What’s better than supporting indie presses? Getting to redirect your ever-present sense of dread onto a fictional horror narrative to help you cope with anxiety of course! The books will help you do both.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism: Abby and Gretchen are high school BFFs whose friendship gets put to the ultimate test. After the two girls experiment with LSD, Gretchen disappears, later reemerging with some strange symptoms such as flashback, fits, and randomly bleeding. The horrifying reality dawns on Abby: Gretchen is possessed, and Abby must be the one to exorcise the demon. As a bonus, this book takes place in 1988 and is stuffed with 80s references.
Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country & Other Stories: This collection of eight coming-of-age short stories spans from southern Indiana to New York City, and the horrors faced by its characters show an even greater range. It includes the story of a 12-year-old caring for a homeless person who is secretly living in a mausoleum (“Zombie”), an transgender artist in Brooklyn who awakes to find that a living diorama of the Gaza strip has appeared on their head (“A New Mohawk), and so many more. This diverse collection skews more psychological than supernatural.
The Place of Broken Things: This book is unique in the fact that it is a collection of poetry borne of a collaboration between two Bram Stoker Award winners, Linda D. Addison and Alessandro Manzetti. To quote Alessandro, “If you’re a curious traveler, ready to walk with us along a trail without markers, this is a good book for you.”
The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World: This vignetted novella takes place in Scrape, Texas, a small town close to the Mexican border. One night, Hispanic folk stories like La Llorona, La Mano Peluda (the hairy hand), El Abuelo and his magical bullwhip, and finally, the devil himself become real and are unleashed onto Scrape, bringing death (and a horde of ghost children) in their wake. The colorful citizens of Scrape scramble to meet the threats.
Dark Conjurings: This short fiction horror anthology is edited by local author, Delia Remington (author of The Blood Royal Saga) and features six short stories from fresh new voices in the horror genre. Along with editing, Remington contributes her own story to the collection: “The Doctor and the Lady.” This historical fiction/horror hybrid follows Mary Shelley as she conducts her research to write “Frankenstein.”
Kill Creek: This list would be incomplete without a classic haunted house story. Four horror writers spend the night in a notoriously haunted house as a publicity stunt. Spoiler alert: it ends up being much more than a publicity stunt.
Whether you are the type of person who only reads horror on a sunny afternoon with the lights on and another person home, or you prefer dark stormy nights and solitude (which, how?), there are so many great horror books published by indie presses. For a more complete list, check here, and be sure to connect with us via the Read Harder Facebook page.
