Books to Read for Halloween

Don't you love getting cozy with a good Book Darlings?

I Know I do. And some books are just the type to read for the thrills, chills, and skills their authors had when they wrote them. From the sinister to the Gothic, to the mysterious, to the classic, these are the books I suggest reading this (or next if you don't have the time) Halloween season.

The Complete Tales of Edgar Allen Poe: What better than to read the poems and short stories by the man who popularized horror fiction. Though most famous for The Raven, he had penned many suspenseful tales like The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-Tale Heart (my personal favorite, second is Amontillado.) It's not as scary as horror pop lit, but it just leaves the right amount of suspense and dread in your heart.

The Silence of the Lambs: I mentioned this book yesterday to explain the idea of Catharsis and it's importance in both drama and our own lives. Now get ready for why you should read this. The book has a wonderful villain seen with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, psychoanalyst and cannibal. Refined but devious, elegant but twisted, sophisticated yet carnal, Hannibal is as what actor Mads Mikkelsen has compared him to, Lucifer the Fallen Angel under his name Satan that is. I just love that comparison so much with a conflicted man who finds peace with both his Apollonian and Dionysian aspects (both good and bad.) And what I love more is the psychoanalysis of Buffalo Bill. The disturbing motives for killing and skinning his poor victims both amuses and chills me to the bone. Clarice is also another great character for psychoanalysis to focus on her dark past that she wants to hide and later with Dr. Lecter's help, move on which adds to the complexity of Dr. Lecter as a villain. I know many of my colleagues will definitely not like this book but I so love it and I would love to cosplay and Dr. Lecter from both the Hannibal Series and the original Silence of the Lambs.

Rebecca: This is a Gothic Horror story I am wanting to read so I only can tell of the basic plot but I can say this is something I do want to read as I started getting to Gothic Fiction thanks to Interview with the Vampire. Rebecca is the recently deceased mistress of a manor and her husband looks to a new wife to find. Once she comes over to his mansion and is the new mistress of the house, It's obvious the staff doesn't want her here. And even some ghosts that are restless. This was written by Daphne du Maurier who also wrote "The Birds" short story which inspired Hitchcock and Hitchcock even adapted Rebecca too. Even Guillermo del Toro was partially influenced by the book to write his Gothic Film Crimson Peak so even though I haven' read it, it's obvious the impact it's left on our culture of loving Ghost stories and haunted homes!

And Then There Were None: Ok so this isn't a horror story but it's a slasher. A very organized one at that. The title comes from the final line of the nursery rhyme our victims fall prey too called 10 Little Indians or to the more Politically Correct minded these days 10 Little Soldiers. The 10 are accused of murdering people though many deny it. After they start kicking the bucket one by one, the remaining survivors try to figure out why their host is killing them and learn to their horror the killer is one of them. It was this story that inspired the whole slasher genre with Rene Clair's 1945 film being the first slasher film, though very lighthearted with deaths off camera except one. This book is also Agatha Christie's most adapted story with multiple inspired tales, 5 films, one BBC miniseries, 2 Arabic series, 2 loosely based Japanese series, a video game, a board game, and well, you will see why this book is so influential and my favorite Agatha Christie novel of all time once you read And Then There Were None.

Interview with the Vampire: I started reading this book a while ago and my boyfriend kept poking fun at me to finish this book. Sadly, I haven't been able to do it but I'm very close. The books influence the subject of the nature of what the vampire learns from his birth from their turned master usually is an interesting tale and my favorite parts were the one with Lestat being involved. The very vivid descriptions of Paris, New Orleans, and the other environments of the novel are canvas painted into your psyche and mind and all the descriptions of the characters are just as detailed too. Enjoyably exotic and slightly erotic at times, Interview will make all other modern pop vamp lit seem tame to the eyes.

