With the arrival of Halloween, houses are filled with pumpkins, children knock on the door crying out for their candies and the world is about to fear in the most effective way. Parties, rituals, movies, games and yes, also these following 10 best books to read on Halloween and spend some fear under the autumn sheets. You are ready?
10 best books to read on Halloween
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
More than a million copies sold consolidate the work published in 1983 by Susan Hill. Adapted into a film version with Daniel Radcliffe As the main actor, The Woman in Black is born from the old legend of a single mother whose son drowned in the marshes of a town to which the protagonist, the lawyer Arthur Kipps, returns to witness the passage of a ghost before whose passage a new child dies. Gothic horror black label for a Halloween in which ghosts are the protagonists. Without a doubt, one of the best books to read on Halloween.
Stephen King's Animal Cemetery
Some say that this book it was so terrifying that King himself stopped writing it for a while. Although you have yet to find a compelling film adaptation, Animal Graveyard is arguably one of the most chilling books by the American author. The story tells the horror of a family that moves to a small town in Maine where an animal cemetery frees its first "ambassador", the cat Church, who was run over and whose presence confirms an old Indian curse.
The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe
Despite its few pages and fairytale character, Edgar Allan Poe's flagship genre, The black cat is one of the most terrifying stories in history. A plot that presents a quiet life married couple who live with their cat, until the husband begins to abuse alcohol, ending the life of the animal. A preview whose outcome confirms the genius of the unfortunate author who also died from alcohol in the street, alone, wrapped in the darkness that would define his great literary works.
Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft
Few literary universes are as colorful and outrageously imaginative as that of Lovecraft, an author whose monsters, parallel realities and macabre magic define a piece of the history of horror literature. For example, The Call of Cthulhu, a work that condenses two narrative threads, that of a professor harassed by a sect and a sailor on the high seas, whose link is the presence of a scaly being 10 kilometers high arrived from outer space and submerged in the depths of the sea.
The Fair of Darkness, by Ray Bradbury
It is said that a fairground magician named Mr. Electric was the one who inspired Ray Bradbury to become a writer. One of the best American authors of the XNUMXth century He dived again in his own childhood when creating The Fair of Darkness, a novel published in 1962 whose two adolescent protagonists, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, experience terror at a fair that arrives in the fictional City in October Midwest Green. Transcendental and exquisite terror.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
If there is a myth of terror that is the count Dracula, the famous and vampiric character created by Bram Stoker and inspired by the bloodthirsty Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler. Published in 1897, Dracula is narrated by letters from different documents, mostly written by Jonathan Harker, an English lawyer who travels to the mythical castle of Count Dracula, in Transylvania. Although it was not the first work to include vampire characters in literature, Dracula became the most influential in history.
The Curse of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
Published in 1959, The Curse of Hill House takes us to an old mansion with its own eyes in which ghosts roam the corridors and old curses lurk in the most unexpected corners. A terrifying focus that attracts characters lost in life and with serious problems with their parents. Jackson's work not only brought out the classic appeal of haunted houses, but inspired Stephen King himself for The Shining and also a not-so-successful film adaptation called The Lair.
From Hell, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
Conceived as comics included within the From Hell collection, there are several copies that encompass the universe written by Alan Moore and drawn by Eddie Campbell in the 90s. Focusing on the events that occurred during and after the Whitechapel murders committed by the infamous Jack the Ripper, this graphic novel illustrates the terror of the streets of Victorian London and the nature of a character that still provokes as much debate as shivers.
The Devil's Seed, by Ira Levin
Just moved into a new apartment in New York, Rosemary begins to have a relationship with some mysterious neighbors. At the same time, she becomes pregnant. Focused on the modern rites and strongholds of Satanism in the West, The Devil's Seed is one of those works that consumes the reader's attention. in growing entering a dying universe. The work, published in 1967, served as the inspiration for Roman Polansky for his famous film adaptation starring Mia Farrow.
The Cursed House of Amityville, by Jay Anson
In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into a house outside New York where a multiple murder had been committed a year earlier. The terrifying event that explained the clouds of flies and voices that began to be heard in the middle of the night resulting in a nightmare maze. Best (or worst) of all? That this really happened, and Anson's book captures in full detail this family's month of horror.
These 10 best books to read on Halloween they warm up the wait for the most terrifying party of the year. Classics to read anytime, but especially in a week when pumpkins flood everything, the woods seem to sigh and the need to be scared becomes almost a ritual in itself.
What books to read on Halloween do you have ready?