The New Zombies

For the last few years, it’s been sparkly, sullen vampires who’ve ruled page and screen. But slowly, steadily creeping up on the bloodsuckers, is a new version of an old favorite: the zombie. Films like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, plus Max Brooks’ and Seth Graham-Smith’s tongue-in-cheek books The Zombie Survival Guide and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, lead the charge with a sarcastic, wholly unique 21st century brand of humor. Other novelists have contributed a new intensity and complexity that comment on modern society and politics—or make some very intriguing changes to the traditional zombie genre. Zombie books are hitting the bestseller lists hard, and readers cannot wait to devour them.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, 2004, Image Comics (Horror/ Graphic Novel). 

When small-town sheriff Rick Grimes wakes up from a gunshot-induced coma, the concerned faces of his family and friends do not surround him. Instead, the dead have become the undead, moaning and groaning and eating brains. For all intents and purposes, life as Rick knows it is over. There are few explanations here, and the story is better for it—Rick and the reader are flung headfirst into a ruined world and forced to battle hoards of reeking zombies for a very slim chance at survival. As Rick desperately searches for his missing wife and son in this, the first volume of the graphic novel series that inspired AMC’s hit TV show of the same name, authors Kirkman and Moore craft a compelling, character-driven story supported by black-and-white artwork that is finely detailed (and very often violent, zombies not being for the faint of heart). It’s human relationships that are at the heart of The Walking Dead, and the twists and turns that this new life throws at Rick and the other survivors are consistently thrilling and surprisingly thoughtful. The Walking Dead, Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves came out in December 2011—just in time for a very gory Christmas. 

The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore 

Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye 

Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us 

Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars 

Vol. 4: The Heart’s Desire 

Vol. 5: The Best Defense 

Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life 

Vol. 7: The Calm Before 

Vol. 8: Made to Suffer 

Vol. 9: Here We Remain 

Vol. 10: What We Become 

Vol. 11: Fear the Hunters 

Vol. 12: Life Among Them 

Vol. 13: Too Far Gone 

Vol. 14: No Way Out 

Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves

Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, 2010, Margaret K. McElderry Books (Short Story Collections/ Young Adult Fantasy). 

This wildly inventive short story collection pits the undead against an unlikely foe: unicorns. Yep, unicorns with their pointy horns and ability to sniff out virgins go head-to-head with the moaning, groaning zombie. Though the unicorns are entertaining (Meg Cabot’s unicorns literally fart rainbows in “Princess Prettypants” and the mythical beasts prove surprisingly unnerving in stories like Margo Lanagan’s “Thousand Flowers” and Diana Peterfreund’s “The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn”), it is zombies—in this blogger’s opinion, at least—that get the last laugh. Carrie Ryan continues to build on the worldwide zombie apocalypse she began in The Forest of Hands and Teeth with her story, “Bougainvillea.” Libba Bray’s “Prom Night” and Scott Westerfeld’s “Inoculata” both feature teens in a world that’s short on living adults but overflowing with undead ones. And tales like Alaya Dawn Johnson’s haunting “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Maureen Johnson’s satirical “Children of the Revolution” stand the zombie tradition on its head. Editors Holly Black (Team Unicorn) and Justine Larbalestier (Team Zombie) debate the finer points of rotting flesh-eater vs. magical horse in witty asides between stories (the controversy began one day during the comments section of Justine's blog). Much more than just a clever gimmick, Zombies vs. Unicorns is full of strange, suspenseful, captivating stories. 

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, 2009, Delacorte Press (Young Adult Fantasy/ Horror). 

In Mary’s world, there are two kind of people: her fellow villagers who dwell under the protection of the religious Sisterhood, and the hoards of the Unconsecrated undead who claw at the village’s fences. Despite the zombies—many of who bear the faces of former loved ones—Mary’s life is simple. The Sisterhood is preparing her for a preordained marriage and Mary will go live with her new husband. She’s in love with another young man, but the Sisterhood’s rules are what keep the village safe. But Mary’s love triangle takes a new turn when the zombies breach the fence and overrun the village. Now Mary and a few others—including her fiancé and the boy she loves—are on their own. A few gated paths wind through the forest, but no one knows where they lead. And the Unconsecrated are always nearby, lurking just on the other side of that deceptively secure chain-link fence. The combination of horror and an old-fashioned way of life is unique, and the suspense runs high. Author Carrie Ryan crafts a detailed new world, with causes and consequences that propel the story forward into two sequels that together create an intense new zombie mythology. 

