Skip to main content

Chilling Book Covers

I thought that it might be fun to do a spooky blog post for October and find the most chilling book covers in our library. But oh boy was I wrong. Fun is not be the word I would use to describe this little project that I naively gave myself. I haven't even read any of these books and the covers alone gave me actual goosebumps. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but I totally do and these look absolutely terrifying. So if you're looking to read something very scary, this cover-judging post is for you. Enjoy!


The Girl in the Locked Room
By Mary Downing Hahn
Boston ; New York : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018. Fiction. 193 pages.

Mary Downing Hahn is known for writing children's ghost stories like The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall, Guest, and her most recent book The Thirteenth Cat. I could have made a chilling book cover post solely about her books, but decided on a variety instead. You should check out the rest of her book covers if you get the chance. All the Lovely Bad Ones: A Ghost Story is especially creepy.

By Andrew Prentice
New York : Delacorte Press, 2019. Fiction. 210 pages.

I think the only thing scarier than a ghost or a skeleton is a skeleton-ghost-horse. Why do their eyes need to be all glowy like that?? I'm literally giving myself chills by looking deeply at this cover. It looks like there are some unsuspecting children riding in the carriage and I just want to yell at them, "What are you doing? Get out of there!" If this book cover is too much for you, then I would not read the summary description for this book... 


By R.L. Stine
New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2018. Fiction. 396 pages.

Old shacks should never, ever look like skulls; especially skulls with gravestone teeth. Enough said.


By Ellen Oh
New York, NY : HarperCollins, 2017. Fiction. 276 pages.

At first glance, it looks like this girl is out on a bike ride on a lovely, breezy night. The house doesn't look too haunted until you see what's lurking in the attic window. You might have to zoom in to really see it, but once you do, you'll never un-see it.


By Daka Hermon
New York : Scholastic Press, 2020. Fiction. 308 pages.

The focal point for this cover isn't that scary. Clearly, the child is afraid of whatever they're looking at, but it isn't too bad. If you bring your focus to the background however, you'll see why every hair on my body stands on end when I look at this book. Imagine having that thing behind you, and then try not to have shivers run down your spine. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...