essay about scary house

A scary house - descriptive essay

samuraitom 23 / 18 Sep 23, 2007 #1 Prompt was to describe a place. I think I did a good job with that. I tried not to use too many "I" but that proved to be a bit difficult. I'm trying to get rid of all the vague sentence starters that my teacher informed me about. 1) Is my thesis statement ok? 2) Is my conclusion alright? Critique as always, please. The Scary House As I stood, gazing at the dilapidated house. I shivered, as though, ice had replaced my spine. The cold air enveloped the entire body. The multiple layer of clothing could not protect against the deathly cold. The walkway leading up to house were cracked. Weeds and dandelions poked out from these cracks. Red roses grown wildly in thick batches by the gate. The moonlight cast a ghoulish glow on the house. Vines formed a twisted maze upon the side of house, reaching their tentacles towards the roof. The house's walls showed black decay by neglect. Splotches of original paint hinted at the house former prosperity. Cobwebs covered the corners of the doors, tiny black spiders threading towards their prey. The house is fit for the kings and queens of the supernatural. The door begrudgingly creaked open. A musty, dank order creep into my nose. The house was dead silence except for the intermittent creaks and moans. Black and brown mold dotted the ceiling in clusters, evident of rain seeping through the roof. I quietly entered the dark living room. Windows covered with grime and dirt, the calm moonlight struggled to penetrate the darkness in thin thread rays. Sharp shadows roamed around the room. The sofa and chairs overturned revealing deep grooves on the ground where they used to sit. Wallpaper lay curled on the floor. A large jagged hole dug through the wall stood as though daring any to enter. Picture frames hanged off-centered. Sharp shadows roamed around the room. A misplaced grand bookcase stood the corner of the room, undisturbed for a long time. Selecting the correct book could reveal a secret doorway into a labyrinth. I made my way back into the hallway, a slimmer of light came from behind a door. I approached and opened the door. I had reached the bathroom. The single window was mildly dirty, a flood of light flowed into the room. Dust swirled around the room as I made my way inside. The medicine cabinet mirror lay shattered in pieces on the floor tile. Empty medicine bottle lay in the porcelain sink. The only sound to be heard is the drip, drip of the faucet. A closer look revealed the discoloration of the water, a brownish concoction. A lone mouse stood sentry at the bottom of the tub. Never having a visitor in a while, it curiously eyed me before scuttling away. Approaching the bathtub, a violent odor made it way to my nose. Pinching my nose, I leaned over and peered inside. Crusty rags filled the bathtub, little hints of movement underneath them. It would be unadvisable to see what is under the rags. I arrived at the foot of the staircase. I stood and peered at the top, wondering when a twisted head person will crawl down and have me for dinner. I summoned strength and tiptoed my way up the stairs. Each step intensified the moaning and creaking as if the steps could collapse at any moment. I turned to the right, and met my final destination. The door did not give way easier, a forceful push was needed. Stepping inside, a dresser seem to have been pushed against the door, attempting to deny anyone entry. I could make out the silhouette of bed, edging in closer for a better look. A toy dinosaur lay missing its head on the bed. The sheet was splattered with a dark color. The wind intensified outside, the rustling of the leaves and branches were louder. In the corner, a little chair began to rock slowly. The room had once belonged to a boy. The thin strips of wallpaper showed little trucks. Crayon markings scrambled upon the wall where wallpaper used to stick. The carpet squished as I walked. Little picture frames remained facedown on the carpet. A howl echoed throughout the house. It was time to leave, I told myself. I closed the bedroom door behind as I carefully walked down the stairs. I hoped I did not disturb anything or its somber rest. I made my way outside where my group of friends was standing. They asked me what took me so long; I replied that escaping the ghosts was difficult.

My Own Experience in a Haunted House

Categories: Haunted House Personal Experience

About this sample

Words: 686 |

Updated: 6 December, 2023

Words: 686 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Works Cited

Bader, C. (2014). Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture. NYU Press.
Dickey, C. (2016). Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places. Penguin Books.
Hargrove, R. (2013). The Haunted House: A True Ghost Story. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Holzer, H. (2017). Ghosts: True Encounters from the World Beyond. Black Dog & Leventhal.
Klinger, L. (2014). The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft. Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Michell, J., & Rickard, R. (Eds.). (2016). Paranormality: Why We Believe the Impossible. Overlook Press.
Radford, B., & Nickell, J. (2012). The Science of Ghosts: Searching for Spirits of the Dead. Prometheus Books.
Randles, J., & Hough, P. (2016). The Paranormal, the new guide to understanding and working with the unexplained. Watkins Media Limited.
Tucker, E. (2016). Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American College Campuses. University Press of Mississippi.
Underwood, P. (2013). Haunted London. Amberley Publishing.

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Essay on A Haunted House

Students are often asked to write an essay on A Haunted House in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on A Haunted House

What is a haunted house.

A haunted house is a place where ghosts or spirits are believed to live. These houses often have a scary and eerie feeling. People say they hear strange sounds, see odd things, or feel a spooky presence in these houses. These experiences make them believe that the house is haunted.

Stories about Haunted Houses

Many stories are told about haunted houses. Some are from books or movies, while others are shared by people who claim to have experienced it. These stories often involve ghosts, strange noises, moving objects, and other unexplained events.

Why are Houses Said to be Haunted?

Houses are said to be haunted for many reasons. Sometimes, it’s because something sad or scary happened there, like a death or a crime. Other times, it’s because the house is old and makes strange sounds. People’s imaginations can make them think a house is haunted.

Visiting a Haunted House

Visiting a haunted house can be scary but exciting. Some people do it for fun, especially during Halloween. Others do it to try and see if ghosts are real. But remember, it’s always important to respect others’ property and feelings.

250 Words Essay on A Haunted House

A haunted house is a building where people believe ghosts live. These spirits might be of people who once lived in the house and are now gone. People often feel scared to go inside such houses because of the strange things that happen there.

Appearance of a Haunted House

Haunted houses often look old and empty. They may have broken windows, an old rusty gate, and a garden full of dead plants. At night, these houses might seem even scarier with the moonlight casting long, dark shadows.

There are many stories about haunted houses. Some people say they have heard strange sounds, like footsteps or whispers. Others tell of doors opening and closing on their own. Some even claim to have seen ghosts!

Haunted Houses in Movies

Haunted houses are popular in movies and TV shows. They make the story exciting and scary. The characters in these stories often have to face their fears and find out the truth about the ghosts.

Visiting a haunted house can be a fun adventure, especially during Halloween. Some people like the thrill of being scared. But remember, it’s all just for fun. Ghosts and haunted houses are more a part of stories and our imagination than real life.

In the end, haunted houses are interesting because of the mystery they hold. They make us wonder about what might be living beyond what we can see. But it’s always important to remember that it’s just a story, and there’s no need to be too scared.

500 Words Essay on A Haunted House

The idea of a haunted house.

A haunted house is a building often thought to be occupied by spirits. These spirits are usually the souls of people who have passed away. Many people believe that these spirits have not found peace and so they stay in the house where they once lived.

Haunted houses often look scary from the outside. They are usually old and in bad condition. The paint might be peeling off and the windows might be broken. The gardens around the house are often overgrown and unkempt. This creates a feeling of fear and unease. At night, these houses can look even more frightening because of the dark shadows and strange noises.

Inside a Haunted House

Inside a haunted house, things can be even more eerie. The rooms are often dark and filled with old, dusty furniture. Cobwebs hang from the corners and the air is heavy and cold. Some people say they can feel the presence of spirits when they enter these rooms. Strange things can happen in a haunted house. Objects might move on their own or doors might slam shut. People have also reported hearing strange noises like whispers or footsteps when no one else is around.

Stories About Haunted Houses

There are many stories about haunted houses. Some of these stories are very old and have been passed down through generations. People tell these tales to scare each other and to entertain. In some stories, the spirits in the house are friendly and just want to be left alone. In others, they are angry and try to scare away anyone who enters the house.

Visiting a haunted house can be a thrilling experience. Some people go to haunted houses for fun, especially around Halloween. There are also professional ghost hunters who visit haunted houses to try and capture evidence of the paranormal. They use special tools like voice recorders and cameras to try and capture the spirits on tape.

Haunted houses are a part of many cultures around the world. They are a source of fear, curiosity, and excitement. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, the idea of a haunted house can still give you a chill. It’s a reminder of the mystery and unknown that still exists in our world.

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The Haunted House, Essay Example

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Have you ever wanted to do something so bad that it kept you up all night thinking about it? But, for some reason something is stopping you from doing that thing. That’s a common problem; a lot of people hesitate or are scared to do things for the first time. You can never over come your fears unless you face your fears.

When I was 15 years old I thought of not going to school, so I skipped school and decided to have a walk around the area. Out of nowhere, a big, old, gray building grabbed my attention as I stood across the block. At that moment, my mind was distracted by how old it seemed. As I got closer, the more curious I became of what was hidden behind those paled rusted doors. In that silent moment, I felt the wind blowing and heard the sound of the tree leaves hitting against each other. The building attracted me, questions began to pop in my head, why is it spooky? What made it different? Is there anyone living there? So I began to research to try to find answers to my questions I began with asking people around the neighborhood about the house.

I found out that it was the first kings’ palace that was built in Kuwait and it was called Bayan Palace. It was abandoned, and no one had lived in it for 100 years. Some of the people I talked to told scary stories about it and some believed that it was haunted with ghosts and evil spirits. As I studied the palace I took a lot of pictures of it. The next day, I couldn’t keep it out of my thoughts, so I went to our history teacher to show him the pictures and find out more about the palace. I was not the only one with questions, at the same time there were two boys asking the teacher about the palace too. We talked a lot about the palace. Sharing a common interest the boys and I continued to talk and get to know each other.

The first guy was named Ali, he is a short and white. Ali’s father owned a lot of companies and he was the Minister of Education back in Kuwait. The other guy is named Abdullah; he is a free runner and gymnast. He has had a lot of adventures in haunted houses.

After that day we hung out together a few times. We made the decision to go the palace and to investigate what is inside. Later, as we sat in Starbucks arguing over when would be the best time to begin our adventure, an old man came over to the table. His face felt familiar like I had seen him before and I felt a strange, eerie feeling about him. He said, “Hi young gentlemen were you talking about Bayan palace?” We all looked at each other and answered “yes, why?” he whispered “didn’t you hear about the missing man that went inside and never came back again?” We all were shocked. Abdullah said “what do you mean by that he didn’t come back, because it’s a haunted house? Huh, I don’t believe that can you prove it to me?” he laughed softly and responded “It’s just my advice to you stay away from that place. I don’t recommend that you go.” That’s the last thing he said and then he walked away.

We decided to give up and thought it was best not to go to that place any way. But, we all know that inside we were curious and we all want to discover what was in the palace. So we met together and logged on to a computer finding a chat room about the palace and chatted with someone about that house. We were all shocked when he said that he had entered Bayan palace! We all asked if we could meet him and if he would call us and tell us more about his experience. He just answered with a “yes anytime”. His name is Nasser, he was 22 years old and he is from Lebanon. He is a business man that works for two companies, one of them in Lebanon and the other one in Kuwait. He motivated all of us and rekindled our curiosity to enter that palace. Nasser said that when he entered the palace he did not feel anything strange and that there was nothing to be afraid of. He had only entered into the palace for few minutes and then stormed out immediately. At that point we said that it wasn’t worth it to go to that haunted palace, we were busy and all had our final exams and decided we would not go until we had finished our school work.

Then came the we were finally ready to explore the palace, we got our tools, we charged our mobile phones, made sure we got lights, snacks, and everything we needed. We then started to walk to Bayan Palace. We were all both afraid and excited at the same time. No one spoke or said anything from the moment we moved, we were all nervous. We arrived and we looked at each other’s faces, we all had nervous and scared expressions. We went inside because from the gate it was too dark and we couldn’t see anything. I turned the hand light on and began to feel the breeze on my face and it was cold, although it wasn’t cold outside.

I noticed on the wall there were a lot of paintings and marks. I touched the wall it was rough and a thick layer of dust covered the ground. From outside the building seemed smaller but inside we found out it was bigger than we thought so we decided to split into groups. Each group went their own way and we would meet again and call each other if there is something creepy. We went to the basement floor it looked like a jail. All I heard is the wind blowing and my footsteps we didn’t find anything creepy yet we searched the whole basement. I had no idea why my heart was racing, I felt scared every footstep I took the thoughts of what the people said about the palace it gave me chills and I started to believe it too. We decided to go back upstairs. As I was walking up the stairs I stopped and heard a movement coming towards me from behind. I began to rush up the stairs and started to panic my friend rushed behind me, all I wanted was to get out. My friend came to me asking, “did you see anything? Why did you run? Are you okay?” I felt somewhat embarrassed and said “I was just joking with you guys” he got angry and pushed me and said “don’t do it again and let’s continue searching and put an end to the myths.” So we continued on.

I felt better with him beside me and started to convince myself that it’s all a myth. As we walked upstairs there was this huge sealed door marked with an X my friends got together and tried to open the door but we couldn’t, we gave up, it was starting to get late so we decided to end it and leave.

