International Halloween Literature
“Halloween wraps fear in innocence, as though it were a slightly sour treat. Let terror, then, be turned into a treat.” – Nicholas Gordon
As All Hallows’ Eve approaches, prepare yourself for lurking, ghoulish entities and supernatural occurrences by reading some of this year’s most skin-tingling, hair-raising, nail-biting horror stories from around the world.
1. Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui, tr. Andrew Drive (Japan)
Psychoanalysis reaches its breaking point as it breaks the barriers between dream and reality, causing nightmares to intertwine into real life.
2. Cain’s Blood by Geoffrey Girard (Germany)
Serial killers are cloned for scientific testing purposes, but when the most dangerous few are set loose into the world, one of their own must balance good and evil to prevent countless more murders.
3. The Witch Hunter by Nicole R. Taylor (USA)
An ancient bloody feud between witches and vampires only begins to describe this paranormal saga.
4. The Disappearance of Tejas Sharma and Other Hauntings: Ghost Stories from India by Manish Mahajan (India)
Gather around the campfire on All Hallows Eve and tell these twelve ghost stories about dark wells, mysterious graveyards, ghostly women, haunted trees, and much more.
5. The Floors by Lucian Poll (England)
When two brave souls decide to test an elevator myth, it throws them into a competition for survival of the fittest in a maze of horrors on the thirteenth floor.
6. The Hangman’s Replacement: Sprout of Disruption by Taona Dumisani Chiveneko (Africa)
In Zimbabwe, there is a person elected every few years as the hangman for death row members. This year, a carnivorous plant and tormented spirits threaten the lives and sanity of hangman applicants, as well as the rest of the nation.
7. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (USA)
The horror genre cannot be complete without Stephen King. In his latest novel, a battle of good versus evil takes place when a uniquely gifted young girl becomes entangled in a land of paranormal, semi-immortal, soul-sucking spirits.
