Unusual Fragments
I’m including Unusual Fragments as a spooky selection because all of these stories share some aspect of the unusual and arguably supernatural — or at least just plain eerily weird.
Halloween
Chilling stories for the spooky season.
The Infamous Gilberts
I love a haunted house story, and though this isn’t a novel about actual ghosts (for the most part), it is a story about how human lives haunt the places they played out in.
Hidden Haunts
With ghostly themed tourism being so immensely popular, this is the perfect companion if you’re hankering for that road trip to end the summer.
My Men
My Men follows the life of Brynhild Storset who emigrates form Norway to the United States and eventually becomes Belle Gunness, arguably the first serial killer in American history.
Paradise Rot
What follows is a fever dream of decay and the juxtaposition of awakening and discovering blurred boundaries between individuals, bodies, sexuality, and plant life.
The Invention of Morel
This novella’s setting of an opulent but derelict and rotting mansion infected with the suggestion of long-ago deaths and violence ticked all of the spooky season boxes for me.
A Dark Corner and A Helping Hand
Both A Helping Hand and A Dark Corner are well under two hundred pages, but each of them packs a disturbing punch and were well ahead of their time.
Thus Were Their Faces
This book is a selection of work spanning multiple decades, and particularly has a focus on showcasing Ocampo’s tendency to be both insightful and at the same time grotesque, haunting, and fantastic.
Compulsory Games
It’s not the usual gothic fare, but instead is a bit more subtle in its spookiness. However, there is a spooky graveyard and a few scary desolate locations.
Killing Stella
Domestic horror is a sub-genre that allows for so many subtleties and so many facets of the disturbing.