I had to go back home so I left and started to walk by home. As I was walking I was feeling a huge disappointment that I didn’t get to see what was behind the sealed door. This thought made me more curious and I wanted to know why it is marked with an X.

The next morning I got a text from Ali telling me to come to the neighborhood park. I got up, washed my face, got dressed, and left the house heading to the park. I arrived at the park and I saw the whole gang there waiting for me so I went to greet them. While I was greeting them I noticed Nasser wasn’t with them and I saw Ali holding a Hammer in his hand. He told me now we can open that sealed door I smiled and started to think is it worth it? I know I was curious and disappointed that I didn’t get to see what was there so I needed to choose. The whole gang was waiting for my answer and I nodded “ok let’s go”.

As we were walking back to the abandoned palace I asked about Nasser and why he didn’t show up, they told me you “didn’t talk to him?” He was to fly to Lebanon, he was too busy and still needed to pack his bag. I felt the group wasn’t complete without him. I wondered if the real reason he did not come was fear.

When we arrived to the palace I looked at my friends with a smile and said “let’s do it!” We entered together and headed to the sealed marked door. Ali said “move away”, as he got the hammer and started to pound the chains on the door. He was surprised that he didn’t have to hit too hard before the chain fell off. The door was opened we went inside and suddenly we thought that we saw something move at the end of the corridor. We were running trying to search and wanted to find out what was that. I thought it was a small child running; we’ve turned off our flashlights in order not to scare whatever that distracted us. All of the sudden, I felt something crawling around my left leg but, thankfully when I focused the light on it and it turned out to be a cat. I had faced my fear and realized that in the end there was nothing to be afraid of, it was all in my mind.

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A Haunted House Short Story Essay

“A Haunted House” is a short story highlighting the experiences of a couple who bought a house only to experience the voices of ghosts, earlier owners of the house. Virginia Woolf carefully interplays an unconventional love story with a ghost story as they are murmuring, “Here we left it” (Woolf, 2013, p.3). The ghosts’ conversation reveals a couple looking for their treasure, love, and the author creatively lets the reader intermittently shift between conscious and subconscious moments to the very end of the story.

At times, the story does not sound like a ghostly narrative, but in some other instances, it does. Indeed, from a different viewpoint, “A Haunted House” is a visual illusion, which hugely demonstrates what it means to feel something beyond mere immediate comprehension – love. Although it does not have a clear beginning, middle, and end, the story’s plot takes the reader through subconscious dreaming and absolute consciousness. It is during the subconscious states that the narrators closely feel attuned to the imaginary ghosts. Woolf’s net of brilliance captures the slippery concepts, and the reader feels the ghosts are real, which makes the reader feel the imaginary murmurs.

Although “A Haunted House” is a short story, it has a prose-poem language, which gives it a rhythmical touch. For example, the narrator repeatedly says, “safe, safe, safe” (Woolf, 2013, p.4). The ghostly couple is so much in love, illustrated by how they move together, in the curtains, near the walls, and upstairs, holding hands, looking for their treasure. At times the coupe speaks in unison, and Woolf’s aim is to show the couple’s affection for one another. Additionally, they are looking for something they left here before, although the house has new, living occupants, indicating that they were here before.

In conclusion, a close analysis of the story rules out the possibility of it being either an unconventional love story or a conventional ghost story. Woolf creatively maintains the genre in between these two categories. Early on in the story, the reader feels the story would be explicitly scary. However, with time and the author’s poetic devices and experimental narrative style, the reader forgets about the expectation. Instead, the focus shifts to discerning what treasure they really are looking for. Thus, in “A Haunted House”, Virginia Woolf uses the ghost story pretext to write how important love is.

Woolf, V. (2013). A haunted house and other short stories (The original unabridged posthumous edition of 18 short stories) . e-artnow.

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IvyPanda . 2022. "A Haunted House Short Story." October 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-haunted-house-by-virginia-woolf-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "A Haunted House Short Story." October 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-haunted-house-by-virginia-woolf-essay-examples/.

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IvyPanda . "A Haunted House Short Story." October 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-haunted-house-by-virginia-woolf-essay-examples/.

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Haunted house narrative writing. The house stood on the top of lonely hill. There was no chance of taking the way through roads. I had to take the shortcut.

13 Redwood Villa

It was cloudy and the first few specks of the rain were exploding on the dark gravel. I was in the park and I knew that I was going to get drenched if I didn’t make my way quickly from there. A major storm could be heard on the distance echoing through the silent night.

I had to reach there, as quickly as possible. Just a few moments ago, I had got the message from my friend, Lucy, to go there – 13 Redwood Villa. She had asked me to reach there by 7 pm and it was already half past six. Thunder clapped overhead and the clouds burst on the horizon.

The house stood on the top of lonely hill. There was no chance of taking the way through roads. I had to take the shortcut. “What shall I do”, I pondered over it the second and decided I’d go the hill way to the top. So, I moved forwards. It was dead chilling cold and the rain had made it even more difficult to walk. The cloud had obscured the moon in the dark night and the whole way filled with sense of anger and malice.

I took a deep breath of the cool night air and walked faster towards the house. My curiosity was already beyond its limits. Now, I was almost to the top. The flickering light of the house could be seen nearby.

Finally, I reached there – 13 Redwood Villa.

The house stood, 3 storeys high, with boarded up windows and a broken chimney, giving the house a menacing look. Its door had been boarded up too but you could easily push it open between the planks at the bottom.

“Am I sure this is the house”, I thought to myself. Lucy hadn’t told me about why she wanted to see me. I was not really excited now, not after the dreadful smell and the abandoned look the house gave. “Well, I couldn’t turn back now, after all I’ve come till here”. I was stuck between fear and excitement.

But at last, a crack of thunder, a flash of lightning and slowly I pushed the door open. The rusty hinges gave a scary creaking noise. I took one last look at the outside of that fearsome house. The rain was splashing down around me. And then I had ducked under the planks of wood and was inside, peering about in the darkness.

This is a preview of the whole essay

As my eyes adjusted in the darkness, the room slowly came into the view, the long bare corridor with doors leading to unknown rooms. I then started even forwards. Suddenly I heard a squeak. I was totally daunted. And then I heard some footsteps as if someone was wandering around me.

My heart was accelerating. Thud, thud, thud... The rain was still pattering dismally on the window panes. Although petrified, I went to the door to see who it was. No one! I again heard the noise. I looked down. Thank god it was just a cat, an abandoned little black cat.

But its look was enough for me to give a fright. I had looked at the cat’s face in the gloom and I could see its dark hair, its perfect features and a ghastly eyes staring back at me. I slammed the door close and made a run. I could hear the cat meowing back as if trying to break inside. It all seemed stupid now. I should’ve never come to this house.

I was still running and just at the moment I saw a big door on the corner of the corridor. I went inside and entered a large bare room. It was all dark and smelled of sodden clothes and rotten fruits. Running through the side of the room I noticed a flight of stairs ahead of me. I could hear someone muttering on top of stairs.

Hurriedly, I ran up the stairs and reached the second floor. The windows upstairs were covered with large, black curtains which flapped along as the gust of wind rushed inside the windows. All the walls were covered with cobwebs. The floor creaked under my feet. That corridor had even more doors that led to unknown rooms. And I could still hear the voices.

Just then I saw someone hurrying inside one of the doors. It might have been the same person of whom I had heard footsteps of. I was shocked and shivered with frightfulness. “Who else could be inside? Was it Lucy?” I decided to follow the person. But the dim light of the moon flickered and the person darted away. I missed. That must have been my imagination.

Slowly I entered the room standing just behind me. That room was such a mess, as if someone had torn it apart in rage. All the things were tipped over on the floor. Through the bars of windows I could see the sky slowly clearing up. I looked at my watch. It was already ten to seven.

I still hadn’t seen Lucy yet. “If this was her trick to scare me then I would’ve never forgiven her, but what if she wasn’t playing a trick. She should’ve been here by now!”

I left the room and marched towards another room, and another. Through more doors and up another staircase and I realised I was totally lost. I swore I was. But I knew I was now on the topmost floor.

As I stood there, stiff, I heard the owl hooting and outside and also the rustling of leaves. But beneath all the noise, was the terrible silence that overpowered every other sound.

The voices were getting louder.

I checked through almost all of the rooms until I was really exhausted. I paused for a second and went towards the windows. I needed fresh air. Outside the windows I could see the whole city as dead as doornail. There was no trace of any sound, not even a single muttering or laugh. I again turned towards the corridors. I only had two more rooms to check.

I stepped up to one door and slowly reached for the handle. Just as I was about to enter inside, a group of bats hovered outside from the room. That was scary. I screamed with terror. I closed my eyes and ducked down until every bat had flown away. Luckily it was all quiet again.

Hastily I grabbed out the torchlight from my pocket and set it alight. In the flashlight I saw a puddle of liquid on the floor. Drops were splashing into it. “Was that a blood?” I frowned.

As I looked up, I saw a large chunk of wood that had fallen out of the ceiling. The rain was seeping into through the crack. I sighed with relief. The puddle on floor was just a rain, not the blood.

Just then I noticed some white thing on the floor. I focused the light on the floor. The light shone vividly at a large pair of sharp fangs. My head snapped up. I tried to scream but no sound came up. I stumbled back, clutched my stomach and fell over on the floor. I was unable to rip my eyes away from the sight. It couldn’t have been a real Dracula!

Startlingly, I crawled forward to touch the fangs. It came off onto my hand. It was just a fake pair of fangs. I was confused for a moment. Was it any trick!

It was now already five past seven and I was still wandering around the house. I still had to check in through one more room. The door stood on the farthest corner of the corridor. It looked creaky and intimidating. The illusion made it look even more sinister. Standing there, watching the quiet patience of the door, I knew it was more than a fright inside. I knew something was there. Not evil or malicious, simply dangerous!

The muttering voices were now gone. The whole house stood dead quiet. The only thing I could now hear was my own breath. Through the windows, the pale light of the moon shone beneath the dark deep clouds. Everything seemed so ghastly and unrealistic. I got up and slowly made my way towards the final door. My knees were now too weak, I had to bend and walk.

Lastly, I reached it. I grabbed the door handle and pushed myself inwards.

Oh my God! The room was so dark and so creepy. No windows, no light, nothing! I stood there in the silent darkness for a moment, holding my breath. I knew there was something hidden behind this darkness. I was now too much scared. So, I started backing away. Suddenly, something touched my back. I swore it was a human hand. “I must run away”. All these creepiness was now too much for me to bear.

But a noise behind me made me stop. I turned around slowly and tried to adjust my eyes in the darkness. Bare feet hit the floor loudly as I heard someone running towards me. “Hello, who’s there”, I shrieked with fear.

Silence! But suddenly the lights flicked open and the balloons popped out. I saw all the faces I knew. Before I could even realise anything, everyone shouted “Happy Birthday, James!”

English coursework Asmita Dhakal Page of 4

Haunted house narrative writing. The house stood on the top of lonely hill. There was no chance of taking the way through roads. I had to take the shortcut.

Document Details

Word Count 1578
Page Count 5
Subject English

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How to Write a Spooky Essay on Halloween: Tips, Topics, and Examples

In contemporary society, individuals continue to appreciate traditional festive events, with Halloween being a prime example. Common elements found in every Halloween celebration encompass:

Donning Halloween costumes.
Carving pumpkins.
Sharing spooky stories.
Exploring haunted houses.
Participating in trick-or-treating, and more.

Regardless of the academic task at hand, such as a science fair project or a presentation, the ultimate goal is often to achieve the highest grade. If you find yourself tasked with composing a Halloween essay, our coursework help service offers compelling ideas to ensure your essay stands out.

What Is a Halloween Essay

A Halloween essay is a written composition that explores and discusses various aspects related to Halloween, the popular festive celebration observed on October 31st. In such an essay, writers may delve into the history and origins of Halloween, cultural and societal traditions associated with the holiday, personal experiences and memories, or even explore the significance of Halloween in literature, film, or art.

The essay about Halloween may encompass a range of themes, from the spooky and supernatural elements often associated with Halloween to the more lighthearted aspects such as costumes, decorations, and traditional activities like trick-or-treating. Ultimately, a Halloween essay provides an opportunity for writers to express their thoughts, reflections, and insights related to this widely celebrated and unique holiday.

Halloween Essay Step-By-Step Writing Tips

Does the mere thought of tackling your homework send shivers down your spine? Certainly, similar to any academic task, crafting an essay on Halloween demands a sense of responsibility. Adhere to the key points outlined in our checklist, an integral component of our custom dissertation writing service .

How to Write a Spooky Essay on Halloween

Explore Halloween Essay Ideas for Your Topics

The versatility of Halloween essays allows for creativity in choosing topics. Crafting a compelling narrative that keeps readers engaged is key to success. Striking a balance between eerie elements and informative content is crucial. Consider sharing the history of trick-or-treat bags, recounting a mystical and spine-chilling personal experience, or even writing a book review on Halloween literature.

Conduct Thorough Research

To impress your audience with intriguing ideas and captivating details, delve into background information. Utilize old books or online resources, ensuring the credibility of your sources. Watching spooky movies or immersing yourself in Halloween stories can further enrich your essay with authentic and compelling content.

