Horror Fairy

In 1897, at the age of 50, Bram Stoker was touring manager to the actor Henry Irving and was enjoying a modest success as a journalist and writer. Publication in that year of Dracula was to bring him international and lasting fame.

Valroy will let nothing block his path to the Unseelie Crown. He is willing to stop at nothing to see both Tir n’Aill and Earth as his dominion, and he'll crush the self-righteous Seelie beneath his bootheels. He had wished for Abigail to stand beside him as his queen, but that went terribly wrong when she chose death over becoming his bride. It was a setback, certainly, but not one he could not overcome. Yet despite being wrenched from the song of life, Abigail returns to Tir n’Aill, only to be hunted by both Seelie and Unseelie alike.

Marshall Seaver and Cooper Foley have been friends through life - and death. Now the ethereal pathway between realms, known as the Morpheus Road, is in danger of being destroyed by the vengeful spirit who has become their nemesis: the ancient warrior called Damon. The worlds of the living and the dead are about to collide, forcing Marshall to make a brave and shocking decision as the two friends navigate a perilous trail that leads to a frightening realization: Damon isn’t their only enemy.

This fast-paced paranormal adventure combines passion and drama with a historical twist. The lives of Madison and Alexandre are plunged into darkness and danger. To save Maddy, Alexandre is forced back to a world he thought was dead and buried. But time is running out. The chase is on.

Ten haunting tales of the ghostly, decadent, and supernatural by Adam Nicke, author of Temptation and Denial. Written in the style of late 19th century masters of the macabre, each weirdly twisting tale is haunted by characters confronting their inner turmoil and the dark recesses of the soul. Escape the modern age and let the lush, sensuous language in this audio wash over you as gently as the crimson hues of twilight on an early Autumn evening.

The Sorority: They are the envy of every young woman - and the fantasy of every young man. An elite sisterhood of Greenbriar University’s best and brightest, their members are the most powerful girls on campus - and the most feared.

In Metsan Valo, her family home on Lake Superior, Anni Halla’s beloved grandmother has died. Among her fond memories, what Anni remembers most vividly is her grandmother’s eerie yet enchanting storytelling. By firelight she spun tall tales of spirits in the nearby forest and waters who could heal - or harm - on a whim. But of course those were only stories.

Set in regency-era Scotland along the beautiful shore of Loch Lomond, Prince of Foxes is based on the Scots tale of Gold Tree and Silver Tree, with Lord of Horses moving down to the dark streets of London and based on the tale of The Kelpie’s Bride. King of Forever, the final story in the trilogy, is set in the faerie realm itself and is based on the tale of Tam Lin and the myth of Hades and Persephone. Fall in love with the series listeners have described as delightful, compelling, and enchanting.

Rick Yancey’s first gothic suspense tale, The Monstrumologist, earned him a prestigious Michael L. Printz Award. The second installment of this acclaimed series, Curse of the Wendigo, finds young Will Henry on the hunt for a supernatural beast plaguing New England in the late 1800s. Will and his mentor, the domineering Dr. Warthrop, are enlisted to help the doctor’s former fiancée. It seems her husband has been lost in the Canadian wilderness.

Un thriller fantastique sous forme de descente aux enfers au cœur d'une ville portuaire pleine de mystère et de légendes effroyables portant le nom maudit d'Innsmouth. Un jeune homme passionné d'antiquités et de généalogie entame une visite de la Nouvelle-Angleterre lorsque son attention se porte sur une mystérieuse ville sinistrée et lugubre répondant au nom d'Innsmouth. Inexorablement attiré par elle, il ignore les nombreuses mises en garde, les glaçantes rumeurs et les effroyables légendes à son sujet et décide de s'y rendre.

It's 1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an outward bound centre. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who took that fateful trip and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby.

Some people have nightmares of finding a monster in their closet, but how many fantasize about it? If you fall into the latter category, you get me. There I was, simply working to program my visual novel and find my muse, when bam! Monster girl in my closet. Needless to say, she changed my life. For the better at first, sure. But then there was the hunter, and the crazy lady who spoke of another world where the monsters live.

Carmen Sanchez is back in her home country of Mexico, overseeing the renovation of an ancient cathedral into a boutique hotel. Her teen daughters, Izel and Luna, are with her for the summer, and left to fill their afternoons unsupervised in a foreign city. The locals treat the Sanchez women like outsiders, while Carmen's contractors openly defy and sabotage her work. After a disastrous accident at the construction site nearly injures Luna, Carmen's had enough. They're leaving. Back home in New York, malevolent and unexplainable happenings seem to swarm the Sanchez family.

Some monsters are impossible to see. This is The Ballad of Old Joe Booth.

In a world where the Gods walk and their spirits commune with mankind, there must be those trained while in a trance to intercede with them, for the good of the tribe. Mondoani, a young woman, is chosen by the Gods to take the place of the Old Mother upon her passing. Is this frail young woman strong enough to hold the spirits of the Gods when they descend? For it will be her responsibility to hold the memories of all those who have lived before.

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, is Mary Shelley's passionate and Gothic tale of terror, in which a man's desire to know the unknowable sweeps him into a living nightmare. Victor Frankenstein's experiments with life itself give birth to an extraordinary force with the potential for either good or evil.

It’s December in a small seaside town, and Ruby Harper spends her nights looking into her neighbor's apartment. Unable to sleep due to insomnia and the heartache of a family she has run away from, she fantasizes that the mystery man could be the answer to her loneliness. But one night Ruby sees something unexpected: The man is not alone; a woman and a child are sharing the apartment - and they never go outside. Why are they kept hidden? Then the man is found half-drowned in the bathtub, a pile of women’s clothes is left on the beach, and a little girl is discovered, abandoned.

For Rose Marshall, death has long since become the only life she really knows. She's been sweet 16 for more than 60 years, hitchhiking her way along the highways and byways of America, sometimes seen as an avenging angel, sometimes seen as a killer in her own right, but always Rose, the phantom prom date, the girl in the green silk gown. The man who killed her is still out there thanks to a crossroads bargain that won't let him die, and he's looking for the one who got away. When Bobby Cross comes back into the picture, there's going to be hell to pay - possibly literally.

These shivery tales were collected from the oral tradition, from people all over the Southwest, and represent the rich cultural diversity of the region, from the Ozarks to the Rio Grande, California to the Big Thicket.

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.