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We each have our own preferred genres of choice. Kate loves horrors and thrillers, really anything that will keep her up at night! And Serena enjoys escaping through hidden doors into realms of magic and adventure. We also read mysteries, historical fiction, graphic novels, etc. etc. And that’s not even counting the multitude of sub-genres contained within each greater genre. In this series, one of us with present a list of our favorites from within a given sub-genre of one of our greater preferred genres.
This past summer I ended up with a free morning as my husband took my daughter to her soccer practice/scrimmages , so I decided to check out the film “Backrooms”. I ended up enjoying it and the weirdness of the mysterious ‘backrooms’ of a furniture store taking over a man’s life and then that of his therapist as he drags her in, making it her problem as well. I did kind of wish, however, that we didn’t really get an ‘explanation’ to what the ‘backrooms’ was, as for me it was far creepier when it just WAS, and didn’t have rhyme or reason. When we don’t know what it is, that’s part of the terror! When you try to explain it, the weird unexplained menace kind of gets defanged at least a little bit, and it made me not as creeped out as I probably would have been if it just was there and we never understood why (I have the same gripe with the film “Us”, though I do really like that movie). It also got me thinking about ‘liminal horror’ as a subgenre, and how it finds ways to get under my skin.
Liminal horror is a subgenre that has to do with a building unease in an otherwise ‘familiar’ space that has been altered in some way, usually abandoned or bastardized from what we would expect the space to serve. Think empty malls, or strange rooms or mazes, or places that seem to go to nowhere even though they seem like they should have some kind of beginning and end. It’s more of an uncanny valley and slow burn of wrongness that grates and quietly builds and finds the horror there. I quite enjoy it when it’s done right. And since “Backrooms” was a pretty big hit this summer I thought it would be fun to list some books that fit in the liminal horror subgenre, just in case others liked it and want a readalike!
“House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski
Okay, ADMITTEDLY this is a bit of an undertaking of a book and kind of a wild one to start off with, but this, to me, is one of the ultimate liminal horror novels. And it is an incredibly complicated book with layers and layers of psychological unease, with multiple stories within stories like a relentless stacking doll that will either completely capture a reader, or make them tear their hair out. The true heart of this book, putting aside the footnotes, the weird scribblings, the format changes, and all the other crazy tangents it takes you on, is a family moving into a new home on a quiet street. But once they move in, they realize that something is off about the house. Somehow, impossibly, the house is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And as they try to explore and figure out why, things slowly start to spiral completely out of control. And yes, there are other narrators who are finding these stories and there are other stories on top of that and it’s incredibly wild, but the thoroughfare tale is a weird house that shouldn’t be possible. The entire book took me a long time to read, and it took a lot of patience, but ultimately I found it got completely under my skin and I kept it in my head long after I turned the last page.
“Horrorstör” by Grady Hendrix
This was the first Grady Hendrix book I read, and it was quite the introduction to who is now a very in demand horror author. And while “Horrorstör” doesn’t break a top three Hendrix book for me (maybe top five?), it’s a really enjoyable horror story with a creepy furniture store and unassuming employees who get in a bit over their heads when they are tasked to stay overnight to keep an eye out for strange happenings. Furniture stores after closing hours are creepy enough, but the employees find some weird things as the night goes on, and realize that not only is the IKEA like business SUPER haunted, it is also built upon the shell and land of an abandoned prison, and a long vanished mental asylum and the ghosts of the inmates are pulling them in and don’t want to let go. One of the most fun things about this book is the design, as it looks like an IKEA catalog, and even has advertisements…. that get more and more uncanny and creepy as the story goes on.
“The Babysitter Lives” by Stephen Graham Jones
I had to include one of my favorite horror authors on this list, so how lucky that Stephen Graham Jones has a creepy and liminalesque horror tale in “The Babysitter Lives”. We follow Charlotte, and teenage babysitter who is hired on Halloween night to babysit two children. Seems easy enough, but Charlotte starts to realize that not only are the charges a little strange, the house itself is perhaps not what it seems. Especially since the kids keep talking about a beanbag portal, and apparently this house was the site of a violent crime years earlier. This one has a weird alternate house, a portal that captures people and spits them into nightmarish scenarios, and a deeply unsettling slow build of dread as Charlotte is pulled further and further from where she is supposed to be and deeper and deeper into a strange other world and other timelines. It’s surreal and heart pounding, and just another great story from Jones.
“The Staircase in the Woods” by Chuck Wendig
Way back in the day Reddit used to have creepy stories about staircases that were randomly deposited in national parks, and I kept thinking about that as I read the book “The Staircase in the Woods”. But while those stories on Reddit stayed pretty much in the woods, Wendig’s story of childhood friends reconvening in the same woods their friend disappeared in years before after climbing up a mysterious staircase goes one step further: Beyond the staircase and what is found once you reach the top. I didn’t know what to expect of this one when I picked it up, but MAN, it really goes crazy from there with weird rooms, hallways, creatures, and a desperation to get out with no obvious way out in sight. Wendig can do horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, and he kind of gets to mix it all in this one with some really creepy staircases and some really complicated characters.
“The Hollow Places” by T. Kingfisher
If you are looking for a kinder gentler horror author but one who still knows how to craft a great and creepy story, T. Kingfisher is definitely a great choice, and her novel “The Hollow Places” brings her trademark creepy but not too upsetting take on horror to the liminal space. A woman named Carrot (it’s a nickname) has left her marriage and returns to her hometown and reconnects with her eccentric uncle, who happens to have a taxidermy and other oddities museum. One day while tending to the museum, she finds a hallway that shouldn’t be there, and finds that it takes her to another plane. Or multiple other planes. But while exploring these strange new worlds and the weird in betweens she encounters, there are darker things that could come out of the space and cause some real problems. Kingfisher always has fun stories, and this one is no different while also creating some weird uncanny worlds and spaces.
“Parachute” by Holly Rae Garcia
And now one that isn’t as well known but I read and really liked a few years ago: “Parachute”! What if a liminal horror story didn’t involve backrooms, weird houses, strange hallways, or staircases in the woods….. but a gym class parachute? A group of friends are about to leave high school for new pastures and are feeling nostalgic and nervous and decide to break into their elementary school gym for one last hurrah. They find a parachute and start to play…. but it transports them from weird place to weird place, and things get more and more dire and dangerous with each toss of the fabric. It is SUCH a creative idea, and it was one that just had me grinning from ear to ear as I read it while also being wholly unnerved by the very concept of it all. It’s definitely one of the most creative liminal space horror stories I’ve read, and I hope that more people check it out.
The Library Ladies 