Something Wicked Returns: Cat Winters Top 10 Creepy Characters & Giveaway of In the Shadow of Blackbirds!

 Today I'm excited to welcome Cat Winters to the blog for Something Wicked Returns.  Her book, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, is perfect for this time of year!  I read it several months ago and encourage you to check out my rave review.  She's also a local author to me and one I have been lucky to meet several times! 

There's still lots of fun happening for Something Wicked Returns. Be sure to stop by all the other stops going on today.

 Ali@My Guilty Obsession: Kelly Sheridan: Mortality Series/Hitchhiker Strain Series
Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings: Tina Connolly: Copperhead

Ginny@Gin's Book Notes: Melanie Karsack- The Harvesting

J.A.@J.A. Garland: Dysus Dreamer by J.A. Garland

and tomorrow

Oct. 24th:
Ali@My Guilty Obsession: Brigid Kemmerer: Elemental Series
Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings: Jeyn Roberts: The Rage Within
Tara@Dividing by Zero: Charles Day: The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief

Now let's welcome the awesome Cat Winters to the blog!

Top 10 Favorite Creepy Characters

by Cat Winters

In celebration of Halloween, I’m paying tribute to creepy literary characters. These infamous men, women, children, and beasts aren’t necessarily the villains of a book, but they all fall into my own, personal category of “unsettling—yet fascinating.” In alphabetical order, here are my Top 10 favorites.

 

Boo Radley

(To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee)

The first half of Lee’s classic novel—one of my favorite books as a kid and teen—is primarily a hunt for the mysterious recluse Boo and all the stories surrounding him. Is he a ghost? A troubled youth prone to violence? Or just a lonely, misunderstood soul?  

Clark

(One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, by Dr. Seuss)

My enjoyment of creepy characters can be directly traced to this sinister-looking creature that was found in a park in the dark. Amid all the colorful pages of the rest of Seuss’s classic book, I was always happiest when my parents flipped to Clark’s chilling section with the black background and gigantic, portable test tube/aquarium.

Count Dracula

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Bram Stoker’s literary version of the Count isn’t nearly as sexy as he’s often portrayed in the movies, but he’s the king of gothic creepiness. Not only is the guy a notorious bloodsucker, but he likes to climb down his castle wall, headfirst, like a lizard. That makes even Boo Radley seem like a normal neighbor.

Death

(The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak)

Zusak brilliantly chose Death to be the narrator of his bestselling WWII novel, and what a haunting, heartbreaking journey we readers travel alongside this overly busy grim reaper.

The Duchess’s Baby

(Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll)

When I first read Carroll’s novel as a child, it wasn’t the temperamental queen who unsettled me the most—it was that freaky baby who turns into a pig!

Miss Havisham

(Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens)

The woman lives in a decaying mansion, dressed in the same wedding gown she’s been wearing since the day she was stood up at the altar decades earlier. Enough said.

Mrs. Danvers

(Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier)

Rebecca was my favorite novel when I was in high school, so Mrs. Danvers—a creepy, manipulative housekeeper obsessed with her deceased mistress—is an absolute must for this list.  

The Other Mother

(Coraline, by Neil Gaiman)

There’s nothing scarier than a diabolical creature who resembles your own mother…except for a diabolical creature who resembles your mother AND has buttons for eyes!

President Snow

(The Hunger Games series, Suzanne Collins)

For me, good old President Snow moved from a regular evil villain to a fascinatingly creepy character as soon as I learned why he surrounds himself with all those roses. *shudder*

Professor Severus Snape

(Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling)

I have a weakness for bad guys who aren’t as bad as they seem on their menacing exterior. Let’s just say the scene that drew the most tears from me when I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows involved this delightfully creepy Hogwarts professor.

Bonus Creepy Character: Who is the movie character I would call the creepiest? I’d give that top honor to The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, created by the film’s screenwriter, Roald Dahl.  

What about you? Who are your top-favorite creepy characters?

Bio:

Cat Winters's critically acclaimed debut novel, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, is a nominee for YALSA's 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults and was named one of Booklist's 2013 Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth. Both Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal called the book “deliciously creepy” (starred reviews). Her second novel, The Cure for Dreaming, is coming Fall 2014. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit her online at www.catwinters.com.

 In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?

Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.

Cat Winters is generously giving away a signed hardcover copy.

Open to US/CA only.

Must be 13 or older.

Ends October 31st, 2013

Fill out the rafflecopter to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway