Most Memorable Spooky Reads

For the last day of the Halloween Queens Book Giveaway, I wanted to highlight some of my most memorable spooky reads. Don’t forget to enter to win The Iron Knight, Anna Dressed in Blood, Darker Still and Dark Eden. Also, stop by One Page at a Time where KM is giving away a copy of Circle of Fire by Michelle Zink.

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Nevermore starts out like other YA books set in high school but soon, the lines between a nightmarish dream world from Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and reality begin to cross. This book channels the creepiness of Poe’s stories with a cool YA spin. Oh yes, there is also Varen, the most swoon worth Goth guy ever! He’s another really great reason to read Nevermore….

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is not so much spooky as it surreal, dark and a bit bizarre, but in a fantastic way. The creep factor lies with the settings and the physical descriptions of the characters. This book is so cool and may be my favorite of the year unless another book comes along to blow me away sometime between now and December.

Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish

While is not my favorite spooky read, it is a very unique horror novel and worth reading. Savannah Grey is a 15-year-old who realizes that she is changing. Nature is turning her into a weapon against an evil that’s as old as the earth itself. Told from alternating perspectives, this book is entertaining and has some good plot twists. I have never read anything else like it.

Hereafter by Tara Hudson

In the mood for some romance with your spooky book? Hereafter offers you the romance between a ghost girl and a guy. In addition to the sweet relationship, it also has soul stealing ghosts and a haunted bridge thrown in for good measure. Like Anna Dressed in Blood, I am so curious about what kind of future the living have with the dead. I will definitely be reading this series to find out!

The Stand by Stephen King

I know I’m going old school here but this is the creepiest book I have ever read and even though it’s not YA, I read it when I was a teenager and yes, it scared the heck out of me. Honestly, this whole list could easily have been of Stephen King novels but I will stick to this one. The Stand is a combination of paranormal, science-fiction, horror and dystopia/apocalyptic. He just doesn’t write them like this anymore…



What are some of your most memorable spooky reads?

Review of Hereafter

Author: Tara Hudson
Release Date: June 7, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 416 pages
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating: 4 stars
Source: ARC from publisher through NetGalley

Can there truly be love after death? Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive. Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

If you are in the mood for a spooky paranormal romance, Hereafter may be the book for you. Amelia’s existence is really sad. She is achingly lonely, scared and confused about who she is and even how long she has been dead. When she rescues Joshua from drowning, for the first time in her ghostly existence, she feels something and the two of them form a bond. She is immediately drawn to him and he becomes her anchor in the living world.

Amelia and Joshua’s romance is very sweet. He helps her find out more about herself and her past, which is also sad. Hereafter is a romance, but it also has themes of the loss and emptiness left behind when a loved one dies.

This book has some dark elements to it including demon possession and some trips to a chilling netherworld with wraith like creatures and a portal that seemingly leads to hell. We see hints that Amelia is more special than your average ghost, but the book ends before we really find out why she seems to have extra abilities.  

Hereafter does not end with a cliffhanger, but with a promise of a deeper story to come. I have lots of questions and hope that they will be explored in upcoming books in the series.

Content: Kissing, violence