I’m a little over zealous more often than not. And I tend to find myself making ridiculous plans that I have no way to execute. This is a prime example. I started by making this very lovely book bingo card. It has spaces for twenty five books. But that wasn’t good enough for me. Oh no. With Halloween prep and Blogtober (at least one blog a day, sometimes two) why wouldn’t I attempt thirty one in thirty one. That’s right. Thirty one books in the month of October. Meaning a book a day. Work days, weekends, even my birthday and Halloween.
So, research started. I wanted horror, dark fantasy, true crime (that is true horror), and even sci fi. I had to have diverse characters. I needed audiobooks (Gosh, I love Audible https://amzn.to/3zr2psf) so I can go through the books at work. Evenings and weekends could be Kindle e-books https://amzn.to/3EyUTiZ and actual physical books. Yes, those still exist. And, yes, I still sniff them, because, reasons. You would be surprised at how much you can read in the car when someone else is driving.
Once I had a list rolling, I noticed something. There was a decided lack of women and authors of color. Now, don’t get it twisted. I love Stephen King as much as every other horror junkie. But Tananarive Due can scare the hell out of me just as well if not better. And let’s talk about the queen, Shirley Jackson and her enduring tale The Lottery.
Now, I had a challenge. Add more diversity to the old white guy pool. And I think I did pretty well.
Because this is such a long list, I will break it down into three posts. As always, I will link each book (yup, all of them) with where you can buy them. If you use my links, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. This helps me buy more books to read and review. So, thank you.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
From the Amazon description – During an eventful season at Bath, young, naïve Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who shares Catherine’s love of Gothic romance and horror, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father’s mysterious house, Northanger Abbey. There, her imagination influenced by novels of sensation and intrigue, Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney. With its broad comedy and irrepressible heroine, this is the most youthful and and optimistic of Jane Austen’s works.
About Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 at Steventon near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. She lived with her family at Steventon until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother; in 1809, they settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire. Here she remained, except for a few visits to London, until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on July 18, 1817. As a girl Jane Austen wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances. Her works were only published after much revision, four novels being published in her lifetime. These are Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma(1816). Two other novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously in 1818 with a biographical notice by her brother, Henry Austen, the first formal announcement of her authorship. Persuasion was written in a race against failing health in 1815-16. She also left two earlier compositions, a short epistolary novel, Lady Susan, and an unfinished novel, The Watsons. At the time of her death, she was working on a new novel, Sanditon, a fragmentary draft of which survives.
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/3Aouy4x
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
From the Amazon description –
Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.
Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.
A masterpiece. —Phillip Pullman
One of the most original and complete productions of the day. —Percy Bysshe Shelley
The greatest paradox and most astonishing achievement of Mary Shelley’s novel is that the monster is more human than his creator. This nameless being, as much a modern Adam as his creator is a modern Prometheus, is more lovable than his creator and more hateful, more to be pitied and more to be feared, and above all able to give the attentive reader that shock of added consciousness in which aesthetic recognition compels a heightened realization of self. —Harold Bloom
The Lottery and Other Stories (FSG Classics) by Shirley Jackson
From the Amazon description –
One of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948.
“Power and haunting,” and “nights of unrest” were typical reader responses. Today it is considered a classic work of short fiction, a story remarkable for its combination of subtle suspense and pitch-perfect descriptions of both the chilling and the mundane.
The Lottery and Other Stories, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson’s lifetime, unites “The Lottery” with twenty-four equally unusual short stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson’s remarkable range — from the hilarious to the horrible, the unsettling to the ominous — and her power as a storyteller.
About Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1916. She first received wide critical acclaim for her short story “The Lottery,” which was published in 1948. Her novels–which include The Sundial, The Bird’s Nest, Hangsaman, The Road through the Wall, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House–are characterized by her use of realistic settings for tales that often involve elements of horror and the occult. Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages are her two works of nonfiction. Come Along With Me is a collection of stories, lectures, and part of the novel she was working on when she died in 1965. All are currently in print (Penguin). Two posthumous volumes of her short fiction are Just An Ordinary Day (Bantam) and Let Me Tell You (Random House). A graphic novel adaptation of “The Lottery” by Miles Hyman, her grandson, was published in 2016 (Farrar-Straus-Giroux). Also in 2016: Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson (Penguin Classics) and an authorized biography by Ruth Franklin: Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (Norton).
