Riffing off of the feature on horror books in Fangoria, it is my hope that at least one of these catches the eye. There's a mixture of classic and more recent stuff. Most of the stuff I've found scary in the past 5 years or so have been from books. Here's a handful of them.
Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio de Maria
Our guide through this book of strange events in the city of Turin both past and present is an unnamed narrator who has decided to write a book on The Twenty Days of Turin. The people of the city that the narrator interviews describe these giant cloaked entities picking up people by their ankles and smashing them against the ground.
The book can be interpreted as an allegory of the fear and upheaval in Italy known as the "Years of Lead". It also manages to predict the rise of social media.
Things We Lost In the Fire by Mariana Enriquez
Where would be the one country I'd want to visit? Argentina. Borges, Ocampo, Casares, Cortazar and Aira all hail from that haven of literary genius. Here's the latest one. Enriquez paints her morbid stories with a generous sense of place. Stories shift from the psychological to the Lovecraftian. And if you know me, cosmic horror mixed with Latin American fiction is a gift from the horror gods.
Songs For the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson
If you're looking for something more on the unsettling side of things, Evenson is the author for you. Stories transmitted from earth's evil twin. Where you won't look at the world quite the same way again.
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
One of Jone's inspirations for this book was Near Dark. Traveling nomads that go from town to town. Mongrels deals with three generations of family. The protagonist is born into a family of werewolves and is approaching the age of puberty. The age where you start to "wolf out". Each chapter feels like a vignette. A short story that could stand on its own. There is so much imaginative werewolf lore here.
Off Season by Jack Ketchum
So ya love the gory stuff, huh? Ketchum's book is feral, visceral and left a scar on my horror filled heart that still has me thinking about. A group of people are held up in a cabin by cannibals. The mastery of craft and the ability to built tension for 130 pages of a 270 page book before anything brutal happens is impressive.
The Fisherman by John Langan
Cosmic horror has a head on car collission with grief, loss and family. The blinder you go in, the better. The best horror is always about something. At it's core, The Fisherman is about the lengths we would go to see a loved one again. If you liked Pet Semetary, check this one out.
Teattro Grotesco by Thomas Ligotti
Do puppets scare you? How about clowns? Existential horror is the song that hums out of this particular music box. Ligotti funnels his dark, cyncial worldview through these stories. For reference, Nic Pizzollatto took influence from Ligotti for the True Detective character of Rust Cohle.
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
The author has written the screenplays for Beetlejuice and Nightmare Before Christmas. If that isn't enough to sell you there here's the story: On a split of land cut off by the Gulf, three Victorian houses standing against the encroaching stand. Two of the houses are being used while the third one is empty. Except for the vicious horror shaping nightmares from nothingness. It's a Southern Gothic dealing with two sets of families who have been coming to these two Victorian houses for years. It's a slow burn that pays off.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
Witches. Occult. Folklore. Crime Thriller. This book was made for me. It remains my favorite piece of fiction in any medium released in 2020. While it has more in common with something like Bolano's 2666 than Shirley Jackson or Stephen King, make no mistake. The dread this book induces will make your skin crawl.
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