Grandparents provide most of the scares in this new young adult thriller. That may sound a little on the tame side, but Coates does a respectable job instilling readers’ unease with the elderly. Which, in this case, is a good thing.
When a freak car accident puts their mother in a coma, teen blogger Tara and her bookish younger brother Kyle find themselves staying with grandparents they’ve never met.
Everything is initially picture perfect. Grandmother May is overjoyed to see them and bakes up a storm. Grandfather Peter is on the gruff but kindly side. What could go wrong?
There is the little problem that there’s no cell signal out in the country – so May kindly takes the kids’ cell phones to keep them safe. And of course, there’s no internet out there, either. There is a pier by the lake that looks fun – until they discover that Peter’s young sister drowned there. Mysteriously locked rooms and strange apparitions in the night make Tara and Kyle realize the house is definitely haunted. But ghosts aren’t the scariest things roaming about. Tara and Kyle begin to suspect that their grandparents aren’t quite what they seem to be.
The Folcroft Ghosts is a solid ghost story. While it initially seems to echo M. Night Shyamalan’s film The Visit (2015), it takes its own unique turn at the denouement.
Coates does a nice job mirroring the emotional isolation of the kids – Tara only has internet friends, Kyle’s friends are books, and now their mother is completely out of reach – with the physically isolated and spooky atmosphere of the house. Many upper elementary and middle school readers will also relate to the siblings’ single-parent family stress. Although chilling discoveries at the finale may stretch our willing suspension of disbelief a little too far, The Folcroft Ghosts offers young readers an accessible, satisfying ghost story with enough spookiness & surprises to keep them entertained to the end.
Mark is the new kid in the tiny, tight-knit town of Summitville in the remote Colorado Rockies. He’s slightly chubby. Has low-self esteem. No surprise that he becomes the whipping boy of the local high school bullies. A bloody beating in the woods sets disturbing events in motion that will change Mark’s life forever. And may cost him his soul.
Remarkably, after Mark is physically scarred for life from his thrashing, things get better for him. He tentatively finds a girlfriend. Gets a job with the local bookstore owner who is also a popular horror writer. Makes a few friends in town. And makes friends with those odd little creatures in the forest. The people who bother him start to disappear. Get dismembered. Have the marrow sucked out of their bones.
Unbeknownst even to Mark himself, those strange little beings – that look a lot less cute to anyone else who lives long enough to see them – are changing him into something unnatural and very, very evil.
By the time the infamous Mr. Crowley comes to town, things are rapidly deteriorating in Summitville. Crowley is a reoccurring character in some of Moore’s novels: a not-very-nice, feral-smiling fighter of malicious forces. He is a treat of an antihero. It is up to Crowley to see if he can bring things back to normal. Or at least perform a little damage control.
Moore is a masterful writer. He spends time developing his place and his people. His characterization is subtle and nuanced, resulting in a wholly believable cast. The folks in Summitville could be your neighbors; you feel as if you know them and care about them – dark secrets, raw emotions and all. Similarly, Summitville, with its beautiful forest, small town main street, crisp mornings and fall trails through the woods could just as easily be your own little hometown.
Under the Overtree is a longer book with a slow build, which may turn off readers who want a quick fix of jump scares or a rapid series of bloodbaths. Moore’s gradual increase in tension, however, makes the horror all the more shocking when it does occur because you have become so invested in the world of the book. Moore combines dry humor, a honed sense of the grotesque, and a dose of compassion for the human condition to make a crackerjack horror story.
Want more Mr. Crowley? I always do. Check out Moore’s brilliant Serenity Falls series which begins with Writ in Blood.
An innocent fishing trip turns deadly – and gross – in this lean, whip-fast novella.
Mild Jim and his newly-ex-felon older brother Jack, together with their sad father Henry and Jack’s hulking friend Chris, charter a boat for a combination of male family re-bonding and get-out-of-prison celebration.
There are valid concerns about the seaworthiness of the tiny boat and its decrepit captain, but the symbolism of the trip and is message of reunification override caution, and Captain Ron takes the group on a nauseating trip out to deep water.
Soon, they’ve run through the beer. There are no fish.
