October. As the leaves are quickly separating from the trees, and the nights are starting to release the chill of pending fall… I find myself, like many of you, thinking of a little something spooky to cuddle up with in the evenings.
What scares you?
Here are a few that I would love to get the opportunity to read:
In 1987, Bohjalian purchased a Victorian house, only to discover a mysterious sealed door in the basement. But it wasn’t until 2009, when pilot Sully Sullenberger was forced to (successfully) land his plane on the Hudson River, that Bohjalian had the second thread he needed for The Night Strangers’ terrifying plot. His protagonist, Chip Linton, is a pilot who lives to tell the tale of his emergency landing on Lake Champlain. But Flight 1611 ends up with 39 casualties among the 40-odd passengers and crew. Thirty-nine just happens to be the same number of bolts that seal shut a hidden door in the basement of the new house Chip and his lawyer wife Emily move to with their twin daughters Garnet and Hallie. This retreat to the mountains of northern New Hampshire is an attempt by Chip to come to terms with the crash. However, peace doesn’t come easily.
While Chip goes about refurbishing the house (discovering the boarded-up door and random weapons hidden in nooks and crannies in the process), Emily and the twins realize this small White Mountain village is populated with numerous greenhouses and self-proclaimed herbalists. As Chip’s grief slowly descends into a type of madness, Emily begins to question why the town is so obsessed with teaching her daughters the tricks of the plants.
The basic premise, that of an amnesia victim suffering from debilitating short-term memory loss, has been thoroughly mined in print (James Hilton’s Random Harvest, G.H. Ephron’s Amnesia) and cinema (50 First Dates, Memento). Where Watson diverges from the formula is in his exhaustive exploration of one woman’s spiral into paranoia. Does Christine have a happy marriage, or is it a total sham? Does she have a son, and if so, did he die in Iraq, or is that just a figment of her overworked imagination? And what’s up with her doctor, anyway? From early on, it is clear that her husband is not being entirely truthful with her, but to what end—Christine’s well-being or something darker? On the sly, Christine begins keeping a journal, documenting the inconsistencies in the stories she is told by those she thought she could trust, leading to a showdown of epic proportions.
My name is Amelia Gray. I’m a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I’ve always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe.
It started with the discovery of a young woman’s brutalized body in an old Charleston graveyard I’ve been hired to restore. The clues to the killer—and to his other victims—lie in the headstone symbolism that only I can interpret. Devlin needs my help, but his ghosts shadow his every move, feeding off his warmth, sustaining their presence with his energy. To warn him would be to invite them into my life. I’ve vowed to keep my distance, but the pull of his magnetism grows ever stronger even as the symbols lead me closer to the killer and to the gossamer veil that separates this world from the next.
For 10-year-old Beau Jackson, the annual late August trek from his home in Richmond, Virginia, to his grandmother’s ancestral property on a Georgia peninsula known as Gull Island is a dismal one. For two weeks, Beau will have to deal with his constantly arguing parents as well as his alcoholic aunt and uncle, swarms of mosquitoes, unbearable humidity—and his weird cousin Sumter Monroe.
But this summer proves to be different from past vacations. Sumter, always a little strange, is downright disturbing. Obsessed with a decrepit shack at the edge of the property, Sumter makes it his own personal clubhouse and names it Neverland, a place where grown-ups are forbidden and an old human skull is worshipped as a destroying god. Compelled to Neverland to escape the dysfunction and alcohol-fueled fights inside Grammy Weenie’s house (ironically called The Retreat), Beau and his older twin sisters Missy and Nonie enter Sumter’s dark sanctuary and become entangled in a web of evil that includes thievery, animal sacrifices, blood drinking, demon worship and, quite possibly, facilitating the beginning of the end of the world.
Thank you to Book Page and Goodreads for these suggestions
That’s just to name a few. How about you? Any “scare-awesome” reads coming up?DO any of these appeal to you or do you have others on your radar? Or maybe you skip the spooky all together…
Oh and in answer to what scares me….
dolls.
Dolls have always creeped me out.
There I said it. 😛
Book Journey 
Ok..seriously…nightmares from that doll’s head…I just read the Chris Bohjalian book…really unsettling…checking out the others…
LOL…. they dont have to look that creepy but yeah dolls have always freaked me out a bit….
My goodness now that is a scary doll…lol I love to watch those Ghost shows and I watch a lot of horror movies. Listen to Koontz, Straub and others on audio.
