Book Blogger Confessions--Scary books and literary costumes

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that is every on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month and is hosted by For What It's Worth

Question:
Happy Halloween! Do you like to read scary books? Why or why not? If so, what is the scariest book you ever read and why does it deserve that honor?

Bonus question! Just for fun – have you ever dressed as a literary character for Halloween? Brave enough to show a photo if you have one?

Answer:
I love to read scary books!!! I'm always on the lookout for good scary books. I'm one of those people that get really into (most) holidays and my moods and therefore the books I read during the holidays are themed. October is definitely the month that I search really hard for good scary books even though the last few years my October has been lacking scary books. Some of the top scary books I've read are The Devouring, Sorry Night by Simon Holt, Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance, and Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake. Anna being the scariest. I had to get up and turn on all the lights while reading that book. The reason why any of these books were scary is the mood and setting I created while reading it. Just like with scary movies, if you watch it in the day, with the sun shining and the birds singing, it's going to take away from it. But watch it at midnight during a storm and it adds to it. That's how I read my scary books. In the middle of the night during bad weather (which  lets face it, in Oregon that's all you are going to get most of the time).

I used to be the biggest scaredy cat there was. When I was 4 and my parents took me to Disneyland for the first time, the only ride I didn't freak out when we went on it was It's A Small World, and then I made my mother literally go on it 13 times in a row. Yes, feel free to pity my mother for that. But as I got older, I've become more of a scary addict. I love horror movies, I love giant roller coasters, and can't get enough of scary books.

As for dressing up as literary characters for Halloween, I am one almost every year or try to be if I can afford it. Two years ago a big group of us went as Alice In Wonderland characters. I was the Queen of Hearts.

I entered this picture in Kim Harrison's halloween costume contest back in 2010 and got 2nd place! My dog was also the White Rabbit but you can't see her in the picture.

I've also been Clary from Mortal Instruments, Matalena from the Hollows series, and a few others. This year I'm moving on from literary characters to tv show characters. I'm going as Amy Ferrah Fowler from Big Bang Theory.

Just for fun, here are some of my pumpkins I've carved in the last few years.

And somehow I lost my picture of the Bella and Edward pumpkin I did a few years ago. Bummer cause it was awesome and took me over 3 hours to carve.