Haunting Fiction: 10 Dark Tales to Chill You This Fall

October 28, 2024October 28, 2024 / Lauren / Leave a comment

My backyard is full of fallen leaves, and the home improvement stores are full of animatronic skeletons. It’s the time of year when I can unabashedly indulge in my love of horror. Gothic horror. Psychological horror. Cosmic horror. Anything that lets me experience tension and dread, at least within the safe little confines of fiction. Gore and gross-out horror doesn’t really do it for me. I prefer the supernatural, the otherworldly, stories that tap into the basic human fear of the unknown. There’s nothing like the existential terror that comes when you dare to look into the void – and you see it looking back at you. But it’s still fiction. You still get to put it back on the shelf and go about your life after you read that last page.

Or do you?

Here are the stories that have haunted me the most: tense and dark tales that unfurl like a beautiful piece of black silk.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)

A governess is sent to an isolated country manor to care for a pair of young orphans, and she begins to believe that the children are being visited by spirits with malevolent intent. This is a classic ghost story whose ambiguity has provided more than a century’s worth of analysis and adaptation, most recently in the form of Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor in 2020.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)

You may know Shirley Jackson from your 11th grade reading assignment of her short story The Lottery, but this novel set the bar for modern gothic horror. It’s a classic haunted house story that has influenced writers like Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub (1979)

A group of aging men gathers once a week to tell ghost stories – but one ghost from their shared past seems to be coming back for revenge. Straub hooks you in from the first scene and builds masterfully in one of the best-written horror stories you’ll ever read.

Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King (2002)

Some point to The Shining and The Stand as King’s best works, but I have always been a fan of his shorter fiction, such as the terrifying novella The Mist. Everything’s Eventual is a strong contender for my favorite of his short story collections. Its best tales are about a boy who meets the devil, a painting that keeps changing in disturbing ways, and a skeptic’s night in a supposedly haunted hotel room.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (2005)

The core story of House of Leaves involves a family who moves into their new house and discovers it’s bigger than they think. Their story is told in a documentary video, which is described and analyzed in an unfinished academic manuscript by another person, which itself is transcribed and footnoted by yet another person. It’s a structurally weird book that’s just as disorienting as the house itself.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (2020)

It’s no coincidence that the horror genre – that safe box of fiction where you can explore fear without real-life consequences – exploded in the wake of the very real global pandemic, and the last few years have borne plenty of new and terrible places to explore. This story revolves around a recently-divorced woman who discovers a hidden door in her uncle’s museum of curiosities. The door leads to an alternate reality that is not quite right. It’s thoroughly creepy in a Lovecraftian way, and the quirky characters inject some humor into this otherwise unsettling read.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (2021)

Four Blackfeet men break a promise during elk hunting season, and now that promise is coming back to haunt them in a very real way, picking them off one by one. It’s pretty gory, but not gratuitously so, and the supernatural elements, the nuanced treatment of Native culture, and the quality of writing were compelling enough for me to overlook the more graphic parts. It’s also one of those stories that surprises you by ending with love and unexpected tears. (Yes – it’s okay to cry at horror.)

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (2021)

Andrew is haunted by the revenant of his best friend Eddie, who suddenly died right before Andrew was about to join him in Nashville. Andrew takes Eddie’s place in his house, his graduate program, and his circle of fast-living friends as he tries to uncover the truth of what happened. There’s a Southern gothic setting, romantic tension so thick you could slice it up and eat it, and a host of queer characters who are not punished for their queerness, but whose acceptance of themselves leads them to happiness. This slow burn is more moody than scary, and it’s a refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable read.

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (2021)

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all. The parent in me found some parts difficult to read, but I needed to keep going and find out what was going on – and the ending completely turned it upside-down.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield (2022)

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. Remember how I said it’s okay to cry at horror? Get your tissues ready, because this is also a heartbreaking story about love and grief.

One Book, One Town, One Difficult Choice!

October 15, 2024October 15, 2024 / Sandy / 2 Comments

The Cheshire Public Library is planning on hosting a One Book, One Town program in 2025. For those unfamiliar with this concept, the idea is to select a book the whole town can read “together”. The library will host a kick-off party and plan programming based on the book’s narrative and themes. We are so excited for this chance to bring the community together under one book, and we’ve been giving the selection process a lot of thought. As a fun peek behind the curtains, I would like to talk a little about the books that we thought could be potential contenders and the reasons why they weren’t selected.

The first novel we considered for this program is Overstory by Richard Powers. This is a dense novel both in size (512 pages) and in content. The story follows 9 characters spanning from the 1950s through the early 2000s as their stories overlap. It’s difficult to say exactly what Overstory is about. It’s a novel about trees, but really, it’s a novel about people, nature and how closely these two worlds overlap. It’s a novel about the importance of paying attention to nature as well as tackling questions about what we can do, both as individuals and collectively, to protect nature and each other. It is beautifully written, each character given their own story and arc. It is also a powerful love letter to trees.

