Cynthia Pelayo – författare

Peter Pan meets Stephen King's It in this twisted horror retelling of a classic childhood fairy tale set during WWI.1914, Wendy Darling works by day as a school teacher, and by night, she assists soldiers who have returned home from the Western Front. There is one mysterious patient who, despite all the care they’ve given him, is in a deep sleep, unable to wake up. One night, when he murmurs the words “Peter Pan,” Wendy is thrown back to a darker time, one that she wishes she could forget.When one of her students goes missing, it brings back memories of when children went missing and were later found murdered in London many years ago. Wendy is convinced that Peter Pan, the entity that she believes killed those children, is back. She and her brothers had a close encounter with Peter Pan, after all. But her brothers only remember Peter Pan and Neverland as a fantasy of childhood games.When another child goes missing and signs start to point to Wendy, Scotland Yard digs into old reports, finding that Wendy knew the names of all the children who had been killed. As Wendy tries to prove her innocence, she also has to find a way to stop Peter Pan once and for all.

The Mexican board game of Lotería is a game of chance—similar to bingo. However, in Lotería instead of matching up numbers on a game board, players match up images. There are 54 cards in the Lotería game, and for this short story collection you will find one unique story per card based on a Latin American myth, folklore, superstition, or belief—with a slant towards the paranormal and horrific. In this deck of cards you will find murderers, ghosts, goblins and ghouls. This collection features creatures and monsters, vampires, werewolves and more.Many of these legends existed long before their European counterparts—passed throughout the Americas via word of mouth, collected just like the tales the Brothers Grimm. These are indeed fairy tales—Latin American fairy tales—but with a horrifying slant.

From a Bram Stoker Award-winning author, this horrifying retelling of the Pied Piper fairytale set in present-day Chicago is an edge of your seat thrill ride. ‪When Detective Lauren Medina sees the calling card at a murder scene in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, she knows the Pied Piper has returned. When another teenager is brutally murdered at the same lagoon where her sister's body was found floating years before, she is certain that the Pied Piper is not just back, he's looking for payment he's owed from her.Lauren's torn between protecting the city she has sworn to keep safe, and keeping a promise she made long ago with her sister's murderer. She may have to ruin her life by exposing her secrets and lies to stop the Pied Piper before he collects.

From a Bram Stoker Award-winning author, a cult horror fan discovers that something sinister is at the heart of a series of brutal killings in Chicago.A fabled lost movie. An increasing body count. How much do you risk for art?Paloma has been watching the Grand Vespertilio Show her entire life. Grand, America's most beloved horror host, showcases classic, low-budget and cult horror movies with a flourish, wearing his black tuxedo and hat-but Paloma has noticed something strange about Grand.After Paloma's husband, a homicide detective, discovers an obscure movie poster pinned on a mutilated corpse, she knows that the only person that can help solve this mystery is Grand. When another body appears at an abandoned historic movie palace, the deaths prove to be connected to a silent film, lost to the ages, but somehow at the center of countless tragedies in Chicago. Paloma soon becomes trapped between protecting a silent movie that's contributed to so much death in her city and the life of her young son.With The Shoemaker's Magician, Cynthia Pelayo continues to establish herself as one of the most powerful voices in riveting, thought-provoking dark fiction.

Catrina’s Caravan is a horror anthology series featuring stories by the best Latinx writers of horror as told by Catrina, a suspicious harbinger of darkness on the run from a violent priest. Leading a caravan of misfits and marginalized folks, Catrina goes from town to town, one step ahead of her rival, giving the local residents gruesome lessons they will never forget through the mechanism of immersive storytelling. The frame of each story reveals a little more about the past and twisted mission of this mysterious, gaunt and seemingly unaging figure.In three harrowing tales by Latine authors, we peer into the dark corners of the modern world and witness a horrifying, winged retribution for those who abuse refugees at the border. We join an overwhelmed mother on a Chicago subway just in time to see her lucha-libre-obsessed child be tempted by a demon, and we watch as an ancient yet beautiful predator in southern Mexico sates her hunger with the flesh of crude tourists. While crafted in the tradition of great horror anthology comics, this spine-tingling new series taps into the particular darkness of Latino cultures, drawing forth a rich fount of horror with textures and nuance that will reward readers in the know and make fans of those who don’t.

