WARNING: Don't read this post

Eilidh

Hello. I see you’ve ignored the warning on this post, you must be very brave. You’ve got five seconds to change your mind, and close the website down. I’d hate to scare you with what I’m going to talk about.

No? Still reading? Ok, your choice.

My name’s Eilidh and I’m one of the children’s Librarians at Inverclyde. We’ve got loads going on for the Summer Reading Challenge, but you probably know all that. So I thought I’d tell you about some of my favourite creepy books. You’ve still got time to stop reading though, if you’re feeling a bit nervous?

No?

Suit yourself.

Have you ever read The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine? I read it a hundred years ago, and probably every year since. It’s about a girl called Natalie and her family, who buy an abandoned hotel in the middle of nowhere. Natalie meets a girl called Tulip, who is WELL creepy. She thinks up weird games for them to play, which at first Natalie thinks is brilliant, but then the games start to get creepier and creepier and weirder and scarier and Natalie doesn’t know what to do. And by the end of the book, you’re left thinking is Tulip bad? Or is she EVIL?

And what about Coraline by Neil Gaiman, have you ever read that? Terrifying. A girl (Coraline, obviously) finds out her mum and dad have been replaced by imposters with…wait for it….BUTTONS FOR EYES! And if that doesn’t give you nightmares, I don’t know what will. Coraline is a brilliant book to read because it’s also available as a graphic novel, which makes it every scarier. (P.S. That picture is me with Neil Gaiman after he won the Carnegie award for The Graveyard Book, another brilliantly creepy book).

Or what about a whole series of creepy-ness? The Goosebumps series by R.L Stine is an old, old…actually, never mind. They’re too scary to talk about here.

A good one with a twist in the tale is The Vanishing of Katherina Linden by Helen Grant. Pia lives in a small town in Germany, where she’s famous for being the girl who’s grandmother exploded. Yep, just exploded. So everyone thinks she’s a bit odd. Then a girl called Katherina Linden goes missing, and everyone is shocked. Then another girl goes missing. And another one. Who is responsible? This book is particularly brilliant because no-one ever guesses who the baddy is. But be warned; it’s terrifying.

Oh, I think that’s enough now. You’ll all be too scared. In my next post, I’ll tell you about some fluffy books that won’t give you nightmares.

Maybe.