The Forest of Hands and Teeth Trilogy by Carrie Ryan 

1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth (2009) 

2. The Dead-Tossed Waves (2010) 

3. The Dark and Hollow Places (2011)

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, 2009, Tor Books (Fantasy/ Science Fiction/ Steampunk/ Horror). 

1863. The Alaskan Gold Rush is in full swing, and inventor Leviticus Blue is commissioned to build an immense steam-powered ice-drilling machine. But then Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine comes bursting out of his Seattle basement and destroys the city. Worse, the machine opens a vein of toxic subterranean gas (dubbed “the Blight”) that turns everyone who breathes it into zombies. Sixteen years later, Seattle is an abandoned wreck surrounded by a wall that keeps the Blight’s rotting victims contained. Outside the wall, Blue’s widow Briar Wilkes lives with her son Zeke. When Briar won’t answer Zeke’s questions about his father, the boy sneaks into the city. Briar goes after him, and soon they meet a rag-tag crew of survivors who have eked out a life for themselves. Some of these survivors help mother and son, and some hinder (including mad scientist Dr. Minnericht, who bears an eerie resemblance to the infamous Levi Blue), but all of them add to the action-packed adventure of Boneshaker. Author Cherie Priest paints a vivid portrait of an alternate Seattle, gives readers a delightful pair of heroes with wiseass Zeke and tough-as-nails Briar, and throws in lots of good and gory zombie action.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel, 2011, Del Ray/ Ballantine Books (Young Adult Science Fiction/ Steampunk/ Fantasy). 

Romance with a zombie? That’s hard to swallow! In the year 2195, a new civilization modeled after the prim-and-proper Victorian Era rises from the ashes of natural disasters and war. Nora Dearly is a New Victorian who should be focused on social calls and marriage rather than on politics and history. But then Nora is kidnapped by a band of zombies—zombies who don’t want to eat her up. The so-called Lazarus Virus reanimates the infected, but a lucky few manage to keep their bodies whole and their minds clear. Bram Griswold is a solider in this unique zombie army, and it’s up to him to convince Nora that they’re actually allies. Soon, Nora is loosening her corset to make room for a holster and gun, growing close to the handsome and helpful Bram, and blowing open a massive conspiracy involving her recently-deceased scientist father, the anti-Victorian counter-culture known as the Punks, and a mysterious undead army that is considerably less friendly and more hungry than Bram’s group. This is not your traditional “eat-your-brains” zombie story—it’s an imaginative adventure with dashes of dark humor and steamy romance. And like any good young adult sci-fi novel, there’s a sequel (Dearly, Beloved) already in the works.

Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S.G. Browne, 2009, Broadway Books (Fantasy/ Dark Humor). 

Andy Warner died in a car crash. After his preserving treatment at the funeral home but before being buried, Andy woke up as a zombie. This is not incredibly unusual; it just happens sometimes. But zombies are not exactly welcomed back into polite society. Instead they’re considered less-than-human and policed by Animal Control. Andy’s too dazed to mind at first (he can’t even talk because his lips are stitched together) but he finds time to attend Undead Anonymous meetings. There he meets a sexy suicide named Rita and undead stoner Jerry. When fellow zombie Ray introduces the trio to the joys of the afterlife, Andy finds himself refusing to sit in the back of the bus and picketing for zombie civil rights. With pretty Rita at his side, Andy might get used to life-after-death—unless the human “breathers” have anything to say about it. Feeling sympathy for a zombie is new for most readers, but that’s what makes Breathers such a unique read—it’s gruesome, endearing, and darkly comic all at the same time. Author S.G. Browne describes his debut novel as a zom-rom-com, a zombie romantic comedy. With a genre-bending label like that, what more can you ask for?

Zone One by Colson Whitehead, 2011, Doubleday Books (Science Fiction). 

