The Year of Stephen Graham Jones
The Year of Stephen Graham Jones
The SGJ back catalogue is BACK!
THE ANGEL OF INDIAN LAKE released in January, and that alone is enough to call 2024 the year of Stephen Graham Jones. The ultrasatisfying conclusion to the Indian Lake Trilogy filled our slasher-loving tummies with enough goodness to get us through the end of the calendar.
But 2024 was to be a special year, because Stephen was queued to release not one but two novels. After Jade Daniels walks off into the sunset, Tolly Driver picks up the machete. I WAS A TEENAGE SLASHER is already top three Jones book for me (I’ve read 18 now, I think?) It takes Jones’ love affair with the Slasher genre to new heights, then pulls your heart from your chest when it’s all done.
Surely, that’s enough, right? More than anyone could ask for, yes?
Evidently not. Because in addition to these novels (and any short stories, comic books, and other various releases) as of the writing of this post, a staggering four SIX of SGJ’s previously out of print books are scheduled to be reissued this year. four SIX!
So here, for your convenience, is a bunch of information about what’s coming the rest of this year:
AFTER THE PEOPLE LIGHTS HAVE GONE OFF
PRE ORDER (Releases December 4th)
A collection of 15 stories that feature, among others, zombies, a hardboiled detective, a giant space-traveling lobster, an enigmatic alien, Rod Serling, and numerous apocalypses. What makes them into a powerful collection is the author's ability to find horror in seemingly everyday objects and situations, and to rely on our own imaginations to fill in the blanks. With an introduction by Joe R. Lansdale.
ZOMBIE BAKE-OFF
PRE ORDER (Releases October 1st)
It's time for the annual Recipe Days bake-off in Lubbock, Texas. Soccer moms and grandmothers gather to show off their family recipes, learn new secrets for the perfect shortcake, and perhaps earn a chance to be on the famous cooking show, "How Would You Cook It, Then?"
When the bake-off is crashed by a federation of pro wrestlers -- including American Badass, Jersey Devil Jill, Tiny Giant, The Village Person, Jonah the Whale, the Hellbillies, and fan favorite Xombie -- all hell is set to break loose. An infected batch of donuts has transformed most of the wrestlers into mindless brain-eaters and the doors of the convention center have been chained shut, leaving the survivors locked inside, forced to fend for themselves against the hungry dead. Who will come out on top in the ultimate showdown of the century, soccer moms or pro wrestlers?
THREE MILES PAST
PRE ORDER (Releases October 1st)
A strange, unsettling collection of 3 novellas by one of the masters of the horror genre, Stephen Graham Jones.
INTERSTATE LOVE AFFAIR is a frightening glimpse into the mind of a serial killer. William travels the I-10 east, picking up dogs and the occasional girl. None of his companions last long.
NO TAKEBACKS: Before you download that next app, think about the creators who put it together... and whether their creation might have gotten away from them.... The programmer friends decide to make a phone app called No Takebacks. The first line of the story gives a flavor of what's to come: "We didn't build the app to kill anybody..."
THE COMING OF NIGHT: A serial killer story with a twist. A salesman at a convention chooses a victim at the bar, but that's only the beginning. The supernatural begins to creep in, and the killer himself descends into madness.
THE LONG TRIAL OF NOLAN DUGATTI
PRE ORDER (Releases October 1st)
Nolan works customer service. He's the last employee of video game developer Nitrox, and the last person anywhere to understand the game Camopede. Nobody's called him for help in years--but the legal small print means he's still got to be available. So there he sits, in an empty building, waiting by the phone. And then one night, it rings.
It's a homicide detective, telling Nolan his dad has finally committed suicide. No surprise, maybe... he's threatened to dozens of times, and his suicide notes fill the book alongside Nolan's own story. But was it really suicide? Did Nolan help him along? Or is something *really* weird going on? A touching, funny, dark book that showcases Jones's power as a writer.
STERLING CITY
PRE ORDER (releases October 1st)
When a Martian moon explodes, what follows in rural Texas will take your breath away, in this haunting short novel from the New York Times–bestselling author.
When Lee’s wife of fifteen years leaves him on the same night a Martian moon is destroyed, the fields of his farm still need to be irrigated and the cotton planted. The space accident is too far away to concern Lee more than boll weevils and rain forecasts—but then a giant caterpillar is found on his land.
For months, all Lee sees of the caterpillar are the pieces it leaves behind from molting . . . until the night the moon debris makes its way to Earth.
IT CAME FROM DEL RIO
PRE ORDER (releases October 1st)
Smuggler Dodd Raines just got the job of a lifetime. He’ll finally earn enough money to secure a decent future for his young daughter and start over on the right side of the law. There’s just one catch: his cargo is made up of moon rocks—with mass-casualty levels of radiation.
Getting across the border from Mexico into the United States isn’t easy, even though Raines has done it hundreds of times. If the blazing sun and hungry coyotes don’t take him down, the border cop obsessed with catching him will. And then there are the moon rocks. No one delivering them is meant to survive—especially after already being killed. But that’s the twist. One that transforms Raines into an undead rabbit-eared monster starving for vengeance, on a path straight into his orphaned daughter’s life . . .
Interested in more Stephen Graham Jones related content?
I dug into the archives and found some old podcast episodes from my days running the Booked. podcast.
First, my Zombie Bake-Off review featuring David James Keaton (April, 2012)
Second, my It Came From Del Rio review featuring Jesse Lawrence (September, 2019)