Staff Picks for Halloween 2024 (w/Special Guests!)
The usual suspects are joined by three esteemed writers of horror/gothic/thriller novels whose recs will happily haunt your TBR. [Jump to the team recs]
GUEST BOOKSELLER #1
Luis Paredes (of Dobbs Ferry!) is the author of dark fantasy, horror, and weird fiction. His latest novel, Headhunters, is a delightfully unhinged mix of supernatural dark fantasy and charming coming-of-age story.
Come meet Luis at Transom on Friday October 18, 2024, at 2p.
ASUNDER by Kerstin Hall
“What would you do pay the bills? Make a deal with a terrifying eldritch entity? This genre-blending fantasy horror answer those questions and takes you on a memorable and visceral ride.”
THE BAD ONES by Melissa Albert
“A slow burn YA horror fantasy set in a town that's steeped in creepy folklore. Fans (and residents) of Sleep Hollow or Point Pleasant will appreciate the world building Albert crafts in this new release.”
CRYPT OF THE MOON SPIDER by Nathan Ballingrud
“A disturbing novella brimming with dread-inducing atmosphere that toys with your sense of self and reality. As the title suggests, there are spiders (one of my favorite creepy crawlies), but that's not what's going to disturb you by the end of story.”
GUEST BOOKSELLER #2
Keith Rosson is the author of many novels and short stories in the thriller, horror, and crime fiction genres. His latest are FEVER HOUSE and THE DEVIL BY NAME, a pair of gritty urban crime thrillers that take a nasty supernatural turn.
ZONE ONE by Colson Whitehead
“Fever House and The Devil by Name are likely borrowed liberally from Zone One, which has gotta be in the top five zombie novels of all time. With Whitehead, whatever genre the guy jumps in, it’s like magic.”
THE NIGHTMARE BOX AND OTHER STORIES by Cynthia Gomez
“A brilliant, queer, antifascist, antiauthoritarian story collection here, complete with class consciousness and vampires and witches! So rad.”
GUEST BOOKSELLER #3
Clay McLeod Chapman is the hardest-working writer in the horror game. He’s the author of ten(?) novels and countless short stories, plus graphic novels & comics, scripts & screenplays, as well as two decades of monologues, and is widely regarded as one of the leading voices in contemporary horror.
WE USED TO LIVE HERE by Marcus Kliewer
“Shirley Jackson lives in this haunted house ouroboros. Go in cold,
leave on absolute fire.”
A MASK OF FLiES by Matthew Lyons
“A bare knuckle horror fist in the face.”
The Empusium
by Olga Tokarczuk
“A pitch-perfect gothic suspense novel in the tradition of Mary Shelly and Shirley Jackson. Complete with a creeping sense of dread, invisible looming threats, suspicious characters, and Tokarczuk’s trademark folk horror. My favorite book of the season—maybe of the year.”
- Chris
The Hallowe’en Party
by Agatha Christie
“When a game of bobbing for apples at a Halloween party ends in murder, detective Hercule Poirot steps in. Teamed with author Ariadne Oliver, they must solve not one, but two crimes in this atmospheric and twisty fall classic.”
- Michael
Sign Here
by Claudia Lux
“Peyote Trip works in Hell...literally. He's inches away from a big promotion, all he has to do is get one last member of an enormously wealthy and powerful family to sell their soul. Equal parts horror, mystery and comedy, Claudia Lux's debut novel is a one-of-a-kind thrill ride from start to finish.”
- Cara
Graveyard Shift
by M. L. Rio
“Graveyard Shift follows five chronic insomniacs over the course of one increasingly fraught, hallucinogenic evening. As our protagonists spiral ever-closer to the center of a mysterious crime witnessed by moonlight, they must grapple with its disturbingly personal implications.”
- Sierra
Did we pique your interest?
Drop us a note to special-order any of these books, and we’ll set aside a copy for you to pick up at the shop.
