Tori Bovalino in conversation with Adrienne Tooley

Join us as we celebrate two new YA horror releases from bestselling author Tori Bovalino (author of SECOND DEATH OF LOCKE). We will be celebrating the titles I, IN THE SHADOWS and MY THROAT AN OPEN GRAVE. Bovalino will be joined in conversation with fellow author Adrienne Tooley (SWEET AND BITTER MAGIC, THE THIRD DAUGHTER).

TORI / V.L. BOVALINO is an internationally bestselling author of horror and fantasy fiction for young people and adults. She is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and now lives in the UK with her partner, their very loud cat, and their puppy. She holds a PhD in English and still dabbles in academia. Tori loves scary stories, obscure academic book facts, and impractical, oversized sweaters. She can be found on Instagram as @toribovalino.

I, IN THE SHADOWS:
There’s a ghost haunting Drew Tarpin’s new room. Liam Orville has been dead for ten months and has no idea how to move on. But the longer he stays, the more likely it is he’ll degrade into an energy consuming husk—which Drew is more concerned about than her grades or her inability to make meaningful connections with other students.
Drew is everything Liam never was when he was alive, but they do share some common ground: Drew finds herself hopelessly attracted to—and completely tongue-tied around—Hannah Sullivan, who happens to be Liam’s former best friend.
After a run-in with a ghost-eating monster leaves Drew and Liam desperate for answers, they strike up a deal: In return for Drew investigating why Liam is still around, he’ll help her talk to Hannah. But Liam’s time is running out, and if Drew doesn’t help him move on, he risks becoming a monster himself.

MY THROAT AN OPEN GRAVE:

Labyrinth meets Hadestown in this psychological horror about a girl who must win her kidnapped brother back from the Lord of the Wood.

In the small town of Winston, Pennsylvania, they fear the Lord of the Wood almost as much as they fear God. According to legend, the ghosts of the wood steal the babies of the town if they’re left unattended. But this legend has just become a way to scare local kids—until Leah Jones’s brother disappears.
Leah has no hope for a future outside of Winston, and her only remaining solace is her music. She’s on the verge of dropping out of high school, barely balancing her job at the gas station with her duty to care for her baby brother, Owen. But when Owen is taken by the Lord of the Wood, Leah must face the dangers of the forest to write a song that will win Owen back—and discover the truth of how her life went so very wrong.

ADRIENNE TOOLEY:

Adrienne Tooley grew up in Southern California, majored in musical theater in Pittsburgh, and now lives in Brooklyn with her wife, their dog, eight guitars, and a banjo. She’s the author of four sapphic fantasy novels for young adults, including the Betrayal Prophecies duology, Sofi and the Bone Song and Sweet & Bitter Magic. Her fifth novel, There Are Ghosts Here, a speculative YA thriller will be published by Delacorte Press in 2026. In addition to writing novels, she is an indie-folk singer/songwriter whose music can be found on Spotify.

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