughters, We Find a Voice", set in the same universe. Also by Cassandra Khaw: The Library at HelleboreNothing But Blackened TeethA Song for QuietHammers on BoneThe Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

Cassandra Khaw's dynamic and vibrant debut collection, Breakable Things, explores the fragile and nebulous bonds that weave love and grief into our existence. This exquisite and cutting collection of stories showcases a bloody fusion of horrors from cosmic to psychological to body traumas."Khaw (Nothing but Blackened Teeth) packs a gruesome punch with the 23 bite-size horror stories ... the distinctive authorial voice and uncanny atmospherics will surely find some fans."- Publishers Weekly"A delicious bowl of razor blades. With coiled prose and whetted instinct, Khaw's stories put a finger on the dark pulse of being human."- Rich Larson, author of Ymir and Tomorrow Factory "A remarkable collection of tales from one of the most versatile and vital voices of their generation. Cassandra Khaw's stories are deftly wrought and sharp enough to draw blood, building entire worlds in a scant few pages. Horrifying and beautiful "- Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones, and Ararat "Khaw takes the familiar and gives it a vicious cutting edge. Breakable Things is haunting, and in the best way, sneaky. It gets inside you, and when you least expect it, it strikes, leaving you bloodied on the floor unsure if you're laughing or crying."- Nghi Vo, author of The Chosen and the Beautiful "Some writers are simply indispensable if you want to understand your cultural moment. Cassandra Khaw is three of them. For reasons, take your pick: a (1) master storyteller who (2) finds multiple angles into the deepest recesses of your psyche to (3) leave you not just stricken, but strangely relieved, strangely edified. Breakable Things is a match-strike in the darkness that makes you understand the value of darkness. Enjoyed best under the covers "- Carlos Hernandez, Award-winning author of the Sal and Gabi series

"A visionary, foul-mouthed, gory sci-fi adventure, dripping viscera, violence, and beauty in equal measure. . . . The All-Consuming World will consume your attention and linger in your thoughts, a very good ride and a remarkable what-if."--NPR "What a @#*% ride --P. Dj l Clark, award-winning author of Ring Shout In Locus and British Fantasy Award nominee Cassandra Khaw's first novel, a crew of diminished former criminals get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission. But the universe's highly-evolved AI has its own opposing agenda... and will do whatever it takes to keep humans from ever controlling them again. In space, everything hungers. Maya has died and been resurrected into countless cyborg bodies during her dangerous career with the Dirty Dozen, the most storied crew of criminals in the galaxy before their untimely and gruesome demise. Decades later, she and her team of broken, diminished outlaws must get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade . . . but they're not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir. The highly evolved AI of the galaxy will do whatever it takes to keep humanity from regaining control. As Maya and her comrades spiral closer to uncovering the AIs' vast conspiracy, this band of violent women--half-clone and half-machine--must battle both sapient ageships and their own traumas, in order to settle their affairs once and for all.

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER - A Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Award Finalist - An Indie Next Pick - An October LibraryReads Pick - 2022 RUSA Reading List: Horror Winner Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a gorgeously creepy haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists. A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It's the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt. Effortlessly turning the classic haunted house story on its head, Nothing but Blackened Teeth is a sharp and devastating exploration of grief, the parasitic nature of relationships, and the consequences of our actions. Also by Cassandra Khaw: The Library at HelleboreThe Salt Grows HeavyA Song for QuietHammers on BoneThe Dead Take the A Train (co-written with Richard Kadrey)

Why do we crave that which is killing us? Addiction is the perpetual epidemic, where swarms of human moths flutter to the flames of hell. Because that warm blanket of a heroin high, that joyful intoxication of a pint of vodka, that electric energy from a line of cocaine, over time leaves you with a cold loneliness and a bitter heart. Relationships are destroyed, bodies deteriorate, loved ones lost, yet the craving continues for that which destroys us-living, as the title suggests, like an Orphan of Bliss.Welcome to the third and final fix of addiction horror. The series that began with Garden of Fiends and followed Lullabies for Suffering can be read in any order. You can start here, you can end here, but Orphans of Bliss is certainly the biggest one yet. A more expansive and diverse table of contents brought together for an explosive grand finale, an unflinching look at the insidious nature of addiction, told with searing honesty but compassion for those who suffer. The table of contents includes: SA CosbyThe New York Times best-selling author of Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland. With his unmistakable voice, Cosby tells a story of a powerful new blend of meth that overruns a rural town.Cassandra KhawKhaw is a Locus Award finalist and a USA Today Best-Selling author. In their story, What We Name Our Dead, a woman is haunted by the ghost of her substance-abusing fatherJosh MalermanNew York Times Best Selling writer of Bird-Box, and one of the most prolific writers of his generation. His story in Orphans of Bliss is a King Midas curse for those who can never drink enough, where witches watch you from every bar stool.Kathe KojaA novelist, performer, director and independent producer, Koja is a multiple time Bram Stoker Award winning author. Her trademark intense speculative fiction is on full display in her short story, Singularity.Kealan Patrick BurkeBram Stoker Award winning author of Turtle Boy, Kin, and Sour Candy, and one of the most talented horror writers in the genre. Burke's work appears in all three addiction horror anthologies, weaved together in one universe. He's done nothing less than create an addiction-fueled mythos.Christa Carmen, Author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, which won the Indie Horror Book Award for Best Debut Collection. Readers are in for a shock when they follow an addict trying to get clean Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell.Samantha KolesnikKolesnik's novella, True Crime, took readers by storm and won a Splatterpunk Award. Her story, Buyer's Remorse, is about a character constantly craving a new identify with perpetual consumption to fill her empty spaces, but is never fully satisfied.JOHN FD TAFFTwo time Bram Stoker Award Finalist and author of the sweeping apocalyptic epic novel, The Fearing. Taff's cosmic story about a man who has stopped using drugs, but hoards his character defects piled high in his basement cellar.MARK MATTHEWSShirley Jackson Award nominated editor and author of Milk-Blood. Matthews is the editor of all three anthologies, works in the field of behavioral health, and is in recovery from his own addiction.GABINO IGLESIASAuthor of the Wonderland Book Award winning Coyote Songs. Gabino was nominated for a Bram Stoker award for his work in Lullabies for Suffering and he's once again built a world infected with drugs, this time, a dystopian landscape.

*Cover art by Kealan Patrick Burke's Elderlemon Design is exclusive to the hardcover edition.Addiction is the perpetual epidemic, where swarms of human moths flutter to the flames of hell. Because that warm blanket of a heroin high, that joyful intoxication of a pint of vodka, that electric energy from a line of cocaine, over time leaves you with a cold loneliness and a bitter heart. Relationships destroyed, bodies deteriorate, loved ones lost, yet the craving continues for that which is killing us-living, as the title suggests, like an Orphan of Bliss. Welcome to the third and final fix of addiction horror and the follow up to the Shirley Jackson Award Finalist, Lullabies For Suffering. A diverse table of contents brought together for an explosive grand finale-an unflinching look at the insidious nature of addiction, told with searing honesty but compassion for those who suffer. The table of contents includes: Josh MalermanNew York Times Best Selling writer of Bird-Box and one of the most prolific writers of his generation. His story in Orphans of Bliss is a King Midas curse for those who can never drink enough, where witches watch you from every bar stool.Cassandra KhawA Locus Award finalist and a USA Today Best-Selling author. In their story, What We Name Our Dead, a woman is haunted by the ghost of her substance-abusing fatherKealan Patrick BurkeBram Stoker Award winning author of Turtle Boy, Kin, and Sour Candy, and one of the most talented horror writers in the genre. Burke's work appears in all three addiction horror anthologies, weaved together in one universe. He's done nothing less than create an addiction-fueled mythos.SA CosbyNew York Times best-selling author of Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland. With his unmistakable voice, Cosby tells a story of a powerful new blend of meth that overruns a rural town.Kathe KojaKoja is a multiple time Bram Stoker Award winning author and her trademark intense, speculative fiction is on full display in her short story, Singularity.Christa Carmen, Author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, which won the Indie Horror Book Award for Best Debut Collection. Readers are in for a shock when they follow an addict trying to get clean Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell.Samantha KolesnikKolesnik's novella, True Crime, took readers by storm and won a Splatterpunk Award. Her story, Buyer's Remorse, is about a character constantly craving a new identify with perpetual consumption to fill her empty spaces, but is never fully satisfied.JOHN FD TAFFTwo time Bram Stoker Award Finalist and backbone for the addiction horror series. In Taff's cosmic story, a man has stopped using drugs, but hoards his character defects piled high in his basement cellar.MARK MATTHEWSShirley Jackson Award nominated editor and author of Milk-Blood. Matthews is the editor of all three anthologies, works in the field of behavioral health, and is in recovery from his own addiction.GABINO IGLESIASWonderland Book Award author of winning Coyote Songs. Gabino was nominated for a Bram Stoker award for his work in Lullabies for Suffering and he's once again built a world infected with drugs, this time, a dystopian landscape.

