Nightmarish Novels #1 - The Island of Dr. Moreau

For the month of October, I'm devoting my precious reading time to all things scary, spooky, creepy, and terrifying. Face it, it's the best time of the year to read this sort of stuff! On a dark and stormy night, sitting at home all alone, while the spindly, twisted limbs of trees outside reach to you for relief of an unseen pain, creaking and moaning as they suffer... their brown, shriveled departed leaves skitter along the ground, whispering among themselves about what is to befall you... the moon calmly watches high above, having watched you many times before, while the neighborhood stray cat slinks away from its gaze...

Okay, so yeah, October is definitely my 2nd favorite month. Its entirety is spent in preparation for Halloween, and is easily symbolized by the cracked, mad smile of a glowing pumpkin. Candy pours from everywhere, and SyFy manages to get even wierder with a slew of "horror" movies you can't help but openly laugh at. How can you NOT get into the spirit?

First book on the list is The Island of Dr. Moreau, written by H.G. Wells in 1896. Even if you don't enjoy it along with buckets of candy corn or a mug of Pumpkin Spice Latte, this book packs a punch, for all its 140 pages. Though not officially classified as a horror novel, it's a pretty freaky one, and was released into protests and claims of blasphemy and evil. Where the Time Machine showed the more wonderous aspects of future sciences, this one shows its capacity for horrible misuse, by the infamous Dr. Moreau. Some of its images of "Beastly Monsters" stay with you.

It really was a good book, and one of the first ones to really freak me out in a while. Like, a little bit less than Nightmare level, but definitely above Avoiding the Anatomy &Physiology Classroom. At any rate, it was a good start to October. Now for even more terror... bring it on! MWAHAHAHAHA