Here are 95 books that You Wouldn't Catch Me Dead fans have personally recommended if you like
You Wouldn't Catch Me Dead.
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I am a children’s horror author, editor, and mentor who has been writing and reading about the genre for ten years. I love seeing how my fellow authors take quite terrifying themes and content and creatively develop them into fun and creepy stories suitable for the youngest readers. It is a thrilling responsibility, and I hope we all bring something slightly different to the table for those who love the dark!
I adored this creepy, spooky middle-grade book set in Victorian-time London. It tells the story of 12-year-old Nancy Crumpet and her terrifying adventure with Skelter Tombola, who owns the amazing Scareground.
The descriptions were so powerful that I felt like I was right in the story with Nancy, experiencing the scary magic of the fair. The link between Nancy and Skelter is skillfully revealed, and the chapters kept my heart thumping throughout. I couldn’t put it down!
I am a children’s horror author, editor, and mentor who has been writing and reading about the genre for ten years. I love seeing how my fellow authors take quite terrifying themes and content and creatively develop them into fun and creepy stories suitable for the youngest readers. It is a thrilling responsibility, and I hope we all bring something slightly different to the table for those who love the dark!
I loved this adventure for younger readers, and I think it would be perfect for ages 5-8 who want an introduction to creepy, spooky stories. Autumn wants to dance and is desperate to join a dance team.
The story explores friendship, dealing with tricky people, and fighting to achieve one's dreams. I really enjoyed it, and the cover is so cute that friends always borrow it for their children—especially around Halloween.
Autumn Moonbeam loves gymnastics and dance so when Sparkledale Dance Academy have try-outs for their competitive dance team, Black Cats, she thinks it's the most broom-tastic opportunity ever! Just one problem, Autumn is nervous and worries she won't make it onto the team. And then she discovers that her nasty neighbour Severina Bloodworth is trying out too. But with her best friend Batty by her side can Autumn overcome her shyness, lack of confidence and magical mishaps to be chosen to join Sparkledale Dance Academy?
Enchanting, fun and full of heart, this is a story about growing into yourself, following…
I am a children’s horror author, editor, and mentor who has been writing and reading about the genre for ten years. I love seeing how my fellow authors take quite terrifying themes and content and creatively develop them into fun and creepy stories suitable for the youngest readers. It is a thrilling responsibility, and I hope we all bring something slightly different to the table for those who love the dark!
I was first attracted by the totally gorgeous cover; I’ve never seen anything like it. This story is written for middle-grade readers, ages 9-12. It is an unusual horror story, where the main character, Delores, is sent up to a distant family in Edinburgh to learn to deal with seeing ghosts.
I’ve visited Edinburgh, and it is an amazingly creepy city! I walked the ghost tunnels beneath the city, so it was lovely to read more about the area. The book conveys the setting beautifully, and I was captivated by the wonderful, descriptive, lively writing. I can’t wait for the sequel!
When Delores Mackenzie is chased home by a restless spirit, she is sent to the mysterious Uncles in Edinburgh Old Town to learn how to control her unusual 'gifts'. Scared and alone, she finds her new home at the Tolbooth Book Store is full of curious surprises: some welcome, others less so. But when a sinister apparition threatens the lives of her strange new housemates, Delores must gather all her strength to save them.
I am a children’s horror author, editor, and mentor who has been writing and reading about the genre for ten years. I love seeing how my fellow authors take quite terrifying themes and content and creatively develop them into fun and creepy stories suitable for the youngest readers. It is a thrilling responsibility, and I hope we all bring something slightly different to the table for those who love the dark!
This is a gorgeous, lyrical, very different kind of horror story for children. Aimed at middle grade, so ages 9-12, it tells the tale of young Raven, who is put into foster care in a very spooky town where half of the inhabitants are dead.
The illustrations are detailed and gothic and among the most beautiful ones I’ve ever seen–I’d like them framed! What I love most about this book is the sheer range of ghostly characters–they are magnificent. If you love ghosts and creepiness generally in your stories, give this new Irish author a try.
