I'll Make a Spectacle of You

By Beatrice Winifred Iker

This heart-pounding Southern gothic horror debut from Beatrice Winifred Iker, takes readers to Bricksbury University, the oldest and most storied HBCU in the nation. But as one student is about to find out, a long history comes with a legacy of secrets.

Zora Robinson is an ambitious grad student in her dream program, Appalachian Studies, at Bricksbury University. When her thesis advisor hands her a strange diary and suggests she research the local folklore about a beast roaming the woods surrounding campus, Zora finds a community uneager to talk to an outsider.

As she delves into the history of the beast, she uncovers a rumored secret society called the Keepers that has tenuous ties to the beast...and Bricksbury itself. Zora soon finds herself plagued by visions of the past, and her grip on reality starts to slip as she struggles to uncover what is real and what is folklore. But when a student goes missing, Zora starts to wonder if the Keepers ever really disbanded.

There's something in the woods and it has its eyes on Zora.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316575240
• ISBN13: 9780316575249
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: Run for It
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Dark but disappointing ending

First off, I think the narrator, Ozzie Jacobs, did a great job with the story. I could feel the atmosphere and the sense of wrongness on campus as Zora Robinson goes about gathering info for her thesis on folklore/religion of the area, all the while trying to avoid her sister and find her own place and friends very well. And it certainly built up the tension as the truth is slowly revealed (through intriguing yet disturbing books and journals) about the missing students and the reason why Zora should not go into a the woods. I did like the jumps between past and present to also connect the dots. You get demons, dark powers, agreements with forces that are most certainly twisted and those who will do anything to live forever. Plus an adorable dog, Henry Louis, that deserves far better than what actually happens. (note: the dog does not die! He just is gonna need a whole lot of love). My three star rating is for the very abrupt and frankly disappointing ending after all the fighting Zora did to find the truth and save her friends and keep Bricksbury University protected. I mean she had great Conjure, an awesome dog, and good friends but still chooses what she did! So the narrator gets five stars and the story itself is only about a two and a half stars.