Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016: Read a horror book. OK, I know this isn't full-on horror, but this is about as close as my wimpy self can get. This super-creepy, atmospheric story (excellently read by Bernadette Dunne) pulls off a tightrope walk between innocence and dread. It takes place almost entirely in one house and one mind, the narrator's, making its evolving layers that much more mysterious. I really identified with Merricat's system of rules and protective magic -- I thought similarly when I was little. Yet Merricat wasn't little. She believed it enough to leave the reader wondering: is this the real world? Are there magics, ghosts, demons, consequences? Or, if we make up our minds to, can we all just live happily on the moon? 
 I have a huge admiration for Shirley Jackson, even more than after I read The Lottery. It's obvious the influence she had on stories like The Hunger Games and writers like Neil Gaiman.