Horror is a genre meant to disturb, frighten, or scare the audience, so we asked our librarians what horror they would recommend this spooky season.
Follow THIS LINK for Princeton Public Library’s segment on WQAD’s “Current Reads” for three more spooky book suggestions!
Devolution by Max Brooks
As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined … until now.
The journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing to be forgotten. Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.
Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction.
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the countryside. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves. Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
In a Scary Old House by Harriet Ziefert (2-4 years)
Deep in a forest, along a scary old path, was a scary old house. What makes that house so creepy? Could ghosts be on the prowl-or witches? Wide-eyed children will enjoy finding out what’s haunting the cupboard. And the clever ending sets them up for reading the tale again and again.
The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher
Nevada, 7869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.
A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. An ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn … and so will all of Creation.
The Unworthy by Augustina Bazterrica
From her cell in a convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, she is controlled and punished, but safe.
When a stranger makes her way past the convent walls.joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past-and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?
The Outsider by Stephen King
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Stepping far afield from his medical studies, Victor Frankenstein brings to life a human form he has fashioned from scavenged body parts. Horrified by his achievement, he turns his back on his creation, only to learn the danger of such neglect.
Carrie by Stephen King
The story of misunderstood high school girl Carrie White, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge, remains one of the most barrier-breaking and shocking novels of all time.
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Eva never really wanted to be a mother—and certainly not the mother of the boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a teacher, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin’s horrific rampage in a series of correspondences with her estranged husband. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
Dexter meets Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town in this twisted debut graphic novel! Don’t murder the locals—this is small-town serial killer, upstanding citizen, Samantha Strong’s cardinal rule. When you’ve worked as hard as Sam to build a cozy life and a thriving business in a community surrounded by friendly folk, warm decor, and the aroma of cedar trees and freshly baked apple pie, the last thing you want is to disturb the peace. So imagine Sam’s indignation when one of Wood brook’s own meets a grisly, mysterious demise. You wouldn’t blame her for doing anything it takes to hunt down her rival before the town self-destructs and Sheriff Patterson starts barking up the wrong tree.
In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories
by Alvin Schwartz (5-8 years)
Creak … Crash … BOO!
Shivering skeletons, ghostly pirates, chattering corpses, and haunted graveyards … all to chill your bones! Share these seven spine-tingling stories in a dark, dark room.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed “Hansel” and “Gretel.” They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an old woman called “witch” by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children.
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
After years of her sisters suffering at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra realizes that no one is coming to their rescue. Seeking help from a gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince-if she can complete three impossible tasks.
On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra’s family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White (14-18 years)
One night Miles Abernathy sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek. Instead, he becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and friends find the evidence and beat him nearly to death. In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?
Uzumaki by Junji Ito
Spirals … this town is contaminated with spirals .. .
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshi ma, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral—the hypnotic secret shape of the world. This bizarre masterpiece of horror manga is now available in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Ichabod Crane, a schoolteacher, came to Tarry Town in the glen of Sleepy Hollow to ply his trade in educating young minds. He was a gullible and excitable fellow, often so terrified by locals’ stories of ghosts that he would hurry through the woods on his way home, singing to keep from hysterics. Until late one night, he finds that maybe they aren’t just stories.
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud (11-15 years)
For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.
Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.
Dead Wednesday by Jerry Spinelli (10-13 years)
Worm Tarnauer prefers to be out of sight. He’s happy to let his best friend, Eddie rule the day.
And this day–Dead Wednesday–is going to be awesome. The school thinks assigning each eighth grader the name of a teenager who died in the past year and having them don black shirts and become invisible will make them contemplate their own mortality. Yeah, sure. The kids know that being invisible to teachers really means you can get away with anything. It’s a day to go wild!
But Worm didn’t count on Becca Finch. Letting this girl into his head is about to change everything.