Eight horror tales about the power of nature and the environment

Leah Rachel von Essen is an editor, writer, and book reviewer. She is a copyeditor and fact-checker at Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as a contributing editor, Adult Books, for American Library Association’s magazine Booklist. She writes regularly for Chicago Review of Books and is a senior contributor at Book Riot.

At Book Riot she tagged eight horror reads about the power of nature and the environment. One title on the list:

The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell

This dark Korean tale refers yes, to a hole. But also, the English word “hole” transliterates to a Koraen prefix that means “alone.” In this novel, Oghi has been disabled by a tragic car accident that killed his wife. Isolated in a room and dependent on his mother-in-law for care, he obsesses over his wife and his troubled relationship, and looks over her garden, which was her primary and sometimes only refuge. When he notices his mother-in-law furiously working there—and digging—he starts to wonder what secrets she’s hiding, and whether he can escape the eerie conviction that he is in danger.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue