Social Horror

FEAT DESC

Whether through a movie, television show, novel, or even myth, horror as a genre has always spoken to our deepest human fears and anxieties: fear of death, of the unknown, of knowing too much. Whether you're looking at classic narratives like Frankenstein, or contemporary films like Get Out, which explores racism and white guilt, horror provides a window into our culture and what makes us human. The same can be said of religion.

After three months in the suicide prevention wing of St. George's, Audrey Bales is finally coming home. Enrolled at a new school, she plans to reinvent herself with a new look, new friends, and a second chance to be just like everyone else. But the kids who drove her over the edge aren't through with her yet. And one of her new friends has an agenda all his own.

One of the world's most famous intellectual ghost stories, The Turn of the Screw is a haunting tale of suspected supernatural possession. A governess at a country house claims that Miles and Flora, two orphaned children in her care, are being controlled by spirits for some evil purpose. No one else can see the ghosts, and the children themselves are silent. Are they being dominated by spectral forces, or are they hiding something? Is the governess simply paranoid, or is something else going on?

No one is kind to sixth-grader Brendan Doyle: his foster mother, his teachers, his classmates, and especially the thugs who bully him. He takes refuge in books, drawing, carving, and daydreaming. When Brendan stumbles upon an old man near his tree house in the Virginia woods, he is quick to believe that this is the magical Green Man, guardian spirit of the forest. Brendan's need to immerse himself in his fantasy world becomes more acute, until he meets a girl with secrets of her own who may just keep his feet on the ground.

This series follows spunky inventor Kimmie Tuttle, who lost her allowance after taking her dad's bowling ball apart. She has to come up with creative solutions to not only buy spare parts, but to also save the day as she faces problems with some mythical sources.

The stories in this book are based upon actual events. During the course of her research into some of South Carolina's classic tales, Nancy Roberts heard accounts of happenings in the recent past and even the present day. They're all here: from the famous Gray Man of Pawleys Island who warns of coming storms to the ghost of the poor fellow whose small plane went down in the 1950s near Walhalla, leaving him to forever hitchhike Highway 107.

What is it with Olivia and ghosts? No matter where Olivia Kidney goes, they follow. Even when she and her klutzy handyman father start over in a new brownstone in New York City - owned by the mad, bad, and dangerous Ansel Plover - there is no escape from the weirdness that is Olivia's life. Their new living room is entirely submerged underwater, and Olivia needs a boat to navigate past the bobbing furniture and snapping turtles just to get to her bedroom. And then, there are the ghosts. The house holds secrets, lots of them - Olivia can feel it. Why, she wonders, was she invited to live there?

Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumored to hide a monster. And 200 years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig's family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It's time to break the spell.

Despite the high number of programs and their evident popularity, paranormal reality television has to date received little critical attention. Ghost Channels provides an overview of the paranormal reality television genre, its development, and its place in television history. Conducting in-depth analyses of over thirty paranormal television series, author Amy Lawrence suggests these programs reveal much about Americans' contemporary fears.

"An impassioned call for solidarity and unity in a time of political and social uncertainty."

Valentine Orphanet had an fairly ordinary life until one grey day, she saw that advert in a news agent's window: "Position of employment offered for a researcher/assistant in the field of occult resolution." It seemed more interesting than basic paperwork and filing, but no where did it say anything about exposure to witches, gnomes, fae, creatures of the night, or vampires that share our world with us without our knowledge.

This collection of supernatural tales includes "The Talking Corpse"; "The Hound of Goshen"; "The Ring"; "The Phantom Rider of Bush River"; "The Witch Cat"; "The Gray Man"; "Tsali, the Cherokee Brave"; "The Ghost of Litchfield"; "City of Death"; "Treasure Hunt"; "House of the Opening Door"; "The Ghosts of Hagley"; "Return from the Dead"; "Whistle While You Haunt"; "The Brown Mountain Lights"; "Alice of the Hermitage"; "The Night the Spirits Called"; and "Swamp Girl".

Few events have sparked more legends and stories of the supernatural than America's Civil War. The accounts of gallantry and heroism have spread far and wide. Nancy Roberts grew up listening to her father's stories of the War Between the States, and she trekked over many battle sites with him during her childhood. After reading about General Joshua Chamberlain's supernatural experience at the Battle of Gettysburg, Roberts began to collect tales of the blue and gray and write them down.

This collection of short stories by author Andersen Prunty features "Room 19", a post-apocalyptic nightmare based on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' song "From Her to Eternity," appearing for the first time anywhere, and "Market Adjustment", about one man's battle with the wealthy, previously available only in a very limited edition. Also includes: "The Dust Season", "The Man With the Face Like a Bruise," "The Photographer," "The Night the Moon Made a Sound," and "The Funeralgoer."

At 11 years old, Gabriel Naumann is witness to a horrific crime. Twenty-nine years later his girlfriend is taken. Then the messages begin. 'If you want to find her, then you'll have to find me.' Somebody knows the truth. Somebody knows what he did. And now his girlfriend will pay for it - unless he can find her in time. When you've spent decades running from your past, what do you do when it finally catches up with you?

Alex knows what it's like to be invisible. He has gone through his entire life not being noticed by those around him. Even his own college roommate Xavier treats him like he isn't even there. That is until Alex creates an alternate persona on social media, Xander. Suddenly his life is full of likes and friend requests, and even Xavier takes notice. Having no idea Alex is behind the Xander account, Xavier develops an intimate and steamy relationship with a person who is only a fiction.

In a striking reinterpretation of the postwar years, Robert Dallek examines what drove the leaders of the most powerful and populous nations around the globe - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Mao, de Gaulle, and Truman - to rely on traditional power politics despite the catastrophic violence their nations had endured. The decisions of these men, for better and often for worse, had profound consequences for decades to come.

Just back from rehab, Casey regrets letting her friends Shana, Julie, and Aya talk her into coming to Survive the Night, an all-night, underground rave in a New York City subway tunnel. Surrounded by frightening drugs and menacing strangers, Casey doesn't think Survive the Night could get any worse...until she comes across Julie's mutilated body in a dank, black subway tunnel, red-eyed rats nibbling at her fingers. And by the time they get back to the party, everyone is gone.

Healey’s second novel The Shattering stars Keri, a 17-year-old trying to come to terms with her brother Jake’s death. Although authorities believe Jake committed suicide, Keri cannot accept that her brother would take his own life. And when she’s approached by her classmate Janna, whose brother also committed suicide years earlier, the two team up in search of answers. Soon the girls come to a grim realization—that their brothers weren’t the first in town to die under mysterious circumstances.