Reading Roundup: Spooky Season!

I meant to get this post out in September, but better late than never! In any case, this post makes for better October reading, since it looks at a few books that are most definitely appropriate for the Spooky Season. As you may know, neither Tanita nor I are particularly inclined to read horror (at least, not on any kind of regular basis) but I do occasionally read a fantasy or paranormal or thriller that could also be classified as horror. I guess, in certain moods, I’m fine with spooky, and occasionally even creepy…

First, a couple of reads in the “can you stay alive to tell your horrifying tale” category. I was pretty excited to read Under the Surface by Diana Urban, a tale of terror about being lost in the Paris catacombs. My husband and I missed seeing the catacombs in Paris because they were closed both times we were there, but we did recently see the UBER CREEPY (but also kinda cool) catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, so I was definitely in a mood to read a thriller in that type of setting. And it did not disappoint on that score—while on a senior class trip to Paris, main character Ruby and her best friend sneak out one night to a super-secret party in the catacombs. Everything seems deliciously spooky…until they get lost down there. And until someone—or something—starts chasing them….

Also a fun read, and definitely inspired by horror classics, was What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell. I’m not sure what made me pick this one up, given that it’s set in a scary supernatural corn maze where the two main characters keep finding dead versions of themselves. (I had a traumatic experience as a child when I accidentally walked in on my parents watching Children of the Corn, so you’d think I would stay away from haunted cornfields and such.) But it actually sounded sort of cool, more thriller-esque, and it’s not like I never EVER read horror, so I thought I’d try it out, because I liked the author’s earlier book A Dark and Starless Forest. And, well, I did end up enjoying it, and I didn’t think it was TOO terribly scary (fortunately)—to me, it was fun-scary and thriller-scary, and the speculative aspect turned out to be a really interesting part of the story. Anyone who enjoys scary movie tropes might want to check it out.

Last but not least, I particularly liked The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland, a serial-killer story packed with demons, witches, and occult goings-on. There are three main characters in this one: Zara, whose singleminded purpose is to raise her sister from the dead so she can find out who murdered her; Jude, who bonded herself to a demon but botched it—so now her soul is slowly going necrotic; and Emer, a witch and curse writer who lost her family to a group of mysterious killers. Zara and Jude are both in search of the only one they think can help them—Emer—and, in the process, they find out that someone has been killing Emer’s clients, the women who have been buying protective curses from her. Reluctantly, since they are all rather prickly and focused on their own agendas, the three team up to identify the killer before they end up in his sights. This one was rather dark, but I really enjoyed it, and the ending was quite satisfying (not to mention, it was a scene of spectacular destruction).

Here’s to Spooky Season!