Best Halloween Reads

I can read just about anything. But I've never been very big on horror. 
I'm not a big fan of anything creepy in general.
Monsters, Inc. gave me nightmares as a kid.

So if you want to get in the Halloween mood but still, you know, be able to sleep and enter rooms with the lights off and open the fridge without crying, you and I are in the same boat. Check out these  slightly creepy reads on my Halloween list this year.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Now that every other supernatural resource has been exhausted (vampires, werewolves, angels, VAMPIRES) we've turned to witches. I'm excited to read Beautiful Creatures before the movie comes out this spring. I love book-to-movie movies in general. And Emmy Rossum is going to be in this one. She's like the Zac Effron of Phantom of the Opera. I've heard great things about this franchise so far- i.e., "It's like Twilight, when Twilight isn't acting like Twilight." To quote my favorite blogger, "We don't need a next Twilight. Once was enough." But if this franchise can be Twilight but not, it sounds like a good Halloween read.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This one's already checked off my list. It's exactly as haunting and quirky and flat out creepy-weird (that always should have been a word) as the cover art insists it's going to be. The author, Ransom Riggs, is also a cinematographer and photographer, and the story goes he used his favorite old photographs he's collected at flea markets and in private collections to structure the story around. Turning the page to a vintage freak show photograph inside my novel is just about as much as I can handle- it definitely has the desired effect.



The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

While I went through a stage of being a bit against this book, you can't hate zombies with this much class. Not for that long. As I've posted before, this book is clever, elegantly written and elegantly covered (?) and elegantly everything- when your leading lady isn't wielding an ax. The Forest of Hands and Teeth tells an apocalypse story in a society so cut off from the outside world, technology and slang make it feel more like the place you'd expect to see the Salem witch trials go down than a zombie attack. It's getting to be an oldie and a bit of a classic re-read for me. If you still haven't read it, it's a great Halloween catch.



Was I too much of a wimp?

Check back next Friday! We've made it to November . . . Neal Shusterman book signing cover!