Adhere to a Structured Approach

While the theme is Halloween, maintaining a structured academic format is essential. Even in the realm of a Halloween essay, academic rules of how to write coursework still make a difference. Follow the conventions of scholarly writing, including a well-crafted thesis statement, an engaging introduction, a detailed body, and a conclusive conclusion. The thesis statement should succinctly encapsulate the main idea of your Halloween essay, setting the tone for the subsequent paragraphs.

Halloween Essay Example

Here is a nice sample of the Halloween essay for you.

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Halloween Essay Types

If you're aiming for top grades and the approval of your teachers, adhere to their specifications for the Halloween essay. Typically, they outline the desired type of work, which may fall into the following categories:

Narrative Halloween Essay

Crafting a narrative Halloween essay involves recounting a series of events, whether real or imaginary. For instance, share the details of your most recent Halloween as an illustration. Alternatively, let your imagination run wild and pen a story about an encounter with a haunted house.

Descriptive Halloween Essay

True to its name, a descriptive Halloween essay provides a detailed portrayal of the chosen topic. Narrate a story aligned with the theme of your Halloween costume, or delve into the intricacies of the jack-o-lantern you intricately carved during a festive gathering.

Informative Halloween Essay

If your goal is to impart knowledge, consider composing an informative essay. This Halloween paper can encompass details about the holiday's history or traditions. Explore topics such as the origins of spooky costumes, the significance of lighting bonfires, or the cultural variations in celebrations among different European ethnic groups.

Halloween Writing Prompt Ideas

Looking for inspirational Halloween essay ideas? Look no further! We present a compilation of compelling Halloween essay topics, and undoubtedly, at least one of these essay examples is sure to resonate with you.

Spooky Topics for a Short Essay About Halloween

People are drawn to narratives that evoke spine-chilling sensations, making a scary Halloween essay particularly appealing to readers. While an essay on "why Halloween is the best holiday" is fitting, there are numerous other ideas to explore:

The ghostly origins of Halloween: Unraveling the historical roots of Halloween's spookiness.
Exploring the mysteries within the infamous haunted house on Elm Street.
What makes midnight on Halloween so bewitching?
The legend of the headless horseman.
The dark side of trick-or-treating: Examining the potential dark undertones of the seemingly innocent tradition of trick-or-treating.
Have you heard the chilling tales of costumes carrying mysterious curses?
Tracing the eerie history behind the tradition of carving jack-o'-lanterns.
Spirits among us: Ghost stories of Halloween.
Discovering the mysteries within the deserted grounds of Halloween carnivals left in abandonment.
The enigmatic black cat: superstitions and folklore.

Best 5 Paragraph Essay About Halloween Ideas

Typically, a standard essay comprises approximately five sections. This structure enables the writer to convey their message concisely. Hence, select Halloween writing topics that can be effectively explored within a few paragraphs.

How have Halloween traditions evolved over time?
What makes haunted houses a compelling journey into fear?
How have Halloween costumes transitioned from tradition to trend?
What ghostly legends define the essence of Halloween?
Is trick-or-treating a sweet tradition or a dark deception?
How has the tradition of carving jack-o'-lanterns evolved through history?
How does Halloween manifest in literature and film as a spooky spectacle?
What psychological aspects drive fear during Halloween?
How does Halloween celebrate cultural variations around the world?
How has Halloween been shaped by popular culture?

Awesome Topics for an Essay About the Halloween Festival

If you have a penchant for various celebrations, you might consider crafting an essay about them. Explore a variety of Halloween essay options:

The history and origins of the Halloween festival.
Haunted attractions: A thrill or a frightening experience?
Costumes through time: Evolution of Halloween dressing.
Trick-or-treating: Innocent tradition or modern concern?
Carving tradition: The cultural significance of Jack-o'-Lanterns.
Halloween in popular culture: Depictions in movies and literature.
Cultural diversity in Halloween celebrations around the world.
Halloween and superstitions: Folklore and beliefs.
DIY Halloween decor: Crafting spooky ambiance at home.
Halloween and commercialization: Is the spirit lost in consumerism?

Creepy Ideas for Essay on Halloween Parties

Can you unravel the mystique of Halloween parties?
Eerie elegance – transforming spaces into hauntingly beautiful venues.
How can you explore spooky and tasty Halloween party recipes?
Whispering walls: How does ghostly décor send shivers down your spine?
Setting the right tone with a spine-chilling playlist.
Costume chronicles: The psychology behind creepy costumes.
Haunted games and activities: How to ensure goosebumps and laughter coexist.
Witch's brew and potions – crafting sinister cocktails for all to sip.
Ghostly guests – The art of inviting spirits to your Halloween bash?
The witching hour: The secrets to hosting a truly unforgettable midnight soirée.

Scary Halloween History Essay Ideas

Do you need to set a deadline for composing your essay on the history of Halloween? Undoubtedly, understanding the origins of beloved holidays is crucial for expanding your worldview and knowledge. If you're contemplating what to include in your paper, here are some suggestions for your history of Halloween essay:

The Witch Trials: How did the fear of witches shape Halloween's dark history?
Origins of Trick-or-Treating: Can you trace the spooky roots of this beloved tradition?
Eerie tales and legends that contribute to Halloween's mystique.
How did disguising oneself become an integral part of Halloween?
Ancient rituals laid the foundation for modern Halloween.
What's the history behind carving frightening faces on pumpkins?
How did Halloween become intertwined with the supernatural?
What led to the Christian influence on this pagan festival?
Documented accounts of paranormal activity on Halloween.
Commercialization of Fear: How did the Halloween industry turn fright into a lucrative business?

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Spooking Up

In conclusion, the possibilities for a Halloween essay are limitless. Embracing all the suggestions can turn the writing process into a surprisingly enjoyable endeavor. Consider the subjects you wish to explore, choose the most captivating topic, and embark on creating an exemplary assignment!

Daniel Parker

is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

How Long Should a College Essay Be: Simple Explanation

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Descriptive essay example: the haunted house.

Pushing the heavy gates open the touch of the iron bars, as cold as ice, seized up my hand completely. Even though I could feel the unevenness of the old cobbled path beneath me, they were smooth in contrast to the crunching of the odd dead leaf that I stepped on. Carrying on up the path the grass carried on forever into the horizon, a dull grey color as if it had lost the will to live and stopped growing altogether.

One lonesome Oak tree stood by the house swaying in the wind and as the windswept by the tree whispered to the air and its surroundings. The moon shone bright white, in the cloudless sky, it was the only source of light that could be seen for miles. Owls occasionally fluttered by overhead, their silhouettes passing over the grass. The air was cold and numb and with every breath I drew a misty, chilly exhale followed.

As the house drew nearer everything around me became quieter and more distant. The trees murmuring couldn’t be heard anymore and the cold iron gates were far, far back in the distance. Owls couldn’t be heard anymore and there were no leaves on the ground, just some aged concrete steps, and a doorway that stood in front of me.

From the outside, the house was tall and thin, made from large dark grey stones that had a rough feel all of this sandwiched together by crumbling cement. Climber Plants grew up the house winding around the drainpipes grabbing for the little sunlight that reached this desolate place. The windows rattled vigorously from the howling wind, as though they were about to fall out of the frames which were made from rotting wood being eaten away by wood worm. A few potted plants lay next to the door, once there for neat presentation now wilted and brown, almost certainly dead. The door had been left ajar perhaps for many years, or maybe someone was already in there.

The hallway was dull and smelt of dust mixed with old age. Paintings hung up of what looked to be important rich people, their eyes following my every move. To the left was an old wooden stairway leading upwards to the second floor each step looked so delicate and worn that if you were to walk up them you would step right through them. Straight ahead led to two more rooms, which looked to be a kitchen, from all the cups and plates left out, a dining room, and to the right of me was the lounge area. The lounge had large bookcases on each wall stacked with thick data books caped in dust. There was no television just a sofa, two chairs and a fireplace; the thick smell of charcoal from the once burning fireplace had spread around the room choking me up on the inside. The chairs and sofa were made from black leather once soft and comfy now thin and worn away from all the use. Under the chairs and in front of the fireplace lay a red and dusty grey rug stained from the charcoal and shredded at the sides from mice living in the bottom of the sofa.

As I entered the kitchen I could see the moonlight shining through the windows casting a reflection on the wall opposite. Mugs and plates lay on the surface cold and stained by tea. The sink and taps made from brass, eroded and layered in dirt, still leaking water into the sink and every time a drop of water fell an echo passed around the house as though symbols were being smashed together. I could feel the coldness from the musty orange and black tiled floor even though I was wearing shoes it felt as though it had frozen over.

I moved on to the dining room – a big table made from oak and six chairs filled the room. The table had been laid, the plates and silverware lay there untouched and unused like a forgotten date. Above the table hung a beautiful chandelier twinkling in the moonlight. The walls plastered with cream wallpaper curling in at the corners.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay
Descriptive Essay Topics
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Setting Description Entry: Haunted House (inside)

May 23, 2009 by BECCA PUGLISI

Sight Dust, cobwebs, sheets on furniture, broken tables, chairs, windows, lamps, peeling wallpaper, gaps in the floorboards, holes in the walls, flickering lights (if there’s electricity) chandelier with broken strings of crystals, broken glass on the floor, spiders, cockroaches, rust, mildew, ripped curtains, shadows, gloomy staircases, old portraits & paintings, cracked…

footsteps on the stair, creaking doors, window shutters rattling on the outside, wind scattering/rustling paper through a broken window gap, words whispered in ear, screams, crying, wailing, laughter, glass smashing, the scrap of a chair moving, the scritch of tree branches scraping at the windows, rats squeaking, movement in the walls, a…

Phantom perfume or cologne, burning smells, pipe or cigarette smoke, mildew, rot, dank, rusty or metallic smells, wet wood and stone, rancid breath, yeasty beer smell, food, dust, dry rot, rat/mice feces, urine

Sour & dry mouth from fear, dust floating in the air and coating the tongue, salty tears

A phantom hand on the shoulder, the puff of breath on the earlobe or the back of the neck, the sensation of being grabbed on the arm, pushed, pulled, pinched, poked, slapped, burned, a feeling of light-headedness and nausea, hair rising on arms or the back of the neck, the body’s reaction to a drop in temperature (chills, shivering, breath puffing out…

Helpful hints:

–The words you choose can convey atmosphere and mood.

Example 1: I cringed at each creak on the old warped stairs, but it didn’t sway my determination to make it to the bedroom on the second floor. Halfway up, a shadow flickered at the corner of my vision. I froze, and as I stood there, caught a woody scent lingering in the air. Tobacco smoke? A shiver curled through the hairs on the back of my neck then cascaded down my backbone. It was all I could do to not hurl myself back down the stairs toward the front door…

–Similes and metaphors create strong imagery when used sparingly.

Example 1: (Metaphor ) The dining room chair suddenly jolted back and tilted toward me, a gracious invitation by an invisible host…

Think beyond what a character sees, and provide a sensory feast for readers

Setting is much more than just a backdrop, which is why choosing the right one and describing it well is so important. To help with this, we have expanded and integrated this thesaurus into our online library at One Stop For Writers.

Each entry has been enhanced to include possible sources of conflict, people commonly found in these locales, and setting-specific notes and tips, and the collection itself has been augmented to include a whopping 230 entries—all of which have been cross-referenced with our other thesauruses for easy searchability. So if you’re interested in seeing this powerful Setting Thesaurus , head on over and register at One Stop.

On the other hand, if you prefer your references in book form, we’ve got you covered, too, because both books are now available for purchase in digital and print copies. In addition to the entries, each book contains instructional front matter to help you maximize your settings. With advice on topics like making your setting do double duty and using figurative language to bring them to life, these books offer ample information to help you maximize your settings and write them effectively.

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers —a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

Reader Interactions

May 14, 2021 at 1:51 pm

creepy…

May 8, 2021 at 6:48 pm

Oh wow. It hadn’t occurred to me to make a list of all the things to do with my settings. Thank you for this. Brilliant!

May 10, 2021 at 5:53 am

It’s so much easier to get the setting exactly where we want it when we know beforehand what to aim for :).

March 12, 2021 at 5:58 pm

I really love this Thank you so much for doing this

March 2, 2021 at 2:17 pm

February 18, 2021 at 8:34 am

Thankyou soo much…it really helped me

February 13, 2021 at 5:04 am

omg!! Thankyou so much, this helped with my assignment!!!

February 10, 2021 at 6:25 am

thank you so much, helped me alot during lockdown!!

February 11, 2021 at 8:29 am

Well thank goodness for that!

December 22, 2020 at 12:24 am

Thank You really helpful

December 12, 2020 at 5:30 am

December 4, 2020 at 11:38 pm

Thank you so much, there are totally enough ideas for me for my essay

November 22, 2020 at 10:04 am

Very helpful

November 10, 2020 at 5:41 pm

thank you so much i needed ideas and this gave me so much.

October 21, 2020 at 4:50 pm

I am doing a descriptive writing project and this helped me so much! Thank You!

October 21, 2020 at 7:01 pm

Glad it helped!

