5 Spooky Books to Read (While You Stuff Your Face with Candy)
Ah, nothing gets me in the Halloween spirit more than a cup of coffee, and big ol’ bag of candy, and a book that makes you triple check your doors and windows and lock your house down like Fort Knox. Now, I read spooky stuff all year ‘round. However, if you are not a spook-addicted, emotional masochist like myself and limit your horror indulgence to October, then here are 5 spine-chilling and “what the hell”-inducing books to read tonight.
1. The Three by Sarah Lotz
Oh, boy. I don’t even know where to begin. If you follow the Bibliotherapy Instagram account (@bibliotherapyblog. You should follow it. I post pretty book pictures.), you’ll know that I selected this as my favorite book that I read this year. When I read horror/thrillers, I want a book that makes me stare off at a far wall and think “What the actual hell.” This book did that over and over again.
The Three by Sarah Lotz is a thriller published in 2014. It tells the story of Black Thursday, a day when four passenger planes crashed almost simultaneously on different points of the planet. An American woman named Pamela May Donald on the flight that crashed in Japan’s notorious Aokigahara forest lives just long enough to record a message on her cellphone that changes the world forever. The “book-within-a-book” structure takes you through the lives of the three children that survive the crashes: Jess, Hiro, and Bobby. A pastor hears Pamela’s message and perpetuates the conspiracy theory that the three children are the harbingers of the apocalypse.
This story follows the lives of many different characters from all over the world, and finishes off with an ending that left me laying on the floor and contemplating my existence. This is a great read if you want something spooky, but you’re not into gore or ghost stories. However, I would not recommend reading this if you have travel plans coming up. I’m definitely staying away from planes for a while…
2. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Carrying on with the apocalypse theme, allow me to introduce you one of the most stomach-turning, terrifying books I’ve ever read. Unlike The Three, Swan Song is definitely for the readers who like gore and really, really frightening mental images.
Swan Song, published in 1987, takes place in a post-nuclear apocalyptic America where forces even more powerful than the bombs that wiped out nearly all life on the planet are at play. The antagonist known only as the Man with the Scarlet Eye prowls the lifeless landscape for a girl named Swan and is hell-bent on destroying her. After the initial bombing which Swan’s mother does not survive, a man named Josh takes Swan into his care as they roam the country, meeting a cast of characters along the way. Josh and Swan must survive a threat bigger than the nuclear winter—the other survivors.
This book is unlike any post-apocalyptic literature I have ever read. It puts human behavior under a microscope and incorporates themes not commonly seen in this genre such a religion, innocence, and the paranormal. People, I’m telling you, the visuals described in this book are NOT for the easily disturbed. I’ve filled my brain will so many horror novels over the years, and I was freaked out to no end. If you want to lose all faith in humanity and probably some sleep, give this book a read.
3. What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz
Okay, I almost NEVER re-read books, but I re-read the crap out of this one. It is the best of mystery, crime-thriller, and paranormal. This is a great read if you are looking for crime/suspense with a paranormal twist.
What the Night Knows, published in 2010, tells the story of John Calvino. One night, John sneaks out of the house to meet a girl. When he returns, he finds his family slaughtered and the killer standing over the body of his sister. 20 years after he shoots and kills Alton Turner Blackwood, the man who killed his and three other families, John is now a detective, and someone is repeating Blackwood’s crimes.
If you’re a bookworm, you know it is so, so hard to pick a favorite book, but this might just be it for me. It is intense, disturbing, and incredibly unnerving. The details of Blackwood’s murders are graphic and chilling, and they stopped me from sneaking out of the house for a while when I first read this in high school. Koontz is one of my favorite authors, and he is a master of suspense/supernatural crossovers.
4. Piercing by Ryu Murakami
I picked up this book, because I was in a reading slump and wanted something short that would ignite all that bookworm energy again. Man, did I regret that decision. The cover of this book alone is bothersome, never mind what’s on the inside.
Piercing is a quick but ultimately bone-chilling read about Kawashima Masayuki, a graphic designer whose wife has recently given birth to their first child. For reasons he cannot understand, Kawashima is overcome with the urge to stab his daughter with an ice pick (I know, right?). Every night, he stands over her crib with the ice pick in his hand, fighting this urge. One night, he decides that his desire much be relieved somehow before he cannot fight it anymore. The book follows Kawashima’s plans to release this murderous compulsion before it tears his young family apart.
Oh, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned stabby-stabby book to set the Halloween mood. This book was awesome, and the characters in it are complex and vividly portrayed. Murakami’s book is a gripping inspection of human psychology, so it’s a safe bet that true crime buffs would enjoy this one.
5. Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
Ohmygoodness. This. Book. It is so disturbing and creepy and every other synonym for “scary” in the thesaurus. What’s really cool about this book is it started as a series of creepypastas the author posted on Reddit. Thanks to the kind people on Kickstarter, it was published into a book that leaves you spinning and really, really suspicious of those innocent penpal exercises you did in elementary school.
Penpal follows the story of a man sifting through his memories when he learns a childhood friend has disappeared. Each chapter is a memory and a puzzle piece, and when that picture comes together? UGH. This book takes everything good about childhood and just stomps it into the dirt. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe.
Seriously, give this one a read. Let it scare you and ruin all your great memories. All in the name of Halloween spookiness.
If you decide to read any of these books, let me know. We can ramble and cry about them together. In the meantime, have the spookiest of Halloweens! Tag @bibliotherapyblog in your costume photos, because I want to see them ALL.
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