Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: Creepy Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is...

Creepy Covers!

Today is a halloween freebie, and since it is a fairly well-known fact, that I do NOT read scary books, I wanted to keep in the spirit of the "holiday", and share some covers I have seen, which I find quite creepy. Many of these evoke feelings I experienced back in the day, when I used to watch slasher films, and maybe I am reading more into these covers based on that experience, but they creep me out.
  • Took by Mary Downing Hahn - Something about a well placed doll part just gives me the chills
  • Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria - Skulls are such a halloween and horror fixture, and there is just something about the elongated teeth and the shading, it just all ups the creep factor for me. 
  • The Haunted by Danielle Vega - What's a horror story without a good flicker spirit? Another classic image, which makes me think of movies like The Ring. 
  • The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart - Creepy eyes and bloody footprints, that would encourage me to run in the other direction, if I happened upon it in the woods.
  • Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer - It's subtle, but I just can't get the image of humans being filleted. 
  • Amity by Micol Ostow - The requisite ramshackle house, but the artist turned it up a notch by adding blood. Good touch. 
  • Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano - This made me think of my favorite terrifying wall climber, Regan from The Exorcist, which was a terrifying movie. 
  • Shutter by Courtney Alameda - Smoke monster? Light monster? It doesn't matter, because monsters are scary. Period. 
  • Odd & True by Cat Winters - I always fear people, who casually carry weapons with blood on them. No idea why, but I do. 
  • The Bad Seed by William March - This is not a YA book, but it's a classic, and I will never not be leery of creepy dolls on covers. 

Do you like scary books?
Let us know in the comments!

50 comments:

  1. Shutter does look pretty scary!

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    1. That cover makes me think of the smoke monster from Lost, which was pretty scary the whole series.

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  2. love that Not Even Bones cover!! Definitely what made me interested to read it.

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    1. The unknown is what makes it so scary to me, but aesthetically, it's a clean design and the touch of red really pops

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  3. I like the cover for Not even Bones because it is subtle, but there's no doubt that there's something creepy lurking *shivers*

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    1. Exactly. It's what you don't know and what you make up in your mind that makes it scary

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  4. Diary of a Hunting's cover was alright for me UNTIL you mentioned The Exorcist. That was one of the many horror movies that scared me when I was a kid (until now, I still am scared of watching them) and now I can't stop picturing the movie on that book's cover.

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    1. They re-did that movie, right? I only saw the original, but it was the thing nightmares are made of

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  5. Ugh, yes, creepy dolls are so scary!

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    1. I am/was such a doll lover, but some horror movies have ruined certain dolls for me. I remember my sister wrapping the arms of my crocheted clown doll around my neck after we saw Poltergeist. It was terrifying

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  6. Oof that Shutter always gets me spooked! Also, the doll one!! Why would you share that???

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    1. It's terrifying, right? I am actually proud that I stayed on topic this week, even if I had to force myself to look at scary covers. Fact: Every time I passed Took when I was checking out the ebooks on the library site, it gave me chills.

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  7. Ooh, I love them! I especially like the skull cover. That is creepy!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. The way they made the teeth so long the dripping all add to the creep factor for me.

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  8. That Shutter cover is on a level all its own. Creeptastic!

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    1. I remember thinking the book looked terrifying, when it first came out, and it seems others agree with me.

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  9. I haven't read the Bad Seed but I loved the David Carradine film version! That child was so evil!

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    1. That film was terrifying. What is it with scary kids? That one and Damien from the Omen were the stuff of nightmares.

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  10. Oh gosh, creepy dolls are the worst and guaranteed to give me nightmares! I was ruined by a commercial (of all things) for the movie Magic back in the late 70s, and the Twilight Zone episode "Talkie Tina". Can't believe my mom let me watch that as a little kid because it scared the hell out of me! Eeek!

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    1. Those old episodes of the Twilight Zone were scary, but more in the psychological way, which I actually think is more frightening than slash and gore. You saw Toy Story 4 - those dolls made me want to cry

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  11. they all look great, but took gave me chills as soon as i laid eyes on it
    sherry @ fundinmental

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    1. This seems like an endorsement, and I feel I have chosen wisely

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  12. All of these are SUPER creepy! I think I'll avoid them all... LOL

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  13. Shutter is so creepy! I wouldn't come within a 10 foot pole.

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    1. I remember hearing the author talk about this book on a panel, and the concept is pretty cool. A Van Helsing descendant, who fights evil with her camera. Horror is not my thing, but I find the concept intriguing.

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  14. I didn't think book covers could be truly creepy but actually a few of these are. Shutter looks absolutely terrifying and Diary of a Haunting isn't much better.

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    1. I wanted to sort of embrace the topic this week, and I kept remembering how disturbing I found the cover of Took every time I visited the eLibrary. There are a LOT of scary covers out there, and I was only looking for YA.

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  15. Shutter is the one that really gives me the creeps, Sam. :) Thanks for sharing creepy covers.

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  16. DO NOT LIKE THAT COVER FOR TOOK! There are definitely some big time creepy covers on this list!

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  17. I'm a chicken anyway, but the covers for Took and Shutter both totally freak me out. Great choices for creepy covers!

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    1. I was impressed with the sheer number of chilling covers out there.

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  18. Dolls always creep me out. LOL And haunted houses are so creepy. I love scary covers!

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    1. I thought you would appreciate a good scary cover.

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  19. Took and The Bad Seed creep me out. Because creepy kids scare me lol

    Karen @ For What It's worth

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    1. I saw some even more frightening ones for adult books. When the covers are that scary, I can only imagine how much the book would wig me out.

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  21. Shutter is one of my all time favorites and Not Even Bones was pretty great. :)

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    1. Someone, who has actually read these books. I am glad I featured a few winners.

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  22. Shutter is totally one I want to read... and I wanted to read it in October! Oh well.

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    1. I remember the author talking about Shutter on a panel and it sounded really good, even if I don't do scary. I hope you get to it at some point

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  23. Not Even Bones is even more messed up on the inside hahaha. The Haunted always creeped me out, just LOOK at that girl! She does NOT look okay! Odd & True is pretty decent (not super creepy, either!) I want to read The Sacrifice Box too. And I might own Shutter but I genuinely don't remember, whoops?

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    1. Good to hear the cover represents the story well for Not Even Bones. Shutter was the one I knew the most about, because I heard the author talk about it at a panel. I am a fan of the Van Helsing family.

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  24. Shutter is definitely a scary cover! I don't know why Amity makes me think of Supernatural so much. Ooh, and I really want to read Not Even Bones and Beneath the Citadel as I did enjoy Soria's other debut novel ^.^

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    1. I can see the Supernatural vibes from Amity. I will have to wait for you to read these and let me know if they are as creepy as their covers.

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  25. A great big NOPE to the creepy doll! I can't stand dolls. And Clowns. Either of those marks a definitely no from me.

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    1. I loves dolls, but they can take a pretty cute doll and make it so creepy.

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