#Title
THE SHELF
SARAH ISMAIL BARI & CLARKE HEAP
It’s October and I am a basic human. You say October I say Spooky Season! When I decided to write this article, my initial thought was to go through my Goodreads and my memory bank and find some master creepy books to recommend. I realised fast enough that my creepy book bank is significantly less well stocked than my weepy. Thus, I decided to bring in a partner—a bibliophilic associate if you will—who is truly dedicated to the horror genre to help me out with this compilation. My husband Clarke, who grew up in the old English countryside (the perfect setting for any horror novel in my book), pulled out the big guns and helped me co-write this list.
I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson is a part-vampire, part-post apocalyptic novel. Robert Neville is the last surviving human in a world populated by the undead. He spends his nights holed up in his house in a Los Angeles suburb listening to his former neighbours (now vampires) shouting for him to come outside and join them. Matheson delivers a thoroughly chilling and intelligent novel that deals with themes of human loneliness, resilience and a masterful ending that leads to Robert’s famous conclusion “I am legend”.
Who Goes There? (1938) by John W. Campbell Jr is a genre bending creature-horror where scientists operating in an isolated research station in Antarctica discover a wrecked spaceship buried beneath the ice. The shape-shifting creature that is unleashed from the spacecraft replicates any life forms it comes into contact with. This premise leads to a tale of intense claustrophobia, survival and paranoia as friends turn foes. At 161-pages this is a quick and fantastic commute-read that caters to sci-fi as well as horror lovers.
Oktarin (2016) by Tanjim Rahman is described by the author as a possession mystery. I describe it as the thing which compelled me to leave my lights on at night for a whole weekend—and I do not scare easily. Rahman’s central character Mumin, a teacher of Islamic studies in a district high school, is summoned by the headmistress to help liberate her young daughter from an apparent demonic possession. This compels Mumin to face his own demons from the past and the trauma that he has been on the run from all his life.
Mumin’s story is then told entirely in the third-person-limited point of view—an effective method which ensures chills running down even the bravest spines. There is so much more to this book than the average run-of-the-mill possession drama; Rahman uses magic, adventure and even some wizardry to bring his story to the most satisfying end.
Botol Bhoot (1989) by Humayun Ahmed. No list is complete without including a Humayun Ahmed horror-comedy! It wouldn’t be a mighty exaggeration to say that for many of us Bengali readers, Botol Bhoot would rank among our all-time-favourite childhood reads. The central character Humayun, loosely based on the author’s own childhood, is a thorough backbencher whose academic prowess is underwhelming at best. He befriends the class-topper Munir, who promises to include Humayun in his plans of obtaining a ghost in a bottle from an apothecary. They meet Robi nana (an homage to Tagore) who hands them the “ghost” in a tiny homeopathy vial and thus begins the life of miracles for Humayun and Munir. For any parent struggling to get your kids to read Bengali books, I highly recommend Botol Bhoot to keep them engaged and yearning for more.
So, there you go, a carefully curated and fool proof list of horror books that comes from a home of bibliophiles (who often do not agree on each other’s choice of reading). May the month of October bring upon you the magic of goosebumps, shivers, and chills down your spine. When the hair on the back on your neck rises, please do think of us. Yours Truly.
Read a longer version of this article on Halloween, October 31, on The Daily Star website and on Daily Star Books’ Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Mumin’s story is then told entirely in the third-person-limited point of view—an effective method which ensures chills running down even the bravest spines. There is so much more to this book than the average run-of-the-mill possession drama; Rahman uses magic, adventure and even some wizardry to bring his story to the most satisfying end.