I don't want to shock anyone, but I don't read a lot of horror.
I know. It's amazing.
Rarely do I pick up a book that's solely designed to make me not sleep at night. In fact, I've only ever read 1 Stephen King book and it wasn't even really a horror! It was more political intrigue and it doesn't matter ultimately because I didn't like it anyway.
In spite of my less than stellar horror track record I do have a couple series that have wormed their ways into my heart - even when that heart is beating a million times a minute because of the OMG IT'S BEHIND YOU RUN AWAY-ness of it all. Since it's October and the weekend before Halloween AND Neil Gaiman is trying to encourage an All Hallows Read celebration of both, I thought sharing these two series would be a bit apropos. Hope you enjoy!
October Daye Series by Seanan McGuire
I've reviewed a few of the October Daye series here on RAtChaos and I think reading over those posts make it pretty clear why this series is so fantastic: a sympathetic heroine, romance, action, and really freaking scary fairy tales come to life! I never know what I'm getting into with McGuire's books so with each new release I'm gripping the edge of my seat trying not to have a complete meltdown. Is anyone going to die? Who is it? What's going to happen next? How is Toby going to get out of this one?!
Most of this can be contributed a gritty dark tone, because we as readers don't have the luxury of accurately predicting the next rabbit hole. It's not a recipe for a comfort read but this series stays with you long after you're done reading and if I can work up the courage they definitely deserve rereads as well.
Nightside Series by Simon R. Green
This series is not joke ya'll - Green keeps the frightening fast and frequent, with John the kick ass detective trying to battle them all. Even when I was squirming inside I had to keep reading (though I have been known to flip a few pages to find out what happens - sssshhh! Don't tell anyone) which I think is the hallmark of a really engaging set of books. The happy ending is not guaranteed and this is not romance, though it has a bit of it here and there which I'm definitely not complaining about. Simon R. Green doesn't really have a function website, and WTF is up with that, but it's rumored that the next book, The Bride Wore Black Leather, is going to be the last in the series. That means you have nothing but time to catch up and nothing holding you back!
