31 Days of Horror: Day 10- Not to Miss Links from the First Full Week of Spooky Season

Even though I have tons of content to share with you, I always make sure to save a few days during my month of posts to check in and round up the best #HorrorForLibraries information being published.

• This past week was Horror Week on Goodreads. While it might be technically over, that link isn't going anywhere and you can access it anytime. While the entire slate of content is good, I think this feature where the editors interviewed some of the biggest horror names right now is a RA treasure trove of excellent information. That long piece alone will help you help dozens of readers today, tomorrow, next month, and even a couple years from now.
• Author Gabino Iglesias has spearheaded a 31 Day flash Horror fiction event on Twitter. Explained in this tweet, Iglesias is encouraging people to do a Tweet sized Horror story every day, throughout October. Those participating are using #TrickorTweet2021 and the stories are great. Pass on to your patrons, yes, but especially your writers groups.
• This is not specific to October only, but check out Sadie Hartmann's content on LitReactor as she posts articles, lists, and reviews that are useful right now. You can build displays off of her lists in person, or post them [with attribution] and link to your catalog records.
• Take the Which Famous Fictitonal Monster Are You? quiz over on Book Riot. [I got Victor Frankenstein]
• The hottest horror media right now is the Netflix series Midnight Mass. Learn more about it  without scaring yourself if you don't want to here, here, and here. And Tor.com had this longer piece about entire subgenre of religious horror.
• Book Marks, the Lit Hub site that aggregates reviews, has a Horror section always, but of course there are more releases right now, so there is lots of new content.

Now it is your turn. I would love it if you helped to make this list better by leaving a comment with a link to something you wish more people knew about. Feel free to promote your own library's content here as well. Let's crowdsource more content. 

31 Days of Horror: Day 9-- Watch Your Favorite Horror Authors Talk About Books Anytime!

While a few days ago, I wrote about how you can reach out to the HWA library committee to get live Horror programming for your library, and yesterday I featured a librarian who is actively creating Horror programming content, but today I have easier and more immediate option-- use existing video conversations with today's hottest authors to offer content right now.

Seriously, demand for Horror programming is strong all year long, and there is a lot you can offer for free to your patrons right from your websites. 

Today I have a few options for specific programs and content providers that allow you to offer a slate of archived programs and new events.

Just remember, you don't have to be the one creating the content for you to offer it to your patrons. Below is an annotated list with content for anyone to use anywhere.

• The University of Pittsburgh Library's Center for Horror Studies Collection is beginning to do more public programming. Later in the month I will be hosting Ben Rubin, the coordinator of this collection to explain more. But for now there are two programs available for viewing right now.
• Raising the Dead: Exploring George A Romero's Archive 
• Expanding the Horror Cannon: Exploring Queer Horror
• This second program features Eric LaRocca and Hailey Piper who will be offering their "Why I Love Horror" essays here on the blog next week.
• The Horror Writers Association's You Tube channel has a lot of author driven content for you here. They also host live events for free through Facebook and YouTube. There are also interviews with Bram Stoker Nominated authors.
• Night Worms, a horror subscription service, have an excellent YouTube channel with reader driven content. 
• Librarian Corey Farrenkopf of the Sturgis Library [MA] regularly hosts FREE, live moderated panels with horror authors. Here is the link to the next one on October 12th. You can work with Corey to offer registration to your patrons too. Contact info is at that link. These are only live.
• Sometimes when a big anthology comes out, there is a chance to get a bunch of authors together to talk about it. A recent star studded example is the release of the Ellen Datlow edited, When Things Get Dark: Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson. Recently Datlow hosted a panel of the authors and the recording is available on YouTube.
• The Hampton Public Library [VA] is hosting Fright Fest for the second year. The HWA Library Committee has worked with this library to help them find content for this month long event this year and last year. You can join in on the fun for free via their Facebook page and last year's content is also still available for view.

And finally, I would like to personally invite you to an upcoming event that I am a part of-- Feel the Fear: A Horror Roundtable Discussion hosted by the Chicago Public Library and featuring Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, and Hailey Piper moderated by me. It is on October 27th, at 6pm, and no registration is necessary. You just go to YouTube or Facebook to participate. Click here for all of the details. 

These are just a sampling of what is out there for you to offer to your patrons. I know many libraries do not have the staff time or the budgets to offer much programming, but that doesn't mean you cannot satisfy your patrons' appetite for Horror. I hope this post makes you not only rethink Horror related programming, but also all of your virtual offerings to your patrons. 

