As a fan and repeat viewer of classic horror films, I sometimes let my imagination wander into scenarios about what might have happened to certain characters before or after the events depicted onscreen. In this way, I developed my earlier novel, In theShadow of the Skull, an islander’s version of King Kong, and now Innocent, a sequel to The Turn of the Screw infused with Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. I’m fascinated by how other authors are equally inspired to retell classic horror stories or create prequels and sequels to fill in narrative gaps. These books are among the most creative examples.
Before Anne Rice's vampire gave an interview, Saberhagen’s Dracula told his own side of Stoker’s story, gently poking at plot holes and purple prose.
From the moment I first learned this book existed, I knew I had to read it. When I finally tracked down a copy, it gave me new insights into the count’s character, and it made me laugh. I enjoyed The Dracula Tape’s lighter take on the classic material.
Presents the complete transcript of a tape in which the inimitable count presents his side of the story about a series of ghastly incidents which occurred during his visit to England in 1891
Using Poe’s short story as a springboard, McCammon places the modern-day Usher family—armaments magnates plagued by both hereditary illness and a monster prowling the woods surrounding the family estate—into a creepy Southern Gothic that mixes familial backbiting with mystery, magic, and genuinely shocking horror.
I particularly loved the epistolary chapters revealing the Ushers’ historical evil deeds. I read this at Halloween and it created the ideal spooky tone for the season.
Usher’s Passing is about descendants of the Usher family from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
The house of usher is built on death itself—and now it has a new master…
For generations the House of Usher has grown wealthier and more powerful on the invention and sale of murderous military weapons. But another evil has lived and grown within the House of Usher—a legacy of depravity of bloodshed that goes back generations, and stains the hallways of the family mansion.
One young heir, Rix Usher, is reluctant to return home. But…
This is a novel about choices. How would you have chosen to act during the Second World War if your country had been invaded and occupied by a brutal enemy determined to isolate and murder a whole community?
That’s the situation facing an ordinary family man with two children, a…
This book about an isolated woman who gets caught up in Frankenstein’s quest to build a bride for his creation is actually more horrifying before Victor shows up.
The description of the Orkney Islands is stark and moody, infusing the story with atmosphere. The details of an 18th century woman’s life and its hazards are devastating. I sympathized with Agnes in her frustration, despair, and betrayal, and I celebrated her striving for autonomy.
Mostly, I appreciated how McGregor brought to life a narrow section of Shelley’s original story.
ORKNEY ISLANDS, 1797 - Agnes Tulloch feels a little cheated. This windswept place is not the island paradise her husband promised it to be when they wed. Now with four young children, she struggles to provide for her family while her husband grows increasingly distant.
When a stranger comes ashore to rent an abandoned cottage, Agnes and the other islanders are abuzz with curiosity. Who is this wealthy foreigner and why on earth would he come to Eynhallow? Her curiosity is soon replaced with vexation when her husband hires her out as cook and washerwoman, leaving Agnes with no say…
Of all the books on this list, Quint stays truest to its source material.
I admired how Lautner recreated Quint’s distinct voice for the narrative and molded the details of this prequel to fit references the character shared in the film Jaws.
Lautner tells the story of how Quint came to Amity Island, blending a Hemingway-esque action sequence with flashbacks to his days and nights in the shark-infested ocean following the Indianapolis sinking. The Indianapolis sequences are inspired by actual survivors’ testimony, adding a harrowing realism to the novel that impressed and captivated me.
'Puts some of the balls back into serious English fiction' GILES COREN, THE TIMES
'Whisky-soaked, guttural, stinking and funny' EVIE WYLD, OBSERVER
'Thrilling, brutal, poetic, literary and irresistible, one of the 21st century's first great 20th-century American novels' LOUISA YOUNG
Before there was Jaws, there was... QUINT
You already know the end of his story: now find out where it all began.
Quint: the taciturn and grizzled sea captain who survived the shark-ridden sinking of the USS Indianapolis, only to meet his maker in the maw of a Great White at the end of JAWS. So much…
In the 1920s, famous psychic Margery Crandon astounds her followers and confounds scientists and magician Harry Houdini.
Will Houdini be her undoing? At a time when spiritualism draws many wishing to commune with their dearly departed, medium Margery Crandon entertains Boston society and intrigues psychic researchers. Her deceased brother, Walter,…
At first, Martin’s novel appears to be an account of a Victorian housemaid’s daily life, but after a couple of chapters, her employer’s name—Dr. Jekyll!—is revealed, and a third of the way in, his friend Mr. Hyde is mentioned, and by then, the true nature of the story is unmistakable.
I loved how Martin subtly incorporated familiar details from Stevenson’s novella but filtered them through Mary’s innocent, unwitting perspective. Always, the story remains firmly Mary’s; I welcomed her moral sense and opinions as a counterweight to Jekyll’s arrogance.
From the acclaimed author of the bestselling Italian Fever and award-winning Property, comes a fresh twist on the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, a novel told from the perspective of Dr. Jekyll's dutiful and intelligent housemaid.
"Part psychological novel, part social history, part eerie horror tale ... dark and moving and powerful." —The Washington Post
Faithfully weaving in details from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Martin introduces an original and captivating character: Mary is a survivor—scarred but still strong—familiar with evil, yet brimming with devotion and love. As a bond grows between Mary and her tortured employer, she is sent on…
Innocent is a sequel to Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, focusing on how the events of that novel have haunted the surviving child, Flora, into adulthood.
Now grown up and an heiress, Flora is determined to learn what really killed her elder brother years ago. She teams up with her solicitor, Gerald Braddon, to investigate. Returning to Bly House, the source of Flora’s grief, the pair confronts buried memories and eerie incidents that suggest unnatural forces are exercising their influence over Flora.
