Who doesn't love a good scare!

I will read just about anything, but I especially love reading books that are scary! As a little girl, I would sit in my mother's walk in closet with a flashlight and read ghost stories. I don't sit in a closet anymore, but I still cannot resist a book that will send shivers down my spine.

With October nearly here and stores already selling Halloween decorations I thought that I would share my recent forays into horror.

Vampires have been a hot subject in literature since Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1987. In recent years, though, vampires have become less monster and more genteel and sparkly hunk.  Nothing against Twilight fans, but I prefer my vampires to have a little more bite (I'm sorry I cannot resist bad puns).

The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan definitely delivers the chills, thrills, and screams. Nelson Demille says that the books are "Bram Stoker meets Stephen King meets Michael Crichton" and that is the best way to describe del Toros's writing.  In the first book we meet Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, a doctor with the CDC, who is called in to investigate a plane that has landed in New York with all but three passengers dead.  So begins an epidemic that  that Dr. Goodweather and his small group of compatriots struggle to stop, understand, and eventually destroy.  I have read a good number of vampire novels and these were exciting, terrifying, and exceptionally fun to read!  Dark Horse has actually released these in graphic novel format and supposedly FX is in the process of making them into a series. I am book junkie, though, so I recommend the original format.

On the subject of scary books we just got in Stephen King's latest book, Dr. Sleep, and I had to snag it first. I am only about a hundred pages in, but I am so excited about this book. The main character is none other than Daniel Torrence, the "redrum" boy from The Shining. What happens to him now that he is grown, does he still shine, is he still haunted by what happened at the Overlook, does Tony still talk to him? I cannot wait to find out!