The zombie apocalypse has come and (mostly) gone. Mark Spitz survived, and so did lots of other people. Okay, maybe not “lots,” but enough for the reformed government to set up a few refugee camps and attempt to rebuild. Manhattan has been cleared of all but the “stragglers”—zombies that, for whatever reason, are stuck repeating some mundane former behavior instead of chasing after the living. Part of a three-person sweeper crew, Mark Spitz tags and bags the leftover undead and tries to cope with his—and everyone else’s—PASD (Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder). As his team frees the city of its dead, he reflects on life before “Last Night,” other survivors he hunkered down with, and his new life among the slogans, sponsors, and theme songs of the new era (“Stop! Can You Hear the Eagle Roar?” [theme from Reconstruction]). The future is a tentative thing, and Mark Spitz is both lulled by its promise and wary of it—and with good reason, because it’s only when you let your guard down that the zombies get close enough to bite. Satirical and darkly clever, Zone One is a fresh, intelligent examination of the zombie genre, a probing examination of what it means to be a survivor, and a searing look at what it means to be human.

ARCs @ ALA

There’s nothing like a half-mile long convention center exhibit hall full of publishers throwing books at you to get you back in the mood for book-blogging. The American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference was in New Orleans last month, and the exhibit hall was a librarian’s heaven on earth. You’d walk past a table and a book would appear in your hands—an ARC, or Advanced Reading Copy. Many of those ARCs were new graphic novels and illustrated books that represent an especially exciting trend in publishing right now. Here are some new and up-coming titles, fresh from the forty-pound bag of books that this librarian lugged across that exhibit hall, through the convention center, and down the streets of New Orleans.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, Sep. 11, 2011, Scholastic Books (Children’s Illustrated Novel)

Brian Selznick’s debut novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, won the Caldecott Medal. Selznick’s second book, Wonderstruck, continues to push the boundaries of the illustrated novel format. Just as Hugo Cabret told a good portion of its story through full-page black-and-white drawings, Wonderstruck is also full of Selznick’s trademark illustrations. But this time, half the novel is told through pictures alone—the story of Rose, a girl in the 1920s who becomes enchanted with a beautiful actress. Ben’s story, set in 1977 as he runs away from home, is told in words. Combined, the stories of Rose and Ben offer tales of mystery and intrigue that wind and weld through a union of art and prose. Selznick has become an expert at mixing elements of the novel, graphic novel, picture book, and film, and Wonderstruck continues to cement his reputation as a visionary in his field.

Trickster: Native American Tales—A Graphic Collection edited by Matt Dembicki, 2010, Fulcrum Books (Graphic Novel Anthology)

Native American stories are often overlooked in literature; even more so in the graphic novel boom that has swept book publishing the last few years. But Trickster: Native American Tales remedies all that—and does so in an intelligent, artistic, and truly delightful way. Collecting various interpretations of the Trickster character and myth just as it collects different artists and authors to tell the tales, Trickster is a unique and authentic anthology. The artwork ranges in style from bubbly cartoon rabbits to realistic raccoons to black-and-white inked coyotes and ravens; the tales are drawn from many cultures to emphasis the distinct differences between North America’s tribal groups. But it’s not only educational information about a too-often-ignored history; Trickster is as genuinely funny as it is thought-provoking. Whether he’s a coyote creating stars in the sky or a rabbit out-witting bison, there’s something for everyone in the tales of the Trickster.

Around the World: Three Remarkable Journeys by Matt Phelan, Oct. 11, 2011, Candlewick Press (Children’s Graphic Nonfiction)

Picture book illustrator Matt Phelan won critical acclaim for his 2009 historical graphic novel The Storm in the Barn, a Depression-era story tinged with fantasy. His new book, Around the World, is no less enchanting for being based on fact. In 1873, Jules Verne published Around the World in Eighty Days, his famous adventure story about a high-stakes race around the world. The novel captured the public imagination, and a few intrepid real-life adventures determined to embark on their own worldwide round-trips. Phelan’s beautifully illustrated book follows ex-miner Thomas Stevens on his bicycle (the old-fashioned kind with the giant front wheel), sea captain Joshua Slocum all alone on his thirty-six-foot ship, and sassy reporter Nellie Bly as she charges around the globe to beat Jules Verne’s fictional eighty-day challenge. The adventures are thrilling enough in black and white; the final book will be published in glorious full color.

