horror — Blog — Colleen Hofmann

Spooky season is upon us. Give me your frightening, scary, disgusting, startling, or just plain weird. I’m here for it all year round. Horror and terror always have a special place in my heart, but when October arrives, the rest of the world starts craving a scary story or two to celebrate the occasion. In honor of the most wonderful time of year, here are five books most likely to set the mood and give you the creeps.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Merricat, Constance, and their Uncle Julian live in isolation on a Vermont estate, and their family has a murderous secret. Published in 1962, Jackson’s short, unsettling story masters the art of rich nuance, with the characters’ personalities subtly shifting to become more and more unhinged. I read this book while camping in the woods, and I worked myself up, merely walking to the bathhouse late at night.

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.”

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Oyeyemi puts a spin on the traditional haunted house story and tells a mystical tale about family. It is as elegant as it is creepy. Miranda is a teenage girl suffering from pica, a disorder causing victims to crave substances other than typical food. Her family moves into their ancestral home, which her parents converted into a bed-and-breakfast. The spirited house has its own ideas, frightening off the help and commanding to tell its own side of the story.

“But then, maybe “I don’t believe in you” is the cruelest way to kill a monster.”

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

I am intensely attracted to the sequential-art narrative found in horror comics. Carroll’s bold, imaginative illustrations shine in these five chilling stories. Neither gory or graphic, the stories are unsettling in a quiet way. This is the perfect book for the spooky season, just don’t read it after dark.

“It came from the woods. Most strange things do.”

My Favorite Things is Monsters by Emil Ferris

One of my top favorite books of 2018, this debut graphic novel by Ferris is full of beautifully drawn monsters. It also tells a slightly less chilling story. Set in the late 1960s Chicago, the B-movie horror fanatic main protagonist, Karen, tries to solve the murder of her upstairs neighbor and uncovers the interconnectedness of those around her. From the impressive art, this hefty beast of a graphic novel offers a visceral reading experience I have yet to encounter again.

“Sometimes a thing happens that’s so bad that it feels like things should be made to look on the outside, the way they feel on the inside.”

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Marie Machado

Strange and experimental, Machado’s feminist collection of short stories straddles the lines of horror, science fiction, comedy, and fantasy. Both unsettling and mesmerizing, Machado illustrates the violence and desire projected onto women’s bodies. With an extraordinary voice, Machado leaves you with unforgettable stories you can’t stop thinking about long after they are read.

“I once heard a story about a girl who requested something so vile from her paramour that he told her family and they had her hauled her off to a sanatorium. I don’t know what deviant pleasure she asked for, though I desperately wish I did. What magical thing could you want so badly they take you away from the known world for wanting it?”

What are your favorite spooky books?