But there’s something else. Something very bad. I won’t tell you, but the title will, if you do a little research
The trip rapidly goes to hell as the men fend off disgusting creatures invading their boat…and their bodies.
Sacculina is a lightning, one-sitting read simply because once you begin, the breakneck pace, spare writing and swiftly escalating horror suck you in. Fracassi’s characters are quick-drawn but vital. A sense of familial connection, of childhood tensions past and present, inform their actions and personalities. Sacculina is like reading a great episode of a disturbing television show. A wetly gruesome television show. I would have loved even more – a two-hour version, maybe – but the story is tight and complete as is. Great read.
Horror author Alicia Baum has lost everything in her life: her husband, her talent, and most importantly, a childhood memory she didn’t even know she had.
When her suicide attempt lands her in a mysterious Library between worlds, she encounters Mr. Wicker – a strange being who takes damaging childhood memories and puts each in a book with the young owner’s name on it. This has the dubious result of scarring the children for life to an even greater extent than the harmful memory itself would have.
Mr. Wicker sends Alicia back to the land of the living and she awakens in the psych ward of her local hospital. There she makes friends and enemies and meets ally Dr. Farron, a child psychiatrist who is trying to discover why little children in his care whisper the name Mr. Wicker in their sleep. Together they try to uncover Alicia’s lost memory and save her from Mr. Wicker. Except Mr. Wicker isn’t that bad. And Alicia doesn’t seem to really want to be saved from him.
That is the gist of the plot. Really, however, it is much more complicated and at times confusing. Mr. Wicker has flashes of beauty and wonder and tantalizing dark imagery. The story is creative and fresh, but simultaneously frustrating. We don’t understand exactly why Mr. Wicker is a bad guy, or really, why what he is doing is that bad. He seems more a tragic hero than an ill-intentioned entity. The druidic backstory – where Alexander’s writing really comes into its own – paints Wicker rather to be a more of a savior of his people than abandoned by his gods. Similarly perplexing, his nemesis across time is the ostensible hero of the present-day story.
Alicia herself is a challenging heroine. It is difficult to understand her 180-degree swings of sexual attraction and mood unless we chalk it up to her depression and lost memory. We don’t quite know her well enough – until almost the story’s end – to care much about her. The narrative also switches viewpoints abruptly and often, making it an effort to pick out the wisps of plot threads and piece them together.
Mr. Wicker has great bones: a fascinating plot concept, lyrical imagery and potentially compelling characters. Unfortunately, uneven development of those characters and of the storyline weaken its impact.
Some of us may want a more atmospheric Halloween than last week’s hard rocking songs offered. Here you go. I’ve made a playlist of my favorite dark classical pieces, spooky movie themes, and other eerie instrumental snippets. Sit out on your porch at midnight on Halloween and watch the fall clouds racing by under that almost-full moon and listen to these tracks, if you dare.
Ave Satani (from The Omen) – Jerry Goldsmith. (1976) Goldsmith’s satanic version of a Gregorian chant was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in ’76. Goldsmith worked with his orchestra’s choir-master to create a musical black mass. Highly unnerving.
Danse Macabre – Camille Saint-Saens. (1874) One of my absolute favorites. I get goosebumps every time I hear it. According to old superstition, at midnight every Halloween, Death appears and calls skeletons from their graves to dance for him. They dance until the cock crows the next morning. In this piece, you can hear the harp at the beginning, striking midnight, and the oboe mimicking the rooster at the end. Magnificent, wild, eerie, brilliant.
The Fog Prologue – John Houseman. (1980) “11:55, almost midnight. Enough time for one more story…” The epitome of a creepy ghost story from the 1980 film classic. If Houseman’s voice and the deep swell and single theme notes in the background don’t give you chills, nothing will.
Theme from The Fog – John Carpenter. (1980) Followed immediately by the iconic theme from the king of spooky synthesizer himself. Carpenter considered it one of his best scores.
Carnival of Souls – Combustible Edison. (1994) Lounge-y tribute to the ’62 cult classic film. Sticks weirdly in your head.
