@ Your Library
Are you looking to get your scary fix? Do you like to be scared? Here are some books that might fit the bill. (warning: I have not read any of these titles as I do not like being scared and do not read books that scare me.)
When was the last time you read Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or Scary Stories 3 More Tales to Chill Your Bones all collected by Alvin Schwartz. These classic tales continue to thrill and scare many readers.
Fans of true crime stories might find Houses of the Unholy by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips or Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case fascinating. Both of these are also graphic tales giving a very different look to traditional true crime stories.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is often touted as one of the scariest stories of all time. It often competes with Stephen King’s It.
Two recently published horror titles include Stephen King’s You Like it Darker a collection of short stories and Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman. I recently read an article about horror films and it talked about some horror being horror because of the ordinariness of the situation and the circumstances. That is what the Josh Malerman title makes me think of as this family is targeted by an entity the little girl called ‘other mommy.’ Tales of possession are definitely not my cup of tea and I won’t be reading it, but if you like that kind of story, the library owns the book. Josh Malerman also wrote the teen novel A House at the Bottom of a Lake which again scares me with it’s ordinariness. It is the tale of two teenagers on a first date, going canoeing on a lake.
I think the only horror title I’ve ever read is Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews way back in high school and I still regret having the knowledge of that book rattling around in my brain. The only Stephen King book I’ve ever read (and intend to read) is Eyes of the Dragon a fantasy novel that was a bit more suspenseful than I like my fantasy. I have devoted a fair amount of reading time to trying to figure out why some people like horror or to scare themselves as I view it and The Science of Stephen King: the truth behind Pennywise, Jack Torrance, Carrie, Cujo and more iconic characters from the master of horror by Meg Hafdahl is an interesting look at the stories behind the stories. Or look to the master himself with Danse Macabre for a look at horror in mass media.
Two additional authors to explore include H. P. Lovecraft, we have a new annotated edition of his stories, Dean Koontz, including Strange Highways a collection of his horror writing. Finally, take a look at Never Whistle at Night an anthology edited by Shane Hawk of Indigenous dark fiction.