Give Yourself Chills

Dean Koontz thrills with his novel Devoted. Woody Bookman hasn’t spoken a word in his eleven years of life. Not when his father died in a freak accident. Not when his mother, Megan, tells him she loves him. For Megan, keeping her boy safe and happy is what matters. But Woody believes a monstrous evil was behind his father’s death and now threatens him and his mother. And he’s not alone in his thoughts. An ally unknown to him is listening. A uniquely gifted dog with a heart as golden as his breed, Kipp is devoted beyond reason to people. When he hears the boy who communicates like he does, without speaking, Kipp knows he needs to find him before it’s too late. Woody’s fearful suspicions are taking shape. A man driven by a malicious evil has set a depraved plan into motion. And he’s coming after Woody and his mother. The reasons are primal. His powers are growing. And he’s not alone. Only a force greater than evil can stop what’s coming next. (from Amazon.com)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia offers an atmospheric horror novel with Mexican Gothic. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind. (from Amazon.com)

Malorie is Josh Malerman's sequel to his stellar Bird Box. Twelve years after Malorie and her children rowed up the river to safety, a blindfold is still the only thing that stands between sanity and madness. One glimpse of the creatures that stalk the world will drive a person to unspeakable violence. There remains no explanation. No solution. All Malorie can do is survive - and impart her fierce will to do so on her children. Don’t get lazy, she tells them. Don’t take off your blindfold. And don't look. But then comes what feels like impossible news. And with it, the first time Malorie has allowed herself to hope. Someone very dear to her, someone she believed dead, may be alive. Malorie has already lost so much: her sister, a house full of people who meant everything, and any chance at an ordinary life. But getting her life back means returning to a world full of unknowable horrors - and risking the lives of her children again. Because the creatures are not the only thing Malorie fears: There are the people who claim to have caught and experimented on the creatures. Murmurings of monstrous inventions and dangerous new ideas. And rumors that the creatures themselves have changed into something even more frightening. Malorie has a harrowing choice to make: to live by the rules of survival that have served her so well, or to venture into the darkness and reach for hope once more. (from Amazon.com)

Plain Bad Heroines is a novel by Emily M. Danforth. 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. Less than five years later, the Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way. 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. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins. (from Amazon.com)

Scary Short Stories to Enjoy

Ghost Stories: Classic Tales of Horror and Suspense is edited by Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger. The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the genre's greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' bestselling work in other genres. In this spine-tingling anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James. Acclaimed anthologists Leslie S. Klinger (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes) and Lisa Morton (Ghosts: A Haunted History) set these stories in historical context and trace the literary significance of ghosts in fiction over almost two hundred years—from a traditional English ballad first printed in 1724 through the Christmas-themed ghost stories of the Victorian era and up to the science fiction–tinged tales of the early twentieth century. 

A Wave of Fear: a Classic Horror Anthology is edited by Hugh Lamb. Includes selections by L.A. Lewis, Eleanor Scott, Ambrose Bierce, M.P. Shiel, H.R. Wakefield, Charles Birkin, L.T.C. Rolt, Marjorie Bowen, A.C. Benson, E.F. Benson, R.H. Benson, Joy Burnett, Frederick Cowles, D.K. Browster, J.D. Beresford, Robert W. Chambers, and Vivian Meik. Keep yourself up at night reading classic and contemporary stories of terror and suspense.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes--the classic short story collection from bestselling author Stephen King. A wrong turn on a lonely road lands a wayward couple in Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon, where there’s no escaping the free nightly concert….A novelty toy becomes an unexpected and terrifying instrument of self-defense….An ex-con pieces together a map to unearth a stolen million dollars—but at what price?...A private investigator in Depression-era Los Angeles is finding his life unraveling as he discovers the shocking truth of who he really is….A third-grade teacher is willing to dig deep in order to exact revenge for his murdered wife.... These are just some of the haunting scenarios to be found in this classic collection—spellbinding tales from the darkest places and the unparalleled imagination of fiction’s master storyteller.

Games Creatures Play edited by Charlaine Harris, Toni L. P. Kelner. Welcome to the wide world of paranormal pastimes, where striking out might strike you dead. In this all-new story collection of the most peculiar plays ever made; sports fans live and die by their teams' successes and failures-though not literally. But these fifteen authors have written spirited--in more ways than one--new tales of killer competitions that would make even the most die-hard players ask to be benched. In Charlaine Harris's "The Blue Hereafter," Manfred Bernardo learns about softball from a certain blond barmaid in Louisiana. Life-and-death stakes make the competition get serious in William Kent Krueger's "Hide and Seek." r Mercedes Lackey's "False Knight on the Road" features a high-stakes drag race on a foggy mountain road between a clever young bootlegger and a mysterious stranger. In Laura Lippman's "Ice," a young girl learns the true story behind a bit of neighborhood folklore. Seanan McGuire presents "Jammed," in which a chimera loose during the Roller Derby makes it anyone's guess as to who will still be skating by the time the buzzer sounds. In Brandon Sanderson's "Dreamer," a game of cops and robbers is a new challenge when the players are able to switch bodies at will. And Scott Sigler follows ghost stomper Hunter Hunterson as he investigates a haunted, never-ending baseball game in "The Case of the Haunted Safeway." These and eight more supernatural sporting stories are guaranteed to have you rooting for the home team, or else.

