Plano Reads: Horrifying Halloween!

Scary October has arrived! Thrills and chills await adult readers who try one of these titles, suited to this spooky season of the year…

Phantoms in Fiction

Bird Box by Josh Malerman – Something is out there… something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them. But is it man, animal, or monster? Print |eBook |Audiobook

BTTM FDRS  (graphic novel) by Ezra Claytan Daniels  – Fashion designer Darla moves into a low-rent apartment in Chicago’s Bottomyards, but it is a very strange apartment with dark, empty hallways, looming mysterious figures, and sentient wiring growing out of the walls. A graphic novel tale with gentrification as its main subject, told with body horror elements. Print 

Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror by John F. D Taff – Dark Stars features all-new stories from award-winning authors and up-and-coming voices like Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Usman T. Malik, Caroline Kepnes, and Alma Katsu, with seasoned author John F.D. Taff at the helm. An afterword from original Dark Forces contributor Ramsey Campbell is a poignant finale to this bone-chilling collection. Within these pages you’ll find tales of dead men walking, an insidious secret summer fling, an island harboring unspeakable power, and a dark hallway that beckons. You’ll encounter terrible monsters-both human and supernatural-and be forever changed. Print

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix – Louise’s parents have passed away, and she’s returning to the small Southern town where she grew up to get their house ready to sell. It means she’ll have to spend time with her younger brother–and their old grudges make that a terrifying prospect. But childhood hurts pale in comparison to the dangers posed by what still lives inside the house. Print |eBook |Audiobook

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova – “Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.” (from the publisher) – Print 

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez – After the death of his wife Rosario, Juan sets out to protect their supernaturally-gifted son Gaspar from Rosario’s family—an ancient cult called The Order that performs human sacrifices as a means towards achieving immortality. Juan is a gifted medium who can host a mysterious entity known as “the Darkness,” and it looks like Gaspar may have inherited his father’s abilities. The setting is during Argentina’s Dirty War period, making it easy for The Order to kidnap people that would not be missed.  Print |eBook 

Horrors in NonFiction

Best of How to Haunt Your House by Lynne Mitchell – Create a spooky memory for visitors coming to party or trick-or-treat with DIY projects for haunting your house. With a bit of theatrics and light, you can create your own flying phantasms, giant jointed-leg spider, coffin, and other spooky displays. Print

The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale – London, 1938. In the suburbs of the city, a young housewife has become the eye in a storm of chaos. In Alma Fielding’s modest home, china flies off the shelves and eggs fly through the air; stolen jewellery appears on her fingers, white mice crawl out of her handbag, beetles appear from under her gloves; in the middle of a car journey, a turtle materializes on her lap. The culprit is incorporeal. As Alma cannot call the police, she calls the papers instead. After the sensational story headlines the news, Nandor Fodor, a Hungarian ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research, arrives to investigate the poltergeist. But when he embarks on his scrupulous investigation, he discovers that the case is even stranger than it seems. Print

Monsters in the Movies : 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares by John Landis – Landis presents a personal celebration of the greatest monsters ever to rampage across the silver screen. He also explores the origins of vampires, zombies, and werewolves; reveals the secrets of legendary special-effects wizards; and converses with leading movie makers. Open your eyes to a fascinating world of movies: some classics, some quirky, some forgotten, and some unforgettable crazy! Print

Witch Hunt: A Traveler’s Guide to the Power and Persecution of the Witch by Kristen J Sollée – Kristen J. Sollée explores the witch as a figure of female power and persecution. By infusing an adventurous first-person narrative with extensive research and imaginative historical fiction. Witch hunt captures the magic of travel to make an often-overlooked period of history come alive. Between the 15th-17th centuries, a confluence of political, economic, and religious factors inspired witch hysteria to ignite like wildfire across Europe, and later, parts of America.