Ten Deliciously Dark Reads

Happy Halloween! And right on cue, we have Top 10 Tuesday giving out a Halloween freebie treat. I’m by no means a horror fan, but I will try to wrap up the month with top 10 spooktastic and deliciously dark reads.

1 / The Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig

Phenomenally gothic and creepy. This duology took me completely by surprise and got me out of my reader’s block. Absolutely mindblowing world-building, plot AND writing.

2 / The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

In Udolpho, young Emily St. Aubere finds herself orphaned and in the clutches of her wicked uncle-in-law, Montoni. Montoni is up to no good, and more than one skeleton hides in his closet. This is Gothic suspense at its finest, and is highly recommended.

3 / Cry Baby Hollow by Aimee Love

I found this on Goodreads for lesser known Urban Fantasy reads. One of the reviewers said that the “Hollow” was for “holler” — and this is not about your friendly neighborhood wolf. It was such a change from the usual Urban Fantasy, recommended.

4 / Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

Young Triss wonders if she is a cuckoo among the crows. She’s just had an accident that no one wants to talk about, but she knows she’s changed. For one thing, her memories are hazy and detached. For another, she is so hungry all the time…

5 / The Crucible by Arthur Miller

There are few tales as horrifying and enduring as that of the Salem Witch trials in The Crucible – and that, a 1953 play, no less. Crucible stands out, for exposing the hypocrisy and devastating power of socially-sanctioned violence. Here’s Miller on why he wrote The Crucible.

6 / Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Terror 

Poe is the master of the morbid and the lurid. I own a very old edition of Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Terror, which has amazing graphite illustrations too. The Fall of the House of Usher from that collection is no exception (and I haven’t yet seen the recent TV adaptation).

7 / House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

A very spooky retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and gives that old folktale a sea-folk / mer-folk twist. There are curses and ghostly visions and ghastly bargains as Annaleigh’s house starts to crumble. I genuinely had to keep myself from reading it at night. Brr.

8 / A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers

Historical with (possibly) SFF elements as it plays with the question of who is a true psychic and who is just a quack. Heroine is rescued from prison to speak to a client’s dead wife, but is she the real deal? The suspense builds up splendidly, a solid Gothic mood read.

9 / House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

I wanted to read this in October, but maybe I’ll try for before end-of-year instead. So many bloggers have given a 5-star rating to this book about how poor Marion Shaw “finds herself the newest bloodmaid at the notorious House of Hunger”.

10 / Mr. Sardonicus by Ray Russell

Once upon a time, exhuming dead bodies was gravely blasphemous (pun intended!). One grave-robber ended up digging out his own father’s dead body. Since then, his face became locked-up in an extremely sinister expression. Trailer for the 1961 movie below.

Did you read any deliciously dark books for this month, or generally through the year?