What we read: 10 books that will send chills down your spine
‘Tis the season to get comfy on the sofa with a creepy book in hand. Whether you’re looking for a gentle chill down your spine or full-blown terror sweats, read on to find some books that will satisfy your appetite!
Titles to pick up now
True Story (Kate Reed Petty)
In this gripping debut novel, Kate Reed Petty turns ‘the final girl’ trope, with its problematic origins, on its head. Alice Lovette is a high school student in the late 90s, who may or may not have been sexually assaulted by her classmate Nick Brothers, a star sports player destined for big things. True Story is a troubling account of how we handle past traumas, with a narrative that skips back and forth in time to intentionally confuse the reader. Plus there’s a delicious plot twist!
We Have Always Lived In The Castle (Shirley Jackson)
What is there to say? It’s Shirley Jackson, the American queen of gothic horror! But here goes…Headstrong Mary Katherine (nickname: Merricat) and her older sister Constance live in the ramshackle grounds of the Blackwood family home. They’re the remaining members of a grand family wiped out by some pesky arsenic that happened to find its way into the sugar bowl.
So which one of them is guilty? Merricat didn’t have dessert, having been sent to her room as punishment just beforehand. Constance wasn’t in the habit of adding sugar to food already sweet. And Uncle Julian had a sprinkle of sugar, thus managing to survive but only just. The tension of the novel is only heightened by the intense dislike of Merricat and Constance by the villagers.
Mexican Gothic (Silvia Moreno-Garcia)
For readers with a literary appetite for gore, Moreno-Garcia’s latest novel is for you. Set in Mexico in 1950, at a time when women didn’t yet have the right to vote, the protagonist Noemí Taboada is sent to High Place, a creepy house in a remote part of Mexico, to check in on her recently married cousin. There are dark feminist undertones to Mexican Gothic: women are there to get married and be exploited while white colonizers with eugenic beliefs are lurking around every corner.
The Animals At Lockwood Manor (Jane Healey)
This queer, gothic love story, set in England in 1939, brings together a taxidermist (Hetty) and a wealthy heiress (Lucy Lockwood) - but will they survive the threats that lurk in the dark at Lockwood Manor?
All the elements of a classic gothic novel can be found: a spooky house, a suspicious housekeeper, a brutish master, and supernatural elements. The titular animals raise some interesting questions about science and colonization, and the terrifying message to be lifted is that predators are often hiding in plain sight.
Supper Club (Lara Williams)
The Supper Club is a secret society for women, formed by Roberta and her co-worker Stevie, both utterly bored by their day jobs. The women who join the club initially meet up in restaurants and indulge in food and drink before things take a slightly darker turn...breaking into buildings, scavenging for food in street bins, over-eating then purging, taking drugs and dancing topless. This is a brilliantly weird novel that veers between exhilaration, debauchery, and female liberation.
Things We Say In The Dark (Kirsty Logan)
If you consider home as the ultimate safe space, full of comfort, then Things We Say In The Dark is here to convince you otherwise. Each of these brilliantly paced short stories picks apart all the anxieties surrounding many of the fears that women carry around on a daily basis. Whether it’s Kelpies seeing revenge or isolation creeping up on a character, Kirsty Logan is the queen of spellbinding short stories.
Deadly Sacrifice (Stella Oni)
Deadly Sacrifice introduces us to the world’s first-ever Nigerian British detective, DC Toks Ade, who we will be seeing more of in the future, as this is a series. When severed limbs belonging to children start showing up around London, DC Ade and her partner DS Philip Dean find themselves thrown into a world of human trafficking and ritual sacrifice, with Nigerian traditional customs also added to the mix. It’s a race against time to find the killers before more children go missing.
White is for Witching (Helen Oyeyemi)
Four generations of Silver women - Anna, Jennifer, Lily, and now Miranda - have lived in the sprawling family mansion, located in the solitary town of Dover (England). But when Miranda’s mother, Lily, dies suddenly, the house takes on a strange and scary persona. Miranda starts to hear voices coming from inside the house, she loses her appetite, and when she brings a friend home, a supernatural display of hostility will forever change the lives of those within.
The Mercies (Kiran Millwood-Hargrave)
A deadly storm on Christmas Eve in 1617 wipes out all the male inhabitants of a Norwegian island community. The women of Vardø must overcome their grief while learning skills such as fishing, building and repairing, and reindeer herding. Their peaceful existence is threatened upon the arrival of John Cunningham, who has orders from the King of Scotland himself to execute all women found to be guilty of witchcraft. A slow burner of a novel that keeps you on the edge of your seat without even realizing it. Even more chilling when you consider that the novel is based on true events.
A 2021 title we’re excited about:
Madam (Phoebe Wynne)
Caldonbrae Hall has sat untouched for 150 years, a beacon of excellence in an old ancestral castle in Scotland.
Rose Christie joins the teaching staff as a Classics teacher - she also happens to be the first hire for the school in over a decade. Rose soon starts to suspect that behind the school’s elitist veneer lies an impenetrable, starkly traditional culture that she struggles to reconcile with her modernist beliefs.
And then there are the suspicious circumstances surrounding the sudden departure of her predecessor—a woman whose ghost lingers everywhere—with no-one willing to talk. In her search for this mysterious former teacher, Rose instead uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, forcing her to confront the true extent of the school’s nefarious purpose, and her own role in perpetuating it.
Described as “A darkly feminist tale pitched against a haunting backdrop, and populated by an electrifying cast of heroines, Madam will keep readers engrossed until the breathtaking conclusion.”
Pre-order a copy from the publishers. (To be released in May 2021)
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