March 20, 2021 at 6:59 am

October 8, 2020 at 11:51 am

I love the website I had to write a paper about Halloween and I used this website to find my d Description Word I need . Who ever made this website I don’t know what I would tell him or her but it’s one of my favorite it gives me great description of what words I don’t understand and I then I can use it later if I could rate it 5 stars

October 8, 2020 at 1:07 pm

Zachary, I am so glad you like this website and it’s a help to you!

September 26, 2020 at 5:48 pm

thank u a lot s helps me in my writing

September 19, 2020 at 1:49 am

Thanks! It was quite helpful for my paragraph. 😊

March 25, 2020 at 1:17 am

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This was SOOO helpful. Thanks a lot.

January 2, 2020 at 5:56 am

this helped me with my essay A LOT!!!!!!!!!!! 😊

December 3, 2019 at 2:51 pm

This is awesome！👌

March 31, 2021 at 11:41 pm

This awesome

November 18, 2019 at 1:32 pm

This is so helpful for everyone . People can use them in essays while describing a haunted house .

November 10, 2020 at 5:43 pm

That is exactly what i used it for

November 11, 2019 at 7:02 am

This is so helpful! Definately the best website for writing! Thanksssss❤️❤️

November 11, 2019 at 10:42 am

Happy this helps!

November 3, 2019 at 7:28 am

October 25, 2019 at 4:58 am

I really like it. It’s really good.for.young children and writers. I love it do much

July 1, 2019 at 6:21 pm

wow I really needed this thank you sooo much

May 25, 2019 at 11:22 am

Amazing. Im a 14-year-old writer and all these descriptions inspired me on how to write my mystery book. Thanks so much Becca

February 9, 2019 at 6:29 pm

I really liked it because it helped me a lot to inspire me with my writing for greater depth.It was all very creative and amazing 😃👍🏻

January 28, 2019 at 11:34 am

very good descriptions

January 3, 2019 at 11:03 pm

This is too helpful

November 11, 2018 at 4:21 am

Helpful!!!!!

June 6, 2019 at 2:08 am

Good descriptive terms and phrases!!

October 24, 2018 at 1:23 pm

Thank you so much you have helped me so much.

October 23, 2018 at 10:49 am

This story describes the house and starts to leave an image of what the inside of the house looks like. I get shivers reading it.

October 22, 2018 at 11:10 am

I love this website it helps me

July 22, 2018 at 8:38 am

Thank you so much.. It helped me a lot… I am very happy about this web page😊

November 19, 2018 at 11:04 pm

yeah me too it helped alot

December 13, 2017 at 7:04 am

Thank you so much it really helped write my writing assessment and get full marks, don’t worry i didn’t cheat that much!

October 25, 2019 at 12:17 pm

lmao “that much”

November 9, 2017 at 5:32 pm

It Game Some Ideas What To Write

April 4, 2017 at 1:37 pm

Its just awesome because I get a idea to write it in my suspense story??

March 19, 2017 at 11:49 am

thanks alot it really helped me in my suspense story writing and it did really gave me some ideas to write it thanks 😉

December 3, 2016 at 8:15 am

Thank you very much. This is helpful to do my English HW. Zabit Khwaja

September 12, 2018 at 2:01 pm

October 25, 2016 at 2:12 pm

Thank you !! This has really helped me to do my homework and to inspire me for different t ideas.

October 6, 2016 at 9:45 am

this helped me do my English course thank u sooo much

September 1, 2011 at 9:32 am

this is awesome! 😀 helped me do my coursework for English! thanks a lot 😀

October 14, 2010 at 8:47 pm

this story is awsome i want to read another one.

September 16, 2010 at 12:48 pm

Thanks Aloot It Helped Me In My English Homework:) But I Think It Would Be Better If There Were More Examples Of Haunted Houses:D x

April 3, 2010 at 4:53 pm

this has helped me a great deal with my story for my English class 🙂

May 27, 2009 at 11:34 am

I love the image of the child riding a phantom rocking horse — very effective.

May 25, 2009 at 11:48 pm

This one was so fun to do. There are so many unusual settings to explore–stay tuned!

May 24, 2009 at 6:08 pm

You gals cover some of the greatest topics!!! Hope you can get these out in book form soon or eventually! Keep up the good work!

May 24, 2009 at 7:21 am

I can hear the wind moaning around corners…whhoooooooooowhoooooo.

May 24, 2009 at 7:14 am

Fantastic! Thanks!

May 23, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Gives me the shivers too. =)

May 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm

Gives me shivers just reading it. 😉

A Summary and Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Haunted House’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Haunted House’, by Virginia Woolf, both is and is not a ghost story. In less than two pages of prose, Woolf explores, summons, and subverts the conventions of the ghost story, offering a modernist take on the genre. ‘A Haunted House’, which first appeared in Woolf’s 1921 short-story collection Monday or Tuesday , can be read here .

‘A Haunted House’ is at once easy and difficult to summarise; how we analyse the story depends on which aspects we emphasise. In summary, the narrator describes the house where she and her partner live. Whenever you wake in the house, you hear noises: a door shutting, and the sound of a ‘ghostly couple’ wandering from room to room in the house. The narrator (whom we can assume, tentatively, is female) claims to be able to hear this ghostly couple talking to each other. It’s clear they’re looking for something:

‘Here we left it,’ she said. And he added, ‘Oh, but here too!’ ‘It’s upstairs,’ she murmured. ‘And in the garden,’ he whispered. ‘Quietly,’ they said, ‘or we shall wake them.’

Next, the narrator describes reading a book outside while hearing the ghostly couple, in the background, hunting for this mysterious thing around the house. But as soon as she drops the book and goes to look for them, there is no sign of the ghostly pair – just the sound of the wood pigeons and the threshing machine.

The narrator confides that you could never see the ghosts, just reflections of apples and leaves in the sunlit windows. The house itself seems to be speaking, saying something about buried treasure. The light is fading, and the rooms are darkened. The narrator imagines the male ghost leaving the female one behind for some reason. It is now night-time, and the ghostly coupling continue to ‘seek their joy’. They appear to reminisce over the bed (where the living, present-day couple now sleep) where they once slept, centuries ago.

The narrator then imagines the ghostly couple standing over her as she sleeps, and, holding a lamp over the bed of the living couple, the ghosts pause, still seeking ‘their hidden joy’. Then, the narrator wakes up and feels that she has solved the mystery, and now understands what this ‘buried treasure’ is what the ghostly couple have been seeking: ‘the light in the heart’.

‘A Haunted House’ seems to be Woolf’s attempt to convey the feeling of sensing something just on the edge of hearing or sight: something you cannot see head-on but which you sense in the house with you, just on the periphery of your vision. We can probably all relate to the experience of being alone in a house and feeling that every creak, every hum, every far-off sound betokens something – a ghost, or an intruder, for instance.

Woolf’s story seeks to encapsulate that experience. That title, ‘A Haunted House’, is ripe with potential irony. And it is only ‘potential’ – for all we know, there may have been a ghostly couple in the house with the story’s narrator.

But it’s suggestive that the narrator seems most attuned to the presence of the ‘ghosts’ when she’s in states of semi-consciousness or her mind is somewhere else: just waking up, or engrossed in a book, for instance. Consider the very first sentence of the story: ‘Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting.’

Three things suggest themselves here, at least. First, the use of the second-person pronoun ‘you’ attempts to involve us in the narrator’s experiences, as if to suggest that we have all felt something similar to this, things on the margins of our conscious experience. Second, the fact that she begins by talking about just waking from sleep – something that will come again at the end of the story – suggests waking from a dream.

Third, the fact that she mentions waking at any hour is indicative of someone who might fall asleep at any moment – someone who daydreams in the most literal sense, falling asleep during daytime, and therefore (arguably) more prone to confusing dreams with reality.

‘A Haunted House’ might be described as a short story – and, in one way, as a ghost story – but its language is almost that of a prose-poem. The rhythmical prose beats like a heart with the repeated refrain: ‘“Safe, safe, safe,” the pulse of the house beat softly.’ This mantra reappears later, with ‘softly’ changed to ‘gladly’, and then again in the final paragraph as the couple are reunited, with the adverb changed to ‘proudly’ and ‘pulse’ upped to ‘heart’ – and, suggestively, the tense shifted from past to present, as ‘beat’ morphs into ‘beats’:

‘Safe, safe, safe,’ the heart of the house beats proudly. ‘Long years—’ he sighs. ‘Again you found me.’ ‘Here,’ she murmurs, ‘sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure—’ Stooping, their light lifts the lids upon my eyes. ‘Safe! safe! safe!’ the pulse of the house beats wildly. Waking, I cry ‘Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart.’

Was it all a dream? The pulsing sound that beats through the prose in its almost poetic rhythms could almost suggest the quickening heartbeat of the narrator as s/he awakes. The accumulation of active present participles, of ‘sleeping’, ‘reading’, ‘laughing’, ‘rolling’, and ‘stooping’, only intensifies the here-and-now of the moment being crystallised in prose.

That final phrase, ‘The light in the heart’, looks back to the use of both ‘heart’ and ‘light’ earlier in the same paragraph. Woolf’s ‘story’ positions itself neatly between dream-vision and ghost story, reinventing both using the new style of modernism and that movement’s interest in shifting tense and perspective. As with much modernist fiction, perception, rather than objective reality, is foregrounded.

In an essay on Henry James’s ghost stories, published in 1921 – the same year as ‘A Haunted House’ – Virginia Woolf called for new writers to find fresh and original ways of arousing fear and terror in readers of ghost stories:

To admit that the supernatural was used for the last time by Mrs. Radcliffe and that modern nerves are immune from the wonder and terror which ghosts have always inspired would be to throw up the sponge too easily. If the old methods are obsolete, it is the business of a writer to discover new ones. The public can feel again what it has once felt—there can be no doubt about that; only from time to time the point of attack must be changed.

Woolf sought to do this with ‘A Haunted House’, a story which is both a ghost story and a riposte to, or analysis of, the conventional ghostly tale. But, given that final phrase, ‘The light in the heart’, it is also a love story, and – given its relative plotlessness, its brevity, and its prose-poetry style – barely a ‘story’ at all.

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4 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Haunted House’”

I hadn’t read this before and thought when it started that it was going to be the narrator herself taking on a male and female persona and looking for love. Because it seems like to me if she only hears them when she wakes or when she’s reading that they only exist in her mind and not in “reality.”

Reblogged this on Greek Canadian Literature .

Oh, this is definitely going on my TBR list. Thanks! I wonder that she suggests Radcliffe, rather than Poe, as the last “supernatural” horror writer, though. I suppose didn’t much go in for ghosts, per se, but it still seems an odd oversight.

I loved this story. I discovered it last year and read it several times, then featured it on my blog as well. I had never read a ghostly story like this before and it truly stands out. One of the lines that has remained with me was ‘Death was the glass; death was between us …’ Love the brevity of the story too—kind of like being given a private glance into the other side of reality.

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The 25 greatest horror books of all time.

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Jack Nicholson peering through axed in door in lobby card for the film "The Shining," 1980.

Horror is a mind-bending genre that can be powerful and imaginative. Some of the best horror books and authors are known for taking the normal grind of everyday life, making them grotesque and frightening. Here is a list of the best horror books to read right now.

Top Horror Books

There are several horror novels that have set the standard in the world of literature, including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), and Stephen King’s The Shining (1977). These books are not just classics but define the essence of the genre.

25 . We Have Always Lived in the Castle By Shirley Jackson

Published in 1962, Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of the most familiar horror books in American literary horror history. The body of work was among the last books Jackson ever wrote, and it captures her razor-sharp ability to use psychological horror and her unique toolkit for exploring human interiority and commenting on social mores. The book follows the story of 18-year-old Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood, one of the only surviving family members of the Blackwood family who were poisoned by arsenic in their food six years prior. One of the novel’s central themes is physical and emotional isolation. This duality explores the human condition—the safety of familiar spaces and the suffocating effect they can have on the mind. We Have Always Lived in the Castle was published by Penguin Random House .

Who should read: This novel is an excellent read for fans who enjoy psychological horror, literary fiction, or stories that explore themes of isolation and suspicion.

24. The Haunting of Hill House By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson makes another appearance on this list with her 1959 release, The Haunting of Hill House . Jackson, who refused to be restricted by the genre status quo, created The Haunting of Hill House, w hich delved into psychic hauntings. Over six decades later, it remains a touchstone for authors and filmmakers. The undeniably creepy ghost story is a work of art that studies the examination of the dark, hostile space that exists between humans. The book revolves around four characters: John Montague, who is a scholar interested in proving that the supernatural exists; Eleanor Vance, an embittered nursery maid who has led a sheltered life taking care of her overbearing mother; Theodora, a bohemian artist; and Luke Sanderson, the young heir to Hill House. These four adults must navigate staying in a haunted mansion and the paranormal activities that follow. The Haunting of Hill House can be found at Penguin Random House .

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Who should read: The Haunting of Hill House is a psychological horror book with gothic elements and is ideal for readers who are drawn to classic horror.

