VIV Says: Blog

Audrey Niffenegger's latest novel is an unusual ghost story.

Though our days of trick-or-treating are long gone, we still love Halloween for the chill in the air, jack-o’-lanterns and, of course, the occasional spooky story. Following are three of our favorite reads of the season — an atypical ghost story, a vampire’s tale and a mystery surrounding a grand English manor — perfect for curling up with this time of year.

Her Fearful Symmetry (Scribner, 2009)
The highly anticipated second novel from Audrey Niffenegger, author of bestselling The Time Traveler’s Wife (Mariner Books, 2004), is both a love and a ghost story. When Elspeth Noblin dies, she leaves her London flat to the twin daughters of her own estranged twin, Edie. When Elspeth finds herself a ghost unable to leave the apartment, she learns to communicate with strong-willed Julia and shy Valentina, as well as her ex-lover and neighbor, Robert, who is a guide at adjacent Highgate Cemetery. Niffenegger vividly portrays the characters in this unsettling tale, as Robert and Elspeth’s ghost try to deal with her death and the twins try to unravel the estrangement of their mother and aunt. Appropriately, even after the last page was read and the book was long-closed, we remained haunted by the novel’s characters.

Interview With the Vampire (Ballantine Books, 1997)
Before vampires were the glittery objects of tween girls’ affections, Anne Rice’s creatures of the night contemplated their tortured existence in her “Vampire Chronicles,” starting with Interview With the Vampire, first published in 1977. When a young man asks for an interview, the philosophical Louis unravels his tale, starting in 18th-century Louisiana, when he is turned into a vampire by the hedonistic, beautiful Lestat and becomes his companion. Other characters include Claudia, a vampire trapped in a child’s body for eternity, and Armand, the leader of a grotesque Parisian theater group of the undead. This gripping novel takes you through vividly conjured centuries of Louis’ journey as he ponders the nature of good and evil — and his struggles with his often still-human nature.

Rebecca (Harper Paperbacks, 1997)
Daphne du Maurier weaves a plot of page-turning suspense in this novel, first published in 1938. When a timid young woman unexpectedly captures the heart of handsome and brooding widower Maxim de Winter, they marry and move to his English estate, Manderley. But her romantic dreams of being lady of the manor are dashed when she discovers her husband’s first wife, the beautiful Rebecca, has an eerie hold on the manor — and its inhabitants — even after her death. The psychological twists and turns are worthy of famed director Alfred Hitchcock, who directed the film version of the book, as well as that of du Maurier’s short story The Birds.

Do you have any recommendations for a good Halloween read?