Hello friends!

How are you doing? I hope you’re all well – and well read! I heard you are looking for something spooky to read since Halloween is approaching, and once again… I got you!

To be honest, I wish I was more of a seasonal reader, but I’m the kind of person who reads whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like – and yes, I definitely read beach reads on Christmas in case you’re wondering! Still, I know a lot of you are seasonal readers, so I thought I’d show you a few thrillers that you might find interesting.

This is the perfect time to grab a nice creepy book, some tea and a cinnamon bun! So c’mon, let’s find your next read!

1. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This is for the ones who just prefer to read short stories! This is a story about a woman who got into a bad headspace after having her baby. So her husband, being a doctor, decided that she should be isolated to get better. That will solve it, right?

Anyways, this is a very messed up story, but what I find the most interesting is that this story is based on real events that the author went through. It talks about serious subjects that are not talked about often, such as postpartum depression and the place a woman takes in marriage. 

It’s messed up and scary… so why not read it for Halloween? Also, it’s on the shorter side, like I mentioned!

Synopsis

“Diagnosed by her physician husband with a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” after the birth of her child, a woman is urged to rest for the summer in an old colonial mansion. Forbidden from doing work of any kind, she spends her days in the house’s former nursery, with its barred windows, scratched floor, and peeling yellow wallpaper.
In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid” wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.
A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth-century society.
First published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.”

2. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

Another interesting book that was super hard to put down! This story is about a group of friends in 1989 that used drawings made of chalk to leave each other messages. It was like a secret code that only they would understand and know what it meant – until something weird starts to happen! 

This book kept me interested the entire time. I was never bored and I was always looking forward to knowing more about what was going on! There were a lot of secrets to unfold and in each chapter you discover something new. I would definitely recommend you to not know much about the book before going into it! I recommend this if you like eerie stories or if you are a Stephen King fan.

Synopsis

“In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy little English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code; little chalk stick figures they leave for each other as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing will ever be the same.
In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out his other friends got the same messages, they think it could be a prank … until one of them turns up dead. That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.
Expertly alternating between flashbacks and the present day, The Chalk Man is the very best kind of suspense novel, one where every character is wonderfully fleshed out and compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.”

3. If I Can’t Have You by Charlotte Levin

Now here’s a debut I thought was interesting. This is more of a stalker story, so extra creepy! It was really interesting to see the point of view of someone who has a strong obsession for someone else and the extreme situations they put themselves to. The plot was really good and the story was very well written. 

It’s a good book if you have strong feelings for it… it means it did its job!

Definitely check this one out!

Synopsis

“Samuel, the day we met I knew I’d finally found what I’ve been waiting for.
You.
Happiness, at last.
Then you left me.
And now I am alone.
Everyone I love leaves in the end.
But not this time.
I’m not giving up on us.
I’m not giving up on you.
When you love someone, you never let them go.
That’s why for me, this is just beginning.”

4. A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

An author I love is Shari Lapena, so I thought I would recommend this book to you since I read it in one sitting! Her books have their own style, and I love how the stories are structured. I would compare her stories to icebergs: when the story begins you are only given a very small portion of what the story is, but as the story progresses you discover new and important details that compliment what you knew at first. So it’s safe to say you never know what is going on for sure, and you can’t trust anyone or what they’re saying.

The pacing is very fast and you’re on the edge of your seat the entire time! Definitely worth it.

Synopsis

“He looks at her, concerned. “How do you feel?” She wants to say, Terrified. Instead, she says, with a faint smile, “Glad to be home.”
Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.
There’s a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town.
The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes. Still, she’s mostly okay—except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good.
Karen returns home with Tom, determined to heal and move on with her life. Then she realizes something’s been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won’t stop asking questions.
Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.”

5. White Bodies by Jane Robbins

If you prefer uncomfortable, weird reads, this one’s for you! The main themes of this book are obsession, sibling relationships and domestic abuse (well… for the most part, that is).

Let me tell you straight up: there is not a single likable character in this book. The two main characters (the twins Tilda and Callie) are both terrible. Of course these characters were created with the purpose of making the book disturbing and intriguing, and I guarantee the author accomplished that!

I always like to read about twins in thrillers because of the strong bond and connection they usually have, and you definitely get some of that here. While reading the book I frequently questioned myself if there was more to it, because her behaviors and actions crossed the lines in so many ways.

Intrigued? Give it a try, then! It was weird, unexpected and creepy… but very entertaining!

Synopsis

“This chilling psychological suspense novel–think Strangers on a Train for the modern age–explores the dark side of love and the unbreakable ties that bind two sisters together.
Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless facade, not everything is as it seems.
Callie, Tilda’s unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix’s domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix’s uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister’s arms.
Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies–or was he murdered?
A page-turning work of suspense that announces a stunning new voice in fiction, White Bodies will change the way you think about obsession, love, and the violence we inflict on one another–and ourselves.”

And there you have it friends! As always, I hope you found this recommendation post interesting and I hope you found yourself some new books to read. I’m always looking for book recommendations so let me know if you have any for me!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post! I hope you liked what I had to share with you today. I’ll see you in the next one! 🙂