Whether it’s spooky season, or you're in the mood for scares and thriller, get into the horror spirit with these haunted reads!
“Angel Down” by Daniel Kraus –
9/10 Spookies
The first horror novel to win the Pulitzer Prize in nearly 20 years, “Angel Down” is one endless sentence of chaos and panic. This story follows a misfit band of soldiers in WWI tasked with finding a comrade lost in No Man’s Land who won’t stop screaming. They soon discover there is no soldier, and that ghostly wail is coming from a beautiful woman, untouched by the dirt and detritus of the battlefield, with the power to grant them their heart’s desire. This book asks the question, what power do individuals really have within the war machine and what would we sacrifice to protect those we love?
“The Starving Saints” by Caitlin Starling –
7/10 Spookies
Caitlin Starling continues to put her characters in creative and frightening situations in this novel. A knight, an orphan, and a madwoman must do their part to help the citizens of their besieged home survive. As food runs out, mysterious guests arrive claiming to be the saints of legend sent to work miracles within the walls. But are they truly divine beings here to save our heroes, or is something more sinister pulling the wool over their eyes?
“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones –
8/10 Spookies
Stephen Graham Jones breathes new life into the vampire myth with this story of vengeance. A young academic discovers a family relic: the diary of a pastor who receives confession from a member of the Blackfeet Nation while mysterious deaths begin to occur in his community in Montana. The pastor hears the story of Good Stab, a man claiming to be over 70 years old while hardly looking a day over 35, and learns of the crimes done by white settlers to the indigenous peoples of the western plains. As Good Stab’s story unfolds, the pastor realizes it may not be coincidence that he has been chosen for this confession, and his young ancestor reading his diaries soon becomes part of the story herself. Stephen Graham Jones is a modern master of horror, and this take on Dracula adds another title to the list of his bone-chilling tales.
“Lakewood” by Megan Giddings –
10/10 Spookies
For most broke young adults, the idea of an uninsured medical visit is horrifying enough, but for a young Black woman, that horror takes on a new shape. When Lena takes a new job at a mysterious research facility, she believes the perks will make it worth it: the pay is insane, she can finally take care of her ailing mother, and she doesn’t even have to pay rent. But her position as a research subject is far worse than she could have imagined. Megan Giddings brings her cutting words and atmospheric writing to paint a vivid picture of the horrors often met by Black people at the hands of the medical research industry.
“Our Wives Under the Sea” by Julia Armfield –
8/10 Spookies
When Miri’s wife Leah returns from a research trip at the bottom of the ocean, she is changed. Leah’s skin is waterlogged, she's vomiting seawater, and she won’t get out of the bathtub. Miri calls the research facility for answers and tries to reconnect with her wife through therapy, but things are getting worse. Miri’s friends, facing loss of their own, try to help her accept the truth, but Miri keeps searching for her wife beneath the water. This novel shows a raw grief and the pain of refusing to give up on those we love.
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