The Masters Review’s Halloween Reading List
Halloween is upon us, and to get you in the spirit we have compiled a list of chilling stories from The Masters Review archives. From ghosts to zombies to dark fairy tales, we’ve got you covered. These scary stories will help you gear up for the best holiday of the year.
“The Punk’s Bride” by Kate Bernheimer
Last October, we were proud to publish Kate Bernheimer’s “The Punk’s Bride,” which demonstrates the darkness inherent in the fairy tale genre. This chilling imitation of “The Hare’s Bride” involves punk musicians, a straw doll, and an unexpected wedding party.
The musician said, “Just get on the back of my bike, and we’ll go to my house and listen to records.” He gestured toward his three-speed. It was white and rusted and had a kickstand. It had a Gordon Lightfoot bumper sticker on it and one of the tires was flat.
Read the story here.
“In Ribbons” by Paul McQuade
“In Ribbons,” our October contest winner from last year, is an exquisitely eerie story, told from the point of view of a child. It builds to a moment of horror you will never forget.
‘It’s fox-work,’ Hiro’s grandmother says, her eyes gleaming like jaspers, her thin fingers winding a needle through thinner cloth, closing a rift in father’s shirt. Each week grandma washes the clothes so hard her knuckles redden, but still some specks of coal-dust twine themselves into the weave.
Read the story here.
“Other Dangers” by Ben Hoffman
In “Other Dangers,” a teacher tells her third graders that every minor misbehavior—each yank of a girl’s ponytail—brings the Clock that much closer to doomsday. But when the class reunites after decades apart—they decide to pay their old teacher a visit.
Her Doomsday Clock! Always it leaned against the blackboard, resting on the dusty ledge beside the chalk, taking up valuable board space on which we could have learned grammar or multiplication. Instead we learned obliteration: how to spell it, what it meant, and that we were on the brink of it. We had to learn, for the clock to terrify us as it did. We had to understand the stakes.
Read the story here.
