“The voice of a poet, the heart of a killer, and the fury of a pugilist—this collection of stories and poems will work you over and leave you spent. Blending horror with magic, loss with hope, and fear with love, Annie Neugebauer is one of the most powerful authors writing today.”
—Richard Thomas, Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller Award finalist
The collector hunts the darkness for terrible beauty: macabre and marvelous stories worth displaying in their shadow boxes. Tour these horrors with them, but beware: if you’re not careful, you might find yourself lost in a labyrinth of fear.
A pickup artist is after your skin. A junk drawer opens into the abyss. The twin sons of an ill-fated magician plot against their abusive mother. A man wastes his life dreading an unseen entity. A senior water aerobics class takes a turn for the bizarre…
YOU HAVE TO LET THEM BLEED brings together the best horror fiction by two-time Bram Stoker Award finalist and nationally award-winning poet Annie Neugebauer. Together with eight new poems, this nineteen-story collection will draw you into the lovely darkness, lure you deeper into the heartbreaking and gruesome, and leave behind its own collection of horrors to fill the shadows of your mind.
You Have to Let Them Bleed will be out in 2025 through Bad Hand Books.
Pre-order the paperback with a signed book plate!
“The stories in this superb collection find the unnatural in nature, chaos in order, and the frightening in the commonplace. Annie Neugebauer is one of those rare authors who can summon terror from a kitchen drawer, a shift of colors, or a coin rolling across a countertop, and You Have to Let Them Bleed places her in the top ranks of horror writers working now.”
—Lisa Morton, six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award
“From its opening notes, You Have to Let Them Bleed announces itself as a symphony of poetry and prose. A nightmarish treasury of shadowy gems, these tales will lurk in the back of the mind and haunt you in the cold hours. Neugebauer has woven a tapestry of darkness.”
—Angela “A.G.” Slatter, award-winning author of The Crimson Road
“Annie Neugebauer’s first collection You Have to Let Them Bleed is a great mix of the stories and poems she’s acclaimed for, where something as simple as a kitchen drawer becomes ominous. Her deft prose and tone-perfect imagery make this a best collection of the year contender.”
—John F.D. Taff, Bram Stoker Award and World Fantasy Award Finalist