Ultimately, we decided not to choose this book for our program because of its length and concerns about being able to secure the author for an author talk. Powers will be busy with press for his new book titled Playground about oceans, which I am sure is as masterfully written as Overstory. If you can carve out time to read this novel, I highly recommend it.

The second novel in the running for this program was The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Like Overstory, The Great Believers also made it onto the New York Times list of the best 100 books of the 21^st century. The story jumps in time; one part is set in Chicago between 1985 and 1992 and the other in Paris in 2015. The novel is about a group of friends, predominantly gay men, navigating the AIDS crisis in its early days. This is the strongest part of the novel. Makkai captures the fear, loss, and grief from this era while still managing to tell a beautiful story about love and friendship. As the reader, it is easy to fall in love with these characters and feel tremendous sadness about the senselessness of their deaths.

Unfortunately, the parts of the novel that take place in 2015 are less effective. Much of these chapters, which concern survivor’s guilt and lasting trauma, feel extraneous and only serve to distract from the gripping 80s narrative. We decided against this book partly because of these jarring time jumps, as well as concern about the overall heaviness of the subject matter. That being said, if you are looking for something on the power of love and friendship, please don’t hesitate to pick up this book.

The last novel strongly considered for our One Book program was The Women by Kristin Hannah. The hype around this novel has been almost as big as the number of patrons requesting it at the library. The story is about combat nurses in Vietnam and their lives after the war. It’s a difficult read, particularly in its depiction of post traumatic stress disorder. The resources for soldiers returning from the Vietnam war were abysmal and the resources for returning female combat nurses were non-existent. The novel deals with the struggles of settling back into civilian life while having your war experiences repeatedly minimized or even denied.

This book would appeal to a wide audience, particularly those who lived during the Vietnam War, those who served in the war, or those who are interested in the history of that era. We decided against selecting this book because Kristin Hannah’s speaking fees are prohibitively expensive.

We are hoping to finalize the book selection for the program by the end of this month so be sure to keep an eye out early next year for the book unveiling as well as a list of programs. We can’t wait to read with you!

Summer Reads: Books to Beat the Heat

July 29, 2024July 29, 2024 / Kristy / Leave a comment

Whether you prefer snarky humor, historical fiction, or a nice, wholesome murder, there’s something on this list for you.

Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon

The single-line summary on the cover of some editions of this title reads, “She escaped a serial killer. Then things got weird.” I’ve loved the proliferation of murder mysteries featuring a heavy dose of dark humor that have swept publishing over the last few years, and the glitzy Las Vegas setting in Killing Me secures this as a summer read for me. The protagonist is far from perfect but you’ll still want to root for her; the supporting cast will win your heart, and the twists are just frequent and surprising enough to keep the pages turning.

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

A woman wakes up alone in her bed. Her husband has vanished. She’s on vacation in a strange place with no idea where her husband may have gone, and in every place she turns she finds no help- or worse, is met with suspicion. Pavone paints a beautiful picture of Lisbon; it’s an interesting juxtaposition, where the setting should make you yearn to be there, but each chapter brings new revelations and a heightened sense of dread. If you’re looking for a taut thriller to read on the beach, poolside, or on the patio, this is a great pick.

The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton

Cleeton is, to my mind, one of the most underrated authors of historical fiction writing today. Is it because she sometimes allows women’s faces to be seen on her book covers, while others in the genre stick to the “women in period costume facing away” template? Hard to say. What is clear is her talent for creating three-dimensional women characters in rich historical settings. The Cuban Heiress is a great example of Cleeton’s ability to weave the lives and storylines of disparate characters together throughout her books, generally in a tropical setting (think Florida, Cuba, or here, a luxury ship), always with an immensely satisfying ending.

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

This book is perfect for anyone who has wished for death over the prospect of replying to one more email. Sue skewers workplace culture and the characters she writes are laugh-out-loud funny, but be careful, those same characters develop over time and the same people you at first found annoying for microwaving popcorn in the break room or asking for help doing the same thing you’ve shown them 20 times become surprisingly relatable and even heartbreakingly vulnerable the more you learn about them. Perfect for anyone who has ever had to work with human beings, and great for summer because does anyone ever want to be at work in this season?

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

This is a funny but heartfelt coming-of-age tale, set in a 1980s summer, in the Hamptons. That should be enough to place it on any summer Must-Read list, but thankfully, because it’s Colson Whitehead, it doesn’t stop there. The writing is superb and the story feels authentic; it’s based on Whitehead’s own experiences as a Black kid who went to a mostly-white Manhattan prep school but spent his summers in Sag Harbor, an enclave for Black upper class professionals. If you’ve read some of Whitehead’s other works like Underground Railroad or Nickel Boys you might think that such a premise as this will necessarily be lacking in the gravitas of those other books, but you would be wrong: although lighter in tone, there is much to be gleaned from Sag Harbor.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Finding out you’ve been left a life-changing inheritance from a relative to whom you have no emotional attachment is the dream, right? Our hero, Charlie, has a somewhat sad but entirely relatable life when he finds out a long-lost uncle has bequeathed him his fortune and his business. His supervillain business. Charlie must learn how to fend off rival supervillains, do right by his new employees, and survive each day in this new world.

