『31 Days of Blogtober』 Creepy Books recommendation

Here are some creepy book recommendations. Nothing horror or super scary, just a bit creepy and exciting. I'll have a few I have only read in German and others only read in English. I'll do my best to explain what I thought was creepy about it. 

I picked nothing especially horror or super scary, just because I can't read or watch horror things. I still want to sleep at night without waking up every second. Another thing I have to say is that I could have picked any dystopian setting, because it just scares me so much to imagine myself in an wold-end scenario where I have to fight for every bit of my own being and what not.

Plot: A German re-telling of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. 

In the old house of her grandfather Thirteen discovers a labyrinth of alleyways and rooms, where six children are taken prisoner - the last of the children that the Pied Piper took from the city.

Thoughts: Being prisoner in a labyrinth just creeped my out so much. I'm really bad with directions and I can't find my way around when it's not my usual way somewhere or it's a different city. So being in a labyrinth is one of my fears. Not to find back again. 

If you're familiar with the original fairytale of the The Pied Piper of Hamelin you might find the similarities here, because it's a re-telling. That alone is creepy enough, at least for me. 

Plot: A unique luxury edition of some of Edgar Allan Poe's famous short stories, Tales of the Macabre takes the reader into the heart of a dozen stories, including The Fall of The House of Usher, Berenice, and The Black Cat…all beautifully illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe. Includes Charles Baudelaire's essay on Poe's life and works.

Thoughts: Haven't read everything in this edition but just to flip through it and to look at these beautiful and dark illustrations gives this whole piece of work a nice creepy factor. 

Plot: There is something strange about Coraline's new home. It's not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves. It's the other house - the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back.

Thoughts: Who doesn't know the story of Coraline? I didn't know about it until the movie was released in theatres. After that I discovered that the original is a book I had to read it. Sadly I only read it in German so far but plan on reading it in English soon. 

I still think that the movie is super creepy and even scary not really suitable for little children. The book is a bit less scary but still creepy to me. The fact that there is a different house that looks exactly the same and the "Other" mother and father. What creeps me out most is the fact of the black buttoned eyes. Who will ever ask someone to let them sew black buttons onto your eyes? Scary! 

I hope I'll read this beautiful illustrated edition next and that I'll have a whole new experience exploring the story.

Plot: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. 

Thoughts: This one I read only in English and in the dark blue edition. I really loved that book. It's not really that creepy except the beginning of the book. It's more an exciting adventure story of Bod and how he grows up and what he is discovering  along the way.
The edition I read had a few illustrations in it and it was nice and cute. I hope I'll be able to re-read the story soon and this time I want to read the other edition and experience the illustrations by an other artist. 

Plot: On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue the world from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. 

Thoughts: Accompanied by beautiful illustrations this story explores the fairytales of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in a new way. It's not an entire creepy story but has it's bits of creepiness, especially when the queen and the dwarves wander through the sleeping lands. That creeped me out and the ending was a bit twisted.

Plot: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs.

A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow they may still be alive.

Thoughts: Still not finished the book, I just don't have the time to read as much as I want at the moment. But I'm nearly halfway through and for now it's not that creepy or scary, but certain things in the forest creeped me out much. The photographs as well do their good to creep me out at times but what I most find scary is just the thought on how people would react to those peculiars in real life.