I’ve been reading something spooky/creepy/horrific around this time for a few years now. Does anyone else do this? Any recommendations?
My reads:
- 2023: Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan
- 2022: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- 2021: Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
- 2020: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- 2019: Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
- 2018: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders & Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
- 2017: Carrie by Stephen King
- 2016: Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- 2015: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
- 2014: The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft
- 2012: The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
- 2009: Dracula by Bram Stoker
- 2008: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
You should check out Hell House by Richard Matheson. Stephen King called it “The scariest haunted house novel ever written” and that’s coming from the guy who wrote The Shining. (Also read The Shining if you haven’t already)
It very much is. The movie isn’t bad either.
I do Halloween reads all year! I also just really like horror in general so I tend to pick them up a lot. There are a lot of different subgenres of horror as well so it’s hard to recommend stuff without knowing your specific preferences, but here are some that I’ve read recently and liked.
If you want creepy occult you can try:
- Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Mister Magic by Kiersten White
If you want creepy atmospheric:
- The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
- The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher
If you want messed up horror:
- Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman
If you want classic horror:
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman
Messed up sounds good, I’ll add that to the list, cheers.
- Every Single Year: A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
Looks like a great suggestion, thanks.
Classics are a bit hard on my ADHD but I love to read a good Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Gillain Flynn thriller/horror in October. I’ve even found some decently spooky YA for when I need a really easy read. This year, I’m on the hunt for some kind of sci-fi horror. I find that googling subgenres is a great way to find recommendations because people tend to be more passionate about a smaller niche
One of the best to add to the pile, Let the Right One In.
Huh, that one’s already in my to-read list, I’ll add that to the top of my Halloween to-read list
Yes! I’ve also been doing a Spooky Season last month and this one with some of the same classics - Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, and now Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
I had never read any of them before! Based on the popular conceptions versus the reality of the text, I’d say Frankenstein was the most interesting.
I liked the format* of Dracula, that was a welcome surprise.
* I looked up the term: “epistolary”.
You should try Night of the Living Dummy by R. L. Stine!
YA books are definitely a good call for when I’m short on time. Normally I only read one fiction and one non-fiction - I don’t understand those people who have dozens of books on the go!
The older 80s-90s versions of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, the ones illustrated by Stephen Gammel, are evergreen reads. If you have a good narration voice, ideal for campfire telling or other all-ages sharing.
Warning if you look them up: the Stephen Gammel illustrations are very creepy.
The complete collection is on Kindle for £0.99, so I have that now, thanks. It includes the Gammel illustrations, and they look great!
I was going to mention The Road but I think you’re talking about scary, not suicidally grim.
I do like my post apocalyptic stuff, but I don’t feel it’s very halloweeny. I did enjoy The Road when I read it five years ago.
Yes and no: I don’t on purpose, but sometimes I end up doing them because of Halloween related releases :)
I think most of those books are older than I am! New releases go into the to-read list, to settle in and get comfy alongside the ~600 others.
Hahaha that’s fair! I’m a big mood reader and happy to ignore my TBR (which I keep small) so reading new releases does happen sometimes :)
