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Laurel Hightower

Laurel Hightower lives in Lexington, Kentucky, the land of horses and bourbon, with her husband, son, and a rescue Pitbull. She is the author of Whispers in the Dark, Crossroads, and Below, and has more than a dozen short fiction stories in print.

Genres: Horror

Novels

   Whispers in the Dark (2018)
   Silent Key (2023)
   The Day of the Door (2024)

Collections

Every Woman Knows This (2023)

Novellas and Short Stories

Crossroads (2020)
Below (2022)

Anthologies edited

   We are Wolves (2020) (with Gemma Amor and Cynthia Pelayo)
   The Dead Inside (2022) (with Sandra Ruttan)
   Shattered & Splintered (2022) (with James Sabata)

Series contributed to

Dark Tide Horror Novellas
13. The Devil's Backbone (2024) (with Ronald Kelly and Red Lagoe)

Books containing stories by Laurel Hightower

Elemental Forces (2024)
(ABC of Horror, book 5)
edited by
Mark Morris

The Rack (2024)
Stories Inspired By Vintage Horror Paperbacks
edited by
Tom Deady

Human Monsters (2024)
edited by
Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Saywers

More books

Award nominations

2022 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction (nominee) : Below

Laurel Hightower recommends

Midnight Rooms (2024)
Donyae Coles
"Midnight Rooms is a gorgeous and heady take on the classic Gothic romance. Coles' deftly crafted heroine, Orabella, takes us along for a sweet and heavy fever dream of horror, with dark magic looming around every crumbling corner. A compelling story that won't let go - this is everything I wanted."

Incidents Around the House (2024)
Josh Malerman
"So gripping in terror, I couldn't put it down. This is everything I'm looking for in a horror story."

The Redemption of Morgan Bright (2024)
Chris Panatier
"The Redemption of Morgan Bright is a gorgeous mystery. A layered maze that grants access to the darkness yet shows the reader only enough to put one foot in front of the other as they delve ever deeper into dread. Beautifully told and with perfect pacing, Chris Panatier unveils each piece with deliberation and care, building to a series of jaw-dropping reveals and an ending I never saw coming. This is horror that hits on every level, crafted with an expert hand. I absolutely loved it."

This Wretched Valley (2024)
Jenny Kiefer
"Jenny Kiefer takes one of the most intriguing and horrific mysteries of the last century - the Dyatlov Pass incident - and pushes beyond our worst imaginings. An isolated valley and ominous small-town warnings set the stage for a skillful and bone-chilling tale of isolation and the limits of human endurance. Kiefer skillfully weaves historical horror into a modern-day setting, and the result is a deliciously adrenaline-laden nightmare. A fantastic debut that keeps all its promises."

Grasshands (2024)
Kyle Winkler
"Grasshands fulfills the promise of the term 'mindbending' in ways drugs never could. Prose and dialog that are effortlessly engaging, horror that builds in an almost absurdist fashion making the dread that much more effective when it drops. And oh, how it drops. More than the sum of its parts - and damn, those parts are impressive on their own - Grasshands is a vehicle for experiencing the human condition, the ultimate drive for horror. I'll be thinking about it for a long, long time."

Our Own Unique Affliction (2023)
Scott J Moses
"Scott Moses writes from a place of pure empathy, the result of which is a story that pulls the reader in with deceptive ease, putting them through the emotional wringer, culling fear from every page. A tightly written fever dream of bloodlust and family ties, grief, rage and the eternal hunt."

A Black and Endless Sky (2022)
Matthew Lyons
"A Black and Endless Sky builds tension from the first page, delivers a powerful left hook, then pulls readers into the tumultuous lives of Nell and Jonah. From there it's a well-blended mix of action, noir, horror, and compelling humanity. Matthew Lyons is swiftly establishing himself as a master of gritty, dark noir, with his own brand of clear-eyed, effective character study. A talented author."

Criterium (2020)
Tyler Jones
"Tyler Jones' first novella is an unflinching and compassionate view into the black hole of addiction and grief. An intriguing and novel premise that drags real life horror into the depths of the supernatural - compulsively readable."

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