Ready to get your book club into the spooky season spirit? Look no further than these six supernatural Jewish titles. Whether you are looking for a supernatural thriller, a rom-com or something in-between, these Jewish books will have your book club covered this fall. Just don’t be surprised if you feel the need to check for monsters under your bed!
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If classic slasher films are your spooky vibe, you should check out “The Tribe” by Bari Wood. When a group of teens accused of murdering a rabbi’s son are found brutally murdered — and covered in an unidentifiable powdery substance — hardened NYC detective Roger Hawkins and Rachel Levy are thrown together to investigate. But what do these murders have to do with a mysterious group of concentration camp survivors who emerged from Belzac in 1945 in inexplicably good health? As Rachel and Hawkins dig deeper, they uncover a terrifying connection between the past and present. Wood published a number of supernatural thrillers in the 1980s, but her work has been largely overshadowed by that of her male contemporaries. This book is a great introduction to her dark and unsettling work.
For a more recently-published supernatural thriller, Gabrielle Sher’s breakout hit “Odessa: A Novel” will keep you up all night. Set in a Jewish shtetl threatened by violence and mysterious disappearances, the novel follows Yetta, a rebellious teenager who is killed when danger finally reaches her family. Wracked with grief and desperate to bring his daughter back, her father turns to Jewish mysticism. While his attempt to turn her into a golem seems to have worked, there is a corpse-like creature resembling Yetta lurking in the woods that has plans of its own. Totally unputdownable, you’ll understand all the buzz surrounding this novel.
Golems aren’t the only spooky Jewish folk creatures to read about this fall. In A. R. Vishny’s “Night Owls,” readers get a pair of estries: female vampires. In this paranormal YA romance and mystery, Vishny gives the Ashkenazi folk monster an intriguing twist. Sisters Clara and Molly are estries who shape-shift into owls at night and work in a theater by day. When Molly’s love interest disappears, the sisters are forced to team up with Boaz, the cute but cursed employee at their movie theater, and venture into New York’s supernatural underworld. If you liked “The City Beautiful” by Aden Polydoros, you might also be into the creepy world that Vishny creates in “Night Owls.”
For some spooky historical fiction, try Alice Hoffman’s “The World That We Knew.” Hoffman is a magical realism mainstay — you may know her as the author of “Practical Magic.” “The World That We Knew” is one of the darker titles in her oeuvre. Set in Nazi Germany in 1941, it blends fairy tale, Jewish folklore and historical fiction to tell the story of a family trying to escape the many dangers lurking on Berlin’s streets. Beautifully written and thought-provoking, it’s unlike any Holocaust story you’ve ever read — and is sure to spark spirited discussion.
For those whose reading tastes skew non-fiction, Howard Schwartz’s “Lilith’s Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural” is sure to be a fun read. This collection brings together 50 supernatural Jewish folktales from across the globe. As a 1987 book review in the LA Times put it: “Open it and enter a world of witches, dybbuks, ghosts, homunculi, wizards; a realm of Black Arts, amulets, sacred vows and curses.” You’ll have a blast learning about the stories that inspired much of Jewish mythology.
Finally, who says spooky has to be scary? Why not select a ghostly romance, like Shelly Jay Shore’s “Rules for Ghosting.” Readers follow Ezra Friedman, who has the unusual ability to see ghosts. When he has to return home to help his family’s struggling funeral home business, things get even more complicated when the ghost of his new crush’s late husband starts to wreak havoc in Ezra’s life. Both heart-warming and funny, “Rules for Ghosting” is sure to be a hit.
