Get haunted! "The Haunting House" by David Ebenbach
BogiReads brings you the daily speculative reading recommendation of editor Bogi Takács.
Today's recommendation -
Author: David Ebenbach
Title: “The Haunting House”
Venue: Weird Horror, Spring 2024 (ed. Michael Kelly)
Type: Short story – unsure of the wordcount, I read it in print
Themes: Horror, haunted houses, suburbia, fear
Where to read: Buy ebook / Buy print
This was my favorite story from the latest issue of Weird Horror. It’s a kind of meta-horror-story, where people engage with the tropes of horror (they just can’t help themselves).
A homogenous, Anglo suburban neighborhood decides they want to add some sense of history – so they order a haunted house from a company. After all, the rival neighborhood now has their own haunted house, which even houses an extraterrestrial in an experimenting mood. Maybe this new house will have vampires? It will definitely have ghosts.
The people of the neighborhood can’t stop themselves from checking out the house – slowly, everyone gets haunted one by one. It’s not a great experience! But the story has lasting power, and the ending is bitterly fitting. It also comments on race & ethnicity without making that very obviously spelled out.
If you get the issue, I also really enjoyed the nonfiction, especially the columns by Orrin Grey and Simon Strantzas.
Take care,
Bogi.