Fall seems to be, universally, the favorite season amongst readers. It truly is the perfect time of year if you live somewhere where the evening air drops to a comfortable chill and a night curled up under a blanket with a book sounds heavenly.
Despite being a bit of a wimp sometimes, I do love a good scare. The stories that get my heart racing, stomach turning, and keep me up late at night are doing something right. I had this conversation at work the other day about the way reading a horror story can often times be more unsettling than watching a film. There is something amplifying about having to imagine the gruesome and terrifying in your own mind instead of watching someone else’s vision come to life.
If you’re ready to get into the mood with something eerie and unsettling, I’ve got a few books with different scare factors in mind to share. Whether you like to be a little scared or afraid to go to sleep at night, I think there is something here to read even for the scaredy cats.
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson – Celtic Horror, LGBTQ+
Late at night in the backwoods of Ireland, Etain Larkin stumbles upon a body on the side of the road on her way home from a party. Something strange comes over her, compelling her to haul the corpse in to her car and drive to a remote farmhouse. She will never speak about the horror-filled night again.
Twenty years later, Betty Fitzpatrick meets Ashling Mallen at Dublin College, who goes to great lengths to keep Betty at a distance from her family as their relationship grows. Ashling’s alcoholic mother, Etain, hasn’t been the same since one fateful night years ago plunged their family into unending darkness. The horrors of the past and present become an obsession for Ashling, leading her to a children’s program watched by the youth of Ireland for decades.
This story is perfect for fans of the show Channel Zero. Barring some brief moments of detailed gore, this book is great for readers who enjoy an atmospheric story filled with a looming sense of dread for unknown reasons. There is very little violence to this folklore inspired horror for anyone with a sensitive stomach. I’m not always a fan of books with timelines shifting between the past and present, but the way it was handled by Sharpson made it necessary for the story he is telling. It’s a generational affair dealing with themes of motherhood, family, and identity.
I happened to pick this up from a “staff picks” cart at my local library and I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the fact I wasn’t able to guess what was happening until different aspects of the story began weaving together toward the end. I still have a few questions about what exactly the motivation was for a group of people you’ll find out about if you read this because I don’t want to give anything away.
Hide by Kiersten White – Horror, Thriller
Would you spend a week in an abandoned amusement park playing hide ‘n seek if the prize money was enough to change your life? When Mack’s father snapped and murdered her family she was the sole survivor; being good at hiding is the reason she made it and no one else did. Now an adult, she has been a drifter for longer than she can remember. When a mysterious invitation to participate in a hide ‘n seek reality competition with a substantial cash prize lands in Mack’s lap, she puts her skills to the test for a chance at freedom. Day by day competitors are going missing and it becomes clear something sinister is happening. Everyone will not make it out alive.
If you don’t mind a bit of a slow burn I found the idea of this story built around a competition in a dilapidated amusement park quite creepy. There’s something about defunct and rusted out rides that gives me the heebie jeebies. The cast of characters has everything you expect to see on a real reality televisions show–you’ll find yourself rooting for some people more than others. If you like creature features and suspense, maybe even movies like The Mist or It Follows, this book is working with similar ideas of the unseen being terrifying. I didn’t see the ending for this one coming.
Lakewood by Megan Giddings – Horror, Science Fiction
Burdened with the knowledge of her family’s extensive debt after her grandmother’s passing, Lena drops out of college to take a job in a town called Lakewood. It seems too easy, the pay is good, she is given a free place to live, and all Lena has to do is take part in secretive research she can never tell her friends or family about. An eye drop that makes brown eyes blue, a medication that could be a cure for dementia, golden pills promised to make all bad thoughts go away. The experiments become more distressing as the truths of Lakewood reveal themselves and Lena is forced to decide how far she will go to take care of her family.
This novel takes a deep look at the relationship between class and race, especially when it comes to real life situations facing working-class people. The events of this story are something not far removed from our own society, intermingling with our reality to a disturbing degree. If you like Get Out or any horror from the mind of Jordan Peele then you need to read this. I find myself wanting to re-read this book for the simple fact it is probably even more relevant now given how many of us would go to great lengths for a bit more stability and financial freedom in this economy. Lakewood was a bit of a slower read for me, but if you’re looking for a horror that leans more toward the horrors of life and not pure terror this is a good book to pick up.
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon – Horror, Mystery, Paranormal
In 1908, Sarah Harrison Shea was found dead in the field behind her house a few months after the tragic loss of her daughter. In West Hall, Vermont, the tale of Sarah and a history of strange disappearances has become part of the local lore. Over a century later, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sarah’s house with her mother and younger sister mostly off the grid, making it impossible to track down their mother when the girls wake up one morning and she’s gone. While upending the house for clues, Ruthie finds Sarah’s diary hidden beneath the floorboards of their home revealing a century-old mystery tied to the missing people in West Hall.
I read this in the winter of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, a time that felt like one of the most isolating in my life. There is one scene in particular that caused me to fear even looking in the direction of my closet for a solid week. This story is isolating and claustrophobic, draped against the backdrop of a harsh winter landscape. McMahon presents the narratives of three women dealing with loss and grief that tied together very well in the grand scheme of the mystery at the heart of this book. I was on the edge of my seat for most of this read wondering what was going to happen next. The touch of the supernatural lends well to the overall themes and felt believable in a way that I could imagine what was happening could actually manifest in reality.
The Rummy Writer 