‘Tis the season to get spooky! It’s that time of the year when we start to think about our Halloween costumes and which parties to attend. But the Halloween spirit doesn’t just have to be focused on that one night of the year. If you love a good horror story and if ghost stories give you the goosebumps, we recommend downloading some haunting audiobooks that will get you in the mood for the festivities (or keep you awake at night…whichever you prefer!).
We’ve put together a list of 5 great reads from various female authors, the majority of them are women of color of course because we’re all about intersectionality. And since the holidays are busy for everyone, audiobooks are seriously the best option so you can listen to any of the following books while going about the rest of your day. Audible makes it even easier on your holiday budget by offering a free 30-day trial. Check out our list below.
1.’Fledgling’ by Octavia Butler
‘Fledgling’, the late Octavia E. Butler’s final novel, is the story of a young amnesiac girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must learn who wanted to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself. ‘Fledgling’ is a captivating novel that tests the limits of “otherness” and questions what it means to be truly human.
As an African American woman, she regularly tackled racial themes throughout her novels, and this one is no exception.
“Octavia Butler would finalize her career with a vampire novel, which meditates on African American themes of race struggle, interracial tensions, and master and slave dialectics,” wrote Michael Alexander Chaney in a review about ‘Fledgling’. You can download the audiobook here.
2. ‘Her Body and Other Parties: Stories’ by Carmen Maria Machado
Award-winning Latina author Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. In this electric and provocative debut, she bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella Especially Heinous, Carmen reimagines every episode of ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’, a show we naïvely assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgängers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes.
As Lauren Candia over at We Are Mitu describes: “Machado brings women’s issues to the forefront with an approach to horror that will delight fans of the genre and bring those who are on the fence about it on board. It’s original, it’s feminist af and it will blow your mind.” Download ‘Her Body and Other Parties: Stories’ here.
Celebrated Japanese author Yoko Ogawa n aspiring writer who moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Meanwhile, a surgeon’s lover vows to kill him if he does not leave his wife. Before she can follow-through on her crime of passion, though, the surgeon will cross paths with another remarkable woman, a cabaret singer whose heart beats delicately outside of her body.
‘Revenge’ tells the story of aBut when the surgeon promises to repair her condition, he sparks the jealousy of another man who would like to preserve the heart in a custom tailored bag. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders—their fates converge in a darkly beautiful web that they are each powerless to escape. This book is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the very end. Download ‘Revenge’ here.
4. ‘Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills’ by Minakshi Chaudhry
‘Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills’ is one of Minakshi Chaudhry’s most notable works. It presents a collection of short stories, buried deep in the hills during the days of the Raj. As a former journalist, Minakshi has extensive experience in news reporting in the region, and what sets her apart from other Indian authors is her love for the scenic and historic Himachal Pradesh, situated in north India within the Himalayas.
Most of the ghost stories found in this book are places you can actually visit in real life, making the whole book an even spookier experience. Some of the most infamous haunted places in Shimla include a tunnel, a few haunted houses and many cemeteries. And if you like what you hear in this audiobook, read TravelTriangle.com’s guide to the 5 most haunted places in Shimla to experience the stories come to life…if you dare! In the meantime, download ‘Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills’ here.
5. ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley
Of course it wouldn’t be Halloween without a Frankenstein reference! Written by the godmother of gothic horror Mary Shelley, if you haven’t got ‘Frankenstein’ in your audiobook collection, do it now. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque but sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition of the novel was published anonymously in London in 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared on the second edition, published in France in 1823.
The bestseller, which has been adapted into numerous films, is an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, which not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.
You can download ‘Frankenstein’ here to complete your Halloween audiobook experience. There are so many great authors to put you in the mood for horror, this list is just a starter. If you haven’t yet signed up for Audible, you can get a free 30 day trial by clicking here. Happy Halloween!
This is a sponsored conversation written by us on behalf of Audible. The opinions and text are all ours.
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