23. Let the Right One In By John Ajvide Lindqvist

In John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In (2004), Lindquist follows the lives of two main characters: a 12-year-old boy, Oskar, and a vampire child called Eli. Oskar, a bullied middle schooler, lives with his mother in one of the blocks of flats in a drab neighborhood. For the most part, his life is dull and mundane, but things take a dark turn when he meets Eli. The story’s plot takes place in Blackeberg, Stockholm, a Swedish suburb in the early 1980s. In this novel, Lindqvist turns vampire folklore inside out, blending themes of horror, adventure, and drama in the vampire story. Let the Right One In, can be found at Macmillan Publishers.

Who should read: Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In is a good read for people who enjoy stories about underdogs whose lives take a swift turn in the most unexpected ways.

22. The Case Against Satan By Ray Russell

In his 1962 horror novel, Ray Russell delves deep into the throes of demonic possession and brings his readers along with him. Russell, who is known for his spin on gothic fiction, brings the story of Susan Garth, a mild-mannered high schooler who suddenly develops a disdain for religion and becomes extremely violent and vulgar in her speech. It soon becomes obvious that Susan is possessed by demonic forces, and it is up to her priest and bishop to exorcize the spirits out of her. The exorcism promises to be an uphill battle, not just spiritual warfare but also a deep psychological battle that tests the limits of their faith and challenges the faith of the community. This book is available at Penguin Random House .

Who should read: Readers who are fascinated by the confluence of religion and its contrast with demonic possession and the fight for good and evil.

21. The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night By Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Published in 2022, The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night is the first volume of the graphic novel horror trilogy by award-winning team Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, the duo behind the New York Times-bestselling Monstress trilogy. The book follows the lives of Chinese American twins, Milly and Billy, who are struggling to keep their Chinese restaurant afloat amid the added chaos of their personal lives. Things take a sinister turn for them when their mother, Ipo enlists their help to tidy the neighboring house—an eerie, wreck where a gruesome murder once took place. What starts as a straightforward clean-up quickly spirals into a chaotic blend of gore and supernatural chaos. The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night is available at Barnes & Noble .

Who should read: Readers who enjoy plot twists and like to find horror in unimaginable places will find this book to be an appropriate literary escape.

20. Nothing But Blackened Teeth By Cassandra Khaw

In her 2021 horror novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth, Cassandra Khaw uncovers the terror and intrigue through tensions of family and relationships played off against a Japanese haunted house (of the Heian era). In this story, the supernatural becomes entangled with reality with a wedding that turns into a nightmare. This is shown through the evil of a samurai spirit, the ghost of an executed wife, and an ancient suicide pact, with all the terror playing out throughout the wedding party. As Khaw keeps increasing the stakes of her horrifyingly good drama, she increases the stakes and tension, capturing the minds of readers through intrigue, mystery, and tension. This book is available at Barnes & Noble .

Who should read: Readers who enjoy reading about culture will like the angle in which Khaw approached the plot of this story. This novel is also a good read for those with a penchant for tight-knit storytelling.

19. Road of Bones By Christopher Golden

Christopher Golden’s Road of Bones, which was published in 2022, is a vivid depiction of how far people will go to fight for their freedom. The novel follows the story of protagonist Felix Teigland, a documentary filmmaker who is determined to explore the infamous Kolyma Highway in Siberia, known as the “Road of Bones.” This road, built during Stalin’s reign, is notorious for being constructed on the corpses of prisoners who died during its construction. Felix, along with his team and a guide, venture into the Siberian wilderness to capture the haunted history of this road on film. This New York Best Seller is available at Macmillan Publishers .

Who should read: Readers who enjoy stories with plots that delve into spooky historical facts and ghostly apparitions will find Road of Bones very satisfying.

18. The Only Good Indians By Stephen Graham Jones

Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians is a book, published in 2020, that dives into the American Indian experience. Jones follows four American Indian men — Lewis, Gabe, Cass, and Rick— whose lives are forever shattered, when, as boys, they stumble upon a terrible accident on an elk hunt. The story traces the psychological and spiritual fallout of what happened during that elk hunt and the horrific accident that took place after that. Jones explores the cultural, geographical, and emotional distances that the four men have crossed over since that incident happened. The Only Good Indians can be found at Simon & Schuster .

Who should read: Readers who like books that highlight themes of horror, cultural identity, and the influence of the past on the present, will appreciate the intense and haunting scenes of this book.

17. Doing Harm By Kelly Parson

Kelly Parson’s 2014 novel Doing Harm dives into the ethical and moral dilemmas that can show up in the medical field. Doing Harm follows Steve Mitchell, a confident surgeon whose life seems to be going in the right direction with a promising career at Boston’s renowned University Hospital. The plot of the novel ramps up, however, when Steve’s world is turned upside down by a series of unsettling events that happen at the hospital. When he discovers that there is an evil force within the hospital that is causing mysterious medical complications for patients, he becomes alarmed. Things take an abrupt turn when Steve finds himself suspected of being the perpetrator behind these mysterious medical conditions. Doing Harm is available on Macmillan Publishers .

Who should read: Doing Harm is a good read for readers who enjoy medical-themed plots and are fascinated by out-of-the-box storylines.

16. Beloved By Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) is an American literary classic that is set in Ohio after the Civil War. In Beloved, Morrison introduces readers to a freed slave woman named Sethe, who is still haunted by what she remembers of her enslavement, the murder of her husband and child, and the years she spent struggling to get her life back on track after she escaped slavery. Although she is free, Sethe continues to be haunted by the ghost of her dead baby, and in what appears to be a terrifying sequence of events, the infant’s ghost pushes Sethe to come to terms with the realities of her complex past and the supernatural world. In Beloved, Morrison brilliantly interrogates ideas of family, freedom, and the legacy of the past. The book is available on Penguin Random House .

Who should read: Readers who enjoy evocative stories by Black authors that tap into serious elements of history and provocative themes will enjoy this book.

15. Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories By Roald Dahl

Just before his untimely death in 1990, Roald Dahl, combed through 749 short stories in the British Museum Library and chose a collection of 14 of the best stories to curate this anthology. Although this book is a collection of several stories by other authors, Dahl weaves the various ghost-centered stories in a way that is cohesive and easy to follow. This collection is available at Macmillan Publishers .

Who should read: Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories is a good read for readers who enjoy a collection of short stories with various plots.

14. Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman

Christopher Buehlman’s Those Across The River is a 2011 novel that follows the lives of a struggling professor, Frank Nichols and his wife Eudora who move back to his family estate in Whitbrow, Georgia. With this move, Frank hopes to write about the crumbling remains of his family’s ancient plantation. At first, Frank and Eudora believe that the small town is peaceful and idyllic for the new lifestyle, but they soon discover that this new environment will become an eerie backdrop for Southern Gothic tradition and supernatural mystery . Those Across the River is available at Barnes & Noble .

Who should read: Christopher Buehlman’s Those Across The River is a great read for readers who enjoy horror and cultural rituals and traditions.

13. The Ruins by Scott Smith

Scott Smith’s The Ruins is a page-turner, but, thanks to the expert way the 2006 novel layers horror on horror, it also becomes a tense meditation on the nature of terror. Set in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, it is a novel that uses the thrill of horror, linked with fantasy adventure, to tell its story. Smith tells the story through the lens of teenage adventurers who don’t realize that their vacation spot is more dangerous and sinister than they thought. This book is available at Barnes & Noble .

Who should read: Readers who enjoy horror, fantasy, adventure, and fiction will be drawn to the heart-pounding plot in Smith’s The Ruins .

12. Coraline By Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline , published in 2002, does not rely on gore or shock alone, but instead on the unsettling sense of dread and the realization that the world we take for comfort may hold much darker secrets. The book plays into one of our scariest fears: that the familiar can be more sinister down the line. In Coraline , young Coraline Jones discovers a dark reflection of her reality when, one fateful day, she walks through a strange door and her life is forever altered. Although this book is specifically marketed toward young readers, its ideas and plot can still seem particularly scary, especially for those who are not quite used to it.

Who should read: Young readers who are ready to start engaging with the horror genre will find this book compelling. It is available at HarperCollinsPublisher .

11. White Is for Witching By Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Oyeyemi’s White Is for Witching is a 2009 book that follows the Silver family, who are mourning the death of their matriarch, Lily. After Lily’s death, the lives of her twins, Miranda and Eliot, along with her husband Luc, begin to fall apart Things become stranger when their house begins to make mysterious creaking noises. Miranda's drastic change in behavior compounds this. Oyeyemi’s White Is for Witching navigates the maze of demonic influence, paranoia, and suspicion that can be heightened by the daily repetition of isolation. This book is available at Penguin Random House.

Who should read: Readers who enjoy gothic horror, mystery, and suspense will like this book.

10. Something Wicked This Way Comes By Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury ’s Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) is pure Bradbury—dark and filled with the signature foreboding that often defines his work. Although the novel isn’t Bradbury’s most commercially famous body of work, it is arguably one of his best horror stories. Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes tells the story of a traveling circus full of carnival rides and games that comes to a town, bringing with it a strange man named Mr. Dark who can grant the wishes of residents in the most vengeful ways. This book is available at Simon & Schuster .

Who should read: This book is a perfect read for people who enjoy dark horror and mysterious protagonists.

9. The House Across the Lake By Riley Sager (Todd Ritter)

Some of the best literary horror stories have a fascination with secluded cabins and eerie lake houses that offer the perfect setting for spooky acts and tit-for-tat paybacks. One of the most effective uses of this trope is in Riley Sager’s 2022 novel, The House Across the Lake , where the widowed actress Casey Fletcher decides to spend some time alone in a holiday home in rural Vermont. During this time of seclusion, she ends up obsessively spying on her wealthy neighbors, and it soon dawns on her that there is more to her neighbors than meets the eye. Soon, her neighborly hobby turns into something darker when one of her neighbors disappears without a trace.

Who should read: This book is a perfect read for those who enjoy an extra dose of pulse-pounding mystery and suspense. This book is available at Penguin Random House .

8. Carrion Comfort By Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons’ 1989 novel Carrion Comfort has a terrifying premise that offers a fresh twist on our common fears. Although most people dread physical threats that could harm or steal their bodies, this novel introduces a far more sinister fear: The human mind. In Carrion Comfort , the mind vampires are content to manipulate their victims from within by controlling their actions without ever needing to physically manifest. The story follows the plot of Dr. Saul Laski, a psychiatrist and concentration camp survivor whose haunting memories continue to affect his future.

Who should read: This is a great book for readers who appreciate horror as a genre and like plots that are mind-bending and intriguing. The book is available at Macmillan Publishers .

7. The Terror By Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons’ 2007 The Terror is a book that leans into classic horror to tell the story of two ships stranded in the Arctic with no way to escape. Published in 2007, Simmons uses the true events of the 1845 Franklin expedition led by Sir John Franklin to tell the fictional account of the 19th-century British Royal Navy Franklin Expedition. This story adds to the historical event by incorporating a supernatural twist. The crew, already battling the cold environment and depleted food supplies, finds themselves stalked by a mysterious predator—a hideous creature that appears from the fog and ice. In this story, Simmons offers a unique interpretation of a historical event through his sharp storytelling.

Who should read: This is a great book for readers who enjoy historical books and is available on Hachette Book Group .

6. Dracula By Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic horror Dracula is told through the lens of letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. Although the book does not have a main character, Jonathan Harker is one character that the story revolves around. The young English solicitor visits Count Dracula in Transylvania to help with a real estate transaction. Harker soon discovers Dracula’s true identity as a vampire and promptly escapes. Shortly after, Dracula moves to England and brings a wave of bizarre and horrifying events to terrorize his victims

Who should read: Dracula is a classic for readers who enjoy historical books and is available on Simon & Schuster .

5. Ghost Story By Peter Staub

First published in 1979, Peter Staub’s Ghost Story follows the story of a group of elderly men called the Chowder Society, who gather together to share ghost stories. However, the seemingly harmless tradition among these old friends holds a darker past. Several years ago, they were involved in a tragic accident that led to the death of a young woman, and now they are all haunted by their invasive memories and the evil and supernatural forces that they have accidentally awakened. Staub’s approach to writing this book was subtle because he relied on subtlety, rather than overt expressions of gore and horror. This book is available at Penguin Random House .

Who should read: Staub’s classic book is excellent for readers who are drawn to this book.

4. The Strangler By William Landay

William Landay’s second novel, The Strangler (2007), is a 1963 Boston mystery thriller. In his book. Landy uses legal and crime thrillers to tell the story of the Daley family in Boston during a tumultuous period that is marked by a series of serial strangler murders that have the city on edge. At first, what starts as the suspicious death of a police officer in the line of duty soon grows into something more persistent and sinister, forcing the Daley brothers to act. The book is available at Penguin Random House .

Who should read: Landay’s The Strangler is a perfect book for readers who enjoy adventure, horror, and suspense.

3. IT By Stephen King

Many Stephen King fans will agree that IT is one of his most terrifying bodies of work in King’s repertoire. The 1986 horror novel sees King follow the lives of seven adults back to Derry, Maine, where they once fought an evil creature that targeted the town’s children. As teenagers, they were confident that they had completely defeated the creature, but they swore to return to the town if the horror ever returned. Now, with new child murders terrorizing Derry, the seven adults must once again confront the sinister creature 30 years later. The book is available at Simon & Schuster .

