NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (William Morrow; Trade Paperback On Sale October 15, 2013) is his magnum opus, a tour-de-force of heart-stopping horror and nightmarish terror that is also powerful, wrenching, and redemptive. Definitely his best, most terrifying, and most sophisticated novel to date. Victoria McQueen is a very special girl with a “gift” for traveling anywhere to retrieve lost objects of importance to people. Charlie Manx is a very evil man who kidnaps children is his Rolls-Royce with the vanity license plate NOS4A2 and takes them to a place he calls “Christmasland,” where every day is Christmas morning, and you never grow up and you never die. But you are turned into something absolutely terrifying. Young Victoria is the only child to ever escape Charlie’s unmitigated evil. Now Vic McQueen is all grown up and trying to put the past behind her. But Manx is back on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s young son Wayne.
This just sounds terrifying! Christmasland where you never grow up but are turned into something terrifying!? Yikes! Will definitely have to read this one in a BRIGHT room and nowhere near bedtime.
HELP FOR THE HAUNTED by John Searles (On Sale: September 17, 2013; William Morrow)
“Everyone has a ghost story, or at least that’s how it has always seemed to me,” says author John Searles, who recently wrote about visiting an unlikely tourist attraction — the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia, for The New York Times. Searles’ latest novel, HELP FOR THE HAUNTED, is the perfect Halloween treat. One of the best reviewed novels of the season (“Dazzling” says Gillian Flynn, of Gone Girl fame), it’s a ghost story in the classic sense, but also a compelling coming-of-age tale that has captured the hearts of readers and critics alike. In it, narrator Sylvie Mason tries to uncover the secrets behind her ghost-chasing parents’ deaths one cold winter night, and finds truths and mysteries that run much deeper than she ever imagined. Check out John Searles on NBC’s Weekend Today.
Love John Searles. Love his writing and with glowing reviews from so many editors and writers, this has to be a winner.
THE DEAD RUN by Adam Mansbach (On sale: September 24, 2013; Harper Voyager)
A supernatural thriller set in the US/Mexican borderland by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of GO THE F*** TO SLEEP. On both sides of the border, girls are going missing. Then, later, other bodies surface, and a small-town police chief faces an investigation worse than any he’s ever seen before. Kidnapped teen Sherry Nicholls manages to escape from a maniacal cult, but freeing herself was the easiest part. Meanwhile, in a Mexican jail, unjustly-imprisoned estranged father Galvan accepts a devil’s bargain–transport a sinister package for the prison’s infamous Old Man across the border in 24 hours. If he can do so, he’ll be free and able to regain custody of his daughter. But there are more than coyotes in the desert, and as ancient evils resurface, everyone must face their deepest terrors.
Supernatural. Maniacal cult. Enough said.
DEAD SET by Richard Kadrey (On sale: October 29, 2013; Harper Voyager)
After her father’s funeral Zoe and her mother moved to the Big City to start over. But life’s not so easy, the money is tight and a new school always brings trials. Zoe’s only escape, as has been the case all her days, is in her dreams. A world apart from her troubled real life and the only place where she can spend time with her closest companion: her lost brother Valentine.
But something or someone has entered their dream world uninvited. And a chance encounter at a used record store where the vinyl holds not music, but lost souls, has opened up a world of the lives of the restless dead. It’s here that the strange proprietor offers her chances to commune with her dead father. The price? A lock of hair, a tooth, then ….
Something weird entering your dream world? So creepy!
THE LADY AND HER MONSTERS: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece by Rose Montillo (On Sale: October 22, 2013; William Morrow Paperback)
Montillo holds her MFA from Emerson College where she teaches courses on literature and in THE LADY AND HER MONSTERS, she traces Mary Shelley’s life story and the writing of Frankenstein and uses the novel to explore the dark world of early nineteenth-century science. The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, renowned feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, and William Godwin, a political philosopher, Shelley spent much of her youth eavesdropping on private lectures hosted by her father in their family home, given by vibrant and rotating cast of scientists, poets, and philosophers. She grew up surrounded by a lively discourse and debate regarding the advancements of the scientific revolution and witnessed its effect over other cultural mediums of the times—like the arts. By the nineteenth century, the topic of reanimation was considered quite fashionable and many artistic disciplines overlapped. Shelley, as well as many of her colleagues, including her husband Percy Shelley, found themselves captivated by these scientific efforts and often infused their writing with this new found knowledge thus enabling the early concept of Frankenstein to take form. From maniacal body snatchers, to gruesome public dissections, and the details of Shelley and Percy Shelley’s relationship, Montillo carefully chronicles the unbelievable events during this period—all leading to the masterful creation of Frankenstein.
THE LADY AND HER MONSTERS is a shocking ride through the grotesque Industrial Age and into the Romantic Movement. Entertaining, provocative and rich with detail, this is a look at a literary classic that is not to be missed.
Part history + part creepy tale = Great Read!
Even though Halloween is over, you can still keep the spooky spirit alive with these frighteningly good books! Let me know if you have any other favorite scary reads!
