Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 and his works have been
continuously in print since 1827. When I think of Edgar Allan Poe, I hear
Vincent Price’s voice as he performed The Tell-Tale Heart. There is a
lyrical, yet frantic, pace. A macabre madness hidden behind the cracked mask of
sanity. The dark thrill of paranoia and growing horror escalates until Poe
delivers a pitch-perfect climax which leaves the characters unmasked and exposed.
Poe was a master at creating madmen and murderers. He is often considered the
inventor of the modern detective novel and an innovator in the science-fiction
genre. His personal legend as a drunken madman without morals only helped add to
the dark, fantastical tone of his writing. But Poe’s work included more than the
macabre. He wrote short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of
scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews.
He made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician,
and his work in this area is what earned him the reputation of madman, drunk,
and a melancholy soul. The mysterious circumstances surrounding Poe’s death did
little to stem this dark portrayal. Literary rival Rufus Griswold wrote a
damning obituary of Poe, claiming that Poe wandered the streets in “madness or
melancholy” and so the legend of Poe’s own questionable sanity and dark desires
was born. Griswold had wanted to ruin Poe, but his obituary helped drive up the
sales for Poe’s work. Poe’s macabre tales and haunting lyric poetry are what he
is most identified with, but that is not all he had to offer. Visit the Poe
Musuem to learn more about Poe’s life and work.
To celebrate Poe and his lasting influence on literary fiction, I’ve picked
three novels that promise to blend suspense, horror, and thrills to create a
dark, disturbing tale of family madness, murder, and loyalty.
VANISHING GIRLS by Lauren Oliver
VANISHING GIRLS
|
New York Times bestselling author Lauren
Oliver delivers a gripping story about two sisters inexorably altered by a
terrible accident. Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left
Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara
vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another
girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes
increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to
find her sister, before it's too late. In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue,
loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other. |
THE CEMETERY BOYS by Heather Brewer
CEMETERY BOYS
|
Welcome to Spencer. Population: 814. It's a backward town—and it's hiding a terrible secret. When Stephen's dad says they're moving, Stephen knows it's pointless to argue.
They're broke from paying Mom's hospital bills, and now the only option left is
to live with Stephen's grandmother, a woman as bitter and stuck as the town of
Spencer itself. Stephen's summer starts looking up when he meets punk girl Cara and her
charismatic twin brother, Devon. The twins have family problems of their own and
aren't exactly close, but Stephen is drawn to them, each for different reasons.
With Cara, he feels safe and understood—and yeah, okay, she's totally hot. In
Devon and his group, he sees a chance at making real friends. Only, as the summer presses on, and harmless nights hanging out in the cemetery
take a darker turn, Stephen starts to suspect that Devon is less a friend than a
leader. And he might be leading them to a very sinister end.
Mixing classic horror elements with a darkly funny coming-of-age story, New York
Times bestselling author Heather Brewer brings her razor-sharp edge to a story
about the dangerous power of belief and the cost of blind loyalty, taking
readers to the brink of madness and past the point of no return. |
THE THIRD TWIN by CJ Omololu
THE THIRD TWIN
|
Identical twins. Identical DNA. Identical
suspects. It’s Pretty Little Liars meets Revenge in this edge-of-your-seat
thriller with a shocking twist. When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava, made up a third sister,
Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Cookies got eaten? Alicia’s guilty.
Alicia was always to blame for everything. The game is all grown up now that the girls are seniors. They use Alicia as
their cover to go out with boys who are hot but not exactly dating material.
Boys they’d never, ever be with in real life. Now one of the guys Alicia went out with has turned up dead, and Lexi wants to
stop the game for good. As coincidences start piling up, Ava insists that if
they follow the rules for being Alicia, everything will be fine. But when
another boy is killed, the DNA evidence and surveillance photos point to only
one suspect—Alicia. The girl who doesn’t exist. As she runs from the cops, Lexi has to find the truth before another boy is
murdered. Because either Ava is a killer . . . or Alicia is real. |
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