Creepy October Reads
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: autumn. Crunchy leaves, sweaters, blustery days, hearty stews . . . And Halloween.
What better way to celebrate the reason for the season than curling up with a hollowed-out gourd filled with spiced apple cider and tumbling into a deliciously creepy book? If you’re anything like the Avid crew, you started Halloween reading on (or before) the first of October, so by now you might need some recommendations to feed your literary appetite through the thirty-first. Our booksellers are also mapping out their personal reading lists for the month, and are eager to share their all-time favorites. Below you’ll find a gathering of the very best creepy, twisty, mysterious, haunting books Avid has to offer.
Enjoy.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
“This hilarious, grotesque novel draws its horror from suburban Southern culture, high school cliques, and, above all, the 1980s. It’s replete with ‘80s references, slang, tropes, and music: each chapter opens with an ‘80s song title that manages to perfectly encapsulate that particular moment in the story.
And what is the story? Abby and Gretchen are sophomores at a prestigious Charleston prep school and have been best friends since fifth grade. They’ve seen each other through all of the humiliations of growing up: that time when no one shows up to your E.T. themed roller skating party, that time when your entire face turns into one giant pimple overnight… But ever since the fateful night at Margaret Middleton’s house when they dropped acid for the first time and got lost in the woods, Gretchen’s been acting pretty strange. Now Abby has to juggle lame shifts at TCBY, PSAT prep, and parental apathy, all while saving her best friend from a possible demonic possession.
And while you’re at it, check out: Hendrix’s nonfiction book Paperbacks from Hell, a deep dive into 1970s and ‘80s horror, in which he discusses trends in content, forgotten writers, and book covers in all their hideous glory. With this lovely book, Hendrix asks: ‘When’s the last time you read about…sex witches from the fourth dimension, flesh-eating moths, homicidal mimes, or golems stalking Long Island?’” — Elizabeth Willis, Prince Ave. Store Manager
Slade House by David Mitchell
“I read this book as if it were glued to my hands. Spanning over five decades and ending on October 31st, 2015, Slade House is a re-imagining of the classic haunted house tale, but it is much more than that. You will be entranced, fingers flurrying pages as you hurl towards the book’s terrifying conclusion. A perfectly creepy read for this Halloween season!” — Rachel Kaplan, Events Director
Strange Weather by Joe Hill
“Strange Weather is a new breed of horror novel to which I had not yet been introduced. Hill uses everyday horrors — prejudice, inaction, strong people with arbitrary moral codes — and combines it with a single element in each of his novellas. That element can be celestial or scientific, coincidental or carefully planned. In any case that essential element results in a story that reveals a basic human truth. Hill’s horror novellas did not have me keeping my lights on through the night because I was scared, but rather because I wanted to read the next page. His terror came to me in the days after I read the book as I saw scenes of everyday life that were too close to the horrors represented in his works.” — Kerri McNair, Bookseller & Events Assistant
Pre-order now! The publication date of Strange Weather is 10/24/2017.
Thornhill by Pam Smy
“This book is disturbing. Less so because it depicts a dilapidated ex-orphanage, lots of decaying porcelain dolls, and dark, stormy nights (which it does to great effect). But mostly it’s scary because its characters are lonely, forgotten, and misunderstood. The crux of this stunningly crafted graphic novel is Thornhill Home for Girls; the reader visits Thornhill both in the early 1980s, when it is being decommissioned, and again in 2017, decades after it has fallen into ruin. These two points in time join the stories of two lonely girls and their search for connection, which just might turn deadly.” — Elizabeth
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
“Ricky Rice is a sort-of ex-junkie working as a janitor at a bus depot in Utica, N.Y., when he’s summoned to join a group of “Unlikely Scholars” at the mysterious Washburn Library in the backwoods of Vermont. A motley crew of mostly tender souls with shady pasts, the Scholars are faced with baffling protocols and cryptic assignments to investigate paranormal activity in service of some larger scheme.
LaValle uses Ricky’s past as a child of a bizarre religious cult in Queens and his later battles with soul-sucking specters to deliver an intense rumination on faith and doubt, and how vital both are to survival. Victor LaValle’s prose is thrilling and electric from the first word to the last as he shapes Ricky into a character you want to follow to the ends of the Earth — and beyond. (Read about the mysterious package — containing a bus ticket to Vermont and an enigmatic message on a Post-it Note — that Ricky Rice opens while hiding from his boss in the station’s bathroom.)” — Lucia Silva, Bookseller
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
“Through the Woods is so very beautiful and so, so, so creepy. Featuring five separate stories, much of what is so unsettling about this book is what is implied or left unresolved. I love the way Carroll riffs on fairy tales like Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard, and her ability to chill your spine with a simple wash of red or expression on a face is beyond compare. If you know someone like me who loves to freak themselves out with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (with the Gammell illustrations, please), Shirley Jackson stories, or Angela Carter’s dark fairy tales, get them this book–they will devour it then cower under the covers.” — Hannah DeCamp, Children’s Manager
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Any list of creepy books that didn’t include Shirley Jackson would be incomplete. A master of compelling characterization and intricately woven tales that you won’t soon be forgetting, Jackson is a must-read this time of year. You can’t go wrong with any of her titles, but bookseller Kristen Carter particularly loves We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Of it she says:
“Jackson drops you into a town where there are horrible people, an abandoned house, and what’s left of the family who used to live there. She answers no questions, leaving you at the whim of the main character, Merricat, who is incredibly unreliable. Slowly, what happened to her family is revealed, and the horrid actions of the townspeople are brought to light, although it is up to you decide if they are justified. This book will play tricks on your emotions as you are immersed in this weird world, and will leave you with an eerie feeling once you’ve left it behind.”
