Horror Story Recommendations
Curated by Stephanie Howell (Librarian, Salt Lake Public Libraries) and Arthur Packard (CWC's Youth Programs Coordinator)
Short Stories
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
This is a brilliant short story about Connie, a teen girl home alone when a guy named Arnold Friend shows up at her house and tries to convince her to get into his car. Oates was inspired to write this story after reading an article about a man in Tucson Az who would seduce and murder teen girls. Friend switches between being charming and threatening as Connie feels more and more trapped by her situation.
Sweetmeats by Linda Cheng
This story is about two girls who attempt to run away to New York only to get lured into a witch’s cottage, who attempts to feed them sweets to fatten them up and eat them. Of course nobody believes the girls after they escape, and now they have to deal with the fallout which includes suspicion from their parents and an intense feeling of hunger that never seems to be satisfied. Content Warnings: Violence, Profanity
Books
His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler
This book features retellings of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. EAP’s writing is not the most accessible so these stories are great because they update the language and settings. The thing that I love about horror is that it transcends time and place. Fear is a universal experience and these stories show that.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson is the queen of horror. There is a reason that the Shirley Jackson Award is a huge honor for horror writers. She is a master of character development, and creating eerie settings where everything is a little off. A paranormal investigator named Dr. Montague is research Hill House and he invites three 20-somethings to help based on evidence of them having had past experiences with paranormal events. The four of them will be living in HIll House for the summer. Eleanor, is the main person who experiences paranormal events happening, and it is difficult to tell if what she is seeing is real or not. The true horror in this story is watching Eleanor slowly become possessed by the house while everyone around her watches helplessly.
The Long Walk by Stephen King and Richard Backman
In the ‘70’s Stephen King published a few titles under the pen name Richard Bachman. The Long Walk is set in a dystopic America, where every year 100 boys volunteer to participate in The Walk: a contest in which the winner is granted whatever he wants for the rest of his life, The Walk is a huge event with media coverage, and the public lining the streets to cheer on the walkers. There are a few rules: you must walk faster than 4 mph and you cannot stop. A contestant is given three warnings and after the third warning they are given a ticket (which actually means they are shot a killed) A armed soldiers ride alongside the walkers in halftracks, where they track each walkers speed and hand out warnings and “tickets”. Throughout the story we watch the boys grapple with their impending death, and why they joined The Walk in the first place (since it is volunteer only) The crowd seems to care only about the spectacle, and seemingly enjoy watching walkers get tickets. King does a great job of portraying the psychological breakdown of someone who is dealing with physical pain, lack of sleep and facing their own mortality. Content Warning: profanity, discussion of sex, racism, gore, violence
The Summer is Ended and We Are Not Yet Saved by Joey Comeau
This book is a classic slasher story, with a bit of dark humor thrown in. Martin is attending Bible Camp for the summer while his mother does makeup on a horror movie out of town. Unfortunately the Bible Camp is being terrorized by a murderous priest. This book might not be for everyone because it does have some graphic murder scenes. The fun part is that Martin has a pretty extensive knowledge of horror films and he uses that knowledge at camp. Content Warning: violence, profanity, gore
Movies
House (Hausu)
House is one of my favorite horror films of all time. It was made in the 70’s in Japan. House is about a girl named Gorgeous and her six friends (and her cat named Blanche) who travel to her Aunt’s house for summer vacation, unfortunately her aunt’s house is haunted and it starts killing off the girls. The director enlisted the help of his pre-teen daughter in coming up with the horrific ways that the girls are killed. The director also purposely made all the special effects unrealistic and cartoonish. The result is the most surreal hour and a half you will ever experience. Content Warning: Nudity
The Fly
Director David Cronenberg is a master of body horror (he is the inspiration for Cronenbergs on Rick and Morty) and The Fly is one of his prime examples. The story is about a scientist named Seth who has invented a teleportation device, he has successfully teleported inanimate objects but decides to try transporting himself in an attempt to impress the lady he is seeing. Unfortunately, he does not realize that a fly gets into the teleportation device with him. At first Seth believes that the teleportation process has somehow purified his body and made him into the epitome of human perfection. But suddenly he grows bristly hair out of his back, his fingernails fall off and his body starts deteriorating. That is when he realizes that during the teleportation process he was fused with the fly and from there, everything goes very very wrong. Cronenberg does an excellent job of building sympathy for Seth, even as he turns into a literal monster. Content Warning: profanity, sex, gore
Other Horror Mediums:
The Twilight Zone (TV show)The Twilight Zone is a classic tv show that inspired many modern horror writers, including Jordan Peele. Since most of the episodes are only 30 minutes, the story-telling is very concise. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is one of their most iconic episodes. It stars William Shatner as a man who is flying home with his wife after being in a sanitarium for 6th months following a nervous breakdown which also happened on a plane. During the flight, he keeps seeing a monster on the wing of the plane. Unfortunately, every time he asks someone else to look, the creature disappears. Knowing what he has just been through, his wife and the plane crew question his credibility. Imagine seeing something so terrifying and dangerous yet nobody will believe you.
