Tag Archives: All Hallows Read

Uncategorized

Scaring strong for 250 years: Saturdays @ the South – All Hallows Read edition

Halloween is here! A happy All Hallows Read to all!

Alll-Hallows-Read-Bats

In honor of the day, let’s talk about horror.* Horror as a genre has been around for 250 years (though elements of horror have been around much, much longer), but horror itself, essentially, is an emotion, which means that horror books belong to a genre that is tied to an emotional response. In that respect horror shares more with romance than it does with many other story types. It also makes it pretty easy to qualify. If a book causes fear or is designed to scare someone, it’s a horror book. But horror, and fear, can be pretty wide-ranging. What makes some people cower in terror might not affect others in the slightest (snakes and spiders come to mind as an example). Some horror novels might make use of explicit language and gore to elicit horror. Others might make use of the supernatural or an old, dilapidated location (haunted house, anyone?). These aren’t really defining characteristics, however, because not all horror novels have all of these elements.

hq-horror-background_102047_12

Some characteristics that all horror stories have in common include: dark and/or eerie settings, a foreboding tone that induces dread, a quick, suspenseful pace, and monsters. Monsters don’t always need to be supernatural (vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc.) they can be good, old-fashioned evil humans as well (Hannibal Lecter comes to mind as a prime example). The quick pace of a horror story can gets readers’ hearts pounding which usually compounds the element of fear. Horror authors are masters at manipulating a story to maximize fear and suspense. which is a great way to create that sense of dread. Horror also has a tendency to leave people wanting more because there is never really a final resolution. Sure the monster might be beaten down for a time, but there’s always something waiting, lurking just beneath the surface.

scary-horror-wallpaper-trees30

So with all the terror and dread, why would any sane person want to read horror in the first place? Sometimes you just need a good scare. When I was a kid, I devoured all of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books. As (arguably) an adult , I find there’s something about a horror story that is appealing, not to the degenerate or creepy, but to the sanity in all of us.  The thing about horror is, while it may breath life into our nightmares, there’s something comforting about having that nightmare trapped on a page. Horror gives readers the space to explore such a strong emotion without necessarily having to experience it in real life. We can face our fears in a safe environment and learn how to deal with fear without letting it get the best of us. It’s no wonder that Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (generally considered the first horror novel, published in 1764) became not only popular, but widely mimicked in style, culminating in classic masterpieces like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

12923

So today, to celebrate horror, the joy of a good, creepy story and, of course, All Hallows Read, instead of book recommendations, I’m giving you an entire story. Read it with the lights on or by the glow of a flashlight, on the couch or under the covers; it’s your call. This story is a personal favorite of mine and one that never fails to give me the shivers. I hereby present to you, dear readers, from a master of suspense and the macabre, your All Hallows Read treat: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.

allhallowsread1-1

*Much grateful deference goes to Kelly Fann, whose chapter on Horror in the 7th edition of Genreflecting was an extremely helpful source for the defining characteristics of horror.

 

Uncategorized

A Final, Frightening Five Book Friday…

Today is our final Five Book Friday before All Hallows Read, which gives us one more chance to sing the praises of the scary and the ghoulish and the eerie in literature…and a brief moment of panic about what on earth we’ll find to talk about after the candy-coma wears off?*

Alll-Hallows-Read-Bats

But until there, here are some fun facts about Halloween in advance of our suggestions for your Halloween weekend:

1) This is one of the earliest known jack-o-lanterns:

Main+jackolantern+jack+o+lantern+turnip+wikicommons
Some good, old-fashioned nightmare fuel right there…

Originally, jack-o-lanterns were carved out of turnips and beets and were placed outside to keep people away (it wasn’t until the Irish began coming to America that pumpkins became widely used).  There is a story in Irish folklore of a man named Jack, who was “cursed to spend all of time roaming the earth with only a burning coal (inside a carved out turnip) to light the way, as his punishment for trying to trick the devil.”

2) The Celts also believed that the barrier between the spirit world and the human was thinnest at the end of the harvest, and would wear masks and costumes so it would be more difficult for evil spirits to tell that they were humans.  They also left food and cakes and drinks out for the spirits to keep them happy.

3) Spirits, as well as library staff, are always happier when someone brings them cake.