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
“A tale is recounted from a hospital bed in which a woman lays dying . . . This slim, creepy novel is an absolutely riveting read, suffused with all the oddities and anxieties of a strange dream. The narrative weaves between future and past, collapsing the present moment until it seems not to exist. It will have you furiously flipping pages one moment, and the next slowing to soak in the creepiness of the small detail of a ‘perplexing can of peas.’” — Elizabeth, Prince Ave. Store Manager
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
“Winter Tide is Lovecraftian horror dragged howling and gurgling into the 21st century. Written with an obvious appreciation of the source material, Emrys’s greatest addition to Lovecraft’s legacy is a genuine love and kindness toward the characters. Emrys proves that monsters (and people) are only scary until you get to know them, so it follows that the most terrifying are the ones impossible to know.
This book felt like it was urging me to run out in the streets and yell about my right to culture and life and love, my right to exist alongside Aphra, and Charlie, and Spector, and even the Great Race of Yith (who live unshackled to linear time.) This book will appeal to any reader who has felt the need to rebel against a system that treats them like an “other,” anyone who knows how it feels to hide your truest self. It’s a beautiful book, and I left it stronger than I entered.” — Caleb Zane Huett, Five Points Store Manager
The Wilds by Julia Elliott
“For those who don’t want to sleep with the lights on, but want something a bit creepy, read The Wilds. If Flannery O’Connor wrote twisted fantasy and Sci-Fi, it would look like this. Julia Elliott has a beautiful and wild imagination. Enter her strange worlds at your own risk.” — Rachel K.
The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova
“Looking for some small press, surreal, weird, feminist stories this October? Look no further. The Doll’s Alphabet is like a patchwork quilt of creepy things: spider legs and dolls and mirrors and cemeteries and corpses and attics. 10/10 for both brilliance and unsettling images.” — Elizabeth
The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt
“The stories in The Dark Dark keep getting better as the book goes on, and by the end I was spellbound. You’d be hard-pressed to find another author like Samantha Hunt. These stories explore not only the extraneous terrors (the dark night and the unknown horrors it holds), but the deep-down fears and savagery and strangeness that exist beyond our understanding. Hunt mines the depths of our subconscious inhumanity to reveal what connects us in ways we can’t imagine, and in her fantastic stories lie the real and familiar. The darkest dark is not an outside entity, but our own humanity, and nobody but Hunt can illuminate the shadowy corners of the soul so well.” — Rachel K.
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
We all need some Octavia Butler in our literary lives this Halloween season. Fledgling follows the journey of self-discovery that Shori Matthews must undergo. At first glance Shori is a young child; in reality she’s a 53-year-old vampire… with amnesia. Soon after waking up in a cave seriously injured, she’s on the run, attempting to piece together her life before. This one is weird and unsettling and extremely thought-provoking.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
“Carmen Maria Machado’s stories are engrossing and darkly entertaining, but wow, do they have claws. This collection shrugs off conventions of genre, borrowing from aspects of folklore, dystopia, science fiction, and more. It is equal parts subversive and sexy. Muchado’s writing is bewitching as she uses the grim and clandestine, the fantastical and supernatural to comment on femininity and womanhood.” — Kate Lorraine, Bookseller, Accounts Payable Assistant, and Children’s Book Manager Assistant
P.S. Her Body and Other Parties was just short-listed for the National Book Award in Fiction!!
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
“House of Leaves is a mind-breaking book. Know going in that it will make you feel as if you are slowly losing your grip on reality. You will start to wonder if your own house measures a few inches smaller on the outside than it does on the inside. You will also wonder if the creaks you hear at night are not the mundane “house settling” noises you’ve been telling yourself that they are. What will you do when you realize that your “safe haven,” your home, is just as cold and damp as any spot outside? I’ll tell you — you will read the next page of this book. Yes, this book is a novel, but do you know for sure that it is not a bound historical record? The differences are small and hard to discern, but your peace-of-mind might depend on it.” — Kerri
