As horror writer, I’m often asked what scares me most, and almost every fear I have is, at its core, about the Unknown. Not just what we don’t know but the things we cannot know. In all my books, I’ve tried to lean into that personal fear as much as possible, and with Heavy Oceans, I was inspired by the cases Mulder and Scully investigated back when the idea of a government lying to and spying on its own citizens seemed almost quaint by comparison to the moments we’re living. And, as the show’s title credit often said, in glowing words that blazed over a darkened sky…"The Truth is Out There."
Most readers know this feeling well: when a book you love doesn’t seem to get the attention you feel it deserves. That’s exactly how I view Daniel Kraus’ excellent and suspenseful novel, Bent Heavens. Maybe because it was marketed as YA (whatever that means these days), or maybe because he’s so prolific that it can be hard to keep up with all his work.
Whatever the reason, this book features conspiracy theories, a missing father, government secrets, and exactly the kind of fog-shrouded abandoned places Mulder and Scully tend to explore during their investigations. Yeah, it’s creepy. Yeah, it’s mysterious. But more than that, it’s got characters you care about.
Liv Fleming is done with childhood fantasies. Done pretending she believes her missing father's absurd theories about alien abduction. Done going through the motions of checking the traps he set just for her friend Doug's sake. But on the very day she chooses to destroy the traps, she discovers in one of them a creature so inhuman it can only be one thing. In that moment, she's faced with a painful realisation: Her dad was telling the truth. And no one believed him.
Now she and Doug have a choice to make. They can turn the alien over to the…
Some writers make me feel like they’ve seen a glimpse of the future or at least a version of the future. I’m not talking one hundred years ahead; more like a year or two.
This book kicks off with a brutal, bloody scene in a classroom that lets us know something’s not quite right in the (fictional) eastern Oregon town of Turner Falls. Interspersed with the rantings of a conspiratorial radio DJ (think Coast to Coast), we follow a group of high school students contending with something way over their heads.
I love this book not just for the plot and characters but for the prose. Johnson brings a ruthless energy and generous heart to his sentences, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that turns my dials. Plus, I have a feeling if Mulder and Scully had been called in at some point during the story, things could have taken a different turn.
This book damn near ticked every single box I have when it comes to what I love in a novel.
A complex and conflicted addict as the main character? Check. Regrets? Check. Deep childhood friendships? Check. An evil magician and a creepy carnival? Check and check.
Black Mouth is dark and intense, and even though it plunges straight into the supernatural, it’s very much grounded in the real world. A world full of pain, heartache, loss, and broken people.
It also features a character with a disability, and he’s drawn with such love and tenderness that I can’t help but think more novels would benefit from disability representation. The character of Dennis is often seen most clearly in the way others interact with him, revealing much about the kindness or cruelty of the other characters.
A special book that I didn’t so much read as live inside.
A group of friends return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they first stumbled on as teenagers in this mesmerising odyssey of terror.
An atmospheric, haunting page-turner from the bestselling author of Come with Me
For nearly two decades, Jamie Warren has been running from darkness. He's haunted by a traumatic childhood and the guilt at having disappeared from his disabled brother's life. But then a series of unusual events reunites him with his estranged brother and their childhood friends, and none of them can deny the sense of fate that has seemingly drawn them back together.
Is it cheating to pick a short story collection? Nah. Of course not!
Fracassi is one of my favorite writers. And if you want to know why, just check out his incredible novel Boys in the Valley. But a novel (usually) is a single story, and all the ideas therein serve that story. What a joy it is to see a writer unleash his full power, his idea machine, in a collection of short stories.
You get a little boy’s birthday wish that backfires in a horrifying way. A story written from the perspective of a haunted house. Yes, you read that right! The world’s most dangerous beach, along with eleven other stories that are pulpy, literary, chilling, and terrifying.
I love that Fracassi completely leans into the pulpy nature of these stories, giving us all the shocks and scares that we used to get from the “monster of the week” X-Files episodes. Plus, it’s a whole lot of fun.
No One Is Safe! presents fourteen stories of macabre, pulpy terror; a book filled with futuristic noir mysteries, science fiction thrillers, alien invasions, and old-school horror tales that will keep you up late into the night. Inside these covers, you’ll discover haunted dream journals and evil houses, birthday wishes gone wrong, a neighborhood cat that cures any disease, a flesh-eating beach, and mysterious skeletons on a hidden moon base. You’ll meet wise-cracking detectives, suburban vampires, murdered movie stars, and monsters of the deep. And remember—don’t get too attached to the characters you’ll meet on these pages because there’s no holding…
Whether it’s the short story, the novella, or the novel, Burke never fails to go for the throat in wonderfully unexpected ways. This book falls into that niche sub-genre of horror often referred to as “Arctic horror,” although that often just means cold, with lots of snow.
The staff at a seaside hotel take in a group from a nearby retirement community just as a massive snowstorm strands them all in a hotel that feels like an East Coast version of the Overlook. A combination of John Carpenter’s The Thing and The Shining, Burke finds the terror in small moments that string together into something much larger and horrifying than I anticipated.
I read this book at night just as snowflakes started falling outside the office window. One of those stories (like several of Burke’s themed collections that might be best read at a certain time of year, in certain weather. But, even if you choose to read this book while the sun is shining, I have no doubt you’ll feel a chill creep over your scalp as you uncover the secrets Burke has buried in these snow drifts.
It is a story of deep-sea terror and cosmic horror. Struggling with the pressures of being a new father and the weight of regrets, Jamie Fletcher travels to Hawaii in hopes of connecting with his estranged brother, Eric.
After a shocking act of violence, the brothers end up on a fishing boat—along with the captain and his son—in the middle of the ocean, where they encounter an uncanny and terrifying phenomenon that will signal a shift in the evolution of the world.
As a child, I lived in a small valley sheltered from the night city lights. I could see the stars, and from that time, that is where my imagination dwelled. As a teenager, I read several of the books I have listed here, and from that point, I was inspired to read more and also to write myself. I sincerely believe that despite our current problems, humanity will outlive its troubled childhood and reach for the stars. We are destined for the stars, and only in the works of science fiction writers is that future explored. The books below helped me to become a successful author in my own right.
An alien starship appears in the Solar System! Humanity faces a glorious future, or total extinction, and only Joe Falcon can make the choice. Never would Joe have imagined it would fall to him to make the decision that would alter the destiny of two worlds, launching humanity towards a glorious future, or to extinction.
Falcon's Call is an action packed dive into the unknown, written in the style of the great, classic, science-fiction stories. If you like surprising plot twists, compelling characters and a hero who actually cares, you must read this new novel by Mike Waller.
Reader's Favorite Gold Medal winner 2019 B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree 2019 Chill With A Book Premier Award 2019
In a heart-pounding battle for humanity's survival, one man holds the key to a glorious future or utter extinction.
In a race against time, Earth and Mars race to claim a derelict alien ship as it enters the Solar System, both aware that whichever planet succeeds might in so doing achieve technological advantage over the other. But who should they send? Joe Falcon, an unlikely candidate, never saw himself as the "right" person. Accompanied by a crew of misfits, each fleeing their own…