A city’s haunted history and fairy-tale horrors converge for two women in an addictive novel of psychological suspense by a multiple Bram Stoker Award–nominated author.Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River. They’re tethered to a disquieting past, and with nowhere else to go, nothing can part them from their family home. Not the maddening creaks and disembodied voices that rattle the old walls. Not the inexplicable drownings in the area, or the increasing number of bodies that float by Anna’s window.To stave off loneliness, Anna has a podcast, spinning ghostly tales of Chicago’s tragic history. But when Anna captures the attention of an ardent male listener, she awakens to the possibilities of a world outside.As their relationship grows, so do Jennie’s fears. More and more people are going missing in the river. And then two detectives come calling.They’re looking for a link between the mysteries of the river and what’s housed on the bank. Even Anna and Jennie don’t understand how dreadful it is—and still can be—when the truth about their unsettled lives begins to surface.

A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.

“Insightful, humane, and original, Something Followed Us Home features the most exciting voices in dark fiction today and is a must read for any weird/lit/horror fan.” —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts Dive into the chilling depths of Latiné horror with this groundbreaking anthology, edited by Bram Stoker Award winner Cynthia Pelayo, where each story reimagines immigration, colonization, faith, and folklore as the fears we inherit and carry across borders and generations.Something followed us home. It crawled in with our prayers, slipped into our beds, watched from mirrors, waited in water, and learned our names. Gathering chilling work from some of today’s most acclaimed Latiné voices, this horror anthology moves through haunted households, brutal landscapes, sacred spaces turned dangerous, and bodies claimed by forces both ancient and intimate. The dead murmur behind locked doors. Bones rebuild themselves under merciless suns. Love becomes a doorway for demonic hunger. Blood, devotion, and memory intertwine as the past presses back with teeth. Something Followed Us Home is an unnerving, visceral, and impossible-to-shake collection that proves that what is carried forward does not remain quiet, and what follows us rarely leaves without taking something in return. Featuring stories by: Agustina Bazterrica, Isabel Cañas, Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Zoraida Córdova, Ann Dávila Cardinal, Mariana Enriquez, Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro, Xochitl Gonzalez, Leopoldo Goût, Ananda Lima, Juan Martinez, Mónica Ojeda, Daniel José Older, Cynthia Pelayo, Lilliam Rivera, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, Alex Segura