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/2XzwoB0
Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 1) by Anne Rice
From the Amazon description – he spellbinding classic that started it all from the #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth—the education of the vampire.”—Chicago Tribune
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.
About Anne Rice
Anne Rice was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. Anne has spent more of her life in California than in New Orleans, but New Orleans is her true home and provides the back drop for many of her famous novels. The French Quarter provided the setting for her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. And her ante-bellum house in the Garden District was the fictional home of her imaginary Mayfair Witches.
She is the author of over 30 books, most recently the Toby O’Dare novels Of Love and Evil, and Angel Time; the memoir, Called Out of Darkness;and her two novels about Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. (Anne regards Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana as her best novel.) —- Under the pen name, A.N. Roquelaure, Anne is the author of the erotic (BDSM) fantasy series, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy. Under the pen name Anne Rampling she is the author of two erotic novels, Exit to Eden and Belinda.
Anne publicly broke with organized religion in July of 2010 on moral grounds, affirming her faith in God, but refusing any longer to be called “Christian.” The story attracted surprising media attention, with Rice’s remarks being quoted in stories all over the world. Anne hopes that her two novels about Jesus will be accepted on their merits by readers and transcend her personal difficulties with religion. “Both my Christ the Lord novels were written with deep conviction and a desire to write the best novels possible about Jesus that were rooted in the bible and in the Christian tradition. I think they are among the best books I’ve ever been able to write, and I do dream of a day when they are evaluated without any connection to me personally. I continue to get a lot of very favorable feedback on them from believers and non believers. I remain very proud of them.”
Anne is very active on her FaceBook Fan Page and has well over a million followers. She answers questions every day on the page, and also posts on a variety of topics, including literature, film, music, politics, religion, and her own writings. Many indie authors follow the page, and Anne welcomes posts that include advice for indie authors. She welcomes discussion there on numerous topics. She frequently asks her readers questions about their response to her work and joins in the discussions prompted by these questions.
Her novel, “The Wolves of Midwinter,” a sequel to “The Wolf Gift” and part of a werewolf series set in Northern California in the present time, will be published on October 15, 2013. In these books — The Wolf Gift Chronicles — Anne returns to the classic monsters and themes of supernatural literature, similar to those she explored in her Vampire Chronicles, and tales of the Mayfair Witches. Her new “man wolf” hero, Reuben Golding, is a talented young man in his twenties who suddenly discovers himself in possession of werewolf powers that catapult him into the life of a comic book style super hero. How Reuben learns to control what he is, how he discovers others who possess the same mysterious “wolf gift,” and how he learns to live with what he has become — is the main focus of the series. “The Wolves of Midwinter” is a big Christmas book — a book about Christmas traditions, customs, and the old haunting rituals of Midwinter practiced in Europe and in America. It’s about how the werewolves celebrate these rituals, as humans and as werewolves. But the book also carries forward the story of Reuben’s interactions with his girl friend, Laura, and with his human family, with particular focus on Reuben’s father, Phil, and his brother, Jim. As a big family novel with elements of the supernatural, “The Wolves of Midwinter” has much in common with Anne’s earlier book, “The Witching Hour.” Among the treats of “The Wolves of Midwinter” is a tragic ghost who appears in the great house at Nideck Point, and other “ageless ones” who add their mystery and history to the unfolding revelations that at times overwhelm Reuben.
In October of 2014, with the publication of “Prince Lestat,” Anne returned to the fabled “Brat Prince” of the Vampire Chronicles, catching up with him in present time. This is the first of several books planned focusing on Lestat’s new adventures with other members of the Vampire tribe. When the publication of “Prince Lestat” was announced on Christopher Rice’s “The Dinner Party Show,” a weekly internet radio broadcast, it made headlines in the US and around the world. “Prince Lestat” debuted at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller list and ran for nine weeks during the height of the competitive Fall-Winter season, with another week on the extended NYTBSL. —-
“Beauty’s Kingdom,” is the fourth in her “Sleeping Beauty Erotica Series,” and the first to be launched in hardcover. Though the first three novels were published in the 1980’s under the pseudonym, A.N. Roquelaure, the name, Anne Rice, was added to the series in the 1990’s. About her erotica, Anne has this to say: “I believe in the erotic imagination. I believe men and women have a right to write and read erotic fantasies. My goal with the “Sleeping Beauty” books is to provide the most authentic erotica that I can for those who share BDSM fantasies.”
“Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis” was published on November 29th, 2016 revealing a new adventure in the life of the Brat Prince of the vampires, and the entire tribe — as they confront the most difficult challenge they’ve ever faced. This novel may introduce Lestat and extend his appeal to science fiction readers and fantasy readers who love differing versions of the lost kingdom of Atlantis. The novel does justice to both themes: Atlantis and Lestat. So far, as of early 2016, this novel has received a remarkably positive response with Amazon reviewers.
Anne’s first novel, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976 and has gone on to become one of the best-selling novels of all time. She continued her saga of the Vampire Lestat in a series of books, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles, which have had both great mainstream and cult followings.
Interview with the Vampire was made into a motion picture in 1994, directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas. The film became an international success. Anne’s novel, Feast of All Saints about the free people of color of ante-bellum New Orleans became a Showtime mini series in 2001 and is available now on dvd. The script for the mini series by John Wilder was a faithful adaptation of the novel.
Near the end of 2016, the theatrical rights to the Vampire Chronicles reverted fully and completely to Anne. She and her son, Christopher Rice, are now developing outlines and scripts for a new television series based on the adventures of The Vampire Lestat. Anne’s announcement of this on FB reached well over 2 million people. “The reception in the Hollywood community” has been very simply wonderful,” says Anne. “We have high hopes that we will see the Lestat television series go into production before the end of 2017.”
Anne Rice is also the author of other novels, including The Witching Hour, Servant of the Bones, Merrick, Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, Violin, and Cry to Heaven. She lives in Palm Desert, California, but misses her home in New Orleans. She hopes to obtain a pied a terre in the French Quarter there some time in the near future.
Anne has this to say of her work: “I have always written about outsiders, about outcasts, about those whom others tend to shun or persecute. And it does seem that I write a lot about their interaction with others like them and their struggle to find some community of their own. The supernatural novel is my favorite way of talking about my reality. I see vampires and witches and ghosts as metaphors for the outsider in each of us, the predator in each of us…the lonely one who must grapple day in and day out with cosmic uncertainty.”
——
Anne’s announcement of the Vampire Chronicles series as it appeared on FB.
“The theatrical rights to the Vampire Chronicles are once again in my hands, free and clear! I could not be more excited about this! — A television series of the highest quality is now my dream for Lestat, Louis, Armand, Marius and the entire tribe. In this the new Golden Age of television, such a series is THE way to let the entire story of the vampires unfold. — My son Christopher Rice and I will be developing a pilot script and a detailed outline for an open ended series, faithfully presenting Lestat’s story as it is told in the books, complete with the many situations that readers expect to see. We will likely begin with “The Vampire Lestat” and move on from there. —– When we sit down finally to talk to producers, we will have a fully realized vision of this project with Christopher as the executive producer at the helm. I will also be an executive producer all the way. —- Again, I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to be able to announce this. —- As many of you know, Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment had optioned the series to develop motion pictures from it, and though we had the pleasure of working with many fine people in connection with this plan, it did not work out. It is, more than ever, abundantly clear that television is where the vampires belong. —- Over the years you all have told me how much you want to see a “Game of Thrones” style faithful rendering of this material, and how much you want for the series to remain in my control. Well, I have heard you. I have always heard you. What you want is what I want. — You, the readers, made these books a success before any movie was ever made based on them, and I will never forget that fact. —- Christopher and I will be posting many questions on the page for your input in the days to come. —– I am filled with optimism this morning about the future for my beloved Brat Prince. What better way to start a tour for the new book!”
Dolly: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill
From the Amazon description –
A chilling ghost story from the author of The Woman in Black, set in a crumbling English house…
The remoter parts of the English Fens are forlorn, lost, and damp even in the height of summer. At Iyot Lock, a large decaying house, two young cousins, Leonora and Edward, are parked for the summer with their aging spinster aunt and her cruel housekeeper. At first the unpleasantness and petty meanness appear simply spiteful, calculated to destroy Edward’s equanimity. But when the spoiled Leonora is not given the birthday present of a specific dolly that she wants, affairs inexorably take a much darker turn with terrifying, life-destroying consequences for everyone.
