These novels will creep under your skin with their horror-tinged tales of witchcraft and demons—and their unsettling reflections on race, class, privilege, womanhood, and intergenerational trauma will continue to haunt you long after. Returning Festival fan favourites Mona Awad (We Love You, Bunny), Jen Sookfong Lee (The Hunger We Pass Down), and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (The Bewitching) confront power imbalances, slip between genres, and deliver page-turning chills in their latest novels. They’re joined by Mattea Roach, host of CBC’s Bookends, for a smart and subversive conversation that will be recorded for the show.
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MONA AWAD is the bestselling author of the novels Rouge, All’s Well, Bunny, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. She is a three-time finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award, the recipient of an Amazon Best First Novel Award, and she was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. She teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.
JEN SOOKFONG LEE was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side, and she now lives with her son in North Burnaby. Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart, was a finalist for the 2024 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, City of Vancouver Book Award, and was a TODAY Show Recommended Read. Jen also wrote The Conjoined, The Better Mother, The End of East; The Shadow List; and Finding Home.
SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA is the author of the novels Mexican Gothic and Gods of Jade and Shadow. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award–winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu’s Daughters). She has been nominated for the Locus Award for her work as an editor and has won the British Fantasy Award and the Locus Award for her work as a novelist.
MATTEA ROACH is the host of CBC’s Bookends with Mattea Roach. Roach appeared as the winning panelist on Canada’s great book debate, Canada Reads, in 2023, championing Kate Beaton’s graphic novel Ducks. They hosted The Backbench, a podcast focused on Canadian politics, and is currently working on their first book. Originally from Halifax, Roach now lives and works in Toronto.