The Wikkeling by Steve Arntson, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazinni, 2011, Running Press Kids Books (Children’s Illustrated Novel)

Henrietta’s life is controlled by rigid rules that “protect” her from deadly things like house cats (dangerous wild animals) and old books (which can make you sick). But one night Henrietta finds an injured cat in a secret attic. From the tip-top windows, she can see her neighborhood the way it used to look in the idyllic way-back-when days. Good things rarely last, however, and soon a mysterious, long-fingered yellow creature called the Wikkeling is haunting Henrietta. Its mere touch can give you a headache, and it wants to know where you’ve been and what you’ve seen. As Henrietta investigates this menacing apparition and the world she lives in, readers are delightfully creeped out by illustrator Daniela J. Terrazinni’s stark and wild drawings. The dystopian world of The Wikkeling is eerily similar to our own, and that is of course where its real appeal lies.

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales by Chris Van Allsburg, Sherman Alexie, M.T. Anderson, Kate DiCamillo, Cory Doctorow, Jules Feiffer, Stephen King, Tabitha King, Lois Lowry, Gregory Maguire, Walter Dean Myers, Linda Sue Park, Louis Sachar, and Jon Scieszka with an introduction by Lemony Snicket, Oct. 25, 2011, Houghton Mifflin Books (Children’s Picture Book/ Short Story Collection)

Since it was first published in 1984, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg has been inspiring people to write stories. The original introduction tells of Harris Burdick, a man who left his artwork with a publisher and walked out the door—never to return again. The fourteen fascinating illustrations and their even-more fascinating captions remain to motivate writers all around the world. Now, twenty-seven years later, the best and brightest of children’s and young adult literature contribute their stories to the Harris Burdick oeuvre. In October, readers young and old can experience Lois Lowry’s story about the nun flying through the cathedral whilst seated primly in a wooden chair, Stephen King’s tale about the blast-off house, and Chris Van Allsburg’s own version of the girl and her caterpillars. By turns creepy, cute, and comical, this new batch of stories will inspire Harris Burdick fans all over again.

Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page by Matt Kish, Oct. 11, 2011, Tin House Books (Illustrated Novel)

One day in 2009, Matt Kish, a librarian and artist in Ohio, was inspired by his “undying love” for a big book about a man and a whale. Kish decided to draw an illustration for every page of the Signet Classics edition of—you guessed it—Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Two years and 552 pages later, Kish’s project is complete. Using common materials and found pages, Kish deliberately employed a low-tech style in response to the increasing amount of digitally produced book art. A quote or passage from each page of Moby-Dick is Kish’s inspiration, and the result—seen in a few promotional postcards and a simple BLAD (Book Layout and Design, a sort of six-to-twelve-page mini-ARC)—is beautiful, fun, and inspiring. Kish began his Moby-Dick drawings as an art project for his modest blog; in a few months his artistic interpretation of Melville’s masterpiece will be available to one and all.

Why We Love Jane

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is more popular today than she ever was in her all-too brief life. Arguably the best-known female writer in literary history, Jane wrote only six books—Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion—before she died at the age of forty-two. Some think of her as the ultimate romantic, the founding mother of the chick lit genre. Some admire her keen wit and observant eye, seeing in Jane an uncanny ability to critique society. Not merely content to read Jane’s books, we’ve created an entire industry around her legacy—sequels, prequels, spin-offs, modern adaptations, and a unique body of work that analyzes why exactly we’re so fond of dear old Jane.

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin, 1997, Alfred A. Knopf Books (Biography/ 19th Century English Novelists) 

The first biography of Jane Austen was published a few years after her death by a nephew; it was meant to be the final word on “Aunt Jane” and her quiet, humble existence. To her later biographers, Jane proved exceptionally elusive—despite leading such a supposedly ordinary existence, there are very few records, notes, letters, or other papers that reveal what Jane was really like. Guesswork is a must for an Austen biographer, especially since sister Cassandra destroyed many of Jane’s letters, which hints at a private life that was more dramatic than historical fact leads us to believe. Jane Austen: A Life, the 1997 biography by Claire Tomalin, is one of the best. Tomalin reveals details about the lives of family and friends to throw light on how Jane lived and worked and thought and felt; Jane’s life is placed firmly in its context of 18th and 19th century religion, politics, and war. Most importantly, the evolution of Jane’s writing is thoughtfully traced. The reader is left with a vivid sense of Jane, her work, and her life. And that, given the difficulty of truly explaining Jane, is the best Austen fans can wish for.

