The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

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Read from June 8, 2021 – June 9, 2021

This book right here is a f*cking masterpiece, gothic fiction at its finest. Shirley, I am terribly sorry it took me so long to read this, I hope you’re not rolling over in your grave. I was a fool, but I am now enlightened and will probably proceed to read everything you have published within the next few weeks as penance.

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success — but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in rural Pennsylvania.

Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western – she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when she discovers a shocking secret from her heavy metal past: Turns out that Terry’s meteoric rise to success may have come at the price of Kris’s very soul.

This revelation prompts Kris to hit the road, reunite with the rest of her bandmates, and confront the man who ruined her life. It’s a journey that will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a Satanic rehab center and finally to a Las Vegas music festival that’s darker than any Mordor Tolkien could imagine. A furious power ballad about never giving up, even in the face of overwhelming odds, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul…where only a girl with a guitar can save us all.

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Read from May 14, 2021 – June 3, 2021

In anticipation of Grady Hendrix’s new book coming out in July (which I would strongly consider selling my soul to get access to right now because I crave instant gratification more than I fear eternal damnation ATM), I set out to read all his previously published fiction books. This was the last one I had to read, and it’s probably my least favourite. It’s not bad, and Hendrix is still one of my favourite authors, but it was a little harder for me to connect with this one.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.

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Read from April 18, 2021 – April 19, 2021

If I knew this book had a supernatural twist, I would not have read it. I expected it to be strictly mystery/thriller, but this book has one of the most cockamamie gimmicks I have ever come across. If you can get past how ridiculous it is, you might enjoy this book (not a guarantee). But, if you’re like me, it will make you roll your eyes and you’ll only finish the book because you like to torture yourself.

‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in ‘Salem’s Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to ‘Salem’s Lot hoping to cast out his own devils… and found instead a new unspeakable horror.

A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.

All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of ‘Salem’s Lot.

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Read from October 24, 2020 – October 30, 2020

If it weren’t for Twilight, I’d be less hesitant to say that vampires are my favourite monster. I feel like they lost some serious street cred after being portrayed as these sparkly pretty boys, but I’m actually terrified of the more traditional blood-sucking fiends. I definitely wouldn’t want to be one though, I’d be terrible at it. I love garlic, I’m very much a morning person, and there’s no way in hell that I’d want to be immortal, these 22 years have already been too much of a struggle.

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

A murder on the high seas. A detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist.

It’s 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world’s greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent.

But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A twice-dead leper stalks the decks. Strange symbols appear on the sails. Livestock is slaughtered.

And then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel.

Could a demon be responsible for their misfortunes?

With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger onboard. A mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board.

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Read from October 18, 2020 – October 24, 2020

Stu, if I may call you that, you seem like a really rad lad, but this might have to be the last book of yours that I read. There are many people who love your work and that’s awesome, but unfortunately I’m not one of them. Your books actually remind me a lot of my university diploma: a waste of time, money, and paper, but at least I can use them as decoration.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes #5) by Arthur Conan Doyle

We owe The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) to Arthur Conan Doyle’s good friend Fletcher “Bobbles” Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone’s been signaling with candles from the mansion’s windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson–left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel–save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound’s fangs?

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Read from September 7, 2020 – September 8, 2020

I imagine that the feeling Watson gets when Sherlock tasks him to watch over Baskerville Hall and its baronet alone is akin to that which one gets when their mom leaves them alone in line at the grocery store…pure, unadulterated terror.