On her first day in Grave's Pass, Raven McKay spotted a pooka horses chasing goblins in a vacant lot, three banshees on a bus, a zombie in ripped jeans staring in the window of a phone shop, a bogeyman walking a labradoodle, a ghost on a ladder cleaning windows, a ghoul sipping coffee at an outdoor cafe. This is Dead Town- this is Raven's new home. But will Raven find her parents who have mysteriously disappeared? And who in Dead Town Can she trust? All her parents have left her is a suit case with a black butterfly and a…
I wear many aprons. I am a writer; a professor of creative writing and literature; a mother to five children – daughters and sons; the wife of a criminal defense attorney; and the daughter of therapists. I read and write at the intersection of these influences: crime, motherhood, and psychology. When I teach children’s literature, I lean toward the Brothers Grimm. Childhood is grittier – more suspenseful – when we darken the stories. The same is true of motherhood. Nobody wants to read about a perfect mother, especially when mothers spend so much of our psychic energy worried about our children in the forms of violence, illness, and death. I prefer to seek out books that complicate the otherwise pristine stories of our lives we pretend to tell.
As a mother and a Women’s and Gender Studies educator, I was enthralled by Ayelet Waldman’s Modern Love scandal of 2005 in which she confessed to loving her husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, more than their four children, after which she landed a spot on the Oprah Winfrey stage to defend her position. Bad Mother picks up where that controversy left off, exploring the double standard for mothers, who are expected to see and treat children as the centers of their universe. This book is irreverent and refreshing. Perfect mothers – so-called “good moms” – are for Mother’s Day portraits only. This is a book to read on any other day of the year.
'I want to be in the company of her frank intelligence forever' Nigella Lawson In our mothers' day there were good mothers, indifferent mothers, and occasionally, great mothers. Today we have only Bad Mothers: If you work, you're neglectful; if you stay home, you're smothering. If you discipline, you're buying them a spot on the shrink's couch; if you let them run wild, they will be into drugs by seventh grade. Is it any wonder so many women refer to themselves at one time or another as a "bad mother"? Writing with remarkable candor, and dispensing much hilarious and helpful…
I’m a member of the Horror Writers Association and have been a professional writer since 1997. I got into writing horror because I love reading horror and watching horror movies. Even as a kid, I watched horror movies on Saturday afternoons and read horror books late at night—under the covers, with a flashlight. I collected Universal monster models as a kid too and still have my collection and have even added to it. I love all things horror and believe I have a deep understanding of what scares people and how to scare them. I guarantee that the books on my list will scare you to the bone.
If you love Halloween like I do, this holiday horror collection from the twisted minds of some of today’s best horror authors will delight and scare you. The stories are short, fast-paced, entertaining, and shocking. Some of my favorites: A Wasted Pumpkin, Waiting for Death, The Hungry Child, Razorblade Smiles. Check this collection of flash fiction out. You’ll read it in one night. But keep the lights on!
Skeletons, ghosts and witches. All Hallows Eve is filled with the terrors that walk the thin line of our world and the other. From the twisted minds of some of todays best horror authors, Dark Halloween is a collection of halloween themed stories sure to delight and terrify.
How will you celebrate the holidays?
Dark Halloween is book 5 in the holiday horror collection
Dark X-Mas Dark Valentine Dark Solstice Dark Celebration Dark Halloween
With stories from: M. Ennenbach, N.M Brown, G.G Flavell, Vic Kerry, Lamont A. Turner, Radar DeBoard, L.T. Emery, Alyson Faye, Jay T. Levy, Gabriella Balcom, P.S…
When I was five my dad had to carry me, crying, out of the Salem Witch’s Dungeon. You’d think that would put a damper on my love of spooky things, but it absolutely did not! Bela Lugosi was my first crush. I set up Haunted Houses in my garage and read every single book my local library had on the Salem Witch Trials. I made my way from Bunnicula and The Halloween Tree, to books by Stephen King and Anne Rice. Halloween and horror will always have a special place in my heart, and yet…I still don’t let my legs dangle off my bed, lest the monsters get me.
The Stitchers is the first book in the Fright Watch series and any one of them would be the perfect Halloween read. But let’s be real. Old people are scary.
Quinn knows there’s something off about her neighbors. The Oldies have lived in the neighborhood for as long as anyone can remember, and yet they never seem to get any older. If Quinn’s dad was still alive, she knows they’d be coming up with theories: Are they vampires? Aliens? Who knows! The answer is worse than she imagined. When Quinn sees one of the Oldies jogging, she knows she recognizes that leg…it was her dad’s.
I always loved Rod Sterling at Halloween and The Stitchers has such a great Twilight Zone vibe. It’s perfect for kids who lean towards the science fiction side of spookiness where normal things are just…wrong.