31 Days of Horror: Day 8-- Why I Love Horror by Jessikah Chautin

Today I have another library colleague who I have been working with as part of Summer Scares. Jessikah Chautin. Here is her bio:

Jessikah Chautin began her career in 2002 as a Children's Trainee at Syosset Public Library. Since this time, Jessikah is proud to have been a part of big changes in her own building as well as the field of librarianship. Now as the Syosset Library's Community Engagement Specialist, Jessikah has expanded the reach of the library beyond its four walls with virtual programing, offsite story times, and numerous large-scale events such as Sy-Con, the library's premier Pop-Culture Convention. Aside from this Jessikah produces Turn the Page podcast for Syosset Library and has been a frequent speaker at New York Comic Con.

Jessikah has had me on her podcast and as part of some of her fun virtual events she coordinates for her patrons. She is a huge horror fan and has been one of the biggest supporters of Summer Scares and the work I spearhead for #HorrorForLibraries.

Click here to access her Turn the Page podcast.

Jessikah also sent 2 graphics for upcoming Horror events that ANYONE can join for free. Please click on the images below for details and to register.

Click on the image for details
and to register

Click on the image for details
and to register

Here is Jessikah's entry in my Why I Love Horror Series where she talks about falling in love, with Horror. It's one of the best advertisements for letting kids read Horror that you will see. Pass this on to any reluctant parents if you need to. 

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Horror, A Love Story. 
by Jessikah Chautin

I hadn’t realized that I was in love until I’d already been hooked. That’s what they say about “love." It sneaks up on you. You don’t realize that it has been there all along. Sort of the literal “hook” that’s been left on the handle of your boyfriend’s car door in that urban legend, but I digress. 

When I was five my parents took me to Lake George, New York for a week towards the end of the summer. We would travel with my cousins who ranged from two to five years older than me. I should also mention that we stayed in a cabin in the woods. No electricity. No running water. Just a cabin in the woods. Another thing I failed to mention was that this was in the 1980’s, and I am sure that if you are reading this, you are aware was the height of popularity for horror fiction. It is not until just this moment that I realize how appropriate all of this is.  

Lake George in the 80’s had been what I would now call a “salt water taffy town.” It very well might still be just that. A place full of stores that sold sweets and other niche souvenirs. Notably there was a “haunted house” attraction in the center of town where a person in a “Frankenstein” costume would walk around enticing visitors to go inside. I ran and cried every time I saw him.  

In the evenings we would grill on the charcoal fire pits outside the cabin and my uncle would read from “Scary Stories to tell in the Dark” By Alvin Schwartz. This is where my love story really began. As my uncle read each story I would shrink further behind my parents. I never left the campfire. I needed to hear the stories. I needed to sneak looks at Stephen Gammell’s terrifying water color illustrations. Tears crept up in my eyes as my chest filled with some strange feeling I couldn’t define. Maybe it was just the smoke.  

Horror and I had a few more “meet cutes” over the years before I finally admitted that I was head over heels. In first grade our school librarian read The Green Ribbon from In a Dark, Dark Room, Alvin Schwartz’ scary book for emerging readers. Not to give any spoilers, but let’s just say that after that I spent a long time terrified that my head was going to fall off. There were commercials on T.V. for A Nightmare on Elm Street. I didn’t like knives, so Freddy’s glove was enough to leave me breathless. Trailers that depicted Chucky stalking his prey ready to stab – yes, the knife thing for sure, but I loved my dolls and an evil doll hit a nerve with me. The mysterious covers of a V.C. Andrews’ book that a bunk mate in camp hid under the covers left me with something that remains unsettled to this day.  
 
As a child I thought what I was experiencing was dread. Now I understand that something I had felt was a pure intense emotion. Something like love. 

Love is scary. You commit completely. You submit. There is no guarantee that it will last. Love is not a singular feeling. It is as much the possibility of joy as it is the possibility of pain and loss. Both will change you forever. And horror, much like love, is a whole-body experience. 

It exists in broad daylight when Dani, the protagonist of Ari Aster’s Midsommar accepts her role as the May Queen, leaving grief behind and embracing madness. She grins as her ex-boyfriend burns. It exists in darkness. A well which holds a vengeful spirit. A thick forest. It can be awkward, or funny – much like Shaun’s journey in Shaun of the Dead, or my favorite, Ash in the Evil Dead Trilogy. It opens us up to how the mundane for the privileged can be dangerous for marginalized populations – a boyfriend attends a garden party at his girlfriend’s home – but he is one of the sole black attendees.  