Becoming Jane Austen: A Life by Jon Spence, 2007, Hambledon Continuum Books (Biography/ 19th Century English Novelists)

The only other writing Jane left behind (besides her novels, a few half-finished works-in-progress, and a handful of childhood scribblings) is her letters. Jane’s elegant literary style is not on show in these missives; these are everyday thoughts put down on the spur of the moment, gossip, news, and family jokes. But there is one tantalizing incident—a flirtation with one “Tom Lefroy.” Tom and Jane met, danced, chatted, and parted forever. Schoolgirl crush or doomed love affair? We’ll never know, but that doesn’t stop biographer Jon Spence from speculating that this relationship was a turning point in Jane’s life that directly inspired the love stories she later wrote. Spence also highlights the possible influence of Jane’s fashionable, glamorous cousin Eliza de Feuillide, whose first husband was guillotined during the French Revolution. By making connections between historical fact and literary fiction, Spence infuses Jane’s life with the romance and drama that Austen fans long to know she experienced. Becoming Jane Austen was the inspiration for the 2007 Hollywood movie Becoming Jane, which firmly casts Jane Austen as the heroine in her very own romantic comedy.

“The Janeites” in Collected Stories by Rudyard Kipling, 1999, Everyman’s Library/ Alfred A. Knopf Books, originally published 1922 (Fiction/ Short Story Collections)

Rudyard Kipling’s 1922 “The Janeites” is one of the first stories to mention Jane Austen as a member of the literary canon, as an author one is expected to know and love. In the story, a simple-minded ex-soldier recounts how, thanks to Jane, he survived World War I. Humberstall is wounded and reassigned to the position of assistant mess waiter. While he’s working, he notices the senior mess waiter conversing on equal terms with military officers. The subject, of course, is Jane Austen. Humberstall has never heard of this “Jane woman,” but he can tell that a passion for her is something akin to being a member of a secret society. Soon Humberstall is escaping the horrors of war by learning the meaning of “Tilney,” learning how to spell “Catherine De Bugg,” naming artillery after other characters, and gossiping about whether Jane ever got married. Humberstall tells his own story so Kipling writes in a lower-class British dialect; it’s charming (once you get used to it) and Austen fans will get a kick out of Humberstall’s crash-course in all things Austen.

“Jane Austen Faints” in Virginia Woolf’s Nose: Essays on Biography by Hermione Lee, 2005, Princeton University Press (Nonfiction/ Literary History and Analysis/ Biography)

How does a biographer handle the ambiguities, contradictions, missing years, mythmaking, facts, and fictions? When British writer Hermione Lee gets to the case of Jane Austen, she has plenty to talk about. Given the piddling amount of factual information that exists from Jane’s forty-two years on earth, Austen is a notoriously tough subject. Any incident that is known—no matter how trivial—is ripe for debate. Once, according to family legend, Jane Austen fainted. The cause was the unexpected news that Mr. Austen had decided to move the family to Bath; the result has been intense biographical speculation. This is Jane exhibiting extreme emotion; it must be important. Lee examines various Austen bios see what different writers have made of the incident. Is Jane shocked by how sudden the news is? Terrified of city life, away from the familiar green countryside? Afraid a secret love affair has been uncovered and she is being forcibly separated from her suitor? The real cause is unknown, and so every biographer’s point of view colors our vision of Austen—and forces us to question whether we can ever really know Jane as well as we think we do.

Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman, 2009, Henry Holt and Co. (Nonfiction/ Literary History and Analysis/ 19th Century English Novelists)

Even if you’ve never read any of Austen’s books, you’re familiar with their titles and plots. Note the success of the BBC’s TV Pride and Prejudice miniseries starring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, or the chick lit bestseller Bridget Jones’s Diary (a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, complete with its own Mr. Darcy), or the Hollywood movie Clueless (a modern retelling of Emma), or the recent book mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Today, Jane is everywhere, and author Claire Harmon shows us how she got there. This is a biography not of Jane’s life but of her fame—her quiet life followed by a few brief decades where no one knew her name, and then a century-long revival that has yet to end. Harman shows us Jane as a feminist and as an anti-feminist, Jane as a prickly old maid and Jane as a token for “girl power,” Jane as a Hollywood heroine and as a Bollywood starlet. We meet Jane’s detractors (Charlotte Brontë, Mark Twain) and Jane’s fans (Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf). We figure out our own personal reasons for loving Jane. However she is viewed and analyzed and adapted, one thing becomes very clear in this fascinating exploration—Jane Austen is here to stay.

