October is ripe with rot—and the indie horror scene is blooming.
At Mind on Fire Books, we honor the grotesque as sacred. Transformation is terror. Every scar tells a myth. This month, we invite you to explore the visceral, the uncanny, and the mythic through the lens of body horror. These new releases from indie and small press authors are more than stories—they’re rituals.
Whether you’re preparing for Folklore and Flesh or seeking fresh nightmares to fuel your own creative rites, this curated list offers literary dread and visceral inspiration.
🕷️ Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud
Release Date: October 21, 2025 The sequel to Crypt of the Moon Spider plunges readers into a dripping lunar nightmare. Charlie Duchamp—half brain-in-a-jar, half rage-infested husk—stalks haunted ruins on Jupiter’s moon. A giant centipede called The Bishop controls drowned astronauts, while a new Moon Spider prepares to hatch. Altered minds, parasitic rage, and cosmic dread converge in this squirming masterpiece.
👉 Buy on Bookshop
🌕 The Harvest Moon Pact by George McMurty
Release Date: October 24, 2025 In Crow’s Bend, Illinois, the harvest moon demands blood. Mara Whitlock returns to care for her father, only to find ritual marks on her brother’s skin and whispers in the cornfields. A tale of rural horror, ancestral debt, and bodily sacrifice that feels disturbingly close to home.
👉 Buy on Amazon
🎪 All the Fear of the Fair edited by Edward Parnell
Release Date: October 16, 2025 Sixteen uncanny carnival tales—from Poe to Bradbury—featuring waxwork horrors, man-eating menageries, and conjurers of dread. A literary sideshow of bodily distortion and psychological unease. Perfect for fans of vintage weird fiction.
👉 Buy Direct
🍽️ Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Release Date: September 2, 2025 One bite of the King’s Breakfast and you commune with forgotten gods. Deep in the Pamogo forest, cults worship the divine feminine and hikers vanish. Hallucinogenic, brutal, and unclassifiable—this is body horror as mythic communion.
👉 Buy on Bookshop
🔥 Folklore and Flesh Is Coming…
Our upcoming anthology Folklore and Flesh is a ritual of its own—where myth meets marrow.
Folklore and Flesh: A Dark Fiction Collection of Folklore and Body Horror
Step into the uncanny with Folklore and Flesh—a collection of visceral horror stories and haunting poems that blur the boundaries between myth and the body. From ancient rituals and supernatural transformations to the raw ache of grief and memory, these tales invite you to explore the shadowed places where folklore becomes flesh.
This collection binds 10 creative short stories and a dozen visceral poems.
Presale Opens: November 20th (Blotmonath – Month of Sacrifice)
Book Release: December 4th – Full Moon
Stay Haunted
Thank you for visiting with us. For more Reviews or Literature related content, visit our blog at The Ritual. Copyright Mind on Fire Books.
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Enjoyed the Chat? Don’t Leave Without “Digital Fangs.”
Thanks for diving deep into the world of Folk Body Horror! If you want more unsettling tales where the body mutates and the land has a claim, join the Mind on Fire insider list today. As a welcome gift, I’ll send you “Digital Fangs,” a complete, dark story from the Folklore and Flesh collection—absolutely free!
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