Why is this a summer read? Much of the book is set on a tropical (okay, volcanic) island, complete with (foul-mouthed, desperate to unionize) dolphins. What’s not to love?

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

According to the internet [so insert grain of salt here], the author was watching The Princess Bride with his family when his wife complained of Buttercup’s passivity given her circumstances. This inspired Sanderson to write Tress in secret, eventually surprising his wife with the story, who in turn urged him to publish it more widely. Tress is an appealing protagonist, the world she inhabits is wildly creative, and you’ll finish the book hoping for more adventures with Tress and crew.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

First of all, the dedication in this book reads, “For anybody who could use a break.” Second, we have a book club here at the library whose majority is very vocal about the fact that they neither read nor care for the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. I knew this would be a hard sell. (Overheard grumbling when I handed out copies of the book: “There’s a robot on the cover!”) But at 147 pages, I asked the participants to trust me and give it a try- even if it didn’t end up being their cup of tea, I believed they could stick it out for a book this short. Lo and behold, a month later we met again, and 18 out of 21 participants enjoyed it immensely, much to everyone’s surprise.

This book is thoughtful but soothing, with page after page of phrases you’ll want to pluck out, scribble down on an index card or in your Notes app, and reread to yourself on rough days. Oh, you wanna know what the book’s about? A garden monk living in a Utopian world has an existential crisis, becomes a tea monk, meets one of the robots who wandered off into the wilderness centuries ago, and together they attempt to answer the question, “What do people need?”

Just- trust me and give it a try.

10 Recent Favorites From Our Staff

April 4, 2023March 6, 2023 / Louise / Leave a comment

What was the best book you read in 2022? I recently asked staff members this question and have compiled their answers here. Interestingly, there were no duplications, everyone had a different favorite. Some books were published in 2022, some were many years older, some were fiction, some were nonfiction. Without further ado, here’s a selection of 10 recent favorites from our library staff.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. In the early 1960s, chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott, the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show due to her revolutionary skills in the kitchen, uses this opportunity to dare women to change the status quo.

Neopolitan series by Elena Ferrante. Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, Lila and Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Commissioned to build a machine that will promote gold-rush land-breaking efforts between Civil War-era Seattle and Alaska, inventor Leviticus Blue inadvertently triggers the release of a deadly gas that transforms people into the living dead, a situation that prompts his teenage son to restore the family reputation years later.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. When his best friend dies of an apparent suicide, Andrew uncovers lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death.

What We Wish Were True by Tallu Schuyler Quinn. A non-profit leader, humanitarian and minister, after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer, pens profound essays on what it means to live with a terminal diagnoses and still find meaning and how to discover beauty in life’s ordinary moments.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett. A thief in a city controlled by industrialized magic joins forces with a rare honest police officer to stop an ancient evil ritual that endangers thousands of lives.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Living in a labyrinthine house of endless corridors, flooded staircases and thousands of statues, Piranesi assists the dreamlike dwelling’s only other resident throughout a mysterious research project before evidence emerges of an astonishing alternate world

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. During Kentucky’s Great Depression, Pack Horse Library Project member Cussy Mary Carter, a young outcast, delivers books to the hillfolk of Troublesome Creek, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times, but not everyone is keen on her or the Library Project.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. A modern love story about two childhood friends, Sam, raised by an actress mother in LA’s Koreatown, and Sadie, from the wealthy Jewish enclave of Beverly Hills, who reunite as adults to create video games, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives.

Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard. The world’s leading forest ecologist, in her first book, draws us into the intimate world of trees where she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truth — that trees are a complex, interdependent circle of life.

Book-to-Screen Adaptations Coming in 2023

March 21, 2023March 30, 2023 / Louise / 1 Comment

If you love seeing your favorite books come to life on the big or small screen, 2023 is shaping up to be a great year. And if you’re a read-it-before-you-see-it person, you’ll want to take note of the screen adaptations slated for release this year, and add the following books to your reading list! (Release dates are given when known, though they are subject to change).

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano (on Apple TV+ Feb. 3)

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay (in theaters Feb. 5)

The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black (in theaters Feb. 15)

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (on Amazon Prime Mar. 3)

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume(in theaters Apr. 28)

Text for You (movie title: Love Again)by Sofie Cramer (in theaters May 12)

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (in theaters May 2023)

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (in theaters June 30)

American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (in theaters July 21)

Hallowe’en Party (movie title: A Haunting in Venice) by Agatha Christie (in theaters Sept. 15)

Dune (Part Two) by Frank Herbert (in theaters Nov. 3)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (in theaters Nov. 17)