Suspiria (Daemonia version) – Goblin. (1997) Creepy, whispery, synthesizer-heavy theme to Argento’s horror masterpiece. John Carpenter later credited Goblin’s work on another Argento soundtrack – Profondo Rosso – for inspiring his own use of synthesizer on the Halloween soundtrack. Cool.
The Bookhouse Boys – Angelo Badalamenti. (1990) Think: alone on a late and rainy night in a strange place. Darkly bluesy song. Eerie sax. Badalamenti won a Grammy for the Twin Peaks Theme in 1990.
Dies Irae (from the Requiem Mass in D Minor) – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (1791) “Dies Irae” means “Day of Wrath” when souls are summoned for the Last Judgment and the worthy are delivered and the unsaved are damned. The Dies irae was used as part of the sequence for the Catholic Requiem Mass and funerals. Roman Catholic reforms removed it (and other off-putting texts that focused on terror, despair, punishment, etc.) from funerals and masses in 1969-1970. Small wonder – this is terrifying! Powerful, fast, almost violent.
Theme from The Shining – Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind. (1980) Based on Berlioz’s Dies Irae from the Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath movement of Symphonie Fantastique. Dissonant and uber-creepy.
Confession Modulation – Broadcast. (2012) From the Berberian Sound Studio soundtrack. The British band did haunting bits of song for this mesmerizing film – a must for audiophiles. I couldn’t find the clip for you, but here’s the movie trailer. Trust me on the haunting part.
Two Steps from Hell – Exhumed. (2012) Two guys joined forces in 2006 to create original music for movie trailers…now they’re known for dynamic genre albums. This one is from the Halloween album, of course.
Tam O’Shanter Overture–Sir Malcolm Arnold. (1955) Read Burns’ poem first – and you can completely envision drunken Tam weaving home on his old horse Meg, chased by witches and other terrifying creatures. Can he make it to the river and cross before they catch him? Amazing tone poem blending humor and horror.
Main Theme from Psycho – Bernard Herrmann. (1960) Herrmann used a muted, all-string orchestra to ramp up the tension in the soundtrack. The main title gets me most of all: the speed, the rising and falling: nail-biting. Interestingly, Herrmann only unmuted his strings in the famous shower scene, creating terrifying contrast to the rest of the score. Hitchcock later commented that “33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.”
Funereal March of Marionette – Charles Gounod. (1872 for solo piano, orchestrated 1879) Speaking of Hitchcock… This was the main theme for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Not scary, but piques the imagination.
Calliope – Nox Arcana. (2006) A “dark ambient” duo that musically depict gothic and horror fiction. They turn out some really, really eerie albums.
Carmina Burana (O Fortuna) – Carl Orff. (1935-1936) The Carmina Burana is a series of medieval poems that Orff brought to life in music. O Fortuna bemoans the fickleness of fortune and the inescapablem cruel nature of fate. Absolutely chilling. It begins ominously with deep, fast, forceful chanting, and climbs to a stunning, hair-raising conclusion.
Main Theme from The Amityville Horror – Lalo Schifrin. (1979) It starts out so innocently, yet with ominous undertones. Happy children singing…and then, not so much. Classic theme.
Theme to Kolchak: The Nightstalker – Gil Mellé. (1974-1975) One of my favorite television shows of all time. Darren McGavin is a crime reporter who keeps getting sucked into supernatural encounters. I think this show singlehandedly made me spooky. And a writer. Happy Halloween, everyone!
Ah…I can’t let go! Here are a few others without as much annotation: Dead Silence Theme – Charlie Clouser. (2007) Creepy song, creepy film.
Béla Bartók – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. (1936) Tense, brooding, dark tones. Excerpts were also used in the original version of The Shining.
Witch’s Ride – Engelbert Humperdinck. (1891-1892) From the opera Hansel and Gretel. You can almost see the witch herself, madly flying through the night sky. Evocative.
I love cheesy Halloween music as much as the next person – that is, minimally – but having worked in an elementary school for twelve years, I will tell you that “Monster Mash” has worn especially thin. To the point where hearing it makes me want to cry. Here is a rockin’ alternative playlist for those of us who like our Halloween songs on the…less saccharine side. Enjoy!
