Halloween is filled with times nobody can forget, full of scares, screams, and sugar-rushes, a time to put on a mask and a hood and become someone entirely different. Halloween is the one evening of the year that nobody can really explain, or ever match the festive spirit it brings. We’re often so wrapped up in what/who we want to dress up as, as well as what kind of candy to give out, and what we’ll be up to that night to remember how many ideas it’s sparked in the world around us. To help spread that spirit in a different way, I’ve put together a list of books that truly live up to the chilling, looming, undeniably exciting nature of October 31.
1. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
This book is told from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy named Jacob. Due to family issues and an unfinished legacy left behind by his grandfather, Jacob travels to a small island off the coast of Wales, where he happens upon something beyond supernatural; a portal to the past, and within it, an orphanage of children who don’t really consider themselves normal. The peculiars, they call themselves, live in a large house on the island, governed by the headmistress Miss Peregrine, but while it may be the same location, they live in a loop that takes them 74 years into the past. These peculiar children possess a wide array of abilities, like one being able to reincarnate, another being invisible, or one girl named Emma being able to channel fire from the palms of her hands. As Jacob learns more about the peculiars, he realizes that this is the legacy his grandfather left behind, and that he might have little more in common with them than he thinks. This book, overall, was phenomenal, everything I would’ve hoped for in a creepy novel with just the right amount of humour to make it a superior, high action, utterly out of the ordinary adventure, using vintage photography and clever character development in the most unique and enthralling way, always leaving the reader wanting more.
2. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
A bold action-packed sequel to Miss Peregrine’s, Hollow City features the characters of the first novel by with a much faster, more intense plot line that answered all the questions left open-ended in the first book. It not only followed through with the theme of the first novel flawlessly, it also brought many new ideas into the equation, and with the danger they’re being put in from peculiar-hunting monsters, the kids are on the run. It’s difficult to explain this novel without telling a reader the ending, but I can promise that this book features everything a book of this spooky genre should have, and even more. With chilling new characters, and further elaboration from the previous novel, the Peculiar Children series is an absolute necessity on your bookshelf this October.
3. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Based on a 19th century nursery rhyme about the deaths of “Ten Little Soldiers” who die one by one, Agatha Christie tells an extraordinary tale of a group of 10 strangers brought together on an island only to be trapped there from a torrential rainstorm. One by one, the people die, corresponding eerily with the nursery rhyme left for them on the kitchen table of the mansion they’re staying at. The murderer cannot be found, but even scarier, the murders themselves cannot be explained. Little do the people of the island know that they all share a connection they least expect, and it may be the reason they’d been quarantined in the first place. Truly a classic, Christie brings to life a poem with such frightening connotations, and drops her own false leads and curious clues that the reader can’t help but wish to read on, no matter how bizarre and frightening it may be.
4. Batman Noir: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb
Set in the early years of Batman’s crime-fighting, this graphic novel tells the story of a bloodcurdling murderer who attacks only on holidays. Alongside District Attorney Harvey Dent, and Lieutenant James Gordon, its a race against time to unveil the murderer before he claims his next victim. This book has readers constantly on their toes, never knowing who’d done it, and what their next move may be. The sketches in the novel, done by Christoper Nolan and David Goyer (director and writer of The Dark Knight, they also write an introduction for the book) are an incredible addition to the book for those who enjoy extra pictures, creating a complete Halloween experience for anyone.
