Tag Archives: horror

Horror/Thriller Book Club April Pick: Memorials by Richard Chizmar

14 May
Book cover of Memorials by Richard Chizmar. The background shows a dark, wooded roadside, with a narrow road curving. In the foreground is a small roadside memorial with a wooden cross, a teddy bear, flowers, and lit candles. The title “memorials” appears in lowercase across the center, and Richard Chizmar is shown all capital letters at the top.

We’ve all seen them, those crosses along the roadside, perhaps a few dead flowers around them, or the painted white bicycle, and then we think, ‘How so very tragic. Someone’s life ended right here.’ That’s the thinking that propels Billy, Melody, and Troy to hop in their van to create a documentary for their American Studies project – who builds them and what they mean. But also, what secrets linger around that tarnished ground?

April’s read for the Hoboken Public Library’s Horror/Thriller book club was a slow-burn suburban horror with childhood nostalgia and cultish dread. Chizmar follows the Stephen King style: Quiet, character-driven, and with heart at the center of the dread. Memorials (in my humble opinion) is almost 500 pages straight out of King’s playbook.

Go into Memorials expecting the pacing and inching creepiness of The Blair Witch Project.

The first stop: Billy’s hometown, and the first memorial marks the spot of his parents’ death. The project is personal. They continue through the Appalachian backwoods in search of more stories.

Things do eventually get weird. Memorials show up with a strange symbol. Eyes are cast on the three children. Mysterious figures appear in video footage. The same people are seen miles apart, etc.

But the deeper they go, the more they don’t realize the strangeness they’re entering – a hitchhiker appears and disappears, locals treat them with uneasy hostility, and their van is tampered with.  

Do the local communities (or the three young students) know the web spinning around them?

Memorials is a step down from Chizmar’s Boogeyman series, but I did like (and I kept this in the back of my mind during the read) that I felt for Troy, Billy, and Melody. At times Memorials is too slow, but if you enjoy small-town horror, a good 80’s setting, slow-burn suspense, and find yourself getting a little uncomfortable itch every time you see a roadside memorial then Memorials could be a good choice for your next read.

Interested in the Horror/Thriller Book Club? Please email reference@hobokenlibrary.org, or register for our next meeting by searching under Events on our website.

Have you read Memorials? What did you think? Comment below.

You can reserve it in the BCCLS system here.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

Tags: ,

Dark, Cosmic, Childhood Horror: Stephen Chbosky’s Imaginary Friend (2019).

23 Apr

I wasn’t expecting this from the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. At 700+ pages, it tested me, but the story’s morality and visceral battles really kept me going.

Cover of Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. The title appears in large, scratched, white letters against a dark background. At the center, a small silhouette of a child stands at the base of a glowing tree with a ladder leading up into its branches. The scene is dimly lit, with scattered leaves in a shadowy forest. In the middle-right the top right, smaller text reads “Author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”

It starts with a simple question: What if a lonely boy befriends a cloud and follows it everywhere?

Seven-year-old Christopher and his mother, Kate, move to the small town of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania, hoping for a fresh start, but Christopher then gets lost in the woods for six days. He’s found but changed – smart beyond his grade level and able to hear the voice of the Nice Man. Together, they build a treehouse.

But the Nice Man isn’t, and the treehouse isn’t the innocent plaything it should be.

This loneliness and willingness to cling to anything really drove the horror for me. It becomes very clear Christopher is being manipulated, but his (and his Mother’s) world is such a struggle that when terrible things come, I could not help but think, ‘aw, well, at least he has a friend.’ And in a crazy way, I found myself semi-rooting for the Nice Man.

Imaginary Friend evolves into cosmic psychological terror with a religious twist reminiscent of TV’s Lost. Stephen King’s It and The Stand come to mind for novels.

Chbosky examines good and evil, belief, childhood trauma, and the power of imagination to reshape reality.

Is Christopher’s voice a guardian or a manipulator? Is his imagination fully corrupted, or does innocence remain?

The relationship between Christopher and his mother is super emotional, too. They’ve escaped abuse, and because of this, their bond is heavy, so when Kate begins to realize she’s losing her son, the heartache feels so sad.

The climax goes really big. Some might find it audacious, while others might find it overwritten, where the subgenres of Psychological and Cosmic Horror perhaps mix too much, and to some might come off as preachy. Chbosky does dive into Christian imagery.

Imaginary Friend felt genuinely dark, not a jump-scare horror, but one that stayed with me throughout. It was both uncomfortable and comforting.

Have you read Imaginary Friend? What did you think? Comment below.

You can reserve it in the BCCLS system here, or access the audiobook on Libby.

Horror fan and interested in the Hoboken Library’s Horror/Thriller Book Club? Please email reference@hobokenlibrary.org, or register for our next meeting by searching under Events on our website.

Hit subscribe to get more Hoboken Public Library Staff Picks delivered to your inbox!

Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

Tags: ,

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