4) Salem, Massachusetts (right over there!) is the self-proclaimed “Halloween capital of the world” because of the legacy of the witch trials…and so is Anoka, Minnesota, for reasons that remain slightly more obscure.  However, Boston, Massachusetts holds the record for the most jack o’lanterns lit at once (30,128 in 2006, according to the Boston Globe).

5)  According to English tradition, if one wears one’s clothes inside out and walks backwards on Halloween, one will see a witch at midnight.  Also, in Scotland, tradition states that if a lady were to hang a wet sheet before the fire on Halloween, she would see her future husband. I can only imagine he would look shadowy and pale…and probably damp, or scalded.

And here are some books that are equally as fun, quirky, and spooky as these facts (though probably more interesting to read….)

2702516Sandman Slim: At the age of nineteen, James Stark was betrayed by his arch-rival and sent to Hell, where he was forced to defend himself in the gladiator ring.  Now, having escaped, he is back on the streets of LA, eager for revenge and armed with a whole bunch of nifty tricks he learned on the other side.  Richard Kadrey’s paranormal noir series featuring Stark, which is now up to seven books, is one of my favorites, not only because it is fiendishly creative, but also because he can craft a short, sharp sentence that carries as much weight as a whole paragraph from most writers.  Also, I helped him out at a book signing once, and he was downright awesome.

2709181Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: Since we have already alluded to the gloriousness that is Jonathan L. Howard, it seemed like high time to cheer about Johannes Cabal, who walked to Hell to learn the secrets of necromancy in return for his soul, and then walked back again to demand a refund.  Rather than deal squarely, the devil provides Cabal with a traveling circus.  If this isn’t enough of a description to make you want to run out and read this book right now, let me add that Johannes has a terribly dapper and polite vampire brother who aids him in his quest.  This book–and the series that resulted from it–is genuinely unnerving in places, but it is also riotously funny (especially the Lovecraft jokes…and the Cthulu Song), unexpectedly emotional, and a downright sensational read.

2713707The Gates: Young Samuel Johnson (not that Samuel Johnson) has noticed some odd goings-on at 666 Crowley Road, but neither he never suspected that his neighbors’ harmless dabbling in devil-worship would actually cause a rift in the universe, or the opening of the gates of Hell, or the release of Satan himself upon the world….but it is now up to young Samuel, and his faithful dog Boswell, to put everything to rights once again….  John Connolly’s series featuring the intrepid Samuel Johnson and his Boswell has grown to three books now, and each is funny, frightening, touching, and delightful irreverent.  This is one of those few, magic books that can be read, and enjoyed, by almost any age group–or read together, for even more Halloween fun.

3573295Maplecroft: Celebrated steampunk author Cherie Priest takes on the Lizzie Borden legend in this surprisingly inventive series.  In Priest’s world, Lizzie is an unwitting defender against the dark powers, and committed the crimes she did in order to set her father and step-mother free from the spirits that were consuming them–spirits that seem to come from the depths of the sea…though this series (which continues with Chapelwood) requires a bit of a suspense of disbelief, particularly for those of us who learned that weird Lizzie Borden rhyme as children, Priest’s fast-paced series is quite inventive, deeply rooted in New England folklore and stories, and definitely worth checking out.

3637428Slade House: David Mitchell, who also wrote The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas, gave an interview to Salon Magazine recently where he broached the topic of genre fiction and the prejudices against it, saying that “The idea of confining an entire genre as being unworthy of your attention is a bizarre act of self-harm.”  In light of this, it’s not surprising that Mitchell’s newest release is a sort of ghost story, centered around a house that only opens its doors once every nine years for one lucky visitor, hand-chosen by the odd siblings who inhabit it.  But no one knows for sure…because those invited to Slade House rarely have a chance to tell about the secrets they’ve seen….This book is being touted as one of The Big Releases of the season, so be sure to pick up a copy soon!

Happy All-Hallows Read!

Picture1

* Trust me, we have plenty of things to discuss.  Never worry about that.

