Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books that are Perfect Reads for Halloween

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. This week’s theme is a Halloween freebie, so I picked Top Ten Books that are Perfect Reads for Halloween.

Halloween have never been a big deal in England. I was eighteen the first time I went trick-or-treating, and it was babysitting my friends little cousins, in fact the only part of Halloween I get excited for are The Simpson Treehouse of horror episodes and the Brooklyn Nine-Nine Halloween Heist episodes. However I love reading and with Halloween coming up, and with this week’s TTT topic being a Halloween themed free-for-all, I decided to showcase some of the best creepy and dark books I’ve read so far as well as a few still on my to-read list.

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Top Five Books I’ve Read

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Maybe this isn’t a book many people would call dark or creepy but there are definitely hints of both throughout. A Monster Calls is a beautiful story; emotional and moving but dark at times as well. Plus Halloween is all about monsters and that makes this the perfect Halloween read.

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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

While the first book was a little slow to start off with the series definitely improves from there. Ransom Riggs’ writing, the world he has created, and the vintage photos he uses to help tell the story all come together to create a world alongside our own with its own powers and dangers. Definitely dark and creepy at times, and well worth picking up.

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Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke

This is probably the only anthology I’ve read which hasn’t been a selection of short stories from one series (think Stars Above by Marissa Meyer), and to date Slasher Girls & Monster Boys is the scariest book I’ve read so far. I can’t think of one novella that didn’t really creep me out, and it has some amazing names as well; Leigh Bardugo, Jay Kristoff, Marie Lu, A.G. Howard, to name a few. If you like horror stories I cannot recommend this book enough.

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Alice by Christina Henry

In terms of Alice in Wonderland retellings Alice, by Christina Henry, is the darkest one out there. It’s an amazing book, one I really loved, but it is not for the faint hearted. Instead of Wonderland we find ourselves in Old Town, where the streets are ruled by magicians and mobsters with familiar names – the Caterpillar, Cheshire, the Rabbit, the Walrus and Mr. Carpenter – and where it is a very dangerous place to be a woman.

Trigger warning; there are quite a few mentions and references to rape in this book.

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Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter

I just finished this book today and really enjoyed it—I’m hoping to post my review on Thursday. I wouldn’t say this was a scary book, not in the way Slasher Girls & Monster Boys was, instead it’s more creepy and there were plenty of scenes throughout that chilled me. I’d describe Vassa in the Night as a magical realism book and I think the best books from that genre have a certain creepiness to them.

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Top Five Books Still on my TBR List

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

The only series I’ve read by Kendare Blake, the Goddess War trilogy, I loved so I added Anna Dressed in Blood to my to-read list as soon as I finished the first book. However I still haven’t gotten around to it. The blurb reminds me a little of Supernatural, the cover is definitely haunting, and when it comes down to it aren’t ghosts part of all the best Halloween stories?

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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I’m going to be honest even after reading the blurb I still have no clue what this book is about. However reading reviews and talking to other bloggers on WordPress have convinced me that not only do I need to start this series ASAP, but that the first book would be the perfect pick for my Halloween read this year.

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline is one of the rare Neil Gaiman books I haven’t read yet, I haven’t even seen the film. There’s something about the blurb – describing the story as ‘a nightmarish game’ taking part in ‘an alternate world’ to create a ‘chilling novel’ – that makes me want to pick it up right away. Plus if it’s anything like the books I have read by Neil Gaiman I’m sure to love it.

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Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker

The blurb has me hooked even before I saw the gorgeous cover. Sterling loses her brother when he runs towards the swamp and away from her, later a girl emerges whom everyone tells Sterling is her sister, a sister she never had before. This book sounds creepy, and with the backdrop of Louisiana, full of magic and danger as well.

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The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

This is a book that I only recently discovered, and recently added to my to-read list as well. Changelings have always seemed like a bit of an unexplored topic but this book sounds brilliant, and if the cover alone doesn’t freak you out a little then you’re less easily scared than I am.

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So what do you think? Did you take part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, if so let me know what you picked for this week’s themed free-for-all, or what creepy books you plan to pick up this Halloween are.