Hey guys, it's Emily. Happy Halloween to you all! For today's video I thought I
would do something a little in the Halloween spirit and recommend some
spooky books that are perfect for those of us who are too chicken to read actual
horror books, but still want to get in the Halloween spirit. Emily why are
you doing a Halloween video and you're not in costume? Well first of all I'm
just lazy. I'm just being lazy and that's it. No other reason. But I do have this
small pumpkin to make up for it. I got two packs of these from Target and they
are all over my room right now because I'm super festive except for the fact that I'm
not wearing a Halloween costume, but that's fine. Moving on... This is going to
be a really wide range books. We've got some middle grade, some young adult, and
adult books, and then they're also a very wide range in terms of how scary they
are. Some of these are kind of toeing the line between just spooky/creepy and
outright horror, but I promise I will tell you if a book is on the scarier
side. Starting out I have two books that are children's books by the same author
and those are Coraline which I have the physical copy of and
The Graveyard Book. Both of these are by Neil Gaiman, and the reason I started
this video out with two Neil Gaimon books is because he has done a tradition
of something called the All Hallows Read. All Hallows Read is an annual event
where you're just supposed to give someone a scary book to read--spooky for
me because I do not really own scary books. I think it's such a wonderful
tradition. So that's why we started out the gate with Neil Gaiman. Coraline
is about a girl who finds a portal to a parallel version of her world.
It's basically like everything that she's used to, but made a lot more fun.
Except for the fact that her parents in this alternate world have buttons sewn
to their eyes and they want Coraline to sew buttons to her eyes. So there's
your. premise. It's creepy. There's a great Neil Gaiman quote about how kids read
this book as an adventure story and adults read it as really creepy. It
didn't scare me too much, but it's perfectly spooky. I just, I love this
so much! I think it's a great spooky read. Obviously it's a children's book so it's
not actually horror. And the other Neil Gaiman book that I would recommend for a
spooky but not outright scary Halloween read is The Graveyard Book. This is one
of my all-time favorite Gaiman books. It is a bildungsroman kind of based
loosely, very loosely on The Jungle Book. Except
instead of a boy wandering into the jungle and being raised by animals, it's
about a boy who wanders into a graveyard and is raised by the ghosts. This has
less of a traditional narrative than Coraline does. It feels more like a
series of vignettes that then kind of come together to tell a complete story,
as opposed to traditional straightforward narrative structure. I
love it so much. Obviously, ghosts, graveyard--spooky
read. It's not outright horror, although there is some mention of murder, so
something to keep in mind. But I love this book so much. I think it is a
perfect book to read on Halloween. Finally moving on to the next recommendation, and
that is Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire.
I think it's technically adult, but it's generally discussed as if it's YA.
I think in part, not in part, entirely, because the characters who we follow in this
series, which is called the Wayward Children series, all are teenagers. This
is book 2 in the Wayward Children series. I don't think you need to read them in
order. The first book is Every Heart a Doorway. I absolutely loved it, and that
book is about a boarding school for kids who have gone through portals to other
worlds and then returned to our world and been like, "Wow this is really boring." And
then there's a murder mystery wrapped up in that. And while I do think that could
also qualify as a spooky book recommendation that's not super, super
scary, I think this one works better. Again, I don't think you need to read
Every Heart a Doorway to pick up Down Among the Sticks and Bones. This follows two of the
characters that we are introduced to in Every Heart a Doorway, but it's set
before that period. So this is about them going into this other crazy world. And
the world to which they travel is called the Moors, and it's basically every
romantic horror book put into one universe. So it's inspired by
Frankenstein and Dracula and all that kind of stuff, and while those things are
all scary horror stuff, this is not that scary. There's no jump scares.