Uncategorized

We watched “Salem’s Lot”, so you don’t have to (but you probably should)

salems-lot-wallpaper-1024x768‘Salem’s Lot–a perennial favorite that we’ve discussed a few times before–was published in 1975, and was quickly hailed as ‘Peyton Place meets Dracula’, a commentary on the rich characterization, the constant and careful attention to setting and detail, and the gradually growing sense of horror and menace that overtakes this otherwise familiar setting.  The novel is an exceptionally current one (King says in the introduction to a later edition that he was always much more a writer of the moment than he wanted to be), with references to the Vietnam War, drugs, the ‘counter-culture’, as well as fashion and social behaviors of the day.

Nevertheless, it was something of a surprise to realize that the film was made only three years later, originally airing on CBS in November of 1979.  It starred  David Soul as Ben Mears…yes, the same David Soul who had just finished playing Hutch in Starsky and Hutch.  One can only assume that this is why he got the part, because Soul looking nothing like the Ben Mears of the books (who resembles King himself, actually).   While things like this were probably jarring to readers (as is the California sets, full of flat-roofed buildings and big, sprawling hills), overall the production was well-received, earning three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for makeup, music, and graphic design.

maxresdefaultIn many ways, the film has also withstood the test of time…the pace is a little uneven, but the parts that are supposed to be scary still pack plenty of punch.  Part of this has to do with the ever-popular jump-scares and musical stings, but there was a good amount of consideration put into making each scenes effective and atmospheric.  Instead of using wires, for example, to keep the vampires airborne, the production staff places the actors on boom cranes, and shot in reverse, so that their movements look as odd as possible.  A simple trick, perhaps, but an effective one.  And there is very little that can prepare a viewer for their first (and second, and third) sight of Barlow, the Big Bad of this story.

This Barlow is not the oily, suave vampire of the Bela Lugosi era, or the tuxedo-ed and seductive vampires that even in the ’70’s were fairly recognizable.  Instead, producer Richard Kobritz explained, “We went back to the old German Nosferatu concept where he is the essence of evil, and not anything romantic or smarmy…I wanted nothing suave or sexual, because I just didn’t think it’d work; we’ve seen too much of it.”  Thus, in this movie, you get a thing out of nightmare: Austrian actor Reggie Nalder as Barlow in monstrous fangs and grotesquely long nails, with glowing yellow eyes (that he could apparently only wear for 15 minute stretches) and a horrible, grating growl.  While this may directly fly in the face of King’s conception of Barlow as a human (or humanoid?) force of evil, in purely aesthetic terms, Nalder’s vampire is much more likely to induce nightmares.

Look, he's in there, and he's really scary. Trust me on this one.
Look, he’s in there, and he’s really scary. Trust me on this one.

Watching this film also drives home how progressive King’s book was.  The Susan Norton of the book is mature, generally sensible, and pretty straightforward about wanting an equitable and respectful relationship.  The Susan of the film (played by Bonnie Bedelia, later of Parenthood and Die Hard fame) is self-deprecating, 1_zpsa0a81e79generally silent, and nearly passive from start to finish…not to mention the fact that the two heroes of this version of the story are Ben, her boyfriend, and her father, making her a weird sort of prize for the two of them, rather than a partner in the vampire-hunting.  In the end, it turns out the film was much more a piece of “the moment” in a way King’s book would never be.

All in all, though, this is definitely a fun and effective Halloween movie that is worth viewing…and for those of you looking for even more blood-curdling films for this Halloween, take a look at these titles:

3540474Nosferatu: The first vampire film is still among the best vampire films.  F.W. Murnau’s silent classic was a blatant rip-off of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was still under copyright in 1922.  Stoker’s widow, Florence, sued to have all the copies of the film destroyed, but lucky for all of us, some survived.  Watch this with any number of film scores that can be found online for a perfect vintage Halloween.

 

3103090Shadow of the Vampire: Anyone who enjoys Nosferatu will get a kick out of E. Elias Merhige’s (fictional) film about the making of the movie…and the revelation that Max Schrenk, who played the titular villain, was a real-life vampire himself.  Though there are some laughs sprinkled throughout this film, John Malkovich does such a chilling, pitch-perfect impression of Schrenk that it’s hard not to get a case of the shivers while watching him.

