Susan Chapman: Hi, I'm one of the managers of Bloomsbury books, and I just want to mention two cozy Halloween mysteries. One is called “Haunted to Death” by Frank Anthony Polito, very cozy and “Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop” by Emmeline Duncan. So if you want something that is just a little bit scary. That's where I would go. You can read this when you're sitting in your cozy rocking chair with a cup of tea. I also want to mention a book that we just got in called “Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch,” which is perfect for me. So that would be my suggestion for anyone like me who doesn't like to watch scary movies.
Vanessa Finney: And for mystery fans, just a quick shout out. It's over now, but the Ashland Mystery Festival, how can people find out about that, to plug in next year?
SC: Okay, that is in the middle of October. If you just go to Ashlandmysteryfestival.com, it should show up for next year. It usually lasts about four days, and it's a lot of fun. This year we had about 500 people or more, so it was very popular.
Nic Anderson: I'm here to talk about maybe not-so-cozy books, but they are really infectious reads. First one that comes to mind is “Last Days” by Brian Evanson. This is a great book, if you're into detective fiction, but you want something a little bit more demented. So it's about a detective named Mr. Klein who is depressed because he has recently lost one of his hands on his last assignment. And this attracts the attention of a group, a cult called the Brotherhood of Mutilation, who believe that in order to get closer to God, you have to lose as many limbs as you can. And so he gets kidnapped by this cult, and what results is a bloody revenge story through this cult and a separate cult that comes in at the second half of the book. It is a wonderful read, lots of great dark humor in there, compulsively, readable, very good. It's very much in the same vein as - imagine if Raymond Chandler and Poe wrote a book. This would be what it would be like.
"Imagine if Raymond Chandler and Poe wrote a book. This would be what it would be like."
And then the only other book that I can think of is called “The Damned” or “Là-Bas" in its original French. This is a weird book. It follows a writer named Durtal in the 1880s, and that's when the book came out - during the 1880s in what we call the fin de siecle, which was the end of the century during the decadence period of literature. And he is writing a biography on the Gilles de Rais, who was one of history's most notorious serial killers. He was also the friend of Joan of Arc. And while he's writing this monstrous biography on the Gilles de Rais, he receives notification of Madame Chantelouve, who is a fan of his work, of his prior books, and wishes to basically start an affair with him and lead him down into the dungeons of Paris at the time, where a lot of people are really interested in the occult. And what results is a very pessimistic, funny book. And look at the industrialization of France. It also has plenty of medieval history around France during that time. So it's a great, great book, very weird book. Highly recommended, though.
VF: Terrific. Those both sound very literary and bound to appeal to both the mystery lovers and history lovers.
NA: Yes, absolutely. And they're just really demented books. I love that sort of stuff. I also do want to mention that one of our co workers - and he's a local author - has his own scary books out, called “The Family Condition” and “The Aching Plane.” Both of these books are what we would call horror love stories, almost. They are wonderful, and you should absolutely check them out.
Riley Oken: The first book I want to talk about today is “The Bog Wife” by Kay Chronister. It's new in hardcover, just came in, and it's an ecological, dark fantasy, occult family drama. It's set in a remote area of West Virginia on a cranberry bog. It's unique and haunting, and one of my favorite new books out in hardcover right now, and it's great if you like Southern Gothics. The other book I wanted to talk about was “Smothermoss” by Alisa Alering. It says Southern Appalachian Gothic meets coming-of-age novel meets crime novel, murder mystery meets dark fantasy. So it's a lot of things, but it's a really beautifully atmospheric, magical story of two sisters and their connection to their home in the mountainous Appalachian wilderness. That home is endangered by … how do I say this without spoiling … certain unforeseen threats, including a murderer on the loose. And it's truly a delight. It explores the bonds that hold us to each other, to ourselves and to the land we live on.
"It's a really beautifully atmospheric, magical story of two sisters and their connection to their home in the mountainous Appalachian wilderness."
Let's see another one, if we have time, is “Never Whistle at Night.” It's a dark fantasy, dark fiction, Indigenous anthology. It's 26 different authors, all Indigenous writers. It's really amazing. And there's a lot of new writers. Some of them, it's their first book they've ever written, and others - there's some favorites in there, like Tommy Orange. He has a story in there too, but it's great. If you like folklore, dark fantasy, it's a real treat. And there's something for everybody to love in there, because there's so many different stories of so many different kinds.
Cody Lakin: I'm going to recommend a couple horror novels. The first one is called “Indian Burial Ground” by Nick Medina. It's still in hardcover. Nick Medina is a member of the Tunika-Biloxi tribe of Louisiana. He's from Chicago. “Indian Burial Ground” is kind of like a mythological horror. It's a thriller. It has horror elements in it. It's not too scary, but it also has one of the more unique takes on the vampire genre that I've ever come across. And he writes beautiful characters. It’s set on a fictional reservation. And he has two novels out: His previous one, “Sisters of a Lost Nation” - same reservation. It's really neat.
