CityView Magazine

50 October 2023 GOOD READS Oh, the horror of them BY DIANE PARFITT W hy do so many people love horror stories? One answer may be in the quote above by Stephen King, one of the most prolific writers of horror stories and oen called "King of Horror." Although I love scary movies and have seen some of King's stories adapted as movies, I sometimes find his books too scary for me. But he is so popular, his books just fly off the shelf. So, why are these and other scary books so popular? Perhaps because they are a distraction from the problems of everyday life. Horror stories help us confront our fears, traumas, and anxieties and see that although those things are real, they can, in fact, be overcome. So, grab one of these new and scary books and find your comfortable chair to escape into a fantastic other world. 1. HOLLY by Stephen King We can't start this collection of scary books without the latest from Stephen King. Holly Gibney has appeared in several previous King books as a somewhat minor character, but she has now transformed from a shy recluse into a partner in a detective agency, Finders Keepers. Called on to help find a missing person, she stumbles upon an elderly couple — academics, no less — who have been abducting young people for years and hiding them in cages in their basement. I'm not giving anything away because we find this out at the very beginning, but what exactly are they doing? Oh, the horror of them. 2. LONE WOMEN by Victor LaValle As if being a single female homesteader in Montana in the early 1900s doesn't sound hard enough, add to it dragging around an enormous steamer trunk that carries secrets that bring harm to whoever dares to open it. Adelaide Henry carries a secret sin that killed her parents, and she is now trying to find her way to a new life among other "lone women" who take advantage of the government's offer of free land for those who can tame it. ese women find not only sisterhood but horror in the unforgiving landscape of early 20th-century America. 3. WHALEFALL by David Kraus Swallowed-by-whale stories are not new — think of Jonah in the Bible and Geppetto in "Pinocchio." When I found this book, my first thought was "ick." en I wanted to know how plausible such a thing is. I read an interview with author David Kraus, who did quite a bit of research to find out if it is actually possible for someone to be swallowed whole by a whale and not chewed up. So, in this "lost in space" story — in this case, a giant sperm whale's inside — we follow Jay Gardiner on his quest to the Pacific Ocean to find the remains of his father, who died by suicide. Jay knows he is on a difficult mission, but he feels this is the only way he can get past his grief and guilt over his father's death. ings start out well on the dive until Jay is caught up in the tenacles of a giant squid. ey soon get worse aer the arrival of the whale, which is ready to feed. When Jay is sucked into the first of the whale's four stomachs, he knows he only has an hour before he runs out of oxygen. 4. HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE by Grady Hendrix When you get to a certain point in life, you may be confronted with handling your parents' estate and the many possessions they collected over a lifetime, as well as the family home. Well, what if your dear childhood home is in fact haunted? Louise finds herself in this situation aer her parents die suddenly in a car accident. Not only did her mother have all the "stuff " she acquired over decades, but she also had hundreds of dolls that she never wanted to get rid of. When Louise returns to the home in Charleston, she is confronted by her estranged brother, Matt, who is trying to cheat her out of her inheritance. If all that is not enough, the house and the "ghosts" it hosts don't want to let Louise go. Author Hendrix said, "And what are ghosts, but things le behind aer someone dies?" 5. DON'T LET HER STAY by Nicola Sanders If you liked "e Bad Seed" many years ago, this is the book for you. I read it 1 2 3 4 5 6

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