#Horrortober Reading List for 2014
Oh, it’s that time of year again, my dead little friends (you know, you shouldn’t play with dead things). I can finally tear into all of the books and movies and podcasts and TV shows I’ve been saving all year for Horrortober. Now, you all know that I watch at least 1 horror movie a day in October and rate them on Twitter using my Mummy inspired system of 9 tana leaves.
What I look forward to the most are the books and stories I’ve been collecting. This year, I plan to take on a heavy load, but it will be worth it. If you’re looking for a spooky to read, whether it be fiction or true tales of the unexplained, I hope you find something on this list to whet your bloody appetite! Get ready, this is gonna be a big one (insert crude remark here).
NOVELLAS
There are 3 novellas I can’t wait to read from my fellow Samhain Horror authors. You can download any one of them yourself for just a few sheckles (and I won’t stop you from picking up my true haunting tale, THE WAITING).
JONATHAN JANZ – EXORCIST ROAD
Possessed by a demon…or by the urge to kill?
Chicago is gripped by terror. “The Sweet Sixteen Killer” is brutally murdering sixteen-year-old girls, and the authorities are baffled.
A seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy has attacked his entire family and had to be chained to his bed. His uncle, police officer Danny Hartman, is convinced his nephew is possessed by a demon. Danny has sent his partner, Jack, to fetch the only priest in Chicago who has ever performed an exorcism.
But Jack has other plans tonight. He believes the boy isn’t possessed by a demon, but instead by an insatiable homicidal urge. Jack believes the boy is the Sweet Sixteen Killer. And he aims to end the reign of terror before another girl dies.
BRIAN MORELAND – THE VAGRANTS
Journalist Daniel Finley is determined to save the impoverished of the world. But the abandoned part of humanity has a dark side too. While living under a bridge with the homeless for six months, Daniel witnessed something terrifying. Something that nearly cost him his sanity.
Now, two years later, he’s published a book that exposes a deadly underground cult and its charismatic leader. And Daniel fears the vagrants are after him because of it. At the same time, his father is being terrorized by vicious mobsters. As he desperately tries to help his father, Daniel gets caught up in the middle of a war between the Irish-American mafia and a deranged cult of homeless people who are preparing to shed blood on the streets of Boston.
DAVID BERNSTEIN – APARTMENT 7C
Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.
Eighty-two-year-old Beth Baker can hear the cop in apartment 7C beating his wife. Again. She’s also having dreams—or are they visitations—of her dead daughter, Alice, who was killed fifty years ago by an abusive husband.
The message is clear—Beth has to take care of the cop. But he’s a decorated detective and over two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle, so what’s a little old lady like her going to do? When things turn ugly and the cop threatens Beth’s own life, she realizes she needs to resort to extreme measures. Blood must be shed.
NOVELS
KEITH ROMMEL – THE SINFUL MAN
Headaches. Hunger. Pain.
Leo needs something . . . his stomach growls, but it can wait. That’s not hunger he must feed. He has to get to his next high, but without money he knows he can’t buy what he needs to sate the voice inside telling him to get more, get more.
Voices. Visions. Addiction.
No luck asking his father. His mother is in no position to help. After failing to steal the money he desperately needs, Leo must appeal to his dealer, the dangerous and infamous Saint Nick—despite the inevitable beating he’ll take for showing up empty-handed. Still, anything to keep the voices and flashbacks at bay . . .
Demons. Addiction. Death.
GLENN ROLFE – THE HAUNTED HALLS
TRUE TALES OF THE PARANORMAL
THE LEE AVENUE HAUNTING –
DONNA PARISH-BISCHOFF
The Cranmers seemed fated to own the house at 3406 Brownsville Road. As a young boy, Bob had been drawn to the property, and, just when the family decided to move back to Brentwood, it went up for sale. Without a second thought, they purchased the house that Bob had always dreamed of owning.But soon, the family began experiencing strange phenomena—objects moving on their own, ghostly footsteps, unsettling moaning sounds—that gradually increased in violence, escalating to physical assaults and, most disturbingly, bleeding walls. Bob, Lesa, and their four children were under attack from a malicious demon that was conjuring up terrifying manifestations to destroy their tight-knit household. They had two choices: leave or draw on their unwavering faith to exorcise the malicious fiend who haunted their home.
Hunter Shea 
Honored to be on your list, Hunter.