VF: And what makes it a unique take?
CL: I think the vampire genre can tend to follow the same tropes almost too much every time. That's almost like the Dracula structure that so many authors are kind of overly attached to. This one felt like it reinterpreted vampires within the mythology and the world of the story in a way that was refreshing to me.
I have another one, and I think I'm saying this correctly. It's called “Linghun” by Ai Jiang. This one's like a haunted house story kind of turned on its head, like a subversion of the ghost story trope, where it's not the ghosts haunting the living, it's the living unable to let go of their lost loved ones who are haunting the dead. It's a very beautifully written story, and more of a novella than a full novel, but there's so much to unpack in it, and a lot to feel.
"It's a book you read with your whole heart, as well, as it's melancholy but also very haunting."
There's a classic one here, “Ghost Story” by Peter Straub. Some people might know Straub because he co-wrote a book with Stephen King back in the late 80s, called “The Talisman.” And he's won several awards, like the STOKERCON, a very literary horror writer. He used to be known as an outsider in the mainstream, just because he wrote unusual stories, not so much like Stephen King. They're not not as easily digestible, but if you give your attention to them and are willing to kind of dive into the layers, they're very rewarding. One of my favorite writers, Peter Straub. StokerCon is run by the HWA, which is the Horror Writers Association. They host the StokerCon convention named after Bram Stoker, author of “Dracula.” It's, as far as I know, the largest literary horror convention. And they move around every year. Last year was San Diego, and next year will be Chicago. And Peter Straub was a frequent member or attendee of StokerCon, and he won - I don't know how many of their of the Bram Stoker awards, but I know at least one or two.
Another one is “Our Share of Night” by Mariana Enriquez, one of my favorite writers in one of my favorite books. Enriquez, she's from Argentina. This is the first of her novels to be translated. She has three short story collections. Also, each one is brilliant. This one is the first novel. It's over 600 pages, so it's quite a read. But as beautiful as it is, just vicious and incredibly disturbing.
VF: What's the basic premise?
CL: It's like a father and son on the run from their own family. The family is a cult, a supernatural cult, and also super rich, so they're very powerful. And part of the story takes place right after the brutal years of Argentina's military dictatorship. So you get the aftermath of that, see a country in chaos and turmoil. Also there’s this very complicated bond between a father and son and what inheritance means, and the good and the bad. In this case, a lot of both, a lot of darkness. Hence the title, “Our Share of Night,” which I think is a quote from Emily Dickinson. The way I like to put it is, it is a viciously disturbing, but also a wildly beautiful book. And I believe it was named one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year when it came out.
And the last book I have here is called “The Fisherman” by John Langan, one of my favorite books in any genre. This book also won John Langan a Bram Stoker Award in, I think it was 2016. This one is more of a literary cosmic horror novel in the Lovecraftian tradition. So it's a lot of fun, but it's also a story of grief and longing and what lengths you would go to to try and see your loved ones again, the people you've lost. Very human and then also very otherworldly at the same time. Langan writes beautifully, a very literary horror writer, who - whether it's his collections or this novel - is one of my favorites,
And here in the kids section at Bloomsbury, we have a lot of kid-appropriate or all-ages books selected, including a couple displays of stuff from Ray Bradbury. There's a funny looking edition of Dracula over here. A lot of picture books, almost like cozy spooky stuff you can decorate for Halloween, like press-out and decorate Halloween books, stickers, ”Little Ghosts,” “Things that go Bump in the Day,” and horror stories, “The Black Girl Survives in This One.” Oh yeah, I heard about this one.
VF: Is that more of a young-adult?
CL: Yeah, this is a young adult book called “The Black Girl Survives in This One.” It's a collection of short stories from a bunch of different authors with a foreword written by Tananarive Priscilla Due, who is a legendary writer in the genre. That is awesome, Horror encapsulates a lot of different genres. It's like almost an umbrella term. There's weird fiction. Horror would fall under weird fiction, speculative fiction, but the way I've heard it put is that horror has always been at the forefront of pushing the envelope of genre in general. So there’s literary horror, which is my favorite. There's thriller, crime horror, there's Lovecraftian or cosmic horror, of course, haunted house stuff, or ghost stories. For years, it's been looked down upon. Horror is kind of…. I've heard it called the trash bin of genre. Same with romance, where people can look down on them, but when you look at them more closely, especially now that they're getting more readers and a wider variety of writers, more diverse voices that we're getting in the genre. You really can see the literary merits.