Haunt You – The Pack a.d. (2011) Two Canadian garage rockers inspired by sci-fi and horror films. Hard-hitting, big sound. About someone dead.
Red Right Hand – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. (1994) Dark and ominous…”red right hand” is a line from Paradise Lost, referring to the vengeful hand of God.
The Sky is a Poisonous Garden – Concrete Blonde. (1990) Whip fast and chilling.
Howlin’ for You – The Black Keys. (2010) O.k., not really anything spooky, but you can pretend werewolf. Bluesy with great drums. The official video parodied action flick trailers…maybe not so work-safe.
One of These Days – Pink Floyd. (1971) A quiet, ominous windstorm. One disturbing sentence. Menacing bass. Screaming guitar. Beautiful.
Ballroom Blitz – Sweet. (1973) Yes, you’ve heard it in Suicide Squad, but it was cool way before then. Supposedly inspired by a concert the band was playing in Scotland when the crowd started throwing bottles at them and drove them off the stage. Awesome!
Vampire Blues – Neil Young. (1974) Vintage Neil…amazing guitar…sink your teeth into this one.
The Darkness – Zombie Girl(Darker Mix by Komor Kommando). (2009) Synthy, B-horror movie industrial rock with a heavy beat.
Lullaby – The Cure. (1989) Giant spider. Childhood nightmares. Drug addiction? Deceptively pretty song with a high creep factor.
Devil Behind that Bush – The Cramps. (1997) A she-devil scares the lead singer out of his pants. Hmmm… Upbeat, surfy, psychobilly.
Night of the Living Dead – The Misfits. (1979) No one does horror punk like these guys. This song was released on Halloween, 1979.
Novocaine – Switchblade Symphony. (1995) Orchestra meets goth rock with haunting vocals.
Earth Died Screaming – Tom Waits. (1992) Deeply unsettling. Waits’ growly voice and the eerie “sticks” percussion – created by guys actually “banging two-by-by fours against stones or rocks on the ground” according to Songfacts – make a creepy combo. Clips from The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) zombie film accompany the song in this video.
Yummer Yummer Man – Danielle Dax. (1988) – Don’t let him near you! Great ’90s experimental/pop rock. I saw her in concert, opening for the Sisters of Mercy in Boulder…
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) – David Bowie. (1980) A woman withdraws from society and goes a little crazy…Great guitar and perscussion. And of course, it’s Bowie.
Dominic Grey, working as a US diplomatic security agent in Zimbabwe, is tasked with finding out what happened to the ambassador’s good friend, who apparently vanished during a secretive religious ritual.
Together with a fierce and beautiful local official and a world expert on cults, Grey follows a dark trail of corruption and terror. Hunting a powerful and evil n’anga – usually a healer and spiritual advisor – Grey sees things that defy rational explanation and shake his world view to the core.
A tough guy with a lack of respect for authority and zero tolerance for injustice, Grey survived childhood with a violent father and watched his sick mother die despite all her faith and prayers. Now, his own beliefs – or lack thereof – are challenged by the magic and butchery he witnesses.
The Summoner is a deep book: on the surface a mystery/ thriller with a hint of supernatural, it is truly thought-provoking and disturbing on an elemental level. Green captures the essence of the dichotomy that is modern Zimbabwe: vitality and despair, beauty and secrecy, honor and corruption, globalism and racial tension. This setting creates a shocking juxtaposition of contemporary urban life with primitive rituals and belief systems.
Green leaves the reader with a deep sense of unease. What is real? Can unknown beliefs or concepts affect one’s reality, despite one’s own beliefs? Is magic real? The Summoner will get under your skin.
Fall is in the air and there is no better time for Pumpkin Coconut Bread. I’ve been baking this for years. It always turns out beautifully: moist, flavorful. And it makes three loaves. Oh yes. One to eat, one to freeze, and one to give away. Or maybe two to freeze. Or… You work out the distribution.
This recipe also lends itself perfectly to other add-ins: chopped candied ginger, mini chocolate chips, raisins, currants. Change the nuts to walnuts. Play with it! This is an easy recipe that will be a keeper for you.
