Minions of the dark, our beloved October has come and gone in the blink of an eye! The skeletons have returned to their closets, the monsters have crept back under the beds. The spirits have evaporated in the wind, the bats have retreated to their caves, the vampires to their coffins, and the moon has set on another glorious Halloween night, not to be seen again for another 364 days! But that doesn’t mean the spooky times must end! Non-Fiction November is upon us, a time to celebrate personal interests, ideas, knowledge, and factual information--not to mention, fact can be scarier than fiction! Personally, I’m a fiction girlie through and through, but occasionally I enjoy some macabre-nonfiction reads! From true crime to mortuary science, here are some non-fiction recommendations for the macabre readers who need help coping with October’s end.
Eaters of the Dead
“We have an atavistic memory of being prey, a fear of being eaten alive. From Jonah and the Whale to Little Red Riding Hood to Jaws, every culture tells stories about being devoured alive.”
I’m not sure about the rest of y’all, but I wasn’t able to shut up about this book for a solid 2 weeks after I’d first read it and you better believe I brought it up a few times on Thanksgiving (because I’m a weirdo).
Eaters of the Dead came out back in 2021 but I loved it so much, I bought myself a copy last year because I have what my husband calls an “unnerving fascination” with cannibals. This book goes into the history, religious beliefs, taboos, and various cultural myths and realities surrounding the consumption of human flesh. It also goes into why we as human beings are terrified of being devoured or becoming “the monster” that eats our own. From Greek mythology to fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel to contemporary pop culture like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I’ve been soaking it all up with pure fascination. I love reading about dark subjects through an academic lens, so if this sounds like it’s for you, definitely check it out! Just maybe avoid bringing it up at the holiday dinner table.
“If we’re eternally living in the light where it’s always bright and happy, where we ignore or evade our distressing, uncomfortable feelings, then we are starved of shadows, of nuance, and risk an existence robbed of the richness of contrast.”
As someone who adores and gets lost in works of art depicting all things macabre—and as someone who currently has Hieronymus Bosch's Christ in Limbo as her shower curtain design—I was thrilled to read author S. Elizabeth’s Art of Darkness: A Treasury of the Morbid, Melancholic and Macabre!
This being the second of a trilogy in her Art in the Margins series, the book features more than 200 curated works of art portraying the dark insanity of human anxieties, calamities, pain and suffering across the centuries. From vivid depictions of hell to the traumas of war, human afflictions to psychological distress, from monsters and gods to the stark reality of our mortality, there is a beautifully distressing work put to canvas displaying it all. Celebrating works of Hieronymus Bosch (my favorite) to Salvador Dali, you’re in for a rich history of morbid art!
101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered
“Horror is so alive at this moment. And five minutes from now, it will be stronger than it is right now. Stand in one place and you can hear it evolving, transforming, shedding its skin over and over and over again. It emerges from its scaled casing a newer creation than it was before with a fire burning in its belly for more growth, more boundaries to cross, more wrongs to right [...] What an exciting time to be a fan.”
I just have to acknowledge this wonderful roadmap into the world of horror fiction crafted by author Sadie Hartmann!
As a horror fanatic, I consider Hartmann’s book to be an excellent reference guide into my favorite genre, one that will most certainly double as a frightful yearbook I hope to have featured authors sign as so many others have already done. But as someone who works in the book industry, I consider this a useful and creatively curated textbook of the literary macabre.
What’s particularly special about this book is that the list compiled is made up of modern horror only, from 2000-2023, a celebration of the horror fiction that is emerging right now. And I personally find this to be so fitting as the genre is experiencing a renaissance that should be given a spotlight. We already consider authors like Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King to be literary giants of the scary story, trailblazers that laid the groundwork for others to follow. But have you considered reading Paul Tremblay, Ania Ahlborn, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, and Victor LaValle? No? Time to change that!
Whether you're new to horror or a seasoned horror veteran, this is certainly for you.
“…female serial killers are master masquerades: they walk among us looking for all the world like our wives, mothers, and grandmothers. Even after they’ve been apprehended and punished, most of them eventually sink back into the mists of history in a way that male serial killers do not.”
From the 13th to the 20th century, author Tori Telfer introduces us to fourteen diabolical and conniving women. Whether they were seemingly harmless old grannies or sociopathic wealthy aristocrats, these ladies were just as capable of committing murder as their male counterparts and Telfer does an excellent job of spotlighting the misogynistic stereotypes we drape over villainous women, pointing out that women are too often seen as “solely capable of reactive homicide—murder done in self defense, a burst of passion, an imbalance of hormones, a wave of hysteria.” In actuality, these women were nasty pieces of work capable of calculated crimes and have just as much right to fill up the true crime shelves of your local bookstore as the men.
If you’re like me—a true crime newbie who loves salacious anti-heroines, history, biographies, and murder—this is an excellent book to add to your Non-Fiction November reading list!
“Here’s the deal: It’s normal to be curious about death. But as people grow up, they internalize this idea that wondering about death is ‘morbid’ or ‘weird’. They grow scared, and criticize other people’s interest in the topic to keep from having to confront death themselves.”
Since discovering Caitlin Doughty’s YouTube channel (Ask a Mortician) ages ago and finishing her book From Here to Eternity, my views have gradually changed for the better on how I personally view death ( all thanks to her welcome honesty and gallows humor). I talk to others incessantly about Doughty’s other two books Smoke Gets In Your Eyes—which is a personal introduction to Doughty’s life and work as a mortician—and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs—where she thoroughly answers real questions from young people about what happens to the bodies of the deceased. Fun stuff!
But seriously, this woman is a heroine of mine. Her encouragement for open conversations about death and the loss of our loved ones is both inspiring and, for me, comforting. From questioning the rituals of the American funeral industry to laying out before our curious eyes the fascinating details of mortuary science, Caitlin Doughty rocks and you should check out ALL of her books.
Need more dark and compelling non-fiction reads to fill your cold November nights? Here are some honorable mentions below:
[Honorable Mentions]
The Science of Women in Horror
-Christina James is a Readers' Services Assistant at Lawrence Public Library.
Add a comment to: Scarier Than Fiction: A Macabre Non-Fiction November