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"It is a tiny rodent skull, lacking its jawbone, and this gives it the queer impression of being frozen mid-scream." ~ from Robert Jackson Bennett's American Elsewhere
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| The Hatching by Ezekiel BooneWho knew that an ancient arachnid species, dormant for over a millennium, was ready to move out and take over the world? A U.S. government entomologist in Washington, DC, and an FBI agent in Minnesota are about to find out. Swarms of black, flesh-eating critters are hatching from ancient egg sacs and wreaking havoc around the world, from Peru to China and from India to the U.S. Arachnophobes, don't touch this book, which is full of spiders. Other horror fans will eagerly turn the pages of The Hatching, which is the 1st in a planned trilogy. |
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| Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone by G.S. DenningWhen Holmes -- Warlock Holmes, that is -- meets Dr. John Watson, Watson soon realizes that his new friend has supernatural powers. Watson also sees that the idiosyncratic Holmes is hopeless at sleuthing and relies on his special powers rather than on observation and deduction -- so Watson begins teaching him how to detect. In this Victorian-set mashup, Arthur Conan Doyle's characters become shapeshifters, demons, vampires, and ogres. While Warlock Holmes is often more hilarious than scary, it offers enough gore and powerfully evil characters to satisfy horror fans, especially mashup lovers. |
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| My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady HendrixThe year: 1988. The place: Charleston, South Carolina. Abby and Gretchen have been BFFs since fifth grade, but now that they're in high school, Gretchen seems different. After a series of bizarre events, Abby realizes that Gretchen has a demon living inside her -- and it's up to Abby to rescue her friend. In My Best Friend's Exorcism, author Grady Hendrix hits a home run with a "spectacularly grotesque and profane" (Kirkus Reviews) exorcism scene. Don't miss this terrifying tale, filled with spot-on 1980s popular culture references and framed at the beginning and end with yearbook-style layouts. |
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| Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt; translated by Nancy Forest-FlierIn Hex, acclaimed Dutch author Thomas Heuvelt portrays an idyllic Hudson Valley town similar to others in the region -- except that the other villages aren't haunted. Black Spring is home to the ghost of Katherine van Wyler, an alleged witch who was tortured and hanged in the 1600s. Eyes and lips sewn shut, she visits the town's residents, ominously coming and going in their houses whenever she wants. But for residents to leave Black Spring would be to invite disaster, so the town's leaders have taken measures to keep it quarantined. Then a group of boys decides Katherine needs an Internet presence, and horrendous chaos breaks out. "Read it if you dare!" says Kirkus Reviews. |
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| Over Your Dead Body by Dan WellsFollowing the events recounted in The Devil's Only Friend, demon hunter John Wayne Cleaver is on the road with his friend Brooke. John thinks they're closing in on the last of the demons called Withered; however, John and Brooke were thoroughly battered in their previous adventure, and John's recollections of his family and friends slaughtered by the demons make him emotionally fragile. Over Your Dead Body has plenty of demon-battling action, but it's the sympathetic and complex characterization that will make you root for John and Brooke. This is the 5th in the John Cleaver series; newcomers might prefer to start with the 1st, I Am Not a Serial Killer. |
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| Occultation: And Other Stories by Laird BarronOccultation received two Shirley Jackson Awards for 2010: one for the collection of nine stories, and one for the included novella "Mysterium Tremendum." Drawing deeply on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, author Laird Barron conjures up unbearably grotesque aliens who are intent on destroying humanity -- though their roles in each yarn are ambiguous. These literary nuggets include a deadly guerrilla art exhibit ("Strappado"), a woman devastated by her husband's death ("The Lagerstätte"), a house inherited from an occultist ("Six Six Six"), and a hair-raising camping expedition ("Mysterium Tremendum"). In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls this volume "heartbreaking, hilarious, sophisticated, and gory." |
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| American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson BennettOriginally built by the government to house scientists working on top-secret projects, Wink, New Mexico, has been declining ever since its research station shut down in the 1970s. When ex-cop Mona Bright moves into the house she inherited from her late mother, she gets to know Wink's remaining inhabitants: town clerk and semi-professional gossip Mrs. Benjamin; eccentric motel owner Parson, who plays Chinese checkers against an invisible opponent; and the elusive, reclusive Mr. First. However, nobody in Wink admits to having known Mona's mother, who once worked at the research facility. With its menacing atmosphere and slow-building psychological suspense, this 2012 Shirley Jackson Award winner shouldn't be read late at night. |
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| Eileen by Ottessa MoshfeghCaught between the bleak environment of the boys' correctional center where she works and her disorderly home, where she cares for her alcoholic father, Eileen Dunlop is immediately captivated by a glamorous new counselor at the prison. Befriending Rebecca Saint John, however, doesn't improve Eileen's life, either psychologically or materially. Looking back from the perspective of a normal middle-aged woman, Eileen relates the traumatic experiences that unfold over the course of a December week -- until the dramatic escape she hints at from page one. Eileen won the 2016 Pen/Hemigway award in addition to being short-listed for a 2015 Shirley Jackson Award. |
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A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel
by Paul Tremblay
Winner of the 2015 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel. Television reality show producers are always looking for a new twist. How about a demon-possessed teenage girl and her otherwise normal suburban family? In A Head Full of Ghosts, a writer interviews the girl's younger sister, Merry, 15 years after the television series ends. The interview releases Merry's repressed memories of the events, and her recollections clash with the version depicted on the reality show. Reminiscent of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and other classic tales of haunting and possession, this suspenseful novel "is a work of deviously subtle horror" (Publishers Weekly).
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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