The other episode is from the first season called The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. It takes place on one afternoon and evening in the summer. Everyone on the street sees a giant flash in the sky and suddenly all the power goes out and nobody’s cars or telephones work. One boy mentions that he read a story about something just like this happening and it turned out that there was a group of aliens posing as a family in the neighborhood. As the boy finishes talking about the story, one man’s car suddenly starts and his neighbors start accusing him of being the cause of everything. As the evening wears on, everyone starts pointing fingers at each other, bringing up “unusual” behaviors of their neighbors and quickly everything delves into chaos. It is a great example of how people can alienate and hurt each other in a search for a scapegoat.
Pseudopod (Podcast)Pseudopod is a podcast that features a new horror story each week. There is a huge variety of stories, some written for the podcast and some that were written before. It has become the place to discover new horror writers as well as new voice-over actors. The podcast has been going on for quite a few years so there are about 670 episodes. They cover a wide range of horror subgenres and do not shy away from anything. There are content warnings at the beginning of the episodes that I recommend looking at. That being said, here are two episodes that I recently enjoyed.
The Happiest Place (ep. 661) is about the first day of work for a person at Kingdom of Fun, which is clearly a stand in for Disneyland, as a costumed character. Outside the walls of Kingdom of Fun, America has turned into a dystopian nightmare and it is up to park employees to make sure that none of the realities of the real world encroach on the magical utopia.
The House that Dripped Character (ep. 642) is a horror comedy take on House Hunters, where a terrible couple (he works in the financial sector and she has a boutique where she sells crocheted hats for gerbils) must choose between three houses: a rotting abandoned Victorian house on a swamp, an old concrete laboratory or a gothic mansion filled with vampires.
Nonfiction Horror:
Did you think all horror was fiction? Unfortunately, sometimes real life is scarier than anything we can make up. Whether it's true crime or terrifying disappearances, real events can make really compelling horror.
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
This is a brilliant short story about Connie, a teen girl home alone when a guy named Arnold Friend shows up at her house and tries to convince her to get into his car. Oates was inspired to write this story after reading an article about a man in Tucson Az who would seduce and murder teen girls. Friend switches between being charming and threatening as Connie feels more and more trapped by her situation.
Sweetmeats by Linda Cheng
This story is about two girls who attempt to run away to New York only to get lured into a witch’s cottage, who attempts to feed them sweets to fatten them up and eat them. Of course nobody believes the girls after they escape, and now they have to deal with the fallout which includes suspicion from their parents and an intense feeling of hunger that never seems to be satisfied. Content Warnings: Violence, Profanity
Books
His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler
This book features retellings of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. EAP’s writing is not the most accessible so these stories are great because they update the language and settings. The thing that I love about horror is that it transcends time and place. Fear is a universal experience and these stories show that.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson is the queen of horror. There is a reason that the Shirley Jackson Award is a huge honor for horror writers. She is a master of character development, and creating eerie settings where everything is a little off. A paranormal investigator named Dr. Montague is research Hill House and he invites three 20-somethings to help based on evidence of them having had past experiences with paranormal events. The four of them will be living in HIll House for the summer. Eleanor, is the main person who experiences paranormal events happening, and it is difficult to tell if what she is seeing is real or not. The true horror in this story is watching Eleanor slowly become possessed by the house while everyone around her watches helplessly.