The Shining: You can't have a list like this without Stephen King himself at least on here. I chose this book because I own it as well as Salem's Lot and Carrie in a King Trilogy Book but the idea of The Shining remains to me as a ghost story. If you haven't told by the list of books here, I like more psychological terror and horror. And when we see Jack Torrance, unlike the film adaptation which King was harsh to, we see he wants so desperately to get close again to his wife and son making him sympathetic to our causes and yet his nights of alcohol and drunkenness are but one of the fears he thinks will tempt him down and it does but also seeing him go insane in the process to see all the ghosts who want him to kill his son is another thing. I've only read a little of it but just seeing the aspect of The Overlook Hotel makes it even more terrifying due to how it does feel like its own living entity. Also, it has a hilarious Simpson Parody called The Shinning. (Do you want to get sued?)

Frankenstein: Now this is an obvious classic but what makes Frankenstein just as potent to today's time is just not only about scientific progress and experimentation people have trouble swallowing but also, we see many people are described as Frankensteinian in nature to defy nature and become God themselves. Even one of the people I follow even wrote a book called The Frankenstein Candidate (written by Vinay Kolhatkar.) I haven't read it because, to be honest, It looks too familiar (From the basic synopsis) to The Manchurian Candidate which is another book on my list and a definite movie and book to read for anyone who believes in freedom. Frankenstein is another Gothic tale but I read this in High School so I couldn't fully appreciate what was written and, in my opinion, public education ruins reading for everyone. When you meet Victor Frankenstein, you see him come from an influential noble graduating great universities to being a control freak of the worst kind. The story even goes as far to use Biblical and Mythological Allegory in its presentation to add to the isolation of Frankenstein's Creature which causes us to sympathize more with him than Victor making the monster and man roles reversed.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: This is one of my favorite stories and got me into the wit of Oscar Wilde. Though my colleagues don't like the characterizations, I argue that's what motivates the book and what makes it both a fun Faustian Tale as well as a great satire of English Society and life in general. Dorian is a character I admire mainly for how he goes from innocent to corrupted youth and descends down deeply into both desire and instinct which is the cost of his eternal youth as his portrait reminds him deeply of who he is.

Faust: This is a warning horror tale and though it's not really scary it does leave a dreadful impression on what one does with their life. From the German folk legend and adapted popularly by Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wilhelm von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust is a tale of warning and of our humanity as Dr. Faustus tries to achieve, depending on which version you read, Everything he could ask for or all the knowledge of the world. The Devil Mephistopheles also adds charm and intrigue to the tale as being the onlooker and executor of Faust's contract. It is a play though so I suggest either reading along with an actual adaptation of the Play, live preferably and written either Marlowe or Goethe, and sit back and enjoy, or get an audiobook version of the play and enjoy it! 

House of Leaves: This is another book I haven't read yet but just as chilling in the more Lovecraftian way of turning yourself into madness which is why no one can successfully adapt this story. The narrative is told through a frame story of a man whose neighbor has just died and he looks in the neighbor's room to find a manuscript for a critical essay with citations and edits by editors about a film he has been. But the problem with this is, the neighbor is blind and couldn't possibly have seen the film and the film has no evidence to have existed. And the film itself is a documentary of a man who moves to a new house with his family and measures out the house to find out the interior of the house is larger and the exterior with all sorts rooms adding on and our documentarian's insanity adding on too. The story is primarily told as a frame story style with multiple narrators, some who interact with one another but it seems all are trying to dominate the telling of this tale. And what makes it more confusing is the writing style, obviously influenced by postmodern works, (and as many of you know, I hate postmodernism with extremely rare few exceptions so this is a big one) and even is just confusing to comprehend the first time. It's also a long read being 709 pages from the first edition but I suggest getting the second edition as suggested by other readers and that you can't experience it the same if you got the audiobook. This book was meant to be read and thus should be read. You can't adapt it well enough and that's what makes it an interesting staple.

Happy Haunted Reading Darlings! Tune in tomorrow for some Halloween/Horror inspired games suggested by me!