I recently held a BOOOk Fair at our school library with a Day of the Dead theme. (Aside – I am so fortunate to have an administration that loves a spooky fall Book – “BOOOk” – Fair).
Día de los Muertos is primarily a Mexican holiday. It is a multi-day celebration that starts on October 31st – Halloween – and goes through November 2nd – All Souls’ Day. Over these days, families take time to remember and celebrate family members who have passed on. They visit cemeteries where they clean the graves of their loved ones and decorate them with altars – ofrendas – using foods & drinks their loved ones enjoyed, toys, and marigolds. The marigold, known as the Flor de Muerto, is supposed to attract the souls of the dead to the offerings. We have a large Hispanic population at the school and they loved this Fair.
One decoration I made was marigold garlands. These are absolutely stunning and super-simple to make. Fortunately, in our backyard, marigolds are essentially perennials and come up on their own every spring. I have an abundance to work with.
Take a sunny fall afternoon and string these beautiful garlands. They have an amazing weight to them when they are fresh, and a lovely, almost spicy scent. As they dry, they shrink up, but remain so pretty. You can cut the garland and spread the dried seeds in your fall garden to come up again next year. Use them as necklaces or add to a fall tablescape. Use your decorating imagination!
You need:
Marigold flowers – lots: The string I made for the blog today was three feet long and used 55 flowers.
Embroidery floss
Embroidery needle
Pony beads
How to make them:
Gather your marigold flowers. You can cut them off the plants with scissors or just pick them by hand. Make sure to get the seed pod with the flower – this is the part you will be passing the needle through.
Thread your needle with your embroidery and string your first pony bead, making a knot. I am using the embroidery floss without separating it into strands so it will be a little stronger. I’m using an orange color to blend in with the flowers. There is a huge variety of pony beads available! I am working with some translucent pony beads in all colors. They add a subtle sparkle in the garland.
Now, string your first marigold flower. Push the needle through the seedpod and pull the flower down the floss so it rests on the anchor pony bead. Next, string another bead. Then, add another flower. Continue alternating beads and flowers, scooting them down so they are tight together on the string.
Turn the marigold flowers at different angles to make the garland look full from all sides.
When you have your garland as long as you want it, knot the end. Leave enough thread extending so that you can tie the two ends together if you like, to make a circle, or necklace.
This garland was just under three feet, and used 55 marigold flowers. It only took about twenty minutes! Have fun!
Jeremy Logan, a professor of history at Yale, is looking forward to six uninterrupted weeks at a secluded retreat in the Adirondacks where he plans to finish work on his monograph about the Middle Ages.
But when a college friend turned forest ranger needs help investigating the savage murders of backpackers in a remote area of forest – all of which occurred during the full moon – Jeremy puts his research on the back burner and starts an off-the-record probe into the odd deaths.
Logan is an engaging character: he has appeared in his empathic enigmalogist role in several other books by Child including Deep Storm and Terminal Freeze. The trouble with Full Wolf Moon, quite frankly, is that from the title forward, we know where the story is going. There are no great surprises: we know when something is going to happen, and the basics of what is going to happen, so the only mild suspense left is in the how, why, and who.
Suspects do abound as Jeremy digs deeper into the case. Residents of tiny Pike Hollow blame the Blakelys, an extended, inbred family living in a fortified compound outside town… A paroled ax-murderer happens to live nearby in the woods… A scientist, Laura Feverbridge, and her assistants are carrying out her father’s research on the lunar effect on animals in a lab nearby… All of these folks have the potential to be lycanthropic butchers.
Full Wolf Moon is a quick read. Elements of the story are nicely realized: Child builds an eerily claustrophobic and threatening sense of the old woods. The Blakely compound raises reader’s hackles, and tying it all together is an interesting scientific take on the phenomena of werewolves. While the storyline is – uncharacteristically for Child – a little bland because of that lack of anticipation, overall, Full Wolf Moon is a solid tale.
Horror author Alicia Baum has lost everything in her life: her husband, her talent, and most importantly, a childhood memory she didn’t even know she had.
My Haunted Library 