This time it’s the turn of the bloggers. Some of my favourite book bloggers have agreed to share their spookiest and scariest books with us (and one will even tell us why reading a scary book put her off reading any more for life!)
Leeswammes’ Blog
Judith at Leeswammes’ Blog is a blogger from Holland and she has picked Phantoms by Dean Koontz
Two sisters return to their hometown and find a whole quiet, empty town. They find some bodies, but not enough to account for everyone. Where are the inhabitants of Snowfield gone?
There is lots of suspense while the creature is after the sisters and police officers. It feeds on humans and can also take their form and voice. So it’s never certain whether someone is a human or really the monster.
Not to be read when you’re home alone!
Coffee and a Book Chick
Natalie, Coffee and a Book Chick, is from the USA and her picks are The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and The Ruins by Scott Smith (she couldn’t pick just one)
The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova – This is an incredibly haunting read. A lot of reviews gauge it as written in a very Victorian-esque manner, and I would agree with that. It slowly moves but in a quiet way that keeps you entrenched in the story. This is an incredibly creepy book to read by yourself.
The Ruins, by Scott Smith – I’m absolutely going to throw out this into the fray, and I know it’s a different recommendation since there are no ghosts or ghouls. It was made into a pretty horrible movie, unfortunately. The reviews on the book are fairly mixed, but I think what people missed out on in the book was that it was primarily an incredibly disturbing psychological thriller. There were some scenes in there that were incredibly, incredibly frightening.
Bella’s Bookshelves
Steph from Bella’s Bookshelves is a Candadian book blogger and she has chosen The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (as well as giving us loads of other great ideas for spooky reading).
There are so many books that gave me serious chills, like Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Alfred Hitchcock’s anthologies of ghost stories, gothic tales by Edgar Allan Poe, and One Bloody Thing After Another by Joey Comeau.
But the one I recall making me the most scared was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I don’t even think it’s all that well written, truth be told, but it’s definitely a page-turner! All day I sat reading that book; I finished it in one sitting. By the time I turned the last page it was after midnight and the hubby had gone upstairs to bed. Suddenly, my imagination just ran wild, thinking of evil killers randomly targeting our apartment, shooting through the window or breaking in. None of this happened in The Lovely Bones, but I guess Sebold really got in my head telling the story from a dead girl’s perspective who’d been brutally murdered. I remember the light switch was downstairs, so you had to turn it off and walk up in the dark in this 1800s apt. I was so scared my heart was pounding and I was literally crawling up the stairs, making myself as small as possible. I climbed into bed, without washing, and clung to my husband until the nightmarish feeling passed.
She Reads Novels
Helen from She Reads Novels is a UK blogger from the north of England and she has nominated The Resurrectionists by Kim Wilkins.
One of the scariest books I remember reading was The Resurrectionists by Kim Wilkins. The Resurrectionists is the story of Maisie, a young Australian woman who comes to live in her grandmother’s old house in the isolated Yorkshire village of Solgreve. When Maisie discovers a diary from the 1700s she begins to uncover the tragic story of one of the house’s previous occupants, Georgette, and her poet lover Virgil. But how is Georgette’s story connected with the dark wraith-like figures who haunt Maisie’s garden? With great characters such as Sacha the gypsy and the sinister Dr Flood, and a wonderfully atmospheric setting with an ancient cathedral and a huge cliff top cemetery, this is a genuinely spooky gothic horror story. Sadly this book is now very difficult to find, but if you can lay your hands on a copy I highly recommend reading it!
Novel Insights
Polly from Novel Insights is another UK blogger and lives in London. She has offered up two creepy short stories.
The Haunted Hotel, by Wilkie Collins is not the scariest book I’ve ever read but it definitely ticks the creepy box. Actually, what I love about it is that it’s a real old-fashioned ghost story and perfect for curling up with on a cold dark night. What could be a better spooky combination than a haunted hotel (ghostly goings on in room number 13 of course!), a mysterious disappearance, and a mad countess – all set in the dark and watery atmosphere of Venice? Collins also throws in a pinch of mystery and drama as well as his slightly tongue-in-cheek wit.
Don’t Look Now by Daphne DuMaurier is a short story that left me with chills running down my back. A bereaved couple go on a trip to Venice to patch up their relationship after the death of their daughter. When they encounter a pair of creepy twins at lunch one day, a prediction is made which casts a dark shadow on the holiday. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away as the ending really hit me with a jolt which is part of the fun (if you like spooky stories!), but next to Stephen King’s Misery It is definitely the creepiest story that I have read. One that’ll make you want to go make a comforting cup of cocoa afterwards to shake off the chills.
Chasing Bawa
Sakura at Chasing Bawa is a UK blogger living in London and she has chosen Tanith Lee’s short story collection, Dreams of Dark and Light as her scary read.
