Red Eye Halloween Blog Tour: Let's play dress up.

 

It's the last week of October, and with it Halloween, or as my neighbours think, time to put up the Christmas decorations. I wish I were kidding. 

So, in the spirit of Halloween and all things horror, I have the current Red Eye authors talking about their Halloween costumes growing up/what/who they would dress up as this year.

Halloween Recommendation: Part Four: Psychological Thrillers

 

 Ultraviolet
Author:  R.J. Anderson
Publication Date: June 2nd 2011             
Publisher:  Orchard       

 

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.
This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.

Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

 
 
 Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.

This is not her story.

Unless you count the part where I killed her.

Come on, tell me you're not the least bit interested after that hook? Also, set in a mental institute. Need I say more? Okay, Ultraviolet was more of a psychological thriller in the beginning before it went all sci-fi on us, but It's still one of my favourites to read around Halloween.

Halloween Recommendation: Part Three

Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Publication Date: October 17th 2011
Publisher: Tor Teen

 

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.

 You have no idea how much I love Anna Dressed in Blood, look at the cover!

It's bloody and gory and a lot of limb pulling and dismemberments. Anna, pretty much has everything you want, creepy atmosphere, hauntings, badass characters, a lot of twistedness and...did I mention bloody, gory and a lot of limb pulling and dismemberments?

Halloween Recommendation: Part One

 

Say Her Name
Author:  James Dawson

Publication Date:  June 5th 2014        
Publisher: Hot Key Books

~A proof copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 

Roberta 'Bobbie' Rowe is not the kind of person who believes in ghosts. A Halloween dare at her ridiculously spooky boarding school is no big deal, especially when her best friend Naya and cute local boy Caine agree to join in too. They are ordered to summon the legendary ghost of 'Bloody Mary': say her name five times in front of a candlelit mirror, and she shall appear... But, surprise surprise, nothing happens. Or does it?

Next morning, Bobbie finds a message on her bathroom mirror... five days... but what does it mean? And who left it there? Things get increasingly weird and more terrifying for Bobbie and Naya, until it becomes all too clear that Bloody Mary was indeed called from the afterlife that night, and she is definitely not a friendly ghost. Bobbie, Naya and Caine are now in a race against time before their five days are up and Mary comes for them, as she has come for countless others before... A truly spine-chilling yet witty horror from shortlisted 'Queen of Teen' author James Dawson

 

It takes a lot to scare me with books, whereas if I watch The Ring or anything to do with Bloody Mary, I won't look in a mirror for a week. Which you know, is bad form y hair, but anyway...I can probably count on two hands (probably less) how many YA Horror books have actually scared the crap out of me, not just gave me the creeps,  which I'm kind of sad about because I need more horror. I love scaring myself when it comes to books, the creepier the better, so up until Halloween, I'll be featuring the books that I shouldn't have read before bed.

Cosplay Antics: Getting Ready for Halloween SCARdiff Edition

Another Cosplay Antics post this week due to lack of funds and baking ingredients. Last week's post was a Vengeance VS Wonderland mash up, which I am going to keep bouncing back and forth to Alice in Wonderland quite often in later posts- both Cosplay Antics and Edible Books, since I'm in love with everything Wonderland and there's a lot of things that can be used to tie to it.

Since Halloween's right around the corner (okay, over a month left but it goes quick- it's almost Christmas!) I was thinking about what I made last year, which was also another outfit I wore at the MCM London this year. I've planned to bring it back out of the closet for the event SCARdiff  this year. SCARdiff's an Halloween/Horror movie convention in Cardiff (S-CARdiff- get it?) in October, so it's never too early to get ready and plan, besides, it was one of my favourite Cosplay's I've made.