About Susan Hill
Susan Hill is a Folklorist, Bestselling Author and Speaker. She has traveled the world learning about local legends and folklore in many different cultures. Her area of concentration is on those lesser known local legends and the significance it has in their culture. She has also been studying paranormal occurrences most of her life, and has been investigating for more than twenty years. Susan has participated in, facilitated, and organized many large and small-scale location investigations as well as numerous residential cases. Her passion is in helping the living coexist with the dead, historical research and preservation, and educating people on the unknown. Susan’s skill set is in photography, videography, EVP’s, dowsing rods, and the SLS camera. She enjoys teaching others how to scientifically gather evidence of the supernatural and how to protect themselves when on investigations. Susan has an extensive knowledge in the history and use of dowsing rods. She makes her own dowsing rods out of copper and enjoys teaching others how to safely use them. Susan is the founder and owner of Raven’s Light Entertainment Company. She loves photographing historic locations, cemeteries and traveling to new locations to learn their local legends and customs.
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/2W0QgN6
Kindred by Octavia Butler
From the Amazon description –
The first science-fiction written by a Black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of African-American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity.
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life.
During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.
Author Octavia E. Butler skillfully juxtaposes the serious issues of slavery, human rights, and racial prejudice with an exciting science-fiction, romance, and historical adventure. Kim Staunton’s narrative talent magically transforms the listener’s earphones into an audio time machine.
About Octavia E. Butler
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER (1947–2006) was the renowned author of numerous ground-breaking novels, including Kindred, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of the Locus, Hugo and Nebula awards, and a PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work, in 1995 she became the first science- fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship ‘Genius Grant’. A pioneer of her genre, Octavia’s dystopian novels explore myriad themes of Black injustice, women’s rights, global warming and political disparity, and her work is taught in over two hundred colleges and universities nationwide.
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/2VYtRzT
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All: Stories by Laird Barron
From the Amazon description –
Over the course of two award-winning collections and a critically acclaimed novel, The Croning, Laird Barron has arisen as one of the strongest and most original literary voices in modern horror and the dark fantastic. Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron’s stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards.
Barron returns with his third collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Collecting interlinking tales of sublime cosmic horror, including “Blackwood’s Baby,” “The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven,” and “The Men from Porlock,” The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All delivers enough spine-chilling horror to satisfy even the most jaded reader.
About Laird Barron
Laird Barron is an expat Alaskan. Currently, Barron lives in the Rondout Valley and is at work on tales about the evil that men do.
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/3kuaeJE
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
From the Amazon description –
His extraordinary debut, Those Across the River, was hailed as “genre-bending Southern horror” (California Literary Review), “graceful [and] horrific” (Patricia Briggs). Now Christopher Buehlman invites readers into an even darker age—one of temptation and corruption, of war in heaven, and of hell on earth…
And Lucifer said: “Let us rise against Him now in all our numbers, and pull the walls of heaven down…”
The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm—that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict.
Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission: to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.
As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.
About Christopher Buehlman
Christopher Buehlman is a native Floridian and author of the literary horror novels ‘Those Across the River’ and ‘Between Two Fires.’ He is the winner of the 2007 Bridport Prize in poetry, and the author of several provocative plays, including Hot Nights for the War Wives of Ithaka. Many know him as comedian Christophe the Insultor, something of a cult figure on the renaissance festival circuit. He lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. His first novel, ‘Those Across the River,’ was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for best novel in 2012.
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/3krKqO3
Carrie by Stephen King
From the Amazon description – Stephen King’s legendary debut, the bestselling smash hit that put him on the map as one of America’s favorite writers
“Gory and horrifying. . . . You can’t put it down.” —Chicago Tribune
Unpopular at school and subjected to her mother’s religious fanaticism at home, Carrie White does not have it easy. But while she may be picked on by her classmates, she has a gift she’s kept secret since she was a little girl: she can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. Her ability has been both a power and a problem. And when she finds herself the recipient of a sudden act of kindness, Carrie feels like she’s finally been given a chance to be normal. She hopes that the nightmare of her classmates’ vicious taunts is over . . . but an unexpected and cruel prank turns her gift into a weapon of horror so destructive that the town may never recover.
About Stephen King
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.
King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald’s Game and It.
King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/3lNqAfw
Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan
From the Master of Horror comes the first gripping book in the twelve book New York Times bestselling Saga of Darren Shan. Start the tale from the beginning in the book that inspired the feature film The Vampire’s Assistant and petrified devoted fans worldwide.
A young boy named Darren Shan and his best friend, Steve, get tickets to the Cirque Du Freak, a wonderfully gothic freak show featuring weird, frightening half human/half animals who interact terrifyingly with the audience. In the midst of the excitement, true terror raises its head when Steve recognizes that one of the performers– Mr. Crepsley– is a vampire!
