Andrews, V. C. My Sweet Audrina
My Sweet Audrina is told in first person narration by Audrina Adare and follows her life from childhood into her thirties. The story opens when Audrina is supposedly seven-years-old, a confused child with gaps in her memory. Her bizarre family is determined to keep Audrina in this state of bewilderment, never revealing her true age or the correct date. All Audrina knows for sure, is that she is named for the “first and best Audrina,” her older sister who, at the age of nine, was raped and killed by a gang of boys in the woods. Audrina’s controlling father and cruel cousin rule Audrina’s life and she continuously falls victim to their mistreatments. A series of “accidental” deaths and her husband’s unfaithfulness with her cousin, leads Audrina to a stunning revelation about her life and true identity. Audrina’s tale unfolds at a slow pace with a very gothic tone. Readers of horror and occult fiction will be held enthralled, but apprehensive for what fate awaits Audrina.
Readalikes:
Galilee Clive Barker
The Witching Hour Anne Rice
Ilana Beckerman, West Babylon Public Library
Clegg, Douglas. The Abandoned.
The Abandoned is set in the fictional Hudson River town of Watch Point. Deep in the woods on a hill, sits Harrow House, long since abandoned and fallen into disrepair. Harrow does not like to be alone however, and now a new caretaker has come to the house and is preparing it for visitors. This night watchman seems to be the key factor in spreading the terror. Harrow is a particularly evil house, spreading hallucinations and hysteria throughout the town. The night watchman escapes Harrow, winding up in New York City, spreading his fears and nightmares wherever he goes. Harrow survives to haunt another day. As the novel ends, we realize that it is not so much Harrow itself that is haunted, but the townsfolk themselves, who are just facing their worst fears. The book contains much graphic violence and sex.
Readalikes:
Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum, Michael Slade.
Bruce Silverstein, Patchogue-Medford Public Library
Due, Tananarive. The Good House
In a small town in the Pacific Northwest lies a beautiful Victorian house known to the town’s people as the Goode House. Once owned by Marie Toussaint who dabbled in voodoo it now belongs to her granddaughter Angela. In 1929, Marie mistakenly unleashed the evil powers of the baka while performing voodoo and the house and property are now haunted. Now, seventy years later, after suffering great personal loss, Angela must appease the voodoo gods and conquer the evil lurking in the town. The book is very visual and should make a first rate film. The feeling of dread throughout the book will appeal to horror fans and aficionados of haunted houses.
Karen Jaffe, Comsewogue Public Library
Harris, Charlaine. Dead to the World
Charlaine Harris writes horror lite. Her series is about cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who can read minds and is friends with vampires, werewolves and other supernatural beings. Dead Until Dark was the first title in this series which takes place in southern Louisiana. Dead to the World tells the story of the vampire Eric who has lost his memory. Worse yet, Sookie's brother Jason is missing and a coven of witches have flown into town looking for trouble. How Sookie finds out what happened to her brother and how she resolves Eric's amnesia issues makes for an action-packed plot.
Readalikes: Maryjanice Davidson's Undead series for vampire humor and for the darker side of vampire mysteries
Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake novels.
Michelle Epstein, East Northport Library
Huggins, James Byron. Nightbringer.
In the snowy Italian Alps, a tourist group visits isolated St. Gregory's Abbey, open to the public for the first time since World War II, when it was mysteriously closed. The pilgrims include detective Gina Crockett and her children, quiet, middle-aged Michael Constantine, and the Monsignor DeMarco. They are greeted by the abbot and several priests, who know an unnatural evil lurks at St. Gregory's. As the malevolent force terrifies the guests, Constantine becomes pivotal to saving their lives and solving the age-old mystery of the abbey. Mixing elements of Stephen King and Frank Peretti, Huggins, a Christian activist and novelist (Leviathan; Cain), packs his latest with palpable chills tempered by fascinating ancient Christian legends. A masterpiece of folklore and Christian horror, it deserves a place in most collections. Huggins currently makes his home in Alabama.
Grace O’Connor, West Islip Public Library
Lovecraft, H. P. The Rats in the Walls
Begins with “On July 16, 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his labours.” It continues with the information that this was a restoration of shell-like ruin which had been the “seat of my ancestors.” The tale progresses to the noises in the walls, the involvement of friends and the death of one of them. The narrator ends sadly bemoaning the “slithering, scurrying rats whose scampering will never let me sleep.”