 

2707851Let The Right One In:  The inspiration for this film, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let Me In, is arguably one of the best vampire novels of the past decade, and he also wrote the screenplay for this beautiful and subtly horrifying film version.  Like King’s novel, Lindqvist turns the vampire myth on its head by showing the most innocent, innocuous members of society as the ultimate threat–in this case, a young girl whose power…and hunger…are as compelling as they are terrible.  Like King, too, this novel is also deeply concerned with the evil and violence that men can do, outside of the threat of the paranormal.

 

2908661Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Though arguably the least scary addition to this list, Joss Wheadon was heavily influenced by watching the film of Salem’s Lot, and has cited it several times as his inspiration, both for the little-known film, and for the later series.  The show aired for seven seasons, and had an enormous influence, both over its viewers, and in how it changed the way that TV dramas were made, responding as much to issues of the moment as it  built a world of its own.

 

 

Uncategorized

At the Movies: Crimson Peak

crimson-peak-poster

This is a very tricky post to write without getting mired in a vast quagmire of spoilery-spoilers, but we’re going to give it our best shot.

Crimson Peak has been touted as several things, all at once: a horror movie, a gothic romance, and, perhaps, most interestingly, as a feminist revisionary tale.  While the jury still seems to be out on whether it has succeeded in any of these categories, what everyone seems to agree on is that fact that this is probably one of the most unabashedly lush, visually detailed, and simply beautiful films you will see in quite some time.  Guillermo Del Toro doesn’t just use all the crayons in the box…he melts them down and creates new ones, because there simply aren’t enough colors (or textures, or nuances) in our everyday world for him, and the results are sometimes overwhelming, sometimes a little garish, but they are always extraordinary in their own way.

crimson-peak-houseWhile an ideal Halloween film in its own right, Crimson Peak offers plenty of literary perks.  It pays reverent homage to the gothic romances–those marvelous blend of love and death, and the clash of the fantastic with the mundane.  No where is this more evident then when Tom Hiddleston (as Sir Thomas Sharpe) arrives with his new bride, Edith (Mia Wasikowska) at his family estate.  The front lawn of the manor is covered with these weirdly grotesque, spider-like cranes, which we are told are the height of technological achievement, that will dig clay from the depths of the earth.  The manor itself, however, is a ghastly, crumbling wreck without a roof.  While it makes for stunningly beautiful shots, it’s snowing inside the house.  I’m not sure even Tom Hiddleston could convince me to hang out in a hatless house.

8b67f50732f4a63e973028d8db81bfc7
Oh, who am I kidding? Not even Victorian sunglasses could make me abandon Tom Hiddleston.

What’s interesting here is that it is the people in the house, and not the house itself, that makes this story what it is.  This is no “Fall of the House of Usher”, where the characters are trapped within the walls of a crumbling house.  Instead, they make the house into the inhospitable nightmare that it becomes.

In addition, Crimson Peak also affirms what The Guardian claimed over the weekend: The Ghost Story is back…with a vengeance.  Some point to the rise of genre fiction and the general acceptance of ghost stories as legitimate, but there is a lot more behind the ghost story to simply wanted to enjoy having our pants scared off.  They also offer us a safe place to deal with some of our greatest concerns–about death, about the possibility of an afterlife, about the weight of regrets, and the hope of righting irredeemable wrongs.

It’s also about scaring the pants off people, too, let’s be honest.

And so, since we have begun the countdown to All Hallows Read, and because Crimson Peak is a great deal of fun, regardless of whatever else it might be, here are some suggestions for some other gothic/ghost stories for your reading pleasure:

1436746Northanger Abbey: The first of Jane Austen’s novels to be completed for publication was not published until after her death in 1817.  The book is a send-up of the standard novel, which was wildly popular in the opening years of the nineteenth century.  Rather than having a ravishingly beautiful heroine who is too good and pure to consider her hero’s affections until the final scene, Austen gives us Susan, who is a wonderfully down-to-earth, middle class young lady who loves the hero before he has actually even given her a second thought.  Austen also explicitly shows all of Susan’s fears and premonitions of danger to be utterly unfounded (and often the result of quite commonplace occurrences).  This is definitely one of Austen’s snarkier novels, and a terrific entrance into her work for those who haven’t had much experience with her–it’s also fun to see the way social criticism worked in the era before Buzzfeed.