It's very atmospheric. It's very spooky and creepy and dark, but I don't think
this would qualify as outright horror. And I just love it so much! On top of
that super cool plot, it's also about the dangers of parents who heavily prescribe
gender roles to their children, and it is it's it's just so good. Next I have a
classic and that is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I read
for the first time a couple of month or two ago and I absolutely loved it this
is so spirit and there's some kind of spooky creepy stuff going on but really
I think it's that atmospheric element that makes it perfect for Halloween yes
is very long so like maybe you could start on Halloween and then finish it in
November and it's perfect for the cold weather months this is such a great book
next I have some historical fiction young adult and that is the diviners by
Libba Bray this is book one in her diviner series it is the coolest cover
this serious gone through three cover changes and I'm just a little bit about
it it's so so so good this is set in 1920s New York we mostly
follow Eddie Evie loop I'm not sure she has a supernatural ability in which she
can hold an object in her hand and then like learn secrets about it super cool
and she has been sent to New York she got into a little trouble in her
hometown and so she goes to live with her uncle who runs an occultist Museum
so full of occult artifacts it's great it's spooky and creepy and Atmospheric
and so much fun the dish has elements that I think are a little bit scarier
than the other books that I recommend it so far the antagonist and this is some
kind of like than the level in spirit and there's lots of murder
so that's scarier but it's still not outright horror this is so great next I
have a super super fun cute book it's not scary at all but it is a little
spooky and fun and that is war in the 13th or the all-seeing eye this is a
middle grade book I'm not really sure it is like a written novel but it is also
really heavily Illustrated and the illustrations are just like so cool it's
Chris one line work and it's all done in black white and red I had the time of my
life reading this stories written by Tanya Del Rio and it's all based on a
character that whilst all created and then obviously whilst all illustrated
the whole book what I say it's creepy like you can kind of get a sense just by
the cover in the artwork but there's no outright scariness in here it is so good
it's so cute and it's absolutely gorgeous next up I have the changeling
by Victor the wall I think I said Laval in the last video that I did I apologize
for getting that wrong the correct pronunciation is love all this is a
modern fairy tale fairy tale of a sense of like the very old-school fairy tales
that or super-dark in those who follow a
black couple what we do predominantly follow the man his name is Apollo that
had a child together things seem to be going wonderfully until Emma
Apollo's wife starts to seem kind of disconnected as if she is exhibiting
postpartum depression but then she commits this atrocity and the story goes
from there over time more and more fantastical elements are woven into the
story at first it seems very like realistic literary fiction but then we
go into fantasy and horror fiction and it is just so so so well done this might
be the serious book that I'm recommending a lot of the actual worst
scariest parts of this book don't take place on the page they are alluded to
very heavily you know what's going on but he doesn't ever have to actually
write the words of what's going on so instead of saying that this book is
scary I would say this book is full of dread if you're so anxious about this
thing that you are 90% sure is going to happen and that happens and then oh my
god what's going on but you don't really explicitly read it there are a couple
little bits of violence that you do explicitly read this is an absolutely
brilliant book I loved it I cannot wait to read more of the Baals work if you
think you can go a little bit further into scary territory you should
definitely definitely read this obviously I could not have a list of
spooky books without including my absolute favorite book that just totally
owns my heart and blew me away this year if you watch my channel I think you know
where I'm going with this and that is my favorite thing as monsters by email
Ferriss this is a graphic novel it's the best graphic novel I've ever read it is
one of the best books I've ever read in this book we follow Karen Reyes who is a
12 year old girl she thinks that being human is dumb and sucks and she would
like to be a werewolf so she draws herself as a werewolf girl
which you can see on the back here so a lot of spookiness is kind of this look
where it's an O Maj too campy horror films of the 60s the plot revolves
around a murder mystery a woman and Karen's apartment complex is found dead
she's been shot and the police rule it was suicide but
Karen believes that it's actually murder she's gonna Don her fedora and trench
coat and go full Newar detective and figure out what's going
even though this is about a 12 year old it is very much an adult book there are
some explicit sexual content and it deals with some really really really
heavy topics the woman who's found dead was a Holocaust survivor and so while
her story is often horrifying it doesn't ever feel like a horror book it's deeply
upsetting at times but scary is not the word for it I think it is absolutely
phenomenal gotta read it it is such a great book for Halloween so that's it
all of my spooky reads for scaredy-cats I hope you have a wonderful Halloween if
you like this video give it a thumbs up hit subscribe to see them on my face you
can find me on twitter at possibly lit and on instagram possibly literate and i
will see you next time
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