4 Terrifying New Releases from Indie and Small Presses in July 2026

Vampire James Sugre has been around for centuries—and not once before has he ever been this broke. But now he's hit financial rock bottom after making some bad investments, getting swindled by fraudsters, and never quite jumping on the crypto bandwagon soon enough.

Most of his nights are spent in his coffin, since he can't afford to go out anymore.

But with the video game industry soaring, Sugre figures establishing his own game studio might be his shot of climbing out of his financial hole. And when he meets Lauren, a game developer who has a soft spot for vampire lore, he starts to think his luck is actually on an upward trajectory.

However, while immortality is stable, the market is incredibly rocky. And money might just be more valuable than blood.

Sugre and Lauren set up a shady business exchanging eternal life for a price. But as their business grows, the Vampire Nation is out to protect their own investments.

Nora, Ruby, and Cham all have something in common—they share the same cheating boyfriend.

When they get together, their anger quickly shifts into action, spawning a devious plan for revenge. And it all starts with luring their boyfriend to a secluded cabin for a “romantic” getaway.

Things quickly go sour when their harmless payback leads to them finding their boyfriend dead in the cabin. Now the three women are stranded and snowed in as suspicions grows between them.

The tension is thick as secret motives are revealed, and if they want to survive, they must confront their own personal demons.

But is one of them really a killer? Or is something much worse waiting for them in the wilderness, waiting to strike?

Ellis Karsten's nights are spent working triage in the ER. When the morning comes, she heads home to repeat the same conversation with her mom.

The early onset dementia is a challenge. But what's even worse is the family curse.

The Karsten's must feed on blood every day or else become mindless, skinless killers.

After Ellis's uncle—the family member who supplies the blood—disappears, she must find a way to get it herself. Luckily, she has the help of a paramedic who is both erratic and completely irresistible.

While Ellis struggles to find balance between her blood thirst and her budding relationship, her mom starts to make impossible demands. These demands soon transition into frenzied warnings about the fabled monster, “The Flayed Man,” who she believes is stalking them.

Ellis journeys across the desert in search of blood, risking both her safety and her family's secret. And then it becomes clear that her mom is right: something very old and very hungry is hunting them.

As the blood hunger transformed Ellis into something terrifying, she becomes exactly what The Flayed Man wants.

But who can Ellis truly trust? And what is she willing to sacrifice?

This book contains a collection of standalone sapphic horror short stories, as well as a quadrilogy of connected tales, and a pick-a-path novelette.

In them, a woman forges a lively bond with a cosmic entity behind a gloryhole, a woman falls in love with a hurricane, a nihilist and her obsessive lover discover a child after a devastating fire, and more.