Horror for Wimps Archives

Leave the World Behind

by Rumaan Alam

My exact words to my husband Will: This book is WILD. Similar to his last book That Kind of Mother, this new novel features two families whose lives suddenly become intertwined. Amanda and Clay splurge and rent a house on Long Island for a getaway; they couldn’t be happier to spend time with their teen son and daughter away from the city. But late one night, a knock on the door interrupts their pleasant getaway. Ruth and G.H., an older Black couple, own the Long Island house, and beg their short-term tenants to let them crash in the basement. There’s a blackout in the city—not the first they’ve experienced, but this one feels more threatening, somehow—and they’ve come to seek shelter at the safest place they can think of: their second home. Each couple grapples with whether or not to trust the other, while questioning what is happening in the city, whether they are safe here, and what to do next. Psst—they’re not safe, and no one knows what to do. I’d give this an eight-line edit if I could.

The Haunting of Hill House

by Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson’s stories have a way of sticking with you. (I still have a visceral memory of reading The Lottery in high school!) This creepy tale is no exception. An occult scholar invites guests to Hill House, searching for proof of whether it’s really haunted. Are the ghosts real, or only in their heads? Jackson leaves it to the reader to decide.

The Sun Down Motel

by Simone St. James

Described by readers as both mystery and horror, this is a suspenseful dual timeline story. In 1982, Viv winds up in Fell, NY, takes a night clerk position at a seedy motel, and becomes curious about the young women who were murdered in the unassuming small town. 35 years later her niece Carly wants to find out what happened to her aunt and takes a night clerk position at the same hotel, where she quickly learns things are not as they seem. The haunted motel is as much a character as Viv and Carly, and the pages practically turned themselves as the mystery unfolded with palpable dread across the two timelines. This propulsive, atmospheric read was just the right about of spooky for me, but as I mentioned to Valencia Taylor in WSIRN episode 255, the cigarette smoke freaked me out.

White Smoke

by Tiffany D. Jackson

I’m a longtime fan of Jackson’s YA thrillers; this haunted house story is her foray into horror. It’s also at the upper limits of what this wimpy reader can handle—this book gets pretty scary in places! But it worked for me. Described as The Haunting of Hill House meets Get Out, Marigold is looking for a fresh start when her newly blended family moves to Cedarville. This move is supposed to give them a fresh start, but Mari can’t help but get the sense that they’re not wanted in Cedarville—and on top of that, her new home gives her the creeps. This book reminded me of Alyssa Cole's When No One Is Watching. I expect many wimps like me will enjoy this book—but if you have any kind of phobia involving bed bugs or dark basements, you may want to opt for a different title on this list.

The Passage

by Justin Cronin

Entertainment Weekly calls this novel "The Stand meets The Road." When scientists try to find the cure for mortality, their experiment goes awry. The kind of awry where most of society gets wiped out. The drug turns test subjects into vampire-like creatures, all except for one six year old girl. Rich, multilayered, and filled with social commentary.

Lost Man’s Lane

by Scott Carson

I was hooked by this intriguing premise: in 1999, Bloomington IN teenager Marshall is pulled over for speeding by a cranky police officer within hours of getting his driver's license. During the traffic stop he notices a pretty blonde girl sitting in the back of the police cruiser. Not long after, he discovers the girl is missing—but when he reports what he witnessed to the authorities, they tell him the officer that issued his speeding ticket doesn't exist and chide him for trying to mess up their case. Marshall knows what he saw, and is determined to get to the bottom of it. This turned out be a supernatural thriller in the vein of Stephen King's Fairy Tale that, while plotty, also featured well-developed characters that I loved and rooted hard for. (The Weller! Who's read this and knows what I'm talking about?) For those of us who were teens in the 90s, the nostalgia factor here is incredibly high.

The Turn of the Screw

by Henry James

This is a wonderful opportunity to knock another classic off your reading list. This Henry James classic is narrated by Emma Thompson (of Sense and Sensibility fame) and introduced by Richard Armitage (aka Mr. Thornton). Rory Gilmore would be proud.

The Hazel Wood

by Melissa Albert

I loved this so much I included it in the 2018 Summer Reading Guide. Alice and her mom have spent 17 years on the run, trying to dodge the persistent bad luck mysteriously connected to an unnerving book of stories penned by Alice's estranged grandmother. When Alice's grandmother dies, her mother thinks they're free—until the day Alice comes home from school to discover Ella has been kidnapped, leaving behind a page torn from her grandmother's book and a note: Stay away from the Hazel Wood. But Alice has to save her mom, so she enters what she slowly begins to see is her grandmother's book of stories-come-to-life—and they suddenly look a lot more like horror than fantasy. This seriously twisted and sometimes bloody fairy tale reminds me of The Thirteenth Tale, with a dash of The Matrix.

Chirp

Mexican Gothic

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I heard great things about this book, though the "Gothic horror" label made me a little afraid to dive in, as I stay away from the scary stuff. But I needn't have feared: this novel is deliciously creepy, but not frightening. Moreno-Garcia situates her novel firmly in the tradition of Gothic country house classics like Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, and even references some of these titles in her novel. When Noemí's father appoints her to see to some business on his behalf, the beautiful, intelligent young socialite agrees to do her duty for the family. Her recently married cousin Catalina has sent an odd, urgent letter to the family, pleading for someone to save her—but from what? When Noemí visits her new marital home High Place, a remote and lavish estate built by ill-treated mine workers, she discovers her cousin's predicament is worse than she feared: her husband is a brute, her father-in-law a terror, the staff deeply hostile, and even the house itself seems set against her—and worse, determined to entrap her. No spoilers here, but if you like the sound of a deeply strange and spine-tingling read about a smart heroine who saves herself, this is the book for you. Excellent on audio.

Plain Bad Heroines

by Emily M. Danforth

From the publisher: "Our story begins in 1902, at the Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it the Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer Merritt Emmons publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the 'haunted and cursed' Gilded Age institution. A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period-inspired illustrations, <em>Plain Bad Heroines</em> is a devilishly haunting, modern masterwork of metafiction."

Into the Drowning Deep

by Mira Grant

As a confirmed scaredy-cat I was afraid to pick up this sci-fi/horror novel, but a couple of readers I trust told me I could probably handle it. They were right. Here's the deal: Mermaids are real, but they are not like Ariel. Some researchers believe this with their whole heart and have made studying these mermaids, or sirens, their life's work. Others are deeply skeptical, but regardless what camp they're in, a huge swath of the scientific community isabout to set sail on another voyage to the Mariana Trench, a follow-up to a voyage seven years earlier ended in tragedy with everyone on board lost at sea. No one is exactly sure why; skeptics called the whole thing a hoax. Both the siren skeptics and the true believers are about to discover mermaids are very real—and it will be a miracle if anyone gets out of there alive.

The Other Black Girl

by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Full of twists, turns, and biting social commentary, this highly original (and highly discussable) debut novel will leave you with your jaw on the floor. Editorial assistant Nella Rogers is thrilled when Wagner Books hires another Black woman. Finally, she won’t be the sole Black voice at the publisher, she won’t endure microaggressions alone, and maybe she’ll even make some progress on her stalled-out racial diversity efforts. But new hire Hazel doesn’t turn out to be the ally and friend she expected. Meanwhile, threatening notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk, saying LEAVE WAGNER NOW. The atmosphere grows ever creepier as Nella tries to befriend Hazel, while surreptitiously investigating her past. The ending left me gobsmacked: I was desperate to discuss it with a fellow reader asap.

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