Haunted Houses

When it comes to horror tropes, the haunted house is one of my favorites, and this year I’m in luck as we have a bounty of horror fiction featuring haunted houses to choose from. Given that horror is often seen as a lens on contemporary fears and anxieties, both as exploration and commentary, I wondered what a surge in literary haunted houses means for our moment. Is it tied to rocky real estate markets and the growing inability of so many to own a home? The absence of home as a site of safety? Deeper thoughts aside, October is a great time to curl up in your own home and read some of these terrifying tales: Haunted Houses

The Spite House by Johnny Compton
On the run with his daughters from a family curse, Eric Ross accepts a well-paying but enigmatic job. All he has to do is stay in the Masson House, a haunted home in Texas, and record the supernatural goings-on. As the days pass, Eric realizes he’s in over his head. Can the family hang on until the promised payday, or will they succumb to the truth of the house and its history?

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
In 1950s Jim Crow-era Florida, 12-year-old Robbie, who is Black, is sent to Gracetown Reformatory for Boys because he kicked a white boy. Once there, he finds more than just the living in residence. When the warden realizes Robbie can see the haints of boys who died there, Robbie is pressured to destroy them, even as the haints ask for his help. This is not technically a haunted house, but it is a haunted building where people live.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
If you would like all the atmosphere of a haunted house horror story, but with less of the actual…scary stuff, check out this gothic fiction title. Opal, orphaned and taking care of her brother in a Kentucky coal town, dreams nightly of Starling House, home to the reclusive heir of 19th century novelist E. Starling. When Opal takes a job cleaning Starling House, she begins to connect elements of her past to the buried secrets of the house and its owner, and to the strange shapes she sees in the rising fog.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Following her parents’ death, Louise returns to Charleston to clean out the house, dreading inevitable interactions with her brother Mark as well as the leftovers of her dad’s academic career and her mom’s collection of dolls and puppets. But Louise and Mark have more to worry about as this house has a will of its own and terror lurks behind the walls.

The September House by Carissa Orlando
Margaret finally has her dream home, a lovely Victorian – who cares if it’s haunted by a housekeeper axe-murdered there a century ago, causing the walls to run with blood every September? After three years Margaret’s husband takes off, and her adult daughter comes to visit, forcing Margaret into a delicate balance as she tries to hide the truth while placating her daughter.

~ posted by Andrea G.