When I was writing the Third Edition of the Readers' Advisory Guide to Horror, I originally had over 20 annotated choices per subgenre appearing in chapter 4-13. However, for word count sake, I had to reduce each lists to a well packaged dozen. Obviously making the cuts was hard, but I was able to include the tittles of those deleted annotations in an appendix at the end of the book with a promise that the annotations would run here on the blog.
And that promise begins today. Each list will be posted on the blog over a series of 10 weeks, every Tuesday, beginning June 1, 2021 and running through August 3, 2021. This weekly series will serve to promote the book's upcoming release in August of 2021, but I have also created an archive of all of the lists that will live here. That page is the official index of this bonus content.
In the book, my top three choices in each list are marked to denote Becky's Picks. I will also do that in these lists to give you a place to begin as you suggest. Just like the titles in the print book, every title appearing here is a great options for all public libraries. You can use these lists for collection development, displays, lists, and suggestions. Each subgenre has an essay discussing its history and appeal in the book which you can order here.
Chapter 11: Psychological Horror
[+] Denotes Becky’s Picks
Ajvide Lindqvist, John. I Am Behind You. 2014.
Four families set up their campers in the same area, all on vacation, and go to bed. When they wake up, they realize the entire world around them has disappeared, replaced by endless fields of green grass. What follows is a story of the families, their relationships with each other, their interactions and how their own psyches, pasts, and personalities handle the horror confronting them. A menacing and engrossing tale of terror where the characters deepest secrets and desires manifest into the monsters they are forced to battle.
Chesterton, R.B. The Darkling. 2013.
Mimi, now a senior citizen, recounts the time, just after college, when she lived with a wealthy family, serving as a governess/teacher to their three children. Readers are swept back to 1974, deep in the Alabama swamps, to a rundown home, in a town struggling to restore its former glory, and the California transplant family, who not only welcome Mimi, but also a troubled teenager, with no recollection of her past. The stage is set for maximum tension and unease, and it doesn’t disappoint as things start going badly almost immediately and then spiral out of control. Is there a supernatural evil in the woods stalking the children or is the killer human, and more importantly, why do we only have Mimi’s point of view? The oppressively atmospheric, anxiety driven tale builds to a frenetic conclusion with an ending that will make readers question everything they just experienced.
Darnielle, John. Universal Harvester. 2017.
It’s 1999 and Jeremy lives with his Father and works at the Video Hut in Iowa. Life is not very exciting, that is until customers start remarking about strange scenes spliced into their videos, creepy black and white images of frightened hooded people. Working together with a group of people, all who live with intense grief and loss, Jeremy and his ragtag crew embark on a creepy mystery that feels like classic Twilight Zone episodes while it follows its flawed, but extremely sympathetic characters through an intricately plotted and suspenseful plot that dives deeply into their haunted lives and experiences. While the VHS frame adds a bit of nostalgia that will be appreciated by many readers.
+Hightower, Laurel. Crossroads. 2020.
A story about grief, obsessions, and ghosts, Crossroads is focused on a mother, Chris, who cannot get over the death of her teenaged son. She spends hours at the place of the car accident that killed him. After she accidentally spills blood on the site one day, he appears to her, in the middle of the night, outside their home, begging for comfort, a plea that leads her down a dark road. Is it all in her head? Maybe but the evidence leans towards his soul out there roaming and restless. Hightower invests in the emotional horror, as readers will live inside Chris’ pain, they will see her make bad choices but for the right reasons, they will be filled with dread and anxiety, they will watch her lose control, and they will be horrified for her and for themselves throughout.
Kang, Han, Deborah Smith, translator. The Vegetarian. 2016.
After overwhelming, violent, bloody thoughts consume her, Yeong-hye turns vegetarian as a way to rid the images from consuming her. However, this decision is taken as a betrayal of tradition by her family and leads them all down different, dangerous paths. Different members of the family, their reactions to Yeong-hye, are explored, but she is the center here, holding the narrative together as it spins around her. With its spare language and surreal moments, this is an unsettling story that will haunt readers as it builds relentlessly, breaking open in a shocking climax.
+McOmber, Adam. Jesus and John. 2020.