OOH – I like a spooky movie too Joy – not horror or super gory… but a little scare! 😛
Ooh, that is one creepy doll! I have doll collections, but, IMO, none of them look creepy. I pick sweet-looking dolls. However, awhile ago, when I lived in the foothills (now that was a creepy house, with bats flying in occasionally!), I had a room with dolls on the shelves all around the room. When my son came to stay for awhile, he couldn’t stay in that room. So I had to move the dolls!
Before I Go to Sleep is a book I’d like to read.
TMI Laurel!!! TMI!!! 😯 LOL
My best friend in high schools mom had a room full of dolls and they were soooooo creepy… all those eyes….
I could not sleep in a room full of dolls. Nope. 😛
I am giggling, Dolls and Clowns have been the scare topic recently.
I thought Restorer was amazing and perfectly creepy, hope you enjoy it.
I thought Before I Sleep was a good debut but i’m the minority it seems with having concerns with it, i’m sure you will enjoy.
I’m reading Dracula right now, I like it and I don’t, very different, maybe i’m just not a classic girl.
I listened to Dracula this summer… I know I know… weird timing…. it was ok, but nothing fantastic.
That doll is terrifying! I am reading Before i Go To Sleep. I am not very far in but I am suspicious of the husband and the doctor. I gotta bad feeling about them both! The Night Strangers is another one I want to read. I hear it is creepy! I also got Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I am not sure if it a creepy read but the cover screams creepy to me!
The Peculiar Children is one I want to read too! I should have had that one on my list too Beth 😀
OK, where did you get that strange and creepy doll picture? Seriously? Awful! Like that Chuckie doll from the movie. Brrr!
I can recommend BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP. Very absorbing. One of my favorite scary books is an older one from Anne Rivers Siddons, THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR. Seriously scary.
That doll’s eyes follow you. 😦
LOL about the doll… it is awful.
I think Id like to try that Anne River Siddons… I have not read a good spooky book in a long time.
That doll is just plain creepy. Hope u enjoy the Bohjalian book – thought it was pretty good.
I hope so too Diane. 😀
That doll is freaky! Before I Go To Sleep was good, I listened to the audio. I think I brought home The Restorer with a bunch of other books from the library. Going to check it out.
I should look for these on audio Nise – so much faster for me 😀
Some dolls are creepy! My mom was a doll collector and had close to 5000 dolls. Her Howdy Doody ventriloquist doll used to freak my son out when he was small.
I love spooky books!
Howdy Doody makes me shutter…. he actually talked! LOL
I usually stay away from the spooky, so all the creepy/scary books I read tend to be children’s and middle grade. (The Graveyard Book; Juniper Berry; Guys Read: Thriller) Enjoy your spooky books, though!!!
Thanks Alison – I do not read many but thought at least one of these for October would be good for me 😀
Dolls and clowns are both creepy in my book. I don’t do scary stories, so this time of year I skim a lot of reviews. 🙂
Clowns are just made up dolls… I agree with you Alyce… both are creepy 😀
I’m reading my first Chris Bohjalian – SECRETS OF EDEN .. it’s really good! And, yes, I want to read THE NIGHT STRANGERS, too (although I get scared very easily; will probably have nightmares from that doll pic you posted!)
I have not read him yet either but I have heard good things about him!
All of these sound seriously creepy, maybe too much for me. I read Nora Robert’s Blood Brothers trilogy last year and that was about as scary as I want to get!
I did read Yellow Moon this month (reviewed it too). Voodoo, reincarnation, blood draining and strangely enough, a love story.
LOL – my talk is bigger than my eyes… I am hoping to read one or two of these… but I do not read a lot of spooky anymore so we will see if I can handle it 😀
Dolls and clowns are too of hte creepiest things to ever walk the planet.
If you read Neverland, I hope you enjoy it more than I did, something I think most people did.
LOL – I miss you Ryan… your voice on this blog makes me smile!
Before I Go to Sleep is definitely on my “to read” bookshelf too and The Night Strangers sounds really good too from the description. I love watching horror movies so I have to say any kind of weird “house noise” in the night creeps me out – and my house makes a lot of creepy noises!
House noises are just bad Tanya…lol…. I think as readers we have pretty vivid imaginations too 😀
Looking forward to reading a spooky book for October. Great idea! I hope to read Night Strangers and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As a teen I loved to watch and read horror stories….now, not so much. I always end up with nightmares 🙂 But it is almost Halloween.