Top Ten Tuesday: Creepy Books

The "Top Ten Tuesday" meme is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish, and this week's topic is scary books, in honour of Halloween coming up!

I tend to not read scary books, so I had a bit of trouble with this list. Some of the books on here frightened me when I was a kid, but probably wouldn't so much if I read them again now. And several of them I took from my post "Children's/YA Books that Creeped You Out" here.

 1.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Okay, the book probably didn't scare me that much, but the movie (with Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton) sure did! I think I must have seen it first when I was about 11 or so, and I always hated the parts with the mad woman's laughter echoing about all over the place. Also the scene where she comes into Jane's room and we see her purple, bloated face. *shudders*

Jane getting scared at the very thought of mocking, crazy laughter.

2.) Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen

There's a very weird secret at the wizard's hall and some pretty sick-minded people. I kind of had a horrified fascination with this book. I remember reading it more than once, each time not remembering how truly creepy it was (or thinking it wouldn't bother me as much), and then getting freaked out all over again, LOL.

3.) The Half-a-Moon Inn by Paul Fleischman

This poor mute boy gets totally mistreated by this abusive inn-owner. I believe I had to read this one for school and I seriously found it quite horrifying. I mean, she steals his boots and then puts them in the soup she serves!

4.) Castle Tourmandyne by Monica Hughes

The dolls come to life and the girl gets trapped inside the castle, from what I remember. I think there was some kind of weird power struggle between the two cousins. So psychologically it was pretty disturbing.

5.) Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe

I don't remember much about this book (or any of the others in the series) except that I really did not like the idea of a vampiric bunny with red glowing eyes. According to Goodreads the bunny turns out to be vegetarian, so I'm not so sure why this one disturbed me when I was a kid...maybe it was the creepy cover?

6.) Obedience by Will Lavender

This one's an adult psychological thriller and while I don't know that it scared me per se, it certainly did get my heart pounding!

7.) "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury

Not a book, I know, but this short story so totally freaked me out. I read it in about grade 9 and it seriously made me feel a little sick.

8.) The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

I read this one a little while ago, and the killer's perspective was really quite creepy and perverted. Not to mention the whole ability to find the dead (I don't envy her that at all.)

9.) Animal Farm by George Orwell

Technically I guess 1984 has more scary elements, but I read Animal Farm much earlier (maybe around age 11) and I remember finding the ending particularly unsettling.

10.) This last one isn't my pick, but I was talking with my mom about creepy books and she said the book Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman scared her so much when she was younger (she can read German). It's basically all about the terrible things that happen to naughty children, complete with horrifying illustrations. And they really are horrifying, because they creep me out just looking at them now on Wikipedia! (And I am not posting a picture of the cover because I don't want to be scared each time I look at this post, but if you want to see it go here.)


What books freak you out?