by @auntiemaim, curator of HOWLS Book Club nominees for February 2024’s “New Year, New You” category
Happy 2024! The year has barely started and we’re already inundated with ads and emails from every website we’ve ever visited, encouraging us to turn over a new leaf with the beginning of the calendar year. Although the fresh start can help kick off your reinvention, maybe the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, and horror is chock-full of devils you think you know. Body doubles and changelings and doppelgangers, oh my!
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved—the world as he knew it. First published in 1955, this classic thriller of the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy inspired three major motion pictures. (StoryGraph)
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What came first, the term “body snatchers” or the book? It’s a well-known genre classic and seems right to include. With any of these horror classics, I’m always curious if it’s actually good or if it was just one of the first to do an idea.
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
The Need by Helen Phillips
When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do, she knows.
But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement.
Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion. (StoryGraph)
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I read this last year and I’m dying to re-read and talk about it. It’s fast-paced, bizarre, and has twists and turns all the way through. It’s horror, it’s sci-fi, it’s thriller, it’s surprisingly emotional. Without giving too much away, there’s something inherently unsettling about another person knowing everything about your family and all the secrets of your life. How hard would you fight to protect your loved ones?
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
“Are you happy with your life?”
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.
Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. Hiswife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined–one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. (StoryGraph)
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I read this in a day because I couldn’t put it down. A lot of body double horror focuses on someone else changing or becoming unrecognizable, but this book digs into what it’s like to be out of place in someone else’s life. Admittedly leans more towards sci-fi thriller, but this was too fun of a popcorn read to pass up a spot on the list.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
The Return by Rachel Harrison
Julie is missing, and no one believes she will ever return—except Elise. Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and feels it in her bones that her best friend is out there and that one day Julie will come back. She’s right. Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her.
Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, the women decide to reunite at a remote inn. But the second Elise sees Julie, she knows something is wrong—she’s emaciated, with sallow skin and odd appetites. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back. But then who—or what—is she? (StoryGraph)
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I’ve heard nothing but raves about this book, and the combination of all of these tropes (“came back wrong”! no memories! a remote inn!) really draws me in. I think the big question behind a lot of the books on this list is: “Who are you, really?”, whether it’s a switcheroo or something equally sinister.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Little Darlings by Melanie Golding
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.
A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. But when they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley–to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.
Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw…she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life. (StoryGraph)
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Dark folklore-inspired story about changelings! Changelings pop up in different cultures in different ways (possibly as a way of explaining or coping with rampant infant mortality), and I find them equal parts unsettling and sad. I love stories where old legends find their way into modern day life.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
And The Winner Is…
Out of these five books, HOWLers voted to read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Discussion starts on February 12, and you can join in by joining the Discord!
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