4 Terrifying New Releases from Indie and Small Presses in April 2025

In the summer of 1997, Pitlaw—a deeply repressed Scottish town—is desperate for something to shake things up. It seems the Freakslaw, a traveling carnival of queers, deviants, and mayhem experts, has perfect timing.

The lineup consists of worm charmer and fortuneteller Gloria; Nancy, a contortionist witch; tightrope walker Werewolf Louie; illusionist conjoined twins Cass and Henry; and the tattooed human pincushion, Pin Gal.

The carnival adds some electric neon excitement to the miserable landscape, and soon the town's teenagers are seduced by its wild glow.

But the travelers aren't just here for entertainment, they're here to enact a secret desire: revenge. As outcasts punished for merely existing and never allowed to find a place for themselves, they have vowed to make simple, happy locals pay penance.

Violence has been brewing between the over-the-top Freakslaw and the stoic townies for centuries. Now it about to be unleashed.

This book is available now from Zando Projects!

This novella is one of six books from the Northern Weird Project, which features authors based in the North of England and who are writing with the North as setting, subject, and character.

The story follows Simon and Priya, who have just lost their young daughter to a terrible accident. The couple moves to the North Yorkshire Moors to renovate both a rural cottage and their broken marriage.

As a series of unsettling events unfold, it becomes increasingly impossible to grapple with their grief. The ghostly figure of a child drifts across the moors, doors lock themselves, and the loft seems to be growing a mysterious stain.

Are they being haunted by their daughter? Or is something else the source of this unbearable torture?

This book is available now from Wild Hunt Books!

If you're a fan of quick reads and devastating horror, this novelette is perfect for you.

A creature from another plane is sent to Earth to harvest fear from a young girl. However, as he invades her dreams, he finds that he is but one horrific thing in this child's life.

This book is now available for pre-order, and will be released on April 20th by Baynam Books Press!

All Jerry Campbell wants is to be left alone. Consumed by grief after the death of his wife, Abigail, the recent retiree is eager for some new scenery.

It seems like Fairview Acres, a retirement community in the Poconos, could be the perfect place for him to wait out the rest of his days in peace. And then he moves in…

Complete with strange neighbors, block parties each night, and bizarre noises across his roof, this community is far from peaceful. Perhaps the worst part of it all is the chairman of the Fairview Acres Community, Arthur Peterson, who relentlessly tries to coax Jerry into joining the fun.

Jerry tries to shrug off the oddities of the community—after all, he doesn't want to be the guy who complains about everything. But then Katherine Dunnally shows up at his door with an eerie warning: "You need to leave. The worms...they dance at nightfall..."

His neighbors insist Katherine was just suffering from Sundowner's Syndrome, but as the peculiar events stack up, Jerry suspects there is something sinister afoot. Something that may be related to the gigantic stone in the community park.

This book is now available for pre-order, and will be released on April 22 by Shortwave Media!