Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

All Hallows Eve reads

For discussions of historical fiction. Threads that do not relate to historical fiction should be started in the Chat forum or elsewhere on the forum, depending on the topic.
User avatar
Misfit
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 9581
Joined: August 2008
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by Misfit » Mon October 20th, 2008, 2:05 am

I haven't read Stephen King since high school. I may get a few of his books to freak me out in the Halloween season.
It's funny I loved The Stand when I first read it and however many years ago bought the new expanded version of the book and I just could not get into it.

Anyone ever read Henry James Turn of the Screw? An unusual read, although I still think the movie with Deborah Kerr was creepy as h***.

User avatar
cw gortner
Bibliophile
Posts: 1288
Joined: September 2008
Location: San Francisco,CA
Contact:

Post by cw gortner » Mon October 20th, 2008, 2:30 am

My favorite All Hallows reads:

1) The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. When this was first published, my father bought it for me as a gift. As things turned out, I got a nasty flu the day of Halloween so I stayed home alone while my roommates went out and got drunk. I started the book and couldn't put it down. By 3 am, I was totally freaked out and locked every door and window. I'd never been so happy to see my drunken roommates as I was that night. It's a very creepy book.

2) The Blood Countess by Andre Cudrescu (not sure if sp is right!) About a modern day writer's search for Elizabeth Bathory, interspersed with her story. Literary and spine-tingling, this is a highly recommended Halloween read. The part where her ghost is conjured is very eerie, and of course there are all those vats of virgins' blood. The fact that she actually existed makes it all the more scary.
THE QUEEN'S VOW available on June 12, 2012!
THE TUDOR SECRET, Book I in the Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles
THE CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI
THE LAST QUEEN


www.cwgortner.com

User avatar
SonjaMarie
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 5688
Joined: August 2008
Location: Vashon, WA
Contact:

Post by SonjaMarie » Mon October 20th, 2008, 2:33 am

[quote=""Carine""]

I have a good "ghost" film ready for Halloween, it's called The Haunting. I hope it'll be good.[/quote]

Is that the one with Liam Neeson?

SM
The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum
My Booksfree Queue

Original Join Date: Mar 2006
Previous Amount of Posts: 2,517
Books Read In 2014: 109 - June: 17 (May: 17)
Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965

User avatar
SonjaMarie
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 5688
Joined: August 2008
Location: Vashon, WA
Contact:

Post by SonjaMarie » Mon October 20th, 2008, 2:39 am

I read Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches trilogy ages ago but I don't recall if it scared me as much as you CW.

I liked "The Haunting" with Liam and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Maybe because it didn't scare me as much as maybe the original one might have. I don't like horror movies.

"The Sixth Sense", "The Others", "The Lady In White", "From Hell", and "Sleepy Hollow" are my favourite scary kind of movies. Ok "From Hell" isn't a ghost story but it's down right creepy in bits!

SM
The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum
My Booksfree Queue

Original Join Date: Mar 2006
Previous Amount of Posts: 2,517
Books Read In 2014: 109 - June: 17 (May: 17)
Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965

User avatar
SonjaMarie
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 5688
Joined: August 2008
Location: Vashon, WA
Contact:

Post by SonjaMarie » Mon October 20th, 2008, 2:42 am

[quote=""cw gortner""]My favorite All Hallows reads:

2) The Blood Countess by Andre Cudrescu (not sure if sp is right!) About a modern day writer's search for Elizabeth Bathory, interspersed with her story. Literary and spine-tingling, this is a highly recommended Halloween read. The part where her ghost is conjured is very eerie, and of course there are all those vats of virgins' blood. The fact that she actually existed makes it all the more scary.[/quote]

I looked that up on Amazon and the ratings were so-so, it got some 5 stars, it goes stars in between and a lot of 1 stars. Not sure if I want to check it out or not when it shows up on BF.

SM
The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum
My Booksfree Queue

Original Join Date: Mar 2006
Previous Amount of Posts: 2,517
Books Read In 2014: 109 - June: 17 (May: 17)
Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965

User avatar
Carine
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 675
Joined: September 2008
Currently reading: Jonkvrouw - Jean-Claude Van Ryckeghem
Interest in HF: I love history
Favourite HF book: Can't pin that down to only 1 :-)
Preferred HF: Medieval, Tudor and Ancient Egyptian
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Contact:

Post by Carine » Mon October 20th, 2008, 6:20 am

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]Is that the one with Liam Neeson?

SM[/quote]

No, it isn't the one with Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta Jones, I had that one for last year's Halloween.
I'm now at work, but I'll have a look this afternoon at home which one it is.

User avatar
Carine
Compulsive Reader
Posts: 675
Joined: September 2008
Currently reading: Jonkvrouw - Jean-Claude Van Ryckeghem
Interest in HF: I love history
Favourite HF book: Can't pin that down to only 1 :-)
Preferred HF: Medieval, Tudor and Ancient Egyptian
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Contact:

Post by Carine » Mon October 20th, 2008, 6:22 am

[quote=""cw gortner""]My favorite All Hallows reads:

1) The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. When this was first published, my father bought it for me as a gift. As things turned out, I got a nasty flu the day of Halloween so I stayed home alone while my roommates went out and got drunk. I started the book and couldn't put it down. By 3 am, I was totally freaked out and locked every door and window. I'd never been so happy to see my drunken roommates as I was that night. It's a very creepy book.

2) The Blood Countess by Andre Cudrescu (not sure if sp is right!) About a modern day writer's search for Elizabeth Bathory, interspersed with her story. Literary and spine-tingling, this is a highly recommended Halloween read. The part where her ghost is conjured is very eerie, and of course there are all those vats of virgins' blood. The fact that she actually existed makes it all the more scary.[/quote]

Woaw, these two books sound really good C.W. !

User avatar
SonjaMarie
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 5688
Joined: August 2008
Location: Vashon, WA
Contact:

Post by SonjaMarie » Mon October 20th, 2008, 6:34 am

[quote=""Carine""]Woaw, these two books sound really good C.W. ![/quote]

The Mayfair Trilogy includes:
"The Witching Hour"
"Lasher" and
"Taltos"

SM
The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum
My Booksfree Queue

Original Join Date: Mar 2006
Previous Amount of Posts: 2,517
Books Read In 2014: 109 - June: 17 (May: 17)
Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965

User avatar
Rowan
Bibliophile
Posts: 1462
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: I love history, but it's boring in school. Historical fiction brings it alive for me.
Preferred HF: Iron-Age Britain, Roman Britain, Medieval Britain
Location: New Orleans
Contact:

Post by Rowan » Mon October 20th, 2008, 12:52 pm

Frankenstein - read it in college, still one of my favourites. :D
The Historian - loved it!!!

I have to admit, though, that the best and creepiest book I've ever read was a non-fiction account of the only tour company who takes people inside George "Bluidy" MacKenzie's tomb in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh. The story is mainly about the guy who lived in a flat which overlooked the cemetery and how he got the idea to start taking people on tours, but it's also sprinkled with first hand accounts of visitors' paranormal experiences while on the tour. They got scratched or were horribly sick until they were moved out of the area of the tomb.

For anyone interested, the book is called The Ghost That Haunted Itself by Jan-Andrew Henderson. Still have no idea how the title relates to the story, but there you go. :)

User avatar
Misfit
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 9581
Joined: August 2008
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by Misfit » Mon October 20th, 2008, 3:11 pm

Did anyone know Dumas wrote a book of ghost stories?

Post Reply

Return to “General Discussion”