Halloween is so very near, and what better way to join in the fun than by reading a scary (or at least spooky) book by candlelight?
Okay, the candlelight is perhaps a little impractical, but we've still got you covered with some book recommendations!
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Recommended by Jack
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense.
The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
Recommended by Debbie B.
Long ago, something sinister, something hungry, walked in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown. And now what happened long ago is happening again, and it is happening to Oliver. He meets a strange boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic.
Devolution by Max Brooks
Recommended by Rocio and Kira
As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten.
Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it—and like none you’ve ever read before.
The End of the Story: Volume One of the Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith
Recommended by Sam
Published in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. This first volume of the series, brings together 25 of his fantasy stories, written between 1925 and 1930, including such classics as "The Abominations of Yondo," "The Monster of the Prophecy," "The Last Incantation" and the title story.
View in the catalog (available through interlibrary loan)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Recommended by Kira
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Recommended by Jack
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find, but soon enough the house begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and ruin.
The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. Mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, Noemí may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach by Ramsey Campbell
Recommended by Sam
It’s Ray’s and Sandra’s first family holiday in Greece. The family weren’t to know that the skies are cloudier above the island than anywhere else in Greece, and they’re mostly intrigued by the local eccentricities and customs—the lack of mirrors, the outsize beach umbrellas, the saint’s day celebrated with an odd nocturnal ritual. Only why are there islanders who seem to follow the family wherever they go? Why do Sandra and the teenage grandchildren have strangely similar dreams? And has Sandra been granted a wish she didn’t even know she made? Before their holiday is over, they may learn more than they can bear about the secret that keeps the island alive...
View in the catalog (available through interlibrary loan)
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
Recommended by Debbie B.
When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother's house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be?
Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more—Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants…until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.
Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale.
View in the catalog (available through interlibrary loan) | Libby eBook
World War Z by Max Brooks
Recommended by Rocio
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
View in the catalog (available through interlibrary loan) | Libby eBook | Libby Audiobook
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Recommended by Rocio
A pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead.
Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuilding civilization. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety—the “malfunctioning” stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.
The novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.
And then things start to go wrong.