Kristi Demeester

"A BONFIRE, A BEACON, A BALM, A RALLYING CRY... A beautifully written, mesmerizing horror epic... Magnificent." - Rachel Harrison, USA Today bestselling author of So Thirsty In this fiercely captivating novel, horror meets historical fiction when a curse bridges generations, binding the fates of three women. Anne Bolton, a healer facing persecution for witchcraft, bargains with a dark entity for protection--but the fire she unleashes will reverberate for centuries. Mary Shephard, a picture-perfect wife in a suffocating community, falls for Sharon and begins a forbidden affair that could destroy them both. And Camilla Burson, the rebellious daughter of a preacher, defies conformist expectations to uncover an ancient power as her father's flock spirals into crisis. Three women. Three centuries. One legacy of fury, love, and a power that refuses to die. "A hauntingly beautiful exploration of revenge, feminine rage, and the secrets that bind women across time... Frightening, subversive, and provocative." - Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author The Lost Apothecary

One of Goodreads Most Popular Horror of 2022 Named one of Esquire's Best Horror of the Year "Brutal and shocking." - emily m. danforth "Razor-sharp. This one will cut you." - Christopher Golden In this biting and electrifying novel from bold horror talent Kristi DeMeester, there's something out there that's murdering young women--until an overwhelmed mother and her secretive daughter refuse to live without answers any longer. He's known as The Cur, and he leaves no trace--except for the victims he viciously slays every fifteen years. Young women who refuse to conform and don't know when to shut up. 2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can't share with anyone. But when young women around her begin dying, wild speculation ensues. Soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice--until she's in danger for using it. 2004: Caroline Sawyer sees dogs everywhere that no one else seems to notice. As these snarling, teeth-bared delusions begin to take shape in the sculptures she makes in a trance-like state, her fianc is convinced she needs help from a professional. But Caroline's past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that others around her can't understand. As past and present demons converge, Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting power to its core, either to obliterate it, or lose themselves forever. Brilliantly paced and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile will make you want to stand up and rage at everyone who ever told you to shut up and smile pretty. "Compulsive and horrifyingly entertaining." - Liz Nugent

"An outstanding story in outstanding hands." - Josh MalermanA biting novel from an electrifying new voice, Such a Pretty Smile is a heart-stopping tour-de-force about powerful women, angry men, and all the ways in which girls fight against the forces that try to silence them.

Everything That's Underneath, Kristi DeMeester's debut powerful horror collection, is full of weird, unsettling tales that recall the styles of such accomplished storytellers as Laird Barron and Tom Piccirilli.Crawl across the earth and dig in the dirt. Feel it. Tearing at your nails, gritty between your teeth, filling your nostrils. Consume it until it has consumed you. For there you will find the voices that have called from the shadows, the ones that promise to cherish you only to rip your body to shreds.In Everything That's Underneath, Kristi DeMeester explores the dark places most people avoid. A hole in an abandoned lot, an illness twisting your loved one into someone you don't recognize, lust that pushes you further and further until no one can hear your cry for help. In these 18 stories the characters cannot escape the evil that is haunting them. They must make a choice: accept it and become part of what terrifies them the most or allow it to consume them and live in fear forever."Kristi DeMeester's wonderfully disturbing Everything That's Underneath features a cast of characters who are as emotionally raw and authentic as they are haunted. DeMeester's mothers and daughters, struggling at the edges of a society/economy as cold and uncaring as the universe, succumb in the face of horrors made even more terrifying by their nagging sense of familiarity. A dark, intelligent, relentless collection."- Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's RockTABLE OF CONTENTSEverything That's UnderneathThe Wicked Shall Come Upon HimTo Sleep Long, To Sleep DeepThe FleshtivalThe Beautiful Nature of VenomLike Feather, Like Bone WorshipOnly What She Bleeds (short story original to collection)The Tying of TonguesThe MarkingThe Long RoadThe Lightning Bird (short story original to collection)The Dream EaterDaughters of HecateBirthright (novelette original to collection)All That Is Refracted, BrokenDecember SkinSplit TonguesTo Sleep in the Dust of the Earth

An annual anthology of strange and darksome tales, which this year profiles the work of 21 contemporary scribes: Michael Griffin, Kristi DeMeester, Christopher Slatsky, J.T. Glover, Eric J. Guignard, Malcolm Devlin, Gwendolyn Kiste, Ralph Robert Moore, Christopher Ropes, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jason A. Wyckoff, Gordon White, Nina Shepardson, Kurt Fawver, Rowley Amato, Charles Wilkinson, H.V. Chao, Daniel Mills, Rebecca J. Allred, Matthew M. Bartlett, Jos Cruz."A very promising anthology." -Ellen Datlow, Best Horror of the Year"An annual highlight of the genre." -Anthony Watson, Dark Musings"Weirdness with truth at its heart." -Des Lewis, Real-Time Reviews

Shock Totem steamrolls ahead with its seventh issue, featuring tales of classic horror, creature features, heartbreak and loss The legendary William F. Nolan offers up "The Horror That Et My Pap-and Other Swamp Stuff," a tale the likes of which you have never read before. S. Clayton Rhodes delivers "The Gates of Emile Plimpkin: The Gravedigger's Legacy," a novelette that veritably oozes horror borne of the 1800s. Damien Angelica Walters (formerly Damien Walters Grintalis) gives us the heartbreaking "Shall I Whisper to You of Moonlight, of Sorrow, of Pieces of Us?" And M. Bennardo supplies this issue's creature-feature with "Thing In a Bag." Newcomers are front and center, beginning with the one-two punch of "Consumption" and "Among the Elephants," by Victoria Jakes and Amberle L. Husbands, respectively. In "The Long Road," Kristi DeMeester leads us to the water's dark edge and tempts us to drink deep, drink long, because we are so very thirsty. Rounding things out is Dominik Parisien's excellent poem, "Smoking, The Old Sergeant Remembers 30 Mins Past Ceasefire." In addition to all the great fiction, you will find conversations with literary stalwart Laird Barron and Violet LeVoit. The early 70s are explored in the fifth installment of the horror-in-music serial, "Bloodstains & Blue Suede Shoes." Narrative nonfiction is handled by Kurt Newton, and with "The Hook, the Hole, and the Garden," John Boden delivers possibly the most heart-wrenching piece of nonfiction ever published in Shock Totem. Come see why Shock Totem is billed as "...one of the strongest horror fiction magazines on the market today" (Hellnotes).