During this time of the year, besides reading a good cozy mystery, I also enjoy having the blankets all the way to my neck as I'm hypnotized by a thriller book. I love that until my partner opens on the door, making me jump in fright.
Spooky season is the perfect time to read horror and thriller books, as well as their subgenres. That's why today I bring you some ideas of thrillers and horror books to read this month.
Phantom of Glencourt, by Clarissa Ross is a gothic romance-horror from the 1970s.
Blurb: The Glencourt theater was a shell of the magnificent building which had once crowned Broadway. In its day it had known all the famous stars and most of the great productions that made that street in New York famous as the theatrical center of America. But the theater was old now, its builder decades dead... and even its most flamboyant manager was now gone. In his place was his granddaughter, Jane Glen, who found her inheritance a failing proposition, with but one chance to save it from the wreckers. But there were dark forces arrayed against her... forces from beyond life itself.
It wouldn't be Halloween season without Goosebumps by R. L. Stine, would it? In this post I think that the best book form that series to recommend is The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight. They might be middle grade horror books, but they can scare you if you focus on the storyline rather than only in the ages of the protagonists.
Blurb: Jodie loves visiting her grandparents' farm. Okay, so it's not the most exciting place in the world. Still grandpa tells great scary stories. And grandma's chocolate chip pancakes are the best. But this summer the farm has really changed. The cornfields are sparse. Grandma and grandpa seem worn out. And the single scarecrow has been replaced by twelve evil-looking ones. Then one night Jodie sees something really odd. The scarecrows seem to be moving. Twitching on their stakes. Coming alive...
Next we have Lunacy, by author Jennifer Blackstream. Do me a favor and go look up the cover for this book. Go ahead, I'll wait here. I fell in love with this cover. It gave me memories of early 2010s horror, but with the art style of the contemporary times. The colors, the shading, the details in the wolves faces. 10/10 cover in the eye-catching category.
Blurb: Witch PI Shade Renard and werewolf Detective Sergeant Liam Osbourne have come a long way since their hostile first attempt to work together. But even in her wildest dreams, Shade never dared he would ask not only for her supernatural help on a case--but for her to take the lead in the investigation itself.
There's been a murder on the doorsteps of New Moon, the shifter rehabilitation center ran by Liam, as Alpha of the local werewolf pack. The number one suspect has killed before and gotten away with it. If she's proven guilty this time--of a murder committed while she was in Liam's charge--it could be the leverage a rival alpha needs to outs Liam form New Moon, or worse, seize control of the Rocky River Pack itself.
Now, a book that scared me to the point that it gave me nightmares. Let me be clear, I wasn't scared while I read, but the reality of this thriller left a bad taste on my mouth. It is The Whisper Man by Alex North.
Blurb: After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. Featherbank.
But the town has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed "The Whisper Man," for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.
Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter's crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man.
And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window...
If you are in the mood for a mix of thriller, mystery, and literary fiction, then you might want to pick up Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott. With a mix of text and images that aid in moving the story forward, this piece gives the term "Dark Academia" a run for its money.
Blurb: A Cambridge historian, Elizabeth Vogelsang, is found drowned, clutching a glass prism in her hand. The book she was writing about Isaac Newton’s involvement with alchemy—the culmination of her lifelong obsession with the seventeenth century—remains unfinished. When her son, Cameron, asks his former lover, Lydia Brooke, to ghostwrite the missing final chapters of his mother’s book, Lydia agrees and moves into Elizabeth’s house—a studio in an orchard where the light moves restlessly across the walls. Soon Lydia discovers that the shadow of violence that has fallen across present-day Cambridge, which escalates to a series of murders, may have its origins in the troubling evidence that Elizabeth’s research has unearthed. As Lydia becomes ensnared in a dangerous conspiracy that reawakens ghosts of the past, the seventeenth century slowly seeps into the twenty-first, with the city of Cambridge the bridge between them.
And if you want some more Dark Academia, then check out The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper. This one sounds terrifying yet intellectually challenging. It's sitting on my shelf and I hope to read it soon.
Blurb:Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on demonic literature, with special expertise in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Not that David is a believer—he sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when the mysterious Thin Woman arrives at his office and invites him to travel to Venice and witness a “phenomenon,” he turns her down. She leaves plane tickets and an address on his desk, advising David that her employer is not often disappointed.
That evening, David’s wife announces she is leaving him. With his life suddenly in shambles, he impulsively whisks his beloved twelve-year-old daughter, Tess, off to Venice after all. The girl has recently been stricken by the same melancholy moods David knows so well, and he hopes to cheer her up and distract them both from the troubles at home.
But what happens in Venice will change everything.
First, in a tiny attic room at the address provided by the Thin Woman, David sees a man restrained in a chair, muttering, clearly insane . . . but could he truly be possessed? Then the man speaks clearly, in the voice of David’s dead father, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars—and a mystery—behind.
When David rushes back to the hotel, he discovers Tess perched on the roof’s edge, high above the waters of the Grand Canal. Before she falls, she manages to utter a final plea: Find me.
What follows is an unimaginable journey for David Ullman from skeptic to true believer. In a terrifying quest guided by symbols and riddles from the pages of Paradise Lost, David must track the demon that has captured his daughter and discover its name. If he fails, he will lose Tess forever.
This last one was written by an author whom I had the pleasure of meeting recently at the Heart of California Book Faire. Watcher is the first book in Roh Morgon's series The Chosen. Super cool cover, also gave me vibes of 2010s horror. And if you want another reason to convince you to read it, I saw some reviews online that have called it "the best vampire book" just saying.
Blurb: The words echo in Sunny Martin’s head each time she looks in the mirror. Since the night she was torn from her car and drained of her blood, Sunny’s fear of the hungry beast within her is rivaled only by the fear of exposure.
Her lonely struggle to survive on the edge of the human world leads Sunny to the mountain peaks of Colorado where she meets Nicolas, the enigmatic leader of a hidden society.
Their passion, tainted by betrayal, violence, and murder, reveals a shocking truth behind Sunny's savage nature and drives her toward an agonizing Choice between her heart and the last remnant of her human soul.
Overall, I think any horror and thriller books fit this October and November season. A chill in the air, the sun disappearing earlier, the crunching of leaves, all reasons to rush home and cuddle up with a good horror book. If you read, or have read any of these, I'd love to hear what you thought!