Spotlight on Fantasy in New Adult Fiction

 

Certain Dark Things is by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. "Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Here in the city, heavily policed to keep the creatures of the night at bay, Domingo is another trash-picking street kid, just hoping to make enough to survive. Then he meets Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers. Domingo is smitten. He clings to her like a barnacle until Atl relents and decides to let him stick around. But Atl's problems--Nick and Rodrigo--have come to find her. When they start to raise the body count in the city, it attracts the attention of police officers, local crime bosses, and the vampire community. Vampires, humans, cops, and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all?" (from the publisher)

M.J. Kuhn delivers her newest with Among Thieves. "In just over a year's time, Ryia Cautella has already earned herself a reputation as the quickest, deadliest blade in the dockside city of Carrowwick--not to mention the sharpest tongue. But Ryia Cautella is not her real name. For the past six years, a deadly secret has kept her in hiding, running from town to town, doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the formidable Guildmaster--the sovereign ruler of the five kingdoms of Thamorr. No matter how far or fast she travels, his servants never fail to track her down...but even the most powerful men can be defeated. Ryia's path now leads directly into the heart of the Guildmaster's stronghold, and against every instinct she has, it's not a path she can walk alone. Forced to team up with a crew of assorted miscreants, smugglers, and thieves, Ryia must plan her next moves very carefully. If she succeeds, her freedom is won once and for all...but unfortunately for Ryia, her new allies are nearly as selfish as she is, and they all have plans of their own." (Amazon.com)

Author T.J. Klune offers a touching love story in Under the Whispering Door. "Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through. When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead. But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days. Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home." (Amazon.com)

Kevin J. Anderson's sequel to Spine of The Dragon brings bitter rivalry and blood feud―that might be the downfall of the human kingdoms. Two continents at war, the Three Kingdoms and Ishara, have been in conflict for a thousand years. But when an outside threat arises―the reawakening of a powerful ancient race that wants to remake the world―the two warring nations must somehow set aside generations of hatred to form an alliance against a far more deadly enemy. Book One awakened the great dragon, and set the kingdoms at each other’s throats. In Book Two, Vengewar, the Three Kingdoms are shattering under pressure from an inexperienced new King who is being led by an ambitious regent to ignore the threat of the Wreths, in favor of a Vengewar with Ishara. His brother and uncle can see only the danger of the Older Race. In Ishara, the queen lies in a coma, while an ambitious priest seizes power. But he has neither the training nor the talent to rule a nation― or even a city. Ishara is in deadly peril, and the Wreths have not even appeared on their continent." (Amazon.com)

New Adult Graphic Novels

"Bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp and artist Manuel Preitano unveil a graphic novel--The Oracle Code--that explores the dark corridors of Barbara Gordon's first mystery: herself. After a gunshot leaves her paralyzed below the waist, Barbara Gordon undergoes physical and mental rehabilitation at the Arkham Center for Independence. She must adapt to a new normal, but she cannot shake the feeling that something is dangerously amiss. Strange sounds escape at night while patients start to go missing. Is this suspicion simply a result of her trauma? Or does Barbara actually hear voices coming from the center's labyrinthine hallways? It's up to her to put the pieces together to solve the mysteries behind the walls." (from Amazon.com)

"Bestselling author and artist Reza Farazmand, his first graphic novel about a young monster who moves to a big city. City Monster is set in a world of supernatural creatures and follows a young monster who moves to the city. As he struggles to figure out his future, his new life is interrupted by questions about his mysterious roommate—a ghost who can’t remember the past. Joined by their neighbor, a vampire named Kim, they explore the city, meeting a series of strange and spooky characters and looking for answers about life, memories, and where to get a good beer. With Reza's signature style, and familiar snark, this graphic novel is equal parts irreverent and insightful, the perfect vehicle for conveying the utter absurdity of our bizarre and confusing times." (from Amazon.com)

"Elsie the vampire is three hundred years old, but in all that time, she has never met her match. This all changes one night in a bar when she meets Jimmy, a charming werewolf with a wry sense of humor and a fondness for running wild during the full moon. Together they enjoy horror films and scary novels, shady strolls, fine dining (though never with garlic), and a genuine fondness for each other’s unusual habits, macabre lifestyles, and monstrous appetites. First featured as a webcomic series on Tapas, Fangs chronicles the humor, sweetness, and awkwardness of meeting someone perfectly suited to you but also vastly different. This deluxe hardcover edition of Fangs features an “engraved” red cloth cover, dyed black page trim, and 25 exclusive comics not previously seen online. Filled with Sarah Andersen’s beautiful gothic illustrations and relatable relationship humor, Fangs has all the makings of a cult classic." (from Amazon.com)

"An American classic and one of the world’s seminal antiwar books, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is faithfully presented in graphic novel form for the first time from Eisner Award-winning writer Ryan North and Eisner Award-nominated artist Albert Monteys. 

 Listen: Billy Pilgrim has...

• read Kilgore Trout
• opened a successful optometry business
• built a loving family
• witnessed the firebombing of Dresden
• traveled to the planet Tralfamadore
• met Kurt Vonnegut
• come unstuck in time.

Billy Pilgrim’s journey is at once a farcical look at the horror and tragedy of war where children are placed on the frontlines and die (so it goes), and a moving examination of what it means to be fallibly human." (from Amazon.com)