10 Spooktacular Reads For Halloween

Are you staying in tonight? Passing out candy? Are you trying to think of which movie you're going to watch? I'm suggesting you skip the movie and dive right into one of these creepy, spooky, or nail biting, and hair raising books. 
Let's count 'em down.

10.)  Kingdom of Childhood by Rebecca Coleman  - Kingdom of Childhood makes the list because it's dark, disturbing, and Rebecca Coleman constructed a downright creepy female protagonist? Antagonist? Er ... regardless of what we're calling her, I think we can all agree that she was more than a little unhinged.

9.)  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - So maybe you're not the type who needs a lot of in your face frights to get into the mood of the holiday. If so than this beginning to the uncompleted young adult series might be right up your alley. With its supernatural twists and turns, lots of unforeseen events, creepy monsters all paired with real very strange and odd photographs this pulls off just enough spine tingle without getting too gory or too scary.
  
8.) If You Hear Her by Shiloh Walker - This book packs a punch and Shiloh Walker plays on our fears. Our heroine is blind, our hero has a bum leg, and there's a serial killer on the loose preying on women. Told from multiple point of view including the deranged criminals makes this read suspenseful, intense, and sometimes downright stomach churning but it's a romance so everything gets all wrapped up in a nice little bow at the end ... or does it?   

7.)  Where Are The Children by Mary Higgins Clark - This classic suspense reads quickly. Easily finished in one setting. Once you start this book you will not want to stop turning pages until you get to the end. It's sickening, it's terrifying, it's absolutely maddening because you, just like their mother, need the question answered. Where Are The Children?

6.)  Don't Breathe A Word by Jennifer McMahon - Flirting with the edge of reality Jennifer McMahon spins a tail so eerie, so creepy, so strange that you can't help but keep slipping into believing this bizarre and freaky story - you can't help but to peek under the bed trying to spot the Fairy King's door. This thriller will leave you questioning everything and at times even your own sanity. Although you'll have chills long after you finish this book, once it ends you'll be left wishing there was a least one more page to turn.  

5.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - Every year about this time the gloomy skies, the rainy weather, the half naked trees inspire me to pick up one of my copies of Jane Eyre and slip into the gothic depressing adolescents and life of Jane Eyre. There is enough spine tingle in this book to last a lifetime. From children locked in haunted rooms, to deathly orphanages, creepy, eerie noises coming from a secret locked somewhere in the hallows of a large cavernous house to the eventual blaze of fire. Jane Eyre is as classically moody and eerie as they come but for someone whose life has been as miserable as Jane's she never seems to lose the light in her and that might be the actual story of Jane Eyre.  

4.) Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell - Another gloomy, dark look into the life of a young girl, this time one growing up in the Ozarks. The prose itself is beautiful, the imagery stunning, and the telling of this tale is done with breathtaking tenderness and precision. It is not for the faint of heart. It's a chilling, gut-wrenching story. Harrowing. Extreme. Stunning. You will not be able to put this one down. An amazing example of the human strength, the seedy underbelly of life in the forgotten places of America and a strangely triumphant story of taking care of your own.
 
3.) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - Twisted. That's the only word for it. It's a little slow at first but it's all necessary information. You just won't know that until you're at the end of the book having one hell of an "Aha! Moment." Twisted. Twisted. Twisted. So dark, so completely messed up and crooked and in your face insane but so unbelievably good.  

2.) The Sleepwalkers by J. Gabriel Gates - I've never quite read a book like this. The premise is fresh, and what was so great about this book was that I wasn't sure where it was going to go. It's an engrossing read. Twists and turns are abundant. It'll keep you flipping pages, through every creepy scenes and every blood curdling scream. Engrossing and unput-downable.
 
1.) Raven Stole The Moon by Garth Stein - One of my favorite books of all time. Stein himself calls it a Native American Campfire Story and it absolutely lives up to that title. Remember the days of sitting around a campfire, holding a flashlight under your chin, and trying to freak out your friends with ghost stories. This is just like that only on steroids.Stein takes you on spine tingling a tour through the Tlingit folklore and Alaskan countryside that you won't want to come back from. This story is chilling, freaky, heart wrenching, unusually romantic, and absolutely perfect.  

Happy Reading & Happy Halloween