Books by Peter Straub
“There is a group of men who sit around and tell a story every night. They’re called the Chowder Society. They sit around in a darkened room, having their drinks, telling their stories and reliving the past. Who knows what is true and what isn’t? It’s about camaraderie and these guys coming together. There is a guy whose name is Don, and he comes back to this small town in upstate New York after his uncle dies. People going back to a place is another way that horror isolates people, because if you’ve been separated from your hometown, or you’ve left, a lot of times it’s for a reason. He comes back and is introduced to this society. You’re hearing these stories, which are frightening.” Read more...
The Best 20th-Century American Horror Books
V. Castro, Novelist
“It’s about a kid, Jack Sawyer, whose mother is sick. He has to find a ‘talisman’ to save her. He finds a way to transport himself from the real world to the ‘Territories,’ a different world. Everyone in this world has a counterpart person in this territory, they’re called ‘twinners.’ His mother’s twinner is a queen in the Territories, and she’s also sick. So he has to save them both.” Read more...
Interviews where books by Peter Straub were recommended
The Best Stephen King Books, recommended by Hans-Åke Lilja
Stephen King—widely dubbed “the king of horror”—has published dozens of books since Carrie, his 1974 debut. We asked Hans-Åke Lilja, who has run a website devoted to King’s output for decades, to recommend five of the best Stephen King novels, offering new readers a place to start.
The Best 20th-Century American Horror Books, recommended by V. Castro
Horror is entertaining, but also a great way of shining a light on painful subjects people don’t want to talk about, says Mexican American horror writer V. Castro. As American horror has opened up to a much greater diversity of writers, she talks us through some of the classics—books that continue to inspire and form the bedrock of the genre.
