A lifelong lover of fantasy literature, Cassie Schuchart has been reading and writing since childhood. When she moved to the region in 2023, she fell in love with the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest, which quickly became something of a “base of operations” for her work. Even when she isn’t running writing-related programs at the library, she can often be found there perusing the shelves for her next read or working on her upcoming novel. Here, Cassie shares five fantasy favorites with a spooky twist.
Piranesi
By Susanna Clarke | Fantasy/Mystery
Piranesi lives in a building of endless corridors, lifelike statues and an indoor ocean that floods the lower rooms with the rising tide. He spends his days exploring his impossible “house” and receiving visits from The Other, the only other living person in the building. When Piranesi begins to find evidence of a third person, a new mystery behind his beloved house threatens everything he thinks he knows. This beautiful and haunting tale uses a very distinct voice to explore the power of perception and the meaning of home.
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
By Brandon Sanderson | Fantasy Adventure/Romance
Yumi and Painter live in two different worlds: hers, a land of endless heat and helpful spirits; and his, one of electric lights fending off a darkness teeming with living nightmares. Both play crucial roles in their civilizations, but when mysterious circumstances force them to share each other’s lives, they must work together to save both of their worlds – and to find what they truly seek for themselves.
Driftwood
By Marie Brennan | Apocalyptic Fantasy
Driftwood is a land of the inevitable, where the last vestiges of worlds that have undergone apocalypses arrive to be slowly ground away to nothing. However, life still persists here, in part through the help of a mysterious Drifter known only as “Last.” When rumors of Last’s death begin to circulate, people from varied lands gather to reminisce and celebrate everything he’s done for their dying worlds. This novella, surprisingly hopeful and uplifting for its grim setting, uses a host of colorful characters to tell an unusual, anthology-style story of loss, memory and living on.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
By Neil Gaiman | Fantasy Horror
While visiting his childhood hometown, a man finds himself drawn to the old Hempstock Farm to reminisce about his friend Lettie at the duck pond she called an ocean. Forty years ago, when he was a boy, a shocking death shook his world in ways that went beyond the mundane. But as terrifying and impossible events and creatures beset him, Lettie Hempstock was always there, swearing to keep him safe. Neil Gaiman weaves together a deeply atmospheric and unsettling tale of eldritch horrors and worlds beyond our understanding, kept from overwhelming ours by the indomitable figures of Lettie and her family.
Carpe Demon
By Julie Kenner | Supernatural Thriller/Comedy
Kate Connor is a retired demon hunter and current stay-at-home mom, and she’d prefer to keep it that way. When she’s attacked by a demon she discovers at the local Walmart, and her follow-up reveals that it has a powerful boss making moves in her city, she just might be forced out of retirement. Julie Kenner’s juxtaposition between high-stakes supernatural thrills and ordinary domestic life, filtered through Kate’s blunt comparisons of the two and general wry humor, makes this an incredibly fun take on the monster-hunting genre.
