Best books…chosen by Elizabeth Hand

Elizabeth Hand is a best-selling fantasy and horror writer and a three-time Shirley Jackson Award winner. Her new novel, A Haunting on the Hill, is the first authorized sequel to Jackson’s horror classic The Haunting of Hill House.

The Girl in a Swing

by Richard Adams (1980). A shy Englishman falls for and impulsively marries a captivating, mysterious woman, and the intensity of their erotic relationship leads him to dismiss the terrifying visions he has of his new wife and an unknown child. As a bonus, the novel features perhaps the most frightening phone call in literature.

Ill Will

by Dan Chaon (2017). This is the only novel I have read as an adult that made me afraid to turn off the lights at night. A psychologist is haunted by memories of a horrific event in his childhood—but can his memories be trusted? Satanic rituals, serial killers, and an abandoned funeral home turned drug den feverishly amp up the terror.

Our Share of Night

by Mariana Enriquez (2022). Set against the backdrop of Argentina’s Dirty War, this brilliant novel centers on an ancient evil exploited by a cabal of überwealthy families who will stop at nothing to maintain their power and control over the rest of the world.

The Owl Service

by Alan Garner (1967). Alan Garner deserves to be better known. This, his best-known novel, is set in remote Wales in the 1960s. Three teenagers unwittingly find themselves re-enacting an ancient Welsh myth of romantic betrayal and ritual violence that has recurred over the centuries. In the legend, one figure dies violently. Will history repeat itself?

The Weird

ed i ted by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (2011). In addition to well-known works by writers like M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and Saki, this massive volume collects international writers, including Rabindranath Tagore and Sakutaro Hagiwara, as well as contemporary classics by Stephen Graham Jones, Jeffrey Ford, and Kelly Link. A touchstone for any horror aficionado.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson (1962). Arguably Jackson’s masterpiece, this New England gothic bores in on the Blackwood sisters, who have been holed up in their decaying mansion for six years. Why? The answer involves mass murder and arsenic in the sugar bowl. The Blackwood family’s tragic history is leavened throughout by Jackson’s inimitable black humor.