Weekend Reads #31: Wishes for My TBR Pile #11

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This time, I’m doing a Wishes for My TBR Pile post, which is a monthly post where I list and sometimes discuss the books I’ve discovered and would like to get.

Beneath Claire’s House by Corey J. Popp (September 26, 2015)

From debut author Corey J. Popp comes a young adult, supernatural thriller that will keep readers guessing until its shocking conclusion.

Sixteen-year-old Claire Young is tormented by a recurring, prophetic nightmare and visitations from gruesome, mutilated ghosts. She’s convinced the apparitions intend to harm her widowed father, but there’s little she can do locked away in Saint Thomas Psychiatric Hospital. Her situation is hopeless until a mysterious priest delivers the name of a man who may be the only one willing to help. Claire launches a daring scheme that leads her and her best friend to a former paranormal investigator.

But the matter is complicated by Claire’s own father. Convinced his daughter is schizophrenic, he’ll send Claire back to Saint Thomas permanently if he discovers she’s still clinging to her delusions. Claire and her friends must tread lightly to complete the investigation, but amid bizarre twists and chilling encounters, she’ll discover her home’s basement is hiding something far more sinister than just ghosts. (Goodreads)

I’ve decided to partake in the 2016 Horror Reads Challenge. I haven’t yet signed up for it, but I will by about December 31. When I stated my decision on Scifi and Scary Book Reviews, she suggested a few books for me to try and Beneath Claire’s House was one of them. Actually, all the horror books in this post were suggested by her and I’m looking forward to them. I predict that the majority of horror books I’ll read next year will have a psychological bent.

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (September 27, 1984)

Is Sophie Fevvers, toast of Europe’s capitals, part swan…or all fake?

Courted by the Prince of Wales and painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, she is an aerialiste extraordinaire and star of Colonel Kearney’s circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by his love for her, and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg and Siberia. (Goodreads)

I rediscovered this one in a YouTube video. Though I have it listed on my Classics Club Reading Challenge list, I keep confusing the title with Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus whenever I talk about wanting to read it. I want to read both books, actually, but I’ll probably kick off 2016 with Morgenstern’s novel and won’t get to Carter’s until later that year.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman (March 1, 2014)

Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it’s time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat — blindfolded — with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?

Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page. (Goodreads)

Another recommendation from SciFi and Scary. From the synopsis, I believe it will keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor (September 2016*)

There’s no synopsis or cover for this one, but it is the second book in Okorafor’s Akata Witch series. I recently read the first book, Akata Witch, and enjoyed it so I’d like to read the next installment as well.

Sorrow’s Point by Danielle DeVor (October 5, 2013)

When defrocked ex-priest, Jimmy Holiday, agrees to help an old friend with his sick daughter, he doesn’t expect the horrors that await him. Blackmoor, his friend’s new residence, rests upon the outskirts of the town of Sorrow’s Point. The mansion’s history of magic, mayhem, and death makes it almost a living thing — a haunted mansion straight out of a Stephen King novel. Jimmy must decide if the young girl, Lucy, is only ill, or if the haunting of the house and her apparent possession are real.

After the house appears to affect him as well with colors of magic dancing before his eyes, rooms warded by a witch, and a ring of power in his voice, Jimmy is met by a transient who tells him he has “the Mark.” Whatever being “marked” means, Jimmy doesn’t care. All he wants to do is help Lucy. But, helping Lucy means performing an exorcism. (Goodreads)

This one seems like it will scare my pants off. It’s another of Scifi and Scary’s recommendations.

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare (May 1611)

One of Shakespeare’s later plays, best described as a tragic-comedy, the play falls into two distinct parts. In the first Leontes is thrown into a jealous rage by his suspicions of his wife Hermione and his best-friend, and imprisons her and orders that her new born daughter be left to perish. The second half is a pastoral comedy with the “lost” daughter Perdita having been rescued by shepherds and now in love with a young prince. The play ends with former lovers and friends reunited after the apparently miraculous resurrection of Hermione. (Goodreads)

I’ve also decided to partake in a Shakespeare Readalong hosted by Roof Beam Reader and, because of the title, I’d like to pick up this play first and read it in January.

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What I’m reading this weekend:

I’m still reading this one. I believe it will be the last book I read this year because I hardly give myself time to read these days and it will only get worse as Christmas rolls in.

What are you reading this weekend?

Also, do you have any horror novel or short story recommendations? (Not too scary)

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