Every October I put myself in the Halloween mood by reading creepy, scary, or disturbing books.
But I'm running out of ideas so I'm asking the blogosphere for suggestions.
Here are a few that I really enjoyed, just to give you and idea of what I like.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Basically anything that raises the hairs on the back of my neck. But nothing too satanic, that's where I draw the line.
So bring it on. What suggestions do you have?
I pretty much only read scary books if you recommend them to me, and sometimes not even then! I'm quite a wimp. I loved We Have Always Lived in the Castle and I really loved Nine Coaches Waiting. The Thirteenth Tale was too disturbing for me. Good luck finding a book, I'll let you know if I hear of a good one.
ReplyDeleteThanks wimp! I'll keep you posted on my Halloween reads.
DeleteI love Dean Koontz's "The Face" (or anything by him) -- I also loved his "Life Expectancy". The Face was so creepy that I had a hard time finishing it, but it was worth it in the end, and Life Expectancy made me laugh despite the terror.
ReplyDeleteThose sound good! Thanks for the recommendation! Especially The Face. I love creepy and off the wall.
DeleteI don't read horror at all, so I have no idea. but maybe I'll pick something up this year :)
ReplyDeleteI don't reaed a lot of horror. But in October, I love a good, creepy, and strange novel.
DeleteI really enjoyed the original novel of The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux. I thought the most dramatic events near the end weren't as hair-raising as in the movie, since they were narrated after the fact instead of while these events were happening, but other than that, it was very good. Another Lon Chaney, Sr., movie that was based on a book is The Penalty, which is all kinds of creepy and macabre. I think the book of the same name, by Gouverneur Morris, is still in print.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great ideas. I've never read the Phantom of the Opera book, so that's one I may have to pick up!
DeleteLove Nine Coaches Waiting. I'd think Touch Not the Cat would make a good creepy kind of choice.
ReplyDeleteI love MG books :)
ReplyDeleteSo for me, something fun like maybe ParaNorman or The Sinisiter Sweetness of Splendid Academy or The Secrets of Grim Hill are fun, "spooky" type of MG reads :)
And yeah, I'm 31, but I'm trying my hand at MG writing (trying being the operative word!).
Other than that...hmm...I've heard "Ten" is a new novel, maybe worth checking out? Not sure on that one.
Oh, YA, I LOVED This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel. Such a fun book (with a Frankenstein-ish twist/charm).
(Newish to your blog and enjoying it muchly :) )
Jill
I have The Woman in Black but haven't read it yet. I am not sure if I will read it for Halloween though because I'm too much of a chicken to read this kind of story. LOL. Thanks for a good line-up of books to read though :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE Dracula and The Thirteenth Tale, but I'm pretty much too scared to read anything actually horrifying. We don't share the same love of scary things, remember :) But I have heard that Phantom of the Opera was good, and I kind of want to try that one this year!
ReplyDeleteI love Dracula! I read I am Legend, which is a short story. Oh my gosh, that and the other stories in the anthology are amazing and terrifying at the same time. I loved them :-)
ReplyDeleteCoraline is a great story, even though it's MG.
I'm reading Salem's Lot. The book per se isn't terribly scary, but the mini-series that was made for TV gave me nightmares for years. My brother and I still talk about it all the time!
And since we're talking vampires, what about "Interview with the Vampire?" I re-read it a couple of years ago at the beach, and only in daylight, just in case. But you have your vampire stake. You'll be okay I think. :-)