What to read this weekend: Two thrilling horror novels in one
And the gritty new miniseries, The Voice Said Kill, from Image Comics.
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
These are some recently released titles we think are worth adding to your reading list. This week, we picked up the Saga Doubles release of Stephen Graham Jones' Killer on the Road and The Babysitter Lives, and the new Image Comics miniseries, The Voice Said Kill.
Once again (or twice, really, because this book is two novels in one), Stephen Graham Jones delivers on some really gripping, fun horror that spins some classic tropes into something unexpected. This double feature contains The Babysitter Lives and Killer on the Road, the first being a story about a night of babysitting gone horribly, supernaturally wrong on the eve of Halloween, and the latter a road trip from hell situation in which a hitchhiker-targeting serial killer sets his sights on a runaway teen and her friends. The Babysitter Lives was previously available as an audiobook exclusive, so fans may already be familiar with that one.
Killer on the Road hooks you immediately with its "Chapter 0" cold open, which pretty much gives you a sense of how things are going to be from then on out (brutal). It's wonderful in the gory, stressful, horrifying-but-also-humorous way SGJ does so well. The Babysitter Lives is a brutal and chaotic time, too, and it managed to genuinely give me the creeps when I stayed up way too late reading it. Without giving too much away, something ain't right about the house this babysitter shows up to work at. These were so fun to read.
There's no way I was going to skip a comic described as "Fargo meets Deliverance in a sweaty swamp-thriller." The Voice Said Kill is a miniseries set in the Louisiana bayou that follows Marie, a pregnant park ranger with way too much on her plate, who stumbles into some serious trouble with a crime ring from out of town. The story is compelling enough, but the art by Vanesa R. Del Rey is absolutely everything. It's gritty and alive and totally sucks you in. The second issue of four came out this week and I truly have no idea where this story is going at this point, but I am happy to be along for the ride.