Looking for a good read? We compiled a list of five must-read books by Asian authors
There is something for everyone and authors from all over Asia, from China to Pakistan.
As fall begins to curtain our days with long nights, our screens fill up with thrillers and bone-chilling entertainment. This list brings together five novels, across eras and authors, to give you the ultimate reading list that’ll leave you shaking, shuddering and looking over your shoulder.
These stories are not your run-of-the-mill slasher gore — they don’t have demons and goblins either. But they are as disturbing as tales come, birthing a new genre of horror, one which quietly explores the unseen and untamed.
‘When you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares into you.’
Maggie was five when she moved into Baneberry Hall. Her parents barely survived three weeks in the house before fleeing into the dead of night. Her father then writes a novel, The House of Horrors, supposedly a work of fiction, based on the occurrences in that house.
Defying her father’s dying wishes, Maggie returns to Baneberry Hall after 25 years to find out what happened all those years ago; surely, ghosts do not exist. Riley Sager has delivered yet another macabre page turner, which will keep you glued to your couch from beginning to end.
‘I wonder if I could eat a child if I had the chance.’
‘I doubt if I could cook one, ’ said Constance.
Any horror reading list is incomplete without honouring a Shirley Jackson novel. If you’ve read The Haunting of Hill House, this is the less popular, yet equally unsettling story of a family plagued by their ‘otherness’ and the persecution they face.
Mary Katherine ‘Merricat’ Blackwood lives in the Blackwood family home with her sister Constance and Uncle Julian. Ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of their family, the outside world hasn’t left the Blackwoods alone. Merricat will do everything in her power to protect what remains of her family and their very peculiar way of life.
‘People do go mad, you know, if you stop them from sleeping long enough. ’
Ruth Ware novels are fast-paced and deliciously thrilling. From the mind behind The Housemaid, comes an even more twisted tale.
When Rowan lands a live-in nanny position for the Elincourt children at Heatherbrae House, she couldn’t be happier. However, she is oblivious to the nightmare which is about to ensnare her, leading to the death of a child. How can she prove that she is innocent, and there is something dark about this family?
‘She was the snake biting its tail. She was a dreamer, eternally bound to anightmare, eyes closed even when her eyes had turned to dust.’
Set in the 1920s, Mexican Gothic is a story about the vibrant Noemi Taboada, who has been sent on a strange mission by her father to her cousin’s marital home. Her cousin Catalina has seemingly lost her mind, and Noemi has been tasked with finding out the truth.
When she arrives at High Palace, Taboada immediately senses that there is something deeply wrong with the house, almost as if it’s alive…
‘Men are simpler than you imagine, my sweet child. But what goes on in the twisted, tortuous minds of women would baffle anyone.’
Rebecca is an eerie, gothic and haunting tale of a grieving husband who mourns the loss of his dead wife, Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. Years later, he remarries the young and jubilant narrator of the text, the second Mrs de Winter.
However, Manderley Manor is holding onto the presence of Rebecca fiercely and will not let the new Mrs de Winter forget her. This classic cult favourite novel has given us iconic characters like Mrs Danvers, the sinister housekeeper whose strange behaviour sends shivers down your spine.