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Horror Books to Look Forward to in the Winter

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During the winter months, there is always so tempting just creeping back into the bed and read all day. And to get us through the long nights that are already scary, let’s look at some books that can help us be freaked out in the dark.

Thirteen Storeys

By Jonathan Sims

Publication date 24 Nov 2020

Synopsis

You’re cordially invited to dinner. Penthouse access is available via the broken freight elevator. Black tie optional.

A dinner party is held in the penthouse of a multimillion-pound development. All the guests are strangers – even to their host, the billionaire owner of the building
.
None of them know why they were selected to receive his invitation. Whether privileged or deprived, besides a postcode, they share only one thing in common – they’ve all experienced a shocking disturbance within the building’s walls.

By the end of the night, their host is dead, and none of the guests ever said what happened.
His death remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries – until now.

But are you ready for their stories?

Jonathan Sims’ debut is a darkly twisted, genre-bending journey through one of the most innovative haunted houses you’ll ever dare to enter.

Order it here

A House at the Bottom of a Lake

By Josh Malerman

Publication date January 19, 2021

The author from the wildly popular Bird Box, Malermann is back with a brand new book. And the plot of this book, if I may, sounds way more intriguing than Bird Box ever did.

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box comes a haunting tale of mystery and love, as a boy and a girl on their first date discover a strange house at the bottom of a lake–and a secret that will change their lives forever. So many love stories begin like this: It is summer. It is a beautiful night at a lake in the woods. They are seventeen. And it is their first date. But no other love story ends like this. For Jim and Amelia find something even stranger and more magical than first love: Under the water and in the darkness, there is a house at the bottom of the lake. They can’t resist exploring it. What they find seems to be an ordinary house like any other on any street in their little town . . . except that it is underwater. But there is something inside it. Something that calls to them. Something that is telling them to come home . . .

Order it here

The Age of Witches

By Louisa Morgan

Publication date Feb 2021

If you liked the new rise of campy academical witch novels, this is probably for you. If you loved a Discovery of Witches, this looks like it will sort of be in the same type of universe.

Synopsis

In Gilded Age New York, a centuries-long clash between two magical families ignites when a young witch must choose between love and loyalty, power and ambition, in this magical novel by Louisa Morgan.
In 1692, Bridget Bishop was hanged as a witch. Two hundred years later, her legacy lives on in the scions of two very different lines: one dedicated to using their powers to heal and help women in need; the other, determined to grasp power for themselves by whatever means necessary.
This clash will play out in the fate of Annis, a young woman in Gilded Age New York who finds herself a pawn in the family struggle for supremacy. She’ll need to claim her own power to save herself-and resist succumbing to the darkness that threatens to overcome them all.apart, she clings to one purpose: to protect her children at any cost–even from themselves.

Order it here

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5 Works With Vampires Before Dracula

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So we all know Dracula. That old fella, the campy movies, the bone chilling books. It was a real table turner, and has this lingering precence in todays culture. And I mean, espeacially in todays culture. Vampires are so mainstream, the mainstream feels it’s too mainstream. So let’s give it to Stoker, he made all of us goths, emos, metal heads, and whatever subculture you subscribe to. Because Dracula is about subculture and about breaking free from your past, time, history and reinvent yourself. Well… In some readings at least. Bloodsucking toxic people is another one. But there was always something that preceded it, something that inspired the Magnum Opus. And here are some examples.

Carmilla

For all the snobby lesbian goths out there, yes, you are right, Carmilla was way ahead of Dracula. And by way ahead I mean by 26 years. It turned the vampire tropes to stone, set the stage and even the cultural analysis of it, yes, Irish vs British problem, I think of you. And so did probably Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu, the author of the work, as they were both Irish in a time, the Irishmen really needed some literary boost.

Editions

If you want an edition to read that are more academic oriented, i recommend “Carmilla : A Critical Edition” that put weights on its Irish roots.

Because of its length, it is mostly published alone, but if you are interested in the whole short story edition it was originally a part of, In a Glass Darkley, there is also that possibility. But for the cover though, I feel disappointed. It is a bit… boring. The coolest I think, is this hardcover edition by Pushkin press.

Synopsis

But even this, even this wasn’t the so called O.G vampire. Carmilla in turn was most likely inspired by this unfinished poem called Christabel.