Stever remains after the show finishes to confront the vampire– but his motives are surprising! In the shadows of a crumbling theater, a horrified Darren eavesdrops on his friend and the vampire, and is witness to a monstrous, disturbing plea. As if by destiny, Darren is pulled to Mr. Crepsley and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires.
This is the beginning of Darren’s story.
About Darren Shan
Darren Shan’s real name is Darren O’Shaughnessy (pronounced O-Shock-Nessy, though it can also be pronounced O-Shawn-Essy or O-Shan-essy). Although he is Irish, he was born in 1972 in London. He moved to Limerick in Ireland with his parents and younger brother when he was six, and has lived there ever since.
Darren always wanted to be a writer. He bought his first typewriter when he was fourteen and never looked back. He enjoyed his first taste of literary success at fifteen, as a runner-up in a television script-writing competition for RTE in Ireland, with a dark comedy script titled A Day in the Morgue.
Darren was seventeen when he finished his first (unpublished) novel, and wrote lots more unpublished novels over the next several years. All of his early books were adult-oriented. Although Darren liked the idea of writing a children’s book one day, he considered himself an adult writer first and foremost, and his initial breakthrough was with an adult book, in 1999, titled Ayuamarca (since re-released as Procession Of The Dead).
In January 2000, Darren’s first children’s book, Cirque du Freak, was published. The first book in a series titled the Cirque du Freak series (The Saga of Darren Shan in the UK), it attracted rave reviews and an ever-growing army of fans known as the Shansters! For the next several years Darren focused exclusively on his books for younger readers. First, he wrote a total of twelve books about vampires.
He followed up his vampire saga with The Demonata, a series about demons. Running to ten books in total, The Demonata cemented Shan’s place as the Master Of Children’s Horror.
Then came The Thin Executioner, a one-off fantasy novel, which Darren has cited as his favourite out of all his books.
Next he wrote The Saga Of Larten Crepsley, a four book prequel series to his original vampire saga.
Most recently Darren has written about zombies, in the twelve book Zom-B series. He also wrote a short, tie-in ebook called Zom-B Circus.
There was a very successful manga adaptation of Shan’s vampire series, drawn by the Japanese artist, Takahiro Arai. It was originally serialized in Japan, but collected volumes are now on sale in the USA, UK and other countries.
In addition to writing for children, Darren has published a number of books for adults, starting with The City Trilogy, comprising Procession Of The Dead, Hell’s Horizon and City Of The Snakes.
He followed up the trilogy with a one-off supernatural thrilled called Lady Of The Shades, only available in the USA as an import.
After that he started publishing his adult books under the name of Darren Dash.
By 2016, Darren’s books were on sale in every continent, in 39 countries, in 31 languages, and have been children’s bestsellers in America, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and other countries. The books have topped adult bestseller charts in Hungary, Japan and Taiwan. In total, Shan’s books have sold over twenty-five million copies worldwide.
The movie rights to Cirque Du Freak were bought by Universal, and the first movie (which combined elements from the first three books in the series) was released in October 2009, starring newcomer Chris Massoglia as Darren Shan, along with a wide array of established stars such as Josh Hutcherson, John C Reilly, Salma Hayek, Willem Defoe and Ken Watanabe. The movie was called Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in February 2010.
A big film buff, with a collection of more than four thousand movies at home, Darren also reads lots of comics and books, and likes to study and collect original artwork, especially comic art and impressionist and post-impressionist art. Other interests include long walks, watching soccer (he’s a Tottenham Hotspur and Ireland fan), listening to pop and rock music, theatre, worldwide travel, sampling the delights of both gourmet cuisine and finger-licking junk food, and dreaming up new ways to terrify his readers!
Darren spends most of his time in Limerick, Ireland, with his wife Bas and son Dante.
Darren’s web site: https://www.darrenshan.com
Darren’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/darrenshanofficial
Darren’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/darrenshan
To learn more about the author and their other works, click here. https://amzn.to/2VYwVMp
To buy the full series for Kindle E-book, click here. https://amzn.to/39lMD7q
So, those are the first ten books on this venture. Let me know if you read any of these and what you thought. That’s all I’ve got for today, train wreck. All aboard.
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The Glorious Train Wreck Mom 
I love Kindred – it is the book I recommend to everyone. I love Carrie too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can’t wait to read it
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