Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and Bookish

Hey guys! It is time for another TTT! This week is it a Halloween freebie! So, I am going to go with top ten scary/creepy books the read around this time for year! Without further ado and in no particular order:

10.  The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich – This book had me wide awake in the middle of the night, with all the lights on in the house, on the phone to my husband asking when he is going to be home. To say it creeped me out would be an understatement!

9.  The Merciless by Danielle Vega – This book was creepy in the sense that it was gross and had my body tingling all over from what they did to that poor girl. Definitely Halloween material…

8.  The Girl with all the Gifts by M. R. Carey – Zombies and Halloween go hand in hand!

7.  Unnatural Deeds by Cyn Balog – Ok, so technically this book is being released November 1st… but, it is definitely a creepy read and the ending!!!

6.  Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill – This is not your traditional Halloween creepy, but I think everyone who has read this book will agree with me that it deserves to be up here!

5.  Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke – Three screwed up teens, what could go wrong? A lot… that’s your answer!

4.  Ten by Gretchen McNeil – A fast paced, whodunnit…

3.  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn  – Do I really need to explain this one?!? Let’s go with one word: Amy.

2.  Say Her Name by James Dawson – Bloody Mary is tradition on Halloween…

1.  Don’t Look Back by Jennifer L. Armentrout – I really enjoyed this book and I was not expecting the ending!!

That’s it! These are my TT scary/creepy books to read around this time of year!

Have any of you read these? Do you agree? Are there any others I should read? Feel free to drop comments and links and I will check them all out!

3:59 by Gretchen McNeil

Josie Byrne’s life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she’s betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can’t get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo’s life is everything Josie wants: she’s popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they’re just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo. 

Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo’s perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo’s boyfriend, he hates her. Jo’s mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh.

By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late? (Goodreads)

I was expecting great things from this book. After reading Ten and absolutely loving it, I was disappointed with this book. I enjoyed it well enough, but at the same time, I feel like it fell flat a little.

Our MC Josie is physics book smart – to the point where I literally had no idea what the hell she was talking about. She wasn’t, however, very street smart. I mean, c’mon – which woman would try and earn a guy back after he cheated on her with her BEST FRIEND?!? I mean seriously, how stupid do you get. Plus, she decides to walk through a portal and switch lives with someone she barely knows based on a letter and a couple of glimpses into her life? I mean, really? Like I said, book smart, but not street smart.

I liked the fact that, whilst the characters were mostly the same in both worlds, there were distinct differences which told them apart. Circumstance made the characters who they are and changed them depending on the events at the time.

This book felt slow. I didn’t feel the need to carry on reading and I was ok with the fact that I couldn’t read it for hours at a time. It think, in this sense, the book was boring – which lets it down a bit. I didn’t feel invested in the characters and their well being – which is probably why I didn’t want to constantly read it. In short, I was bored. I liked the premise, I liked the idea with the Nox etc. I think the rest let it down.

That ending. I mean really?? It did not go the way that I had planned and I feel like the book has not been ended properly. It feels like it needs another instalment so that we can see what really happened with the characters afterward and whether certain characters made it to places where they wanted to go. It has left the readers with questions that will never get answered.

In short, I was disappointed with this book – which I find upsetting. I loved Ten by McNeil, but I feel like this book falls short of the bar she set with that one. I gave this book 3/5 stars.

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

SHHHH!
Don’t spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine? (Goodreads)

I had this on my TBR for a very long time before I actually managed to find a copy of it! When I did, I started it right away! I enjoyed this book as much as I hoped I would and more!

This book is a very fast paced book from the beginning. Two girls have just landed on an island for a private party. This island is creepy from the very beginning, especially with the warning the sailor gave! The beginning of this book just made it all the more interesting and turned the book into a page turner!

What I think bugged me about this book is the fact that the characters are all so naive!!! I could understand the almonds landing in the salad being an accident, it could happen to anyone. The dvd? The supposed suicide? And everything else that happened after that was definitely not a coincidence. It took them FOREVER to figure out what was going on and to become suspicious of the others. I was screaming at the book and everything. One word: annoying.

Having said that, the events that did take place were shocking enough and fast paced enough to help me get over the characters’ stupidity. There were constant twists and turns, which is what kept me interested in the book. The question that was constantly running through my mind was, who will it be next? All of the characters were also, at some point, considered to be suspicious and the reader was constantly questioning every single character and whether it could be them.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I would never have guessed who it turned out to be. I was so shocked I think I just sat there for about 5 minutes with my mouth hanging over. I was also happy that the motive wasn’t something stupid or something that made no sense. The motive and the reasoning behind the killers actions made sense and, in a way, the reader could actually sympathise with them and understand why they felt the need to do what they were doing, even if it something that the reader doesn’t condone at all.

I was also fairly pleased with the ending. Sure, a whole bunch of annoying people get killed, but I was satisfied, and fairly happy with, the people who survived. I had already guessed one of the people who would survive, the other surprised me – which is always good!

I would never have stayed on that island after the very first warning from the sailor – however, true to characters’ forms, they are normally pretty stupid! I gave this book 3/5 stars.