Top Ten Tuesday – horror books with colors in their title

Posted on by ich lese

It’s TTT time! As usual, if you’re curious about this, Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl hosts these weekly challenges (so, see her blog for more info).  Today’s TTT prompt is about books with colors in their title. I decided to narrow this down to the horror and horror-adjacent genres because, you know, …. reasons (for anyone knew here, you’ll quickly realize that I peddle the horror genre very, very often). I am dividing this list into books (1) I’ve already read and (2) books that are still on my TBR.

Books I’ve read

The Picture of Dorian Grey (Oscar Wilde) is one of those classic books that I think everyone should read, especially when thinking about its influence on the horror genre and literature in general. I personally enjoyed it although there were passages that dragged on a bit.

I pretty much love everything I’ve read by Christina Henry. I am such a fan of dark retellings and I tend to devour her books. Red Queen (book #2 in the Chronicles of Alice series) is one of them and is absolutely fantastic. So dark, so creepy, so eerie! Sadly, The Girl in Red was a bit of a miss for me. I was entertained and enjoyed the plot but there were a bit too many clichés and tropes. But don’t let that deter you, the novel gets plenty of high ratings from other readers.

It is no secret that I think Thomas Harris has created the epitome of horror thrillers with his Hannibal Lecter series. Red Dragon crawled under my skin. I had a constant feeling of dread. Reading the deepest and most disturbing thoughts of a killer is a sure way for me to get scared.

Rainbow is a color, right?! Dark Rainbow is a fun horror anthology which tackles issues such as otherness by blending them with traditional horror themes (something I’ve always loved about the horror genre, see my TTT post on why I love horror). Some stories I liked, others left me disappointed. But one story truly stood out for me: Think of Me. It perfectly weaved together suicide and its aftermath of grief, regret, and sadness and then gave it a paranormal twist.

Books still on my TBR

Both, White is for Witching ( Helen Oyeyemi) and The Reddening (Adam Nevill) are on my August to-read list. In fact, they’re part of the Horror Afficionados group read (so join me if you want) and options on my Dewey’s reverse readathon stack. Haunted house stories and Gothic undertones are some of my favorite tropes in horror and White is for Witching promises to be just that. Stories steeped in folklore and featuring haunted grounds like The Reddening make up another theme I gravitate to often.

The Green Mile (Stephen King) and The Woman in Black (Susan Hill) are two horror novels I cannot believe I haven’t read, yet. So many great books and so little time!

The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) is a short story, I am embarrassed to say, I only recently discovered but immediately put toward the top of my TBR. Horror and feminism go often hand-in-hand for me and I cannot wait to delve into this classic.

Have you read any of these books that I am mentioning? What did you think? Leave your reviews and your links to your TTTs below in the comments so I can be sure to check out your books with colors in the title.

Published by ich lese

I live, breath, and befriend books. I love the written word. Find me on my blog or on Twitter @evilbibliotaph.

82 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – horror books with colors in their title”

    1. Thanks for stopping by! I have seen several Red Queen recommendations as well. It can be confusing because it’s a common title for some reason. I had gotten excited to see “my” Red Queen and then it turns out it was actually Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, which I for some reason did not connect to at all. 🙂 Let me know what you think when you make it to Red Queen! 🙂

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      1. So, Christina Henry might be a good choice then. She writes dark retellings of classic fairytales. Alice and Red Queen were really dark, but I felt The Girl in the Red was less so. She also has a book called Mermaid which reads like historical fiction and not like horror at all. I loved that one.

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  7. I loved The Yellow Wallpaper. I wrote a paper on it in college and it’s the best paper I’ve ever written, I still have it. lol. I love re-reading it, it’s so eerie and horrific, you’ll see why when you read it!

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  9. Love that your colorful books have a horror slant to them. Red Queen is one of my favorite books; and I’m also a fan of The Picture of Dorian Grey and The Woman in Black. Thanks for visiting my TTT post! 😀

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  11. I steer so far away from horror, but I have read Alice by Christina Henry and that was… a journey haha I didn’t know when I read it how dark it was actually going to be because I think I borrowed it from a coworker at the time. I like how the covers/titles you chose all have a dark/red-ish theme to them (or at least some of them).

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    1. I specifically love Christina Henry for combining my childhood love for fairytales with my adult love for horror and feminism!!!!

      If you like retellings but want to stay away from horror themes, I highly recommend Snow & Rose by Emily Winfield Martin. It’s middle grade but definitely not “childish” and has feminist undertones.

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  13. Oh I love your twist this week! I wanted to focus on one genre or color, but I couldn’t find enough books. 😉 I just reread The Yellow Wallpaper for a readathon, but I didn’t realize it was an abridged version for kids. That was weird. Ha!

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  14. Ooh, good choices! I loved The Girl in Red, and through The Woman in Black was super creepy and terrific. I read The Yellow Wallpaper ages ago in college, and I do want to read The Green Mile too!

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      1. It’s an autumnal readathon I co-host each October: 13 days of horror / dark fantasy reads in the run up to Hallowe’en 🙂 Very informal, so mostly a shared tag really, but always a good excuse to actually read the horror I tend to procrastinate about (I’m such a scaredycat).

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  21. Great list! I have read The Woman in Black and The Yellow Wallpaper and enjoyed both. I read The Picture of Dorian Gray years ago but can’t remember much about it. I think I’ll have to read it again!

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  24. I do enjoy some creepy books every once in a while so I need to take a note of some of these titles. Great job on the TTT list. And, I do highly recommend The Woman in Black. So good.

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  25. The Lady in Red was the first Christina Henry book I’ve read but I liked it enough to definitely try more of her stuff! I did see mixed reviews for it but I will be getting more of her books for sure. Great list!

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  27. Great take on this week’s prompt! I have The Girl in Red on my TBR but didn’t realise it would be considered horror but I’m glad I know now. I’m a total chicken so thanks for the heads up 😅 Haha I hope we both enjoy The Green Mile whenever we get around to reading it 🙂 Thanks for stopping by my post!

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  30. I don’t read horror (too spooky for me), but I like that you decided to focus on this for this week’s prompt! Awesome idea! 🙂

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  31. Your list looks so interesting 👀 i don’t really read much horror though, I’m a bit of a scaredy cat but I’m really interested in reading the picture of dorian gray soon

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  34. I liked The Green Mile, but haven’t read The Woman in Black yet. I’ve had it in my pile since the movie with Daniel Radcliffe came out, but never opened it.

    Thanks for sharing and for visiting my blog.

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