It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the folks at the Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is the oh-so-seasonal “Top Ten Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit.” Now, I love a good old ghost story, so this is a fun challenge!
1. The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. An early example of the “haunted? or is the protagonist crazy?” school of ghost story. A young governess at an isolated estate in charge of two young children who are being “influenced” by ghosts of their previous governess and her lover.
2. “The Old Nurse’s Tale,” by Elizabeth Gaskell. A short story about ghostly retribution.
3-4. Carmilla, by Sheridan Le Fanu and Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Good ol’ Victorian vampire stories.
5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Chilling depictions of both crime and science gone awry.
6. “The Mezzotint,” by M.R. James. Every time the viewers see the print, something in the image has shifted, depicting a gruesome tale.
And…to be a little more modern about things.
7. It, by Stephen King. I remember wanting to crawl under a blanket and hide while reading this when I was a teenager. For those clown-phobics out there….beware.
8-9. Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck!, by Christopher Moore. For the lighter side of vampires (I haven’t read the third book, Bite Me, yet).
10. Plum Spooky, by Janet Evanovich. A between-the-numbers Halloween dose of Stephanie Plum and some supernatural cohorts.
What would you recommend for “getting into the spirit of Halloween” reading?
i like the mix of both classic and modern choices, zo! all of them are books i have not read (can you tell “spooky” is not one of my preferred genres?!) – although i would be in to the janet evanovich – will look for it at the library.
like i wrote, “t is for trespass” really freaked me at times! not hallowe’en themed, but it was spooky at times!
happy reading!
I agree with you on the creepiness of Trespass (and the son!). At first I was thinking I haven’t read a lot of horror, but realized I’d read a lot of older ghost stories.
Someday I’ll read some of the classic horror on your list. Thank you for sharing these.
Here’s my Ten Ten Books to Get You in the Halloween Spirit. I hope you’ll stop in!
A lot of the older ones are scary fun!
Believe it or not, the only one of those I’ve read is It. That was super-scary!
I think I gave up on Stephen king after feeling too creeped out by It. I’m thinking I might like to read “the shining” one if these days, though.
It was so creepy! It’s the only one I’ve read from your list, but I have quite a few of the older titles on my reading list.
It was a total creepfest!
Love the 2 Christopher Moore ones. He’s crazy!!
And fun
I prefer ghost stories, rather than vampire ones . A ghost story seems more realistic, like, it can happen to me. I believe the supernatural because it has happened to my family several times.