The Long Walk by Stephen King and Richard Backman
In the ‘70’s Stephen King published a few titles under the pen name Richard Bachman. The Long Walk is set in a dystopic America, where every year 100 boys volunteer to participate in The Walk: a contest in which the winner is granted whatever he wants for the rest of his life, The Walk is a huge event with media coverage, and the public lining the streets to cheer on the walkers. There are a few rules: you must walk faster than 4 mph and you cannot stop. A contestant is given three warnings and after the third warning they are given a ticket (which actually means they are shot a killed) A armed soldiers ride alongside the walkers in halftracks, where they track each walkers speed and hand out warnings and “tickets”. Throughout the story we watch the boys grapple with their impending death, and why they joined The Walk in the first place (since it is volunteer only) The crowd seems to care only about the spectacle, and seemingly enjoy watching walkers get tickets. King does a great job of portraying the psychological breakdown of someone who is dealing with physical pain, lack of sleep and facing their own mortality. Content Warning: profanity, discussion of sex, racism, gore, violence
The Summer is Ended and We Are Not Yet Saved by Joey Comeau
This book is a classic slasher story, with a bit of dark humor thrown in. Martin is attending Bible Camp for the summer while his mother does makeup on a horror movie out of town. Unfortunately the Bible Camp is being terrorized by a murderous priest. This book might not be for everyone because it does have some graphic murder scenes. The fun part is that Martin has a pretty extensive knowledge of horror films and he uses that knowledge at camp. Content Warning: violence, profanity, gore
Movies
House (Hausu)
House is one of my favorite horror films of all time. It was made in the 70’s in Japan. House is about a girl named Gorgeous and her six friends (and her cat named Blanche) who travel to her Aunt’s house for summer vacation, unfortunately her aunt’s house is haunted and it starts killing off the girls. The director enlisted the help of his pre-teen daughter in coming up with the horrific ways that the girls are killed. The director also purposely made all the special effects unrealistic and cartoonish. The result is the most surreal hour and a half you will ever experience. Content Warning: Nudity
The Fly
Director David Cronenberg is a master of body horror (he is the inspiration for Cronenbergs on Rick and Morty) and The Fly is one of his prime examples. The story is about a scientist named Seth who has invented a teleportation device, he has successfully teleported inanimate objects but decides to try transporting himself in an attempt to impress the lady he is seeing. Unfortunately, he does not realize that a fly gets into the teleportation device with him. At first Seth believes that the teleportation process has somehow purified his body and made him into the epitome of human perfection. But suddenly he grows bristly hair out of his back, his fingernails fall off and his body starts deteriorating. That is when he realizes that during the teleportation process he was fused with the fly and from there, everything goes very very wrong. Cronenberg does an excellent job of building sympathy for Seth, even as he turns into a literal monster. Content Warning: profanity, sex, gore
Other Horror Mediums:
The Twilight Zone (TV show)The Twilight Zone is a classic tv show that inspired many modern horror writers, including Jordan Peele. Since most of the episodes are only 30 minutes, the story-telling is very concise. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is one of their most iconic episodes. It stars William Shatner as a man who is flying home with his wife after being in a sanitarium for 6th months following a nervous breakdown which also happened on a plane. During the flight, he keeps seeing a monster on the wing of the plane. Unfortunately, every time he asks someone else to look, the creature disappears. Knowing what he has just been through, his wife and the plane crew question his credibility. Imagine seeing something so terrifying and dangerous yet nobody will believe you.
The other episode is from the first season called The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. It takes place on one afternoon and evening in the summer. Everyone on the street sees a giant flash in the sky and suddenly all the power goes out and nobody’s cars or telephones work. One boy mentions that he read a story about something just like this happening and it turned out that there was a group of aliens posing as a family in the neighborhood. As the boy finishes talking about the story, one man’s car suddenly starts and his neighbors start accusing him of being the cause of everything. As the evening wears on, everyone starts pointing fingers at each other, bringing up “unusual” behaviors of their neighbors and quickly everything delves into chaos. It is a great example of how people can alienate and hurt each other in a search for a scapegoat.
Pseudopod (Podcast)Pseudopod is a podcast that features a new horror story each week. There is a huge variety of stories, some written for the podcast and some that were written before. It has become the place to discover new horror writers as well as new voice-over actors. The podcast has been going on for quite a few years so there are about 670 episodes. They cover a wide range of horror subgenres and do not shy away from anything. There are content warnings at the beginning of the episodes that I recommend looking at. That being said, here are two episodes that I recently enjoyed.
The Happiest Place (ep. 661) is about the first day of work for a person at Kingdom of Fun, which is clearly a stand in for Disneyland, as a costumed character. Outside the walls of Kingdom of Fun, America has turned into a dystopian nightmare and it is up to park employees to make sure that none of the realities of the real world encroach on the magical utopia.
The House that Dripped Character (ep. 642) is a horror comedy take on House Hunters, where a terrible couple (he works in the financial sector and she has a boutique where she sells crocheted hats for gerbils) must choose between three houses: a rotting abandoned Victorian house on a swamp, an old concrete laboratory or a gothic mansion filled with vampires.
Nonfiction Horror:
Did you think all horror was fiction? Unfortunately, sometimes real life is scarier than anything we can make up. Whether it's true crime or terrifying disappearances, real events can make really compelling horror.
- Lore Podcast Episode 8: The Castle The true story of the serial killer H.H. Holmes and his murder hotel.
- The Mystery of Daytlov Pass: the true story of students from the former USSR who went on a cross country skiing trip and were eventually discovered dead and with inexplicable wounds, told as a narrative by Lucy Ash for the BBC
- Cult Liter Podcast Episode 55: A Condo to Kill For