Get Out was a game changer in terms of addressing current social issues through a horror lens. As a child, whispers of acid rain, and global warming existed as a phantom. Eco-horror addresses the anxieties of living on a planet which is literally burning, and has existed in the genre since long before the climate conversation became mainstream.  

And while the previous examples speak to broader issues addressing the horrors of the world, horror can also address very specific fears. V.C. Andrews’ gothic tomes and movies such as Parents distorted familial love. Perhaps this is why The Drum which ends with a mother replaced by an inhuman beast, remains my favorite of Schwartz’s Scary Stories – and the one that scared me most. 

Horror exists to pull you inside yourself and flip you around in sort of emotional fun house. The distorted imagery sticks with you well after the end. Unlike the lack of control when it comes through living through uncertain times (a pandemic, for instance) part of the appeal of horror lies within that last page, or the 90-minute mark where the end exists in a denouement you know will be equal parts terrifying and cathartic. And like love, you are left breathless.  

31 days of Horror: Day 7-- #HorrorForLibraries Giveaway 58 A Finished Hard Cover of The Death of Jane Lawrence by Starling

It's #HorrorForLibraries giveaway day and I have a a hard cover, finished copy of a very popular book that came out this week, one I have already given away here in ARC format. But first, here is a refresher on the basic rules to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American public library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that  week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see giveaway #57. Our winner was Charessa from Centrailia Regional Library District [IL]

Now to this week. Today I have a Hard Cover [!], finished copy of The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling. It came out earlier this week and is selling VERY well. It was also on the LibraryReads October 2021 list. Here is my review from the July issue of Booklist.

 The Death of Jane Lawrence

by Caitlin Starling

Oct. 2021. 352p. St. Martin’s, $27.99 (9781250272584). 

First published July 2021 (Booklist).

Opening with a very creepy Rebecca vibe and set in a fictional world reminiscent of post WWII Europe, Starling introduces the very practical Jane as she proposes a business arrangement marriage to the local doctor, Augustine Lawrence, a brilliant and kind man, but an outsider who keeps to himself. Dr. Lawrence’s only rule for their marriage is that Jane sleeps at the office, his home in town, while he must return to the crumbling family manor home on the outskirts of town each evening. After a storm forces Jane to break this agreement on the very first night, what began as an uneasy story steadily builds to unrelenting tension, further enhanced by Jane’s intense first person narration. The reader is compelled to follow Jane as she discovers the truth at the manor home, unravels her husband’s lies, and battles horrors, be they real or imagined, but they will also thoroughly enjoy falling in this immersive and unsettling journey. A perfect choice for readers who enjoy how today’s writers are playing with the well trod Gothic trope to create something wholly new, utterly terrifying, and supremely satisfying such as Mexican Gothic by Moreno-Garcia or Now You’re One of Us by Nonami.

Further Appeal: First things first, shaking off that ominous title is impossible and I loved it. From that unsettling start, it all builds. And I am happy to report, the book resolves very well. Don't underestimate the skill here. To stick the landing on a book that has the protagonist's death in the tile, that is hard.

The world building here is excellent. It is not only the details of the magic, ghosts, and medical science, but it is also the unsettling almost recognizable setting. It is almost alternative history, but not quite. And the terror builds steadily and relentlessly without sacrificing the interesting world building.

Jane is a great heroine. Her backstory and details are assembled and revealed well and her motivations and growth are interesting to watch unfold.

Like Chizmar, Starling is also an author whose books are very different but her writing draws you in: Space Body Horror, Vampire novella, and now a twist on Gothic Horror. I have read and reviewed all of these and really enjoyed each. [She has more, but this is what I have read.]

Three Words That Describe This Book: intense tension, haunted house, trust no one

Readalikes: The Upstairs House by Fine, The Little Stranger by Waters and anything by Shirley Jackson. Crimson Peak [film] is in the publisher comps. I am not familiar enough with the movie to add that to my official review, but I am adding it here for those who do like it.

This feminist retelling of the Gothic novel, a modernization which gives much more agency to the women, is a huge trend right now. That's how you hand-sell this title-- Did you like Mexican Gothic? Shirley Jackson? Then read this. 

Just get it into people's hands ASAP.

Enter now. Add it to your collections to satisfy the holds queue or keep it for yourself. Good luck! 

