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Horror February 2018 "The three nurses at the station put away their charts and phones, staring with the rest of them. What are we waiting for? Kendra wondered, holding tightly to her mother's arm. When the main lobby doors slid open, the rest of them found a reason to scream." ~ from Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due's Devil's Wake
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| Colonial Horrors: Sleepy Hollow and Beyond by Graeme Davis (editor)What it is: some of the creepiest suspense stories written during the American colonial era.
Featured authors: Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, James Fenimore Cooper, and H.P. Lovecraft.
Why you should read it: Fans of contemporary horror novels might want to see how the genre began in the United States -- prepare to enter a dark world of witch trials, foreboding woods, and supernatural events. |
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Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel by Amad Sa'dwFrom the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi—a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café—collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realizes he’s created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive—first from the guilty, and then from anyone in its path.
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| One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning by David MoodyWhat it's about: Fifteen people are trapped on the island of Skek (somewhere between the UK and Denmark) for a corporate team-building adventure -- and then an epidemic of mindless violence breaks out.
Is it for you? If you like grim survivalist stories filled with gore, One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning is definitely your bleak and bloody bag.
Series alert: The 4th in the Haters series, the action takes place mostly concurrently with the 1st in the series (Haters). |
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Universal Harvester
by John Darnielle
Working for a 1990s small-community video rental store under threat by a major chain competitor, Jeremy is reluctantly drawn into a mystery involving chilling footage of criminal activity that has been recorded onto the store's VHS tapes. By the author of Wolf in White Van.
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Abigale Hall: A Novel
by Lauren A. Forry
Amid the terror of the Second World War, seventeen-year-old Eliza and her troubled little sister Rebecca have had their share of tragedy, having lost their mother to the Blitz and their father to suicide. Forced to leave London to work for the mysterious Mr. Brownwell at Abigale Hall, they soon learn that the worst is yet to come. The vicious housekeeper, Mrs. Pollard, seems hell-bent on keeping the ghostly secrets of the house away from the sisters and forbids them from entering the surrounding town-and from the rumors that circulate about Abigale Hall. When Eliza uncovers some blood-splattered books, ominous photographs, and portraits of a mysterious woman, she begins to unravel the mysteries of the house, but with Rebecca falling under Mrs. Pollard's spell, she must act quickly to save her sister, and herself, from certain doom. Perfect for readers who hunger for the strange, Abigale Hall is an atmospheric debut novel where the threat of death looms just beyond the edge of every page.
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Ararat: A Novel
by Christopher Golden
After an avalanche uncovers an ancient boat (maybe Noah's Ark) on Turkey's Mt. Ararat, an archaeological team finds human-like remains inside a coffin -- and the skeleton has horns! Then the explorers are trapped by a blizzard, and terrifying things happen. Is the evil coming from a supernatural power? Once you start reading award-winning Christopher Golden's Ararat, you won't be able to put it down.
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| Devil's Wake: A Novel by Steven Barnes and Tananarive DueWhat it's about: A zombie epidemic is underway and teenaged Kendra -- her family's only survivor -- hears that Devil’s Wake, off the coast of Southern California, offers safety. Kendra and several other teens hope to make it there in one piece, but predatory criminals and roving zombies stand in their way.
You might also like: Rhiannon Frater’s As the World Dies trilogy, which features not one but two strong female protagonists fighting for survival during a zombie apocalypse. |
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| The Lesser Dead by Christopher BuehlmanWhat it's about: In the summer of 1978, 14-year-old vampire Joey Peacock -- who has lived for decades in relative safety beneath the New York City subway -- finds his life disturbed by a pack of feral child vampires who could endanger the entire vampire community.
Why you might like it: Gritty, disturbing, and darkly humorous, The Lesser Dead provides chills through slow-building suspense and engaging first-person narration.
You might also like: Chase Novak's Brood, which also features undead teenagers in Manhattan. |
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| Feedback: A Newsflesh Novel by Mira GrantWhat it's about: Twenty years after the start of an ongoing zombie uprising, a famous brother-sister blogging pair, the Masons, and several other online reporters uncover corruption and conspiracies during the 2040 U.S. presidential campaign.
Why you might like it: While set in the future, Feedback’s social and political commentary makes this story feel very relevant to today’s world.
Series alert: It's 4th in the Newsflesh series but the plot runs parallel to the events of the 1st book, Feed. |
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Pale Guardian by Barbara HamblyIn World War I, someone has found a way to control revenants and use them as soldiers, and the horrified Lydia and James Asher join forces with the vampires fighting at the Front to find the source of the revenant threat.
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| Prince Lestat by Anne RiceWhat it is: a mysterious entity known as the Voice telepathically directs older vampires to destroy the younger generation in this 11th installment in the Vampire Chronicles.
Featuring: A rich cast of characters whose backstories span centuries -- from present-day New York to ancient Egypt -- including Lestat de Lioncourt, Armand, Seth, and Akasha.
You might also like: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's long-running Saint-Germain series, which stars immortal vampire Le Comte de Saint-Germain as he endures over the centuries. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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