#ComicsWednesday: Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

When I was a kid I loved Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, but as I got older, I lost my taste for horror. I, however, love the creepy stories in Emily Carroll's collection Through the Woods.

Emily Carroll's beautiful art is what convinced me to read outside of my comfort zone. I'd first encountered her work in a blog where she and Vera Brosgol illustrated historical fashion. I was impressed by the way Carroll could give hints of a person with a personality and a story to tell from just a single image. That ability to capture emotion in her drawings is what takes Through the Woods from good to great.

The stories are creepy and well paced, with a striking use of color. Twisted lines, washes of gray, and deep black shadows with bright pops of color help to create the creepy atmosphere. This book is eerie and haunting, without being the gorefest so common in modern horror, although the red is sometimes blood. Most importantly, readers are given room to imagine what lurks in the dark spaces.

This book is a great pick for anyone who loves classic ghost stories, especially readers who might otherwise avoid contemporary horror. And if you find yourself wanting more, be sure to check out Emily Carroll's website, where she has several other comics available to read.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Staff Review: Little Girls by Ronald Malfi

As a connoisseur of all things creepy I’ve read my share of ghost stories and have pored over various dusty tomes by lamplight at the witching hour. That being said, Little Girls by Ronald Malfi, takes the incorporeal cake. A sense of foreboding permeates the narration from the first page turn and, as the reader delves deeper into the disconcerting story line, a feeling of dread unwittingly crawls up the spine.  

As the title implies, in Little Girls the ghostly menace happens to be the restless spirit of a child. What is it about the apparitions of children that so readily strike a chord in our collective disquiet? When those twins crawl out of the woodwork croaking “REDRUM” or some youngster or other becomes possessed by a malevolent specter, it’s downright unsettling. If you pair ominous kids with a decrepit old mansion that happens to be the scene of a recent suicide, you have the setting of Little Girls.  

Throughout the tale the reader is given reason to question the sanity of the protagonist. Is Laurie Genarro being plagued by the phantom of her childhood tormentor or is she slowly losing her mind in the wake of her father’s suspicious death? Luckily for us it can be a little of both as a person’s ghosts aren’t always things that go bump in the night. 

If, dear reader, you happen to live in a haunted old manor house, like myself, I don’t recommend that you stay up late into the night with this book clutched in your cold, clammy hands wondering about that odd thumping sound resonating from the attic.  

~Ryan, Circulation                                      

                                                                                                                     

Haunting Library Architecture

Andrew Carnegie is a very, very rarely seen ghost, what with his having over 2,500 libraries to haunt. So, his rotunda appearance is really quite exceptional.

• Dubuque's Haunted History by Richard A Barker
• Haunted Dubuque: chilling stories of the Key City's past and present by D.G. Roberts
• Spirits of Dubuque by Richard A. Barker
• The Iowa Road Guide to Haunted Locations by Chad Lewis & Terry Fisk
• Ghosts of the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to Dubuque by Bruce Carlson
• Ghosts of the Mississippi River from Dubuque to Keokuk by Bruce Carlson
• Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
• The Carnegie Libraries of Iowa by John M. Witt
• Free to All : Carnegie Libraries & American Culture, 1890-1920 by Abigail Ayres Van Slyck

Happy Halloween from Carnegie-Stout Public Library!