31 Days of Horror: Day 6-- Why I Love Horror with Emily Vinci

Today I welcome my friend and colleague Emily Vinci. I first got to know Emily better when I served on the Adult Reading Round Table's Steering Committee with her. You may have seen Emily before in person co-chairing the Grand Rapids StokerCon Librarians' Day or online through our two Virtual Librarians' Days for the HWA. Emily is a writer, presenter, and  public librarians in the Chicago Suburbs. This year, Emily was on the committee [with me and others] for the HWA's Dennis Etchison Scholarship for Teen Writers. She also reviews horror for Library Journal. You can see all of her pieces at this link; including this brand new Q&A with Horror author Eric LaRocca. [I will be featuring that piece and hosting Eric later this month].

But today, Emily isn't worried about moderating panels or writing reviews. Today, I asked her to share why she loves horror with all of you. 

Emily chose to share very personal stories about her life in order to share why Horror is healing for her. While I knew these stories, even I was surprised that she shared them here, but I was not surprised at her eloquence as a writer.

I want to applaud Emily, publicly, for being so open and raw here. Her truth stands [below] as a clear, moving, and beautiful testament as to why Horror can be an escape from the real Horrors of life.

For more from Emily, you can follow her on Twitter @mlevinci or read her content for Library Journal which comes out regularly.

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Why I Love Horror
by Emily Vinci

For most of my life I thought very little about why I love horror.

I just do. It’s cool.

It’s twisted. It’s shocking. It’s sexy. It’s dangerous.

And, as I’ve come to understand in past few years, it’s home.

I am the youngest of four daughters, raised by a single mother, and I knew fear at a young age.

My sister Jenny suffered a brain injury the summer before I began Kindergarten, when she was 8. This brain injury didn’t result in permanent physical impairment, but her cognitive development was affected severely. I don’t remember who Jenny was before “the accident” (as my family refers to it) but in my memories of those first few years after it, she is a monster.

By forces she couldn’t control, Jenny was prone to tantrums which were, more often than not, violent. I have a vague memory of screaming for help as she sat on my head in our bedroom.

She was trying to crush me. To hurt me. To kill me??

It was unclear what would set Jenny off - to her as much as to us. My family would tread lightly and as lovingly as possible, and be ready to execute defensive maneuvers at the drop of a hat.

As the youngest and therefore littlest one, my defensive maneuver was to run and hide. When shit got real and Jenny had an “episode” (a sterilized, palatable term that in hindsight only reinforces how regular these occurrences were) my directive was simple: Go to your room and shut the door and do your best not to hear anything.

That didn’t always work.

I heard my mother cry out as she was pushed down the stairs. Saw my oldest sister brought to her knees as Jenny locked fingers with her and proceeded to force hers to bend backward.

Some years later it would be my mom and said oldest sister engaged in screaming matches. Doors would slam, feet would stomp. Threats would be made, clothes thrown onto the front lawn.

And I would hide.

Other times the screaming was between my mother and stepfather, Paul, who was in my life for a little over ten years and whose damage to my psyche I still feel.

I was a junior in high school when I found Paul naked, passed out in his and my mother’s bedroom closet after an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

This time there was no yelling and I didn’t hide. I called 911. And I was only a few minutes late to first period.

Growing up in chaos and dysfunction and experiencing real terror leads plenty of people, understandably, to create a life devoid of such things.

Not me. I’m done hiding from the scary. I seek out horror and in doing so, I’ve come to realize, reconcile with the horrors of my past: the fights, the screaming, the crying. The fear. It’s not an intention - I don’t read or watch horror and consider it therapy. But it is healing. And whether or not I’m cognizant of the catharsis, horror allows me to exercise the demons. It shows me fears beyond what I can ever imagine and yet will never compare to what I’ve actually seen.

And I mean it IS really cool.

31 Days of Horror: Day 5 : Connect With Your Local Horror Writers with the Help of the HWA's Library Committee

Yesterday, I welcomed Konrad Stump as he shared Why I Love Horror." Today, I want to introduce you to the some of the work Konrad and I are doing together as the Co-Chairs of the Library Committee for the HWA and how we can help make your job easier.

We are revamping the entire Library program and are still working on the new homepage, but basically, our mission is to make it easier for library workers to promote Horror in their libraries and with their patrons.

We are approaching this mission from two directions:

1. We are helping to connect libraries who ask with Horror authors and ideas for programming while also working to help them curate their collections through programs like Summer Scares.
2. We are actively reaching out to HWA member authors to help them connect with their local libraries.

