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

In a contemporary reimagining of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Darcy hasn't seen her friends from high school for seven years. A tragic prom night murder made them scatter after graduation and never stop to look back.

Then the lakeside cabin they used to go to for the summer is put on the market, and they decide one last party couldn't hurt…

Darcy goes into it hoping this gathering can finally help them move on from their trauma. But the groups self-appointed leader, Ashley—a manipulator who endlessly tormented Darcy—is sure to kick up trouble.

Their first day back is a rocky one full of envy, heartache, and surprise guests, and the tensions between Darcy and Ashley are high. Things only get worse when a masked killer slaughters one of the group.

Now they're stranded from the outside world, and bodies are dropping like flies. The old friends are quick to turn on each other, bringing secrets back to the surface.

This book is available now from CLASH Books!

Darlene Boone has survived and escaped her abusive past. For the last year, she's been working at the famous honky tonk Teegarden Saloon as a bartender.

But she's thrown back into danger when an axe-wielding killer wreaks havoc on the bar during one of the busiest nights of the year. Now Darlene and the patrons will have to set their drinks aside and arm themselves to make it through this sudden hell.

This book is available now from Dark Matter INK!

Granada, 1849. The vampire Radamés has spent centuries struggling in the shadows, but now he has uncovered an ancient Aztec codex that reveals that the vampires of the “New World” life a more human existence.

These vampires marry. They give birth.

Captivated by this irresistible promise of a better life, Radamés enchants his way onto a ship bound for Mexico. There, in the seedy and forgotten city of Teotihuacán, he falls in love with a member of an ancient sect of vampires called Filth Eaters.

From this romance, the mestizo vampire Doro is born.

As this gripping debut novel bounces in time from 1099 in the Indus River Delta to the Muslim Spanish empire of the 1400s to a futuristic and flooded cyberpunk New York City, a tense story of greed, climate collapse, and a yearning for love unfolds.

This book is now available for pre-order, and will be released on May 19th by Deep Vellum Publishing! Deep Vellum is a nonprofit publishing house dedicated to uplifting voices of both local Texans and international authors.

Young Ellie lives in a quiet, dilapidated house on the edge of town, carrying more of a burden than any child should. Her mother is hardly present, and the care of her baby brother falls on her.

The only way Ellie knows how to survive is by making herself small, invisible, and silent.

Until something knocks at the window.

The figure standing outside looks and sounds just like her father, and he even remembers all of the lullabies he used to sing her. Though Ellie knows better than to trust too easily, she can't resist letting him in.

But once she does, he keeps coming back.

This book is now available for pre-order, and will be released on May 26th by Permuted Press!