By Faith Zochowski
If you haven’t already, it is about time to get those spooky decorations out and plan your costumes – Halloween is less than two weeks away! In order to get into the holiday spirit, check out these creepy and disturbing reads to prepare for the spooky weeks to come.
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
The Dollangher family is picture perfect – four beautiful children and a husband and wife madly in love. That is until the night of the father’s 36th birthday when he is tragically killed in a car accident. The mother, Corinne, is forced to turn to the children’s grandmother as she is unable to pay for the bills and support her family. When Corinne arrives with her children and two suitcases full of their belongings, she discovers that her father is ill and will likely die soon. She devises a plan to win back her parents whom she ran away from years before after marrying her half uncle, who is her children’s father. The only caveat to her plan is that her father does not know about her four children. In order to execute her plan to be written back into her father’s will, she hides her children in the attic, deeming them unnoticed by both the grandfather and the servants. Corinne promises her children that their captivity will be short and only until their grandfather dies, and she distracts them with gifts and presents. Even so, the children become angry with their mother at their grandmother’s strict rules and wish to be free of the confines of the attic. To keep themselves busy, the children educate themselves with books and the television that Corinne bought them. Cathy and Chris, the eldest children, begin to take on the mother and father roles for their younger siblings, twins Cory and Carrie. Their mother visits them less and less, and Cathy and Chris begin to plan their escape to free themselves of life in the attic. This novel is filled with suspense and is sure to keep you reading to find out if they do in fact make it out of the attic. The novel has also been adapted into four different movies, with the latest one released in 2014.
Birdbox by Josh Malerman
Birdbox follows the story of Malorie and her two young children who are the survivors of a terrifying creature who began wreaking havoc five years prior. The biggest mystery to the creature/being is that it is invisible, but if seen with human eyes, it will drive a person to kill themselves. Malorie lives in an abandoned house by a river and has learned how to live with the deadly being right around the corner – for example, wearing a blindfold outside to retrieve water, creating a path to find her way back, etc. Even though she has found a way to cope with their terrible living conditions, she knows she eventually needs to relocate to a place where her family can be completely safe. The only way to find safety, though, is by way of the treacherous river in a rowboat, all while blindfolded. Malorie decides seeking refuge elsewhere is the only choice and creates a plan for her journey along the river. Malerman’s novel switches from past to present, divulging the readers in Malorie’s life before the terrifying being. It is also revealed that Malorie was not always raising her children on her own. When the monster first appeared, she found refuge at a house with multiple other people. Jumping from past to present, we discover the harrowing stories of each of those people from the house, and how Malorie got to where she is today. This is the perfect creepy thriller that will be sure to keep you sleeping with your lights on. After you finish the book, be sure to watch the movie “Birdbox” starring actor Sandra Bullock.
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