3142162The Woman in Black: You can’t wander too far into a study of the ghost story without bumping into Susan Hill’s classic.  The fact that it has been a success in print, on stage and on screen gives some idea of the endurance and the power of this story: when Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor is sent to a solitary estate in the north of England to settle the estate of a reclusive elderly woman, he finds not only a house full of inexplicable noises, terrifying visions, and a rising sense of menace, he also finds himself touched by a deadly curse.  Though the story is full of subtle illusions and creepy descriptions, the film is a smorgasbord of jump-scares and musical stings that are guaranteed to keep your heart pumping.

3654037Little Sister Death: This new release was discovered posthumously in the papers of beloved southern writer William Gay.  Apparently, Gay had a career-long interest in the Tennessee Bell Witch case (which was also the inspiration for The Blair Witch Project).  In this telling, a young author brings his new wife and young daughter on his exploration of the myth of Virginia Beale, known as the Faery Queen of the Haunted Dell…but what he finds is a deep and tangled family history of blood and hatred that forces him to reconsider everything he believed–including his own sanity.  This book also features a touching introduction to Gay himself that will convince new readers to explore the rest of his body of work as soon as possible.

3573177Penny Dreadful: If you’re looking to capture the same aura of Crimson Peak, and revel in that late-Victorian clash of life and death, sex and propriety, honor and secrecy, you won’t have to look any further than this gruesomely delightful series.  Penny Dreadful is a marvelous mash-up of gothic adventure and literary references, as Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, and Count Dracula all rub shoulders with the relentless and bewitching Penny, who is driven by a quasi-spiritual, deeply personal need for revenge.  Though certainly not as shocking or as difficult to watch as, say American Horror Story, this is still a series that pushes boundaries, but does so in a clever way that will leave you curious and eager for what dark marvels wait around the next corner….

Uncategorized

Countdown to All Hallows Read: A spooky Saturdays @ the South

allhallowsreadBatsOnly one week left until All Hallows Read, a event that we here at the blog have been celebrating all month long, frankly because it’s worth celebrating for such a span of time. It’s also one more week until we’re able to open that trick-or-treat candy that’s been taunting us (also worth celebrating in my humble opinion)… but I digress. The South Branch has a “Spooky Stories” display up all this month to tantalize those of you with a ken for the macabre, creepy, supernatural, or just plain unsettling.

IMG_0314- copy

The display offers a wide selection of Halloween reads to suit plenty of tastes, from the gory and terrifying of blog favorite Stephen King, to the unsettlingly supernatural by Dean Koontz. We’ve got the brilliantly horrific Dan Simmons whose Drood I’ve already mentioned as a favorite of mine and makes for a great Halloween read. For a lighter side, Janet Evanovich’s Wicked (Lizzy & Diesel) series offers laughs with a witchy bent and Christopher Fowler’s Peculiar Crimes Unit books offer a lively take on impossible crimes.

Here are a few of the most recent additions to our collection’s spooky side:

3653483Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories ed. by Audrey Niffenegger

This book is a delightful, eclectic collection of ghost stories old and new. Some reach back to the beginning of the genre, others turn the typical ghost story on its head and still others will make you quake with laughter rather than fright. Niffenegger’s own black-and-white illustrations are spot-on and add an extra level of creepiness to the stories. It’s easy to see why these stories are favorites of the editor’s and several may just become your new favorite ghost stories, too.

3690517The Monstrous ed. by Ellen Datlow

Another collection of stories, this time pulling together 20 stories that examine what it is that makes something a monster. In this anthology, 10-time World Fantasy Award winner Datlow pulls together a collection of stories, all about non-human (though some are incredibly close) monsters, all of which are struggling to adapt to the modern world and encourage us to look a little deeper at what’s beneath our own skin. This anthology is also illustrated , but with sparse, almost icon-like drawings that give the pages a more atmospheric tone.

3635070Expiration Date ed. by Nancy Kilpatrick

Organized into sections with headings such as: Negotiating Oblivion, Resisting Extinction and Best Before/After, Kilpatrick has collected stories that take a look at the expiration dates that surround us from the short and insignificant to the long and terrifying. Everything ends eventually, no matter how remote or dear, and that is the horrific truth behind these stories.