Since Konrad and I are both library workers AND HWA members this two pronged approach makes sense. We are there for our fellow library workers with author connections and Horror expertise that is perfectly tailored to libraries and, quite often, already proven in the real world.

But we are also there for our fellow author members, providing them information about how libraries work, what they are looking for, and the proper behavior when approaching your local library. 

To address that second point, in September we worked with the local chapters of the HWA to create a program entitled, "Meet Your Local Horror Authors" and encouraged the chapters to reach out to libraries to offer a panel where they introduce themselves to library workers, talk about Horror, their own work, and offer their assistance during the spooky season. We also reached out to libraries who were interested in offering  program like this and connected them to their local chapter coordinators. 

While it is already October, I am happy to say, these programs are available anytime of year. And to encourage you to schedule one for your library or system, I am sharing the one I did with my local system, RAILS. Click here to watch Meeting Your Local Horror Author moderated by me and introducing the Chicagoland Chapter of the HWA to Northern IL's library workers. And click here to access the chat with all of the titles that were suggested during the event.

If you want to get in touch with Konrad and me about anything horror and libraries, all you need to do is  send us an email to libraries [at] horror [dot] org. That will reach both of us. You can reach out to share the cool things you are doing, ask to be connected to your local chapter, inquire about HWA member authors who are available to appear at your larger events [especially if they are virtual], or even just get programing advice from Konrad or collection development help from me.

 Also, don't forget, as a library worker, you are eligible to join the HWA yourself, at the Affiliate Ally level. All members can also join their local chapters and get involved with their meetings and programming. Your local chapter is a great place to meet authors, start making connections, and collaborate to provide programming in your communities. And, if you don't have a local chapter, we are also working with the National Chapter Coordinators to get more started all over the country.

Again, that email is libraries [at] horror [dot] org.

Back tomorrow with another library worker/HWA member and her essay on "Why I Love Horror." You do not want to miss this one! And bring your tissues.

31 Days of Horror: Day 4-- Why I Love Horror with Konrad Stump

Today I begin the "Why I Love Horror" portion of the blog-a-thon, and my first participant is my partner in coordinating the Horror Writers' Association's Library Committee, Konrad Stump. 

Konrad is a Local History Associate for the Springfield-Greene County (MO) Library, where he works on Big Read and the library's popular "Oh, the Horror!" series, which attracts hundreds of patrons during October. He also created the Donuts and Death horror book group, featured in Book Club Reboot: 71 Creative Twists (ALA Editions).

Konrad is on the section committee for the HWA's Summer Scares Reading Program and is the point person for the creation of our Summer Scares Programming Guide. You can click here to see the 2021 Guide.

It just made sense to ask have Konrad kick us off, and he delivers. Not only does Konrad share his personal story of Horror as his safe and happy place, but he also offers examples of how to use Horror with library patrons, as well as sharing some of his favorite books along the way.

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WHY I LOVE HORROR

Konrad Stump

Sometimes it seems like I was just born to love horror. My favorite part of Fantasia was the Night on Bald Mountain segment full of spirits risen from the graveyard and Hell figures dancing in flames. The Disney characters I was drawn to were always the villains (I mean, they had the best songs!). I wanted to be the vampire for halloween; I wanted the skull stickers; I wanted the skeleton candy. I can’t quite explain this innate attraction to all things spooky. Perhaps it’s because my parents took me traipsing around cemeteries on the regular. Perhaps it’s because I have older siblings, and nothing is quite so maliciously satisfying as trying to terrify your younger siblings. I am also guilty of this, being the baby of the family that turned into that most dreaded of positions, the second middle child. Surely all these things have made me the weirdo that I am today.

I can’t explain why I have always loved horror, but I can try to explain why others would find it appealing, or informative, or cathartic, or “worthwhile” (though it need not be any of those things, only enjoyable to the person reading it). And that’s what I think I love most about horror; I love what readers can get out of it, especially younger readers. Life is scary, especially when you’re a kid. It’s full of changes, uncertainty, processing mortality, feeling like an outsider.

