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Ghostly Tales: Hauntingly Good Reads

Featured Top Picks • October 25, 2023 • Trisha Gregorio

Halloween is upon us, and what better way to celebrate the season of spirits than to light a candle and get cozy with a great book?

Whether you’re an aficionado of all things eerie or just looking for something to set the mood, this handpicked selection of reads brings you dark stories of urban loneliness, a Southern Gothic murder mystery where nothing is as it seems, and a light-hearted Halloween tale for all the magical girls out there.

NOVELS

Medusa by Martine Desjardins, translated by Oana Avasilichioaei (Talonbooks)

This incendiary new novel from Martine Desjardins, translated by Oana Avasilichioaei, spins the story of Medusa like you’ve never read it before, finding its footing in the original myth to serve an unforgettable gothic story that’s ultimately about the redemptive power of a feminist imagination. 

With ironic wit, Desjardins’ Medusa walks with her head down, face hidden behind her hair to spare others from eyes so horrible they repel women and petrify men. Driven from the family home, Medusa is locked up in the Athenaeum, an institute for young “malformed” girls, which stands on the shores of a lake infested with jellyfish. In this dismal place, where benefactors indulge in cruel, humiliating games with their protégées, Medusa gradually discovers the power of wielding terror with her own hands; the day that she finally emerges from her confinement, she sows destruction in her path that “takes us,” writes Josée Boileau for Journal de Montréal, “to shudder-inducing places … Readers get caught in the net of a tale they won’t easily escape.”

Out Now!

Citizens of Light by Sam Shelstad (Touchwood Editions)

Bleakly madcap, with deadpan dialogue, Sam Shelstad’s debut novel is a murder mystery set in the ramshackle, rundown corners of downtown Niagara Falls. Citizens of Light follows the seemingly monotonous life of Colleen Weagle, who spends her hours working at a call centre, writing spec scripts for a CBC riding-school drama, and playing an online game set in a resort populated by reindeer.

Except three months ago Colleen’s husband Leonard — who led a similarly typical life — was found dead in a bog in the middle of the night, a two hours’ drive from home. With a flatly optimistic belief in the power of routine, Colleen has been soldiering on, trying not to think too hard about all the unknowns surrounding the death. But when a local news photo twigs Colleen’s memory of a mystery attendee at Leonard’s funeral, she snaps into action.

With wit and sharp realism, this noir anti-thriller deftly captures call-centre life, ramshackle tourist attractions, and suburbia, revealing the undercurrents of melancholy and the truly bizarre that can run beneath even the most seemingly mild-mannered lives. 

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COLLECTIONS

Grandview Drive by Tim Blackett (Nightwood Editions) 

This collection of 16 connected short stories investigates the ways we humans so often feel lonely and alone, yet cannot avoid having our lives be contingent upon others — often in ways we can neither see nor understand. Tim Blackett’s characters long for meaningful connection and struggle to find it; they are too often unaware of the connections that are right in front of them, opening up a path to going to extreme lengths to fill the void that loneliness without solitude leaves in us. 

Grandview Drive is a collection that builds on itself; the stories stand on their own, but they are strengthened by the (sometimes secret) connections they hold with each other. With stories that run the gamut from disturbing to incisive, moving to shocking, violent to fantastical, Blackett’s debut asks the reader to think about love and loss, loneliness and heartbreak, redemption and starting life anew.

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Vancouver’s Most Haunted by Ian Gibbs (Touchwood Editions)

In his new collection of ghost stories, ghost-walk guide and podcaster Ian Gibbs investigates the greater Vancouver area in search of the city’s paranormal. These thirty stories cover more famous hauntings like Waterfront Station and the Orpheum Theatre as well as private houses and the apartments of friends and readers, with Gibbs’ research style balancing history, personal experience, and input from residents, employees, local mediums, and paranormal experts.

From Gastown to Grouse Mountain, West Van to New West, Vancouver’s Most Haunted combs the Terminal City for its apparitions, presenting findings in a conversational style that meets readers where they are, whether history enthusiast, interested skeptic, or supernaturally sensitive.

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YOUNG READERS

Stazy and the Magic List by Nancy Hundal (Rebel Mountain Press)

Looking for a non-scary Halloween read for the young readers in your life? “The reader is in for a treat,” writes teacher and librarian Sheila Davies about Stazy and the Magic List, “with this middle-grade novel that combines Halloween, magic, secret identities, new friends, best friends, disability struggles, hidden ability empowerment, and learning to accept yourself and your friends for who they are.” 

When seventh grader Stazy moves into a new house and school after her parents separate, she finds that resident snooty girls Hali, Faye, and Rena aren’t quite ready to welcome a fourth friend into their trio. At least until Stazy stumbles upon their secret powers, and they hers, as they all discover that sometimes becoming a group of four takes losing ghosts, finding wings, letting your intuition guide you — and listening to invisible friends.

Out Now!