Monsters in Fiction
(Not for the Faint of Heart!)

     Blatty, William.  The Exorcist. The deceptively simple story focuses on Regan, the 11-year-old daughter of a movie actress residing in Washington, D.C.; the child apparently is possessed by an ancient demon. It's up to a small group of overwhelmed yet determined humans to somehow rescue Regan from this unspeakable fate. - Stanley Wiater

     Gardner, John.  Grendel.  The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic BEOWULF, tells his side of the story.

     Hambly, Barbara.  Those Who Hunt the Night.  Someone is killing the vampires of London and Professor James Asher has to find the killer. With his wife a hostage, what would happen if he actually found the killer? Would his fate be doomed by knowing the locations and identities of the vampires?

     Hamilton, Laurell K.  Guilty Pleasure.  Introducing Anita Blake, vampire hunter extraordinaire. Most people don't even bat an eye at vampires since they've been given equal rights by the Supreme Court. But Anita knows better--she's seen their victims.   A serial killer is murdering vampires, however, and now the most powerful vampire in town wants Anita to find the killer.

     Holland, David.  Murcheston: The Wolf’s Tale. A young nobleman with a passion for hunting travels to Carpathia, where he survives a savage wolf attack only to discover that he is cursed with lycanthropy (that is, he's becoming a wolf). Darnley's search for evidence of others like himself leads him on a spiritual voyage into a world ungoverned by restrictions or morality and drives him, ultimately, into the mind and soul of the beast he has become.

     King, Stephen.  It.   It's a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.  They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they were grown-up men and women who had gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them could withstand the force that drew them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.

     Koontz, Dean.  Hideaway.  Pronounced clinically dead after his car plunges into an icy river, Hatch Harrison is miraculously revived by a special team of doctors. Now Hatch approaches each day with a new appreciation . . . until he starts to see terrifying images of madness and murder. For he brought something back from his visit with death--and its murderous rampage has just begun.

     Levin, Ira.  Rosemary’s Baby. She is a housewife -- young, healthy, blissfully happy. He is an actor -- charismatic and ambitious. The spacious, sun-filled apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side is their dream home -- a dream that turns into an unspeakable nightmare.

     Little, Bentley.  The Summoning.  The discovery of an apparent murder victim in a dusty Arizona town convinces Sue Wing's grandmother that Cup-hu-girngsi, Corpse-who-drinks-blood, is on the prowl again.

     McCammon, Robert.  Boy’s Life.  This tale of an 11-year-old's struggle between innocence and evil begins with the discovery of a gruesome murder and ends with the revelation that, even in Zephyr, Alabama, life is not safe and simple--and most things and people are not what they seem to be. "Recaptures the magic of being a child in a world of possibilities and promise. . . ".--Atlanta Journal Constitution.

     Martin, David.  Tap, Tap.  When Roscoe Bird's childhood buddy, Peter, shows up in Washington, D.C., wanting to renew their old friendship, bodies start showing up too. And when Roscoe is blamed for the killing spree, he begins a heart-stopping race against time to thwart Peter's secret plan of manipulation, terror, and bloodlust. Because Peter has a secret--he's a vampire.

     Monahan, Brent.  The Book of Common Dread: A Novel of the Inferno.  Vincent DeVilbiss is a 500-year-old vampire in a modern world. At Princeton University he faces the direst challenge of his long life: an ancient scroll which, when translated, could destroy him. Vincent must seize the scroll and dispose of it--but standing in his way is his enemy, researcher Simon Penn.

     Saul, John.  The Right Hand of Evil.  When the Conways move into their ancestral home in Louisiana after the death of an estranged aunt, it is with the promise of a new beginning. But the house has a life of its own. Abandoned for the last forty years, surrounded by thick trees and a stifling sense of melancholy, the sprawling Victorian house seems to swallow up the sunlight. Deep within the cold cellar and etched into the very walls is a long, dark history of the Conway name—a grim bloodline poisoned by suicide, strange disappearances, voodoo rituals, and rumors of murder.

     Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn.  Hotel Transylvania.  Le Comte de Saint-Germain, the newest member of Louis XV's court, catches the eye of Madelaine de Montalia, but the young lady has attracted others as well, not all of whom mean her well. The Palace is the home of nobleman Francesco Ragoczy da San Germano, who collects the finest art and also dabbles in the black arts.

 

Horror books in the Neva Lomason Library are labeled with this sticker.