By Kevin Doan
With COVID-19 keeping all of us indoors while Halloween season is just around the corner, we need another way to get spooked this year. Whether you’re an avid reader or want to get into the Halloween mood, grab one of these books and travel to a haunted hotel stuck in the dead of winter or to an island shrouded in a violent mystery.
“The Shining” by Stephen King
In a literary rollercoaster, Stephen King takes us up to the mountainous Colorado Rockies where a the luxury Overlook Hotel is being maintained by a typical American family of three. Peering around the Overlook Hotel, King paints the snow-blanketed peaks and the warmth of holiday family bonding. We know something the family doesn’t know: the hotel has plotted a tragic destiny for them, and they’re moving full steam ahead right into it.
“House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski’s dual narrative examines the jealousy, family politics, and entire human psyche shipped in the form of a mystery in a house that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside.
The front page boasts a bloodied scene, sitting squarely in the center is a note with the instructions to murder “both children”, chop “the boy in half” and “drown them in blood”.
The entire book, from its physical appearance to its intellectual content, is an unadulterated mystery. You’ll be going back and forth to and from the appendix and scrambling to the furthest corners of Google to decode the message.
“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie
Eight people rendezvous on Soldier Island off the coast of Devon, United Kingdom, where they expect to meet their hosts Mr. Ulick Norman Owen and Mrs. Una Nancy Owen. What they face though could be nothing further from a friendly visit.
As the mystery surrounding their hosts becomes more self-evident and the realization that they’re stuck on the island alone, the group splinters into factions, each attempting only to satisfy their own needs. Some call for an escape from the island, others call for a search for the Owens. Then, tragedy rears its ugly head, throwing the already disoriented group into chaos.
Learn how to contact the Fountain Valley High School library here to see if any of these books are available to check out.