Who should read: King’s IT is a perfect book for readers who can handle horror that many might consider disturbing.

2. Frankenstein By Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley’s timeless 1818 masterpiece, Frankenstein , has fascinated readers for over two centuries, and for good reason. The story poses a profound question that remains chillingly relevant even after so many years: What are the consequences when humanity dares to play God? The book centers around gothic horror, romantic tragedy, and philosophical inquiry and explores themes of ambition, responsibility, and the limits of human creativity. Shelley’s layered storytelling and attention to detail come through as she explores the relationships between characters enhancing the novel’s exploration of isolation and the desire for acceptance, making Frankenstein much more than just a horror story. Each reading of this tale about a visionary scientist and his monstrous creation offers new insights and emotional resonances. This book is available at Simon & Schuster .

Who should read: This is a great book for readers who are loyal to classic horror and love the intellectual aspects of it.

1. The Shining By Stephen King

It would be a travesty not to include Stephen King ’s masterpiece on this list, and it is hard to choose just one. King’s The Shining follows middle-aged writer Jack Torrance who thought he would solve his creative block when he was hired as the winter caretaker of the historic Overlook Hotel. Cut off from the rest of the world, Jack’s psyche quickly begins to unravel. The yawning, empty corridors of the hotel echo only with the sinister creaks of buildings settling into place, and the haunting shriek of wind down its chimneys. These sounds seem to drive Jack towards a state of madness, rather than inspiring creativity. And this ultimately leads to his wife and son being at his mercy. The Shining is available at Penguin Random House .

Who should read: Stephen King’s The Shining is perfect for people who are fascinated by the psychological aspects of horror, especially those who are fascinated by the breakdown of the human psyche under isolation and stress.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the best books by stephen king.

Stephen King is often called the master of modern horror. His novels have earned him a reputation as a master storyteller. Some of the books that have defined his career include:

IT : In this 1986 novel, King taps into the universal fear of the unknown and the creature, referred to as IT , whom a group of friends are determined to confront.

The Shining: Another masterpiece in King’s resume is The Shining , which is set in the isolated Overlook Hotel and showcases Jack Torrance’s regression into psychotic madness after he is tormented by the forces around him.

What Are Good Creepy Short Stories?

Horror can be a lot to take in, and a short story can offer a better option for readers who don’t have the appetite for a horror-themed book full of gore.

Stephen King’s Survivor Type follows the story of a failed surgeon who finds himself stranded on an island with no hope of escaping. As days turn into weeks with no sign of rescue, his situation grows increasingly dire. The psychological horror story was released in 1982.

What Are Good Romantic Horror Stories?

Harley Laroux’s Her Soul to Take is the first book in the Souls Trilogy. The book, which was first published in 2021, follows the story of a ritualistic monster cult and the dark and twisted sides of romance embedded in it. The book is available at Barnes & Noble .

What Are Good Sci-Fi Horror Stories?

Set in the 22nd century, Blindsight is a 2006 sci-fi horror fiction book by Peter Watts that combines intelligence with terror in this high-stakes sci-fi story. Humanity encounters a significant alien spacecraft lurking on the solar system’s fringes.

What Are Good Horror Stories For Kids?

From 1992 to 1997, R. L. Stine published 62 books under the main Goosebumps title, offering something unique for young readers with diverse reading palettes. Stine’s Goosebumps series has become one of the bestselling teen horror series of all time. The series is available at Simon & Schuster and is one of the best-selling horror stories for kids.

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10 Incredible Horror Books That Still Need Movies

Many horror book adaptations have been successful, proving that the genre has untapped potential for the audiovisual medium.
Different horror sub-genres, such as zombies and occult horror, have already been successfully adapted into movies.
Several chilling horror novels, including House of Leaves and The Only Good Indians, deserve to be explored in a movie storytelling format.

The success of several horror book adaptations proves that many other novels of the genre deserve to be traversed into the audiovisual medium of storytelling. From Alex Garland's Annihilation to Stephen King's The Shining , many epic horror movies are adaptations of equally epic books. In recent years, filmmakers like Mike Flanagan have also joined the roster of directors who manage to bring new life to horror literature by effectively adapting it into live-action movies and TV shows.

Almost every horror movie sub-genre now consists of a book adaptation. For instance, while the zombie genre includes movies like I Am Legend , occult horror adaptations like The Exorcist and The Omen have been around for quite some time. Considering the success of so many horror novel adaptations, it is hard not to wonder how many other books with unrealized potential could translate well into movies. Therefore, here is a rundown of ten chilling horror novels that deserve to be explored in a movie storytelling format.

RELATED: 10 Incredible Sci-Fi Books That Still Need Movies

I Found A Circus Tent In The Woods Behind My House, By Ben Farthing

Although relatively obscure, I Found A Circus Tent In The Woods Behind My House follows a simple storyline where a father and a son get swallowed into a creepy world of endless circus tents. Using this strange setting as a narrative device, the Ben Farthing book highlights the lengths a father would be willing to go to protect his child. The book also leverages the universal phobia of clowns, tapping into a reader’s primal fears with its bone-chilling exploration of the fragile boundaries between the supernatural and reality.

House of Leaves, By Mark Z. Danielewski

Given how Mark Z. Danielewski's debut novel, House of Leaves , is often touted as one the best horror novels of all time, it is strange how it still has not received a movie adaptation. Perhaps the book's uncanny structure and constantly shifting setting make it so challenging to translate to the big screen. The book also has other unique traits where some words are color-coded while others are crammed into tiny corners, reflecting the nature of the central maze-like haunted house in its story. Owing to these details, a movie may not be able to accurately adapt the book but could still adopt its own unique style to bring new life to Danielewski's story.

The Fisherman, John Langan

Cosmic horror rarely translates well to the big screen. However, time and again, movies like Annihilation and The Endless have proven that if executed well, films can make sense of the unknown without completely alienating audiences. The Fisherman , too, offers one of those Lovecraftian narratives that may not traverse easily to the audiovisual medium. However, if handled with the right approach, the book's depiction of a malevolent fishing spot that threatens the sanity of two characters could become another plausible cinematic portrayal of the proverbial fear of the unknown.

How To Sell A Haunted House, By Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix's How To Sell A Haunted House follows siblings Louise and Mark, who reunite to sell their late parents' home. Little do they realize that there is more to their childhood house than meets the eye, and selling it would not be as easy as they had anticipated. As How To Sell A Haunted House walks through all the campy terrors that await Louise and Mark in their childhood home, it also explores themes of nostalgia and the impact of the past on a family.

The Only Good Indians, By Stephen Graham Jones

Touted as a treat for Jordan Peele fans, The Only Good Indians merges culture, identity, and tradition with horror. The book walks through a tale of four Native American friends who blatantly break their tribe's law and moral values by going on a ruthless elk killing spree. Their act of defiance gives birth to a curse that gradually comes into existence over the span of a decade. Like a Jordan Peele movie , The Only Good Indians takes its time to find its find and waits until its final arcs to connect the dots and make sense of its overarching mysteries. However, this approach pays off incredibly well as it allows the book to bring a lot more than cheap, one-dimensional terrors to the table.

The Last House On Needless Street, By Catriona Ward

From its title, The Last House on Needless Street comes off as another run-of-the-hill haunted house novel that may not rise above the tropes of the genre. However, the book is far from being a typical addition to the horror genre. Unfolding from several perspectives, The Last House On Needless Street highlights the complex nature of psychological wounds and how trauma can often skew one's sense of memory and perception. With an unreliable narrator at its fore, The Last House On Needless Street is a character-driven horror story that could become a successful film if crafted with meticulous storytelling and attention to detail.

Penpal, By Dathan Auerbach

Auerbach initially started publishing Penpal in a short-story format on Reddit's famous Nosleep subreddit. As these interconnected stories caught on, the author compiled them into a book, creating a full-fledged novel. Auerbach's initial stories were so influential that many readers adapted them into illustrations, short films, and audio formats. The early success of the stories and the book alone reveals how Penpal has the potential to become a great full-feature film. The core concept behind its story, exploring a man's pursuit of unfolding the truth behind his horrific childhood, may not be unique. However, Auerbach has his way with words that allow his story to gradually creep under a reader's skin.

The Wasp Factory, By Iain Banks

First published in 1894, Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory unfolds on a Scottish Island where a 16-year-old teen, Frank, lives with his father. Disturbed by his circumstances, Frank spends his days performing bizarre and violent rituals, which are somehow connected to harrowing mysteries of his past. Although controversial in some ways, The Wasp Factory explores psychological and transgressive fiction like no other, allowing readers to briefly see the world from the skewed perspective of its protagonist. Given its psychological depth, adapting The Wasp Factory to the audiovisual medium may not be an easy feat, but if executed carefully, it could be an epic horror drama.

Bluejay, By Megan Stockton

Unfolding like an episode of Black Mirror , Bluejay focuses on three characters, Noah, Jack, and Phil, who collect horror items for fun. However, their pursuit of chasing terror and thrill takes a grim turn when, on one of their weekly boys' nights, they acquire tickets to an exclusive club that promises an immersive torture simulation experience. Naive about the world they will step into, Noah, Jack, and Phil visit the club only to discover that nothing there is a simulation. By gradually unraveling the tapestry around the dark underworld where Noah, Jack, and Phil end up walking, Bluejay shows the potential to become the next Hostel .

Experimental Film, By Gemma Files

In Experimental Film , author Gemma Files seamlessly merges the word of audiovisual cinema with literature by walking through the story of former Canadian film history teacher Lois Cairns, who becomes obsessed with the silent films of Mrs. A. Macalla Whitcomb. The deeper she delves into the mysterious works of the early 20th-century filmmaker, the more she unknowingly opens the gates to the hauntings that led to Whitcomb's disappearance. Often blurring the lines between reality and fiction, Experimental Film 's immersive and inventive take on the horror genre would perfectly traverse to the big screen.

10 Incredible Horror Books That Still Need Movies

Cast & crew

Speak No Evil

A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare. A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare. A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare.

James Watkins
Christian Tafdrup
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James McAvoy
Mackenzie Davis
Scoot McNairy
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Desperate House Republicans Want To Give Trump A Medal

[Above: The last time Trump got a medal that DIDN'T include cheating at his own golf course, it was from the Saudis. -- eds.]

The first Congressional Gold Medal was struck in 1776 as a way of saying thanks to George Washington. Since then, the medal has been awarded just 184 times to hallowed figures including Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama. Compared to the 647 civilian Presidential Medals of Freedom or the 3,517 military Medals of Honor, the Congressional Gold Medal is the rarest of the great honors awarded in America.

Naturally, a group of Republicans is angling to present one to Donald Trump.

As Politico reports , Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida is leading a squad of six Republicans determined to bestow a medal on Trump. Adding to the absurdity, they claim they want to award the medal because of Trump’s “dedication to strengthening America’s diplomatic relations.” Which apparently means threatening to abandon allies , enabling Vladimir Putin , and exchanging “ love letters ” with Kim Jong Un.

Finding the best way to show obeisance to Donald Trump is every modern Republican’s major obsession. Checking in at Trump’s criminal trial for falsifying documents to hide a sexual encounter with a porn star and protect his candidacy in the 2016 election is the hot new ticket for Republicans hoping to survive the 2024 election—and the purges that would follow a Trump victory.

However, not everyone can blow off a day of work and run to a New York courthouse to help Trump get around his gag order .

Scoring some sweet time in front of Fox News cameras to tell Trump they want to give him the greatest honor Congress can award must sound pretty good to this group of House Republicans, which includes Rep. Lauren Boebert and Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler.

They get to talk about Trump’s accomplishments in the field of diplomacy, like that time Trump decided to launch a verbal war on Canada . Or how Trump prepared individual insults for G20 leaders . Or his no-U.S.-translator-allowed meetings with Putin . Or how world support for the U.S. crashed under Trump and rebounded under Joe Biden .

But they know it’s all just pretend. There’s absolutely zero chance that Trump will get a Congressional Gold Medal for his “ exceptional leadership .”

That’s because the medal can only be awarded through an act of Congress. Two-thirds of the members on the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs are required to sponsor any proposed recipient before the measure can even make it to the House and Senate floor for a vote. And then the measure has to pass the full House with two-thirds of the vote.

Trump isn’t going to get past square one, and all six of those pushing this little scheme know it. This is just another example of so-called virtue signaling by Republicans—where the only virtue they understand is bolstering Trump's ego.

There is another shiny option Trump can strive for: the Congressional Award Gold Medal, which has been awarded to thousands of Americans . To get one, Trump would only have to do 400 hours of voluntary public service, 200 hours of personal development, 200 hours of physical fitness, and a five-day, four-night expedition or exploration. It sounds unlikely, but Republicans might declare that Trump’s rallies, social media attacks, golf outings, and court time in Manhattan satisfy those requirements.

He would also need to be between 14 and 18 years old. But considering the things Republicans are willing to believe about Trump, that doesn’t seem like an insurmountable problem.

Republished with permission from Daily Kos .

