Adding Suspense to Your Holiday Season
Halloween has come and gone, but as a year-round reader of horror, thrillers, and dark literature, spooky season has really just begun! The shorter days and long nights are prime time for some dark reads, and with the holiday season coming up, here's a quick gift guide that might help you shop for the suspense reader in your life!
The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn
Taking place in the snowy Colorado mountains, a group of friends (and their dog) gather at a secluded cabin in the woods for a holiday getaway. Unfortunately, a sudden blizzard leaves them stranded, and while they’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do, they realize that they’re not alone in the wilderness. There are some things lurking out in the snow, and the group’s numbers start to dwindle as they are slowly hunted down and picked off one by one.
The Shuddering is such a fun read for this time of year thanks to the wintry, bone-chilling setting. It’s a creature feature with some pretty gnarly imagery and violent scenes (from the very first chapter you get a taste of what’s to come), but it also has a pretty hefty helping of drama with messy relationships, plenty of backstabbing and betrayal, and some pretty surprising character decisions. Ania Ahlborn also has an extensive backlog, and none of her books disappoint, so you might just discover a new favorite author.
Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney
Ava is an unusual teenage girl with a special interest in the process of animal decomposition. She lives in an apartment complex near a highway where many animals meet their untimely end by speeding vehicles, and this gives Ava plenty of opportunities to explore her macabre fascination. One night, Ava sneaks out of the house to examine her collection of roadkill that she has hidden away in the woods and stumbles upon the severely mutilated body of a boy that recently went missing. This story takes place in the 80’s, so she’s able to go to a payphone and anonymously report her finding to the police. After speaking with the investigating officers, Ava isn’t convinced they have what it takes to solve the crime, so she becomes determined to solve the case herself and find who abducted and brutalized the child, with the help of her best friend. The story eventually becomes a race against the clock as more bodies start to pile up, and Ava’s vast knowledge of decomposition and anatomy leads her closer to the identity of the killer. However, she must tread carefully so she doesn’t become the next victim.
Deadly Animals is a phenomenal coming of age story. Ava is such a likeable character and her unique POV makes for an incredibly nuanced journey with plenty of heart and a bit of humor. However, this is also one of the most upsetting books I’ve read, because not only are the victims of the crimes children, but the crimes are incredibly heinous, and the terrors the children withstood disturbed me to the point I had an actual nightmare. I’d buy this for only the most seasoned dark fiction reader in your life, but if they can handle some seriously distressing subject matter, I believe this will be a new favorite.
Below by Laurel Hightower
Recently divorced, Addy is on a solo cross-country trip to see her friends at a horror convention, with only the disembodied, antagonistic voice of her ex-husband in her head keeping her company. After a close call in the West Virginian mountains leaves her rattled, she regroups at a secluded diner, where she meets a friendly truck driver who offers to help guide her through the impending blizzard. Communicating via CB radio, they slowly make their way through the storm, when suddenly, her new companion is run off the road by an unexplainable creature with glowing red eyes, and him and his truck plunge down the mountain side. She’s left with an impossible choice: leave the man to survive on his own in the elements and try to brave the storm and get help by herself, or descend the mountainside, down to the depths of the Appalachian wilderness where, the deeper she goes down, the more nightmarish her reality becomes.
Below by Laurel Hightower is one of my favorite horror books to recommend. Clocking in at just a little over 100 pages, this book is one wild roller coaster ride filled with terrifying creatures, extremely high stakes, an atmospheric setting, a fever dream of a plot, and even a few twists and turns, which is especially impressive considering how short of a read it is. I know many readers are in a reading slump at the moment, so this book could make for a perfect slump breaker.
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
Sara Linton, a local pediatrician and the town’s coroner, is out to lunch with her sister as they discuss Sara’s tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband Jeffrery, when she makes a shocking discovery in the diner’s restroom: a beloved college professor bleeding out in one of the stalls, barely clinging on to life. Despite Sara’s efforts, she tragically passes away from her injuries. Jeffrey, who’s the town’s chief of police, leads the investigation, with his lead detective, Lena Adams. Together, Sara, Jeffrey, and Lena must work together to solve the heinous crime before there are more victims, and Sara’s dark past just might hold the secret to uncovering the culprit.
Blindsighted is the first book in the Grant County series, and if you’ve never read a Karin Slaughter book before, prepare yourself for a seriously disturbing and depraved journey. Her books do a really great job at showcasing all of the terrible ways that humans can be awful to one another, and Blindsighted is no exception. This book, and entire series, contains just about every single trigger warning I can think of. Despite the incredibly distressing subject matter, Karin does some of the best character work that you’ll find in a thriller. Every character is incredibly fleshed out, and as you continue the series, they genuinely feel like real people. There are six books in the Grant County series, with twelve and counting in the interconnected Will Trent series, so this book and the series as a whole would make for the perfect gift, especially if the suspense reader in your life has been craving a new series to dive into.
When The Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
Jess is having the worst night of her life. Not only is she a struggling actress working at a diner to make ends meet, but she just found out that her father, of whom she hasn’t seen since she was a child, recently passed away. While having an existential crisis in the bathroom and on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, she accidentally gets jabbed by a used needle. She races home in a daze, completely out of her mind with everything that’s wrong with her life, and once there, she finds a little boy cowering in her backyard, petrified. She finds out that he’s on the run, and soon, what he’s running from finds them both and they’re forced to escape their lives, pursued by a seemingly unstoppable threat.
When The Wolf Comes Home is Nat Cassidy at his boldest and most creative. Jess makes for an extremely relatable MC that is easy to root for, and as things continually go wrong, the stakes continue to get higher until, eventually, things spiral completely out of control. It’s violent, adventurous, emotional, and has an ending so astonishing that it made me close the book and stare at the wall in wonder. It’s an incredible work of fiction, and one that I will gift to as many people as I can so more people can experience the absolute powerhouse of this novel.
Creep by Jennifer Hillier
Dr. Sheila Tao is a psychology professor at the height of life. She’s extremely intelligent and highly revered in her profession, and she’s in a relationship with a successful investment banker. She’s also having a scandalous and intense affair with one of her teaching assistants, a charismatic young man named Ethan. One day, Sheila’s boyfriend proposes and she says yes, so she’s forced to end the affair with Ethan. Unfortunately for her, Ethan just so happens to be a psychopath, and makes it his life’s mission to destroy Sheila’s relationship and reputation for rejecting him with the threat of releasing an extremely salacious sex tape, extorting her. Meanwhile, one of the college’s star athletes is found brutally murdered, and soon Sheila not only has to contend with a scorned lover hellbent on smearing her name, she also finds herself in a potentially deadly game of cat and mouse.
Creep is the book that cemented Jennfier Hillier as one of my new favorite thriller authors. Her books are juicy, messy, and incredibly dark, and written with a propulsively fast pace that will make you want to cancel all your plans and read as much as physically possible. This story features plenty of twists and turns that will keep you hooked and even has a sequel for more salacious thriller fun.
If you’ve been wondering what to get the dark fiction reader in your life this holiday season, I hope this list helped serve as a shopping list! And even if you don’t have a reader in your life to gift any of these too, this list also serves as a dark and suspenseful TBR filled with some of my top recommendations. I hope you all stay safe this winter, and hope your next read is a new all-time favorite. Happy reading and happy holidays!