I’m looking forward to reading a number of books this October….Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, The Halloween Man by Douglass Clegg and Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, and hopefully, December Park by Ronald Malfi.
That’s an awesmoe list. I loved Halloween Man.
Reblogged this on Glenn Rolfe Scribbles Madness and commented:
Some great book and authors on Hunter Shea’s October reading list. Loved the Janz and the Moreland novellas listed. I must read the rest! Oh, and Hunter’s The Waiting is a must for the scary season, too! My favorite horror novella so far this year.
Nice picks. Some of those are on my list too, but I don’t know when I’ll get to them. For Halloweeny goodness this year I’ll be reading Bad Apples by Edward Lorn, Jason Parent, Evans Light, Adam Light, and Gregor Kane. Also looking forward to Nick Cutter’s ‘The Deep’ and familiarizing myself with the Oxrun Station books by Charles L. Grant.
You can never lose with Charles Grant.
So I’ve heard. I’ve read a few of his stories so far, and I’m reading an anthology he edited. Haven’t been disappointed with any of it.
This October I will be reading the short story collection by Stephen King, “Everything’s Eventual.” and hopefully The Troop by Nick Cutter.
You are going to love The Troop. I read it in a day, it was so good.
Everything’s Eventual is one of my short story collections! And The Trrop is still in line on my Kindle.
A lot of reading on this list. My list for October: Halloween Man by Douglas Clegg, Equilibrium Overturned from Grey Matter Press, December Park by Ronald Malfi, The Forty-Two by Ed Kurtz. I also just picked up a book called Evil Eternal by some dude named Hunter Shea, you may have heard of him.
Now that’s a great and varied list. Not sure about that Evil Eternal book, though. 😉
Great minds… I enjoy your list. 🙂
Evil Eternal kicks all kinds of bootie.
I plan to revisit Stephen King’s ‘SALEM’S LOT in October. Also have THE HALLOWEEN CHILDREN by Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss on hand.
Jack, my Monster Men cohost, reads Salem’s Lot every October. I love everything Norman writes.
Invisible Fences by Prentiss is awesome. The Halloween Children is on my TBR list too.
Thank you for the mention, Hunter!! It’s greatly appreciated 😀 And thank you for including me in such fine company, yourself included!
You’re very welcome. They should thank me for including them in your company.
Ha! if only… 😉
I don’t need to win, just commenting. I’ve read The Vagrants by Brian (AWESOME), Apartment 7C by David (also AWESOME–really hit me and allowed me to vent about my own past through his book, The Sinful Man by Keith I read before it came out–also good and ties into the series, and Haunted Halls by Glenn. I LOVE Haunted Halls, a fave, and I got to beta read a few of the sections. Ummm, I have Janz’s Exorcist Road in the que ready after another read.
That’s my report if it’s helpful to anyone. 🙂 I am looking forward to reading way too many books right now to even begin to name them, but besides Exorcist Road, in the que is JACKPOT (Rufty, Bernstein, Kenzie, Cesare) and Dark Servant by Matt Monochio.
That reminds me, I have to pick up Jackpot! Thanks Erin.
Thanks, Erin! 🙂
Not sure how much reading I will be able to do, but I’m going to make it a Samhain Halloween. I’m currently reading The Summer Job by Adam Cesare, followed by The Narrows by Ronald Malfi, House of Skin by Jonathan Janz, and Angel Board by Kristopher Rufty.
You can’t lose with a Samhain Halloween! All great books you picked.
What a fantastic list of #horrortober reads! Thanks for sharing it. Mmm, delicious terror!
I am blushing to have my story included in such a pantheon of work by accomplished authors. 🙂
I recommend FOREST OF SHADOWS to all the Hunter fans who have yet to read it – great horror with heart!
-aniko
I’m looking forward to reading THE SHINING again so I can read DOCTOR SLEEP. I’m also looking forward to NOS4A2 by Joe Hill.
I read Doctor Sleep right after The Shining last December. So danm good. I keep meannig to pick up NOS4A2,
Hey Melly, I’d like to send you a signed copy of The Montauk Monster. Please send your address to huntershea1@gmail.com
My first comment didn’t show up. I want to re-read THE SHINING so I can read DOCTOR SLEEP. And I want to read NOS4A2 by Joe Hill.
OOPS…lol! My zombified computer…Ooooooo, I can’t wait to read DS now. I love when someone tells me a book is ‘damn good’