Halloween Reads

A few years ago my sisters and I started reading a scary or horror book around Halloween.  It was sort of an unofficial book club.  Last year, we missed out picking a book, and this year I went a little overboard in my personal attempt to find scary books to read.

The list this years includes (from left along the top, to the bottom):

• Obscura by Joe Hart
• Thriller, suspense, and science fiction all in one novel!  Dr. Gillian Ryan travels to a visit a NASA team in space that has been stricken by an inexplicable psychosis similar to dementia.  Her journey turns into a nightmare of violent and unexplainable events, that lead to her not only questioning the sanity of her fellow crew mates, but also herself.
• Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger
• A mystery thriller that takes place in the Hollows, New York.  Tagline: "Only one thing is clear: The Hollows gets what it wants, no matter what."  Cue dramatic music.
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• A classic children's novel that I somehow missed reading as a child.  It's never too late to play catch up, right?  This book is about witches who hate children and turn them into mice...sort of like a Grimm's Fairy Tale gone wrong.
• Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh
• A Youth Fiction book that follows sixteen year old Bridey Corkill.  She lives on a small island and something sinister lurks deep in the sea...oh, and also there's a handsome stranger who shows up.  This has the makings of Loch Ness Monster turned human and may have too much romance to be scary.  I'll let you know after I finish reading it.
• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
• Adult Mystery: mysterious deaths?  Unexpected inheritances?  A tarot card reader as a main character?  Yes, please.  
• A Midsummer Night's Scream by R.L. Stine
• This book looks so interesting...not only is a play on Shakespeare, but the main characters themselves are actors.  I can only assume that means there will be lots of lying and duplicitous deeds.  And it's R.L. Stine, so we know it will be creepy.
• The first two in "The Bailey School Kids" series by Debbie Dadey and Marcia T. Jones
• Okay, these were just for a fun callback to my childhood.  I think we owned about 20 of these books and they were really fun to read, especially around Halloween.

Of course, I also bought a few on Kindle to read, too, as if these weren't enough:

• Maggie by Mya O'Malley
• Naomi moves into a house that borders a graveyard...not everyone in that graveyard rests.  She makes it her personal mission to help one spirit by the name of Maggie to find rest, only to discover that some secrets are closer to home than she's comfortable with.
• The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates
• Being bequeathed an ancient house doesn't mean that Adrienne believes in ghost.  Of course, not believing doesn't mean that something evil and twisted doesn't live in that old house.  
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• Monsieur Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement to investigate the death of one of his friends.  This is one of my sister's favorite Agatha Christie's, so it was an easy inclusion.
• Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel
• Just like the title sounds, this is a mash of Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein.  It follows the story of Elizabeth's sister, Mary, who becomes friends with Victor Frankenstein and possible also friends with the creature?  Unclear on that element.  Either way, I'm intrigued as these are two books that I love on their own.