| The Pandora Room by Christopher GoldenWhat it's about: When the mythological Pandora's Box is found in a subterranean Iraqi city, Department of Defense fixer Ben Walker is called in to investigate the threats coming both from the artifact itself and from the jihadist forces eager to harness its power.
Why you might like it: This eerie claustrophobic chiller offers well-developed characters, formidable human and supernatural adversaries, and pulse-pounding tension.
Series alert: The Pandora Room is the 2nd Ben Walker novel, following the Bram Stoker Award-winning Ararat. |
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| Little Darlings by Melanie GoldingThe premise: Recovering in the hospital after the birth of her twins, exhausted mom Lauren Tranter is visited by a sinister figure who tells her "I'll take yours and you can have mine." Her doctors blame sleep deprivation for her seeming hallucinations.
What happens next: Lauren's twins mysteriously vanish from a park, but when they're found unharmed, only Lauren knows that something is terribly wrong...these babies aren't hers.
Read it for: a haunting take on changeling folklore; an unflinching depiction of contemporary motherhood. |
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Prisoner of Midnight by Barbara Hambly"Vampire Don Simon Ysido has been captured and held aboard a ship heading to the US to act as a slave, and Dr Lydia Asher must stop it ... at any cost. March, 1917. The goal of every government involved in the Great War has been achieved: industrialist Spenser Cochran has drugged and enslaved a vampire, Don Simon Ysidro, to do his bidding, and is now on the way to the US aboard a luxury ship. Horrified, Dr Lydia Asher secures her passage on the vessel to rescue her friend from Cochran's chemical thrall. Meanwhile, her husband makes a dangerous alliance with the vampires of Paris to send Lydia the information she needs about the drug. As they cross the Atlantic evidence mounts that another vampire is hiding aboard the ship, indiscriminately murdering passengers. Lydia knows she must solve both cases before the ship docks, and that breaking Cochran's hold on Don Simon will not be enough ... She must kill him"--Provided by publisher.
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| Inspection by Josh MalermanThe experiment: What if separating the sexes made kids smarter? The pseudonymous M.O.M. and D.A.D. aim to accomplish just that in the sex-segregated schools they rule with rigidity and violence.
Is it for you? Though Inspection doesn't mine larger questions regarding gender and sexuality, it's a thought-provoking horror-thriller where every character is an unreliable narrator, whether by necessity or ignorance.
For fans of: Lord of the Flies and other works of psychological fiction. |
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| The Invited by Jennifer McMahonWhat it is: a compelling ghost story with a twist -- a haunted house is built, rather than moved into.
How it happens: Drawn to the traumatic history of her property (hint: it involves witches), Helen Wetherell collects artifacts connected to the grounds, hoping to build them into her new home. Her efforts reveal long-buried secrets...and unleash vengeful ghosts.
Try this next: For another fresh take on a haunted house story, check out Ezekiel Boone's The Mansion, set in a smart home menaced by its own AI. |
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Bram Stoker Best Horror Novel Award Winners |
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| What Should Be Wild by Julia FineMeet: Maisie Cothay, whose touch can kill the living and resurrect the dead. Raised by her anthropologist father, Maisie grows up in almost total isolation -- as well as total ignorance of her unusual family history.
Is it for you? Although the premise is reminiscent of TV's Pushing Daisies, the tone of this Gothic-tinged modern fairy tale is much darker.
Want a taste? "Still, I killed my father three times before the age of eight, and caused the demise of over a dozen small animals."
Nominee, Superior Achievement in a First Novel |
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| Broken Lands by Jonathan MaberryWhat it is: a gory, action-packed YA zombie novel that will appeal to both teens and adults.
Read it for: the large cast of diverse and well-developed characters; the cliffhanger ending.
Series alert: Set in the world of Jonathan Maberry's bestselling Rot & Ruin novels, Broken Lands is the 1st in a new series that takes place shortly after the events of Fire & Ash.
Nominee, Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel |
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| Baby Teeth by Zoje StageStarring: seven-year-old daddy's girl Hanna and her mother Suzette, who Hanna considers competition for her father's affections.
Who it's for: Readers who love sinister "bad seed" stories will enjoy Hanna's escalating psychopathic antics and her disturbing knack for antagonizing her long-suffering mother.
Reviewers say: "deviously fun" (Publishers Weekly); "deliciously creepy" (New York Post).
Nominee, Superior Achievement in a First Novel |
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A dark matter : a novel by Peter StraubYears after a 1960s religious guru's clandestine activities with his most fervent acolytes results in a grisly murder, a man struggles to make sense of what happened to his wife and friends by writing a book for which he asks former followers to relive their experiences. (Suspense).
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A head full of ghosts by Paul TremblayThe lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when 14-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of what at first seems to be acute schizophrenia, a condition which only gets worse, leading them to believe it's actually demonic possession, as they become the center of a reality TV show.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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