Spooky Halloween Reads!

Even though I’m a huge fan of Halloween, I cannot read horror often! It scares the crap out of me. I can occasionally watch horror movies/shows, but reading is another story! Here’s a handful of the horror books I have read and actually enjoyed! Let me know if you’ve read any of these or what you recommend I read this Halloween!

 

 

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas’s life.

Think Supernatural meets Ghost. This has a major creepy factor and there were times this book literally kept me up at night! If you like this one, there’s also a sequel!

 

 

For We Are Many by Stuart Thaman

No one believes Fletcher Lee when he says he sees someone lurking in the shadows. Removed from his middle school for frightening the other children, 13 year old Fletcher is forced into psychotherapy where his visions are believed to be the result of a traumatic childhood experience. Pressured into reliving his worst nightmares, Fletcher’s torments grow until they can no longer be written off as mere hallucinations. When Fletcher’s state deteriorates to the point of causing harm to his psychologist, Dr.Kendrick turns away from conventional medicine and discovers a much more troubling, supernatural answer. Without enough time to rescue Fletcher, Dr. Kendrick must make a choice: is she strong enough to risk her soul to find him?

I recommend this book for anyone above the age of 16, the author (my husband) won’t even sell this book to anyone under that age when he goes to book conventions because of some of the content. If you’re into psychological thriller, horror, this is your book. If you’re interested in getting a signed copy, go to his website and order. There’s a sequel in the works!

For the whole month of October, you can find the kindle edition on Amazon for ONLY 99 cents! What a deal! 

 

You by Caroline Kepnes

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

This was one of the first non-YA books I’ve read and I was very pleased with it. It’s like a train-wreck, you want to stop reading because the way Joe is makes you terrified and worried about the characters future, but you also want to keep reading because Joe has a sort of addicting personality. This thriller shows us the other side of a stalker story.

 

 

Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over:
 
1. Write your mistake
2. Ingest one mushroom
3. Go to sleep
4. Wake anew
 
And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is given another chance to get things right. She’s also got a dresser drawer full of magical mushrooms—and an irresistible urge to make her life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it’s against the rules. But Katie doesn’t care about the rules—and she’s about to discover the
unintended consequences of the best intentions.
 
From the mind and pen behind the acclaimed Scott Pilgrim series comes a madcap new tale of existential angst, everyday obstacles, young love, and ancient spirits that’s sharp-witted and tenderhearted, whimsical and wise.

This graphic novel isn’t scary, but it does have a mysterious girl I would compare to a ghost. If you liked Scott Pilgrim and you’re looking for a not so scary read, this one is for you. You can even read it before bed time and not worry about having nightmares! 🙂