As a fisherman, my travels have taken me to some truly outlandish places and put me in contact with nature’s most dangerous, grotesque denizens. Coming face-to-face with teeth, venomous barbs, and viscous slime has given me a special appreciation for the bizarre, which translated perfectly to horror literature. Horror takes us by the hand and forces it upon the surface of this world’s darkest and weirdest places—the natural world, the human soul, the other side, the beyond—and I am your humble guide to those places. From those places, however? No guarantees.
Rowan Vane, a young writer struggling with self-definition (really though, what young person isn’t?), finds himself in the dead center of a salty, sunbleached North Florida beach town for spring break. Emboldened by the lure of inspiration and personal growth, he sets out on a spirit journey, mind ablaze with possibility. But the further he ventures into its depths, the more he comes to realize the extent of the town’s darkness, from its diabolical menagerie of monsters to its corrupt, bloodsoaked history. Can he navigate the wilds of Hell’s Gulf and emerge a better, stronger man? Or will the horrifying truth behind it all end up killing him?
Despite its biblical length, King’s iconic novel keeps the pages engaging, hilarious, and terrifying—often all at once. While his horror game plays out strong as ever in It, what really makes this story great is its unabashed perspective on childhood, nostalgia, and growing up, all centered in a gilded small-town atmosphere. It is the quintessential coming-of-age tome, tapping deep into the shadowy subconscious of our memories and pasts, while throwing in good old-fashioned blood, guts, and cosmic horror. For some reason I chose this book to give an oral presentation about in seventh grade (while my classmates mostly did The Hunger Games), and I swear I haven’t been the same since. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This tie-in edition will be available from 16 July
TIE IN TO A NEW MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, IT: CHAPTER 2, ADAPTED FROM KING'S TERRIFYING CLASSIC
27 years later, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back...
Derry, Maine was just an ordinary town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part, a good place to live.
It was a group of children who saw- and felt- what made Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurked, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes…
Probably one of the most unique novels I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, Life of Pi deftly fuses a plethora of elements that otherwise might seem incongruous: zoo culture, religious exploration, survivalism, and adventure, among others. Its attentiveness to biology, its colorful assault on the senses, and its imaginative elements of fantasy make this book a visceral experience as well as a contemplative one. Of all my assigned reading in high school, this one pulled me in with its enigmatic spell and will live forever in my mind and heart.
After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.
Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi Patel, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with the tiger, Richard Parker, for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his…
The stories in this book may be nonfiction, but as author and television host Jeremy Wade establishes, reality is often stranger than myth. You don’t have to be an angler to become enraptured by Wade’s detailed, thrilling accounts of tracking down the world’s most dangerous freshwater fish, complete with suspense, peril, and a deadpan sense of humor. Included are Wade's thoughts on the dynamics of different cultures around the world, the importance of spirituality, and philosophical links between fishing and real life. I may be a passionate fisherman myself (and, admittedly, often fantasize about being in Jeremy Wade’s shoes), but this is a must-read for anyone who appreciates the art of storytelling and the thrill of adventure.
Called the greatest angling explorer of his generation" ( Independent on Sunday ), Jeremy Wade takes viewers where no wildlife program has gone before. Now Wade goes truly beneath the surface, disclosing full details of how he catches each species and recounting the off-camera highlights of his extraordinary life. From his arrest as a suspected spy in Southeast Asia to a plane crash in the rainforest, every page of the Wall Street Journal bestseller River Monsters is packed with adventure. From the heart of the Congo to the depths of the Amazon, Wade reels in fish of staggering proportions and…
True terror in literature is difficult to pull off in my opinion, but no novel sends chills down my spine like World War Z. Told in a series of interviews a la Studs Terkel, it recounts the darkest period of human history, when the planet was almost overrun by the living dead, and the men and women across the world who suffered through it from its beginning to end. Since the story is entirely relayed through dialogue, the characters’ voices come alive in your mind, bombarding you with accounts of body horror, psychological trauma, and existential dread. The unknown, the implied, and the lingering “what-if” hanging over my head like a knife are what scares me most; the knot in my stomach with each reread is testament to that.
It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginning of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse.
Faced with a future of mindless man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the ten-year fight against the horde, World War Z brings the finest traditions of journalism to bear on what is…
It may not be the most highbrow of novels, but this slick, propulsive thriller is a brilliant exercise in pace, twists, and creativity. Dan Brown’s greatest strength is his ability to craft deliciously convoluted stories and weave the reader through them effortlessly, aided by his colorful characters, sense of humor, and wonderfully wicked scenarios. Of his thriller stock, Angels & Demons is by far his most refined, and it’s a definite recommendation for anyone looking for intensity, charm, and most of all, fun in their next read.
CERN Institute, Switzerland: a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest.
The Vatican, Rome: the College of Cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Somewhere beneath them, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion.
In a breathtaking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible - the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
Each of the sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also a view of ourselves through the eyes of the bull, illustrating our pre-literate use of myth, how the advent of writing and the urban revolution changed our view of ourselves, and how even bullfighting in Spain is a variation on the ancient sacrifice of the sacred bull.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. In I Am Taurus, author Stephen Palmer traces the story of the bull in the sky, starting from that point 19,000 years ago - a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull. Each of the eleven sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Spain and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also an attempt to see ourselves through…
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