Winter Horror Reading List

Howdy!  It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, so I thought I'd take a minute and talk about a few books you might like to read.

1.  "The Wasp Factory," Iain Banks (1984)

Yes, that Iain Banks.  He's well-known for the science fiction he writes under the name "Iain M. Banks," but I have yet to read another of his works that reaches the heights (and depths) of "The Wasp Factory."  The book is written in first-person from the perspective of a sixteen-year-old, Scottish sociopath.

I will refrain from discussing the plot in any in-depth way as I think it is one of those pieces you should discover as you travel along with the author.  I *will* say that it's the only book I've ever reread immediately upon finishing. 

2. "stranger things happen," Kelly Link (2001)

Kelly Link has a way with words.  I don't know what else to say about her.  She has the ability to paint beautiful, scary, lush, humorous pictures that dazzle me. 

(I met her once.  I think I freaked her out with my fan-girl gushing, but it's all deserved. I regret nothing.)

You would be well-advised to pick up any of her collections, but I have a particular love for "stranger things happen" because it includes two of my favorite stories, "Travels with the Snow Queen," and "Louise's Ghost."  The former transforms you into a fairy-tale princess in search of your prince...sort of.  The latter is a meditation on friendship and love and loss and transformation and music. 

Do yourself a favor and take a look at her short fiction.  If you don't want to invest in a book of her work, then pick up "The Years Best Fantasy and Horror," which she edits with her husband and Ellen Datlow.

Speaking of Ellen Datlow...

3. "inferno", Ellen Datlow, ed. (2007)

One of the scariest collection of short horror fiction ever.  Period.  The stories include bees, motorcycles, angels, forests, and iron suits.  In the introduction, Datlow says of the stories she collected,

"all of them had to succeed on [her] terms: to provide the reader with a frisson of shock, or a moment of dread so powerful it might cause the reader outright physical discomfort; or a sensation of fear so palpable that the reader feels impelled to turn up the lights [...] to dispel the fear; or to linger in the reader's consciousness for a long, long time."

She succeeded.  This is one of the most intense collection of short horror fiction I've ever read.  Datlow has a keen sense of what will scare people, and she doesn't disappoint here. 

Until next time, happy reading!