Saturday is Halloween. Many people like to read horror stories and watch horror movies during the month of October, which is why we’ve been posting plenty of horror reviews this month.
Here are a few of our recently published favorite horror novels (click on covers to read reviews):
What about you? Do you gravitate toward horror during October? If so, what have you read and/or watched this month? Do you have traditional favorites that you read or watch every year or do you prefer to look for something new?
Tell us all about it. One commenter will win a book from our stacks.
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KATE LECHLER, on our staff from May 2014 to January 2017, resides in Oxford, MS, where she divides her time between teaching early British literature at the University of Mississippi, writing fiction, and throwing the tennis ball for her insatiable terrier, Sam. She loves speculative fiction because of what it tells us about our past, present, and future. She particularly enjoys re-imagined fairy tales and myths, fabulism, magical realism, urban fantasy, and the New Weird. Just as in real life, she has no time for melodramatic protagonists with no sense of humor. The movie she quotes most often is Jurassic Park, and the TV show she obsessively re-watches (much to the chagrin of her husband) is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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It is true. I probably focus more on horror in October. So far I’ve read (kinda re-read – after 25 years) Dean Koontz’s Phantoms and I’m nearing the end of Adam Nevill’s Lost Girl.
I’m not much of a horror reader and I absolutely despise horror movies. But there are a few horror titles I like (psychological horror, not gory stuff) and I am looking forward to CROOKED.
Kat, there are probably as many subgenres in the horror field as there are subgenres in the fantasy category. You can see all kinds of horror films without subjecting yourself to the red stuff. Pretty much anything made before 1960 or so will be hemoglobin-free. Don’t deprive yourself of some artistic and exciting thrills out of a distaste for gore and grue. Such films as “Bride of Frankenstein,” “Dead of Night,” “I Walked With a Zombie,” “The Curse of the Demon” and “The Haunting” might really surprise you…and without a drop of blood to be found anywhere….
I don’t necessarily gravitate towards horror in October, but I did finally read Coraline by Neil Gaiman and The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. Plus, I finally saw Sleepy Hollow (the movie version) this year.
I always set aside a little time on October to dabble in Horror. Favorite reads this month were The Weight of Chains by Lesley Conner and Voices of the Damned by Barbie Wilde.
I don’t tend to read a lot of horror normally but when I do it’s during October. Finishing John Hornor Jacobs’s Southern Gods right now, and I just picked up Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts.
Nope. I rarely read anything that is classified as horror so I definitely don’t read more in October. The closest I come is probably gothic suspense; something like Monster Blood Tattoo.
In movies, I shy away from anything psychological, anything with terror and definitely realistic blood covered plots. The scariest movie I’ve ever seen (and it gave me nightmares) is Poltergeist. Yep. Wimpy.
I love things like Beetlejuice though!
April, Horror-comedy is a challenging sub-genre and I admire any writer/film-maker who can pull it off.
I can usually handle gore because usually it doesn’t seem real to me; psychological horror gets to me, and it’s what I like to read.
Yes the psychological stuff gets to me too, but I can’t read it because then I’m a wreck.
I’m new to your site, how do I know what the giveaway is for?
M, if you click on the link for The Stacks (an old library term) it will take you to a spreadsheet of the books we have. Winners get to chose one from that list.
We do have Giveaways of specific books, usually new releases, often as part of an author interview. Sometimes we just have random wonderful ones, like this one:
https://fantasyliterature.com/giveaway/giveaway-ten-copies-of-city-of-blades-by-robert-jackson-bennett/
I tried doing an all horror month last October, but I just got so burned out of Horror by the end of it. Haven’t read any horror yet this month, but I have Wythces Vol. 1 set aside to read this weekend :)
I read horror throughout the year but my reading skews more toward the psychological and weird not the splatter and gore. I have read quite a few this October.
Necroscope by Brian Lumley
Little Sister Death by Wiliam Gay
Dead Leaves short stories by Kealan Patrick Burke
Brother by Ania Ahlborn
Over The Darkening Fields by Scott Thomas
and
Polyphemus by Michael Shea which wouldn’t be a typical horror collection but it does contain The Autopsy which is still one of my favorite short stories.
I love Horror Short Stories. I’ll check “The Autopsy” if I can.
Thanks for mentioning it.
Your welcome Yagiz. Hope you like it as much as I do.
M Robinson, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks.
Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!