Chillers for the Season

 Selections by Jeanne

I’m not normally a horror reader.  Oh, I used to be, years ago, but that was before Richard Matheson’s Hell House aka The Legend of Hell House scared the bejezus out of me and kept me awake a couple of nights. Since then I’ve been cautious about the scary stuff I read because I am now much older and I need my sleep.  I do still pick up the occasional creepy book, especially this time of year.  Here are some I have enjoyed in the past:

Hell House:  Nope, nope, not going to pick this one up again.  The ending is still too vivid.  Matheson’s tale of a group of investigators who spend the night in an allegedly haunted house may be tame by today’s standards, even be considered stale after a legion of books on this theme, but I don’t care.  I’m not going to read it again.  I’m just going to respect it from a safe distance.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson:  Most people like The Haunting of Hill House, but I was drawn to this story of two sisters who are shunned by most of the town over an incident in the past.  Of course, Jackson's story“The Lottery” is an absolute gem; but I also very much like – and often refer to—“One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts.”  (For a different view of Jackson, by all means pick up her two domestic humor books, Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons. )

The Seeker by R.B. Chesterton: Graduate student Aine Cahill has a journal written by a female relative who was a friend (and perhaps more) to Henry David Thoreau.   As part of her research, Aine has come to Walden Pond to try to find evidence to corroborate Aunt Bonnie’s story but soon she begins to wonder if there is something else lurking in the woods.  This is one of those books that the minute I finished I tried to find someone else to read the book so we could discuss it.  Extremely well written, atmospheric, and with fascinating characters, this is one I recommend often.  (Chesterton is a pen name for Carolyn Haines, who writes the Sarah Booth Delaney mysteries, but the Chesterton titles are darker in tone and, so far, are standalones.)

The Other by Thomas Tryon:  Another book I read years ago, but which left a strong impression.  The story revolves around young brothers Niles and Holland who live on a farm in New England.  While twins, the two boys are very different in personality:  Niles is sweet natured and cautious, while Holland is daring and reckless, with a cruel streak. But is he responsible for a series of “accidents” around the farm?  This was Tryon’s first novel, but it was followed by another semi-classic horror tale, Harvest Home. He later turned to historical fiction before his untimely death.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill:  After a number of folks on DorothyL recommended this title, I picked it up.  I soon put it back down again. This tale of a young solicitor sent to a remote village to settle an estate was written in the Victorian first person style and just seemed too slow.  A few months later, I picked it up again and was drawn in immediately.  The setting is vivid: a dark, desolate old mansion out in a salt march with the fog rolling in, and a dampness that seems to seep out of the words and straight into the reader’s bones. The ending is abrupt, shocking.  At first I felt a bit cheated, but I certainly remember it; so it certainly fulfilled its purpose.  By the way, if you’ve seen the movie with Daniel Radcliffe, then you have some idea of the atmosphere of the book.  That part was very well done.  However, the movie took a number of liberties, including changing the ending and turning it into more of a standard horror movie.

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King: This was King’s second novel after Carrie and I liked it better.  For one thing, it was a dandy modern-day vampire story.  Set in Maine, the story revolves around a small town where two strangers have moved into a house with an unsettling reputation.  Then things really start to go downhill. . . . King has said that the inspiration for the book was wondering what would happen if Dracula moved into to a contemporary American village and the parallels are easy to see. 

Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin: Long before the first Game of Thrones book, Martin wrote a number of science fiction/fantasy books, including this gem.  Abner Marsh is a Mississippi steamboat owner whose fleet has been pretty much demolished.  Enter Joshua York, a mysterious gentleman who is willing to bankroll a fantastic new boat. . . but York’s secrecy worries Marsh.  Just what is York hiding? And what plans does he have for this boat? This is another great example of Martin’s ability to take a genre and reform it in new and interesting ways.

Happy reading!

Halloween Treasures You May Have Missed

 Comments by Jeanne

There are lots of lists of classic horror tales, of the newest horror tales, of best-selling horror tales, but there are still some good books by well-known authors which don’t show up on the usual lists. Here are some that deserve to have a wider audience:

Legend of Hell House by Richard Matheson is also known simply as Hell House or Richard Matheson’s Hell House. A wealthy man on his deathbed wants proof of life after death. He sends a group of people including two mediums and a physicist to Belasko House, a place rumored to be haunted by the malevolent spirit of its former owner. This book kept me up for nights after I read it back in high school. I don’t know if it would scare me quite so much today but I’m not willing to take the chance. I need my sleep.

(Matheson is also the author of the cult classic vampire novel I Am Legend and the time travel fantasy Somewhere In Time. He also wrote a number of scripts for shows like Twilight Zone, including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” which to this day keeps airline passengers peeking at the plane’s wings, hoping NOT to see a gremlin.)