Carmilla is the story of a young girl, Laura meeting with the mysterious Carmilla. They live deep in the woods of Styria, in today’s Austria.

Apparently Stoker was working on a new story, set in Styria, Austria with a character called Count Wampyr. So at least he moved the story further east. There is this direct link, I feel, that can’t be ignored. And it isn’t mostly. But to those snobby lesbian goths out there: You go girls, spread the word.

Buy the hardcover here

Listen to it here (Both Rose Leslie (Ygritte in GOT) and David Tennant (ALL CAPS LEGEND) is narrating, check it out)

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The Vampyre

This is an interesting one. John William Polidori’s short story: The Vampyre has sadly been so left at the side. First, he didn’t get the credit he deserved, as it was published by mistake as Lord Byron’s work. Then he tragically ended his life too soon.

It is based on Lord Byron though. He wrote it on that infamous literary retreat with the Shelley’s, and among other works was the start of Frankenstein. Lord Byron also wrote a similar pice, called “A Fragment“. But even more of a fun fact. The whole idea, Polidori played with the idea that a scourned lover of Byron, Caroline, already had published. It is heavily influenced on her book Glenarvon, that is in essence a diss track of Byron. Damn, those friends!

Among gothic and horror fans alike, his work is well known and has its cannon in the genre, but it hasn’t quite reached the mainstream audience as Dracula and in some regards, Carmilla did.

Read it here

Listen to it here

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Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast for Blood

This is one that I long avoided, because I thought it was a comedy, and my small gothic heart couldn’t take the irony, and I found the name Varney a bit comical. Now I BTW love the vampire comedy and What We Do In The Shadows are my life, all versions, thank you very much!

But in fact, it any just seem like a satire because it in fact, installed many of the campy tropes that comes with gothic fiction and vampire fiction. But at the time, it was a Victorian era serialized gothic horror story variously attributed to James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. It first appeared in 1845–1847 as a series of weekly cheap pamphlets of the kind then known as “penny dreadful”, and we simply loves penny dreadful, so much so, that we included it in our merch, check it out here (shameless self promotion, but hey, goths need to eat too).

The author was paid by the typeset line so when the story was published in book form in 1847, it was of epic length: the original edition ran to 876 double-columned pages and 232 chapters. Altogether it totals nearly 667,000 words, and for those of you that ever tried Nanowrimo, you know what I talk about, this is legit a lot.

Read it here

Listen to this and some other not so well known vampire stories that should be heard, read and repeated to infinity here

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Thalaba the Destroyer

Where the main character Thalaba’s deceased beloved Oneiza turns into a vampire, although that occurrence is actually marginal to the story.

OK, but in all seriousness, I do read. Like, a lot. Might just seem like I just subscribe to a niche part of tumblr, but no, this is serious literature. Serious FORGOTTEN literature. Ah. I think I would have been more OK with it, if not the end product (read Dracula) didn’t become so influential and that they give whole subjects to at uni. Also, sorry for my informal tone in talking about these pieces of arts, as my academic is reserved for school and I love to shake that stiff old academic voice off. (my professor highly disapproves though = academic literate reject).

Thalaba the Destroyer is more of an epic-work as in ,literary epics, spanning over time, place, people. It was written by Robert Southey from the Romantic school, as in the literary Romantics. If he really was into romance, I have no way of telling. It is interesting because of the plot. The poem is a twelve-book work with irregular stanzas and lines that are not rhymed. The poem deals with Harun al-Rashid and a group of sorcerers at Domdaniel that live under the sea. It was foretold that Thalaba, a Muslim, would be God’s champion and conquer the sorcerers. Something a bit odd for a British christian guy in the early 1800s to write about, but nonetheless very interesting.

Read it here

Ninety Years Later

Why does it have to be British tough? It makes sense in the Victorian times, being so sexual represses, something we might read into modern day mormon vampire tales and deep south sexual repression?

But no, it doesn’t always have to be British. In fact, Eastern Europe is steep in vampire lore, literature and culture. Several of those books and the likes though is not translated. But they do exist. For example we have the Serbian story with the most famous Serbian vampire, Sava Savanović from a folklore-inspired novel Ninety Years Later, or as in this translation: After Ninety Years, by Milovan Glišić, first published in 1880.

