Some people conflate Halloween with all-out, skin-animating horror, especially if they’re into grindhouse slasher flicks. However, everything has shades. All Hallow’s Eve has a more cunning side, and one of the best ways to experience the holiday’s more seductive face is to crack open a “spooky” book.
“Spooky” describes a feeling too elusive for any other word. To me, a spooky book chills my spine without burning away the intrigue that drew me to it. Reading a spooky book is like walking home down that quiet, moonlit sidewalk next to the graveyard, excited and afraid of what the night might send your way.
Here are ten of the best spooky books to read this Halloween for all the autumn-loving book fans hungry for some slow-burn, quiet dread.
10. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Haunted houses are a defining symbol of Halloween, and they’re fantastic places to set a pulse-pounding book in. Books about houses and the phantoms roaming their halls number in the thousands, but Shirley Jackson’sThe Haunting of Hill Houseset the standard most attempt to live up to.
The premise is simple: overworked and underappreciated Eleanor Lance volunteers to stay in a supposedly haunted house as part of an eccentric doctor’s research into the supernatural. Soon enough, strange phenomena unfold all around her, but no one else seems to notice any of it. Asshe often did in her work, Jackson never gives us a straight answer, leaving us to wonder if an evil presence haunts Hill House or if Elinor is losing her sanity.
9. More Than This by Patrick Ness
Picture this: a troubled teenage boy, let’s call him Seth, tumbles into the Pacific and gets bashed to death against the rocks. Then he wakes up in his desolate hometown, alone and stalked by an ominous black van. This is the inciting incident of Patrick Ness’sMore Than This,and things only get more unnerving from here.
As you can probably guess, the world Seth finds himself in isn’t what you’d call normal. Soon he’s joined by other teens who also ended up in this abandoned suburb after meeting a violent end, and every question they ask adds another layer of mystery to their situation.More Than Thisis a disquieting thriller, told with a wounded yet confidant voice that captures the feelings so many teenagers have about the world they’re inheriting.
Have you ever been on a long road trip, passing by towns, highway hikers, and roadside attractions so fast it’s hard to tell if they were even there? Joseph Fink’sAlice Isn’t Deadtakes you on one such road trip, only now the strange things you see in your rearview mirror aren’t something you’d want to stop and snap a photo of.
We follow Kiesha, an amateur truck driver who takes to the road to search for her missing wife, the titular Alice. Written with the same casual, matter-of-fact approach to the macabre that defined Fink’s work onWelcome to Night Vale,Alice Isn’t Deadis a tribute to the American roadway that, somehow, balances blood-freezing horror and cozy romance.
7. The Only Good Indians by Steven Graham Jones
Many of the best horror stories are also about coming home and facing the demons of your past.The Only Good Indiansby Stephen Graham Jones follows this tradition by bringing a group of estranged childhood friends back together to face a supernatural threat. However, Jones adds another layer to this time-honored tradition by grounding his story in the Native American experience.
The Only Good Indiansis a story about something that hunts and eats in the shadows. It’s also an exciting dive into the agonizing disconnect many Native Americans feel toward their culture and an empowering story about reclaiming one’s identity from those who’ve objectified it.
6. Hell Followed Us by Andrew Joseph Right
Growing up on the LTGHTQ+ spectrum isn’t easy, especially when you don’t share the space you occupy with people who accept your identity.Hell Followed With Usby Andrew Joseph White makes the apocalyptic metaphors often associated with queer experience literal, telling a tragic yet triumphant transition story set against the backdrop of Armageddon.
Benji, a sixteen-year-old trans boy, is on the run from the people who raised him: a fundamentalist cult who infected him with a bio-weapon capable of finishing the apocalypse they helped start. Finding shelter and solace in a commune of LGBTQ+ youth, Benji struggles to accept himself and find salvation for his new friends before the ticking biological time bomb inside him turns into the monster his former “family” wants him to be.
5. Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landry
Skulduggery Pleasantby Derek Landry is that one-in-a-million fantasy book that appeals to children and adults. When her eccentric uncle leaves her his estate and fortune after his death, Stephanie Edgely uncovers a secret that sends her on a dangerous journey through a hidden world of mages and monsters. Luckily, she’s got a wise-cracking, fireball-flinging skeleton detective on her side.
Skulduggery Pleasant’s premise will feel familiar to YA fantasy buffs, but it’s willing to embrace magic’s darker side more than makes up for it. People diea lotin this book, but Landry’s humorous prose keeps you glued to the pages. If you’re looking for a good creepy book to recommend to your kids this Halloween, I’d recommend this one.
4. Tales from the Gas Station by Jack Townsend
Gas stations are weird: linoleum tile wastelands where stacks of glittering snack food loom and odd characters come and go like the tide. Jack Townsend’sTales from the Gas Stationtakes full advantage of its setting, weaving a tale of surreal horror and absurdist comedy.
Formatted as a series of blog posts penned by a fictionalized version of Townsend,Tales from the Gas Stationis one of the funniest trips to the pumps you’ll ever have. Written with a deadpan bluntness that screams, “I’m not paid enough for this,”Talessomehow weaves small-town politics, ancient cults, and garden gnomes into a hilarious supernatural mystery you won’t want to put down.
3. John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin
I love cosmic horror, but that’s only one of the many reasons I recommendJohn Dies at the Endby Jason Pargin. The titular soon-to-be-cadaver and his best friend David are self-styled paranormal investigators who discover they’re the only things standing between Earth and an eldritch invasion after taking a less-than-legal magical drug at a party.
John Dies at the Endcombines the unknowable dread of the Cthulhu Mythos and mixes it with the down-to-earth comedy of Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy. The result is a book I can recommend to Lovecraft lovers,Supernatural fans, and anyone looking for a book that will make you laugh, jump, and cry.
2. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
I spent a good chunk of the time it took me to write this list kicking around ways to introduce Mark Z. Daneiewski’sHouse of Leaves. This epistolary novel is a locked-and-coded puzzle box that any fan of off-putting literature will have a fantastic time unraveling.
Presented as a transcription of a screenplay,House of Leavestells the story of a family who discovers their house’s interior design doesn’t conform to the laws of physics. Written in a way that forces the reader to turn the book on its head more than once,House of Leavesconstantly leaves you guessing where one character’s descent into madness begins and when yours will end.
1. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
It would’ve felt wrong to end this list with a book that isn’tCoralineby Neil Gaiman. The titular youth discovers a hidden door in her family’s new home and finds herself in a wondrous realm ruled by a stranger named the Other Mother. Unfortunately, what looks like paradise soon becomes a gilded cage, one Coraline has to escape from before it’s too late.
Coralineis the textbook definition of spooky. Gaiman’s prose elegantly describes a world as whimsical as it is terrifying, and you feel the excitement that drives Coraline to delve deeper into this secret world.
