With Halloween at the end of this week, it's no surprise that today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is a holiday freebie.  I don't know how you feel about Halloween, but it's not my favorite.  Although I'm all about candy (as long as it's chocolate), I've never been a fan of dressing up.  Just not my thing.  Ghost stories have always thrilled me, although truth be told, I'm a pretty big wimp when it comes to scary things!  In the past, my husband and I have spent Halloween evening sitting in our driveway handing out candy and visiting with neighbors while we supervised our kids' trick-or-treating efforts.  Now that our youngest is a month away from her 12th birthday, she's decided she wants to trick-or-treat with her friends in their neighborhood without any parents tagging along.  Fine by me.  Way I figure it, these unwanted parents will stick a bowl of candy on our porch, turn off the lights, and stay inside with popcorn and a scary-ish movie.  We'll see.  What about you?  Any big plans for Halloween?

Back in high school, I spent many nights hiding under my covers with a flashlight and a chilling horror novel.  The older I've gotten, though, the wussier I've become.  I still love me a shivery ghost story or a haunting Gothic thriller, as long as it's not too terrifying.  For my TTT list, I decided to highlight some of the creepy novels from 2020 and 2021 that are on my TBR list.  These are sure to give me a good fright!

Before we get to that, though, I want to give a shout out to our lovely host, Jana.  Click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl to give her blog some love and find out more about Top Ten Tuesday.

1.  The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb—In search of a life reset, the titular character checks into a boardinghouse on the shores of Lake Superior for the summer.  There she finds camaraderie with a group of similarly lost souls.  Her peace is short-lived—soon she's hearing voices, being plagued by nightmares, and wondering what's inside the mysterious room at the end of the hall ...

2.  The Whispering House by Elizabeth Brooks—Haunted by the recent suicide of her sister, Freya Lyell decides to visit the place of her death.  When she enters mysterious Byrne Hall, she sees a portrait of her sister hanging on the wall.  Freya's never seen the picture and she knows her sister has never been to the house.  What is her sister's likeness doing in a house she's never been to?  What do its owners know about her death?  What dark secrets is the house hiding?

3.  The Shadow in the Glass by J.J.A. Harwood (coming March 18, 2021)—In this dark Cinderella retelling, a miserable maid finds her only solace in the bewitching library inside her stepfather's home.  One night as she's lost in her world of books, her fairy godmother appears to grant her seven wishes.  Each comes with a price—how much is Ella willing to risk for a magical respite from her many troubles?

4.  Don't Tell a Soul by Kirsten Miller (coming January 26, 2021)—I read Rebecca earlier this year and was seriously underwhelmed, but this modern-day YA version still sounds compelling.  It concerns Bram, a young woman who goes to live with her grieving uncle in an effort to escape her old life.  The old mansion he's renovating is seriously creepy and the town he lives in is filled with suspicious, unwelcoming people who tell chilling tales about missing girls associated with her uncle's manor house.  Is the place haunted?  Should Bram be wary of her strange uncle?

5.  The Nesting by C.J. Cooke—Set in Norway, this Gothic thriller sounds absolutely terrifying!  It concerns a nanny who takes a job watching two young children while their father finishes building his dream home on an isolated fjord near a deep, looming forest.  When strange things start happening in the house, the nanny begins to suspect that the kids' dead mother might not be as dead as they all supposed ...

6.  Girls of Brackenhill by Kate Moretti—When her aunt dies in a car accident, a woman travels to the Catskills to help the woman's dying husband.  Being there brings back haunting memories of a troubling disappearance sixteen years ago.  As the woman digs into the past, disturbing family secrets start coming to light.

7.  The Lost Village by Camilla Sten (coming March 23, 2021)—People have been mysteriously vanishing from an old mining town for years.  Alice, a documentary filmmaker, is obsessed with the place and wants to make a movie about it.  When she takes a crew to the village, strange things start to occur.  Can they figure out what happened to all the missing townspeople before they become the next ones to vanish without a trace?  

8.  It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan—A crumbling mansion on the edge of a swamp, Sam Wakefield's ancestral home is a decaying pile built by her mad ancestors.  Already full of ghosts, the house shifts when Sam's pregnant sister moves in.  A new ghost haunts the mansion's corridors.  What does it want?  And why is it leading Sam toward a mysterious forgotten room?  Actually, this one might be a little too creepy for me ...

9.  The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni—When Alberta Monte receives a letter informing her that she's inherited not just a title but also a castle in Italy, she's skeptical but curious.  She'll take any chance to learn more about her mysterious family.  Soon, she discovers that her ancestry is much darker than she ever imagined.

10.  The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis (coming February 3, 2021)—I enjoy McGinnis' dark YA novels, so I'm excited for her newest.  The first in a planned duology, it concerns Tress Montor, a teen whose whole life changed when her parents disappeared while taking her best friend home one night.  Desperate for answers, Tress uses a raucous Halloween costume party as a cover for forcing her former bestie to come clean about what really happened that night.  Sounds intriguing!

Spooky books aren't on the menu for me this Halloween since I'm deep into middle-grade reading for the Cybils Awards, but I'm hoping to get to these chilling reads at some soonish point.  Have you read any of them?  What did you think?  Are you reading anything creepy this Halloween?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on yours. 

Happy TTT!   

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

10-year-old Virginia Wrathmell is glad to be out of the orphanage where she has lived since her parents died, but she's not quite sure what to think of her adoptive home and family.  Salt Winds is a strange, lonely place.  With its remote location on the moors, it feels otherworldly, sad, and somehow, dangerous.  While Virginia's new father, Clem, is warm and kind, the same can't be said of Lorna, her new mother, whose glamorous facade hides a temperament as shifting as the tides.  While she can't quite understand the tension in her adoptive parents' marriage, she knows it has something to do with Max Deering, the charismatic widower who lives nearby. 

With war raging in other parts of Europe, it's only a matter of time before the conflict comes to Salt Winds.  When Clem and Virginia spy a German airman making a risky parachute landing on their beach, Clem rushes to help him.  His kind act sets in motion events that will rock young Virginia to her core and threaten everything she's come to love about the place she's just beginning to think of as home.

The Orphan of Salt Winds, a debut novel by Elizabeth Brooks, features some of my favorite fictional elements—a moody, broody setting; a haunting Gothic vibe; and family skeletons bursting from hidden closets.  Unfortunately, for me, these appealing pieces didn't quite come together to create a satisfying whole.  While I found the story compelling enough to keep me reading, I also thought it was cold, stark, sad, and depressing.  Overall, I just didn't love it.  It turned out to be an okay read, but definitely not a memorable or captivating one.

(Readalikes:  The book's setting and premise reminded me of Kate Morton's novels, although the former lacks the warmth and charm of the latter.)  

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a couple F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find