Sumérgete en las espeluznantes profundidades del terror latino con Lo que nos siguió a casa, editada por la ganadora del Premio Bram Stoker Cynthia Pelayo. Una antología revolucionaria en la que participan Agustina Bazterrica, Isabel Cañas, Mariana Enríquez, Zoraida Córdova y más, donde cada historia viste la inmigración, la colonización, la fe y el folklore, de miedos que heredamos y que nos acompañan a través de las fronteras y las generaciones.Lo que nos siguió a casa, editada por la ganadora del Premio Bram Stoker Cynthia Pelayo, es una antología revolucionaria del terror latino que abre una puerta imaginaria al mundo ancestral del miedo y los fantasmas culturales. La colección incluye el trabajo de aclamados escritores, como Agustina Bazterrica, Isabel Cañas, Mariana Enríquez, Zoraida Córdova, Gerardo Sámano Córdova, la propia Pelayo, y muchos más; cada uno de ellos reinventando el horror a través de las lentes de la colonización, la inmigración, la fe y el folklore que perdura a lo largo de las generaciones. Las historias que recoge van desde hogares argentinos donde los muertos susurran tras puertas cerradas con llave, a desiertos en los que La Huesera reconstruye sus huesos bajo un sol implacable, a aguas caribeñas en las que cruceros placenteros se tornan predatorios, y ciudades en las que el amor y el hambre demoníaca comparten cuerpo. Ya sean plegarias susurradas contra demonios, visiones de rebeldes ahorcados que regresan en forma de sombras, o el terrorífico hecho de que la propia tierra recuerda la sangre, cada pieza es un testimonio de la resiliencia y el horror asentado en la identidad latina. Lo que nos siguió a casa, es una antología de referencia para el terror latino. Estas historias nos recuerdan que el pasado nunca nos abandona, los muertos nunca guardan silencio, y los lugares de los que venimos siempre hallarán el camino de vuelta a nosotros.Dive into the chilling depths of Latiné horror with Something Followed Us Home, edited by Bram Stoker Award–winner Cynthia Pelayo, a groundbreaking anthology where each story reimagines immigration, colonization, faith, and folklore as the fears we inherit and carry across borders and generations. Something followed us home. It crawled in with our prayers, slipped into our beds, watched from mirrors, waited in water, and learned our names. In these stories, horror does not announce itself. It possesses, feeds, whispers, and waits. Gathering chilling work from some of today’s most acclaimed Latiné voices, this anthology moves through haunted households, brutal landscapes, sacred spaces turned dangerous, and bodies claimed by forces both ancient and intimate. The dead murmur behind locked doors. Bones rebuild themselves under merciless suns. Love becomes a doorway for demonic hunger. Prayers summon answers that arrive too late…or too fully. Blood, devotion, and memory intertwine as the past presses back with teeth. Something Followed Us Home is a landmark anthology of Latiné horror. These stories remind us that the past is never gone, the dead are never silent, and the places we come from will always find their way back to us. Featuring stories by: Agustina Bazterrica, Ann Dávila Cardinal, Cynthia Pelayo, Isabel Cañas, Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Zoraida Córdova, Mariana Enríquez, Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro, Ananda Lima, Xochitl Gonzalez, Leopoldo Goût, Juan Martinez, Mónica Ojeda, Daniel Jóse Older, Lilliam Rivera, Alex Segura, Diana Rodriguez Wallach

In the dark alleys of human desperation, one truth remains: every soul has a price. Where Devils Stand is a chilling horror anthology that explores the twisted and terrifying consequences of encountering devils, whether metaphorical or real.  Where Devils Stand invites readers into an anthology of 20 gripping tales that explore the multifaceted nature of evil, the choices that define us, and the moments when we stand at the crossroads where devils appear.Featuring stories by:Cynthia PelayoHailey PiperTananarive DueErin E. AdamsClay McLeod ChapmanJonathan MaberryLinda D. AddisonNat CassidyPhilip FracassiCelso HurtadoR. J. JosephCassandra KhawDaniel CarpenterSteven Van PattenNeil McRobertJamie FlanaganL. P. HernandezMichael HodgesGemma AmorL. Marie Wood

A fabled lost movie. An increasing body count. How much do you risk for art?Paloma has been watching the Grand Vespertilio Show her entire life. Grand, America’s most beloved horror host showcases classic, low-budget and cult horror movies with a flourish, wearing his black tuxedo and hat, but Paloma has noticed something strange about Grand, stranger than his dark make-up and Gothic television set.After Paloma’s husband, a homicide detective, discovers an obscure movie poster pinned on a mutilated corpse on stage at the Chicago Theater, she knows that the only person that can help solve this mystery is Grand. When another body appears at an abandoned historic movie palace the deaths prove to be connected to a silent film, lost to the ages, but somehow at the center of countless tragedies in Chicago.The closer Paloma gets to Grand she discovers that his reach is far greater than her first love, horror movies, and even this film. And she soon becomes trapped between protecting a silent movie that’s contributed to so much death in her city and the life of her young son.