Five Books You Need to Read for Halloween

Looking for some spooky stories? You’ve come to the right place. :) I recently shared my horror movie recommendations, and this week I’m sharing my favorite scary books. Before you start reading, here's what you need:

• A nightlight
• Funny show or movie queued up on Netflix to watch after 
• A good cup of tea (preferably chamomile) to help you sleep

Here we go…

In a Glass Darkly: I don’t know how this one slipped my radar for so many years, especially since it’s considered a classic, but now that I’ve picked it up, I can’t put it down! Although a bit slow at first, this book has developed into an extraordinarily creepy tale about a metaphysical doctor’s experiences with the supernatural. Each story creates an atmosphere of mystery and dare I say anxiety. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that I’ll never look at a monkey the same way again. This is easily one of my favorite books of all time. This quote pretty much sums up what to expect:

“My memory rejects the picture with incredulity and horror. Yet I know it is true. It is the story of the process of a poison, a poison which excited the reciprocal action of spirit and nerve, and paralyses the tissue that separates those cognate functions of the senses, the external and the interior. Thus we find strange bedfellows, and the mortal and immortal prematurely makes acquaintance.”

Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children: I read this book before it became a sensation (and a movie). It’s an interesting concept and I love the creepy vintage photographs that accompany the story. The one with those twins in the white outfits on the back cover takes the cake for the scariest picture. For a brief time, I started collecting creepy Victorian pics too, but they freaked me out so much I had to get rid of them. Although I didn’t really care for the ending, it’s still worth a read if you’re looking for spine-tingling fantasy.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone: This was a random buy, primarily chosen for its beautiful cover. The description about a devil’s shop of human teeth was equally as intriguing. This story is incredibly imaginative and descriptive, although at times, so descriptive that I felt a bit nauseous.

M.R. James Collected Ghost Stories: Considered to be the most terrifying writer in English, his classic supernatural tales draw on the terrors of the everyday, in which objects unleash terrible forces. Muhahaha.

H.P. Lovecraft’s Book of Horror: I know what you’re thinking. She’s recommending another thing of H.P. Lovecraft. Yes and no. This books is actually a collection of works that inspired Lovecraft. There are stories by Charles Dickens, Robert Luis Stevenson, and Edgar Allen Poe to name a few. I chose to include this book because it's an excellent collection of the masters of horror.

Have a scary book you're reading at the moment? Give me a shout below. I love recommendations. :)