Books to Get You In the Mood for Halloween
Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Halloween books. I feel like I've talked about Halloween books all month. But here are some more. These books are excellent Halloween reads.
I'm going to start with YA books because they tend to be less scary. Well, usually.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - This book starts off really gruesomely, but it quickly turns into a sweet, if bizarre, story about a boy raised by ghosts. The ending is seriously weird, but I like it. I've read it at least 3 times.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - This was October's book club selection, but I had already read it twice anyway. A teenaged boy thought his grandfather's stories about monsters were fantasy until he meets one in the forest. He follows his grandfather's trail back to an island in Britain to find out about his past, and boy does he find out!
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - This is a sad, scary book about a boy whose mother has been diagnosed with cancer. It was originally written by Siobhan Dowd but she died of cancer and Ness made sure to see her work to completion.
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake - This might be the scariest YA book I've ever read. This ghost is brutal!!
Now I'll move into the adult books:
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - I read this book for the first time 2 years ago. It definitely freaked me out a bit. There was some definite gaslighting of this woman's fears. I'm still not entirely sure what was real.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - I loved this book in high school. What the hell was wrong with me? I tried to read it again a few years ago and it was just too cruel.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - No surprise here. I love this book. It's not too scary. There are a few creepy parts. But over all it's just a good, weird book.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier - This book really creeped me out when I read it the first time. Mrs. Danvers is seriously messed up.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith - I liked the gimmick in this book. Famous pictures were altered to show Abe in the background at crowd scenes or near famous people. It was lots of fun.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher - This is sort of a paranormal urban fantasy type thing. Harry Dresden is a paranormal private investigator in Chicago. When things get weird, the police call him in. It's almost noir. These are fun, but they can get sort of gruesome and scary.
What books would you add to my list of Halloween Reads?