Marie Horney, Cold Spring Harbor Library
Passerella, John G. Wither
Wendy Ward is a college freshman at Danfield College in Windale, Massachusetts who dabbles in white magic. She performs a magic ritual and unknowingly unleashes a spell that awakens three witches who were hung in the town of Windale 300 years earlier. These witches are more like winged monsters, and once awakened from their dormancy they wreak havoc on the town of Windale, snatching people off the streets, tearing them to shreds and devouring them. Wendy must now try to use her magic again, this time to defeat the evil witches.
Readalikes:
Salem’s Lot Stephen King
Shadowland Peter Straub
Vicki Lever, Babylon Public Library
Peretti, Frank. Monster
The monster in Frank Peretti’s newest novel is a genetically engineered “bigfoot” or sasquatch, who lives with others of his kind in the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest. When Beck Shelton disappears on a wilderness trip with her husband, Reed, a search party is sent out to find her, as well as other possible victims, who were originally thought to have been attacked by a bear. Reed fears Beck has been killed by the violent creatures he has had only glimpses of. But as the story unfolds, told alternately from Beck’s and the searchers’ point of view, we see that Beck has been adopted by one of the female creatures, and is in fact being well cared for. The novel brings into question the theory of evolution, the nature of monsters, and is presented as a morality tale. A quick and easy read, the suspenseful plot will draw willing readers along from page to page. The book will appeal to fans of Christian fiction, thriller and suspense stories.
Read-alikes: Sasquatch, by Roland Smith
Bigfoot, by Richard Hoyt
Almost Adam, by Petru Popescu
Mental Distortions, by Jean Grandbois
Where Legends Roam, by Lee Murphy
Kathleen Scheibel, South Country Public Library
Rice, Anne. Tale of the Body Thief
The Vampire Lestat decides after 200 years of vampiric life, to return to mortality. He is approached by Raglen James, a con-artist who has been kicked out of the secret psychic organization, The Talamasca (a group with a computerized record of all the major evil events caused by the nasty spirits) to ‘switch bodies’ for two nights and a day. After not too much thinking, Lestat agrees to the ‘switch’. Sweet smelling, cruel, proud, self-pitying death-proof, multi-billionnaire Lestat finds himself in the tall, handsome body of a man who bears every human frailty, suffers proneness to a killer cold that lands him in the hospital, has mortal fears by the dozen, always feels leaden, and must do human tasks (eating, toileting). He is robbed blind by James, a great computer hacker and thief, and he falls in love with a Catholic nun. Lestat is anxious to return to this vampiric status, and James, on a blood flying rampage will not give Lestat his body back.
Readalikes:
John Saul, Linda Lael Miller, Luanne Rice, Karen Taylor
Rhea Pollock, Brentwood Public Library
Simmons, Dan. A Winter Haunting
After a failed marriage, a failed love affair, and a failed suicide attempt, middle-aged college professor Dale Stewart retreats to the deserted Illinois farmhouse of a deceased boyhood friend. But the haunting feeling that Dale has had throughout his entire life not only follows him on his pilgrimage, but is exacerbated by the onset of a series of unexplainable encounters and events. From within the confines of an old deserted farm-house pelted by unrelenting snows, Dale is confronted by a pack of menacing black dogs that grow in size with each visitation; he is pursued by a group of neo-Nazi skinheads that threaten his life; he is seduced by a mysteriously allusive old friend, and he is the recipient of a series of cryptic messages that appear autonomously on his computer screen. A whirlwind of scuffles, sightings, seductions, and chases have Dale, as well as local authorities, questioning his sanity. How much is actually real, and how much is psychotic delusion? A Winter Haunting is a suspenseful, page-turner written in a straightforward, vernacular style. Author Dan Simmons introduces the reader to what appears to be harmless events, and then he slowly lures the reader into a complex and horrifying state of affairs.
Readalikes:
Stephen King, Barbara Erskine, Deborah Grabien, Beth Richardson Gutcheon, Nathaniel Hawthorne, House of the Seven Gables
Deborah Formosa, Northport-East Northport Public Library