3690594The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

Yes, this is technically classified as one of our children’s books and it’s certainly an easy enough read for kids who are enjoying chapter books, but like so many kids’ books that have depth and layers, this book has plenty of adult appeal as well. This new edition was just republished this year with amazing illustrations by Gris Grimly that give whimsy and depth to an already wonderful story. As seven boys go through time, space and the origins of Halloween celebrations to find their missing, sick friend, they learn how true friendship can involve sacrifice. Their guide is the delightfully named Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud and the journey, naturally enough, starts at a creepy, dilapidated old house. This book is reminiscent of A Christmas Carol and, much like the Dickens classic, deserves a read every time its eponymous holiday rolls around.

Till next week, dear readers, remember that it’s not too early to start preparing for All Hallows Read. After all, it would be difficult to decide what spooky story to share if you weren’t familiar with at least a few scary stories with potential…

Uncategorized

A Frightening Five Book Friday

Picture1

In honor of our month-long celebration of All Hallows Read here at the Library, this week’s Five Book Friday will be showcasing some of our favorite creepy, ghoulish, and eerie books that we have on display for you this month (scary books have the best adjectives).  Some of these books are tried-and-true, staff-approved scary-stuff, and some are new, both to the library, and to us, but all of them are just itching to meet you, and to send chills down your spine….

3578839Trigger Warning : Short Fictions and Disturbances: It would simply be poor form not to start our list with a book by the creator of All Hallows Read, and author of you loveliest nightmares, Mr. Neil Gaiman.  Though this collection is a wild compendium that revisits several of Gaiman’s previous novels, like American Gods and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and also provides plenty of new mysteries, adventures…and a really unsettling tale about Click-Clack the Rattlebag, who holds the secrets to all the things that make noise in the night….Newcomers to Gaiman’s marvelous imagination are sure to be enthralled, but for fans who have had a taste of his work, or who follow him on social media, there is a world of fun to be had in this book.

3562382Through the Woods: As we mentioned in one of our posts with staff recommendations, Emily Carroll’s work is a chillingly beautiful blend of words and images that reinvents the graphic novel, and breaths new life into those wonderfully dark stories that kept you up at night as a child…monsters in the forest, voices in the shadows…The Irish Times raved “Carroll has a mainline to the reader’s psychic pressure points, the kind of fears and phobias that go all the way back to the cave. She also has the confidence to let her images do the work when it best serves the story … It’s a beautiful artefact, confidently written and lavishly designed. Just don’t bring it to bed.”

259122920th Century Ghosts: Joe Hill may be Stephen King’s son, but his work, without a doubt, stands on its own merits (he specifically took a pseudonym in order to let his work fly or sink on its own).  This book of short stories has overtones of King’s more visceral horror stories, but also shown influences from Lovecraft, Kafka, and Poe, at times, as well.  Overall, Hill tends to be a bit more aggressive in his storytelling than his Dad, but it’s clear he inherited the writer’s gift.  These stories, which range from a human-turned-locust who plagues his Nevada hometown to a ghost who perpetually haunts an old theater, are moving, frightening, and powerful by turn, making it a read that is sure to linger, even after all the Trick-or-Treaters have gone home.

3553458The Supernatural Enhancements: If you hadn’t been able to tell from the multiple posts on this book, Edgar Cantero’s debut novel is instantly addictive and thoroughly unforgettable, and a quick favorite among our library staff.  When A, a youngish European man, inherits a house from an uncle he never met, he blindly moves to Point Bless, Virginia along with his enigmatic friend Niamh, who is mute, but far from silent.  As the two begin to explore the odd house, and the legacy of A’s tortured family, readers are treated to a bit of a ghost story, a bit of a mystery, a bit of a thriller, and a surprise ending that leaps out and pounces.  Told through letters, transcriptions, and descriptions from the video surveillance cameras Niamh sets up around the house, no one is quite sure what is going on, but this only enhances the suspense of this terrifically gripping tale.

