Halloween Roundup: Books That’ll Spook Your Socks Off
Happy Halloween All!
Today is the day.
The day to get your spook on. Whether it be trick-or-treating with the kids or for old-times sake, or heading off to a costume party, or watching a marathon of spook-filled movies, or in true book-lover fashion curling up with a spooky-rific book that’ll chill you right down to the bone.
So if you’re staying in tonight, or passing out the candy in a neighborhood that’s extremely slow and you’ll have the time, then pick up one of these books, or download them to your eReader and get your spook on!
Please note: Most of these I haven’t read yet, but I’m recommending them based on a ton of reviews and very high ratings.
1) 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. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: 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.
But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas’s life.
Okay this one has been all around the book-blog-osphere a lot lately. The verdict is good. Everyone seems to be loving it and it sounds extremely spooky. I have it checked out from the library and will be reading it here soon so I can’t wait to see what all the hype is about!
Purchase Links: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
2) Feed by Mira Grant
In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as “Marburg Amberlee”—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.
It raised the dead.
Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed “The Rising,” and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.
Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all:
When will you rise?
I absolutely love zombie movies, but I haven’t gotten much into the book genre yet. There’s just so much out there right now and I don’t know where to start! But I think this would be a good place. It sounds really good and has fantastic reviews across the board.
Purchase Links: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
3) The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan
In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?
I’m sure you’ve seen this one floating around lately. Lots of hype, lots of talk about it. I haven’t picked it up yet, but I definitely intend to. Especially since it’s scheduled to hit the big screen and I’d definitely want to read it before seeing the movie.
Purchase Links: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
4) Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Once upon a time, I was a little girl who disappeared.
Once upon a time, my name was not Alice.
Once upon a time, I didn’t know how lucky I was.When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over.
Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.
This is Alice’s story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.
I’m not sure how “scary” this one is. I have heard that it’s really good. But as far is if it’s scary, I’ve heard that it’s “horrifying” and that it’s also sad. So I’m not sure. It’s appeared on a few horror book lists, but that might not mean much, depending on what you’re defining “horror” as. Anyways, either way I’ve heard it’s a good book so we’ll just call this our wildcard. If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether it’s scary or sad, or a combination of the two (or neither).
Purchase Links: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
5) The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Since this roundup seems to have turned into mostly Young Adult, I thought I would throw a classic in here to mix it up a bit.
I don’t think this one needs a book description. It’s the book that the movie was based on. I’ve seen the movie, but I’ll be honest, I have yet to read the book. But really that’s out of fear. I have heard from a wide variety of people both young and old that this is an absolutely frightening book. My father-in-law actually told me that he literally threw it in the garbage after reading it because it scared him so much and he didn’t want it in his house anymore! I laughed at first, thinking he was joking, but he was serious! lol
Of course then there’s the episode of Friends where Joey puts it in the freezer. Or was it Rachel? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure this was the scary book in that one episode.
I will read it one day when I’m brave enough, but for now I will stay away I think. Too rich for my blood! 
Purchase Links: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
A lot of these I actually haven’t read yet, but I’ve heard awesome things. I’m kind of leery with horror books sometimes because I tend to get nightmares easily. I used to be able to watch horror movies like crazy and I loved them, but at a certain point I started actually losing sleep over them! I don’t know what happened. But, I do have Anna Dressed in Blood and will definitely be reading that soon because I’ve heard such good things about it. Most of the others are on my own to-read list to get to one of these days. If you’ve read them let me know how they live up on the spook-meter and otherwise!
So what are some of your favorite scary books?
Will you be curling up with a scary (or other kind of) book tonight or do you have fun plans? Our whole family (cousins and such) takes out their kids trick-or-treating and we make it a big fun event that we all go out together. It’s actually pretty fun.
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