I am very excited to have time for another Top Ten Tuesday post! I really do enjoy these, and this one in particular, sounds like it’ll be especially fun! I mean, it’s Halloween themed, so how could it not be?!

“This week’s topic is a Halloween related freebie: scary books, favorite horror novels, non-scary books to get you in the Halloween/fall mood, bookish halloween costumes, scariest book covers, scary books on my TBR, etc.”

If you couldn’t already tell from my blog’s decor/theme, I really love Halloween! So the fact that this week’s Top Ten Tuesday post is Halloween themed, makes me unbelievably happy! I am getting a little worried though, because I don’t have a Halloween costume planned, and if I’ll be going out, it will be this weekend! I fly out of Romania tomorrow, am spending a 17-hour layover in Amsterdam, and then arriving in Canada on Thursday, in the afternoon. I also have my graduation ceremony for my Master’s Degree on Friday morning! So, as you can see, I don’t really have much time to put anything together.

I would just go and buy a detailed costume somewhere in town, but as some of you may know (due to my whining in other blog posts, haha), I’m only working freelance right now, and have not been paid in a while. I’ve also been denied student funding…cry. I spent every last cent on this trip, and while it was definitely well forth it, I am now…quite broke. But such is life! On to the fun stuff…my top ten!

And I’ve decided to stick with books, and list my

TOP 10 horror/paranormal/Halloween-ish read books!

(Note: These are books I have read, rather than ones in my TBR pile.Also, you can click on each book cover for a link to each book’s Goodreads page!)

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 – ONE –

Poppy Z. Brite’s Drawing Blood

Some of you may have noticed that Poppy Z. Brite is one of my favourite authors, since I’ve mentioned her or her books a number of times in previous posts. Sadly, I like her earlier work more than her new stuff. She used to write horror set in the American South, and her language is vivid and colourful. Her newer books revolve around a couple, both of whom are cooks and are running a restaurant together. While it’s great that they are a same sex couple, I find the subject of food and restaurants a little boring when it comes to fiction, especially when compared to her previous work. Drawing Blood for example, is about a boy named Trevor, whose father murdered all of his family except for Trevor. The story mainly revolves around Trevor’s return to the town where it all took place, and more specifically, the abandoned house where he and his family used to live. There he meets Zach, a hacker from New Orleans, and I lost love the two of them together. They’re one of my favourite fiction couples!

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– TWO –

Anne Rice’s The Interview with the Vampire

How can this not be on this list! I read this book while I was in high school, but I remember seeing the movie when I was far too young to really understand what was going on. I do remember that I really enjoyed the film despite this though, and I also really liked the book when I finally got to reading it. I remember really liking Lestat’s character when viewing the movie at a young age, and that did not change when I picked the book up and read it. I could hardly wait to run to the library and pick up the next book, once I finished The Interview with the Vampire, just for Lestat alone! I really should read all of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles…

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– THREE –

Brian McGreevy’s Hemlock Grove

I found out about this book because of the Netflix original TV show. I know that people either hate it or love it, and I was one of the people who loved it. Hemlock Grove was creepy and weird from the very first episode, and that intrigued me. It was also quite gory, haha, which I also like in my movies, TV shows, and books! Anyway, I read the book after the show, which I don’t like doing, but I had some major withdrawal, and I thought that the book would take care of that, which it kind of did. But since it didn’t move past the point in the story where the TV show ended, it wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped. In the end, I wound up turning to fanfiction before I got over it, haha.

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– FOUR –

Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten

I forget how I heard about this book, but I read it a few years ago and enjoyed it. I think I stopped reading it about halfway, because of school, but then got back into it once I had more free time. I found the characters to be interesting, and the plot to be a little different from other paranormal books. It was refreshing. The series as a whole is fairly interesting. The books all take place in the same world, but occasionally alternate between characters. The first two books are about a werewolf, and then the two books after that are about a witch and her coven. I really need to continue reading this series too! I got my mom into it, so she bought every single book, and then gave them to me as she finished them, haha. They’re sitting on my shelf, but you know how it is, “so many books, so little time,” right?

