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Cassandra Tipp is dead…or is she? The notorious recluse and eccentric bestselling novelist has left behind no body—just her massive fortune, and one final manuscript. Then again, there are enough bodies—Tommy Tipp, whose mysterious disembowelment has never been solved, and then only a few years later, there was Cassie’s brother and their father—found together in a shocking murder-suicide scene. Cassandra Tipp will tell you a story—but it will come with a terrible price. What really happened, out there in the woods—and who has Cassie been protecting all along? Read on, if you dare…
I can remember happening upon an edited-for-TV version of Devil’s Advocate when I was in high school, and staring at the screen in abject fear during a commercial break as my dad flipped over to watch whatever game was on. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, dear reader, but among the trifecta of shit I can’t handle, demons are Number One.
By the way, you’re in The Fright Stuff, Book Riot’s weekly newsletter about the latest and greatest in horror. I’m Mary Kay McBrayer, and I’ll be your Virgil through this realm, religious horror. (By the way, though demons are MY number one fear, this list doesn’t JUST include demons. Cults are also a huge contributor.)
Fresh Hells (FKA New Releases)
Magnetized: Conversations with a Serial Killer by Carlos Busqued, translated by Samuel Rutter
Based on a series of interviews conducted by nonfiction writer Carlos Busqued, this true crime account details the upbringing and crimes of a Santero convinced to murder four strangers. It’s so spooky… you’ll love it.
Cryptkeepers (FKA horror from the backlist):
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
I’m not gonna lie to y’all, I thought this book was going to be as dry as the others by authors who were writing in the 18th century, but this Scotsman goes deep into the terror of how twisted someone can get when they believe themselves to go automatically to heaven. It seriously, to this day, is one of THE scariest books I have ever read.
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Though marketed as a largely literary novel, the very opening of this book strikes fear into my heart: it starts with the terrorist bombing of a plane. As two passengers, actors with opposing viewpoints, fall to earth, they become “transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil.” (And did you know that this is the book that evoked the fatwah on Rushdie?)
In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, A Father, a Cult by Rebecca Stott
This memoir illuminates what it’s like to grow up as a fourth-generation cult member. Stott attempts to make sense of her childhood as the daughter of a high-ranking official of the Exclusive Brethren, a cult that believed the world was run by Satan. When her father gives her the memoir of the cult’s doings in the 1960s when on his deathbed, he charges Stott with writing about its truths.
God, Harlem U.S.A. by Jill Watts
This book of nonfiction details the cult of Father Divine. He’s a largely controversial figure who, in the 1930s, started a church that seemed very contradictory when contrasting his message with his own personal wealth. Though many would consider this book more an ethnography or biography than horror… I mean, it’s a cult! Cults are powerful!
Heaven’s Harlots: My Fifteen Years As a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult by Miriam Williams
This memoir offers the first-hand account of a woman who tries to get her own life back after a life of sex with strangers, with the motivation of trying to save their souls.
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez
I know I keep recommending this one to y’all, but if you haven’t gotten it yet, please go on and do it. Break the monotony of your quarantine and read about a 12-year-old girl raised by her family’s slaves, treated for rabies that she didn’t have, the object of her exorcist’s very real desire. It will not disappoint you.
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
This memoir details the coming out story of a girl adopted by a very strictly religious family. At one point, an orange demon even comes to talk to her about whether she’s really homosexual. It’s a must-read, though it’s scary in a social sense rather than an existential one.
Things we Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez
These stories bring to life contemporary Argentina as a world of military dictatorship, vibrance, youth, and drugs. Enriquez says of this collection, “in literature I really care about the themes of bodies and desire and don’t think they should be restrained by medical discourses, or religious or social taboos or whatever.”
Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami, translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Philip Gabriel
In 1995 a doomsday cult released a poisonous gas in the air of the public transport system. Murakami interviews survivors in this book, illustrating how they were affected by the attack.
Harbingers (FKA news):
A few newsletters ago, we talked about Carmen Maria Machado’s horror memoir, In the Dream House. Here, she talks about surviving the book she had to write.
“If you are well and at home and have enough to eat and can concentrate on a book, do you read toward or away from your fear? Reading for comfort and escape is readily explicable. But why read about what you fear?” Fairy Tales and Facts: Siri Hustvedt on How We Read in a Pandemic might answer that question.
Speaking of fairy tales, here’s what Rebecca Solnit has to say about loneliness in our living nightmare/fairy tale.
According to Atlas Obscura, these are the 24 creepiest children’s stories that still haunt them today.
A24 set up auctions of some of its most popular horror movie props (think, the May Queen dress and bear’s head from Midsommar, or the actual light from The Lighthouse.) The best part is, “100% of each auction’s proceeds will benefit four charities helping New York’s hardest-hit communities and frontline workers.”
Here’s what Margaret Atwood (author of popular culture’s darling dystopia, Handmaid’s Tale) thinks we should be doing right now.
Want to watch some of Shakespeare’s spookiest tragedies? Click here for on-demand screenings of the Stratford Festival!
In case you’re concerned about Indie bookstores, here’s how they’re coping with the pandemic.
Don’t forget to enter Book Riot’s $250 gift card from Barnes and Noble giveaway!
Until next week, follow me @mkmcbrayer for minute-to-minute horrors or if you want to ask for a particular theme to a newsletter. I’m also on IG @marykaymcbrayer. Enjoy reading about these scary religious propositions, and #stayhome. I’ll talk to y’all next week!
Your Virgil,
Mary Kay McBrayer
Co-host of Book Riot’s literary fiction podcast, Novel Gazing
