From Maine horror writers, 7 volumes that put the boo in book

Maine writers looking for ways to scare readers don’t have to venture very far for material.

“People are never more afraid than when they’re alone and powerless, and Maine excels at conjuring the idea of isolation,” said Michael Koryta, a Camden author who writes supernatural thrillers under the name Scott Carson. “Go down any road in Maine and you might find yourself in a town with an abandoned mill or an old house on the hill with a mysterious history. That’s a good starting point, for me.”

Maine writers say there are lots of ways the state inspires scary stories. Besides the isolation, there are the interminably long winters, the small towns where everybody knows everybody’s business, and a long history of shipwrecks and seaside ghost stories.

Plus, of course, there’s the 50-year career of the most famous of Maine’s scary-tale tellers, Stephen King. His recent collection of short stories, “You Like it Darker,” came out in May. Also this year, he released paperback editions of several of his classic horror novels: “Cujo,” “Pet Sematary” and “Christine.”

With Halloween just days away, we thought it would be a good time to highlight some homegrown horror, some spooky or ghastly novels by Maine authors. Here are seven that came out in the past year or so, along with some of the author’s thoughts about scary writing.

“Dead Folk,” by Katherine Silva

The book, released in August, is a sequel to Silva’s “Undead Folk,” an apocalyptic story about a woman whose only friend is an undead fox, animated by magic and the soul of her dead father. In this book, the woman loses her fox and seeks to use magic to get retribution.

Silva, who lives in Waldoboro, says what she likes most about writing horror is that it’s really about something much more positive.

“Horror is all about hope. I write grief horror which deals with characters needing to overcome a period of immense sorrow in their lives, sorrow which can, for many, manifest as a kind of darkness,” said Silva. “Writing grief horror is a catharsis. It helps me deal with my own feelings and helps readers see they aren’t alone either.”

“Youthjuice,” by E.K. Sathue (Erin Mayer)

In this horror satire set in the beauty industry (released in June), a young woman named Sophia is searching for meaning in her new job at a trendy beauty and wellness company. She’s asked to test a new anti-aging moisturizer, which works too well and has a gruesome secret ingredient. Sophia has to decide how far she’ll go to be young and beautiful.

Mayer, who lives in Camden with her partner, Benjamin Perry, and a haunted doll named Persephone, said she was inspired by scary writers like Shirley Jackson and Mona Awad, and filmmakers David Lynch and Jordan Peele, who showed her how versatile horror could be. She moved to Maine from New York City about five years ago and could see pretty quickly why Maine has so many horror writers.

“I think one of the biggest factors is the sparseness of the population coupled with the vastness of the land. There’s a strong sense that one could really disappear without a trace here,” said Mayer.

“When the Night Falls,” by Glenn Rolfe

Set in Old Orchard Beach in the 1990s, the story focuses a regular guy named Rocky who years ago fell in love with a woman named November, who was not exactly human. Now years later, the town is the site of a documentary on a serial killer, which brings some more unnatural creatures into Rocky’s life. Released in June, it’s a sequel to Rolfe’s 2020 novel “Until Summer Comes Around.”

Rolfe, who lives in West Gardiner, said the story of both books was inspired somewhat by “The Lost Boys,” about vampires in a California beach town. He calls Old Orchard Beach “my happy place,” which makes setting a horror story seem a little ironic. But the town’s ability to change quickly, to become almost deserted in winter, makes it a good horror setting, he says.

“Lost Man’s Lane,” by Scott Carson (Michael Koryta)

In this spooky coming-of-age story, released in March, a young man in Bloomington, Indiana, becomes entangled in a missing-woman investigation with all kinds of paranormal activity. He sees a cop who doesn’t seem to exist, for one thing, and the case goes on to unlock long-held town secrets. Koryta, who grew up in Bloomington and splits his time between there and Camden, based some of the details on his own time working for a private investigator.

Koryta, who writes crime books as well, under his own name, says he feels the scariest stories are the ones set in a world where the details ground us and almost lull us into a fall sense of humdrum everyday life. The story is set in 1999, when the world was preoccupied with the idea that the date change could cause massive computer shutdowns.

“It’s scarier if you know what the characters are like, what they are feeling, first. Writers can make the mistake of beginning with the terrifying thing,” Koryta said.

“A Haunting on the Hill,” by Elizabeth Hand

A troupe of actors rent out a crumbling gothic mansion in a small New England town – Hill House – to work on a play. But since this is the same Hill House from Shirley Jackson’s 1959 classic “The Haunting of Hill House,” spooky things begin to happen and play havoc with the actors’ nerves. The book, which came out last October, is a new story with new characters but set in Hill House and written in a style reminiscent of Jackson, said Hand, who lives in Lincolnville and teaches at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA Program in creative writing.

Hand was approached several years ago by Jackson’s family about doing a book set in Jackson’s literary world. She’s written some 20 books and has won the Shirley Jackson Award, given for achievement in horror, dark fantasy and suspense writing. In writing the book, she studied floor plans that Jackson had created for the fictional Hill House, to get the setting and feeling of the place just right.

“For me, it’s setting and atmosphere that really do the work of scaring people,” said Hand.

“Let the Woods Keep our Bodies,” by E.M. Roy

In this queer coming-of-age story set in a small Maine town, a young woman named Leo Bates becomes the prime suspect when her partner goes missing. The search for the missing woman forces Leo to confront secrets about her parents and the town where she’s lived her whole life. Released last October, it’s Roy’s debut novel, and the town is loosely based on Gray, where she grew up.

Roy, who lives in South Portland and works as a communications coordinator for Out Maine, thinks horror is a genre that is easy for people who consider themselves outcasts, in some way.

“Horror is this outlying genre with weird things happening, so the stories resonate with the outcast. They’re a tool to explore your fears,” said Roy.

“Here in the Night,” by Rebecca Turkewitz

The 13 stories in this book, which came out in July 2023, feature all kinds of hauntings in a wide variety of locales, from a boarding school in Vermont and the rocky coast of Maine to suburban Massachusetts and rural South Carolina. One is set in an elevator stuck between floors.

Turkewitz, who lives in Portland and teaches English at Casco Bay High School, said she became a fan of scary stories as a child reading the “Goosebumps” series. She also writes literary fiction but often finds herself wondering “but what if I added a ghost?”

“I love how horror allows for a certain type of ambiguity and gives you the freedom to explore the fringes of things. Horror grants writers and readers permission to face what is normally unspeakable or unknowable, and it doesn’t demand easy answers,” said Turkewitz. “I also just love spookiness. Conjuring up an eerie setting or atmosphere is a lot of fun.”

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