First Andrew, now, it's Raimy's turn to share her favourite scary stories!
I’m not easily scared, but I’ve always been a huge fan of the Horror genre. When I was little I obsessed over the goosebumps books while I was in the later years of Primary School. I remember reading them and then going on to the point horror books and trying to convince my Dad that I simply had to have my own office for doing my ghost research and detective work so he had to convert the attic into my office space - needless to say, it didn’t work.
I was convinced that the house I grew up, a large Victorian terrace which sick army soldiers in the war apparently, was haunted and I am still convinced to this day that there was something about that house... though I may have dreamed some of the sightings I claimed to have, especially the one where an old woman was sat on the end of my bed.
I don’t find many things scary and when it comes to the supernatural, I love it all. I will watch any movie, read any book and listen to any stories - like the one where Johnny comes up the stairs and the old woman who found her dog dripping blood over her bath that we used to try and scare each other with when we were kids. The only movies I wont watch and books I wont read are those including clowns or ventriloquist dolls, they are too weird for words! With all this in mind I think the best horror books are the ones that actually do terrify me, as it takes a lot! So I thought I would share with you a few of my favourite scary books!
First of all I have to include The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren Shan. I read and devoured this whole series when I was about 13, I think I had to wait for the last few to come out before finishing the series but the first one I must have only just turned 13 when I read and it terrified me like I hadn’t been before. It was so weird and spooky but I just couldn't put it down and I loved the entire series. Unfortunately I haven’t read it since I was about 16/17 but I really want to read them again and see if they still scare me as much!
Then a book I read this year comes to mind, I know many, many people enjoyed Long Lankin by Lindsay Barraclough and after reading it I know why. It takes a while to get to the really scary bit but there are scenes in the churchyard all the way through that made me shiver. I loved this one and recommend it to anyone who says they like a good ghost story.
Finally I want to shout out about the Christopher Priestley books in the Tales of Terror series. There are three books, four if you include the short world book day book, which hold short stories which will excited and scare the mind of any kid 9 or over... and will quite frankly scar any younger than that! They are quite young but they are still very effective. I loved all of the series and I went out and got hold of Christopher’s other books straight away because of it.
So they are my favourites. A quick mentioned should go to Derek Landy’s Songs the Dead Sing from the Haunted anthology that came out last Halloween because it was a fantastic short story and my favourite from the book. I really need to read his Skullduggery Pleasant books! Thanks to Nina for having me and thanks for listening to my ramblings about scary stuff, Happy Halloween!
Raimy can be found on twitter and at her blog!
That story about the old woman that finds her dog dripping blood in the bathroom used to creep me out a lot when I was a child. It wasn't so much the bloody part, but the message saying "humans can lick hands too" (if that's the version you meant) x.x
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book recommendations - I'll be adding some of them to my "to read" list :)
Some great choices of books and recomendations on what to read this halloween. I am apsolutely spoilt for choice!
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