See the cover for Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez

See the cover for Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez

If you’ve been watching Debutiful’s social media recently, you may have already spotted the cover for Mayra in a recent summer book mail hype post. If you haven’t, get ready to be blown away.

Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez is a modern, gothic horror set in the swampland of Florida. Gonzalez, who hails from Hialeah, Florida, introduces readers to two estranged friends who reunite in a house in the Everglades. What follows is an unsettling and propulsive journey into the madness of friendship all while being haunted by their very surroundings.

Set to release on July 22, the book is available for pre-order. You can read stories and previous work by Gonzalez that has appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly ConcernBOMB Magazine, Kenyon Review Online, and Taco Bell Quarterly, among others, on her website.

Debutiful is pleased to reveal the cover, designed by Andreea Dumuta, of Gonzalez’s debut alongside a Q&A with the writer to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the cover came to be.

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A Life of Books: Kat Davis, author of In a Dark Mirror

A Life of Books: Kat Davis, author of In a Dark Mirror

In her terrific debut crime novel, Kat Davis takes our obsession of solving old crimes and uses it to propel a page-turning psychological thriller. In a Dark Mirror blends dark crime and a tinge of horror to create an unforgettable book.

We asked the author to answer our recurring A Life of Books questionnaire so readers could get to know her a little better and get book recommendations to add to their pile of must-reads.

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Read an excerpt from A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma

Read an excerpt from A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma

Raul Palma‘s debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens is a genre-bending take on immigration, capitalism, and society through a lens of a magical realism ghost story. Palma follows a man named Hugo whose wife has died and a debt collector is hounding him. He uses his connection with spirits – one he doesn’t believe in – to pull some quick moves to get ahead in life. It all seems to be okay until… it isn’t.

Hialeah Gardens is an originally imaginative and sometimes quite hilarious book that will give readers something fresh that they haven’t really encountered before.

A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens is available now. You can read an excerpt from the novel below.

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