Books by and for independent women

My Three Favourite…Scary Books

Our Halloween series continues with Jess Haigh‘s top trio of books to have your hair standing on end:

A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth

One of the best books I’ve read this year, this début novel from one of the most exciting young authors out there is a psychological chiller that is not only darkly comic, but also absolutely terrifying.

Annie has recently moved into a new neighbourhood after the breakdown of her marriage. She is needy and possessive and soon becomes infatuated with her neighbour, much to the disgruntlement of his girlfriend. She tries to befriend the couple, and her fellow neighbours, but her social ineptness leads to disastrous, cringe-worthy consequences.

As we delve deeper into Annie’s world of strange behaviours, the plot thickens as we learn more about her past, and the reasons behind the breakdown of her marriage, until we are caught in a web of madness, violence and sex.

Exploring issues around obesity and fat acceptance, as well as domestic violence, post-partum depression and obsession, this book had me gripped from the off, took about two nights to read and scared me silly by the end.

Recommended, though by no means a comfortable read, I am very much looking forward to Ashworth’s next book, due out next summer.

Like the sound of A Kind of Intimacy? Get it from Amazon for only £8.39.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Having seen the huge publishing campaign surrounding this novel (another début), I rather foolishly took it as my beach read a few summers ago and hated it. This is not a sunny day book.

I re-read it for book club last November as our Halloween special and can strongly say it is worth the hype. If you’ve never discovered Kostova’s blend of history, romance and ghostly fangs then make it your Halloween read.

So much more than Dracula updated, this book tells the story of a young girl and her father, living in Europe in the middle of this century, whose lives appear intertwined with the history of Transylvania and Vlad the Impaler. Impeccably researched, this book is a fascinating insight into the vampire myth.

It also contains one of the scariest scenes in literature, in the reading room of a university library. I was reading this particular chapter in a country pub by a fire waiting for a friend and had to put it down and have a quiet word with myself. It gave me proper, proper shivers,and I love it when good writing does that to you.

Kostova’s recent book, The Swan Thieves, whilst a good read and still recommended, especially for fans of Salley Vickers or Maggie O’Farrell, is so different to The Historian, and badly received by her fans, though I personally believe it to be a good book, if not a tenth as gripping. I’d like to see another gothic horror from her, though, as The Historian is brilliant, and a excellent antidote to the modern splurge of vampire crap flooding the market at the moment.

Get The Historian from Amazon for a mere £5.

And finally…. the scariest book I have ever ever ever read in my life:

Burial by Neil Cross

I read this completely on a whim, it was in my work library shelving pile and I had just finished something rather large and intensive and was looking for some trash to keep me amused for a couple of days on the bus. How judgemental an attitude that was; this book is brilliant!

I started it at 9 o’clock in the evening, and finished it at about 2am, when I promptly got out of bed, checked all the windows and doors in the house and did not sleep at all. The next day I went back to work and spent the week telling every single reader how much I had loved it, and how scared I had been. It is rare that I do this and I urge you to do the same.

Nathan is stuck in a dead-end job and relationship when he meets an old acquaintance, Bob, and a young girl at a party and proceeds to get very very high with them. The three take a drunken drive into the wood s and proceed to get jiggy with it in the car. Whilst Nathan is taking a slash, Bob accidentally kills the girl. Confused and scared, the two men bury her in the woods and go back to the party, thinking themselves fortunate that no one had noticed their absence.

Years later, and Nathan meets Holly and falls in love with her. This is when the book changes from predictable murder mystery to psychological thriller; Holly is the murdered girl’s sister, and, the body never being found, believes her to have been missing for the past five years.

Nathan moves in with and later marries Holly, and joins the family in their desperate plea for the girl to return. Haunted by his past crimes, Nathan becomes more and more depressed and his behaviour more erratic, frantic to hide his past from his unsuspecting wife and their family. Then, one day, he gets a knock on the door…

Like a really, really satisfying TV episode of your favourite British cop drama, this book is incredibly fast-paced and gripping. Nathan, although an utter loser, is a well-explored character, you can’t tear your eyes away from the disaster he makes of his life.

I found myself almost screaming at the book when he moves in with Holly; this is car-crash fiction at its best. The last third of the book I was actually sweating at. Yes, it’s easy, dialogue-heavy, TV-style thrills but it is genuinely the scariest book I’ve ever read and if you’re alone this Autumn and want to give yourself a fright, read this book!

It can be yours from Amazon for £5.49. Night light not included.

Have you read a book that left you checking the locks and sleeping with the lights on? Tell us in the comments if so!

Jess Haigh

(Image via barb_ar’s Flickr photostream)