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– FIVE –

Majorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress (Vol.1)

I read this comic earlier this year, and you can read my full review of it here. When requesting this comic on NetGalley, I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I did know that the art would be great, due to the cover (although I’ve been disappointed by the covers of comics before). I was not let down by Monstress, however, and the story also proved to be quite good. What I didn’t expect, was how scary or shocking some parts were! And as it happened, I found himself reading each section of this volume late at night, when no one else in the house was awake. Needless to say, I had some “interesting” dreams after reading this comic…

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– SIX –

Poppy Z. Brite’s The Crow: The Lazarus Heart

This book was beautifully written, as well as heartbreaking. While it remains one of my favourites, I don’t think I could handle reading it again. My heart would not be able to take it. It’s based on the well-known legend of The Crow (there are movies and other books and such). I forget the exact details, but I remember weeping at times, and also being kept on the edge of my seat. Some parts were scary, although it was more of a thriller than a horror book really. Very highly recommended for this time of the year! A good Halloween read.

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 – SEVEN –

Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies

Many of you must have heard about, or seen the movie based upon this book! Just like with Hemlock Grove, I heard about the movie first, and thereby found out about the book. I remember being very excited and impatient for the movie to come out, because while I’m not a fan of zombies, I liked the idea of putting a romantic spin on a zombie story. So, I read the book while waiting for he movie to come out. There were definitely some differences between the film and the book, and from the point of view of a romantic, I had to say that I preferred the film. And even without this factor, I found the story in the film to be more complete, than it was in the book. Another book has come out since that time though, and it’s sitting on my bookshelf. It’s a prequel though, so I’m not sure how much it would round out the plot in Warm Bodies. A sequel is also on the way though, so we’ll see.

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– EIGHT –

Laurell K. Hamilton’s The Laughing Corpse

I heard about the Anita Blake book series from someone (I forget who), and I was so excited to get into it that I picked up the second book in the series from the library (because the first book had been checked out at the time, haha). There had been a few plot points I’d missed from the first book, but it wasn’t enough to make the second book un-enjoyable. The first thing which struck me, was how independent and badass the main character, Anita Blake is. She’s a necromancer who helps out in investigations by bringing corpses back to life and questioning them. Isn’t that cool?! I read quite a few of the books in this series, but I think I stopped around the sixth one, because I needed a change of scene, and I haven’t gotten back into the series yet.

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– NINE –

Lynn Flewelling’s The Bone Doll’s Twin

While the cover may not indicate just how scary this book is…let me tell you! I did not like reading this book at night. Basically (and I won’t spoil anything, don’t worry), the book is about a pair of twins who are born to this noble couple, in a time where girls born to noble families were killed. The ruler at the time, feared that any noble girl would grow into someone who would take his throne from him because of a prophecy (or because that land only ever had queens before him). The twins were a boy and a girl, but in order to save the girl, the parents decided to switch the girl’s spirit into the boy’s body, and vice versa, and then killed the girl body to appease their king (along with the boy’s spirit). The girl grows up in the body of a boy, and the ghost of her twin brother haunts her….and he’s not happy! He’s quite scary! I won’t say more, in fear that I’ll spoil something. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I really need to read the following 2 books! Such a good story.

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– TEN –

Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls

Aaaand the last book is another Poppy Z. Brite novel! Surprise, surprise. This one is set in the same universe as Drawing Blood, and focuses on a young orphan named Nothing. He runs away from his foster home in search of his real parents, and encounters Steve and Ghost (whom I LOVE) who are in a weird Southern band, as well as a group of vampires (whom I also LOVE!) I need to re-read this book, and soon. It features the same, Southern gothic atmosphere as Drawing Blood, and displays some of Brite’s dark and vivid writing. Don’t read this if you don’t like strange and bloody!

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And there ends my list!

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE HORROR/PARANORMAL/HALLOWEEN-ISH BOOKS?! I WANT TO KNOW! SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!