
Top Ten Tuesday used to be a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” This is definitely something I can understand and want to participate in.
This week’s topic is a Halloween freebie, and I wanted to make a top ten list for people like me. I’m a wuss, and don’t like to read scary books, but I still enjoy reading books that are a little spooky to get me in the Halloween/spooky season spirit. So here’s my top ten spooky books!
- Horrid by Katrina Leno — I wouldn’t have picked this book up on my own, but I received it in my September OwlCrate box. It turns out that I ended up really enjoying it!
- Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco — Witches, demons, princes of Hell, and murder … this is the perfect spooky season read!
- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo — This book was the perfect spooky season read, in my opinion. I loved the story, and Leigh Bardugo’s first foray into adult fiction, but be aware that there are a boatload of content warnings.
- The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw — This creepy and atmospheric story is perfect to read while cuddled under a warm and cozy blanket with a hot cup of tea.
- Dread Nation and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland — While this duology is basically about zombies, that isn’t really the spooky part. It’s more about how people in the book treat each other, in this alternative version of history.
- The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson — Now THIS was an incredible story. It’s the perfect read for spooky season. Creepy woods, an overbearing religious society, witchcraft, and a biracial feminist … yes PLEASE!
- A Violet Fire by Kelsey Quick — A spooky list isn’t complete without a book involving vampires, right? This is one of my favorite vampire books, and it earned bonus points for being an incredibly creative and out of the box concept in a saturated field.
- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn — Who does spooky/creepy better than Gillian Flynn? This book really had me going and I could never really figure out any of the twists, so I was guessing right up until the end.
- The Trouble With Hedge Witches series by Sarina Dorie — This series is a collection of novellas involving witches, magic, and a variety of dark creatures, including the Fae. I came across these last year around this time, and was absolutely enchanted by the series.
- Anything by Edgar Allen Poe — One of the masters of spooky, creepy, gothic lit, this guy knows his way around the genre. I’ve always liked reading his stuff, ever since I was assigned it in high school, and it honestly never felt like it was assigned reading (except when we had to dissect it line by line). I still have a fanfic that I was assigned to write for a class, but that was before we called it fanfic.
So what other spooky book recommendations do you have?
Categories: Top Ten Tuesday
The Ninth House has been on my TBR for a year. Now I know I’d better beware of it. My post here has a participation feature. I hope you’ll play along.
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I really loved Ninth House! I’m going to check out your post now.
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Enjoyed the Crow books, but couldn’t get into Ninth House. https://pmprescott.blogspot.com/2020/10/ttt-102720.html
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What Crow books? Ninth House definitely isn’t everyone’s style, though.
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The only one I’ve read on this list is Ninth House. I have read some Edgar Allan Poe poems though. I had my boy read Annabelle Lee for school this year.
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Awesome!
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Oh I loved Ninth House! And so keen to get The Year of The Witching too! Great list!
After a bonkers and hectic few weeks back at work, I’ve managed to find time for this week’s Halloween TTT… hope you can pop by!
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Thank you! This was a list I’ve been wanting to make for weeks!
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Great list! I LOVE Dread Nation and Deathless Divide, and I need to cross Ninth House off my TBR.
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Thank you! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Dread Nation and Deathless Divide.
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Same here! I’m insanely afraid of scary elements in books but do want a little thrill so this is perfect. 🤩
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You’ve described me to a T, which is exactly why I wanted to make this list!
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I’ve heard good things about Ninth House.
My post.
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I jus got Kingdom of the Wicked in the mail yesterday! I’m looking forward to that one. I finished Horrid last week. It was interesting!
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I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Kingdom of the Wicked!
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I’m with you. I like spooky, not terrifying! I’ve only read DREAD NATION off your list. I need to get to the sequel as well as some of these others. Great list!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Awesome! I hope you get to read some from this list, then!
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I had Ninth House on my list this week too! Kingdom of The Wicked is on my TBR, can’t wait to start it.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/27/top-ten-tuesday-287/
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Woohoo, book twins for the win again because my topic is sort of along the same lines 😂 I haven’t read any of these but the majority are on my TBR! Looking forward to giving them a try, especially Horrid and Kingdom of the Wicked! Might pick that one up soon 🙂 Great list!
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Is it? I thought I was going to be TOTALLY UNIQUE! I’m so excited to check out your list.
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Great list! Kingdom of the Wicked and Ninth House sound so good. I definitely want to read them soon. And I just added A Violet Fire to my TBR. I love a good vampire romance! lol
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Thank you! I absolutely loved A Violet Fire, and can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out.
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I enjoyed Stalking Jack the Ripper so I am excited to read Kingdom of the Wicked! I also have Ninth House on my TBR. Loved your TTT!
My post: https://herbookishdesires.wordpress.com/2020/10/27/top-ten-tuesday-halloween-freebie%f0%9f%8e%83/
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Thank you! I can’t wait to read more of Kerri Maniscalco’s work!
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I’m a wuss, too! So I greatly appreciate this list!
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Yay! You should check out Dini’s list at DiniPandaReads too – she commented on my page. She made a similar list with totally different (yet still equally awesome) books for wusses like us!
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I will have to do that. Thanks!
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Haha! I’m a scaredy fox too so I made a similar list with “Spooky Books for Scaredy Cats”. *lol* Thanks for posting this list! I’ll make sure to take a closer look at your recommendations. =)
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Oooh I’m going to have to check that out! I love the title 😉
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I’m a wuss too! I can’t handle things that are super scary. I love Edgar Allan Poe too! 🙂 Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
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I’m so glad to know that I’m not the only wuss!
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Ninth House has been one of my favourite reads of this year! I just love Leigh Bardugo so much. For a spooky read I would really recommend Wilder Girls by Rory Power. It’s about all these girls quarantined on an island with a very weird disease. It’s all very mysterious and surprisingly unsettling.
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Oh! That’s been on my TBR and kind of got lost in the shuffle. I’ll have to move it up in priority!
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Dark Places made my list this week, too. But mine’s a tbr, so I haven’t read it yet. Wicked Deep and Ninth House are also on my tbr. Happy to hear you enjoyed all of these. Happy Reading!
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I hope you love all these books as much as I did! I’ll have to check out your list, since it sounds like we have similar taste in reading!
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I love this! There’s something to be said for spooky books that aren’t TOO spooky. And I love that you included The Year of the Witching. Such a great book.
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Thank you! I loved The Year of the Witching! And since I don’t read scary, I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who did this same idea!
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