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This Is the Best Start to a Year We’ve Had in Pop This Decade (Essay)

By, like, a lot .

By Andrew Unterberger

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Taylor Swift performs with Sabrina Carpenter at Accor Stadium on Feb. 23, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.Swift performs with Sabrina Carpenter at Accor Stadium on February 23, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Don Arnold/TAS24/[SOURCE] for TAS Rights Management)

Around this time two years ago at Billboard , we were all asking: Where are the new hits ?

Through the first few months of 2022, the Billboard Hot 100 was stocked almost exclusively with holdovers from 2021 and even 2020 or earlier, with totally new music in precious short supply in the chart’s top tiers. Relief eventually came that month in the form of Harry Styles’ instant runaway smash “As It Was,” and then as April turned to May, via new albums by Future, Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar. But it still felt like the year was playing catch-up, like at midyear 2022 was still only just properly getting started.

J. Cole or Drake: Who Needs to Respond More to Kendrick Lamar's Verse? The Cases for Both

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Let’s start with the list of A-list artists who have already released entirely new albums by May 9: Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Ye & Ty Dolla $ign, Future & Metro Boomin (twice!), J. Cole and Dua Lipa. (Depending on your “A-list” definition, you could also potentially throw Usher, Justin Timberlake and Kacey Musgraves on that list as well.) Hell, you could probably cut the list after the second name and the point would still stand: Any year where you get new sets by Beyoncé ( Cowboy Carter ) and Taylor Swift ( The Tortured Poets Department ) — the two most celebrated pop stars in the world right now — before Memorial Day, you’re probably off to a pretty fast start. And both sets have been enormous, world-building, culture-conquering affairs, with huge Hot 100-topping lead singles and no shortage of critical and fan discourse over their deeper implications.

Speaking of “Like That”: That Kendrick Lamar-assisted chart-topper essentially knocked the hip-hop world off its usual axis, kicking off the back-and-forth with Drake that has somehow managed to overshadow everything else that’s gone on in popular music so far this year. J. Cole responded first to Lamar’s pot-stirring “Like That” verse, on his lukewarmly received Might Delete Later mixtape and its closing “7 Minute Drill,” before publicly bowing out of the beef and deleting “Drill” from streaming services. But Drake was determined to get his money’s worth: He responded with both the leaked “Push Ups” and the social media-released “Taylor Made Freestyle” — which featured unlicensed, AI-generated guest verses “from” West Coast legends Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur, and was eventually taken down upon threat of legal action from the Shakur estate.

The Kendrick-Drake feud has been the biggest in music this year, but it wasn’t the first. The stage was set for that blockbuster beef by the January back-and-forth between Megan Thee Stallion, whose “Hiss” was thought to have subliminals aimed at rap rival Nicki Minaj (as well as additional lyrics assumed to be shots at Drake and other rap-world figures), and which inspired a response track (in addition to a lot of social media talk) from Minaj in the form of “Big Foot.” The fallout from that beef was mostly contained to the release week of the two tracks, but it helped Megan secure her first-ever entirely solo Hot 100 No. 1 for “Hiss,” and generally established the competitive tone for hip-hop among its biggest 2024 artists.

But the real reason 2024 has been so exciting, even beyond all these recognizable names showing up and showing out, is the equally impressive list of rising stars who have made their mark on the year so far.

Música Mexicana phenom Xavi began the year with two songs already climbing the top 100, and plenty more seemingly to come. Teddy Swims and Benson Boone have forced top 40 to make room for big soulful vocals and even bigger screaming guitar, with their crossover smashes “Lose Control” and “Beautiful Things,” respectively. Alt-rock has seen its fortunes revived on the chart through Djo’s psych-leaning “End of Beginning” and Artemas’ darkwave-inspired “I Like It When You Kiss Me,” both surprise top 20 Hot 100 hits. Even longtime cult favorite Hozier, a decade removed from his breakout hit “Take Me to Church,” is now back with a somehow-even-bigger hit: “Too Sweet,” lifted to No. 1 by good TikTok buzz and the currently rising tides of alt-folk and soul-pop.

For a few of these breakout artists, the success has been a long time coming. Sexyy Redd built up momentum for most of 2023 with viral hits “Pound Town” and “SkeeYee” — culminating in a feature appearance on Drake’s For All the Dogs No. 11 hit “Rich Baby Daddy” — but she’s taken it to a new level this year with her first solo top 20 hit, the dancefloor shout-along “Get It Sexyy.” Glorilla has taken a similar path to solo success with her own self-referencing smash “Yeah Glo!,” while also joining forces with Megan Thee Stallion for the chart-storming “Wanna Be.” Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan were pop favorites with critical acclaim disproportionate to their actual top 40 presence — but following opening slots on Taylor Swift’s and Olivia Rodrigo’s recent tours, they’ve both seen raised profiles and higher levels of crossover stardom with new singles “Espresso,” and “Good Luck Babe!,” respectively, both all but sure to keep growing into the warm-weather months.

The sheer volume of impressive hits so far this year can be seen in the amount of turnover on the Hot 100 — particularly in the top spot, where no one song has reigned for more than three consecutive weeks (“Like That,” again). We’ve already seen 11 different songs top the Hot 100 across the first 19 chart weeks, compared to seven last year and just six in 2022. Both of those years saw a No. 1 hit reign for 15+ weeks seemingly almost by default: “As It Was” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” didn’t dominate because they kept finding new ways to infiltrate pop culture (a la Lil Nas X with “Old Town Road” ), but simply because the competition usually just wasn’t strong enough across the board to consistently threaten their supremacy. This year, with everything that’s been happening, it seems unlikely that either song would even get to double-digit weeks on top.

Regardless of the reasons, it’s been a transfixing start to the year in popular music, with major contributions seemingly coming from all different corners of the music world, and from all different levels of artists. And what’s more, it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon: This Friday brings with it a new album from Gunna and a new single from Post Malone and Morgan Wallen, the latter being arguably the biggest remaining recording artist in contemporary music who we haven’t heard much new from this year. And then the week after, it’s time for Billie Eilish’s much-hyped Hit Me Hard and Soft album, her first full-length set to arrive with no advance singles. Get your rest days in where you can and maybe hope for a bit of a summer vacation in a couple months, because it doesn’t look like pop is going to be taking it easy on us anytime in the near future — we’re exhausted, but elated.

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TxDOT launches new 'Click It or Ticket' campaign in Texas. Here's when it will be enforced

The Texas Department of Transportation is launching a new initiative aimed at improving traffic safety throughout the state.

The state's new "Click It or Ticket" campaign will be announced Wednesday by officials from TxDOT, the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to a news release. It's meant to encourage motorists to wear their seatbelts or face fines up to $200.

'We are devastated': Parents of sons killed in Hays CISD bus crash file lawsuits

'Click It or Ticket' campaign enforced past Memorial Day

Texas officers and deputies will be more stringent in their enforcement of the campaign Monday, May 20 through June 2, including over Memorial Day weekend, to motivate drivers and passengers to get on board. Wearing a seat belt can reduce the risk of dying in a crash by up to 60%, according to TxDOT.

The campaign was sparked by the 1,183 people who died in crashes on Texas roads in 2023 because they were not wearing their seatbelts. Centering the campaign is the story of David Palestrant, a 17-year-old high school football player from Kerrville, who died in 2021 in a rollover crash. Palestrant was not wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident.

More: TxDOT to hold committee-led review of fatal Hays school bus, concrete pump truck crash

"The simple act of buckling up could've prevented these tragedies and spared these families the pain and heartache," said Jackie Ipina, TxDOT Traffic Safety Program manager, in a recorded statement. "There is never a good reason to be in a moving vehicle without wearing a seatbelt."

International

Stormy Daniels wraps up testimony in Trump hush money trial

By CNN's Kara Scannell, Lauren Del Valle and Jeremy Herb in the courthouse

Here are some key takeaways from the 14th day of Trump's criminal hush money trial

From CNN's Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell

Former President Donald Trump observes as Madeleine Westerhout, a former employee of Donald Trump in the White House, testifies in the Trump hush money criminal trial on May 9.

Former President Donald Trump ’s lawyers continued their attack on the credibility of Stormy Daniels for several hours Thursday, with defense attorney Susan Necheles accusing the adult film star of making up the story of having sex with Trump.

Today also saw testimony from a woman who was once among the closest people working with Trump in the White House, and failed efforts by the defense to get a mistrial and an exception to the defendant's gag order.

Here are some key takeaways from Day 14 of the Trump hush money trial:

Contentious testimony: Daniels combatively and defiantly responded to questions from Necheles, insisting her story of a sexual encounter with Trump was true. Trump has denied the affair.

Trump’s attorney asked about minor inconsistencies in interviews Daniels has given about her interactions with Trump. Necheles also picked apart how Daniels has previously described the encounter .

Necheles also insinuated Daniels had employed her skills as a porn writer in making up the story. “You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real,” the Trump attorney asked.

"Wow," Daniels said, with a pause. “That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.”

Lawyers spar over Daniels' financial situation: Beyond the details of the alleged encounter itself, Trump’s attorneys and prosecutors had Daniels tell conflicting accounts of her financial situation.

Necheles continued to suggest that Daniels was making money off of saying she had sex with Trump, pointing to a tweet where she said she’d earned $1 million and others where she directed her supporters to her online store after Trump was indicted.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, had Daniels recount how telling her story has also cost her, from having to move her daughter and hire security to the lawyers’ fees she was ordered to pay after she sued Trump and lost.

Former aide takes us inside the Trump White House: Former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout described the inner workings of Trump’s West Wing, where she worked for more than two years sitting just outside the Oval Office.

Westerhout described Trump's work habits, from his affinity for sharpies and hard copies of documents, to his close control over his social media posts and his preference to talk to people in person or on the phone — not by email.

While she did not testify to direct knowledge of the checks Trump signed to his former fixer Michael Cohen, which are cited in the charges against Trump, her story added to the prosecution's narrative about his involvement with the checks in 2017.

Two failed efforts by Trump's team: Judge Juan Merchan denied the request from Trump's lawyers to make an exception to the gag order allowing him to speak publicly about Daniels, saying he must protect the integrity of the proceedings, and he doesn’t trust Trump not to violate an order if he were to modify it.

The judge also denied Trump’s renewed motion for a mistrial over the salacious testimony Daniels gave, which his attorneys say unfairly prejudices the jury against Trump. Merchan said the specificity is important to helping the jury make a determination.

Read a full recap of today's proceedings here.

Here are the witnesses who have testified so far in the Trump hush money trial

From CNN staff

Defense attorney Susan Necheles cross-examines adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the trial on May 9.

Donald Trump's longtime assistant, the former banker of Trump's attorney Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels are among witnesses who have taken the stand so far in the hush money trial.

As of Thursday, here's everybody we've heard from so far:

David Pecker — the former CEO of American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's parent company — was the first witness called to testify. After more than 10 hours of testimony across four days, he offered illuminating details into how the infamous tabloid operated and conducted so-called “catch and kill” operations.
Rhona Graff , Trump's longtime assistant at the Trump Organization, was called to testify briefly on April 26.
Gary Farro , the former banker of Cohen, walked the jury through Cohen’s bank activity around the payment to Daniels.

Keith Davidson testifies during direct examination on May 2.

Keith Davidson , the former lawyer for model and actress Karen McDougal as well as for Daniels, was on the stand for nearly 6 hours over two days.
Douglas Daus works for the Manhattan District Attorney's High Technology Analysis Unit, and was assigned to analyze two iPhones that belonged to Cohen in the investigation related to Trump. They were obtained via a search warrant. Daus testified about the "unusual" amount of contacts and other things he found on Cohen's phone.
Hope Hicks , Trump's longtime former aide, testified for a little less than three hours about her role as Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary, the aftermath of the “Access Hollywood” tape release and Cohen's payment to Daniels.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo questions former longtime Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney on May 6.

Jeffrey McConney , a former Trump Organization controller, testified about how Cohen's payments were listed in Trump's financial documents.
Deborah Tarasoff, the accounts payable supervisor in the accounting department at the Trump Organization, explained how checks were cut to Cohen in 2017 and she testified that invoices over $10,000 had to be approved by Trump or one of his sons.
Sally Franklin , the senior vice president and executive managing editor for Penguin Random House publishing group, testified for 46 minutes . Prosecutors used her testimony to enter excerpts from Trump’s books into evidence.
Stormy Daniels, who's at the center of the hush money case, was on the stand for 6 hours and 10 minutes over two days of testimony. Daniels walked the jury through details about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and the $130,000 hush money payment from Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen shortly before the 2016 election . Trump attorney Susan Necheles hammered down on Daniels in cross-examination to establish some of the ways she gained publicity and money from her story going public.
Rebecca Manochio , a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, testified for about 35 minutes. The prosecution used Manochio to submit invoices , documents and emails as evidence.

Tracey Menziez, the senior VP of production and creative operations for Harper Collins, testified in the Trump hush money criminal trial on May 9.

Tracey Menzies , the senior vice president of production and creative operations at Harper Collins, spoke about one of the books Donald Trump co-authored, “Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life,” by Trump and Bill Zanker and read excerpts from the book.
Madeleine Westerhout , a former personal assistant to Trump at the White House, detailed how the president preferred to work, his attention to detail and the reaction to the "Access Hollywood" tape.

