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Books & Authors

Light Horror

Haunted houses, rotting zombies, freaky monsters! The spooky season is upon us. Not everyone enjoys the thrill of being terrified, though. For those who want to venture into horror, but don’t want anything too scary, check out these books!

 

All the Lovely Bad Ones : A Ghost Story Graphic Novel by Mary Downing Hahn
Travis and his sister, Corey, can't resist a good trick. When they learn that their grandmother's quiet Vermont inn, where they're spending the summer, has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little haunting of their own. Before long, their supernatural pranks have tourists flocking to Fox Hill Inn, and business booms. They soon find out that theirs aren't the only ghosts at Fox Hill. Their thoughtless games have awakened something that should have stayed asleep. Can these siblings lay to rest the troubled spirits they've disturbed?

Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own.

Fellstones by Ramsey Campbell
Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It's where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child? Now their daughter Adele has found him. By the time he discovers the cosmic truth about the stones, he may be trapped. There are other dark secrets he'll discover, and memories to confront. The Fellstones dream, but they're about to waken.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
After strange things start happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, three employees volunteer to work an overnight shift to investigate, but what they discover is more horrifying than they could have imagined.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Seven years ago Atagaris set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy. Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they're not out to entertain.

Sherlock Holmes & Count Dracula by Christian Klaver
A Transylvanian nobleman called Count Dracula arrives at Baker Street seeking the help of Sherlock Holmes, for his beloved wife Mina has been kidnapped. But Dracula is a client like no other and Sherlock and Watson must confront the existence of vampires. And before long, Sherlock, Watson and their new vampire allies must work together to banish a powerful enemy growing in the shadows...

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
The events of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein unfold from the perspective of Elizabeth Lavenza, who is adopted as a child by the Frankensteins as a companion for their volatile son Victor.

The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates
Elle is thrilled to spend a month minding the beautiful Gillespie property. The aging mansion is ideal for someone seeking solitude. But things start to go very wrong, very quickly. Elle soon discovers a crumbling graveyard nestled in the woods. It contains a generation of the house's residents, all who died the same year. As Elle investigates further, she begins to unravel the property's dark history. At its center is Jonathan Gillespie and as Elle soon learns...just because he's dead, doesn't mean he's gone.

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
Silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then her clients are murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes. Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them. Agnes and Pearl discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back.

The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey
One day Giuseppe--better known as Geppetto--carves for himself a pinewood boy, a marionette he hopes to take on tour worldwide. But when his handsome new creation comes magically to life, the woodcarver screams at him . . . and the boy, Pinocchio, escapes into the night. When the boy disappears after one last fight, the father follows a rumor to the coast and out into the sea, where he is swallowed by a great fish--and consumed by guilt, as he hunkers in the creature's belly awaiting the day when he will reconcile with the son he drove away.

 

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