A review of a scary story of my choice! Hmmmm… What would be horrifying to me? Lousy proofreading? No character development? An emotionless tale?
Or five horrorific books which have made an impact on me…
#1 – Jack Reacher, Nothing to Lose
There’s all kinds of horror and this twelfth in the Jack Reacher series terrified me. Home-grown religious terrorists who were sliding under the radar without a care in the world about the people they would destroy. And it could happen so easily in real life.
#2 – Mira Grant’s Newsflesh Trilogy
Horror on the run in this one. And so appropriate in this election year!
A small cadre of bloggers are invited to be a part of a presidential candidate’s campaign in this world where zombies practically rule. It soon becomes apparent that there is a great deal more afoot than hungry zombies!
Yeah, zombies. They’re enough to scare the pants off ya, but it’s the humans behind it all that really make me check how wet my britches are!
#3 – Barbara Hambly
I find Hambly a fascinating writer. I had forgotten about her…partly because her work is so scary to me! And I’m definitely getting the urge to re-read her work. I first discovered her Windrose Chronicles about a computer programmer seeking to wreak havoc on two different worlds — ours and a medieval-style world that was conflicted about magic. This drew me into some of her other series, including: Darwath which is magic and monsters; Sun Wolf & Starhawk, which I found truly horrifying (under the covers and quivering in bed-type horrifying!); and, Winterlands which is a bit more homey with dragons before I got distracted by yet other authors.
#4 – Simon R. Green’s Something From the Nightside Starts It Off
For truly humorous horror, check out Simon R. Green’s Nightside and Secret Histories series.
The Nightside is about a feared/hated/insouciant detective who returns home below the streets of London and puts terror into the hearts of bad guys/monsters/gods while enlivening society everywhere whereas the Secret Histories is all aboveground if not aboveboard with a secret familial organization that puts James Bond to shame even as Green shamelessly lampoons Ian Fleming’s most famous character.
The two overlap a bit with the Secret Histories using characters from the Nightside — I’d recommend reading the Nightside series first, if you’re that way inclined.
#5 – Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas Starts This Series
For a more lightweight, philosophical horror — Dean Koontz. Yeah, who knew? Koontz’s Odd Thomas series is about a boy…just your everyday, very average-seeming boy who just happens to see dead people. Only, Odd has gone a step further than where we left off with Cole Sear in Sixth Sense in that Odd actually works with the ghosts and the police. He’s quite an accepting young man with an intriguing philosophy on his, um, occupation.
