by Damla
The spooky season is upon us, and what better way is there to make the most of it other than by hunkering down in a cozy corner with a good horror book (and good lighting to chase away the thing that go BUMP in the night)? Ranging from spooky to gory, featuring everything blood chilling including ghosts, murderers, occult rituals, and various monsters, the horror genre has a lot of thrills to offer. Whether you are looking for the “hair-raising, hiding-behind-a-pillow” kind, or a more “lighthearted, fun venture into the darker side” kind, we have got you covered. Check out these recommendations for horror books for every type of reader.
FOR ATMOSPHERIC READERS
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
“In London, she had learnt to scoff at her fear as nonsense, but now she was back she could feel it, creeping, slithering. Something dark and insidious, all the way down to the roots of the plants that grew in the garden.”
A few years ago, I went on a trip with my best friend to Scotland. As we set off exploring a small village where the borders of the town quickly receded into wilder fields in the Highlands, we found a weather-beaten wooden figure of a nun, half painting, half sculpture, holding a bunch of keys and staring at us. Of course we were immediately in love and highly creeped out, and left (thankfully with no incidents) giggling about how cool that was. Silent companions? I guess they actually exist.
Apart from creepy personal anecdotes, this story really comes alive in its own right, interweaving the lives of women living in the same house a few centuries apart, being haunted by these figures as much as their roles in society. Everything is so beautifully atmospheric and irresistibly chilling in all its gothic glory, tensions building up little by little without any relief. This spooky story will be stuck in the dark corners of your mind for a long time to come.
FOR CLASSIC HORROR LOVERS
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
“Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
The Haunting of Hill House is a great horror story, not just in the sense of terrifying paranormal manifestations or things that go bump in the night, but because of its sinister, penetrating psychological thrill. It is about the fear of the unknown, as well as the fear of being the outsider (and the unbearable horror of finally belonging so completely to something so terrible).
It is a slow but sure descent into madness. The conversations are strange, like in dreams, that don’t seem connected or logical, but that flow whimsically with a strange understanding when you surrender to its style.
So creepy, so remarkable, and so enjoyable.
FOR FUN SPOOKS
The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero
“There is no dark aura around Axton House, no permanent storm brewing in its general direction. Axton House is just a house. A beautiful cliché at best. It cannot pretend to be the source of all evil.”
A delicious enigma. A haunted house. A secret club chasing the supernatural secrets. Twenty visions. Twenty aspects.
The Warrior. The Watcher. The Sage. The Genius. The Wizard. The Nobleman. The Mother. The Twins. The Lover. Soul. Bones. The Phoenix. The Oracle. The Fortune. The King. The Monster. The Wolf. The Crab. The Juggernaut. And the God.
The Supernatural Enhancements is somehow an incredibly thrilling, entertaining story that is already laden with the paranormal and science-fiction, but takes an even wilder and fantastical turn as you read. Even its format (ranging from dream journals to video footage transcriptions, in different fonts) is a curiosity.
If you are looking for a gripping mystery/horror with a generous helping of comedy for the spooky season, definitely give this a try.
FOR SOME GORE
FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven
“There are times in life where unpleasant things are happening, and if you don’t fight you might as well be meat.”
What would happen if Lord of the Flies was set in an abandoned theme park with 20-somethings instead of kids? As it turns out, much more damage.
FantasticLand is just so blood-chilling, and so gripping in all its horrific dystopian glory that it is impossible to put down. The story is told in a series of interviews, so we get to experience a natural disaster and all its horrifying fallout through different eyes, and it feels so real. With each interview, things go desperately darker, colder, more savage, and with each perspective, we experience a monstrosity being justified by some excuse that triggers the next monstrosity in a chain reaction.
It really makes you reflect about how civilization is actually held up by a very thin thread, a little shift of balance, and that thread snaps, collapsing into feral chaos. Absolutely terrifying.
FOR ROMANTIC THRILL CHASERS
Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver
“He’s just a guy. A completely psycho serial killer guy with a decent skin suit and muscles for days and some cute dimples.”
Welcome to Cape Carnage, where the shops are quirky, the locals are friendly, the landscaping is luscious, and the bad tourists never leave. Harper Sterling, running from her own dark past, has settled into this charming small town and has promised to keep it safe with her aging mentor/neighbor for company. She makes sure that the wrong type of people and the trouble they bring never darken the town, but when Nolan comes into town to exact revenge on her for a most gruesome hit-and-run accident at the same time as some amateur true-crime sleuths, she must find a way to keep herself and her secrets alive.
Charming, dark, and definitely on the spicy side, this is a slow-burning enemies-to-lovers dark romance that has heart and brain (as well as a fair amount of stabby-stabby.)
SHORT STORIES FOR BITE-SIZED SPOOKS
“So what is above, we send below, for the life that is hers, we shall reap with a crow.”
A fantastic collection of horror-infused, strange and blood-chilling stories inspired by the dark, dark time that was the Middle Ages. The whole thing really does not shy away from the horror or the gore, and truly lives up to its medieval name.
From the fantastic introduction to the bite-sized horror interludes and on to the gripping stories, this collection was a winner from the get-go. After many a story, I found myself wanting more; I could have easily read the longer, book versions of several stories. It is so atmospheric that it embodies the spooky atmosphere of a chilly October evening perfectly.
