Boozhoo Books | Unshod, Cackling, and Naked
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Unshod, Cackling, and Naked
Tamika Thompson
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Next Generation Indie Award Winner for Horror
A beauty pageant veteran appeases her mother by competing for one final crown, only to find herself trapped in a hand-sewn gown that cuts into her flesh. A journalist falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman but discovers his beloved can vanish and reappear hours later in the same spot, as if no time has passed at all. A cash-strapped college student agrees to work in a shop window as a mannequin but quickly learns she's not free to break her pose. And what happens when the family pet decides it no longer wants to have "owners?"
In the grim and often horrific thirteen tales collected here, beauty is violent, and love and hate are the same feeling, laid bare by unbridled obsession. Entering worlds both strange and quotidian, and spanning horror landscapes both speculative and real, Unshod, Cackling, and Naked asks who among us is worthy of love and who deserves to die?
A collection
“This powerful collection of 13 intimate horror shorts from Thompson ( Salamander Justice) derives its scares by pushing mundane Black experiences into unsettling territory. Several pieces dive into simultaneously validating and terrifying expressions of Black female rage...Readers of any background will find that these stark terrors hit close to home.” — Publishers Weekly
“This collection of short stories from Thompson ( Salamander Justice, 2020) is thrilling and engrossing, with classic horror tropes and experimental new tactics and scares...Thanks to these exquisite stories, readers will look forward to a future library with a shelf full of Thompson's books.” — Booklist
“Each story pulls you in, ties you to it for one blistering hard ride after another. They all are certain to leave their own personal mark, whether it's the twisting of everyday common things, people, or animals, or the more reflective, unspoken sorrows and hatred of those closest to us, and of ourselves.” — Bailey Hunter, Dark Recesses Press
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Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Sep 19 2025
Ultimate Spooky Season Shopping List
Spooky season is truly all year in this house but I’ll be dropping recs extra extra for the next couple of month!
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[Hello My Friends,\ \ I've been working on so many thing but Return to Office has been kicking my butt, so I'm a bit behind on sharing!\ \ I'm so excited to be able to share our first WOMEN IN HORROR BOOK BINGO CARD!\ \ If you've been around for awhile, you are familiar with my Indigenous Book Bingo Cards (we currently have 3!) These are available in my Instagram Stories and in our Community Discord! (Join now if you haven't already!)\ \ I had so much difficulty limiting this to 25 books, so if you fear your favorite female author is missing, don't! There will definitely be more rounds of this game!\ \ I was STUNNED to see that with a total of 191 works being nominated for the Stoker Award best novel that only 26 WOMEN have been nominated since inception! (33 total as some were nominated more than once). That number is egregious. When Tananarive Due won in 2023 for The Reformatory, the last woman who won in the category was Caitlin R Kierman (who is problematic and not recommended) in .....2012!!! There have been times when every nominee in the category were men. There has NEVER been a time when every nominee was a woman.\ \ Women write incredible horror every year. Let's work together to help people read more women. I'll come up with some prize options and will post them in the Discord! There will be one more card coming this year, likely in December!\ \ Our Community Discord also hosts our Women in Horror book club. This month we are reading The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia and next month we are reading The Possession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Canes (and I've partnered with Berkeley to do a giveaway, so stay tuned!) I've also been working on some upcoming chats! If you're an author who would like to participate in chats, please reach out directly.\ \ If you appreciate the work that I'm doing there are three ways to support!\ \
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She's Heeeere! Women in Horror Book Bingo
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Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Jan 26 2025
Hello Friends, I don't know about you, but January has been the longest year of my life. If you've been waiting for a publishing announcement, well, there isn't one yet, b...
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Posts about this book from across Bindery
Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Sep 19 2025
\ \ Join for free or login](https://boozhoo.binderybooks.com/item/AKNY4takZBrImNdu2ivY/)
Ultimate Spooky Season Shopping List
Spooky season is truly all year in this house but I’ll be dropping recs extra extra for the next couple of month!
Let me know which ones you've read and loved? Let me know which ones are on your TBR.
18 books
7
Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Aug 16 2025
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24 books
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Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Mar 2 2025
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Boozhoo Books\ \ Naomi\ \ • Jan 26 2025
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