Some of my favourite fiction growing up was gothic horror although I’m more interested in the macabre than a gore-fest. I first came across Tanith Lee’s collection of short fiction Dreams of Dark and Light at school and was instantly smitten by the fictional landscapes she creates. My favourite story in that collection is Bite-Me-Not or, Fleur de Fur, a retelling of the vampire myth. It’s achingly beautiful and I wish her stories were read more widely. Another off-beat author I really liked is Poppy Z. Brite. Her stories are a natural extension of Anne Rice’s, set in New Orleans, but a little more grunge. I spent many a night nestled in bed reading Lost Souls, about two young men obsessed with life and death. Although I’m not often frightened by books, these two books will send a gentle chill down your spine on a long winter’s night.
And lastly, the only book that scared the living daylights out of me was the novelisation of The Alien films, The Complete Alien Omnibus by Alan Dean Foster. Purists may sneer but I’ll never forget the feeling of fear I experienced reading this in a silent house in the middle of the night, even though my sister was sleeping right next to me. So beware…
Giraffe Days
Shannon at Giraffe Days is a Canadian blogger, originally from Tasmania. She has chosen three books that gave her the heebie-jeebies:
Kazuro Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is a truly chilling book, one that you can’t get out of your head. I read it a few years ago for a bookclub I was in, and last month I saw the film adaptation at TIFF and it was just as scary, if not more so for seeing flesh and blood people in it.
It was the first book that came to mind when Boof asked me about scary books, even though it’s not a typical example. The downside is that I can’t tell you what it’s about! I can tell you that it’s set in the 70s, 80s and 90s in the UK, is a story about an alternate history and a dystopian society – but truly the less you know about the subject matter or the main characters, the more powerful the story will be when you read it. I can give you the blurb on the back of the book, because it doesn’t give anything away:
As children, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules – and teachers who were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.
Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have re-entered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what makes them so special – and how that will shape the rest of their time together.
What’s chilling about it is the premise (not disclosed in the blurb), and also the unquestioning nature of the protagonists, which shows you how society can get away with heinous things when those it affects most are raised in such a way that they never even consider questioning it or fighting it. Their complete acquiescence and obedience is terrifying, and very very sad.
My next choice is Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. When I was living in Japan I got this movie out called Battle Royale - it had English subtitles – and was blown away by the story. It was terrifying. I got hold of the book a few years later and it was just as I remembered it, and just as chilling.
The premise is this: set in an alternate present-day (or possibly near future; it isn’t clarified), the government has developed a forceful method of keeping youth in check: every year it randomly takes a class of teens to an island, puts explosive collars on their necks, arms them with everything from guns to poison to crow bars, and tells them to kill each other. There can only be one winner.
You’ve gotta hand it to the Japanese for having the most inventive imaginations; truly I am in awe of the stories that come out of the country. The story here is scary because it takes an unsuspecting class of over 30 students who think they’re on their way to a camp, puts them to sleep on the bus with a gas, and then when they wake up in a strange place with exploding collars around their neck, are faced with the unbelievable truth. They are completely disposable, who their parents are can’t save them, and when they realise that the man in charge is in deadly earnest (literally, he shoots one of the kids to show that he’s not kidding), their nightmare begins. It’s kill or be killed. With such a large group of kids, pretty much every way of dying is explored. (I find it interesting, this Japanese preoccupation with death and suicide; it’s different from how we approach it I guess, stemming from a different culture and philosophy … but I digress.)
Whether you watch the movie or read the book, either way you’re in for a real scary Halloween treat – if you think those slasher flicks are gory, you haven’t seen anything yet!
Finally, Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie, renamed And Then There Were None for obvious reasons. The edition pictured is the one I have, which I borrowed from my sister and never gave back because I loved it so much!
This was the first Christie book I ever read, and it was so powerful and intense and frightening I don’t honestly think any of her other books will ever please me in such a satisfying way!
Ten people are invited to a fabulous mansion on Nigger Island off the coast of Devon. Though they all have something to hide, they arrive hopefully on a glorious summer evening … But soon a series of extraordinary events take place: the island is suddenly bathed in a most sinister light … panic grips the visitors one, by one … by one, by one …
Ten people arrive and then begin dying one by one. You never knew who was going to be next, or how they would die – but they ALL died. So the mystery is: who killed them? They’re all dead! Or are they…?
I was about 14 when I read this and I’ve never been able to forget it – the details are nicely faded so it’s ripe for a re-read. It’s very scary because of the unpredictability of the killings – and some of them are pretty elaborate if I remember correctly. There was such an atmosphere of tension, fear and menace. The people were stuck on this island, with no way off, while something picked them off one by one.
Now that I’ve talked about all three together, it’s interesting to see what such different books have in common – and to see what I consider to be truly scary! They are like slasher movies with a conscience and a social message. There’s also a hopelessness to them all, in that they don’t have happy endings Battle Royale sort of does, and yet doesn’t). They’re less “spooky” and more “chilling”, which I find to really scary!
What a fantastic looking collection of spooky and scary books from some fab book bloggers. I have to admit that I have already managed to snaffle a few for myself after reading these so watch this space…
Did you find something you want to read? Are you brave enough to pick one of these books up?
In three words:
I read this book as part of the RIP Challenge
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