As a library lady, people occasionally ask me for reading recommendations. As a horror geek, my coworkers will sometimes ask for me specifically if one of our patrons wants to read something scary. It's a great question, one of my favorite duties at my job, because I love talking about scary books. Narrowing things down by age group, scare-meter, and sub-genre is part of it--"What's Your Monster?" is a good place to start. (And I highly recommend NoveList's excellent
webinar on this topic if you're not already a horror geek like me.)
HOWEVER.
I thought I'd do something different for Gothmas this year, and just give you some of my personal favorites. Not in any particular order, just a list of solid, scary books. Some of these you've probably heard of. Others I hope will be fresh and new and exciting.
1)
Boring Girls, by Sara Taylor
This fell onto my radar purely by fandom association; the author is also the lead singer and lyricist of The Birthday Massacre. I wrote a
lengthy review for this book already, so I'll try to keep this brief: teenage heavy metal fan, and her best friend, get violently assaulted at a show and swear revenge. It's tense, gruesome, tragic, and impossible to put down.
2)
The Women in the Walls, by Amy Lukavics
Occasionally, I will check out a book just because the cover looks intriguing, and sometimes it turns out great. This was one of those times. The women in this family have a history of vaguely defined mental illness that
might also be demonic possession, and is tied to the disappearance of the main character's mother before the start of the novel. Falls into the same realm of "RICH PEOPLE ARE SO WEIRD" as
Ready Or Not, but with less humor and more Gothic atmosphere.
3)
This Monstrous Thing, by Mackenzi Lee
If Mackenzi Lee isn't already on your automatic "YES" list, do something about that, because she is fabulous. She's gotten some buzz recently for her
Gentleman's Guide series, and for her Loki Investigates Murder In Victorian London book (it's even more rad than it sounds), but this one fell to the bottom of the pile somehow. And that's a shame, because it's a steampunk reimagining of Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein, with Shelley herself as a major character. Revolution, mad scientists, automatons--it's great!
4)
The Children's Home, by Charles Lambert
Another one I picked up because the cover was interesting. This is such a bizarre piece of work. It's told from the point of view of a kindly caretaker whose home gradually, mysteriously fills with lost children. The children are uncommonly intelligent and erudite. There's a shady organization searching for them. The revelation at the end completely blew my mind. More conceptual than some, and more literary than my usual, but sticks in the brain like a nightmare you can't quite remember.
5)
And the Trees Crept In, by Dawn Kurtagich
This comes across like a standard family curse story, until it doesn't. The most effective monsters are those that blend supernatural threats with real-life horror, and that's where this operates. The formatting and layout are disorienting on their own, and I had to read between the lines and seek out other reviews to piece together what had really happened. This book is upsetting in so many ways. Don't read after dark.
6)
House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski
Speaking of disorienting! All you need to do is flip through this a little bit to know you'll be in for a very unusual ride. It took me a year to read this. Yes, an entire year. With breaks for less confusing and dense books in between. I'm not kidding. This book made me feel like I was being watched, like there was something peeking out from between the pages. It was worth it, but I don't think I could read it twice.
7)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire
Technically Book 2 in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series, also technically a prequel focused on Jack and Jill, but easily my favorite of the bunch. All the Wayward Children books are wonderfully bittersweet. This one just happens to be set in the sort of Graveyard Gothic fantasy land I'd most like to visit myself, all vampires, crumbling castles, and haunted moors.
8)
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
I know it's not new, but it is a classic, and I will always include it on lists like this. A lesson that we as a society seem to keep relearning is that wealth, class, and beauty are NOT signifiers of moral character. This book was a scathing critique of so-called Victorian values in its time. The fact that it stays relevant is scary all by itself. It is my very favorite book, and I reread it every single year.
9)
The Girl from the Well, by Rin Chupeco
You've probably heard of Koji Suzuki's Japanese horror series,
Ringu, or at least the various movie adaptations, but you might not be familiar with the legend of Okiku's Well that inspired it. This book not only introduced me to that unsettling true story, but gave Okiku a voice, generating empathy for a vengeance ghost without sapping any of her terrible power. The sequel,
The Suffering, is pretty great too, but I'm more attached to the mystery in this one.
10)
Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer
The first in the Southern Reach trilogy, and the basis for the cosmic horror film starring Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson, this short but riveting novel is a strange wild beast. I give credit to the filmmakers for evoking a similar mood, but the original story has a lot of memorable imagery we never seen on screen. The tower, the writing on the wall, and the lighthouse keeper's diary are all iconic stops along the biologist's journey. If you've seen the film and want more--or even if you haven't--read this.
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