A Cairn for Spooky Season
For those who love ghouls, goblins and witches, as I do
A few months ago I wrote a cairn for summer, being relatively new to the embracing of a “beach read”. However, when it comes to October, spooky season, and Fall in general, I have always loved embracing darker fiction at this time of year.
There is something about the air becoming crisper and the pumpkin patch being visited (it’s decorative gourd season, motherf*ckers!) that makes me want to curl up in front of the fireplace with a hot cup of tea and either solve a murder or read a book that borderline traumatizes me.
This is particularly surprising as, away from the pages of a book, I have always been a bit of a scaredy cat. In 4th grade, Kylie Smith started a horror movie club for all the cool girls in our class, and as much as I theoretically would have loved to be one of those, I knew my limits. Also? My reputation had not yet recovered from crying during The Land Before Time at a 3rd grade sleepover. (Sorry I’m not a robot, robots.)
As a young reader, however, I grew into a phase of mostly reading thrillers and horror. Early on I read Christopher Pike’s entire catalogue, skipping over the more age-appropriate Goosebumps series. By middle school I was hitting the hard stuff: Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz.
She reads two books a week! My parents would marvel in my teen years, neglecting to disclose my genre of choice.
I think I can trace my love of all reads spooky back to the time when I was in elementary school and saw my older brother reading a book.
“What are you reading?” I, a bookworm, asked him.
“Nothing,” came his reply. “It’s too scary. You couldn’t handle it.”
Was my brother, ten years my senior, probably right? Yes.
Did I thereafter become obsessed with That Book(TM), sneaking into his room when he was out to find it so I could read it and see for myself if I could handle it? Also yes.
I do not remember the name of the book now; but I do remember vividly the thrill of pushing my boundaries and intentionally scaring myself, letting my imagination run wild—something I have never managed to withstand when it comes to scary movies or ghost stories. (My heart still panics when I think of Killer Bob climbing over the back of the couch in the classic TV show, Twin Peaks.)
What one finds scary is certainly very personal, but for this week’s cairn, I felt called to lean into the question: are ghosts and monsters ever really scarier than humans?
Ring Shout and When the Reckoning Comes, for example, bring supernatural elements to our country’s dark history of slavery and anti-Blackness. The first is a novella that follows a group of Black women resistance fighters who hunt Ku Kluxes, literal demons seeking to spread fear and hatred across America at the turn of the 20th century. The second is a book about a Black woman returning to her hometown for her white childhood best friend’s wedding. The wedding will take place at the newly-renovated Woodsman plantation; but in spite of the antebellum themed cocktails and beautiful updates, the ghosts of its dark history still haunt it.
Never Whistle At Night is a collection of exceptional Indigenous authors writing horror that blends Indigenous folklore with the horrors of white supremacy. From an evil spirit hiding in a frat boy’s body to hunt Indigenous women, to a student visiting her white college professor’s house only to discover his terrifying collections, this book is perfect for fans of dark fiction.
Our Share of Night is set in the aftermath of a brutal military dictatorship in Argentina, and follows the young Gaspar and his father as they return to visit the family of Gaspar’s late mother. Through the eyes of a violent, traumatized father and his young son, we come face to face with a corrupt cult of ultra-rich members called The Order who will stop at nothing in their quest for immortality.
The Only One Left is a more “traditional” thriller/mystery, centering a young aid worker who is hired to care for the lone survivor of a gruesome family murder in the house where it happened. I tend to adore plot twists when done well, and this one has them in spades.
Lastly, my favorite recent scary read is Knock Knock, Open Wide, which mixes dark fiction, the supernatural and, most alluringly, Celtic folklore. Etain Larkin finds a dead body in the middle of the street whilst driving home one night. She does what she thinks is the right thing to do, but for Etain, being in the wrong place at the wrong time leads to an unspeakable horror—one that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
If scary is not for you, we will be putting together another cairn this month for people who love spooky season but don’t really like being spooked. Until then, I will leave you with this terrifying poem, which is a collection of the very real, very spooky things my adorable and terrifying 4 year old daughter has said to me since the day she started stringing sentences together.
Wishing you a safe and spooky October!
Courtney x
Mama?
Do you love me more than sharp teeth that can bite me?
What do bones taste like?
Do you have to grind them up first?
Mama?
I died on a bridge.
I was walking to you and it broke and I fell and died.
A snake squeezed my neck.
A troll ate my fingertips.
Mama?
When I wake up in your bed and you and dad are gone
I don’t like it.
It makes me feel like my whole family has died.
Mama?
I died and now I’m stuck.
There’s a city here and I need your help.
I need you to pull me outta here.
Read this, if you like:
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
When The Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen
Never Whistle at Night edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
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