Some Scares Never Get Old

Cirque Berserk is seriously becoming one of my go-to recommendations. Not only does it fit into so many categories that I love (creepy carnival horror, retro-horror, coming of age massacres), it’s hands down a really good book. In the summer of 1989, disaster strikes the town of Shadows Creek, Florida when a group of teens massacred a dozen people at the local carnival and then vanished. Thirty years later a new group of teens escape their boring senior trip and decide to explore the mystery of the infamous Cirque Berserk, unaware of the bloody dangers that lurk behind its gates.

Set in the New York City of the ‘90s, where it’s easy for people to just disappear and never to be seen again, Worm’s protagonist Monique is on a quest to find her missing girlfriend Donna. But it’s not just Donna who has vanished, and as other impoverished women start to disappear from the city streets, Monique begins to hear rumors of monsters stalking the city’s underbelly. In order to save Donna, Monique must follow the rumors deep into the world below New York, a subterranean kingdom of creatures, cultists, and an even more terrible, ancient evil lurking there in the dark.

Okay so I know that this is one of those books that I keep recommending over and over again but it’s just so good. The Last Final Girl is a love letter to slasher films, and in particular to the glory that is ’80s horror. Homecoming Queen Lindsay is a final girl. She survived – barely – the brutal attentions of Billie Jean, the sadistic murder in a Michael Jackson mask who was determined to kill her. She’s a legend. But Billie Jean isn’t done with Lindsey, and Lindsey’s not the only final girl in town. When the masked killer slaughters her royal court, Lindsay replaces them with other final girls, stacking the decks in her favor. One psycho killer vs a homecoming court full of final girls, all competing to be the last survivor standing when the credits roll.

I had the chance to read Mina and the Undead before it was released earlier this year and it really hit me right in the nostalgia sweet spot. If The Last Final Girl is a tribute to slasher films, this is Amy McCaw’s love letter to the vampire genre. Seventeen-year-old Mina travels from England to New Orleans to visit with her estranged sister Libby, excited to explore a city as steeped in vampire literary references as her home town of Whitby. But Mina gets more than she bargained for when she becomes embroiled in a series of violent murders that all seem to point to Libby. Technically, Mina and the Undead has only been released in the UK, but luckily you can still order a copy through Book Depository!

Okay so Hendrix’s forthcoming book isn’t set in the ’80s or the ’90s like the rest of these books, but I had to include it on this list. Because The Final Girl Support Group wouldn’t exist without the horror of the late ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. We all know who the final girl is, most horror fans can name at least a handful without really having to think about it. She’s the one who survives. She’s the one who fights back. She’s every horror villain’s worst nightmare because her life spells their death. But what happens with the credits roll and the monster IS dead, but the final girl is still left standing? Lynnette is one of a group of former final girls who, years later, are just trying to put their lives back together. Until one of them goes missing.