Staff Picks

Cemetery Boys is such an amazing read, this stand-alone book is queer and trans but also has magic and Latinx culture that combined into an incredible book. I’ve read it at least three times and every time it hits me hard and it isn’t even that sad. There’s cute pets, interesting culture and references, and a coming of age aspect that didn’t feel super cringy and awkward. I’d say They Both Die in the End is kind of similar but also not really, it’s such a unique book to me, however The Sunbearer Trials, also by Aiden Thomas is really good and is kind of a mix of Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games while also being trans and Latinx.

 

Publisher's Description:

Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family.

 

I read, reread, and even read aloud to a friend selections from Cursed Bunny. The stories left me feeling haunted, reinforced by a matter of fact-ness in the narrator's tone. Recommend to fans of the grotesque, dark and unusual--Bora Chung goes there.

Publisher's description: 
Collection of short stories that blend horror, surrealism, and speculative fiction to take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and reign of big tech.

Find Cursed Bunny in our online catalog

Greenglass House by Kate Milford is so cool because it’s like going on a huge adventure full of mysteries, puzzles, and even a little bit of ghostly magic! The story is about a 12-year-old boy named Milo who’s hoping for a quiet holiday at this super old and creepy inn called Greenglass House. But when a bunch of weird guests show up, everything gets way more exciting. The house itself is kind of spooky, but in a fun way. It has hidden corners, secret rooms, and hallways you’d never expect. Some doors even seem to move on their own, making you feel like the house is alive and hiding something.

 

Publisher's description:

At Greenglass House, a smuggler's inn, twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, plans to spend his winter holidays relaxing but soon guests are arriving with strange stories about the house sending Milo and Meddy, the cook's daughter, on an adventure.

 

This multigenerational horror story features a loveable family, a mysterious monster, other dimensions, and a family legacy no one saw coming. If you love haunted house attractions, live theater, and lore inspired from the world of H.P. Lovecraft, this one is for you.

 

Publisher description:

 

Monsters both figurative and very literal stalk the Turner family. The youngest child, Noah, narrates the family history: how in the late '60s, his bookish mother, Margaret, marries Lovecraft-lover Harry against her better judgment. The couple has two daughters--Sydney, born for the spotlight, and the brilliant but awkward Eunice, a natural writer and storyteller. But finances are tight, Margaret and Eunice are haunted by horrific dreams, and Harry starts acting strangely. He becomes obsessed with the construction of an elaborately crafted haunted house attraction, christened the Wandering Dark. The family tries to shield baby Noah from the house's faux horrors, but unbeknownst to them, he's being visited by a furry beast with glowing orange eyes--the same ghastly being glimpsed by both his mother and sister. However, unlike them, Noah decides to let the creature in. . . .As he approaches the conclusion of his family's tale, it becomes more and more apparent that there's only one way the story can end: with Noah making the ultimate sacrifice.
 

Find Cosmology of Monsters in our online catalog

We all remember the Burger City Murders right? Maybe not, but this book reads like a nonfiction true crime thriller, complete with interviews, footnotes, and deep dives into the nonexistent histories of fake fast food chains. Kraus has pulled together a truly scary tale of murder, mayhem, and fries!

 

Publisher's description:

On June 1, 2017, six people were killed at a Burger City franchise off I-80 near Jonny, Iowa. It was the bizarre and gruesome conclusion to nine months of alleged paranormal activity at the fast-food joint-events popularly known as "the Burger City Poltergeist."

The story inspired Facebook memes, Twitter hashtags, Buzzfeed listicles, Saturday Night Live sketches, and more. But the case was never much more than a punchline...until bestselling writer Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water, The Living Dead) decided to head to Iowa to dig up what really happened.

Presented here is the definitive story of "the most exhaustively documented haunting in history," including-for the first time ever-interviews with every living survivor of the tragedy.

The employees of Burger City were a family. They loved one another. At least, at the beginning.

 

Find The Ghost That Ate Us in our online catalog

What's that dark shape going bump in the woods? Brooks' chilling tale of man vs. beast is sure to make you want to run for the hills (or run away from them).

 

Publisher description:

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. But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town's bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing and too earth-shattering in its implications, to be forgotten. Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us, and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

 

This graphic novel has it all: psychological horror, domestic housewife ennui, and a sexy ghost. I really loved how the author illustrated the main character's dreary life in monochrome while her fantasies are in gorgeous splashy color. The mystery will keep you guessing till the end.

 

Publisher's description: 
After many lonely years, Abby's just gotten married. She met her new husband--a recently widowed dentist--when he arrived in town with his young daughter, seeking a new start. Although it's strange living in the shadow of her predecessor, Abby does her best to be a good wife and mother. But the more she learns about her new husband's first wife, the more things don't add up. And Abby starts to wonder ... was Sheila's death really by natural causes? As Abby sinks deeper into confusion, Sheila's memory seems to become a force all its own, ensnaring Abby in a mystery that leaves her obsessed, fascinated, and desperately in love for the first time in her life.

 

In his mysterious 1897 novel Dracula, Bram Stoker artfully details the encounters different characters have with the elusive Count Dracula, thus crafting a detailed, interconnected web of information describing a vampire. Details about the vampire’s existence are revealed through Jonathan Harker’s encounter with the count in Transylvania, Doctor’s Seward’s observations on a madman conflicted between allowing the count to turn him into a vampire and defy death or staying pure in the eyes of God, and Mina Harker’s account of her own and her friend Lucy Westenra’s symptoms while turning. This fascinating Gothic fiction novel is absolutely delightful, especially for readers who are into or just getting into the horror genre. Although it is not too graphic, it still carries suspense by breaking up the narrative into a series of letters and journal entries written by various characters as they travel around England and continental Europe searching for Dracula’s whereabouts.

 

   - Jiyu K, ninth-grade teen volunteer

 

Publisher's description: 

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client’s castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: a ship runs aground on the shores of Whitby, its crew vanished; beautiful Lucy Westenra slowly succumbs to a mysterious, wasting illness, her blood drained away; and the lunatic Renfield raves about the imminent arrival of his ‘master’. In the ensuing battle of wills between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries – led by the intrepid vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing – Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.

Hendrix has a knack for writing horror that also moves you, and including just enough comedy to keep things mostly light hearted. This book was written as something of an homage to hard working stay at home moms who are overlooked by pop culture, and who also sometimes have to fight vampires.

 

Publisher's description: 

Patricia Campbell's life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she's always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they're as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families. One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn't felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind--and Patricia has already invited him in. Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia's life and try to take everything she took for granted--including the book club--but she won't surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

 

Find The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires in our online catalog. 

There are many tropes in horror that speak to queer people in (often contradictory) ways. This collection of essays guides us through favorites such as The Exorcist, Jennifer's Body, and Get Out to explore the reasons why such a dark film genre can attract such a diverse and marginalized community.

 

Publisher's description: Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,” body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world. Twenty-five narrative essays by contemporary LGBTQ writers reflecting on queerness in horror film, from Hitchcock to Halloween.