Massie, Elizabeth

Power of Persuasion (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

When the female population of Sunnydale starts strutting its girl power, the push for gender equality seems like a normal expression of '90s feminism. After all, a girl trying out for the football team isn't usually a sign of imminent danger. But when the guys start acting like powerless pawns and a few even turn up dead, Buffy Summers notices that the local womyn's movement has reached a feverish -- and probably unnatural -- pitch.

The Slayer is the only one who can see straight during the ultimate battle of the sexes. Her friends -- including Giles -- are spellbound by the malignant muses permeating the school. Even the local vampires are acting strange. Alone in her search for answers, Buffy must figure out who's behind the sinister sisterhood...and close the gender gap before the feminist revolution goes too far.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer When the female population of Sunnydale begins to strut its Girl Power -- trying out for the football team and whatnot -- it seems like a normal expression of '90s feminism. But when all the guys start acting like powerless pawns -- and a few even show up dead with their brains turned to mush -- Buffy, Miss Girl Power herself, has to figure out who's behind this extreme case of feminism gone awry. Is it a coincidence that there's a new trio of Greek goddesses in town?

Shadow Dreams

Welcome Back to the Night

Dreams of the Dark (Dark Shadows)

Blood Revenge

Angelique and Barnabas. Lovers once upon a time, through treachery and deceit they have now become immortal enemies. To pay for her jealousy that left Barnabas damned to feast on the blood of humans, Angelique has been banished to the netherworld. Meanwhile, Barnabas lives a lie, carefully guarding his hellish secret from the unsuspecting mortals with whom he lives -- including Victoria Winters, the ethereally beautiful governess to the Collins family.

Determined to escape her dark imprisonment, Angelique conjures a diabolical plan that will make her flesh again. Using her psychic powers, she will send another vampire to destroy Barnabas, completely. But as she will soon discover, the powers of darkness will find their match in the burning light of innocence . . . and love.

Vividly imagined, grippingly written, each Dark Shadows novel is filled with the eroticism, supernatural suspense, and spellbinding storytelling that has made this classic daytime serial a timeless hit.

Sineater

This grim, claustral story is about the consequences of a primitive form of Christianity practiced in the mountains of Virginia, the author's home state. The sineater is a man shunned by all, a man whose face should never be seen. He performs the valuable service of absorbing all the sins of each person who dies, by eating ritual food laid out on their corpses. When the sineater's son, Joel, is allowed to attend school, a series of violent omens convinces the fanatic locals that God is punishing them and that Judgment Day is nigh. As Joel searches for the real perpetrator of the crimes, along with other adolescents who reluctantly listen to him, the plot (the weakest part of the book) begins to resemble a wandering sort of whodunit. The focus of the novel, though, is on the well-evoked mood of fear and despair. Elizabeth Massie works her horror effects with an intimate approach, closing in on her characters as if she's trapping them. And her descriptions do justice to the rustic setting, where people live in four-room cabins and honeysuckle winds around the knotty rails of the fences.

Sineater won a Bram Stoker Award for First Novel in 1993. Massie also won a Stoker for her novella "Stephen," published in the first Borderlands anthology. As Tom Monteleone writes in Borderlands 3, Massie wields "a subtle power that rips at your emotions with velvet claws." --Fiona Webster

Wire Mesh Mothers

It all started with the best of intentions. Kate McDolen, an elementary school teacher, knew she had to protect one of her students, little 8-year-old Mistie, from parents who were making her life a living hell. So Kate packed her bags, quietly picked up Mistie after school one day, and set off with her toward what she thought would be a new life. How could she know she was driving headlong into a nightmare?

The nightmare began when Tony jumped into the passenger seat of Kate's car, waving a gun. Tony was a dangerous girl, more dangerous than anyone could have dreamed. She didn't admire anything except violence and cruelty, and she had very different plans in mind for Kate and little Mistie. The cross-country trip that followed would turn into a one-way journey to fear, desperation... and madness.

Virginia: Valley of Vampires (American Chills)

THE DEFINITIVE BEST OF THE HORROR SHOW

Twisted Cat Tales

If the dog is man's best friend, then what is the cat? Companion...nemesis...intruder...amusing pet. From the beginning of recorded history, the cat has been feared or adored, worshiped or despised within cultures all over the world. Featuring an introduction by author Elizabeth Massie, Twisted Cat Tales contains 37 chilling and disturbing stories from horror to fantasy, dark humor, and science fiction. Some are told by observers, some by cats, and still others by the objects of the cats' attention--for good or evil. Editor Esther Schrader spanned the globe gathering unique stories from Australia, Canada, India, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States. From the flying felines in the opening story to the lonely lion in the final tale, these cats will get their claws into you.

The Sineater (Pan Horror)