Here is a list of scary books to read this coming Halloween! These are horror books to creep you out and keep you awake at night wondering if the noise coming from the dark hallway is your cat or a ghost. I love reading horror books, and watching eerie movies and TV shows. Stories with vampires, demons, ghosts, aliens, zombies, and haunted mansions. The kind of stories you probably shouldn't read in the dark without having every single light switches on and the things where you recall the ghost just as you are falling asleep. I like to be scared, I like to wonder about the things under your bed and that go bump in the night. Not thrillers like Friday the 13th or The Conjuring. Things that mess with your mind. I may be the only person in my house who likes horror, but I enjoy watching Oculus enough for the rest of my family. So here's some books with demons and ghosts and... zombie ghosts? for your happy Halloween.
1. Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender
If you like possessed little sisters and an evil doll with a bad-ass main character, read this book. And the next two after this one.
When Alex's little sister Kasey becomes obsessed with an old antique doll, Alexis thinks nothing of it. Kasey has always been oddly doll obsessed for an eighth grader and just strange in general. Alexis is considered weird, too, even by her goth sort-of friends. Things get stranger, though, when doors start to open by themselves, water boils on an unlit stove, and the unplugged air conditioner freezes the house cold as death. Kasey is changing, too. Her blue eyes flash green, she uses old fashioned language, and forgets chunks of time. She talks to herself and is disappearing to places, making lists. Most dangerous of all is that Alexis' sweet little sister isn't so kind anymore. She's angry. Only Alexis can stop her sister... but what if the green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?
I read this book two years ago, and haven't stopped reading it. It is one of my favorite ghost book, possibly the best. It isn't jump-scary, which I don't like. I want to be creeped out by the what if's, not the boo factor. This book will for sure give you nightmares. And do you see this cover? As creepy as creepy gets.
2. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
Don't be mislead by the title, this isn't some cheesy take on Alice in Wonderland with zombies. It's about a girl named Alice Bell who starts seeing zombies. The characters are tough and pretty damn cool, and the romance is very romantic. It's a very unique take on zombies, one I've never read of before.
Alice's whole life she's thought her dad was a raving lunatic, insisting monsters are out there to eat your soul, not letting anyone outside after dark, drinking. That is, she thought he was crazy. Until the night their car crashes and her little sister and parents die. And then she sees the monsters, too. Until she stumbles upon a group of zombie slayers, kids just like her. And then she decides to fight back, against the zombies, against the darkness. To avenge her family, to save her new friends. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn't careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.
Okay, I really like this series. Zombies and hunters who slay the undead? Yes please. The final book just came out and I need to read it, like, now.
3. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
This title is scary in itself. I just recently read this book, and though it has it's issues, it is a solid ghost tale.
Cas is a ghost hunter, just as his father was before him. He travels with his mother, a witch, killing the dead. His next kill is a girl dubbed Anna Dressed in Blood, who was brutally and mysteriously murdered in the 1950's. She kills anyone who dares to enter her house. Yet she spares Cas' life. And Cas soon comes to know the cursed teenage ghost full of rage and pain and sadness.
The demons in this story are definitely horrific. Dripping blood, tearing people apart, monsters eating people? That is scary.
4. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
This book is confusing and disturbing and downright eerie. You cannot even trust the protagonist, Mara, because she may be crazy. I'm still not sure she isn't. This is probably the most mind blowing book I have ever read, in the sense that half the time I wasn't even sure what exactly was happening.
Mara Dyer woke up in a hospital with no memories of the accident that killed three of her friends. She's sure there must be more to the story other than an old building collapsing. She sees things in mirrors, has nightmares, people turn up dead. She thinks she's going insane and so does everyone else. What if she is? What if she isn't?
The definition of creepy is this book. It has cute romance but the tone of the book is dark, especially since you can't even trust what Mara sees, because it may be a lie.
5. The Archived by Victoria Schwab
*Squeals* I love this book series so much you cannot even imagine. A brave, bad ass main character, an amazing love interest, and good writing. Plus, Mackenzie hunts the escaped dead.
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Mackenzie is a Keeper, tasked to keep the sometimes violent Histories from waking up and escaping. She lies to everyone she loves because of her job, and now her baby brother is dead. And now being a Keeper is a reminder of the ones she lost. In the Archive the Histories are not to be disturbed. But someone has altered the dead on purpose, deliberately erasing chapters. Unless Mac can solve who is doing this, the Archive itself might fall apart.
This book is eerie and imaginative, and I named this blog after it. And it's underlying tone is haunting and sad. It makes you wonder, and aren't those the best books of all?
