Rain Brain posted:

My favorite author as a kid was John Bellairs, who I started reading because Gorey did the covers and interior illustrations so they looked completely different from anything else on the library shelves (except, apparently, Mary, Rose, and Christmas Tree June). I loved the books in part because the magic in them was real stuff people in the actual world believed it, and because they could be legitimately scary - there was a bit in Eyes of the Killer Robot (otherwise not one of the strongest books) that had me so frightened I remember hiding it in another room and going to bed with the light on that night.

eta the Eyes cover because drat it's creepy