Screaming Rainbow: Scary Recommendations from Library Staff!
Well hello boils and ghouls! Here at the Milwaukee Public Library we all love a good scare, and even better when it comes from a book in our collection! There are plenty of books that will leave you sleeping with the lights on. But you don't have to take my word for it, I asked library staff to share their favorite scary books and why they love them. So many wanted to share the terror that we'll be doing a couple of these blogs throughout the month, so you'll have plenty of frights to look forward to.
"Going into House of Leaves with much information about the story would lessen the experience of reading it for the first time. The book features an unconventional format, multiple unreliable narrators, an amazing sense of building dread and at times is a confusing, twisty labyrinth of a narrative... and it is very hard to put down. Reading House of Leaves is a disturbing, engaging adventure." - Jessie @ Villard Square
"From the Kafka-esque to vampires, creepy children, and (of course) ghosts, Joe Hill keeps readers coming back for more in 20th Century Ghosts, a fantastic anthology of short stories. With a voice that seems to mix the ability to grab an audience held by Stephen King and the sybilline prose of Ray Bradbury, even people who don’t normally read horror should be able to find a story they like in this book. Best of all, it’s a genre-bender: not everything is pure horror, but everything is expertly crafted. Each tale, no matter how short, manages to grab you, and will probably horrify you or make you cry—but in the best way possible." - Ronni from Tech Services
"Apartment shopping can be a drag. So why not move in to a building with a violent history in an apartment next to creepy elderly Satanists who want you to give birth to the son of Satan? The everyday people that reflect evil in this novel are truly unsettling. Skip the great film of this 1967 creep-out and read the novel. Sometimes those nosy neighbors really aren’t harmless…" - Dan @ Central
"Justin Cronin’s The Passage is set in America 100 years after a horrible plague swept across the world. Humans are afraid of the dark, using battery powered lights at night to keep the “Virals” away. Exactly what that plague was and how one young girl is the key to mankind’s hope is the subject of this gripping and frightening novel. I love this book because it’s shows how society changes when technology fails, and how humanity still fights on even in the face of its destruction. First of a trilogy." Tony from Washington Park