Test your bravery and heart by stepping into this sapphic Bluebeard retelling from USA Today bestselling author Saratoga Schaefer!
Artist Poppy’s new marriage to Celia, a wealthy art dealer, is impulsive but she’s brimming with excitement when she moves across the country to Celia’s home: a formidable, isolated, and art-filled manor called Busirane.
However, Busirane refuses to welcome Poppy and its faceless statues and bodiless whispers beset her. When Poppy is eventually drawn to the forbidden basement, dark truths shatter everything she thought she knew, throwing her into a desperate bid for survival.
I work at a bookshop, and my coworker and I were standing around the counter the other day, when she asked, “Kendra, what do you like to read in the fall?” I had to think about it for a second, but I quickly realized I ADORE horror for the season. I want to extend those delightfully creepy vibes for as long as possible and revel in all things sinister. In horror, I’ve found some of my favorite novels, like The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, and Never Whistle at Night edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. And there are few things I love more than dark and twisty horror retellings. They can be retellings of a fairytale, a classic, or even another horror novel.
Whatever the case, these stories take a seed of a story and make it their own. Sometimes, authors are updating a book’s outdated themes or ideas for modern audiences, like in His Hideous Heart. In The Ballad of Black Tom, a writer takes a story from a racist author and turns it on its head. Whatever their approach, each of the writers today takes a familiar story and reimagines it in the most delightfully gruesome way.
His Hideous Heart: 13 of Edgar Allan Poe’s Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined by Dahlia Adler
Ever since I read “The Mask of the Red Death,” I’ve loved dipping into Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories. This anthology takes them to the next level with 13 retellings of Poe’s classic tales. And if you like to read the source material before reading retellings, then this anthology is perfect for you. It includes the original stories in the book as well, so you can seamlessly move from Poe’s tales to the retelling. Contributors include Kendare Blake, Tiffany D. Jackson, Rin Chupeco, and more.
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Speaking of Edgar Allen Poe, T. Kingfisher has a stunning trilogy of novellas retelling “The Fall of the House of Usher,” giving her a unique spin on this fan favorite. When Alex Easton hears that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they rush back to their hometown in Ruritania. There, they find a fungus has spread everywhere. But why? As if the terrifying fungus wasn’t enough, Kingfisher throws in a heavy dose of mystery. If you like What Moves the Dead, Kingfisher follows it up with What Feasts the Night and What Stalks the Deep.
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
Tiffany D. Jackson is a Book Riot favorite for a reason. There’s just something about the craft of her storytelling—in a wide range of genres—that captures our attention, draws us in, and doesn’t let go. In The Weight of Blood, Jackson retells Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie, the story of a high school girl who has a bucket of pig’s blood dropped on her head. But in Jackson’s version, our protagonist Maddie is hiding a secret: she’s biracial. Her white father insists she tell no one. But after a scandal when a racist video made by one of her classmates comes to light, the school decides to throw its first-ever integrated prom. Horror fans will see where this is going, but how Jackson gets us to the novel’s crisis is pure magic.
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
In this award-winning novella, Victor LaValle subverts Lovecraft’s Cthulhu story “The Horror at Red Hook,” this time telling the story from a new perspective. Charles Thomas Tester takes risky jobs to keep a roof over his head and take care of his father. But when he delivers a magical tome to a sorceress, he accidentally opens up a door to another world. This story is all-engrossing, so it’s no wonder that it won the Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award. When we’re talking about the best retellings, this novella has to make the list.
The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers: And Other Gruesome Tales by Jen Campbell, Illustrated by Adam de Souza
Did you know that a lot of folktales are pretty grisly? Over the centuries, storytellers have sanitized them for younger readers, but Jen Campbell has brought back the original horror of these tales from around the world. Perfect for young readers, The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers retells stories from around the world, often featuring positive representation of queer and disabled characters. Adam de Souza’s dark and brooding illustrations give this collection the perfect vibe for your scary season reading.
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
What can’t Silvia Moreno-Garcia write? In this feminist retelling of The Island of Doctor Moreau, Carlota Moreau lives with her father on an island where he conducts his experiments. Every day is the same as her father works on his mysterious hybrids. But when the son of one of Dr. Moreau’s patrons makes a huge mistake, he sets off a chain of events that will reveal her father’s secrets and upend Carlota’s world forever.
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Angela Carter has long had the reputation as one of the creepiest storytellers around. In The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories, Carter takes familiar fairytales and twists them into spine-tingling stories that will haunt your nightmares. These darker versions of tales like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Beauty and the Beast” couldn’t be more terrifying. I, for one, have many of them permanently seared into my brain (complimentary).
With all of these horror retellings, you’ll be set for scary season and beyond. For even more recommendations, check out Give Us These Retellings, Stat! and New Horror Reads That Riff on Classic Horror.
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