3143152The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales: We round off our list with the master of the horror genre, and the mascot of All Hallows Read himself, Edgar Allan Poe, whose stories have scared, fascinated,and disturbed generations of readers. While the titular tale is the perennially haunting one of a house that is gradually consuming its cursed inhabitant, this collection also features Poe’s Dupin stories, which helped inspire the creation of Sherlock Holmes, as well as The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, an adventure tale straight out of your wildest nightmares.  Mostly, though, these are Poe most well-known, and most unsettling stories to keep you up late tonight…

Happy Reading, Beloved Patrons, and Happy All Hallows Read!

AHR13_WebBanner

Uncategorized

An All-Hallows Read If/Then Post

a61b12fb7c1580d402ce3af71c049b67

As we mentioned on Monday, the books here at the Library are quietly assembling for All-Hallows Read, a celebration of all things literary, eerie, chilling, and delightful.  Our staff is getting involved, too, selecting some of their favorite spooky reads for your All Hallows Read list.  From the classics to new releases and back again, here are some of our favorite tales…but be sure to stop by any of our displays and pick out a few seasonal tales that tickle your fancy!

If you are looking for a good place to start reading the kind of scary stories that All Hallows Read celebrates, Then be sure to check out:

3606195Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Bone Gap is the story of a boy named Finn who has a particularly difficult time recognizing faces, his brother Sean, and Sean’s girlfriend Roza, a beautiful and peculiar girl who disappears just as mysteriously as she appeared. Finn is the only one who sees her leave, and while the rest of the town of Bone Gap believes she left town in the same way the boys’ mother did years prior, Finn knows that she was kidnapped – but he can’t find a way to describe the kidnapper, nor does anyone in town believe him anyway. Told from alternating points of view, parts of the book read as a strange fairy tale, others as magic realism with just a smidgen of romance. Not scary in the horror sense, Bone Gap is a story of perception that leaves you questioning reality.

2269065The House With A Clock In Its Walls by John Bellairs

When Neil Gaiman makes a recommendation, we here all listen.  But the truth of the matter is that Bellairs is a sensational author for teens and former teens alike.  This particular book features Lewis, who has always wanted to live in an old house full of hidden passageways and secret corridors and when he is taken in by his Uncle Jonathan after the death of his parents, it seems that the world has finally given Lewis his dream come true.  But then Jonathan finds out that his uncle is a wizard…and that the house that they call home was built by a wizard.  A wizard who plotted the end of the world by hiding a clock in the house’s creaky walls.  A clock that has suddenly begun ticking louder and louder….This is a wonderfully fun, delightfully creepy gothic adventure, and is an ideal place to start reading all of Bellairs stellar novels!

2663371The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Jackson’s classic tale is considered one of the best ghost stories of the 20th century, mostly because it doesn’t show much of anything at all, but relies on the reader’s own fears to make it chilling.  Eager to investigate the paranormal activity in the house, Dr. John Montague and Luke Sanderson, heir to the mysterious Hill House, invite a group of people who all have associations with the paranormal.  Only two show up: the flamboyant Theodora, and the shy, bitter Eleanor, around whom this story revolves.  What happens during their stay is never quite clear…but because neither the characters nor the readers are entirely sure who–or what–is causing all the inexplicable happenings at Hill House, the entire book is an unsettling, nightmarish tale that is guaranteed to stay with you long after the final pages have fluttered past.

2644628Dracula by Bram Stoker:

This book established the horror genre, and it stands the test of time.  The quintessential vampire novel (about which we’ve already waxed rhapsodical), Stoker’s masterpiece is told through the letters, diaries, and transcripts of the four main protagonists, giving us up-close insight into their private terrors and secret fears, but also keeps readers from understanding the full scope of Dracula’s horror too soon.  The result is a rich, and a genuinely unsettling story that deserves all the attention it’s got over the years.

2251443‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

I think we’ve already had several discussions about this book, but we should have lots more.  Because this is definitely one of the good Mr. King’s most undersung masterpieces.  It was also inspired by both Dracula and The Haunting of Hill House, so there are added pleasures to be found for those who dare to read these books together.  Ostensibly, ‘Salem’s Lot is the story of a small Maine town that is visited by a vampire.  But it is so much more than that…it’s a love story to New England; its people, its practices, and, especially, its weather.  This book is a perfect fall read all around…but you might want to keep the lights on while you finish it….

 

Happy Reading, and Happy All Hallows Read!