Sanditon and Other Stories by Jane Austen, 1996, Everyman’s Library, originally published 1870-1871 (Fiction Classics)

Forget all the sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. Never mind the sexual innuendos in Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and the cartoon violence in Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Throw out the mystery series starring Mr. and Mrs. Darcy (by Carrie Bebris) and the mystery series starring Jane herself (by Stephanie Barron). You don’t need the next best thing; there IS more Jane. When she died, Jane left several unpublished works. Two of these we know as Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, but the fragmentary Sanditon, the few chapters of The Watsons, and the novella Lady Susan showcase Jane at her finest. Sanditon begins with an overturned carriage, several gossipy chapters about the characters’ lives, and ends just when the heroine becomes entangled in a romantic mystery. The Watsons features a young lady brought up by wealthy relations and shipped back to her poor family in the country—rather the opposite of Mansfield Park’s Fanny Price. Lady Susan is a sassy little tale about a man-hunting widow who wants her daughter to marry well—and herself to remarry even better. These fragments, believe it or not, are every bit as good as the real thing.

Good Old Fashioned Ghost Stories

Bumps in the night. Noises on the air. Shivers up and down your spine. Reading under the covers all night long, unable to shut the book—or turn the light off. Whether it’s a dark and stormy night or a bright and sunny summer day, a really good ghost story has the power to thrill and chill and remain stuck in your mind to jump up and spook you again and again. But the best ghost stories, the really scary, creepy, spine-tingling stories are the ones written dozens, even hundreds of years ago. From the monsters you know—Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman—to the monsters you don’t—the vampiress Carmilla, the vile Cthulu—these are the original good old-fashioned ghost stories.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories or, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving, 2001, Modern Library Classics, originally published 1820 (Fiction Classics/ Horror) 

 

When smarmy schoolteacher Ichabod Crane comes to town, he immediately smirks and smiles his way into all the society that the little glen of Sleepy Hollow has to offer. Ichabod, gangly and gawky, is smitten with Katrina, the lovely only daughter of wealthy Mr. Baltus Van Tassel. His competition for the hand of the fair young lady is the hunky town jock “Brom Bones” Van Brunt. Ichabod, or so he thinks, has nothing to fear—his book smarts are more than a match for Brom’s rowdy looks. But for all his supposed confidence, Ichabod is exceptionally open to suggestion, and at a fancy party at the Van Tassel’s stately home, he hears the story of the Headless Headman. A hapless victim of “some nameless battle” of the American Revolution who got his head lobbed off by a cannonball, the Horseman spends the nights pounding up and down the roads in search of his long-lost cranium. When Ichabod leaves the party, he’s suddenly met by a ferocious fear—in the form of the good old Headless Horseman, who pursues poor Ichabod in what has become perhaps the most famous chase scene in American literary history. Originally published in 1820 as part of author Washington Irving’s (1783-1859) collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and its fellow tales marked the birth of the short story as a genre in the Unites States. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was, and still is, the heart of the collection. And since the tale is delightfully funny and wickedly spooky, Ichabod and his headless friend have become the stuff of American legend as well.

The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe, 2003, Penguin Classics, originally published 1839 (Fiction Classics/ Short Stories/ Horror)

 

Roderick Usher is ill. He’s restless, uneasy, hyper-sensitive to light, sound, smells, and taste. Our unnamed narrator journeys to the House of Usher to cheer his friend Roderick, but neither narrator nor reader will find much comfort there. The manor house is bleak and gloomy beyond compare and its residents—Roderick and his twin sister Madeline—seem perpetually bathed in sorrow and despair. Roderick, in fact, believes the house, with its ancient stonework and strangely-arranged gardens, to be a sentient force unto itself. And when Madeline dies and Roderick insists on interring her body in the house’s vault before her burial, and an odd anxiety comes over Roderick and his guest in the days that follow, and Roderick’s paintings and books appear to come to life, it seems the House of Usher may indeed have something final to say before its doomed fall. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is one of literature’s greatest and spookiest storytellers—the enduring popularity of his narrative poem “The Raven” and his short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” certainly prove that. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is his other big hit, a classic little tale of a classic haunted house that, in Poe’s hands, becomes something much more—something innately unsettling and irresistible all at once. In fact, reading all three of Poe’s bests in row, from the mocking raven’s call to the mysterious thump-thump under the floorboards to the eerie House of Usher, is undoubtedly the best way to work yourself into a truly glorious literary scare.

