Join us for Hoboken Library’s Horror/Thriller Book Club. This month, we’ll be exploring two titles across distinct subgenres: A Mother Always Knows by Sarah Strohmeyer (Psychological / Cult & Folk Horror) and The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox (Gothic Horror). Together, these novels offer fear and unease from different angles, and each magnify their own unsettling version of what goes bump in the night.
A Mother Always Knows by Sarah Strohmeyer (Click the title to request a physical copy or here for availability in Hoopla as an audio or ebook)
"Stella O'Neill is just your average millennial, working at a public library and worrying about making rent. No one would suspect she's been living under an assumed name or that she was raised in a Vermont commune of "diviners," where as a ten-year-old, she witnessed her mother's brutal murder--a crime that has gone unsolved for years. But her quiet, anonymous existence is upended when a true-crime obsessive posts her current name and location on the internet. Now, Stella has to get out of Boston before her mother's killer can find her and finish the job he started all those years ago. Fed up with living in fear, she heads to the off-the-grid retreat of her childhood to confront her mother's unhinged guru who controlled their lives for so long--the infamous Radcliffe MacBeath. Stella has two powerful assets: determination and a supernatural gift. Relying on her mother's beloved rose quartz pendulum, Stella will have to outwit the charismatic leader who's ruined so many lives and discover once and for all the true identity of her mother's killer--before becoming his next victim."
The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox (available as well in here in Hoopla as audio and ebook)
"In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters--Catherine, Lydia and Emeline--flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall. The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline. All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves."
Please email Sean at reference@hobokenlibrary.org with any questions.
