These books SCARED me

It’s officially summer in Japan and that to me, means it’s scary season (Japanese summer = ghost stories, at least that’s what I learnt when I lived there) so I wanted to share 5 spine chilling books that I’ve read.

I’ve marked the stories that are on Libby with a * so you know you can read them for free (thanks NLB haha)

Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski * – Six Stories is both the name of the first book and the series and I highly recommend all six books! Each book follows a “true crime podcast” format with six episodes/chapters that look at one case in detail. Each case may or may not have a supernatural aspect (e.g. the Black Eye Kids) but it definitely reflects the darker parts of society. I enjoyed how the cases, thought separate, were also connected via the podcast host, Scott King.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl * – This book is scary in both content and length (it’s got 118 chapters and 1044 pages on my kobo – are you scared yet?). Night Film follows the story of Scott McGrath, a disgraced journalists, who gets pulled back into the case that ruined his career when the body of Ashley Cordova is found. Her father, Stanislas Cordova, is a cult film maker known for his increasingly dark horror films – the night films of the title. The book does have a bit of a pacing issue but it’s so weird and I was creeped out and I think it’s worth taking a chance on.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark by Guillermo del Toro – I bought this because of a fascination with dark fairytale stuff but never imagined that the combination of story + illustrations would scare me so much that I’ve never touched the movie. Scary stuff, I still own the book and maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to reread it.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell * – I could probably recommend all of Laura Purcell’s books because I’ve not met a book of hers that has not scared me (and yet I keep reading them???). The Silent Companions in this book refer to life-size wooden figures that mysteriously move about the house and who haunt the protagonist of this novel (who happens to be in an asylum when we start the book). This book nailed the atmosphere, nailed the characters, nailed the pacing and made me scared.

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada * – We can’t have a post that starts by mentioning Japan and not have a Japanese book, right? While most of the Japanese fiction I read tend to be on the cosier/less scary side, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders is a bit spooky, a bit grotesque (premise involves cutting people into body parts) and expertly plotted.

Let me know if you have a particular favourite horror novel. I’m a huge scaredy cat and can’t watch horror films but somehow I enjoy reading them (in small doses and in bright light LOL)

Other book lists:

5 books to borrow from Libby

5 cottagecore books

P.s. NLB is having a reading event! Don’t miss it!

#BookReview #bookrecommendation #libby #nlb #horrorbooks #readersoflemon8