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, 2000, Wildside Press, originally published in 1872 (Fiction Classics/ Horror) 

 

Forget about Bill Compton, Edward Cullen, the vampire LeStat, or Count Dracula—you haven’t really met a vampire until you’ve met Carmilla. Twenty-five years before Bram Stoker sat down and penned his tale of horror in Transylvania, fellow Irish ghost story lover Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) crafted the tale of innocent young Laura and her strange, beautiful, deadly visitor. Pretty Laura lives in an old castle with her kind father and a couple of agreeable governesses; it’s a pleasant but sheltered existence. Laura had one terrifying incident in her infancy, when she dreamed a beautiful woman appeared in her room and laid down beside her—but then little Laura felt a sharp prick at her neck, and woke up screaming. But the years have passed and Laura is now a lovely young woman. When a dramatic carriage accident hurls an injured young lady practically onto the doorstep, Laura and her father are only too glad to extend their hospitality. Their guest is Carmilla, a sweet young thing whose face is exactly that of the woman who appeared in Laura’s dream so long ago. Carmilla sleeps late, eats little, reveals nothing of her past life, and lounges around in a most beautiful attitude. But Carmilla also adores Laura—adores her, in fact, well past the point of obsession. Laura is not very wise in the ways of the world so it takes her much longer to catch on than it does for the savvy reader, who is nonetheless quickly caught up in Le Fanu’s dreamy little tale of passion and terror combined. Carmilla was a direct influence on Dracula and on vampire mythology in general—we would have no sensual, seductive, alluring vamps if we had not had Carmilla first. That fact alone makes it an interesting read for any fan of horror or vampire fiction, but Carmilla is also a haunting ghost story that more than stands on its two feet—or fangs, for that matter. Take a bite; you won’t soon regret or forget Carmilla.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, 2001, Modern Library Classics, originally published in 1898 (Fiction Classics/ Horror)

 

A young gentlewoman begins her career as a governess when a singularly dashing bachelor hires her to care for his little niece and nephew. All trust and responsibility is given over to the governess and she heads off to Bly, the country manor where the children are tucked away under the protection of the housekeeper Mrs. Grose. Little Flora and her brother Miles are so adorable and angelic as to be called exquisite; the governess is instantly enamored of their childish charms. But before she can become a slave to their every delightful little whim, the governess sees—something. A pale face pressed against the window, a dark figure on the other side of the lake. When, frightened and disturbed, she describes these mysterious watchers to Mrs. Grose, they are identified as Peter Quint and Miss Jessel—and the horror immediately grows, because not only are Quint and Miss Jessel bad, immoral people, but they are dead. Convinced that the children’s young souls have been corrupted by the evil influence of the obsessive spirits, our nerve-wracked governess must fight to save some remnant of goodness in the preternaturally perfect little darlings—even while the ghostly fiends strive to posses them. Published in 1898, The Turn of the Screw practically marked the invention of the psychological thriller. Author Henry James (1843-1916) weaves a masterful web of intense and atmospheric suspense and offers no convenient solutions to the mystery at Bly. A unique structure—an unnamed narrator is listening to a manuscript read by a fellow houseguest; the manuscript is told in first-person by the hapless governess—completes the casting of the spell; wrapped in these layers of storytelling, a reader can never be sure what—if anything—is real and what—if anything—is imagined. One thing is certain, however: The Turn of the Screw will keep you biting your nails, jumping at every noise, and absolutely glued to the page.

The Best of H.P Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales Horror and the Macabre by H.P. Lovecraft, 1987, Del Ray Books, originally published between 1927 and 1937 (Fiction Classics/ Short Stories/ Horror)

 

