Top 5 spooky worlds

Hello bookworms!! Welcome to Top 5 Tuesday!! This week’s topic is top 5 spooky worlds. Which means, we are in the spooky month of October!!

Despite my intense dislike of horror stories, I am a big fan of a spooky atmospheric fantasy novel. Which usually means, spooky worlds. So this week, we’re actually looking at some of my fave stories!!

Hi, hello. I’m late because I have been having issues with the blog (again). But, it’s now fixed (YAY!) so hopefully all my issues are over. Also, sorry if you couldn’t do the normal wordpress things, like ‘like’ or it was being weird to comment. We had to turn the JetPack plugin off for a bit (which I hated). But I will be catching up over the next few days!!

If you missed the October-December topics please see this link. Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, and is now being hosted here @ Meeghan reads.

top 5 spooky worlds

Lakesedge — Lyndall Clipstone

Aaaaaahhh!! I cannot wait to share my review for Lakesedge with you later this month!! (Although I am honestly hoping the blog issues are fixed by then. *cries*) Lakesedge is a gothic inspired fantasy story, and it has all of the creepy gothic vibes you could ever want. Dark world with strange magic? Check. Villages petrified by the rumours of the local Lord? Check. Spooky, haunted mansions? Check. A Lord of the Dead that you can barter your soul with? Check.

Please read this book because it is amazing and you won’t regret it!

Blurb:

There are monsters in the world.

When Violeta Graceling arrives at haunted Lakesedge estate, she expects to find a monster. She knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.

There are monsters in the woods.

As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn…

There’s a monster in the shadows, and now it knows my name.

Now, to save Rowan — and herself — Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under.

The Wicked Deep — Shea Ernshaw

The Wicked Deep has this amazingly rich, dark atmospheric vibe to it. There are witches and curses and guessing games of which boy will be drowned next, and who have the witches ‘borrowed’ the bodies of?! Story may also exacerbate fear of water… You’re welcome!!

Blurb:

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

The Price Guide to the Occult — Leslye Walton

Yes to spooky, mist and fog filled worlds. Yes to spells that draw blood. Even yes to generations of ancestors for a founding families drama. Maybe less so evil mothers that are coming to kill you to take your magic. But you, know, we can’t have everything.

Blurb:

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her otherworldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbors. Guilt and fear instead led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch” out of her home. So Rona cursed them.

Fast-forward one hundred–some years: All Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life. She has reason to hope: First, her supernatural powers, if they can be called that, are unexceptional. Second, her love life is nonexistent, which means she might escape the other perverse side effect of the matriarch’s backfiring curse, too. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price. Nor senses a storm coming and is pretty sure she’ll be smack in the eye of it.

To Kill a Kingdom — Alexandra Christo

A retelling of The Little Mermaid, except there’s a lot of stabbing? Yes please. This underwater tale of brutality and murder is definitely got some dark world-building to it. I mean, any civilisation that asks you to murder on your birthday is pretty creepy!!

Blurb:

Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most — a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.

The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of siren-kind for good. But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?

The Hazel Wood — Melissa Albert

Talking about creepy atmospheric worlds, I cannot go past The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. Albert’s world within a world story is dark on the surface, and even darker once you delve further. Between the creepy fairytale characters, the murder and the backstabbing, it’s hard to know who or what to trust!!

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away — by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

Please don’t forget to link to one of my posts (not my homepage or a category, as I won’t get the pingback), or comment your link below, and I will link back to all of your posts as soon as I can!!

PARTICIPANTS

Jillian the Bookish Butterfly
Kira Jeannette
Mikaela Reads
The Punk Theory
A Fictional Bookworm
Zezee With Books
Reading Buffs
Here Be Dragons
DB’s Guide to the Galaxy

What are your top 5 spooky worlds?