Goldilox and the Three Scares: Molly Harper's Three Scariest Books of the Year

It's that time of year once again - time for Goldilox and the Three Scares!

Because it's called three scares, we asked a few of our favorite authors to give us a scary top three list.

Today's Post Comes From Molly Harper

Top Three Scariest Books I’ve Read This Year

DAUGHTERS UNTO DEVILS by Amy Lukevics – I just finished this YA horror novel about two weeks ago and I’m still terrified of mountains, prairies, pigs, scarecrows, and pies. (Read it and you will understand.) It’s like Little House on the Prairie and American Horror Story had an evil, ugly spawn. Teenage pioneer gal Amanda Verner and her family decide the best way to respond to Amanda’s cabin-fever-induced mental breakdown is to move the family into a “murder cabin” on an isolated and unfamiliar prairie. And then ignore the blood-saturated floorboards, weird noises, voices calling for them at night from outside of the cabin. Oh, and then the devil shows up. It does not end well for them.

I was reading this as a fun “I heard about it on Twitter read” while I was traveling with my parents to their college Homecoming. I have never been so happy to have my “mommy” nearby in my entire life! I kept checking the front of the book to make sure it was REALLY a teen book. And I’m still afraid of pie. I cannot recommend this book enough. I asked my book club to read it because I NEED to talk to someone about it!

That’s normal, right?

But seriously, anybody who can any sort of eat pie immediately after reading it is either a badass or has an iron stomach.

THE STAND by Stephen King – One of my favorite books ever. I have to read it every year just to remind myself what approachable, epic storytelling is supposed to be. Every time I read it, I find some new element to utterly terrify me. (Damn it, Trashcan Man, why?) As I get older, the horror takes on more relatable elements – Would I be immune to the super-flu? (Probably not, given the vicious cold that took me down last week.) Would my kids be immune? What would happen if I died, but they lived?

And in the midst of all this projection and spiraling, I fall in love with Stu Redmon all over again. This was one of the first true horror novels I ever read – in eighth grade, tucked inside my grammar book.* Stu Redmon was my first true book crush. He’s everything an awkward eighth grade Molly wanted in a man – smart, sarcastic, immune to deadly viruses, and willing to overlook the fact that Franny had occasional problem acne. Oh, and she was carrying another guy’s baby. Gary Sinise playing Stu in the ABC mini-series version of the book did not help my book crush in the least. Le sigh.

· Yes, I was a precocious and sneaky Stephen King reader. This is something that, to this day, my English teachers brings up as I am now married to her nephew and I think she’s waiting for me to get notes homes from my daughter’s teachers about Darcy attempting to hide Harry Potter inside her textbooks. (Karma!)

WAIT TIL HELEN COMES by Mary Downing Hahn – Speaking of my 11-year-old daughter, she’s only recently become interested in reading. (Clearly, the fact that her mom makes a living writing books wasn’t nearly the same sort of lure as finding out what happens to Peeta before the final Hunger Games movie comes out.) And after the dystopian chill-fest of Pan Em, I thought she could use a little age-appropriate scariness. I went to my mom’s basement and found all of my old Mary Downing Hahn titles – CHRISTINA’S GHOST, A DOLL IN THE GARDEN, WAIT TIL HELEN COMES – and decided to read through them before I gave them to Darcy.

No wonder I was reading Stephen King in middle school! I was dead inside! These books are freaking terrifying! WAIT TIL HELEN COMES is basically about a girl whose creepy, bratty little stepsister makes friends with the evil dead girl living in their new house. And the dead girl promises to take the stepsister to a kingdom of unicorns and rainbows… once she takes out a few family members and drowns herself. Darcy could handle mutts and trackerjackers and President Snow’s poisoned breath, but I’m going to let her wait a few years before she meets Helen.

Molly Harper's giving away a signed copy of The Single Undead Mom's Club and some Half Moon Hollow goodies! (Giveaway is U.S. only.)

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The Single Undead Moms Club

(Half Moon Hollow #4)

Molly Harper

Release October 27, 2015

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Widow Libby Stratton arranged to be turned into a vampire after she was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. It wasn’t the best idea she’s ever had, but she was desperate—she’s not about to leave her seven-year-old son to be raised by her rigid, overbearing in-laws.

On top of post-turning transition issues, like being ignored at PTA meetings and other mothers rejecting her son’s invitations for sleepovers, Libby must deal with her father-in-law’s attempts to declare her an unfit mother, her growing feelings for Wade—a tattooed redneck single dad she met while hiding in a closet at Back to School Night—and the return of her sire, who hasn’t stopped thinking about brave, snarky Libby since he turned her.

With the help of her new vampire circle, Libby negotiates this unfamiliar quagmire of legal troubles, parental duties, relationships, and, as always in Harper’s distinct, comedic novels, “characters you can’t help but fall in love with” (RT Book Reviews).

 

About the Author 

When Molly Harper was eight years old, she set up a “writing office” in her parents’ living room, complete with an old manual typewriter and a toy phone. And she (very slowly) pecked out the story of her third-grade class taking a trip around the world and losing a kid in each city. She had a dark sense of humor even then.

When Molly was considerably older, she headed for Western Kentucky University, where she majored in print journalism. After graduation, she landed a job with The Paducah Sun and married her high school sweetheart, David, a local police officer. After six years at the newspaper, Molly took a more family-friendly secretarial position at a local church office.

Her husband worked nights and Molly was alone with their small child in the “The Apartment of Lost Souls.” A big fan of vampire movies and TV shows, she decided to write a vampire romance novel. Molly created Jane Jameson, a bit of an accidental loser.

Molly’s books are published by Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. They are available in print, as e-books and audio books at major book stores and on Amazon. Molly is a native of Kentucky. She lives in Paducah with her husband and children.