The Spooky Season: The past weighs heavily in a supernaturally inflected first novel from Adriana Chartrand
The more obviously generic elements of the story are less unsettling than the very real horrors of racism and family strife.
The Spooky Season: Kathe Koja’s 1991 debut, The Cipher, remains a classic of the horror genre
Reading Koja's novel in 1991 was a revelation, as well as a reminder that horror is able to deal with large themes and philosophically weighty subject matter.