In this honest, thought-provoking, and terrifying look at devotion, McOmber uses the Resurrection as a horror allegory. Jesus’ risen body escapes from his tomb in a mute fugue state and begins walking with purpose. Peter has Jesus’ lover, the fisherman John accompanying him. They end up at a mysterious palace in the center of Rome, a palace that is impossibly larger than it appears; a palace filled with malice, monsters, and nightmares; a palace they might never escape. A lyrical, compelling, and awesome story of people trying to outrun disorientation, menace, and threats, whether real or imagined, with or without the religious or heretical undertones attached.
+Meijer, Maryse. The Seventh Mansion. 2020.
In this startling, unique and beguiling debut, Xie is a troubled teen, physically affected by the destruction of the environment around him. After getting kicked out of school, he finds calm from his intense anxiety by spending evenings in the woods near his home. One of those evenings he finds, steals, and falls in love with the bones of a Catholic Saint and begins a sexual relationship with the relic. Written as a stream of consciousness from entirely inside Xie’s head, this is a book unlike any that came before, this is a haunting story, a disorienting and lyrical tale that is hard to explain or classify, but even harder to shake or forget, filled with questions that need to be asked, but most likely, do not have an answer.
Moulton, Rachel Eve. Tinfoil Butterfly. 2019.
Emma is on the run, from people and her past, hitchhiking across the desolate highways of South Dakota. A violent scuffle leaves Emma bloody and alone with a stolen, out of gas van as a blizzard bears down. Enter Earl, a transgender boy in a tinfoil mask, who brings Emma to the abandoned town where his family lives. The story focuses on Emma as it bounces back and forth between her story in the present and past. The more we learn about Emma, the less we like her and yet, we keep reading. This is a brutal book, filled with horrible evils, real, imagined, and supernatural; however it is also a lyrical and thought provoking look at the human experience, and Earl is a magical character you will not soon forget.
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror. 2016.
Collecting six previously published stories which all revolve around unreliable narrators and macabre situations, this volume showcases Oates at her macabre best. The stories all take a creepy situation, twisting and turning the characters and readers into dark corners, leaving both breathless from the tension. Each tale is rooted in reality, from a bookstore to house sitting to doll collecting to vacation, but the safety of the known is quickly replaced by dread, unease, and even evil. An excellent introduction to this master’s more recent work.
Pessl, Marisha. Night Film. 2013.
Scott McGrath is a journalist whose entire career was trashed when he falsely accused the [fictional] cult horror film maker, Cordova of evil things. Opening with Cordova's college age daughter Ashley found dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft, McGrath feels his obsession, pulling him into the mystery. McGrath and two questionably helpful assistants play detective, but when you are trying to solve the murder of the daughter of a highly secretive man, whose entire life has been spent creating dark, disturbing, movie masterpieces, things do not follow the straight line of a basic mystery novel. That it’s told entirely from McGath’s point of view and intricately plotted and constructed to make McGrath’s quest feel as if he is stuck in one of Cordova's movies rather than living his own free will life, allow the intricately detailed story to be both compelling and highly unsettling.
Stage, Zoje. Baby Teeth. 2018.
Seven year old Hanna wants to kill Mommy. Suzette, already battling chronic illness, cannot connect with her daughter. Incident after incident pile on top of each other as the trauma and horrors mount. Is Hanna possessed by a 17th Century witch, or is she just obsessed with being the sole recipient of Daddy’s love? With alternating, first person narratives from Hanna and Suzette, readers are thrust into psychological terror from an intimate perspective, a narrative choice which constantly escalates the tension and keeps the pages turning. Stage leaves nothing off the table in this nightmarish look at the terror that resides at the core of unconditional love.
Wilson, Kea. We Eat Our Own. 2016.
Deep in the jungles of South America, a possibly mad, but definitely violence obsessed director is trying to make a realistic horror movie. Written as a deconstruction of what it was like to film the fictional, barbaric, 1979 “classic,: Cannibal Holocaust, the novel presents points of view from across cast and crew, manipulates the time line, and wraps the story in a terror that shoots past the point of no return. A gory and disorienting read, but also a thought provoking look at the cruelties of violence, an immersive experience that will follow readers off the page and into the real world.
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