Welcome to Spooky Reads Friday, where every Friday in the month of October, I will be giving you scary selection book recommendations that will make your weekend reading more fulfilling…and scary 🎃. Check out these haunting book recs…if you dare…
Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis
Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker–she thinks nothing can scare her.
But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s quickly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map–and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.
And there’s someone–or something–stalking her every move.
The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her. (Credit: Penguin Teen)
Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard
Lights
Feeling her stardom fading, struggling soap-actress Adele Rafferty is ready to give up on her dreams when she gets a last-minute offer to play the lead in upcoming horror film Final Draft. Could this be her big break? Will she have redemption for what happened the last time she was on a film set? Adele doesn’t think twice before signing the dotted line.
Camera
Adele quickly makes her way to set, deep into the isolated and wintry woods of West Cork, Ireland, miles away from civilization and cell service.
Action
When real life on set starts to somehow mirror the sinister events portrayed in the script, Adele fears the real horror lies off the page. Isolated and unsure who in the crew she can trust, is there anywhere or any time left to run? (Credit: Blackstone Publishing)
The Vanquishers by Kalynn BayronÂ
Malika “Boog” Wilson and her best friends have grown up idolizing The Vanquishers, a group of heroic vampire hunters who wiped out the last horde of the undead decades ago. Nowadays, most people don’t take even the most basic vampire precautions–the days of garlic wreaths and early curfews long gone–but Boog’s parents still follow the old rules, much to her embarrassment.
When a friend goes missing, Boog isn’t sure what to think. Could it be the school counselor, Mr. Rupert, who definitely seems to be hiding something? Or could it be something more dangerous? Boog is determined to save her friend, but is she ready to admit vampires might not be vanquished after all?
No one ever expected the Vanquishers to return, but if their town needs protection from the undead, Boog knows who to call. (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing)
The Closet by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Gavin Fullerton and Chris O’Halloran
Collects a tale of existential horror by James Tynion IV (The Department of Truth, Razorblades) and Gavin Fullerton (Bog Bodies, Bags). Thom is moving cross-country with his family and dragging the past along with them. When his child, Jamie, is seeing monsters in the bedroom closet, Thom reassures him that they will stay in the apartment after the move. But Thom is very wrong about many things and the monsters do continue to find young Jamie. (Credit: Image Comics)
The Liminal Zone by Junji Ito
What destiny awaits them after the screaming?
After abruptly departing from a train in a small town, a couple encounters a “weeping woman”–a professional mourner–sobbing inconsolably at a funeral. Mako changes afterward–she can’t stop crying! In another tale, having decided to die together, a couple enters Aokigahara, the infamous suicide forest. What is the shocking otherworldly torrent that they discover there? (Credit: Viz Media)
Discover more from cup of tea with that book, please
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