All around the world, people are recovering from a wide array of Halloween festivities. Let's be honest, Halloween can be a pretty fun sort of celebration whether you're young or old, with its costumes, creepy films, and all sorts of let-your-hair-down shenanigans. After all, we all like to be frightened, at least a little, now then.
As Darragh MacManus of
The Guardian says, "Halloween is my favourite holiday, though I'm not quite sure why. It may be some blood-deep ethnic link to the ancient Celtic festival from whence it came; it may be the fact that I'm crazy-stupid for slasher movies and monkey nuts. Either way, Halloween puts the frights on Christmas, terrorises Easter and sends Valentine's Day bawling for its mommy. And one of the best ways to spend 31 October is by curling up with a creepy book, in a room lit by candles, with stiff drink and loaded revolver close at hand. Just in case."
In preparation for Halloween,
The Guardian put together a Halloween reading list packed with "novels that are eerie, horrifying or disturbing in unusual and different ways" (eschewing the obvious choices such as Stephen King's THE SHINING). And from a New Zealand crime writing perspective, it's great to see Kiwi author Chad Taylor feature for his book SHIRKER. McManus says "this tale of one man cheating death is one of the best crime novels I've ever read. Beautiful artful prose, a great, twisting noir story, and a seriously spooky, sexy atmosphere." High praise indeed.
You can
read the rest of McManus's spooky reading list here.
Do you like reading crime and thrillers that veer to the scary/horror end of the spectrum? What did you do to celebrate Halloween? What are some of your favourite 'scary' novels?
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