Happy Halloween Eve my lovely readers. 🎃 This week I have been right into spooky reads and spooky films. I’ve watched my fair share of horror movies that’s for sure. This week I will be doing a lot of reading of The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow which I can’t wait. So to start of this spooky weekend I wanted to share my Top 5 spooky reads across all genres that I have loved over the years.
🎃 MY TOP 5 SPOOKY READS 🎃
The Hollow (The Hollow, #1) by Jessica Verday Published by Simon & Schuster Children's on October 1, 2009
Goodreads
Growing up in the town of Sleepy Hollow, the mystery and intrigue over Washington Irving's classic legend are all part of daily life for sixteen-year-old Abbey. But when her best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Abbey's world is suddenly turned upside down.
While everyone is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead, Abbey refuses to believe that she is really gone. And when Abbey meets the gorgeous, but mysterious, Caspian at Kristen's memorial she starts to feel like she has something to hold on to for the first time since Kristen's disappearance.
But when Abbey finds a diary hidden in Kristen's bedroom, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her disappearance or even her death?
Hurt and angry at Kristen's betrayal, Abbey turns to Caspian for support...and uncovers a frightening truth about him that threatens both their emerging love and her sanity...
I read this years and years ago, it was a series that got be obsessed with perfume making and also the history behind the Headless Horseman and Sleepy Hollow. It was one of those that I adored after Twilight and I couldn’t stop reading it. I feel this is forgotten book these days but I would highly recommend it!
Final Girls by Riley Sager Published by Ebury Press (Fiction) on July 13, 2017
Genres: Thriller
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Goodreads
Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.
Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.
That is, until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit, and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.
This book took me by surprise and totally got me out of my comfort zone of YA. This was my first psychological thriller/horror and I bloody loved it. But it scared me and kept me up all night and I have read every single book of his since. Still need to find a UK copy of Home Before Dark.
A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1) by Deborah Harkness Published by Viking Penguin on February 8, 2011
Genres: Fantasy & Magic
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Goodreads
A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.
Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.
Does this really need a reason? Oxford, witches, vampires, demons and a secret magical book. A Forbidden sexy romance between Diana and Matthew. It’s lush, it’s to die for and the TV series is amazing. So if you need a series to read or watch or both. Then these are amazing and unputtadownable!
Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis Published by Penguin Random House Children's UK on August 25, 2020
Genres: Horror
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Goodreads
Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker - she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she's swiftly packed off to live with a grandmother she's never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father's most iconic horror movie was shot.
The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map - and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.
And there's someone - or something - stalking Lola's every move.
The more she discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola's got secrets of her own. And if she can't find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her...
The book this year that I won’t be able to forget for good and bad reasons! Kat put in my worst fear in horror movies which is chattering teeth, lots of them and it creeped the hell out of me. But this was such an amazing YA horror that everyone should read. Just hope you don’t have the heeby jeebys to chattering teeth like me and read it in the daytime too.
Witch by Finbar Hawkins Published by Zephyr on October 1, 2020
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical
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Goodreads
Set in the 17th century, a breathtaking debut, and a potential prize-winner, about the power of women, witchcraft, fury, revenge and the ties that bind us.
After witnessing the brutal murder of her mother by witch-hunters, Evey vows to avenge her and track down the killers. Fury burns in her bright and strong. But she has promised her mother that she will keep Dill, her little sister, safe.
As the lust for blood and retribution rises to fever pitch, will Evey keep true to the bonds of sisterhood and to the magick that is her destiny?
Cover artwork by Edward Bettison
A book I just finished this week! I really loved this book, so uniquely and beautifully written children’s book about a girl avenging her mother death and finding the witch hunters that killed her. She must embrace her magick whilst also protecting her sister. Short, easy read that anyone who loved The Bear in the Nightingale would love this children’s book.
What are you some of your favourite spooky reads? Or do you have a specific favourite during halloween? Also I’m looking for more psychological thrillers like Final Girls, please let me know your recommendations. Let me know in the comments.