“Khaw's got a sterling premise, enduring lore, and the fresh talent to voice it.” - Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box A gorgeously creepy classic haunted house story based on Japanese folklore, combining The Haunting of Hill House with The Ring. Cat joins her old friends, who are in search of the perfect wedding venue, to spend the night in a Heian-era manor in Japan. Trapped in webs of love, responsibility and yesterdays, they walk into a haunted house with their hearts full of ghosts. This mansion is long abandoned, but it is hungry for new guests, and welcomes them all – welcomes the demons inside them – because it is built on foundations of sacrifice and bone. Their night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as the house draws them into its embrace. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

One of the most popular role-playing properties in the world gets new life with this trio of horror novellas set in Vampire: The Masquerade's World of Darkness by three brilliant talents: Genevieve Gornichec, Cassandra Khaw, and Caitlin StarlingThe subtle horror and infernal politics of the World of Darkness are shown in a new light in Vampire: The Masquerade: Walk Among Us, an audio-first collection of three novellas that show the terror, hunger, and power of the Kindred as you've never seen them before. In Genevieve Gornichec's A SHEEP AMONG WOLVES, depression and radicalization go hand-in-hand as a young woman finds companionship in the darkness... In Cassandra Khaw's FINE PRINT, an arrogant tech bro learns the importance of reading the fine print in the contract for immortality... And in Caitlin Starling's THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY, ideals and ethics bump heads with appetite on a blood farm. Three very different stories from three amazing, distinct voices, but all with one thing in common: the hunger never stops, and for someone to experience power, many others are going to have to feel pain.

Not the Tales You Were ToldOnce upon a time, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories—fantastical yarns of wondrous creatures in faraway places—bewitched children across the world. But times change. Today, Kipling’s writing tells us a different tale; of a love of Empire, and the troubling legacy of British colonialism.In Not So Stories, writers of colour from around the world reclaim these stories and remake them into something new. Something different. Something that belongs to us all. Including stories by Adiwijaya Iskandar, Joseph Elliott-Coleman, Raymond Gates, Stewart Hotston, Zina Hutton, Georgina Kamsika, Cassandra Khaw, Paul Krueger, Tauriq Moosa, Jeannette Ng, Ali Nouraei, Wayne Santos, Zedeck Siew and Achala Upendran, with illustrations by Woodrow Phoenix and a foreword by Nikesh Shukla.

The Apocalypse is Old News. Tanis Barlas, snake-woman assassin. Cason Cole, the killer of gods. Louie Fitzsimmons, the last known Prophet. And Rupert Wong, a chef who just wants to eat his instant noodles and stay home. The Greek Pantheon has been obliterated, and gods and monsters across the globe are looking to fill the vacuum. But Rupert, Case, Fitz, and Tanis have bigger problems to deal with.It’s time to answer the biggest question of all: Where did the father gods go?

"Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month. EDITORIAL Words from the Editor-in-Chief-Jason Sizemore FICTION Clap Your Hands - Andrew F. Kooy The Sharp Edges of Anger - Jamie Lackey Murders Fell From Our Wombs - Tlotlo Tsamaase What to Do When It's Nothing but Static - Cassandra Khaw NONFICTION Interview with Andrew F. Kooy - Andrea Johnson Interview with Cover Artist Chase Henson- Russell Dickerson Lovecraft and the Occult - Mary SanGiovanniMy Road Trip With David Koresh -- Jerry Gordon COLUMNS Between the Lines with Laura Zats and Erik Hane Page Advice with Mallory O'Meara and Brea Grant"

Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month. EDITORIAL Words from the Editor-in-Chief-Jason Sizemore FICTION Irregularity - Rachel Harrison We Are New(s) - Bentley A. Reese A Priest of Vast and Distant Places - Cassandra Khaw Three Petitions to the Queen of Hell - T.A. Pratt NONFICTION Interview with Rachel Harrison - Andrea Johnson Interview with Cover Artist Benedick Bana - Russell Dickerson A Wave on the Sea: Ursula K. Le Guin - Paul Jessup Persistence of Vision: Black Panther - ZZ Claybourne COLUMNS Between the Lines with Laura Zats and Erik Hane Page Advice with Mallory O'Meara and Brea Grant

Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month. EDITORIAL Words from the Editor-in-Chief-Jason Sizemore FICTION Asylum of Cuckoos - Lila Bowen To Blight a Fig Tree Before It Bears Fruit - Benjam n Naka-Hasebe Kingsley A Night Out at a Nice Place - Nick Mamatas The Heaven-Moving Way -- Chi Hui (translated by Andy Dudak) Symphony to a City Under the Stars -- Armando Salda a The Ghost Stories We Tell Around Photon Fires -- Cassandra Khaw The Best Friend We Never Had -- Nisi Shawl POETRY Treebound -- Mary Soon Lee Monster: Puppeteer -- Mary Soon Lee the saddest of angels -- Jeremy Paden NONFICTION Interview with Lila Bowen - Andrea Johnson Interview with Cover Artist Daniele Serra - Russell Dickerson Orrin Evans: The Pioneer of Black Comic Book Publishing -- Shawn Pryor Fear of Failure 2.0 -- Damien Angelica Walters COLUMNS Between the Lines with Laura Zats and Erik Hane Page Advice with Mallory O'Meara and Brea Grant

This is the third annual edition of the Long List Anthology. Every year, supporting members of WorldCon nominate their favorite stories first published during the previous year to determine the top five in each category for the final Hugo Award ballot. This is an anthology collecting more of the stories from that nomination list to get them to more readers. The Long List Anthology Volume 3 collects 20 science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories from that nomination list, totaling over 500 pages of fiction by writers from all corners of the world. From intelligent appliances gone feral to Lovecraftian detective noir, from tech-enhanced wilderness races to Egyptian science fantasy steampunk, from hard science fiction to fairy tale to humor and more. There is a wide variety of styles and types of stories here, and something for everyone. The stories included are: "Red in Tooth and Cog" by Cat Rambo"A Salvaging of Ghosts" by Aliette de Bodard"Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0" by Caroline M. Yoachim"Razorback" by Ursula Vernon"We Have a Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?" by Rebecca Ann Jordan"Lullaby for a Lost World" by Aliette de Bodard"Terminal" by Lavie Tidhar"Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands" by Seanan McGuire"Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller"The Venus Effect" by Venus Allen"The Visitor From Taured" by Ian R. MacLeod"Blood Grains Speak Through Memories" by Jason Sanford"Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea" by Sarah Pinsker"A Dead Djinn in Cairo" by P. Dj l Clark "Red as Blood and White as Bone" by Theodora Goss"Foxfire, Foxfire" by Yoon Ha Lee"Forest of Memory" by Mary Robinette Kowal"Chimera" by Gu Shi, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu and Ken Liu"Hammers on Bone" by Cassandra Khaw"Runtime" by S.B. Divya