Thanks to the HBO series, George R.R. Martin is reaching a whole new audience who come to the library for his epic fantasy novels. What many don’t realize is that Martin was writing long before Game of Thrones and has other wonderful novels. One of these is Fevre Dream. Set in 1857, a steamboat captain is contacted by a gentleman who offers him the dream of a lifetime: construction of a steamboat which will be the greatest on the Mississippi: larger, faster, and more luxurious than any other. The boat is duly built, but questions soon arise about the gentleman and his unusual assortment of friends—none of whom seem to venture out in daylight. (A quick plug for another Martin book: Tuf Voyaging, about a space-going environmental engineer who specializes in collecting animal species and genetic engineering. Tuf is a bit of a rare creature himself: an honest man.) While you wait for Winds of Winter, give these a try!

Barbara Hambly has written in a number of genres, including mystery, historical, science fiction and fantasy. She’s best known for her Benjamin January mystery series set in Louisiana in the 1830s, but she’s also the author of the James Asher series of vampire novels. Asher is a professor and former secret agent who is contacted by Simon Ysidro who wants Asher to investigate the murders of several London vampires. He encourages Asher’s cooperation by threatening Asher’s wife. The first book in the series is Those Who Hunt the Night, followed by Traveling with the Dead, Blood Maidens, and Magistrates of Hell. Hamby does a superb job of evoking places and time as well creating exciting stories with memorable characters.

Favorite Frights!

Melon votes for Godzilla as favorite movie monster.

Since it is the season for ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, we thought we’d talk a bit about scary books and movies. Horror like beauty is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.

First up is Jeanne:

I don’t read a lot of horror books any more. I did while I was in high school many, many years ago. There was this new guy, Stephen King, and he did some good books like Carrie and ‘Salem’s Lot. I read Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin and The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. I read a lot of Shirley Jackson, like We Have Always Lived in the Castle (still a favorite) and The Haunting of Hill House. I read a lot of forgettable books, too; so forgettable that I have forgotten them. Then a neighbor recommended that I read Richard Matheson’s Hell House (also known as The Legend of Hell House) because it was the scariest book he’d ever read.

The plot was fairly standard. A group of researchers go to an allegedly haunted house. It’s a diverse group, of course, with skeptics mixed in with believers, mediums and scientists. The house in question belonged to an eccentric millionaire who disappeared after some murders; no one knows how he was involved, victim or perpetrator. Naturally—or unnaturally—things start to happen after the researchers move in. I’m sketchy on the details. I do remember finishing the book and thinking, “Well, that wasn’t so scary.”

Pride goeth before a fall.

I hadn’t been asleep for more than a few minutes when I began to dream about the book. I was so badly frightened I sat up the rest of the night and only dozed off after the sun came up. It took several nights for me to be able to sleep without dreaming about a particular scene. I don’t know exactly what it was about the book, but it’s the one that sort of weaned me away from horror. I never wanted to be afraid to go to sleep like that again.

That was the first Richard Matheson book I ever read. He’s one of those wonderful underrated authors who can write stories that linger in the mind. Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes it is a bad thing! His stories were adapted for film: he wrote a number of the Twilight Zone episodes, including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” about the demon on the plane’s wing that only one passenger sees. Or is the man simply hallucinating? He also wrote Bid Time Return, which was made into the movie “Somewhere in Time” with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour and was a sweetly romantic story. Possibly his best known work is I Am Legend, a vampire tale that has been made into a move three times and had a graphic novel adaptation, but for all that he remains an author that few people seem to know by name.

There are scary non-fiction books, too. There are at least two non-fiction books that kept me tossing and turning as well as turning pages. The first was Helter Skelter : the True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, which isn’t surprising: killers are scary, especially ones who are just plain nuts. Just as scary, though, was The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, which was the first time I had ever heard of the ebola virus. I learned more than I ever thought I wanted to know about deadly diseases and he made it fascinating and exciting. I found myself holding my breath when the investigators went into a cave where it was suspected the virus could be found. I also used a lot of hand sanitizer and worried a bit when I had a headache. The Hot Zone is a book as thrilling as it is terrifying, and a great reminder that not all monsters come in large packages.

I would tell my scariest movie, but it’s too embarrassing. I found it on a list of the most ridiculous movies ever made. Somehow it seemed really scary when I watched on “Chilller” very late one night, back when I was twelve. Suffice it to say, there was a creature locked up behind a door for most of the movie and all the audience could see was an arm attempting to grab the mad scientist. Perhaps I’ll settle for the more respectably scary “The Birds.”

What would your picks be?