"The chills come guaranteed." -Stephen King
The start of a spine-tingling new horror series perfect for fans of Stranger Things and Goosebumps.
The spine-chilling middle-grade horror that Stephen King called "the perfect book for kids to cool off with on a hot summer day, because the chills come guaranteed"-now in paperback!
Something strange is happening on Goodie Lane . . .
Thirteen-year-old Quinn Parker knows that there's something off about her neighbors. She calls them "the Oldies" because they've lived on Goodie Lane for as long as anyone can remember, but they never seem to age. Are they vampires? Or…
As a parent, children’s book author, and fan of all things Halloween I have searched the globe for the best of the best when it comes to Halloween books for kids. Ok not really “the globe” but when the bookstore starts stocking the featured shelves with children's Halloween books around mid-August, I can’t resist either browsing or purchasing. These 5 are near and dear to my heart because instead of just a simple bedtime read, they all have something special and a memory attached to them. These are the books that are brought out year after year and still enjoyed by the kids, even when they are probably getting too old for bedtime stories.
How to Catch a Monster is just one of the books in the How to Catch series.
It is a quick read for a bedtime story and very interactive and fun for little ones. The rhyming is catchy and the illustrations by Andy Elkerton are beautiful and colorful. All of the How to Catch books have personality and this one doesn’t disappoint.
The kids love the plotting and planning in order to catch the monster and as a parent, I enjoy watching the gears turn when I ask how they would catch a monster. It is a house favorite and gets the kids in the Halloween spirit.
A USA Today Bestseller! From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling How to Catch series comes an all-new monster story and picture book for kids!
Get ready to laugh along in this fun children's monster book as a brave young ninja heads into the closet to meet the monster that's been so scary night after night! But what if our monster isn't scary at all? Maybe our hero is about to make a friend of the strangest sort...
Whether you're looking for kids books about fears, spooky basket stuffers, festive gifts for children, a great bedtime story, or…
From staying up late to watch old 'Hammer Horror' classics (only occasionally hiding behind the sofa) to reading the chilling romances of Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart, Emmanuelle knew early in life that Gothic Romance was her jam. Slightly sinister anti-heroes hiding a dark secret still make her swoon, and now she gets to create her own. Mind how you flee!
Prepare for spicy thrills and spooky chills, mystery, murder, and ghostly goings on in this ‘must-have’ seven-book collection. The first volume takes us to Briarwood Park, an English manor house stalked by a bloodthirsty madman, and a brooding duke accused of a wicked crime. The whole series features steamy, open-door bedroom scenes.
A steamy Regency romance full of spicy thrills and spooky chills. Welcome to Briarwood Park, an English manor house filled with spirits, its halls stalked by a bloodthirsty madman, and a brooding duke accused of the most wicked crime of all... murdering his late wife. The Haunting of a Duke is perfect read for Halloween or any time of the year for those who like their romance served up slightly darker.
Communing with spirits has been both gift and curse to Emme Walters. Now it's made her a killer's target. Emme knows why the Dowager Duchess of Briarleigh invited her…
I have loved Halloween since I ran through the suburban streets of southern Connecticut with ears and a tail. For more than thirty years I’ve been researching and writing about the holiday, and each year I find something new. Most of all, I’m a Halloween advocate: At Halloween we can wrap our arms around the reality of the other 364 days and satirize, exorcize, and celebrate it. The joy of Halloween is not that it’s dark and we revel in that; it’s that Halloween can bring a bit of light and laughter into the darkness. And, of course, it’s big, creative, candy-fueled fun.
Trick or Treat takes the history of Halloween and brings it into the 21st century. The book chronicles the holiday’s long history—distant and more recent, misconceptions and globalization—and offers up similar holiday stories as well, such as chapters on Dias de Los Muertos and All Saints Day celebrations. Looking for something to read or watch or listen to? Here you’ll find a chronicle of Halloween’s literature through 2012, as well as recent movies and music that capture the holiday’s culture in our world today.
Trick or Treat is the first book to both examine the origins and history of Halloween and explore in depth its current global popularity. Festivals like the Celtic Samhain and Catholic All Souls' Day have blended to produce the modern Halloween, which has been reborn in America - but there are also related but independent holidays, especially Mexico's Day of the Dead. Lisa Morton explores the explosion in popularity of haunted attractions and the impact of events such as the global economic recession, as well as the effect Halloween has had on popular culture through literary works, films and television…
