When I feel a chill in the air, I want to read something chilling to match the dropping temperature. I’m always looking for unique books that don’t follow the reliable, repetitive pattern of most thrillers — the main character encounters something out of the ordinary, ignores it until it reveals itself to be malevolent, then fights it. Tried and true, but a bit cliche.
October’s Words on the Street is full of book recommendations that avoid the cliches and are uniquely terrifying. This month’s list includes an author trying to piece together a horrific secret, an infinite time loop set in the heart of a Japanese subway station and the startling history of cadavers.
Keep reading to see what else lies within this thrilling list. If you dare.
“Strange Buildings” by Uketsu
With 11 case studies of buildings and structures that all contain some sort of unusual quirk, this book of fiction is not what one expects from a horror story. The featured buildings include a house with a hallway that leads nowhere, a water mill in the woods far from a water source and a home with a hidden room that is not on the original floor plan. Though the buildings are seemingly harmless and disconnected, as we flip through each case study, it becomes clear that the odd architectural decisions relate to a sinister secret, and the cases connect to reveal a horrible truth.
Written by the enigmatic Uketsu, who conceals his identity by wearing a mask, “Strange Buildings” is engaging because of the abnormal style it’s written in. Our narrator uses a wide variety of stylistic forms to take us through each case study. These include interviews, magazine articles and diary entries. Throughout the disparate styles, one thing remains consistent: We see the floor plans of each building. We view them in real time with the narrator, and this allows us to attempt to solve the buildings’ mysteries along with him.
“Between Two Fires” by Christopher Buehlman
Set in France during the Black Plague, which killed an estimated 25 million people in the mid-14th century, “Between Two Fires” by Christopher Buehlman follows Thomas, an exiled knight who has lost just about everything. We watch the down-on-his-luck former knight and his rag-tag group of friends resort to stealing and violence to obtain money and food. Then, Thomas finds Delphine, a newly orphaned girl who is alone in her plague-stricken village and has experienced divine visions. In telling Thomas about what she’s seen, Delphine convinces him to leave his friends and accompany her on a 500-mile journey to confront the demons she believes are devastating Earth. Soon after their journey begins, Father Matthieu, a priest banished for loving another man, joins the group, and together they fight the evil around them.
It’s clear early in the book that, by failing to quell the Black Death, God has turned his back on mankind. In God’s absence, Lucifer sends his subjects to wreak havoc and devastation on humanity. This horrific travelogue is filled with literal monsters and humans who act like them as the travelers fight the devils Lucifer has incited.
But as they travel to Avignon, the home of the Catholic popes, members of the trio grow as people. Through their journey, it’s revealed that even though Thomas was stealing to survive, he has not lost his moral compass. He continues to protect Delphine, whose kindness helps guide the group through the torture and violence they face. On the surface, this may appear to be another iteration of the angels-versus-demons trope, but this book combines historically accurate details and complicated characters to create an unforgettable read.
“Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado
An unwanted house guest who appears after a weight loss surgery, a recounting of “Law & Order SVU” that imagines the two main characters actually haunted by their investigations, and a rapidly spreading disease that causes people to dissipate over time. These are just a few of the subjects of Carmen Maria Machado’s sometimes-terrifying collection of short stories, “Her Body and Other Parties.” What ties these stories together is the common theme of womanhood and the everyday violence women endure. To illuminate these themes, Machado uses detailed language that shows us the full extent of her characters, the eerie settings they inhabit and their inevitable downfalls.
Machado uses a lot of classic horror stories as a basis for her collection, such as “The Girl With the Green Ribbon,” a story popularized in the collection “In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories” by Alvin Schwartz. However, Machado’s version does not feel like a reiteration, it feels like a reckoning. Machado combines elements of horror, sci-fi and everyday threats women face — like the removal of autonomy and the harms caused by unrealistic beauty standards — to create a short story collection that will surely get under your skin.
“Exit 8” by Genki Kawamura
This novella, based on a video game, follows our unnamed main character and, for most of the book, narrator, as he tries to get out of a Tokyo subway station. His subway ride starts out like any other until suddenly the call he’s on drops and he finds himself standing under a yellow sign that reads “Exit 0.” He is stuck in a time loop. To escape, he must walk the same path eight times, careful to note any “anomalies” that don’t match the normal subway setting. If he sees an anomaly, he must turn back; if he misses one, he is doomed to start from the beginning.
What really makes “Exit 8” by Genki Kawamura stick out from other thrillers is the complex ideas it brings up. Through our main character, and the actions that led him to be stuck in this seemingly endless cycle, we are asked to think about the choices we make in life and how they affect not only us but those around us. Our main character did not stick up for a woman who was being berated in front of him and, shortly after, he found himself trapped in the subway. As he repeats the walk and finds himself stuck within the cold subway walls, he is able to reflect on how his inaction not only harmed the woman in front of him but also revealed parts of himself he did not want to face.
“Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach
Have you ever wondered what happens to our bodies after we die? Mary Roach, who specializes in science and nature writing, attempts to answer this question in “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by providing research on what has been done to human bodies postmortem. This includes the use of corpses in car-crash simulators and cadavers as a tool to learn surgical techniques. Ballistics studies, or how projectiles affect the human body, are also a focus. Roach also discusses the various cultural implications behind how we treat dead bodies.
What makes this nonfiction book so unique is how it approaches death. What sticks out is the unflinching way Roach describes our more than 2,000 years of experimentation with dead bodies. While the book can at times be stomach-turning, such as when Roach describes what happens in anatomy labs, it leaves very few questions unanswered. Roach also writes in a way that feels approachable, as if we’re doing research right alongside her. This is especially emphasized in the very last chapter, when Roach discusses what she wants done with her body once she dies.
“The Haunted Playground” by R.J. Palacio
At the stroke of midnight the day after Halloween, all of the ghosts, goblins and spooky figures gather to celebrate. They gather at the Haunted Playground, which is ruled by ghostly leader Rex Magnificus, and they celebrate by doing the last thing we’d expect of them: playing! They drop their hair-raising howls and instead play on swings and slides. But one year, the celebration is different. Two human children sneak in, and Rex Magnificus is left wondering what to do.
This picture book, aimed for ages 4-8, demystifies the scary feelings some kids may have about Halloween by painting ghouls in a different light. They are not causing terror, they are playing games and having fun. We also see a friendship develop between the human children and Rex after he decides to let them stay and join the merriment. R.J. Palacio, author of the bestselling book “Wonder,” shows us with “The Haunted Playground” that Halloween doesn’t have to be scary but, rather, can be a time for fun and joy.
