by Shannon Fox
As always, TTT is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s topic is Halloween books. Here are my ten picks. I don’t usually read scary books, so this was maybe more of a challenge for me than for other people.
1. The Gates by John Connolly
-A lovely little semi-funny book about a boy and his weiner dog on Halloween, the night when demons decide to invade the earth.
2. Still Life With Crows by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
-Any of the Pendergast books are sufficiently creepy, but this one is kind of Halloween-ish cause it has a lot to do with corn fields. Which remind me of corn fields. See where I’m going? Also, it’s more stand-alone so if you haven’t read any of the other books, this one is fine.
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker
-Need I say more?
4. Sammy Keyes and The Skeleton Man by Wendelin Van Draaen
-I loved the Sammy Keyes books when I was young. I think I actually started with this one, which takes place at Halloween.
5. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
-One of those original scary stories that is tolerable to a chicken.
6. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
-Devils and demons and murder and rape, oh my.
7. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
-Similar to The Woman in White in terms of the creepiness level.
8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
-More authentic monster material.
9. Edgar Allen Poe
-The master. Basically, anything by him, but especially “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
10. Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
-Lots of these have a supernatural/creepy edge, but I would recommend “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.
Shannon Fox - Author 
Good list. I loved Still Life With Crows, my fav Pendergast novel!
Someday I’m going to get to The Woman in White. For some reason I read Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone first, though it’s not his most famous. I also want to read The Monk. Isn’t it the one mentioned in Northanger Abbey a lot? I think so. Great picks! I like that they’re not SO scary 🙂
I read the Moonstone second…really enjoyed it! I looked it up, but it’s actually The Mysteries of Udolpho…which I’ve also read. Love the gothic/sublime era in british lime…so good
Udolpho! That’s it. Hopefully I’ll get to one of the two soon.