My father was in the Army, so we moved every year or two until I was in high school. That meant a new home, a new town, a new school with a whole new set of peers, many of whom already had established friendships. I also failed first grade. That is, until I skipped it. And I was a cute kid. That is, until I wasn’t. I was also painfully, very apparently gay (a less astute person might call me “spirited”). Needless to say, I did not fit in. And horror was a refuge to process all of that. Because horror takes what is scary in the world and wraps it up in a story about someone, usually an outsider who, at the end of the day, more often than not defeats the monster or banishes the ghosts. It tells us that moving into a new house or neighborhood can be an opportunity to learn something new or meet new people. It tells us that outsiders have attributes beyond attractiveness and cool guy swagger like resourcefulness and ingenuity. And it tells us that there is more out there than what we can see and maybe there is something beyond death.

As I mentioned, school was tough. I struggled. I had to take speech classes. I was regularly reminded about my potential. I was just not interested. But I did love R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. And through it I learned about Egyptology, insects, British royal intrigue and history. Horror is a fantastic way to get kids who are non-readers interested in reading and wanting to learn. Horror made me interested in learning because I was interested in the story, and then I wanted to find out more about what I read about. Horror took me to my family’s set of Encyclopedia Britannica; horror made me excited to boot up that Encarta 95 disc. I think I would have been a better student if someone told me that I could make a living studying just how insects play into human decomposition.

This is why I’m enamored with the Horror Writers Association’s annual summer reading program, Summer Scares, which works to get more people of all ages reading horror during the summer, when more people are looking for reading material, and keeping kids engaged with their imaginations is especially important. What better way to find out more about all the weird things in the world and the people who study them. You can grow up to be the curator at an occult museum (“The Diviners” by Libba Bray), you can care for the bodies of the dead (“Whichwood” by Tahereh Mafi), or you can become a grave robber (“Rotters” by Daniel Kraus)! Okay, maybe not a grave robber, but you can study all the weird things that happen to bodies after they die, burial practices, or the historic preservation of cemeteries. Horror can introduce kids to all the weird and neat things in the world and maybe make them realize they have an interest in studying those things further.

As a library worker, I love how horror can connect people. Fear is universal. No matter what country you live in, no matter your race, no matter your sexual orientation, we are all afraid and we all, sadly, will die. Shared mortality is a great reminder to be a bit more gracious toward people. And that fear, that mortality, helps readers connect with stories and histories different from their own. That’s what I’ve tried to do with Springfield-Greene’s horror book discussion group, Donuts & Death, which I’ve run since 2015. I’ve tried to choose stories that allow readers to question what they know and think, because horror gives us so many avenues by which to explore and interpret our world.

One of my favorite books of the last few years is the novella “The Ballad of Black Tom” by Victor LaValle (also a 2020 Summer Scares pick). Not only is it a great story, but it takes one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most racist short stories and reimagines it from the perspective of a Black man, Charles Thomas “Tommy” Tester. Through Tommy, we can see Brooklyn for its culture and diversity instead of the fearful and bigoted way Lovecraft saw it. So the reader can question how they might see a certain area, or culture, and explore what they might be missing in the way they’re thinking about it. We understand the familial and monetary reasoning for Tommy’s hustle. So the reader can question how they view people with more unconventional professions or life choices; there’s usually more than what appears on the surface. We understand the racism and corruption of the officers of the law in the story, so the reader can question how they see people in professions that might generally be seen as more honorable. And we can see how Tommy is driven to become Black Tom, so the reader can question how they think of monsters and what might make someone monstrous. It’s an incredible tale with a ton to delve into, and what I always love about horror is how it can be a means for people to introspect and examine their viewpoints without feeling like they are being preached to or coerced. Horror can explore uncomfortable topics with the buffer of a well-written, thrilling story.

As someone who works in local history, I know that history is really interesting, it’s just that history sometimes isn’t presented in the most interesting of ways. I love how horror can be a way for people who maybe don’t normally enjoy history to learn about a particular time period, or explore their city, find out about the folklore of their region, or reexamine a historical event they think they know. Take Alma Katsu’s novel “The Hunger.” The story of the Donner Party is already interesting, but what if there were a supernatural element to the story, wouldn’t that add so many more layers and pose so many new questions? Historical horror like “The Hunger'' also allows the reader to gain insight into or imagine the lives of the lesser-known characters in historical narratives. Horror and history pair well together because so much of history is horrifying, and no matter where you live, your town has ghost stories, murders, monstrous folkloric creatures. Some of the most popular events in Springfield-Greene’s annual October program series, “Oh, the Horror!” have been local history programs, from the real-life story that inspired The Exorcist, to cryptozoologist Lyle Blackburn discussing Bigfoot lore, to guided tours of a local theatre purported to house multiple ghosts. Horror programming is a great way for people to learn about and experience history in a fun way.