Cool Off With 16 Spine-Chilling Reads
This year’s been a scorcher. So while August is busy scorching everything to a crisp, stay cool with a book that will send chills down your spine as you huddle in the air conditioning to shelter from the death orb. A mixture of true crime, thrilling mysteries, and pure horror, all of these are sure to make you shiver.
- The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
This classic of true crime, written by the late queen of the genre Ann Rule, is the story of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. While the subject matter is chilling enough on its own — Bundy murdered at least 30 women (possibly more) over more than a decade — what stands out is the fact that Ann Rule knew Bundy personally. She worked with him at a crisis hotline in Seattle, and the book chronicles her gradual, reluctant realization that her coworker is the same person as the man responsible for multiple murders across the United States.
2. Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi
Another classic of the true crime genre, Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, dissects the notorious Manson family and the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of Manson and his followers for the 1969 murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, Sharon Tate, and others. Vincent Bugliosi was the prosecutor for the trial, and this meticulous examination of the case is a firsthand account of a crime that’s achieved nearly mythic proportions in American culture.
3. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Weird, creepy, and complicated, House of Leaves is the kind of book that leaves your skin crawling and has you thinking about it for days afterward. A sort of Blair Witch Project in book form, Danielewski’s book (riddled with footnotes, annotations, and colored words), tells the story of a strange house with surreal, supernatural qualities, in a layered form involving a documentary, a photojournalist, and an academic monograph by a blind man.
4. The Shining by Stephen King
You may have seen the movie, but this Stephen King classic is a different animal and worth a read in its own right. The story of aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance and his family’s stay at the isolated Overlook Hotel is more than just a ghost story. As time goes by, it becomes clear that there is something very wrong with the hotel itself, and the only one aware of it is Jack’s psychically gifted young son. The Shining is one of the most chilling books in the oeuvre of the modern master of horror.
5. The Terror by Dan Simmons
Any book set in an isolated winter location is a recipe for spectacular horror. Dan Simmons’ novel is based on the true events of John Franklin’s lost expedition for the Northwest Passage. After their ship is trapped in the freezing Victoria Strait, the crew of the HMS Terror attempts to flee the oncoming Arctic winter — but even as starvation and scurvy thin their ranks, something else is stalking them out on the ice.
6. Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti
Thomas Ligotti’s name was relatively unknown until recently, when the True Detective series writer cited his writing as an influence on the show’s aesthetic. Ligotti’s short stories were influenced by authors like Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, and his horror tends to rely on suggestion and atmospheric dread more than explicit violence. The stories of this collection are recognized as seminal works of “weird fiction” — a genre defined by its anxiety-ridden view of the universe as essentially chaotic, terrifying, and incomprehensible.
7. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
While many know her as the author of the short story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson also authored a number of classic works of horror, including The Haunting of Hill House and this short novel. Cousin Charles arrives at the Blackwood House, upending the carefully maintained traditions of Merricat and her family. Macabre and sinister, but touched with wry humor, We Have Always Lived in the Castle digs deep into the secrets hidden in this isolated family stronghold.
8. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
This supernaturally tinged mystery/thriller by South African author Lauren Beukes, who also wrote the time-traveling serial-killer mystery The Shining Girls, is set in Detroit and tells the story of a series of bizarre murders. It starts with the discovery of a young boy’s body, somehow fused with that of a deer. As the murders become stranger and the city begins to come apart at the seams, Detective Versado struggles to come up with a solve, her daughter Layla flirts with an online predator, journalists look for the perfect scoop and Detroit’s homeless community closes ranks to defend itself against a monster trying to remake the world.
9. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
A cult classic since it was published in 1989, Katherine Dunn’s novel follows a traveling carnival run by the Binewski family. As their business starts to fail, Al and Crystal Binewski concoct a plan to breed their own family of freaks. The vicious, weird, and heartbreaking novel takes a hard look at ideas of freakishness and family values and confronts the dark on the fringes of every society.
10. Slade House by David Mitchell
A strange house that only appears once every nine years. Those who step inside don’t come out again. David Mitchell’s short novel — a companion to The Bone Clocks but easily read on its own — follows the sad disappearances of five individuals, linked to one another through time from the 1970s to the present day. Genre-bending and weird in Mitchellian tradition, Slade House is a unique take on the haunted house trope that makes a perfect read for a sweltering summer day.
11. Perfume: Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born in Paris in the eighteenth century with an unusual ability: an extraordinarily sensitive sense of smell, and yet with no smell of his own. His talent leads him to become a perfume-maker. He becomes obsessed with seeking out the perfect scent, trying to capture the smell of ever stranger objects, and is eventually drawn to murder young women to capture their alluring essence. Combining magical realism and horror, Suskind spins a story of a man whose obsession drives him to kill.
12. Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
This crime novel-slash-character study is about a woman whose sister and best friend have both turned up murdered. The unnamed narrator delves into the lives of both women: the dazzlingly beautiful Yuriko, the sister who overshadowed her for her whole life, and the awkward Kuzue, both of whom become prostitutes and are murdered within a year. Kirino explores the lives of women within the confines of convention in Japanese society. Dark and noir-inflected, Grotesque is a masterful story told by a manipulative, unreliable, and compelling narrator.
13. The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort
Charles Fort was the individual who gave his name to the weird news outlet The Fortean Times. This book was his first nonfiction work, and deals with a broad range of “anomalous phenomena” — from UFOs to poltergeists. In his opening lines, he states that “we shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded.” A must read for any fan of the unexplained and unexplainable, though it might leave you with more questions than answers.
14. The Big Short by Michael Lewis
If you like your terror with a heavy dose of reality, Michael Lewis’s nonfiction account of the story behind the 2007–2008 economic crisis provides. Driven by the stories of a few Wall Street outsiders, Lewis weaves a skillful narrative of the greed and fear behind the crash, and the smart people who did, or might have, known what was happening before it did.
15. Nailbiter by Joshua Williamson
Buckaroo, Oregon has produced more serial killers than any other town in America. Agent Nicholas Finch of the NSA lost his best friend to the mystery of why, and follows him to dig into the secrets of the small town. Meanwhile, the serial killer Edward “Nailbiter” Warren continues to walk free, but it’s not clear if he’s helping or hurting the investigation. This horror comic series is not yet completed, but the four volumes released so far provide plenty to chew on.
16. Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito
Junji Ito is one of the best (if not the best) horror manga artists out there. Fragments of Horror collects some of his shorter work, combining the macabre, the grotesque, and a touch of humor for unforgettable storytelling. If you enjoy this collection, check out Uzumaki — Junji Ito’s terrifying manga series about a town haunted by spirals.
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