Nights are drawing in, candles flicker in windows, pumpkins line the supermarket shelves. There’s nothing better than getting stuck into an unnerving read to complement the month of October, and Service95 is no stranger to a goosebump-inducing book. Our Halloween reading list brings together books that are layered in their complexity: experimental forms, plots rooted in historical legends, by women authors all around the world – skillfully translated to make your heart race and hair stand on end.
Pick your poison: a high-stakes vampire mystery, an eerie memoir told through global graveyards, a stylish spin on Indonesian myth and more. You’re sure to find something that haunts you for the month of October and beyond...
Mothersucker by Kim Bohyun (translated by Archana Madhavan)
First up, it’s a feminist vampire thriller. Geum-hong has woken up with superhuman senses and an insatiable hunger. In a vengeful haze, the last thing she remembers is burying her only daughter, murdered by her ex-boyfriend. When Detective Jin-seon Noh is called to the scene of a crime, it’s like nothing she’s ever seen before: the male victim has been killed with inhuman violence, drained of blood. As more deaths are uncovered, they all have one thing in common: all have been accused of horrific crimes against women. Bohyun draws you deeper and deeper into a dark, bloody thriller, which asks how justice can be served in vampiric form.
Somebody Is Walking On Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez (translated by Megan McDowell)
Do you feel that? Either somebody is walking on your grave, or it’s the queen of the macabre Mariana Enriquez’s memoir exploring the world’s tombs. Enriquez tells us that, since a very young age, she has had a fascination with cemeteries. From the catacombs of Paris to the mausoleums of New Orleans; London’s Highgate Cemetery to Buenos Aires’ Recoleta, Enriquez takes us on an extraordinary, haunting tour through where our bodies come to rest, considering these sacred sites through their folklore, spirits, visitors and architecture. We’ll read anything this woman writes.
The Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung (translated by Anton Chur)
From the same author as Cursed Bunny, The Midnight Timetable is a novel told through a series of tension-building short stories. In a mysterious research facility, Chung’s unnamed protagonist begins their night shift, watched over by the senior guard. As the evening draws on, the guard shares tale after tale of the labyrinthine facility and the cursed objects and lives that lie within. But as the stories unfold and the dark underbelly of the facility takes shape, you can’t help feeling that time seems to be running out. A true nail-biter, told in Chung’s characteristically eerie, gruesome style.
Night Of A Thousand Hells by Intan Paramaditha (translated by Stephen Epstein and Tiffany Tsao)
Blending Indonesian folklore, Islamic mysticism and political reckoning, Night Of A Thousand Hells tells the story of three sisters. Mutiara and Maya are left to continue their lives after their younger sister Annisa commits a brutal act. Reeling with guilt and grief, their search for truth takes them on a journey across Asia, Australia and the US to uncover the buried secrets of their family’s history and the prophecies of their grandmother. A haunting work of feminist literature which reimagines myths and legends in the modern day.
Minihorror by Barbi Marković (translated by Jen Calleja)
In her strange, uncanny short story collection, Serbian author Barbi Marković unleashes the worst horror of them all: the everyday drudgery of the lives of the middle classes. With a surprise around every turn – some of these 134 short stories are just a sentence long – Marković deftly analyses the absurdity of expat life in Vienna, with a sprinkling of the supernatural. At its centre are the protagonists Miki and Mini, borrowing their names from the Serbian version of Disney’s favourite mice, who cartoonishly regenerate in each story to meet their unfortunate fates in the next. It’s bizarre, brilliant, and oddly upbeat – spooky, but with a sense of humour.