Stormy Daniels finished her testimony in Trump’s hush money trial. Here’s what to know

From CNN's Elise Hammond

Stormy Daniels is cross examined by the defense on Thursday, May 9.

Donald Trump’s lawyers finished their cross-examination of Stormy Daniels on Thursday and spent most of the time trying to undermine her credibility by pointing out inconsistencies in her story.

In her more than 6 hours of testimony over two days, Daniels described her first meeting with Trump , the details of their alleged sexual encounter in 2006 and how the hush money payment unfolded years later. The defense tried to establish some of the ways the porn star gained publicity and money from her story going public.

The other witnesses on Thursday were a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, an employee of Harper Collins and Trump’s former personal assistant at the White House.

Here’s what happened in court on Thursday:

Stormy Daniels on cross-examination:

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles pointed out that in a January 2018 statement , Daniels denied a sexual encounter with Trump. Later that same month, Daniels put out a second statement denying the relationship. She said she was pushed to sign the statement by Michael Cohen via attorney Keith Davidson.
Necheles asked Daniels if she eventually wanted to publicly announce she had sex with Trump. "No. Nobody would ever want to publicly say that. I wanted to publicly defend myself ," Daniels testified.
Necheles sought to establish examples of how Daniels benefitted from the story . A "60 Minutes" interview and appearances on CNN and "The View" brought Daniels publicity, Necheles said. Daniels argued her then-lawyer Michael Avenatti arranged her appearances.
Necheles challenged Daniels on her story, saying it "has changed a lot over the years," citing Daniels’ description of the floors in Trump’s hotel room. The Trump attorney also asked if Daniels fabricated the story about the encounter with Trump, which Daniels denied.

On redirect:

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger went through Daniels' motivation for entering the non-disclosure agreement, including her fear for safety . While Daniels has made money with the Trump story, it has also cost her , Hoffinger said. Daniels said now she's had to hire security and move her daughter to a safe place to live, in addition to the money she owes Trump in attorney's fees.
Hoffinger asked, " Have you been telling lies about Mr. Trump or the truth about Mr. Trump?" Daniels responded, “The truth.”

Rebecca Manochio:

Manochio, who still works at the Trump Organization as a junior bookkeeper, said when Trump was in the White House, she would FedEx checks once a week, often 10 to 20 at a time. The checks were mailed back to the Trump Organization, signed by Trump , usually within a few days.
When she received the checks back from Washington, she would give them to Deb Tarasoff, who works in the accounting department and testified earlier in the trial.
Prosecutors used Manochio to submit documents into evidence that showed Trump's personal checks were facilitated in Washington, DC, by Trump Organization bodyguard Keith Schiller and then by Trump personal aid John McEntee once Schiller left. This is important because the crux of this case comes down to how the former president's team handled a hush money payment to Daniels.
On cross-examination, Manochio said she didn’t interact directly with Trump and she only sent him personal checks for his signature. She also testified that she also sent personal checks to Ivanka Trump .

Tracey Menzies

Menzies is the senior vice president of production and creative operations at Harper Collins . Testifying as a custodian of records for the publishing company, Menzies said.
Prosecutors read excerpts from the book "Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life" for the jury. Several of them were about Trump’s value of loyalty in his business. Other excerpts were about revenge .

Madeleine Westerhout

As the former director of Oval Office Operations, Westerhout was one of the chief gatekeepers to the president as his personal assistant.
When the 2016 “Access Hollywood” tape came out, Westerhout said she remembered it “rattling RNC leadership.” She testified that she recalled conversations about how to replace Trump on the presidential ticket, “if it came to that.” Later, she told the defense on cross-examination that Trump was not as concerned about the tape as those around him.
From Westerhout’s experience working with Trump, she said the former president was “ attentive to things that were brought to his attention." She also testified about Trump’s preferences — including that he did not use a computer or have an email address and preferred hard copies of documents.
She said she recalls that Trump was “very upset” by the Stormy Daniels story potentially coming out. Westerhout testified that Trump spoke to Cohen around that time.

Judge makes other rulings: Judge Juan Merchan denied the defense's motion for a mistrial. He said he disagrees with the Trump team's assertion that Daniels gave a new account in her testimony this week. He also denied a motion to modify the gag order to allow Trump to talk about Daniels.

Trump attacks judge in hush money trial after leaving court

Former President Donald Trump attacked the judge presiding over his hush money trial in New York after court adjourned on Thursday.

In the hallway, he called Judge Juan Merchan “totally corrupt” and “conflicted.”

“Take a look at his conflict, it’s a disgrace to the city of New York, to the state of New York and to the country,” Trump said.

It comes after Stormy Daniels finished her testimony. She was on the stand for more than 6 hours over two days, describing her first meeting with Trump and their sexual encounter in 2006.

Remember: The former president is not allowed to talk about Daniels because of a gag order that has been imposed. However, it does not prevent Trump from attacking Merchan or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Court is adjourned

After issuing his ruling, Judge Juan Merchan dismissed the court until tomorrow morning.

"I’ll see you tomorrow at 9:30," he said.

Judge Merchan denies defense motion for a mistrial

Judge Juan Merchan has denied the defense's motion for a mistrial.

Merchan says he disagrees with the Trump team's assertion that Stormy Daniels gave a new account in her testimony this week.

Before the ruling, Mechan says the jurors have to decide who they believe in the case of the encounter between Donald Trump and Daniels.

He notes that the people do not have to prove the encounter happened but because the defense has called her credibility into question, prosecutors have to make an effort to show her story is credible to prove their case.

"The more specificity Ms. Daniels can provide about the encounter, the more the jury can weigh whether the encounter did occur and if so whether they choose to credit Ms. Daniels’ story," Merchan says.

There were "many times Ms. Necheles could have objected but didn't," the judge says.

"For some unexplained reason that I still don't understand" there was no objection to certain testimony cited in the motion for a mistrial and again today, Merchan says.

"Why on earth she wouldn't object to the mention of a condom, I don’t understand," Merchan says of Trump attorney Susan Necheles.

Trump leans back in his chair as judge knocks his legal team

Trump is leaning back and stretching as the judge knocks the defense for not objecting to more of Stormy Daniels' testimony.

Merchan has mentioned several portions of the proceedings he thinks Trump's lawyers could have objected to as he explains his ruling.

Prosecutor says "very salacious details" were omitted that he's willing to file under seal if necessary

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says there were "very salacious details" that were purposely omitted from Stormy Daniels' account, saying he's willing to make a sealed filing with those details if necessary.

Steinglass says the prosecution specifically chose not to ask questions in a way that would elicit some of those details, so as not to embarrass Trump.

For example, Steinglass notes that the judge sustained an objection to a question to Daniels about whether she "felt anything different" at the time of the alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

The prosecutor says Daniels would have testified that she felt the skin of a 60-year-old man, and that that was different for her as a 27-year-old woman at the time. Steinglass says that would've been corroborative of her allegations.

"We feel that we have very faithfully adhered to your honor's ruling," the prosecutor says, in summary.

Steinglass says the prosecution was never intending to call Karen McDougal as a witness

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass confirms Karen McDougal — the model and actress who has said she was also paid to keep quiet about an affair with Trump — will not be called to take the stand.

"She was on our witness list, but we have never indicated an actual intention to call her," he says.

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Guest Essay

China’s Dead-End Economy Is Bad News for Everyone

By Anne Stevenson-Yang

Ms. Stevenson-Yang is a co-founder of J Capital Research and the author of “Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy.”

On separate visits to Beijing last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen bore a common message : Chinese manufacturing overcapacity is flooding global markets with cheap Chinese exports, distorting world trade and leaving American businesses and workers struggling to compete.

Not surprisingly, China’s leaders did not like what they heard, and they didn’t budge. They can’t. Years of erratic and irresponsible policies, excessive Communist Party control and undelivered promises of reform have created a dead-end Chinese economy of weak domestic consumer demand and slowing growth. The only way that China’s leaders can see to pull themselves out of this hole is to fall back on pumping out exports.

That means a number of things are likely to happen, none of them good. The tide of Chinese exports will continue, tensions with the United States and other trading partners will grow, China’s people will become increasingly unhappy with their gloomy economic prospects and anxious Communist Party leaders will respond with more repression.

The root of the problem is the Communist Party’s excessive control of the economy, but that’s not going to change. It is baked into China’s political system and has only worsened during President Xi Jinping’s decade in power. New strategies for fixing the economy always rely on counterproductive mandates set by the government: Create new companies, build more industrial capacity. The strategy that most economists actually recommend to drive growth — freeing up the private sector and empowering Chinese consumers to spend more — would mean overhauling the way the government works, and that is unacceptable.

The party had a golden opportunity to change in 1989, when the Tiananmen Square protests revealed that the economic reforms that had begun a decade earlier had given rise to a growing private sector and a desire for new freedoms. But to liberalize government institutions in response would have undermined the party’s power. Instead, China’s leaders chose to shoot the protesters, further tighten party control and get hooked on government investment to fuel the economy.

For a long time, no one minded. When economic or social threats reared their heads, like global financial crises in 1997 and 2007, Chinese authorities poured money into industry and the real estate sector to pacify the people. The investment-driven growth felt good, but it was much more than the country could digest and left China’s landscape scarred with empty cities and industrial parks, unfinished bridges to nowhere, abandoned highways and amusement parks, and airports with few flights.

The investment in industrial capacity also generated an explosion in exports as China captured industries previously dominated by foreign manufacturers — mobile phones, television sets, solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles. Much of the Chinese economic “miracle” was powered by American, European and Japanese companies that willingly transferred their technical know-how to their Chinese partners in exchange for what they thought would be access to a permanently growing China market. This decimated manufacturing in the West, even as China protected its own markets. But the West let it slide: The cheap products emanating from China kept U.S. inflation at bay for a generation, and the West clung to the hope that China’s economic expansion would eventually lead to a political liberalization that never came.

To raise money for the government investment binge, Beijing allowed local authorities to collateralize land — all of which is ultimately owned or controlled by the state — and borrow money against it. This was like a drug: Local governments borrowed like crazy, but with no real plan for paying the money back. Now many are so deep in debt that they have been forced to cut basic services like heating, health care for senior citizens and bus routes . Teachers aren’t being paid on time, and salaries for civil servants have been lowered in recent years. Millions of people all over China are paying mortgages on apartments that may never be finished . Start-ups are folding , and few people, it seems, can find jobs.

To boost employment, the party over the past couple of years has been telling local governments to push the establishment of new private businesses, with predictable consequences: In one county in northern China, a village secretary eager to comply with Beijing’s wishes reportedly asked relatives and friends to open fake companies. One villager opened three tofu shops in a week; another person applied for 20 new business licenses.

When mandates like that fail to create jobs, the party monkeys with the employment numbers. When monthly government data revealed last year that 21 percent of Chinese youth in urban areas were unemployed, authorities stopped publishing the figures. It resumed early this year, but with a new methodology for defining unemployment . Presto! The number dropped to 15 percent.

But Mr. Xi’s policy options are dwindling.

With the real estate market imploding, the government can no longer risk goosing the property sector. It has begun touting a revival in domestic consumption , but many Chinese are merely hunkering down and hoarding assets such as gold against an uncertain future. So the government is again falling back on manufacturing, pouring money into industrial capacity in hopes of pushing out more products to keep the economy going. With domestic demand anemic, many of those products have to be exported.

But the era when China was able to take over whole industries without foreign pushback is over. Many countries are now taking steps to protect their markets from Chinese-made goods. Under U.S. pressure, Mexico’s government last month reportedly decided it would not award subsidies to Chinese electric vehicle makers seeking to manufacture in Mexico for export to the U.S. market; the European Union is considering action to prevent Chinese electric vehicles from swamping its market; and the Biden administration has moved to encourage semiconductor manufacturing in the United States and limit Chinese access to chip technologies, and has promised more actions to thwart China.

China won’t be able to innovate its way out of this. Its economic model still largely focuses on cheaply replicating existing technologies, not on the long-term research that results in industry-leading commercial breakthroughs. All that leaves is manufacturing in volume.

China’s leaders will face rising economic pressure to lower the value of the renminbi, which will make Chinese-made goods even cheaper in U.S. dollar terms, further boosting export volume and upsetting trading partners even more. But a devaluation will also make imports of foreign products and raw materials more expensive, squeezing Chinese consumers and businesses while encouraging wealthier people to get their money out of China. The government can’t turn to economic stimulus measures to revive growth — pouring more renminbi into the economy would risk crushing the currency’s value.

All of this means that the “reform and opening” era, which has transformed China and captivated the world since it began in the late 1970s, has ended with a whimper.

Mao Zedong once said that in an uncertain world, the Chinese must “Dig tunnels deep, store grain everywhere and never seek hegemony.” That sort of siege mentality is coming back.

Anne Stevenson-Yang ( @doumenzi ) is a co-founder and the research director of J Capital Research, a stock analysis firm. She spent 25 years in China as an entrepreneur, analyst and trade advocate.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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A scary house
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