From the Haunted Stacks: One Sitting, Chilling Reads

Imagine that instead of New England in 1931, Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” took place in an isolated Korean, seaside town in 2020. During a holiday, three years before, Muyong and her niece were trapped by an earthquake that revealed a volcanic island thrust from the seafloor. Then a strange disease started spreading, killing some and turning the infected survivors into fish-like creatures. 

Now three years later, the town, closed off from the rest of the world, has a guest, a professor of infectious disease whose arrival triggers a series of terrifying and violent revelations. 

Bo-young’s riveting novella not only casts a spotlight on the horrific ways humans have always treated the victims of disease, but also grapples with Lovecraft’s version of cosmic fear and its enduring power across time and place..

Four friends gather at a Heian-era mansion in the Japanese countryside to celebrate two of their group's last-minute elopements. But this house has a haunted history. 1,000 years ago a bride was awaiting her groom; he never arrived. She asked her guests to bury her alive in the building’s foundation, to wait for him. 

Khaw’s novella, immersed in unease and oozing with menace, is immediately engrossing, The atmosphere, the characters, and their strained and complicated relationships are carefully constructed and slowly revealed, until the group finds themselves in the middle of a nightmare, stalked by a faceless woman in white, and struggling to leave the mansion alive. 

Ash is stranded at a rural horror film festival about a giant killer cicada and can't decide what's worse: the movie or her idiot boyfriend, until she realizes she's starring in the bloody sequel when people start dying and the locals won't let them leave. 

With this deceptively simple set-up, Pell takes the old-school small-town horror trope and injects it with female rage, oh, and lots of bugs, so many bugs, crawling and flying everywhere. 

Cicada is part of Shortwave Publishing's Killer VHS novella series. Marketed as Goosebumps for adults, these are terrifyingly fun stories with a retro feel, where movie monsters come to life and old VHS tapes summon long-buried evils.

Walking through his own house at night, our unnamed fifteen-year-old narrator thinks he sees father, who died mysteriously before the family left the reservation, but when he follows the figure, the boy finds that his house may be bigger, deeper, and filled with way more danger than he realized. Over the next few nights, he attempts to map the house, but his efforts reveal very real dangers. 

Combining supernatural and real-world horrors, this is a coming-of-age, character-centered tale told with lyrical language, a fast pace, and a menace that permeates every line, but reader beware, this novella has an ending that still haunts me years after reading it.

Sophia knows she was made for her husband. Everything about their love, their life, their home, it is all perfect. Or is it? There are strange dark things Sophia thinks about, his weird reactions after he returns from a work trip, the locked basement, the neighbors who look away when she asks questions. 

Dystopian with retelling vibes, this novella is a clear predecessor to the current spate of “Trad Wife” horror, but that’s all I will say because the less you know about this terrifyingly immersive tale before you dive in, the better.

Mr. Montessori and his family return home from a long day at the beach to find their sofa has been replaced by a battered, smelly, green and yellow couch. With no other signs of break-in or burglary, the family and police are stumped. 

Told solely from Mr Montessori’s point of view, readers watch with extreme discomfort as every attempt to get rid of the replacement fails and the sofa begins to consume every aspect of Montessori’s life. 

Despite its absurdity, this taut, discomfiting, surreal, and darkly humorous tale is very relatable, so much so that you may need to buy yourself a new couch after finishing this one.