H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was a decidedly weird individual. Sickly, anxious, bookish, descended from an American founding family, Lovecraft was a mid-20th century gentleman with a really twisted imagination. And boy oh boy, do readers love him today. The sixteen tales collected here include Lovecraft’s finest: “The Call of the Cthulu,” which introduced legions of devoted fans to a giant pulpy sea monster with tentacles and scales and wings that dozes in the depths until it emerges in an apocalyptic age of horror and panic; “The Dunwhich Horror,” otherwise known as Wilbur Whately, who begins life on strange terms and ends it by horrifying, terrifying, and just plain scaring the socks off the neighboring townsfolk; “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” where dwells a sinister tribe of hybrid human-monsters who worship the demons of the deep; and “The Colour Out of Space,” which tells of a meteoric entity that brings insanity—and worse—to the residents of a small farm. Throughout his stories, Lovecraft creates a mythology all his own— the monsters Cthulu and Yog-Sothoth, the eerie towns of Arkham and Innsmouth, and demonic horrors galore that creep out of earth, space, and the very soul. Lovecraft wrote so convincingly of his fictional Necronomican, an ancient book of the occult, that publishers have printed versions of it to satisfy the reading public’s insatiable curiosity and insistence that it must be real. Modern-day fan-fiction is immensely popular (there’s even a Lovecraftian parody for children called Where the Deep Ones Are), which only proves how ahead of his time shy, nervous Lovecraft was. Almost seventy-five years after his death and almost one-hundred years since he first published, Lovecraft’s Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre are alive, well, and creeping out readers near and far.

The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Link textEdith Wharton, 1997, Scribner Books, originally published in 1937 (Fiction Classics/ Short Stories/ Horror) 

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) is the author of The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and other great classics of Western literature. Edith Wharton wrote novels that are renowned for their insight into the innermost secrets of the stiff-upper-lip upper classes; her acute observations and critiques of the social classes still get her talked about in high school English classes. Edith Wharton was also scared of ghosts. She admits that “till I was twenty-seven or -eight, I could not sleep in the room with a book containing a ghost story.” What better way to get to over your fear of the unknown than by creating your very own collection of scary stories? The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton contains some of the author’s most elegant and insightful tales. “Pomegranate Seed,” for example, tells the story of Charlotte Ashby, a newlywed whose blissful marriage is disturbed by mysterious letters that arrive for her husband, Kenneth. In “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell,” a young servant is both drawn to her polite young mistress and spooked by the lady’s gloomy house, foul husband, and rumors of the lady’s previous—and now deceased—maid. “Kerfol” is the name of an ancient property that, when our intrepid narrator goes to visit, is haunted by silent ghostly dogs that belonged to the estate’s first mistress, a woman who was accused of her abusive husband’s murder years and years ago. These stories, and the others in the collection, feature crisp writing and plenty of suspense; they are, to put it simply, the sort of delightfully spooky tales that make chills run up and down your spine. To paraphrase Edith Wharton (who was paraphrasing someone else)—we may not believe in ghosts, but we’re definitely afraid of them.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, 2006, Penguin Classics, originally published in 1959 (Fiction Classics/ Horror)

 

Dr. Montague has been searching for a haunted house his entire life. At Hill House, in a small New England town, he finds one. Eager to explore the scientific possibilities of cohabitation with phantasmagoria, the good doctor invites three guests to share the place. Luke Sanderson is the black sheep of the family that owns Hill House. Theodora is a carefree, optimistic bright young thing. Eleanor Vance has spent her entire life caring for her ill, unhappy mother or under the thumb of her controlling sister. Accepting Dr. Montague’s invitation is Eleanor’s first act of freedom—and it might very well be her last. Because there’s no doubt that there’s something very wrong with Hill House. To call the place gloomy is a severe understatement; a history of tragedy and god-knows-what-else has made the house unlivable for years. But the new houseguests put on a brave face; they are witty and clever; they amuse each other and play nice. And still—doors refuse to stay open, chilling drafts sweep across the halls, things go bump in the night. Eleanor, always a shy loner, becomes more and more of an outsider even in the midst of the cozy little group. All too soon, it becomes almost impossible to tell where the emotional torment of poor Eleanor ends and the vengeful spirit of Hill House itself begins. But Eleanor is fragile, and Hill House has all manner of horrors at its beck and call. How—and if—the foursome will emerge from this all-too-genuine haunted house remains to be seen. In the vein of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, The Haunting of Hill House is a top-notch example of the psychological, supernatural thriller. Author Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was a remarkably intelligent writer who knew exactly how to build layers of suspense that would captivate her readers. Working with so much more than just the bare bones of characters and plot, Jackson infuses her ghost story with a sense of foreboding that is too tempting to resist. For a true-blue ghost story, all you have to do is get good and lost in the very strange, very scary, very haunted Hill House.