Horror for Halloween

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Horror and horror movies are booming, and just in time for Halloween.
Like other genres, horror doesn’t get much notice from book reviewers, but there really are some good horror writers out there. I wrote about Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box last Halloween. Since then, the son of Stephen King has published Horns, which starts out with the debauched main character waking up with devil horns sprouting from his head. The New York Times review said, about Horns, that Hill “is able to combine intrigue, editorializing, impassioned romance and even fiery theological debate in one well-told story.”
If you prefer a dash of science fiction instead of theological debate in your horror reading, try the vampire trilogy in progress by Guillermo del Toro (director of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy) and Chuck Hogan (author of Prince of Thieves, that The Town, the recent movie about Charlestown is based on.) The trilogy starts with The Strain, in which Manhattan is ravaged by a virulent strain of vampirism while CDC tries to play down the danger, and is continued in The Fall, which came out last month. There is a lot of cinematic action in The Fall, with a corresponding decline in character development among the small band of those left fighting the vampires, but we’ll see what happens in the third book, The Night Eternal, due out next year.
For many more suggestions for horror reading this month, check out RA for All: Horror, a new blog dedicated to advising readers about horror.
Check the Old Colony Library Network for availability of Horns.
Check the Old Colony Library Network for availability of The Fall.