If you’ve driven down Barret Avenue recently — specifically between Highland and Hepburn Avenues — you might have noticed blood dripping down the building next to Fat Rabbit Thrift & Vintage. Okay, so it’s not real blood, but the vibrant red paint is a fitting look for the storefront of Butcher Cabin Books, a horror-themed book + gift store (located at 990 Barret Ave.) opening this fall.
Mother and daughter duo Martha and Jenny Kiefer share a love for Halloween, but Jenny’s interest digs a little deeper than the spooky holiday. She’s part of the growing horror writing scene + recently completed a mentorship with award-winning author and poet Cynthia Pelayo, who helped her write her first horror novel “That Wretched Valley” — which hits shelves in 2024.
Jenny says that the only place to find most independent, lesser-known horror novels is online and she wanted to change that experience.
“I thought [Butcher Cabin Books] would be a good idea because when I go to bookstores in town to buy horror, often there isn’t a horror section so I have to check three different spots for books I’m looking for — or the horror section is very tiny and mostly has Stephen King and Dean Koontz,” she says.
Enter Butcher Cabin Books — which will carry a broader selection of the genre she and many others want to shop for from bookshelves. Stephen King novels will still be aplenty, but expect an inventory of books from independent publishers like Perpetual Motion + local authors like Laurel Hightower. The shop will also carry horror-themed gifts — think “Goosebumps” blankets, enamel pins, and ghoulish local art.
Jenny and her mom hope to have the 400-sqft store — which gets its name from the butchershop that was originally there and the 1960s wood paneling on the interior — open by mid-October + has plans for a moth mural for fans to take photos with outside.
Follow Butcher Cabin Books on Instagram + Facebook for updates on its opening.
