 Grady Hendrix is one of those writers who can have you laughing out loud one minute and then staring at the ceiling wondering why your eyes are leaking the next. How to Sell a Haunted House nails that weird, wonderful balance. On the surface, it’s a story about a brother and sister stuck cleaning up their parents’ house after a loss, except the house is crammed with creepy puppets and dolls that may or may not be alive. Sounds ridiculous, right? And it is. Hendrix leans all the way into the absurd, and you’ll find yourself laughing at how over-the-top some of it gets.
But then, right when you’re laughing, he sucker-punches you with something hard: grief, regret, the way siblings wound each other and carry those scars into adulthood. The haunted house is really just a stand-in for all the baggage that gets passed down in families, the secrets, the grudges, the unspoken hurt. It’s generational trauma wrapped up in a horror-comedy package, which makes it hit that much harder. I think that’s what makes Hendrix so good. You go in for the campy horror, some killer puppets, spooky house vibes, but you leave with your heart a little bruised. This book is hilarious, creepy, and surprisingly moving all at once. Check out the book at the library or download the eBook or audiobook with your SPL card. Aimee Clark, IT Librarian
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 We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer completely caught me off guard. On the surface, it starts with a young couple showing their house to potential buyers, but then a family shows up at the door claiming they used to live there. From that simple setup, things spiral into something much stranger, darker, and more unsettling than I ever expected. I had no idea which direction it was going to go, and that unpredictability made it a delight to read.
I’m nearly impossible to scare, but this one actually managed it. I read parts late at night, in the dark, after everyone had gone to bed. Normally that doesn’t faze me at all, but here I found myself pausing, uneasy, and hyper-aware of the pitch-black silence around me. It truly got under my skin and that’s rare. If you want something twisty, eerie, and impossible to pin down, We Used to Live Here is well worth the read. Get the book at the library or download the eBook or audiobook with your SPL card. Aimee Clark, IT Librarian  If you’ve seen The Revenant movie, the one where Leonardo DiCaprio finally grabbed his Oscar, you probably think you know the story of Hugh Glass. Bear attack, crawling across the wilderness, icy revenge quest. And yeah, the movie was brutal and gorgeous, but the book? The book is better.
Michael Punke’s The Revenant doesn’t need to make up a tragic backstory with a wife and child (that part was pure Hollywood). What Glass actually went through was already unbelievable. Punke lays out the sheer insanity of his survival, crawling for weeks with shattered bones, fighting infection, dealing with betrayal, and still somehow dragging himself forward. And that’s not even the half of it. The novel includes details and feats the movie just skipped over, probably because audiences would’ve thought they were too over the top to be real. Before this all happened, he was even a pirate on a ship!! The film gave us a spectacle. The book gives us the full man versus nature, man versus man, and man versus his own breaking point story. If you liked the movie, read the book. If you didn’t like the movie, still read the book. It’s that good. Get the book at the library or the eBook and audiobook are available for download with your library card. Aimee Clark, IT Librarian  Jonathan Katz’s Cleave the Sparrow is one of those books where you set it down and immediately think, what the hell did I just read, and why do I kind of love it? It’s satire cranked to eleven, absurdist comedy welded to existential dread, and politics skewered with the subtlety of a chainsaw. Imagine Vonnegut, Catch-22, and Dr. Strangelove all locked in a room together, fed nothing but espresso, bad cable news, and episodes of Rick and Morty, then told to write a novel before sunrise. That’s the vibe.
The story itself? I read the book and still don't know, and I'm pretty sure that was the point. Katz doesn’t give you a neat arc to follow, he throws you into a warped dystopia where media, politics, and human nature all get flayed open and roasted over the fire. It’s messy, chaotic, and deliberately overstuffed with ideas, but buried in all that noise are razor-sharp one-liners and these moments of clarity where you feel like the book just sucker-punched you with some hard truth about the absurdity of being alive. Is it for everyone? Absolutely not. If you need your fiction tidy, logical, and polite, this book will drive you up the wall. But if you’re willing to lean into the chaos, there’s something strangely exhilarating here. You’ll laugh, you’ll grimace, you’ll occasionally wonder if you’re losing your grip on reality. I know it's had mixed reviews. Certain portrayals feel insensitive, some sections read like a rant that went on too long. But honestly, even the flaws add to the manic energy of it all. It’s not neat. It’s not safe. It’s not “literary fiction” in the respectable sense. It’s more like being trapped in a late-night conversation with someone brilliant, unhinged, and just drunk enough to let something slip. Bottom line? Cleave the Sparrow isn’t a book you read for comfort. It’s a book you read to get shaken up, to laugh at the absurdity of the world, and maybe to feel a little less alone in the chaos. You’ll either bail after twelve pages or carry it with you like a strange fever dream you can’t stop thinking about. Check out the book at the library. Aimee Clark, IT Librarian  This was an excellent introduction to Spooky Season! I read Strange Practice in 2 days, and could NOT stop thinking about it.
What happens when the Van Helsings' ancestors decide to doctor the undead instead of destroy them? Greta Helsing is what! She's such a wonderful POV character, and very relatable. Vivian Shaw does an excellent job of starting off making Greta seem harsh and unyielding, like the Van Helsing we all know, but as the story progresses you can REALLY tell how much she cares about her vocation. The side characters are poignant and interesting, and the magic/science of it all is fascinating. I enjoyed this magic system, and I loved having a heroine who, quite literally, fixes things with her intellect instead of a special power. Mariah Wills, Library Clerk Get Strange Practice at the library or download the audiobook with your SPL card. |
The SPL StaffWe work here at the library, and we’re into all kinds of books! How Do I Get These Books?See our Quickstart Guides page for information on how to use the online catalog and how to get eBooks and audiobooks for your specific device. You can also contact us there if you need more help!
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