CRUEL SUMMER READS
Stories to send a shiver up your spine
Whether we tell spooky tales around the campfire or indulge in horror that makes us afraid of the dark, we love to read about humanity’s dark side. Here, three books that’ll send a chill up your spine and why their authors want to scare you.
THE DOLL-MASTER JOYCE CAROL OATES
The unstoppable Oates says the six longer “tales of terror” in this collection have the scope of novellas, yet the abruptly shocking plot twists that punctuate the best of short horror.
The master of the macabre rips inspiration from the headlines, calling George Zimmerman (who became notorious for shooting black teen Trayvon Martin) the inspiration for her story of a lionized convicted murderer in the story “Soldier.” She revives adolescent anxieties in the title story about a disturbed loner with a lovingly cared-for collection of “found dolls” and in the independence-seeking 13-year-old girl in “Big Momma,” named after the story’s 20-foot-long python. Oates isn’t beyond getting a shiver from her own stories.
“I think if I hadn’t written it that I would not be able to read it,” she says of “Big Momma.” “I would stop reading it before the last paragraph.”
THE PEOPLE IN THE CASTLE JOAN AIKEN
Though the late fantastical British writer is best known for her children’s literature, this short-story collection, edited by Aiken’s daughter Lizza and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist Kelly Link, compiles tales of the surreal and supernatural suited for an adult audience.
“A Leg Full of Rubies” features a doctor whose own mortality is measured out by the grains of sand in an hourglass; “A Portable Elephant” imagines a world where a live animal companion is required to buy passage across a border.
“She was one of those writers who made me think you can be funny while telling a scary story,” Link says.
“You can still write really fresh contemporary takes on a classical ghost story.”
SPRINGTIME MICHELLE DE KRETSER
The sun-dappled Sydney, Australia setting is the first clue that de Kretser’s novella, subtitled “A Ghost Story,” is no boilerplate spirit story. “In the traditional form, the ghosts must be central to the story whereas the ghost in my story appears as almost a throwaway, an afterthought,” de Kretser says over the phone.
The story follows 28-year-old Frances, recently relocated from Melbourne to Sydney with her 30kilogram mutt Rod, boyfriend Charlie, his young son Luke, and the lingering presence of the wife that Charlie left behind. The literal ghost story begins when she spots a woman in a vintage dress eerily flouncing about the gardens, though that won’t be the only phantom to torment her throughout the tightly written, densely packed story.
“The effect isn’t, I can’t read this alone in an empty house at night,” de Kretser promises. “But a kind of lingering eeriness.”
“You can still write really fresh contemporary takes on a classical ghost story.” KELLY LINK FICTION WRITER