Read it here

There are also German, like our emo friend Goethe that wrote the poem The bridge of Corinth. There are a lot of them. What is your favorite forgotten vampire story?

Any of this seem interesting for you? How about getting into the listening train of audio books. Now, get 50% off for the next 3 months. I’ve checked and I am now firmly sure these are the one that can offer most horror titles of the audio book platforms.

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5 Horror Movies Based on Books

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The creepy stuff on TV is often visual or sound based. Jump scares and scary costumes. It makes me wonder how on earth one can sustain the same type of scare in a book. But then I pick up one of these and I remember. The internal images in my head is pretty messed up as well.

In that regard, let’s have a look at the books that inspired some pretty iconic movies. The links provided are from Audible, and are affiliated links. That means I make a commission from each of the purchases coming off the links. And with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s look at the books and movies.

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

The movie has now gone on to be this iconic horror movie credited to director Roman Polanski. But did you know that it was originally a book published in 67, only a year before the movie came out. The writer Ira Levin is sort of an iconic figure about writing about seemingly perfect societies. He also wrote the Stepford Wives.

Summary
Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling-actor husband, Guy, move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents.
Neighbours Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome them; despite Rosemary’s reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband starts spending time with them.
Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavets’ circle is not what it seems.

Read it here (Intro by Chuck Palanhiuk, writer of Fight Club)

Listen to it here

30 Days of Night, Vol. 1 by Steve Niles

This was one of those movies that came out in 2007 that I never thought I would like, but then did, because… well, not sure, never mind that. But anyhow. Before it was a movie, it was a comic book published in 2002 by Steve Niles. Since then it has continued to live and grow. Now Audiable have this cool thing where they get a bunch of narrators together.

Summary
The isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only Barrow’s husband-and-wife sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction. By the time the sun rises, will they pay the ultimate price – or worse?

Read the graphic novel here

Listen to it here

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The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

For those who follows Moonmausoleum, knows our weak spot is the classic Gothic setting. The movies that have been made of this have been alright, as I am extremely biased and just love everything with that setting: a haunted house, stiff British people and scary kids in Victorian clothing. And this is what it promises, a classical ghost story. Susan Hill wrote the book back in 1983, but the story is set at the turn of the century.

Summary
As is so often the case with truly well-constructed fiction, this story contains all the exquisitely crafted detail and richness that film adaptations can struggle to encompass. Only enhanced by Paul Ansell’s thoughtful narration, this is Susan Hill at her best. Eel Marsh house stands alone, surveying the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway. Once, Mrs Alice Drablow lived here as a recluse. Now, Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor with a London firm, is summoned to attend her funeral, unaware of the tragic and terrible secrets which lie behind the house’s shuttered windows. It is not until he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a sense of profound unease begins to creep over him and take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk about the woman in black or what happens whenever she is seen.

Read it here

Listen to it here

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Do you know when you read a lot, one tends to become somewhat of a snob. This is what happened to me and in my stupid belief I had read everything worth reading and would never find something new I liked. But then, this came out, and it tipped the vampire genre on its head. Even the most snobbish Scandinavian literary critics that hates anything supernatural loved it. And so must you! And if you rather want to watch the movie, choose the Swedish one, as that one actually is pretty good as well.

Summary
Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself.
Oskar is a 12-year-old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city’s edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he’s frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn’t go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200-year-old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood.

Read it here

Listen to it here

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Yes Netflix, we have a lot to thank you for, but the movie version of Bird Box is not one. It’s not as it is bad, it is just… meh. And perhaps because it came out just because A Quiet Place came out and they were sort of similar. And by that, I mean very similar. But the book! The book is beautiful!

Summary
Most people ignored the outrageous reports on the news. But they became too frequent, they became too real. And soon, they began happening down the street. Then the Internet died. The television and radio went silent. The phones stopped ringing. And we couldn’t look outside anymore.
Malorie raises the children the only way she can; indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows. They are out there. She might let them in. The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall. Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them. Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything.

Read it here

Listen to it here

Any of this seem interesting for you? How about getting into the listening train of audio books. Now, get 50% off for the next 3 months. I’ve checked and I am now firmly sure these are the one that can offer most horror titles of the audio book platforms.

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