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    10 Terrifying Moments In Children's Literature

    Because before you read Steven King, you read Goosebumps.

    1) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

    Performed on the Riddle family's burial ground—and featuring an exceptionally creepy pseudo-infant sacrifice and Peter Pettigrew's dismembered hand—the reanimation of Voldemort haunted us for weeks on end.




    2) Coraline by Neil Gaiman
    When Coraline escapes the Other World with the souls of her parents and three other kids in tow, the sighs of relief are audible. Except . . . what? The Other Mother's hand got through the door and has come to life to chase our heroine? When will the torment end?!



    3) Deadly Offer by Caroline B. Cooney
    All Althea wants is to be pretty and popular. But the sacrifice she agreed to make in order to obtain that status singlehandedly convinced us that we were okay without it.




    4) The Witches by Roald Dahl
    Getting turned into a mouse by the Grand High Witch was bad enough, but when the boy finds himself trapped in the kitchen of his hotel—and discovered by its head chef—we were sure it meant extermination.



    5) Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersley Cusick
    New stepfamilies with haunted houses must come in a bundle, and rightfully so. Duncan's terrifying situation, including a foreign place and a deadly secret, kept us up all night.


    6) Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
    What's the scariest story in this book? The girl who stands on a grave and dies of fright? The lonely old woman who gets kidnapped by a man in her chimney? The poor girl who dies after renting a cursed dress? We'll let you decide.



    7) The Twisted Window by Lois Duncan
    After Martha got sucked into a terrifying kidnap-murder plot, we became much more selective about the favors we agreed to do for cute guys.



    8) Sabriel by Garth Nix
    The ending of Nix's Abhorsen series starter is a horrifying mix of suspense and dread. After Kerrigor—who might as well be a manifestation of evil itself—kills Sabriel's father, he begins making his way towards her old prep school for the novel's battle royale, spelling certain doom for our heroine and her friends.



    9) Goosebumps: Night of The Living Dummy by R. L. Stine
    When possessed ventriloquist dummy Mr. Wood goes fully mental and begins strangling the family dog, we definitely thought twice about those cute little marionettes at our grandma's house.



    10) The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud
    When Nate and Kitty encounter Honorius while looting William Gladstone's tomb . . . Holy moly. This skeletal demon's isolation-induced insanity, coupled with bloodlust and a complete disregard for human life, makes for a horror of an arch villain. As children, we were so shaken by the scene that we put the book down—and couldn't pick it back up.


    Seriously, look at this thing!



    Nightmares for weeks!




    Happy Halloween! For more terrifying reads, shop our scary good Halloween sale with young adult ebooks on sale for just $1.99 each through October 31st.