Who You Gonna Read? Ghost Stories!
The ghostbusters are back in town! Released in theaters today, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, sees cast and characters—both old and new—unite to defeat an ancient spirit aided by a barrage of ghouls and ghosts bent on covering the world with ice. Once again, The New York Public Library's iconic flagship building on Fifth Avenue has a role in the film (catch a glimpse at the 50 second mark in the trailer for a sneak preview), this time involving our beloved lions, Patience and Fortitude. While Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire may fill your action comedy bucket, if you're looking for something a bit more spine-chilling, we suggest one of the books below—stories of ghosts and hauntings across the spectral spectrum from horror to thriller to the merely unsettling.
Beyond Black
by Hilary Mantel
Colette and Alison are unlikely cohorts: one a shy, drab beanpole of an assistant, the other a charismatic, corpulent psychic whose connection to the spiritual world torments her. When they meet at a fair, Alison invites Colette at once to join her on the road as her personal assistant and companion. Troubles spiral out of control when the pair moves to a suburban wasteland in what was once the English countryside. It is not long before the place beyond black threatens to uproot their lives forever.
The Haunting of Alejandra
by V Castro
Struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her, Alejandra discovers she, like the women in her family before her, is being haunted by La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican Legend, and must summon everything she’s inherited from her foremothers to banish this demon forever.
The Little Stranger
by Sarah Waters
One postwar summer, in his home in rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline. Its owners—mother, son, and daughter—are struggling to keep pace with a changing society. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.
The Reformatory
by Tananarive Due
In the Jim Crow South, 12-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., who can see ghosts, is sent to The Reformatory where boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, while his sister Gloria rallies everyone in Florida to get him out before it’s too late.
The Ghost Notebooks
by Ben Dolnick
Young couple Nick and Hannah move from New York City to a small town upstate so that Hannah can accept a job as a live-in director of a historic house. But as summer turns to fall, Hannah begins to have trouble sleeping and she hears whispers in the night. One morning, Nick wakes up to find Hannah gone. In his frantic search for her, Nick will discover the hidden legacy of Wright House: a man driven wild with grief, and a spirit aching for home.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth
by Cassandra Khaw
A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years
by Shubnum Khan
Moving into Akbar Manzil, a ruined mansion off the coast of South Africa, Sana stumbles upon the long-forgotten story of Meena, the original owner’s second wife who died there tragically 100 years ago, awakening a grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who has haunted the mansion since Meena’s mysterious death.
The Apartment Graveyard
by Mariko Koike; translated from the Japanese by Deborah Boliver Boehm
After moving to a new apartment complex next to a cemetery, a young Japanese family experiences strange and terrifying occurrences that send the other residents fleeing their homes, ultimately leaving them alone with a dark, evil something, or someone, residing in the basement.
Summer Sons
by Lee Mandelo
Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers. After Eddie dies of an apparent suicide, Andrew searches for the truth of his death and uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble. And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall.
Hotel World
by Ali Smith
Five people: four are living; three are strangers; two are sisters; one, a teenage hotel chambermaid, has fallen to her death in a dumbwaiter. But her spirit lingers in the world, straining to recall things she never knew. And one night all five women find themselves in the smooth plush environs of the Global Hotel, where the intersection of their very different fates make for this playful, defiant, and richly inventive novel.
The Haunting of Blackwood House
by Darcy Coates
As the daughter of spiritualists, Mara's childhood was filled with séances and scam mediums. Now she's ready to start over with her fiancé Neil...but her past isn't going to let her go so easily. When Mara and Neil purchase Blackwood House, a derelict property outside of town, they were warned about strange occurrences in the crumbling old building. Doors open by themselves, voices whisper in the night, bloody handprints appear on the walls, and cold spots linger in the basement, where the house's original owner was murdered. But Maura's convinced she can't possibly be in danger because ghosts aren't real...are they?
White Is for Witching
by Helen Oyeyemi
As a child, Miranda Silver developed pica, a rare eating disorder that causes its victims to consume nonedible substances. The death of her mother when Miranda is sixteen exacerbates her condition; nothing, however, satisfies a strange hunger passed down through the women in her family. And then there’s the family house in Dover, England, converted to a bed-and-breakfast by Miranda’s father. Dover has long been known for its hostility toward outsiders. But the Silver House manifests a more conscious malice toward strangers, dispatching those visitors it despises. Enraged by the constant stream of foreign staff and guests, the house finally unleashes its most destructive power.
Daisy Darker
by Alice Feeney
After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide goes out and all is revealed
The Hacienda
by Isabel Cañas
In the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence and the execution of her father, Beatriz accepts Don Rodolfo Solórzano’s proposal of marriage and is whisked away to his remote country estate where she is faced with a malevolent presence linked to his first wife’s death.
Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.